"Ferris Wheel" - Rehearsal #6

           Today, we started with some activities to work on our articulation and annunciation. We played “I am a mother pheasant plucker,” and “I slit a sheet.” Gib had much more experience doing these activities than Maddie, but Maddie’s articulation was still superb. We then played “…to die today at a minute or two to two…” which required Maddie and Gib to speak in sync, since they had to work together, and they also had to be very articulate. They both did lovely.

            The next game we played was an improv game, which I had them play for ten minutes. They had to use the bar that we use as safety bar on the Ferris wheel as a different object every time I told them to. I told them to change what it was whenever I was getting bored with the scene that was going on. One of my favorites included when they were trying to capture a snake in the Australian Outback. I also especially liked when they were playing limbo with the bar, with Gib being an incredibly energetic and bubbly fun character, while Maddie was a more stoic, more straight to the point type of character. I liked it because these characters were extremely similar to the characters they should play as Harper and Cameron. I also liked when they were playing croquet when Gib said the line when giving Maddie advice, “I’m your sister, I would know,” since this small yet typical line gives the audience a great sense of relationship. I also liked when Maddie used the stick as a walking stick and liked the straight to the point character she portrayed because it resembled Cameron. Harper is essentially a mix of Gib’s limbo character and her nature walk character while Cameron is basically a blend of Maddie’s limbo character and her old woman with the walking stick character.

            We then went through the script, which I divided into specific moments that we could work more individually and perfect individually and then put them together. There are ten moments in all, with the longest one being just over two pages and the shortest being just a couple lines. I also made sure to remind Maddie and Gib to be more physical with what they’re doing, but since they’re obviously still hindered by their scripts, I decided I’m going to wait until next week, when they’re off book to work more on that. One problem I have is that I’m still having trouble having the characters find truthful intention behind some of the lines, and I also feel like I’m having trouble keeping them energized throughout the performance, since most of it is fast-paced. Overall, it was probably the best rehearsal that we’ve had yet.