Rehearsal
This is when the fine tuning takes place. Once you’ve created your content, planned its structure and considered your transitions and staging, you’ll need to rehearse your piece in detail ready for performance.
It’s important that you take note of the problems you encounter as an actor or a group. Rehearsal techniques can really help you work through particular challenges. Perhaps you’ll need to go back to hot-seating and ask much deeper questions. You could also improvise scenes that happen before or after your story in order to reveal more about the characters, relationships and events.
There are several things to consider when rehearsing your work.
Relationships and interaction
Consider how characters react to one another when they’re onstage. Little details, such as turning slightly away or a brief moment of eye contact, can tell the audience a lot about the way one character feels about another. Think about your interaction with the audience. Even if your piece is naturalistic you need to consider how you draw them into scenes. If all the energy is only shared between the actors without being directed outwards towards the audience, they may feel excluded.
Tension and time
How do you build tension, not just throughout the whole piece, but in each individual scene? Tension and pace or the ‘dynamics ‘of your work are very important. If the pace of your piece is steady throughout and doesn’t change, then it might be rather boring for the audience. Are there dramatic pauses or moments where the pace and energy increase?
Characterisation and communication
What is it about your character and their experiences that you want to communicate to the audience? You should consider whether you’re using your voice, movement, body language and gestures to do this effectively. Think carefully about each of these areas so that you are able to accurately embody your character onstage.
