24th sep - rachel

In today's lesson, we first briefly discussed how our rehearsals were going to operate and what to expect. In our weekly lessons, we would take part of that time to rehearse the various group and duo songs, with Kim with the piano and also working on choreography with each other independently. As well as this, we will also spend time with our double cast to figure out and make decisions for our character's movement etc. in specific scenes and songs. Although we want to have similarities and reflect each other, we also will want to make our own slight alterations for when we play that character. This is so you have had a chance to add more of your own viewpoint of the characters which may be slightly different to your pair.

We then had a short time to think of 3 facts/ideas of our character (I chose Joanne as she was my main character), one being about their family origin relationship, one about their friends association and one about their ways to earn money:

1. Family origin relationship: Joanne, although has a close relationship with her mother and father, also frequently quarrel over her and Maureen's relationship, who believe she would be much better off with someone else. To them, Maureen and Joanne are like chalk and cheese, with nothing in common and constantly bickering themselves. However I believe they are more alike than her parents think. She may be an uptight lawyer with trust issues and not much interest in the artsy world, but considering Maureen is the complete opposite of all these things, there must be another side to Joanne, the one that is unconditionally in love with Maureen. 
2. Friends association: She keeps her friends at work very separate from the others surrounding Maureen. Her social life is similar to that of a double life. When at work and with her family, she is being the example of what they want her to be like and act like. Whereas when she's with Maureen and Mimi etc., she is more relaxed and free. 
3. Ways to earn money: She was a former law student, graduating from a well-respected university and entered the law career, becoming a lawyer. As this is high pay and an overall stable profession, it may suggest her parents pushed her into this direction, which also explains why they aren't approving of Maureen, as she isn't at all similar in terms of occupation. Joanne is the only character out of all the others to be in a high paying career with a sturdy future unlike the rest who can barely afford their rent

In the 'Given Circumstances' task, we would in random pairs be given a scenario, which we had to act out trying to incorporate our character ideas into it. We would end up in a conversation of getting to know each other's characters basically. 

After, we then had to make 3 firm decisions about our characters:

1. Parents not approving of Maureen
2. Always questioning life choices (being a lawyer, relationship with Maureen etc.)
3. Has trust issues, due to Maureen's wild and flirty persona

This lesson has been useful as we have quickly gathered information and built on our characters, which will soon mould the overall structure of them and help us to characterise ourselves