For the first week or two we read through the scene, working on our understanding and translations into modern day language so we find the meaning to each line. We approached each reading with different ways of playing our characters (Rosalind, Celia, The Duke). We attempted, an Essex more loose vocal and our natural clear well-spoken vocal. We found that putting on accents we take away from the scene and its meaning if we weren't all strong at the same accent.
The next stage of our rehearsal process was finding the right place to set this scene. We explored different era's and settings but we had to discuss locations that are local so that we could travel there to film. We ruled out setting it in a different era as it would be difficult finding a suitable place to film as well as costume, props etc. We made the decision to create a modern adaptation of this scene so we could focus more on whats happening in the scene rather that whats around us in the scene. Coming up with final decision took us quite while as it was a struggle finding something that would intertwine with the words and the meaning behind the scene of being banished from somewhere. However, after many dead ends we came up with the idea of setting it in a house. This means that when the Duke exiles Rosalind, it seems he is commanding her to move out of there family home.Our friend kindly told us she would let the film crew into her house and use her kitchen for our scene! I feel that this was a great idea as we has all we needed, as the kitchen had appliances and other things so we do not need to worry about props when i comes to it.
For the final few weeks, we set ourselves deadline to learn lines and blocked the scene. It was a very simple scene to block and we had no difficulty blocking it.
Overall, the weeks of rehearsal went by smoothly and I thoroughly enjoyed having the freedom to adapt this scene in a small group!
