‘Oliver’ Diaries: Act 2, Scene 5 Rehearsal (20th March 2018)

It was Tuesday, so we went to the studio to ask Mrs. Culkin where she would like us to rehearse. We were asked to work with Mrs. Baron to put the scene together in the music room and told that we had 15 weeks left before the actual show… That’s 13 weeks if you don’t include the Easter holidays! I’ve been trying to decide which one sounds longer: 13 weeks or just over three months?

Once this (slightly scary, I must admit) information had been implanted in our brains, three of us (four including Mrs. Baron) went to work on the scene in the music room; we lost one cast member to a homework detention... The scene is only short and doesn’t require much movement, so the rehearsal quickly became quite repetitive. We rehearsed the scene several times, characterising it more and using our scripts less each time.

As Nancy only comes in at the end of the scene, I spent a lot of time debating how she would say the lines in my head and listening to Johnathon’s (Mr. Bumble’s) cockney accent, wondering which one of us was pronouncing the “o” sound correctly.

Though I knew before I got to the rehearsal that it was unlikely we would be in the studio or the hall (homework detentions are held in there), I did wish we were in the hall so that we could rehearse on the stage and be more certain on how the scene would be set up and how/where we would move. However, Mrs. Culkin reassured us after the rehearsal that we will see how everything will work and it will all fall into place, so long as we are comfortable with our lines.

We're rehearsing the whole of act one tomorrow - I can't wait!

-Zahra♥