Rehersals and growth in day 3 of professional drama practice.

We started the day with a morning active session, warming up and working on our usual yoga form positions. We also worked on our slow motion, finding emotion and meaning to our movements which still can be challenging on a Monday morning ;0)
However the session went well and towards the end of the session we practiced six potions that represent anguish, which had been previously worked on last week whilst Makeda, Shakira and myself were learning the Patriot song. Rosie taught us the six positions and after as a whole group we performed them and experimented with the flow of each position to the next. After a break we returned to the last session of scenes we had worked on and rehearsed, and slightly changed a few scenes. We discussed a few different idea's as to what else should be included during the work camp and guard scenes. I had remembered from a film I watched about the Holocaust, there was scene of camp victims running round in a circle naked so that the guards would see who was fit and who was not and would therefor be removed from the camp by a shotgun. Through this we decided to recreate a similar scene and placed ourselves in a circle running whilst James and Cassy who are now to be the official 'guards' in the play would shout and scream at us whilst running,I become a victim of near to death when I fall and James shoots me in the shoulder. Soon after an almost dream like slow motion occurs, all the camp victims gather strength to kill the guards - 'the uprising scene'.
After a lunch break we worked on the scripted text, we have now been split into 6 different groups, with each group portraying a different emotion, one group would almost be robotic another may be mad, another would be tortured... This represents different side effects to anguish and depression from a horrific event, in this case the Holocaust. My scene along with Rosie and Christina is as if we are in the electric chair, not wanting to speak but are made to by the electric shocks.
At first I found this difficult, but as we watched all the other groups act out their scenes it soon became clear of what my role is a about. I had the idea for my scene to be the three of us sitting in chairs with the electric helmets on there to be three electric chairs with each chair on a projector to give it a further visual effect, to compliment that with strobe lighting.
My research for character building work will be to find out about the electric chair, to Google on YouTube people in the electric chair, to study their reactions. Also to watch a film based on the Holocaust that will allow me to connect with a character on film, through emotional struggles and individual journeys.