The big thing that I took forward from our last show was Ben's note which was I needed to be much, much louder. I was disappointed that I hadn't projected as well as I thought because if I'm not getting the words to every member of the audience, I can't tell them the story and thus am not doing my job. I think it will something I will be aware of tonight which will hopefully help me to push my projection even more so there is not a moment that the audience misses. Plus we were allowed to keep the tie improvisation from last week which felt good because it's little things like that that make you feel you've left your mark on the show.
The most memorable part of today's performance was when I slipped up- not on my lines, not on an entrance or exist, but quite literally slipped on some excess bubble liquid from the previous scene. This was, as you can imagine, a little embarrassing for me because as someone who has spent a lot of time working on a character that appears to know what she's doing, a women who walks with grace and elegance and holds herself with poise and style; to slip would to her be an outrage. I know in the grand scheme of things me slipping and not even falling is not that bad, but it's one of those things that you can't forget because it bugs you. I was able to disguise it somewhat because the next line is quite aggressive so when I slipped and stumbled causing me to be very heavy footed, I pretended she was stamping her foot and tried to cover it all up by presenting her as excessively exasperated. It isn't a catastrophic error but just something that impacted on my personal reflection of the show.
Also, Claudia's ride didn't turn up tonight- the table for the 1999 party scene had been put away behind the curtains and props had been put on top so I couldn't access it for the entrance. So Mani, Issac and I had to make an entrance from an old black and white movie- a lady with a gentleman on each arm; only difference is that Claudia is no lady and the Enron employee's were no gentlemen. When I walked in to set myself for my entrance and saw no table I panicked. This scene makes me nervous anyway because out of all of them I find this the most exposing and struggle with letting go. Therefore when something goes wrong it just agitates you even more. However walking on actually made me feel more confident; I felt felt rooted and strong and it led into the rest of the scene well. And we still kept the showgirl vibe because before Mani and Issac let me go I gave them both a kiss- Claudia sealing the deal that this entrance, this routine, this party was hers.
Last performance the split scene left me and Tatenda a little drowned out. In this scene Kai brings such a witty, entertaining humour that is enticing to any audience. So when Tat and I were having our scene, Kai's reaction to Skilling doing stretches downstairs was the more entertaining part. So what was happening on the balcony was being lost. Both Tat and I picked up on this and knew that this time around we needed to push the intensity of our scene because if it was never going to be as funny, it could be just as interesting this time around. I believe tonight that a mixture of an improved vocal awareness and a more detailed account of Claudia and Lay's relationship meant we were able to stand our ground in this scene alongside the boys. Putting two scenes paralleled with each other inspires a nature of competition onstage and the only way we could draw level with the scene below was to raise the stakes and amplify the intensity of the scene which I believe we achieved tonight and I felt the audience was engaged with our scene just as much as the scene on the ground.
Now we only have one show left and so there is no chance to write another evaluation saying 'next time I will'. Therefore I want to learn from these shows and every single rehearsal we've ever done; I know what needs to be done and a lot of problems have been solved during and outside of the theatre so now it is about trusting in the whole piece and knowing these problems can be solved as they arise and what is more important now is living, playing and enjoying this whole experience.
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