Unit 7 - Theatre in education

Feedback from the Theatre in Education performance

After the performance, I have been receiving lots of feedback from many people regarding the show. I received some emails from some of my teachers who came to watch the performance.

The email below is from Jane Lush who is my tutor in college:

Hi Folks,

Just wanted to say again congratulations on a fantastic performance. All the characters were really well-defined. You looked brilliant and projected excellently .As I said I could hear every word . You held the audience’s attention throughout.

Good luck for your performance tomorrow.I think the children will love you!

Best wishes

Jane

Another email which I received was from my pastoral support worker (PSO), Cathy.

Hi Charlotte,

You already know that I think the play was fantastic, because I have told you. However, the sheer responsibility of writing the play, performing in it, directing it and also the production shows a truly exceptional young woman, who I have the honour of key working. Whatever you do, you will always shine AND you are so modest about it! Kindest regards,

Cathy

I was delighted to receive these emails because it made me think that all my work has paid off. The week after the performance, I created a survey which I sent out to staff and students at college. Some of the results are as follows:

As well as the data shown in the graphs, there were also some written responses for some of the questions. Some of the answers are below:

I have also received the feedback from the children at Lord Scudamore Academy. Originally, they only sent us a picture of one evaluation form which they had collated from one of the classes which attended the performance. However, about a week after the performance, we receive an envelope filled with evaluation forms from the children. Here are some pictures of some of the evaluation forms:

I really enjoyed looking through these evaluation forms as it has shown that we have been able to convey important messages in the show which we picked up by the children and also find out what their favourite things were about the show.

Unit 24 - Auditions for actors

Monday 5^th February

Today I was starting to work on my audition pieces.

To start the session, I carried out a full vocal warmup which included many different exercises such as the intercostal diaphragmatic breathing exercise, long note on ‘ha’, ‘pah, tah, kah’, tongue twisters and consolidation exercises. It has been a while since I have carried out the diction exercises and therefore I have lost the speed of which I used to be at. I need to make sure that I am practicing these exercises regularly to ensure that I can get them back up to the speed that I was at and then push past this to get them even faster.

We started by looking at my contemporary audition piece. The monologue that I have chosen is an extract from the play ‘Stepping Out’ where I will be playing the role of Mavis. Mavis is a tap dance teacher and she is teaching an adult tap class. I thought that this would be a good monologue for me to perform because I am very familiar with tap dancing but I feel like it will also push me out of my comfort zone because this piece is quite old and dance teachers were very different then to what they are now. I have carried out some research into the play and the character which I will be playing. Here is a link to some information about the play:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepping_Out_(play)
Here is a link to a website which has a bit more information about the characters as it is for an audition:
https://caods.org.uk/jpfiles/SteppingOutinfo.pdf
I have had a look at this monologue a few times before today so I do know some of the lines but not very much of it. Although I only knew a few of the lines, we still decided to work on the piece. From now, I need to start practicing in my tap shoes because I think this will help me with the characterisation. I started practicing today with a hat because this is used during the dance routine which Mavis is teaching to the class. This will also help me get into character.

I then moved on to looking at my Shakespeare piece. I have selected a piece from ‘Romeo and Juliet’ however, I am not 100% that I would like to perform this monologue. I therefore need to carry out some research into other Shakespearian monologues which may appeal to me.

Unit 26 - Choreographing dance

Thursday 1^st February

Tonight I was having a dance lesson with Emily as we were starting to work on the tap piece which we will be in the end of year show.

We have decided to go with the song ‘Happy' as this song portrays the right emotion for the point in the play at which this dance will come. However, if we find the song too hard to choreograph to when we start, we can always change it to something else.

I didn’t really need to do much of a warmup because I had just taken a contemporary dance class right before this session so my body was already warm. However, I did carry out a few small exercises just to make sure that my ankles were fully warmed up.

I have taken tap lessons before and have completed up to and including grade 4. However, this does not mean anything to Emily because she is American and the examination system is a lot different there. Therefore we just spent some time going through some steps so she could assess my current ability. She also taught me some new steps such as a Cincinnati which I have never come across before but I soon got the hand of it.

We then moved on to some choreography. We have split the routine up into different sections so that it is easier to choreograph and learn. The first section goes includes shuffle hop down, shuffle hop down, shuffle ball change step, double chug. Heal step step, heal step step, flap heal, flap heal. 
The original plan was to have this at quite a slow pace but I felt like it wasn't quick enough so I sped up the choreography a bit. This now worked a lot better with the music. This sequence was then followed by a turning step which then went into single and double paradiddles. I did also try this next bit of choreography in the same speed as the first section but I wasn't able to keep up with it so I slowed it down a little. 
I decided to keep the choreography for the chorus quite simple in terms of the amount of steps there are. The main rhythm that I repeat through the chorus is 'step clap clap clap' which is then followed by a move of my choice. I decided to put in some moves which I like and am good at such as pullbacks wings and paddle turns. 
During the next verse, I repeat the sequence that I have choreographed for the first verse and this then leads back into the chorus. After the second chorus, I go into a different sequence. This sequence features cramp rolls, paradiddles and pickups. This sequence is repeated twice and then it goes back into the chorus.
I really like this routine and think that it will really fit with the storyline of the performance. I have now choreographed the whole routine but I am really struggling to keep going through the whole song. Therefore I need to work on my stamina in time for the show to ensure that I can dance the whole way through the song.