The Jane Genie

Sorry to break the pattern guys, but seeing as I didn't have much time yesterday between being nervous, running around like a loon and generally getting irritated, I haven't got any footage of my prep. like Caitlin does.

Instead, here is a blog explaining some of the more memorable (for good and bad reasons) points of yesterday.

I woke up at eight-ish, and tried to not lose my head completely. I had a shower and got ready to go to school as Maddy had rung me up and we planned to do a Judas rehearsal before the afternoon duologues.

I walked to school, playing the soundtrack I had compiled specifically for the day - Bonkers by Dizzee Rascal, The Beginning is the End is the Beginning by The Smashing Pumpkins, The Long Way Around by The Dixie Chicks and Merchant of Death from the Iron Man OST - and arrived at school and rehearsed, but not successfully.

We got called into 60/61 (Drama studio) and had to set up chairs and stuff and it was pretty hectic and I got in a bad mood because, well, for many reasons, and couldn't relax during the relaxation excercises and when she said go and prepare for duologues I plugged in and had several blasts of Bonkers. Which kinda helped. Gradually people left, and returned looking a lot less stressed. Then we were called for our duologue.

In the end, it went alright. It wasn't our best performance. I seemed to forget I was supposed to be drunk, and it just lacked a bit of spark. Maddy said she slipped from her English accent into an American one; and the overall opinion from us both was that it could have gone a lot better.

But we didn't have time to mumble and grumble. Going back to the study area, we had an hour before The Children's Hour were on. We got changed and ready, and then had to go back to 60/61 for candidate number recordings, which were alright. By that point, I didn't really know what was going on so I wasn't as nervous of screwing it up as I was for GCSE. We then went for a final prop and set check, and let Laura start her presentation. I hope it went well.

We were called to the room where the examiner would meet us. She was a really nice woman (she clapped after everyone's monologues and duologues) and she wished us luck then went to take her seat. We stood in a circle, holding hands and wished each other good luck before walking in and performing our AS piece.

I think, for me, it couldn't have gone better. I got every line clearly, didn't forget anything, stood where I was supposed to and (hopefully) showed a clear differentiation between my two characters. We all gave it 100% and there were a few moments where an awkward silence occured, we got through it, and I don't think I've been more relieved to stand and take a bow before in my life.

The other groups were really good, some really fantastic performances from certain people. The night ended when Laura presented Mrs Rowlands with a handful of gifts and she kissed us both on the cheek. Aaarghhhh! It was weird. And I was exhausted. So I came home, had some soup and went to bed.

I really hope Caitlin, that yours went well, and you get a great grade because I'm sure you deserve it :)
♥