Before Great Expectations, I've never had the chance to properly work with Ivory so playing the relationship between Pip and Miss Havisham was really interesting as well as pretty challenging. Miss Havisham has a almost supernatural like element about herself, something that throws Pip completely off. He's never come across a person like her. He's almost intrigued as well as being frightened of Satis House and Miss Havisham, shown through the hesitation to follow her first orders when he first arrives "play, play, play!".

I really liked working with the Pip chorus as with was interesting to work with a large amount of people that all relate to your character. As Pip’s thoughts were often said and echoed by the Pip chorus rather than said by Pip himself, it gave me a chance to explore using facial expressions and physicality to portray feelings and emotions. This really useful as I haven’t had a major chance to develop these skills in such a way Pip presents them; it also meant I needed to think about the fact that Pip was a young boy, and how a young boy may possibly present these emotions. 

We managed to get through the whole play and do a full run through. Being able to see the whole play as one really puts it into perspective. Knowing all my lines also really helps me develop further with the voice and physicality as I no longer need to look at my script whilst performing and blocking.

Outside of class, Ben and I took the opportunity to work on a few scenes between Pip and Joe. We looked at the scene in which they discuss Joe's reading ability and the scene when Pip confesses to lying. We worked on the dialogue and developed from the blocking to create two scenes that present the strong bond and relationship between Pip and Joe. I think is extremely important for the dynamic of the piece on a whole as Joe was the only regular male role model in Pip's life as he grew up, and especially as he was abused by his sister - his only relative. Working one-on-one with him extensively through our scenes really helped develop them and develop my skills and techniques for presenting a strong relationship.

I chose to look at this adaptation of Great Expectations as a lot of the dialogue is the similar and presented in the same way. Although the staging and direction may not be the same, it's still an interesting interpretation and gives me a few ideas on how to build and take inspiration from it. It's extremely interesting to look into different interpretations as they are all adapted differently and uniquely.

We developed the scene between Pip and young Herbert Pocket. The scene involves the two boys fighting in a comical fashion and it was really interesting to develop their interaction with Daniel. I've not had very much experience with stage combat before and although, this scene is comical and the fighting isn't very serious, it's a good chance to develop and enhance the skills I'm lacking.

I believe that this scene also shows Pip coming out of his personal shell as he shows an ignorant boy that although he may be poor and orphaned, he's a lot tougher than he seems. This is really interesting and different to play as a role as it's not the sort of role that is always presented for a female actor.

I'm really happy with my feedback from Eloise and Sante as it gives me the initiative to carry on performing at the level I am already throughout my rehearsals and in the actual performance. It also indicates to myself that I need to push myself further and constantly to keep my level sustained.

Personally, I believe I need to work harder and put more effort into developing Pip's physicality as well as developing his voice for my role. I find these two quite challenging, especially voice work - but I am willing to push myself to develop the skills needed. However, I do personally think I am doing well with following instructions and making imaginative decision with Pip's character and his relationship with other characters throughout the text.