The Princess and the Goblins- Week 7

It's week seven of 'The Princess and the Goblins!' and as performance day draws closer the group continue to work on their production of Irene's story. It is bizarre to think how quickly the project has gone but the fruits of the group's hard labour are showing-the play is looking really good.

For this week, Jake thought up a variation of the group's favourite (well one of them at least) game; Minotaur attack. In this version the ancient landmarks and references to the story of Theseus and the Minotaur were replaced with ones relating to our goblin-themed tale for the term. The four walls of the room were given new names; Greenhill, The Mines, The Forest and the Castle, and new actions were inserted as well; such as 'magic ring,' and 'aim for the feet,' where the group had to wield a magic ring and stamp their feet. The new game was well received and we concluded with our classic splat showdown.

The improvised scenes from this week were also very entertaining. In one we had a knight who was searching a bathroom shop for a new toilet seat when he accidentally fell asleep in one of the bathtubs (and the chaos which ensued) and a fisherman trapped on an island, trying to escape.

When everyone was warmed up we moved onto the script once again. This week we placed Irene and Lottie into the merchants scene we created last week and worked on their interactions at each stall. Then we looked at Irene's first meeting with Curly (this week actually with Irene, as last week Ben stood in-much to everyone's amusement) and their trip into the mines.

That didn't take long however. The cast are talented and work quickly. Once those scenes were secured we looked at the relationship between Irene and her Grandmother in a later scene. We had previously touched upon this relationship when Grandmother Ash first appears in the play, but it is in this scene that we really see the strength of their bond. The girls did a wonderful job at bringing this scene to life without the need of much direction from either practitioner. It was wonderful to watch the characters interact as the scene unfolded.

The final scene we worked on was an eventful one. In this scene Irene and Lottie sneak into the goblins kingdom to rescue Curly, who meanwhile comes face to face with the Goblin Queen for the first time. We split the scene into two parts, the first being Curly's interaction with the Queen and the second being Irene's rescue operation. The cast all drew on their own ideas for how to make the scene more entertaining and in the end we had a wonderful scene which paves the way for the final showdown between Irene and the Goblin Queen next week!

Overall it was another fantastic rehearsal with the Chameleons. These guys are pouring everything they have into making this show amazing and we can't wait to see it when we have the costumes, lights and sounds in a few weeks. Next week we will hopefully be able to start playing around with some costumes for everyone: until then!