Director's Challenge - Part 25 - 5th Rehearsal

Over the past few weeks, there has been something abundantly clear in Imogen and mine's directing style. We have been unable to direct our separate parts as indicated in our first plan due to cast absences and so have directed many scenes together. We have had conversations about my role in directing previously but only within the past week has it been made known the extent to which Imogen believes I have been overly controlling over directing. I could see that I was doing this and although I felt I was giving Imogen space to direct it was clear that I wasn't - I felt like I did need Imogen's input but because she felt like she couldn't talk to me about it or interject, she didn't. This temporarily put a strain on our friendship and working relationship, however, once we had talked in person about it, we were able to be a much better co-directing team during this rehearsal. I gave her more space to work on scenes whilst I worked on different sections with the cast members that she didn't need at that moment.

In the rehearsal, we were missing Ollie and Megan - Megan had already told us she wouldn't be present, however, as we didn't know Ollie was coming we had to stop our initial plan of running the whole thing. This creates a bigger issue because we wanted the set in the Performance Space to have a full space to work out proper blocking, but we have probably lost that chance to do so again before our tech rehearsal. Ollie has since apologised but this example raises the issue of communications between the group and us. The following images detail all the communication between us as directors and our cast in our specially made group chat:

Whilst Imogen was working on Leah's monologues and Phil's section in Scene 3, Part 4, I worked with Tom and Grace on their 'fight' in Scene 3 Part 2. I tried to make John-Tate a lot more threatening, having him walk over to Jan a lot more than he did previously and also using his tone of voice sometimes raised in anger and other times having cool anger. Both would frighten other characters - I was trying to demonstrate to an audience that the only reason John-Tate has held onto his power is through violence which is something that he appears to be quite proud of throughout Scene 3, apart from when Phil enters where he himself begins to seem threatened by Phil.

We worked on our only transition within the piece which occurs between Scene 2 and Scene 3. We wanted to show the switch of power between Phil and John-Tate that occurs at the end of the scene. The transition demonstrates the tension and potential violence between Phil and John-Tate as well as suggesting that a change in status is going to occur from the two meeting. When we ran it through, we had Leah end up on the wrong side of the stage to where she enters in Scene 3, Part 3 and so we had to come up with a way of getting her to swap sides of the stage. I suggested that all other characters come on and see the interaction between Phil and John-Tate to show the acknowledgement of the transition of power. Moreover, it adds an abstract element that Imogen has wanted to include since we started directing! The video below shows the transition without Megan or Ollie:

We set a line deadline before the February half term. The line deadline falls next rehearsal and we expect all our cast to know most or all of their lines. We have noted the people whom we think will need most work - Ollie, Tom, Grace, and Kate - and have decided to take two each and help them learn lines should they need it - I will work with Tom and Grace if they need help learning their lines. 

A major issue that Imogen and I are having is the inability of some member's of our cast to listen to instructions and be quiet even when they aren't being directed. This causes issues of commmunication but I believe that by next rehearsal they should be okay because I had sent a message to the group chat in which this was an important feature.