Blocking scene 8: "SLAP!" and The Secret Passage.

  I thoroughly enjoyed blocking and planning this scene. The characters being used here are Bonnie, Miss Slighcarp, Sylvia and Mr Grimshaw. Miss Slighcarp is seen wearing something of Bonnie's mothers and Bonnie is furious about it, resulting in a dramatic moment of Miss Slighcarp slapping Bonnie to the ground and throwing her into a cupboard with the help of Grimshaw. With this idea we straight away decided that a sort of stand off should happen between Slighcarp and Bonnie, coming in closer and closer toward each other then finally being pratically nose to nose in fury. I really liked this idea of a stand off because it shows the authority each character has (Bonnie basically still having control of Miss Slighcarp in a way but Slighcarp trying to take over.) Both powerful people trying to get rid of one another, this shows really well how they react to each other in a heated moment such as this.
   The first block of this scene was for Miss Slighcarp to only slap Bonnie to the ground and we worked out a way for it to work theatrically. We then decided that more should come from this scene. It is a big scene and could be so extravagant and better than that so we blocked it again. Our next idea was to involve Mr Grimshaw too and have him help out in the plan of getting rid of Bonnie and teaching her a lesson as he was evil too. Mr Grimshaw was to stand close but not too close to Miss Slighcarp and to grap Bonnie off her and end the process by being the one who throws her into the cupboard. We had to block this bit quite a lot so that it really worked and looked real without anyone actually getting hurt in the process which in the first place did not work as Ryan (Grimshaw) got a black eye so we had to try that all again so that this does not happen again in the future! We then decided to make it work, we would have to flip Bonnie around by her hair which Slighcarp has a grip on then throwing her backwards into Grimshaw so that he could then also involve the cane by putting it around her and pulling her by that. This finally all worked out but it took a lot of effort for it to properly work and look real too.
  We also blocked in this the first chorus paragraph of the servants being let go from their jobs and being paid their final wage. For this we simply got the chorus to climb pratically onto the set platforms but make it interesting whilst saying their lines, then they would jump down and all scatter into a line as soon as Slighcarp makes an appearance. We then all decided that it would be good if she threw their last wage into the air and they all run into the middle to get what they can fast, with one person still collecting when Grimshaw then appears, he would pull them up slowly with his cane to add effect to the whole scene. I really liked this whole idea very much because it was very fast paced and always moving with a lot going on so it is very interesting too. We blocked a lot in this scene and it all works really well!
  With Jill, we all were given an animal that we had to make our character act like. For Bonnie, I was given a puppy which I have to interoperate into my part. This was a good idea to do because it puts me in the mindset of what I have to act like when reading my lines and just on stage. In rehearsals, we then added this feature by getting Bonnie (me) to jump onto James (Adam) when I say my lines when James thinks that I have gone missing from the passage way.

  "I'm here! James - I'm dissapointed in you." This paragraph needs to be said with lots of excitement and enthusiasm, I have to leap to James from a higher level and from being given the puppy dog title I think that this really helped because it shown me what I have to do.

  In this scene we also decided that when Mr Grimshaw says about "burning toys in the morning" he should be very creepy and aim this line at the audience too. He has to be a real creep and show the audience how weird and horrible he really is and also with this line it will make the audience hopefully have emotions for these characters, hating Grimshaw for taking Sylvia's innocent toy!

  With the passageway we planned it on levels going up and down so it is more of a struggle to move through it for the girls when they do. This then looks more realistic and shows that it is not easy what they are doing it is effort but they want to get through the struggle rather than see miss slighcarp! The girls are crawling away but there is also a gap in the middle to show when they see Slighcarp and Grimshaw discussing in the library. When this happens the girls will be in full view but the other 2 never turn round to actually catch them spying on their plans.