The penultimate week of the project before the performance was all about rehearsing, creating posters and mastering. Not too busy, however, stress is now building as the performance is next week and we could be slightly behind schedule.
On Wednesday, we all met at my house to create the cardboard props and rehearse the play as a group for the first time. We ran scenes with demos of the songs we recorded alongside to familiarise ourselves with what actions occur at certain points within the tracks. I believe this is an effective method of rehearsing in this context as we now have two indicators for when to perform another action: the other actor performing the action before your one, and the point in the track your action should happen (e.g., the start of a chorus, or a certain line). The problem with rehearsing without the props or screen is that we aren’t familiar with boundaries, for example, the grave and table being in the way of the path off-stage. If we don’t rehearse with these obstacles, we won’t be as smooth during the live performance.
We then made the props later in the day on Wednesday, as we wanted a break from rehearsal (we rehearsed before, so our minds were fresh, to remember the script more effectively). Because we have the same vision as a group, this task was easy as we all knew what the designs should look like, so there was little debate regarding the designs, meaning we were efficient with our time. Being on the same page has helped a lot over the project as we have saved time when it came to designing the set or the ideas for the script, meaning we could put more effort into the time-consuming tasks that have caused us to be behind schedule currently. If we had been debating over designs frequently, we would be further behind.
On Thursday, I wasn’t around as I was participating in an interview and assessment for a future career prospect. I have been juggling these events before and alongside the project, and sometimes doing the project and interviews on the same day. However, due to Pagan and Bluebell finishing early on Thursday, I didn’t do any project work that day. I did make sure to fully catch up with their progress that day though, making sure I am scheduling my work on mixing and mastering based on any progress they might make on it. This kind of communication is key when keeping us tight as a group, so then even missing a day doesn’t negatively impact an individual as much as it could.
On Friday, we ran our first dress rehearsal; we assembled all our props, set and equipment in the photography studio that we had booked for the day. We then ran the scenes along with the songs like we did before, but with Alex Gordon in the room to give feedback on how it looked from an audience perspective. The feedback he gave was very useful, leading to further script alterations (mostly on the anger scene due to the repetitive nature of most of the actions) to improve the show. After this, I mastered ‘Iris’ while Pagan and Bluebell continued to make placards for the show. Splitting our work like this is a very efficient way of achieving goals, as only one person can mix at a time, so the other two people who won’t be doing anything while the other one is mixing can work on other tasks. This has allowed us to be able to dedicate more time to the mastering, further reducing the time behind schedule we could be.
On Saturday, I had the idea that I could attempt mixing on my own computer at home. So, Bluebell sent me the individual tracks for the songs to see what I could do. I was excited to save us a lot of time, however, I could not remember the plugins or levels we had used on the mixes on Bluebell’s computer. This meant I couldn’t work on the mixes without her laptop. I hope to get her laptop on Tuesday to save us time then.
Last week I said we need to keep sharing our ideas. This week I can say we have been doing that: we have been collaborating over the script, designing props, discussing the poster and programme, etc. We have been achieving what I said. And regarding progress, I said the deadline is now the performance date. The poster, programme and masters aren’t ready as of this week, but next week they will be.
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