‘Oliver’ Diaries: Act 2, Scene 2 Rehearsal (2nd March 2018)

When we started rehearsal, Mrs. Culkin took me completely by surprise by asking if I’d sing ‘As Long As He Needs Me’ for them so they could sort out the staging and cues. Really nervously, having not anticipated it, I sang. I think it went alright, but I know I can do better. At the end, I was congratulated on performing on the spot and how well I sang – I even made Miss Baron (a teacher who's helping out with 'Oliver') cry!

'Who Will Buy?’ then started to be put together. Admittedly, it’s the only song from the musical that I don’t like – it didn’t mean I didn’t enjoy my cast mates’ performance of it though! As the sellers and Oliver sang through the song together, Mrs. Culkin, Miss Baron and I talked about the emotion that I need to express throughout ‘As Long As He Needs Me.’

We talked about how hard it is for Nancy to finally admit to herself that Bill doesn’t actually love her one bit, despite how much she loves him and how she just makes a million excuses for him. I was asked to really capture the emotions Nancy goes through as she faces all the conflict in her life and completely break down during the song which is a challenge, but a challenge that I’m definitely willing to accept!

After ‘Who Will Buy?’ had been rehearsed a few times, we went through the dialogue between Nancy and Oliver, which went quite well and raised a few dog related questions.

As the script states that Bill enters with his dog, somebody asked if we will have an actual dog with us on stage. Though I’ve never really come into contact with many animals and probably wouldn’t get a pet myself, I was hoping we would. We discovered that Mrs. Culkin had actually offered for us to use her dog, Paddy, in the production but the actor playing Bill had to deny the offer due to religious reasons. Plus, Mrs. Culkin later decided that Paddy's too cute to be Bill Sykes' dog anyway!

Once we had rehearsed the scene, Natasha and Ben (as Oliver and Dodger) ran through ‘Consider Yourself.’ I love that song and can’t wait to see everyone perform it fully!

At the end of the rehearsal, we were each asked to go away and do certain things – me, to practice sobbing in the mirror. I went home and did exactly that.

I'll see you next time!

-Zahra♥

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