On the Homefront- Week Seven

It''s week seven of 'On the Homefront' and with the final performance just a few weeks away the cast were hard at work in this week's rehearsal to get everything ready. The goal this week was to finish the remaining scenes in the play, so that for the next two weeks we can work on perfecting the material before showing it to an audience on December 17th.

As usual we had a round of Ben's iconic shape making game. Interesting items to create this week were a Coke bottle (evidence of Ben's Coke Cola problem), a porcupine and a piece of modern art with a message. The group, as always, came up with some very abstract shapes, particularly for the latter; though the prize went to one pair who created 'The Balance' a sculpture which reflected the balance of the universe.

We kicked off work on the play this week by looking at the movement section which opens the show. In this section the cast go on a journey throughout a day in the life of their characters. This means coming up with actions that their character performs in the morning, during the day at work or school, in the afternoon and then in the evening.

Next we looked at the second half of the play and what happens during the interval between scenes four and five. It was important here to pause and reflect on all of the characters, as a lot will probably have happened to them during the year between scenes. We discussed how the relationship between the St Mary''s group has developed, as well as individual character's development.

This week we also tackled one of the toughest scenes in the play. In it a secret is revealed and the characters have to figure out how to react. We rehearsed this both with dialogue and without to see which would be the most effective means of communicating the correct tone and emotion in the scene. It was a difficult exercise for the characters involved and the rest of the cast were very supportive and helpful of then whilst the scene was being played out and new things experimented with.

It is strange to think that in just seven weeks we have gone to having a concept to now having a completed play. Back when we started we had ideas, but no characters and no definitive narrative. Obviously this was intentional, as the aim of this project was to get the company to create the characters themselves based on their knowledge of WWII, but it was a huge ask all the same. Now that the play is finished we can begin work on adding more layers and depth to it over the coming weeks so that it is ready to go when the 17th comes around. It's been a wonderful ride so far and we're all excited to see where the group take this show next!