4.2.15

   It was extremely important to continue working on our last scene this day, since it is a big scene with a lot of people in it and so our blocking needs to impeccable.
   One thing that came up in conversation today was, does Maria need to be present in the scene? She isn't written in the scene, but in some adaptations she is present or works as the attendant. We felt that it would be unnecessary to have the character there, since it would mean we would have to work on her emotions and other characters reactions to the reveal about Malvolio and her writing the letter. Since we are already short in time, this would have taken focus off of the things that are more important in the scene, and rather let the audience decide how Maria ends up after being revealed. We also couldn't find a place for her naturally in the scene, but rather have Sophie as the attendant, since this way we could focus on the action happening with Olivia, Viola, Orsino, Sebastian, Antonio and Malvolio more.
   Later in the day we showed the scene to Andy, that ended up being a bit of a disaster. These were notes we got from Andy(minus peoples individual notes)

• People need to find out what the lines mean. Too much talking and the emotional responses do not fit
• Blocking is off as well, people are returning to the semi circle all the time, also too close to each other BALANCE THE STAGE
• Make room for Malvolio to come in, he needs the stage and attention for his long monologue
• Work on when sir Toby comes in
• Work on when people go in out of the centre, you want movement on the stage, but not too hectic  or disorganized. FIND YOUR REASONS TO DO IT
• When Sebastian comes in, Viola and Orsino more amazed
• Reactions of characters to different situations! Do not stop acting once you stop talking

   I absolutely agree with Andy's notes and I feel a lot of is because people are still focusing too much on their lines and reading from the script rather than being memorized and being able to focus on the blocking and their characters. In class on Friday, we all need to put our focus on this scene and go trough the blocking carefully to fix all the problems, but also remember our places. I am still working on memorizing, but I felt that I was getting the emotions and the funniness well, because I have worked on the my lines and scene on my own at home and really thinking what we could do with it. I think there is still a lot of potential to bring strong emotions in to the scene.