This scene, which is only in the Broadway version really magnifies Joanne's feelings and lets you take a closer look at her contrasting life to the other artsy characters. The song seems to isolate her and uncover her busy mind and schedule, as she attempts to juggle her social and work life. In a past lesson where we made decisions on our characters, one of Joanne's was that she seems to be living a double life with her law career and social relationships. Now I wonder if she actually lives three different ways of life; one being her with her co-workers, one with her parents and family and another with her other friends and her partner Maureen. This is supported especially in this scene as she is on three different phone calls; one to Maureen, one to a co-worker (Steve) and one to her father.
The song is a mixture of dialogue and singing in which the mood jumps around significantly depending on which conversation she switched to. For example, her call with Maureen rapidly grows into a frustrating argument, soon drawing attention away from the two other calls until she reaches boiling point. Throughout the song Joanne repeats the the words "We're Okay" in between conversations, as if she is reassuring herself that everything's going to be fine, and to stay calm and positive despite all the dramas her busy schedule. Nevertheless, this line is vocalised with the sound of growing fears and panic as the conversations become more hectic and Joanne loses control, until the 'boiling point' is reached and she belts a loud high note of "We're Okay", displaying obvious irony and concluding the whole meaning of the song that really, Joanne is not okay, and hasn't been for a while.
With Liam, we began discussing our blocking of the scene and how we would incorporate the payphone, which will be attached to a long extending cord into it. We chose to enter on our first line of the song, from DSR towards DSL where the payphone would be. As we are already on the phone, we will have a cell in between our shoulder and ear and possibly be carrying a briefcase. We did some movement excersises where we practiced changing direction everytime we switched to another caller. We even practiced it together, so we had to dodge and cross past each other which was useful as we had to improvise a new direction to proceed. To improve, we need to be snappier in our turns to clearly show the switches. I also need to practice my lines more to ensure I confidently know them, so when practising the movement I can understand exactly what I'm doing and where I'm going. With the payphone cord, we decided on becoming entangled near the end when the song is picking up intensity and the conversations are constantly changing, by spinning round towards the payphone and only realising at the end we have gotten in a twist when we say the last line "I'm on my way" as she attempts to leave.
This lesson was very beneficial to us as we have sorted out all the movement, even practising with a long piece of string we tied to the blocks in that area. Now we just need to start to rehearse the rhythm, timing and vocals of "We're Okay".
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