Week six for the Chameleons! Where's time going this term? Somehow, the end of October is upon us and so this week we dressed up for Halloween (well, the Chameleons did again). What kind of theatre company would we be if we didn't give the group a chance to throw on some fancy dress? Some impressive costumes all round. Anyways, back to Narnia and it was time for the Pevensie siblings to meet the Beavers and for the great betrayal to take place.
Fantastic costumes aside; we focused on characters and movement at the start of the rehearsal. With so many creatures of various shapes and sizes in the story we wanted to spend some time getting the Chameleons to think about how they could move around on stage in new and interesting ways to portray these beasts. We asked them to walk around as animals on their own, but for each animal there were rules they had to follow; such as when asked to be cats, nobody was allowed to crawl on their hands and knees. This made the group think outside the box and find different ways to portray simple animals. Animals that featured included; cats, giraffes and hippos.
Next we asked them to work in groups to create a horse. This was an interesting challenge (as the group found) as between them they had six legs instead of four. Again this was done to get them thinking up new ideas for how to collectively create their horses. Finally we asked them to transform their horse into a centaur. The Chameleons came up with some fantastic ideas and produced some very nice pieces of physical theatre.
A new week means new scenes! As mentioned a lot happened in this week's scenes. We split up to work on the various plotlines in the show once again. One team rehearsed the scene where the children meet Mr and Mrs Beaver (and the baby Beaver) for the first time and find out about Aslan. Some wonderful acting from our Chameleons in this scene and some priceless reactions from the siblings when they meet their first talking animal.
Meanwhile the rest of the cast staged the scene where Edmund betrays the others and enters the Witch's house. The chorus has great fun coming up with statues of Narnians to have around her palace. The wolf chorus as well did a fantastic job this week of really getting stuck into their characters. Their physicality was brilliant and really made the characters feel interesting and believable. Edmund, the Witch and Gimmerbrick (her right hand) were also brilliant today- the cast are really enjoying their characters and it is making the scenes feel really strong.
After we had worked on the two scenes we came together again and shared the work. Again the focus was as much on the transitions between the scenes as it was about what was in them. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is one of the largest stories our Chameleon Group has every told and we're so grateful to have a cast who are so committed to telling it. Everyone is working hard learning lines, dances and actions and the show is really coming together. We officially hit the halfway point too; so to have so much great work already really shows what a stellar cast they are.
That's all for this week! As we are now halfway into the play (and the performance is coming up fast), next week we shall begin introducing costume and props to the show. We've been busy behind the scenes assembling things and we can't wait to see everyone in costume over the coming weeks (especially after the fancy dress today). Up next the Pevensie children meet a familiar face and Edmund comes across a tea party. See you then.
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