Second rehearsal - BUZZING!!

Yesterday, I had just gotten Caroline to play the part of Michael Normal and was feeling relieved that I'd managed to find someone at such short notice! I settled into making the props I needed, the letter of suspension, the envelope, the principal's report, the prefect's witness statement, they all needed to keep in with the script. I thought it might be useful to actually put the documents into the rest of the website as supporting material so the youth workers who are watching the video can also read the statements and letters - that would be great if they hadn't seen one before.

We had our second rehearsal, starting at 6:30. Director Katya arrived at 6pm and we talked about what we needed to achieve today. Caroline and Simon arrived 10 minutes early, Colin and Cory arrived 10 minutes late. But it was much more relaxed than the first one, I started to feel more like people were enjoying being here - and less like I was wasting their time. It's strange, but I'm always aware of the fact that other peoples' time is precious - I don't want to keep them any more than they need to. Maybe I should just chill out!!

We started with the board scene, getting everyone to do the actions - not just read the script. Everyone was much closer to knowing their lines.

Tasi reading his letter to the board members:



We went through the board scene 3 times, then the students arrived around 7:30pm as I'd asked. I could send Simon and Caroline home.

Katya and I split up, she took the school yard scene and I took the principal's office scene.

Principal's office:



We made a few small changes to the script at the principal's office, Mr Tamatoa needed to react more when the Principal said the keyword: Knife. Mr Tamatoa didn't know about this at this point, he needs to get angry. I learnt that the Samoan way to handle the situation would probably be to say very little, but with facial and body expressions be getting very wound up inside.

Back with Katya, the school scene was going really well. The prefect, Debby Rhodes (actor - Sophia) arrived and Katya was happy with everyone. Rehearsing:



We also ran through the home scene with Tasi, Mr Tamatoa and the youth worker.

I got Sophia to write a witness statement in her own writing and Cory to write an apology letter in his own writing.

We finished with giving directions for when to go on Saturday, what to wear and what to bring.

I gave Sara a lift home then I went home BUZZINGG!! (and a little bit tired)

All the time and effort I'd put in finally felt like it was starting to pay off, I was totally confident that this thing would actually work!