The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe- Week Seven: 'The Spell Begins to Break.'

As we move closer and closer to the Christmas show; it has come time again to start introducing costumes into the mix. Slowly at first...well that was the plan, but then we decided to just jump in. Week seven with the Chameleons this morning proved very colourful as we continued to work on our play and reveal some of the wonderful costumes that will be featuring.

Our team learned all about the game 'Traffic Lights' last week and, after many requests, finally had a go at it with the whole group. Good fun it was too, and got everyone moving around and warmed up. Meanwhile, the game also provided a good bit of fun for the cast while certain members went to get into costume for the rehearsal.

This week, Edmund and the White Witch came across some Narnians having a party. It is here that the Queen finds out about Aslan's return. One of the main focuses for the cast this week was reactions, reacting to different things across the scenes we worked on. In this particular scene we looked at the reactions the Narnians would have upon meeting the White Witch and how we could show this on stage.

Elsewhere, the Pevensie siblings meet Father Christmas. Again we talked about how they might react to seeing this particular character. How would seeing Father Christmas make them feel? These feelings are likely similar for their characters, and so the Chameleons can use this in the show. This scene is also an important one for the children and the beavers, as it acts as the first step on their path to eventually confronting the White Witch. Some lovely acting between our beaver family too who, although they don't say much in this scene, did a tremendous job of reacting to events and keeping us entertained.

Birthday time again. I can barely keep up this term; but there was cake and merriment to celebrate the respective 7th and 8th birthdays of three Chameleons across both last week and this one coming. While it is completely removed from drama it is nice to get the group celebrating these things together- it supports development of the social skills we try and impart through our work and is a nice time for them to all bond with one another (over cake-the cake is important).

We then returned to the beginning of the show and began a run through of all the work we have so far. The story this term is so vast that simply creating everything and practicing at the end is a mammoth size task. Instead what we did was practice the material that we have, as well as the transitions and costume changes between them, so that on the day of the show everyone feels confident in what they are doing.

And thus another week comes to an end. The cast are working tremendously hard to bring all the elements of the show together and it is looking great! No time for rest though! Next week we will conclude our run through and stage our first fight scene of the show; as Peter, Susan and Lucy come face to face with Maugrim and the Secret Police. Until next time!

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe- Week Six: 'A Day with the Beavers (in Fancy Dress)'

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.    

Following on from last week's scenes, we dived in to where we had left off. In this scene we worked on the relationship between the four siblings and talked a lot about reacting to one another. Thinking about how the actions of the others in the show make their character feel. Lucy and Edmund in particular have several moments where they react to one another in quite strong ways. Exploring this is a great way to get into the mindset of a character and our Chameleons did a great job.

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. 

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe- Week Five: 'What Lucy Found There.'

Morning (or evening/lunchtime/whatever time you are reading this...it's currently AM at time of writing)! Apologies for the delay in the blog post this week, yesterday was incredibly busy following the session and there was no time for the usual blog post. IT SHALL NOT BE STOPPED however, so here we are with a slightly delayed look at yesterday's rehearsal with the Chameleons.

Last week we got started on the show. Scene one came together and progressing this week we aimed to look at the next scenes along. It being Saturday morning and half term, we thought it best to open with some games. Nothing too draining this week: some running and some shapes. This week's themes were things you would find in space, at a supermarket and a magic school (but not Hogwarts). With each week the group seems to adapt more to this game and the shapes are getting more and more creative. Favourites this week included goes to the old man on the moon, the 'random' sorting hat and the supermarket sale sign.

Onto the scenes and we are well and truly through the wardrobe this week. We divided the cast to work on multiple scenes at once. One team stayed in the room to work on Lucy's first meeting with the faun Tumnus. What was lovely about watching this scene come together is that the cast have clearly taken the time to read and start learning their scripts and so sprang into action with confidence. The scene is a mix of conversation and physical theatre; the first half of the rehearsal was spent on the former.

When time came for Tumnus to play his flute, the physical theatre madness began. With such a large chorus this term, we wanted to include them in as much of the show as possible. Here Tumnus' lullaby shows Lucy visions of Narnian creatures from the time of summer. The chorus created their own movements to signify what animals they had chosen; such as owls, deer, foxes and tigers. This peace is undermined however as a hooded figure appears and begins turning them to stone. The cast did a fantastic job at creating this scene- it is always wonderful to see them get stuck in and create devised work for the show.

Meanwhile, the remainder of the cast focused on Edmund's meeting with the White Witch. Parallel to Lucy's scene, Edmund's encounter is a very important one, as it is the first time we are introduced to the villain of the story. Again the cast gave loads of ideas for what could go into the scene and made some cool and hilarious character decisions. What was most impressive here was, to hark on about physical theatre some more (we love it), the creation of the sleigh. The chorus worked together to form the creatures which pull the Witch's sleigh; making her entrance all the more grand.

Afterwards we all came back together to run through what we had done and show each other the work we had made. Practising the transitions between the scenes was a large focus of this part, as knowing how one scene changes to the next is equally as important as knowing what happens in the scene itself. The cast worked really hard and the two scene created fit nicely with one another. Success!

The cast worked really hard this week; practising what we had done last week and adding new material on top. We were a few members down again this week but in spite of this the show is looking great. The hard work they are putting in is certainly showing and there will be much more to come next week; where Peter and Susan find out the truth about what is in the wardrobe and Edmund makes a horrible choice. Until then enjoy some of our rehearsal pics (though slightly blurred this week I think due to the lighting of the room).