Red Shoes Physical Theatre Rehearsal

When we first attempted a full run of 'Red Shoes' I felt that one thing that caused the energy levels to be low was the fact that none of us knew our lines, because we had only just finished blocking and weren't prepared fully for a run through. I think that considering KneeHigh are so high in energy for all their performances and often learn their scripts before any rehearsals to make sure that they can use physical theatre from the first rehearsals, and so that the actors feel confident and comfortable with what they are doing in time for the performance. I discussed this with the group and we decided to arrange another rehearsal in which we would try a run through without scripts so that we could bring the energy levels up more.

I felt that a lot of the time it was difficult to remember blocking because of the many changes we had made throughout rehearsals and we had some disagreement with each other about what we finally decided would work best for each scene. One of the disagreements was where abouts we were to stand in the Angel scene, which was the last scene that we had worked on. This was when The Girl would dance past us (the ensemble) using lifts and contact with each other. I thought that we were standing in the upstage, right, corner however Jess thought that we were standing Stage right. We talked about what would work best again, and I explained that it would work better if we started upstage so that there was more room to travel and make it look more energetic overall because it immediately added more movement, and Jess and the rest of the cast agreed and so we were able to move forward quickly. This particular part of the scene was difficult to run with scripts in our hands, therefore this is another reason that I think we should learn our lines before the next run, so that we can run through the scenes more effectively.

In terms of developing the piece further, I suggested that during the Angel scene, the three of us who were portraying the 'drunken' characters who were confused by the angel, instead play it as hyper children who are fascinated by the angel and are trying to wave at him. We all agreed that this idea would work better because it linked in with our theme of children puppets shows and it brings the audience back to the beginning of the piece when we were all children watching the show, and it interprets the idea we had of the children using their imagination to pull themselves into the piece and act it out themselves by getting involved.

I would also like to arrange to use props for the next run throughs because KneeHigh use props in the beginning of their rehearsals so that the actors are used to them, and it feels like second nature to them. I think that this is a good idea because it means that we can focus on our energy and communication with each other to make the overall piece more interesting, as opposed to trying to figure out how to interpret props into the piece last minute, and therefore I have asked the group if we could schedule a rehearsal dedicated to making props in time for our next run through, in which the group have all committed to.