Rehearsal Week 3

Today I had to get up slightly earlier (har har) and pick up two friends to get to rehearsal, one of which needed to be on site at 9am. Hence we left promptly at 7:40 and arrived at 8:50. Pretty good time for picking up two people!

After that I just kind of mellowed around and got ready for stuff to start (at 10AM), so I had an hour to kill. I brought my doublet- so excited about that- and my hat, so I slipped into those and buckled my very awesome belt.

As a side note- I really want to find a small eating knife that I can carry around on my belt. The more I think about my character, the more I think she would have a very small weapon to defend herself if things came to that. Plus, as a sailor, she would have a cutting utensil for ropes and such.

Side note over. As more people came to Street things started to liven up and I found that one of my fellow cast mates is going to sell me a cup for a dollar. I've been having some trouble finding a suitable drinking vessel and I'm very glad that I no longer have to worry about that. Now I just need to figure out how I want to attach it to my costume (once I get it of course).

Now, there is a bit of an "inside joke" that I am going to have to explain in order to further tell about my day. While doing some Ship's Boy (not Cabin Boy, that name came along later) research I came across some information about a time when a crew was driven to starvation at such a point that they killed and ate the cabin boy. Upon further research I discovered that lots had been drawn and it just happened that the cabin boy got the short end. However, I liked this story and though that it would be a fantastic prop/joke to carry around a contract signed by my captain saying that I cannot be eaten if I am able to prove that I am nobility, of the clergy (Ok, that's not applicable), or a woman. Guess which one is the easiest to prove?
The captain thought that this is a great idea and I have drawn up the document and it is signed, although we shall get to the signing part later.

So in the morning we did our usual warming up stretches and tongue twisters and other great stuff. Then we did the "My name is ___ and I want a..."
Today my character said "I'm Anne Drew, Ship's Boy to Captain Martin Frobisher, and I'd like not to be cannibalized."

Hence the running gag of the day began.

The next game was one of those games where I kind of really like the game, but have no clue what to do. Everyone had to walk around in a circle except for one person who was in the middle. The middle person would play their character and try to get everyone to stop circling and notice them.
Today my Director actually told me to go into the circle, which I knew would happen, and half hoped that it would not happen. Not because I didn't want to be in the middle, I just had no idea of what I would do.
So I rubbed dirt on my face and tried to make it look like a 5 o'clock shadow, tried to talk in a deep and manly voice, and tied knots. I was probably in the circle for less than 30 seconds. It felt like forever but I was glad for the stretch of acting and character. So much of my character is based around what I do with other people that it's good for me to have to learn to make my character stand alone.

The next thing my memory has decided on is when we played "Hot Seat," the game where you answer questions about yourself as your character. So. Much. Fun. I discover things about my character and totally lie about other things.
So the captain went up for hot seat and actually had me come up and read part of my contract. Apparently I was reading it like I didn't want to be reading the document (whoops on my part, I was actually super excited), so I didn't get to finish it, that's okay though. It was funny and he signed the paper so now IT'S LEGITIMATE!
 I also went up for Hot Seat as just my character and as part of the crew. Apparently we're all contractually obligated to not say anything negative about Frobisher. Also, one of my crewmates kept calling Anne-Drew a girl and it was hilarious.

Then we sang the songs we're supposed to know. Personally I don't think I'll ever be able to get them out of my head at this point I've sung them so much.
Then came lunch which was a marvelous potluck at St. George that my stomach did not want to participate in. For some reason, all day I have not wanted to swallow any of my food. Ergo I have been forcing food down my gullet in order to make it through the day. 

After lunch we went and sang with BBF. It was okay. I know the songs and how to sing in my dialect. But it wasn't my favorite part of the day.

For most of the afternoon we played "group drive by" where different groups had brief interactions with each other. So one group would be "it" and the other groups would take turns interacting to try out stuff and just do interaction work.
Being Anne-Drew is fun because the Captain keeps putting A-D in really hilarious situations, like introducing the new crew member to the floozies. I'm trying to be really go with the flow about what people throw at me and handle it in character as best I can. For example, A-D does not want to interact with the floozies because well, they're going to find out that she's a girl (it's not like they can't tell already- everyone BUT Frobisher knows). So much fun stuff got thrown out today and I loved working with my fellow sailors.
The fun part came when we started acting like patrons and interacted with the people. I'm pretty sure the sailors scared all of the "patrons."

So then rehearsal kind of ended and we all went to get our pictures taken for our ID passes. Then I sang a few shanties with the shanty group and then headed off to an Alexander technique thing that I had no knowledge about what so ever.
To condense it into a small answer- Alexander Technique is kind of like alinement/massage therapy/body awareness. The director of the fantastic Comedia troupe worked with me and I have to say that I would love to learn more about this. Look up Alexander Technique because I can't really explain it other than to say that it is really awesome and relaxing.

Then I went back and just hung out with people until my carpool people were ready to go. I really do value the time I have had to hang out with people in my cast outside of doing exercises. There have been a couple people that I'm starting to really think of as friends. I found one very kindred spirit yesterday, and I'm comfortable with being myself. I'll argue and be a brat, but I also love helping people, and I love learning things. I think my brain is just doubling in capacity every time I go back up to BRF because I learn SO MUCH!

Well, that's about it for today. It's a mere summary, but it's going to have to do. I love how I'm starting to get a grip on my character and can see her start to come out in different ways, sometime she surprises me. It's like writing a book, you can set up all these "rules" for your characters and then suddenly you find that your character has this awesome thing about them that you didn't know!

A note- Out of respect for my fellow BRF people, I am going to try and use their character names/occupation (such as Director) instead of real names. This is after thinking about how I run my other blog and I think giving people appropriate nicknames protects them and myself from bad situations.
Also- I'm trying not to use to many cliche words like "Awesome" and "Amazing." Please know that if I do use them it's because I truly mean something amazed me or was awe inspiring.