In today’s session we were focusing on going
through the material which we have already created and decided what will come
next in the story.
To start with, we ran through the lines for
scene 3 as this is newly scripted. I have worked in my own time to script this
so today gave everyone a chance to start learning their lines.
We then ran through the lines for scene 2 as
this then leads into scene 3.
Towards the end of the session, we had a
discussion about some ideas for the next scene for the performance. We
definitely know that this scene is going to involve Danielle because she is yet
to be in a scene. Her character is called Tanzie Tangerine and she is going to educate
the children using some fruit and veg. We worked on this scene a few sessions
ago by improvising around the ideas. However, the improvisation material was
quite dry and therefore I think that we should work on this again this week to
ensure that the scene is going to be captivating for the children. I have
managed to script some of scene 4 but will need to get more ideas from the
group on Thursday.
In
today’s session I was performing my final rendition of my poem. The poem that I
have been working on is called ‘Bees’ and was written by Carol Anne Duffy.
In
order to ensure that I was going to deliver the poem to the best of my ability,
we started the session with a full warmup. This included body percussion,
stretches, the intercostal diaphragmatic breathing exercise, diction exercises
and tongue twisters. Carrying out all of these exercises meant that all of the
muscles in my body were warm and I was ready to perform.
We
then moved on to the poem. Before I performed this for the final time, I had a
few minutes to run through the lines and think about all of the comments and
feedback that I have been given during these sessions. This then enabled me to
think about what I needed to remember when delivering the poem. The main thing
that I remembered was to make sure that I wasn’t speeding through the lines as
this can make it difficult for the audience to hear the lines. I then performed
my final rendition of the poem and here is a video of me doing so:
I
think this performance went really well and overall, I am very pleased with how
it went. I remembered to slow down the pace of the delivery of the lines to
ensure that each word was very clear and could be understood. I was also given
some feedback from my lecturer which was that I had very clear diction because
every word was very clear. I have been able to work on my diction by using the
diction exercises which we use in the warm up at the start of each session – ‘pah,
tah, kah’, ‘mah, nah, lah’, and ‘thah, vah, zah’. Practicing these have enabled
my diction to improve especially through this unit and I have certainly noticed
a difference in my deliveries. Another point that my lecturer made was that the
intonation was great. I managed to use pauses to add meaning to the poem. On
the other hand, something that I feel like I could have done slightly better
was my projection. I have been working on my projection over the past few weeks,
by using different exercises such as diaphragm kicks but also just making sure
that my voice fills the full room when I am making a speech, to make sure that the
delivery of the piece is the best that it can be. This may be something that I
will continue to work on in the future - to ensure that all future
performances, especially those that are in front of a big audience, are well
projected so that all audience members are able to hear all of the speech.
After
delivering my poem, I then moved on to work on my monologue. The character of
which the monologue is being spoken by is very important in the delivery of
this monologue. This is because this then links to the accent of which I need
to speak in because there are some words in the monologue which are part of the
dialect of where the monologue is set such as ‘right’, ‘happen’ and ‘like’. Therefore,
the accent then links to clarity and making sure that even though the accent is
still important part of the delivery, so is the diction, clarity and
projection. My lecturer, Cara had the idea of me to wear a long, weighted skirt
which would then make it easier for me to get into character. We then ran
through the piece a few times looking at different aspects such as diction,
pace, intonation and projection. However, these are still quite a challenge to
work on because I am still not 100% clear with the words yet. After a few times
running through, Cara gave me some feedback. Firstly, I am starting to realise
the character and the comedy within the piece. Towards the end of the poem
there are words such as ‘like’, ‘right’ and ‘happen’. All these words help me
to grasp the accent and therefore then leads me to getting into character more.
An area which I need to improve on is the middle section. At the moment this
part is lacking clarity and is not grasping the audience. This may be due to me
not knowing this part of the monologue as well as the other parts so I need to
work on getting the words for this.
Today we went back into the
primary school to work with Eve and Toby who will be participating in the end of
year dance showcase here at college. It was my first time working with the
children together because the last time I went to the school, I was teaching a
group and had to select one from the group. I selected Eve from the first group
that I worked with and Toby was suggested to us by the school when we said that
we required a boy to dance alongside Eve.
Before we went to the school,
I spent some time with my dance lecturer, Laura choreographing some moves which
we will be able to teach to the children today once I have gone over Eve’s solo
with her. I have also worked in my own time to change some of the moves in the
routine to make sure that they fit with the music.
When we got to the school,
Laura and I spoke to Eve and Toby about what the aim of the routine was and what
they will be doing in the show. I then took them through a warmup which included
head and shoulder rolls, hip movements and stretches. Carrying out all of these
then meant that the whole body was warmed up and ready for the session.
After the warmup, I ran
through the choreography with Eve for her solo part. We are using the same choreography
which I taught her a few weeks ago in the group session but we are now using a different
song. It was quite easy to teach the choreography to Eve because she had
remembered a lot form the last time which then enabled us to spend more time
working on the duet part.
I then moved on to teaching
the duet choreography. Firstly, Toby runs onto stage and they both look happy
to see each other. Then they both do 2 steps forward and do a turn to the right
whilst pushing the arms down. They then step back in a V shape for 3 counts so
they end up side by side which then leads them into a small trust exercise.
This involves Toby bending over so he is in a table top position which then
means that Eve can lean back onto him. This trust exercise will then show that
the friendship and trust is growing through the choreography as it builds through
the years which is then represented by the different members of cast playing different
ages of the same character. After the small trust exercise, they kneel down on
their right knee and push their arms out to the side. As they come to stand up,
they pull the right leg in, extend it out backwards and then turn towards to
face the back. This is all that we had choreographed for today so we then just
spent some time going through the whole of what was taught in the session and
making sure that all the moves looked fluid. Some time was specifically spent
working on the trust exercise because at first, Eve and Toby found this
exercise quite awkward and they didn’t really want to do it but once they got
used to it and practiced a few times, they started to become more confident
with it.
I think that this session
went really well. I was able to teach the children quite a lot of choreography
and we then had time to work on perfecting some of the moves. Both Eve and Toby
worked really hard and asked questions that they had throughout the session which
I was then able to answer. Next week, we will be working on some more
choreography to finish off the last section of this duet part. I need to
choreograph this for next week. Here are some pictures from the session today:
Today
we were unable to have the afternoon session as we were participating in a
workshop with an external company but I had a session in the morning with my
performing arts lecturer Cara. We spent the session writing a song. This is
because it was brought up in the last session that Fiona the Fruit Fairy should
have a song. The group thought that the song should have a ballad feel to it.
So, me and Cara took the ideas that had been proposed and came up with these
lyrics:
I
love it here in my Fruity Kingdom,
Watching
all the fruit grow on the trees.
The
air is clear in my Fruity Kingdom,
A
happy home for the birds and bees.
4 bars instrumental
Will
you come and play in my Fruity Kingdom,
We
can hop and skip and jump and dance.
Eat
some fruit and veg in my Healthy Kingdom,
Come
on Sweetie Monster just give me a chance.
During
the 4 bars instrumental, I will have a small choreographed piece of dance which
I will choreograph at a later date once I know where all of the characters will
be on stage. I really like this song and I think it will fit in with the scene
that we have already devised. I just need to keep going over this and then I
will begin to remember the lyrics and the tune.
