Rehearsals

warm ups 

• We run around the space, filling in all the gaps and making eye contact with each other. We do this to our body warmed up and get the blood circulating. This also allows us to be aware of our spacial awareness on stage making sure we fill the space. 
• We then added different instructions such as, 'clap' 'jump' 'floor', this allows us to focus and get our minds ready for the different tasks we have to take on. 
• Tongue Twisters- "Unique, New York", "Red lorry yellow lorry", "she sells seashells on the seashore". Allowing us to articulate 

Character Development 

Ilonka, Jaychelle and I have decided to perform girls, the first steps towards our performance was beginning our character work. The task was to write about ourselves in first person and what we thought of ourselves *IMAGE* this allowed me to think deeper into my character and help me determine how she will act on stage.
I then went on to writing additional information about my character:

• Age- 16
• Height- 5"4
• Weight- 8st 6
• Skin colour- Black
• Favourite food- Yam and Garri
• Favourite colour- Yellow/Pink
• Favourite celebrity- Beyonce
• Religion- Muslim
• Location- Village/Forest/Camp
• Relationship- Married

This allows me to visualise my character more and the characteristics she holds, I can also think about my how I will appear on stage also. 

To continue, we then had to walk around the room as our characters, and when we stopped opposite one another we had to introduce ourselves. This exercise allowed us to see our individual traits and see the differences in age, class and genders. I could also see for myself the first time, how I am walking and how I interact with each of the characters. We then got into pairs and had to have a conversation with another character, my character was Gogo played by Abdul, he was very old and had dimenta. His character was very comical as he kept on introducing himself, it was clear he was quite old and very reliable on his friend. I made sure to show I was concerned about my appearance by asking how my hair looked and how living in the camp was taking a toil on my appearance. I also made it known that I was cheating on my husband, talking about how much I adored Ishy but felt bad for my husband Moses. Furthermore, we then watched some of the other characters come to life. One character I particularly enjoyed was Brad's character, he made his character very pessimistic, he complained about the life he was living and wasn't satisfied. I could tell he was a white middle class male, he spoke about his two daughters but we could tell he wanted a boy from his spacial expressions. 

This lesson allowed us to see the different characters, within the room and little characters beginning to build. I will bring this lesson with me into further rehearsals, so that I'm remembering my character traits and why she may act a certain way. 

In today's rehearsal we had to make up a favourite memory, we would then be hot seated by people in the class. I decided that I couldn't choose between two memories as I feel my character is indecisive. So I chose my wedding day because I looked like a princess and felt very elegant. Also because I feel Ruhab likes to have male attention, so having everyone's attention on that day is even better. My second memory was my mum doing my hair watching the sun going down, this memory was precious to me as this was a week before my house got burnt down. I also love this memory because in the play my hair is always being done by Tisana and I still feel my mothers touch through Tisana doing my hair. Haleema's worst memory was FGM (Female Genital Mutilation), when she was six years old. Her story was horrific and made me understand why she is such a strong headed feminist, her traumatic experience made her a stronger person. 

The hot seating was crucial to my character development because I was now thinking as Ruhab rather than Georgina. I am adding on more layers to my character and finding little details about myself. 

Today's rehearsal we wrote about our characters again, but this time in a bit more detail.