We were using this session to carry on experimenting with activities which I could use during the music workshop which will be taking place very soon.
We spent some of the session going over what we had come up with last week. This involved the introduction of rhythm along with you name, rapping and dynamics. After we had covered everything that we had come up with last week, we started to look at some new ideas. We thought about the idea of drumming a rhythm to a popular song which everyone will know in the group. The only problem with this is trying to find a song that everyone will know because we will have quite a large age range in the workshop and they may all have very different music tastes. Some of the songs that we thought of and found easy to drum a rhythm along to were ‘The lion sleeps tonight’, ‘Roar’, ‘Firework’, ‘Any dream will do’ and ‘Havana’.
Another exercise that we looked at involved playing as part of a group and as a soloist. The exercise started by the group playing a rhythm together and then a name would be called out and whilst the rest of the group carries on playing the group rhythm, the individual can play a solo in time with the group rhythm. Here is a video of us trying out the exercise:
This is another good exercise which I can use during the workshop as it is nice and easy for everyone to get the hang of.
Towards the end of the session, I had a discussion with my lecturer about what the next stages are going to be in order for the workshop to take place. I will be having a meeting with Kev from Reaction Music who is going to be helping me to prepare and run the workshop. The meeting will give me a chance to plan with him the activities that we are going to run with the group. The week after is when we will have a rehearsal of the material that we have discussed in the meeting. We also need to decide on a date for when the workshop is going to take place. My first meeting with Kev is to take place next week on Friday followed by the rehearsal the following Friday. Once I have had the meeting with Kev, I will then be able to get in contact with Ruth. Ruth works for the charity LOOK UK who we are hoping to run the workshop with. LOOK UK are a charity which support blind and partially sighted children, young people and their families. We will also hopefully meet with her to discuss any ideas that she has for the workshop and if she has any ideas on how many clients we may get for the workshop. I will contact Ruth by email to ask her a few things such as:
·Making sure that the workshop is accessible – asking if the children have any other disabilities apart from their visual impairment and what their level of sight is
In the session this afternoon, I will be performing my audition piece to my peers. This then gave me a chance to work on any last minute amendments before I performed it to the group.
This morning I ran through my contemporary monologue. As I was running through the speech, I made an adjustment to one of the lines. The adjustment was to do with my movement. On the line ‘Okay, so you’re standing with your backs to the audience, feet apart and absolutely perfectly still’. At present, I turned to face the back after I had said “Okay”, however my lecturer told me to change it slightly so that I turned after the word “audience”. When I practiced the piece again from the beginning using this new moment of movement, the piece seemed to flow better and movement fitted in better with the script.
In the afternoon I arrived to the lesson ready to perform my piece. For my piece I wore a black leotard with leggings, tap shoes and a hat. In my lectures, I have been practicing with the hat and my tap shoes to help me with my characterisation. These really helped me to connect with the character.
After a diction warmup, I was ready to perform my piece. Here is a video of me performing the piece:
Here is a video of me receiving feedback from my peers and from my lecturer, Cara:
Overall, I am really happy with how I performed this piece. I managed to stay in character all the way through the piece, I kept my projection up and I remembered all of the notes that my lecturer had given me during rehearsals. When I first started learning the piece, I was worried that I was never going to connect with the character but over time I have found a connection with her and I was able to draw on my personal experiences to help portray the character of Mavis. On reflection, I have had a look back at the video of my starting point and I have realised that the piece has improved a lot since beginning to work on it. To begin with, my movement wasn't very bold and I didn't move like a dance teacher. However, throughout the rehearsal process, I have worked on the way that I move during the piece and during the final piece, you can see that my movement is more fluid and more 'dance teacher like'. Another refinement that I have made during the rehearsal process was to my tone of voice without the piece. There are several times throughout the piece where Mavis makes a sarcastic comment to one of the other characters, Geoffrey. At the beginning of the rehearsal process, I did not grasp the intonation of these parts but progressed with them over time. There are also several other parts in the piece where she makes sarcastic comments to the other members in the group. Something that also really helped me with my characterisation was wearing my leotard, leggings, hat and tap shoes for the performance. This made me really think about my character as this is what a typical dance teacher would wear in the 1980's which was when the play was set.
To begin the session, we carried out a warmup to ensure that all of the muscles in our body were warm.
We then ran through the routines in the order of which they will be performed. We have started to do this so that we can get used to the order and see how long we will have in between the songs to do any costume or scene changes.
In my time outside of these lessons, I have started to learn a tap dance which will also be in the performance. We are not too sure where this song will go yet because we need to make sure that I have enough time to put my tap shoes on in between the dances. I was able to show Laura this routine today because she hasn’t seen it yet. I will carry on working on this routine next week with my dance teacher, Emily.
After rehearsing all of the routines which we have already choreographed, I had a discussion with Laura about the music for some of the other routines which we still have to choreograph and teach. Next week we will be working with Sienna who will be playing the part of Aurora in the performance. Laura and I will choreograph the routine in our session in the morning and then we will be teaching it to her in the afternoon after we have been back into the primary school to go over choreography with Eve, Toby, Anna and Aidan.
We have discovered that there are lots of things to do in such a short space of time but all of the things left to do are quite small so hopefully we should get all of them done in time for the performance.
Last Friday, I went into the recording studio to record the narrator voiceover which will be played throughout the performance at different moments. However, we having a discussion today and seeing when routines are going to start and finish, we have come to the realisation that we will probably need to record this again because we need to make quite a lot of amendments to the script and we also need to indicate when songs are going to start/end and when there is going to be an overlap of music and voiceover. Hopefully we can work to get this script sorted by the end of next week so it gives us time to record it and edit it before the show.
Costumes are also in preparation too. I will be having some wings made for me. I was measured for these this afternoon and hopefully I will have them very soon so that I can start to practice in them so that I can get used to them in time for the show. We also need to order the remaining costumes for the children.
I was using this session today to practice through my audition monologues.
To begin with, we carried out a full diction warmup which included some body stretches, intercostal diaphragmatic breathing and diction exercises. I then moved on to practicing through both of my audition pieces.
Firstly, I practiced my contemporary monologue. After running through this, I had a discussion with my lecturer about how I felt it went. We both agreed that this piece is now ready to be performed and would be ready to take to an audition. I will perform this piece to my peers in the session on Thursday.
We then moved on to look at my Shakespeare piece. This piece still needs quite a lot of development because I am still learning the end of the speech. Therefore, my target for this piece is to keep on learning the lines to make sure that I am secure with it as soon as possible.
2 faced dance company, which is a professional dance company based in Hereford, came into college to gather some ideas about how to make their new production more accessible to blind and partially sighted children. The main focus of the session was to explore the idea of audio description and a touch tour but it also gave us a chance to talk to them about their show and learn more about what they do.
To start with, we had a discussion with Tamsin who is the artistic director of the company. She gave us a bit of background about the dance company and also a bit of information about their production that they are currently working on. This production is called ‘Moon’ and is about a young boy and a moon. The production is told through contemporary dance and is aimed at children.
After the discussion, we were given a chance to hold some of the props which are used throughout the show. We even got to try some of the props on. Some of the props that we got to touch were a chimney sweeps hat, the moons hat, the dragon head and tail. Here is a picture of me with the dragon wings on:
After having a discussion about how to present the touch tour, the group showed us a piece from the show. There were 3 male dancers making the cast of the performance. Here are some pictures of the scene which they performed to us:
The scene was a contemporary dance scene which showed the young boy meeting a dragon. The scene was very well choreographed so that when the tension built up in the music, the story also built up as we were watching it. The music and choreography really suited both their target audience and their storyline. They have incorporated a lot of different components into the show which meet the needs of the target audience and the storyline. For example, they have a trapeze artist who will symbolise the moon throughout the show and the use of lots of different props and costumes which have been very cleverly put together to draw the audience in. I feel that the use of these props and costumes really added a dynamic to the performance and makes it more interesting. It will certainly make it interesting for their target audience as the children will be amazed by the movement with the props and costumes. After watching the scene, we worked with the audio describer to create some speech which could go over the soundtrack.
I thoroughly enjoyed watching the extract. It was very different to anything that I had seen before and gave me some good ideas for my own choreography which I could use in my pieces in the future.
Overall, I really enjoyed the session. I hope that I get to see this production when it is finished.
We were using this session today to prepare some materials for the music workshop which I will be assisting Kev with, in a few weeks time. We are due to have an initial meeting with Kev very soon to discuss what the workshop will entail and what we will need to prepare in the run up to the workshop. We are planning to hold the workshop with LOOK UK which is a charity which works with young people and their families affected by visual impairment.
There are a few things to think of in the meantime before the workshop such as making sure that everyone in the workshop is included. This is because we are going to have quite a large age range within the group so we need to think of a way in which all of the clients will be able to participate. This may involve me thinking on my feet during the workshop because some people may be struggling during the workshop but then others may be really comfortable with the activities. Something else that I need to consider is encouraging group discussion and participation. Most of the children in the group probably won’t have met before so therefore we need to make sure that everyone gets to know each other a bit at the start of the session.
For the rest of our session we were having a go at some exercises which I could use for the workshop. Cara, Molly, Kellyann and I each had a drum which we used for many different activities. Here are some videos of us carrying out some activities:
As you can see from the videos above, there are many different exercises which we can carry out using the drums which explore different aspects such as dynamic and rhythm.
Upon starting this unit, I
have carried out some research into what music in the community is, its benefits
and some examples of where music in the community is used. I have presented the
information in a PowerPoint presentation which can be viewed below:
The PowerPoint also includes information
from Kev who works for Reaction Music. I will be working alongside Kev
throughout this unit to prepare and deliver a community music workshop.
Today, we were working on
preparing for the dance performance in May.
Laura and I had a discussion
about what we still have left to do for the dance performance. We put together
a list of things that we needed to do in the weeks running up to the show. One of
the things to do is to go back into the primary school to recap over the
choreography which I taught Eve and Toby a while ago. We have scheduled in 2
weeks where we will go into the school to go over the choreography so they are
prepared for the show. We also need to order the remaining costumes so that we
can practice in them and also try them on for measurements for other possible
parts of costume.
Once we had done all of the admin
tasks that we had to do, we moved on to some practical work. I carried out a
full body warmup to ensure that I was fully stretches so that I could run
through all of my dances. My warmup involved a pulse raiser, some stretches standing
up and some stretches sitting down. Once I had finished my comprehensive
warmup, we moved on to going through all of the dances.
We went through the dances
for the show in the order of which they will be performed. This meant we
started with ‘A thousand years’ then on to ‘Beautiful trauma’ and ‘Rise’. There
are still a few dances to choreograph such as the finale and the tap routine
however, I am able to pick up choreography quite quickly so this shouldn’t be
an issue. Molly also has her routine which she will perform in the show.
Next week we will start to choreography
the finale piece which will be to the song ‘This is me’. At some point during
the next week, I will record the narrator speech in the recording studio. This
will give Paul a chance to edit it and then we can listen to it to see whether
we want to change anything or add anything in.
We began the session with a
warmup. This included some stretches to get our muscles warmed up, the
intercostal diaphragmatic breathing exercise, diction exercises, tongue
twisters and consolidation exercises. We then moved on to working on my 2
monologues.
We worked on my contemporary
piece first. I am now very close to having all of the lines secure for this piece.
There is now only one line which I can repeatedly not remember and therefore I
just need to focus on learning this line and then the whole speech will be
secure. Also this morning, we have been working on my characterisation. Before
the Easter holidays, I was working very hard on the characterisation and was
becoming very close to the character of Mavis. However, due to the break, I
have lost this characterisation a bit and am therefore working to get it to
where it was and then push past this to make the piece even better. The more
that I work on this piece and the characterisation, the better the piece will
become. I will do this by using my emotional memory (Stanislavsky) by remembering the first time I moved to college and said goodbye to my parents. I can therefore apply this feeling of homesickness to the very start of my piece as Juliet is saying 'Farewell' to Romeo.
Once we had worked on my contemporary
piece for a while, we moved on to my Shakespeare piece. When I was beginning to
learn this piece, I really struggled with understanding the Shakespearian
language and therefore found it hard to learn the monologue. However, as time
has progressed, I now have a clearer understanding of this type of language and
this has led for me to be able to learn the speech. I have not learnt all of
the speech just yet but I am very nearly there. After some consideration about
the length of the speech, my lecturer and I have decided to cut the speech down
a bit because the speech is too long and I wouldn’t be able to perform all of
this within an audition because they state that an audition piece has to be
between 2 to 3 minutes long. My current piece would be a lot longer than that
if I was to perform the whole thing and therefore we have cut some of the
speech out in the middle to make it more appropriate to the addition situation.
When doing this, we made sure that the speech still made sense. I know need to
concentrate on learning the last small part of the speech and then I will be
ready to take to an audition.
In some of my sessions, I
have been carrying out some listening tests with my lecturer. These listening
tests can include anything from picking out notes from a chord, to finishing
off a tune. These listening tests will help me gain better tuning when
performing.
Here is a video of me
carrying out a chord recognition task:
Here is a video of me carrying
out some melodic phrases in 4/4 timing:
Here is a video of me carrying out some melodic phrases in 2/4 timing:
Here is a video of me carrying out some melodic phrases in 3/4 timing (waltz time):
When I was first introduced to these exercises, I really struggled with them and found it hard to remember the melodies. However, as time has progressed, I have been able to work on remembering these phrases and now I can carry out melodic phrases in 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4 timings. As you can see from the videos above, I struggled slightly with the melodic phrases in 3/4 timing. This is because throughout my past when I have done a lot of dance where we have always counted in either 2/4 or 4/4 and therefore I wasn't used to the 3/4 timing. This meant that as well as remembering the sequence of notes, I also had to focus especially on the timing of the phrases because this did not come naturally as it did for the other timings.
This morning we have been discussing carrying out actual auditions and how I might prepare for them. Whilst I haven't really taken part in an audition, apart from an audition for The Lion King at school, I have run an audition within a primary school for some children for the part of young Maleficent in the dance show. During the audition, I was looking for the ability to characterise a specific role. I was also looking for a particular hair colour and whilst I realise that wouldn't necessarily be an issue for adults in a professional production, I felt I wouldn't be able to ask a child to dye their hair for this performance. I was also looking for the children to pick up a dance routine really quickly. This wouldn't happen in an acting audition obviously but the same principle of being able to remember material quickly would apply to an acting audition. In the lead up to an audition, there are many different things that you should prepare so that you are ready for the big day.
The first thing that you need to do is to make sure that you look for audition dates well in advance. I am a proactive person, I enjoy being prepared for my work at college. I do this by checking assignment materials and I refer to my learning objectives to make sure that I complete tasks to deadlines. I feel this attitude would transfer to the audition process ensuring that I have maximum time to prepare for the audition and I'm not rushing around at the last minute trying to book transport and accommodation. Applying for the audition well in advance will cause a lot less stress.
If I was going to be auditioning for a certain role, I would make sure I carried out some research into that character. I would also make sure that I carried out some research into the other characters and the story of the play/show I was auditioning for. You should still carry out some research even if you are going for a part in the ensemble. The information may come in handy during the audition if you are asked a question by the panel. It may also be a good idea that if you are auditioning for a musical theatre role, that you look at some routines from the show and start to learn a couple of the moves. They may include these moves during the audition and already knowing the move or a move very similar to it will give you an advantage during the audition process. Some research into the director of the show that you are auditioning for may also be useful. Research is very important and should be carried out before any audition so that it can put your mind to rest if the panel ask you a question.
If it is possible, attend a few workshops throughout the year as this will make sure that your skills are being maintained. I personally attend all additional workshops which are offered here at college. I enjoy updating my skills and learning new ones. Someone on the panel may ask you what you have been up to in the last year in regards to acting and if you have attended some workshops, this will probably please the people running the audition. They may also ask you what you are reading at the moment so if possible, start reading something close to the time of the audition which may relate to the show that you are auditioning for. Select and rehearse some monologues for the audition. It is very likely that you will be asked to bring 2 or maybe even 3 pieces with you to perform to the panel. If you are auditioning for drama school, you will definitely need a contemporary and a classical piece to demonstrate your versatility. Select these wisely. Make sure that they fit your strengths and they allow you to show you best features.
For professional auditions you would probably need to send over some headshots. Most actors advertise in 'Contacts', this is where directors and producers would look to find appropriate people to audition. Make sure that your headshot is quite recent and shows how you look now. This is because you may be asked to audition based on your appearance and you may no longer fit the requirements or you didn’t used to fit the requirements and now you do. Also ensure that any other documents and profiles are up to date such as online profiles on websites such as ‘Spotlight’.
Most auditions for major acting roles take place in London. If you are unable to commute on the day, you need to ensure that you book accommodation for the night before the audition and possibly the night after the audition. The earlier you do this, the more availability there will be, it will be cheaper and you may be able to get accommodation near to where the audition is taking place. Even if you are able to travel on the day, make sure you plan your journey early by booking trains or coaches or looking at the route on a map.
The night or the morning before the audition, have a shower so that you are fresh and clean for the audition. Also make sure that you look presentable and ready to audition when you arrive.
Wearing the right clothing to an audition is also a very important factor. Bear in mind that you will probably be moving around a lot, especially if going for a musical theatre audition. Therefore, if you are wearing clothes which you aren’t able to move well in, you will not be able to perform to you best ability.
Bring a bottle of water to the audition and anything else that they may have asked you to bring in advance.
Always arrive at the audition with time to spare. It is good to be at the place of audition around 15 minutes early. This will give you time to relax, grab a drink and warm up a bit. Turning up late does not give a good impression to the panel because it will make them question whether they should select you if you’re going to be late for rehearsals and even performances. I am a punctual person, I also aim for 100% attendance and I am conscientious where time keeping is concerned.
Lastly, make sure that you relax. Go into the audition with an open mind, be yourself and try your best.
As you can see, there are a lot of things to take into account when going for an audition. It is an occasion that you can prepare months in advance for by maintaining and updating your skills. By following all of the steps above, you should be ready to go to the audition and do your best.
The main aim of the session today was to run through all of the choreography that we have learnt so far.
We started off the lesson with a warmup which I led. This involved several different stretches both standing up and sitting down. We then moved onto going through the choreography in the order that it will be performed.
The first routine will be ‘A Thousand Years’. We didn’t have any of the children in the lesson today who are performing in this song so I just marked through their bits. I was also able to show Laura the choreography which I have been learning with Luke on a Thursday night. We ran this routine a few times and then we moved onto the next routine which was ‘Beautiful Trauma’. I am very happy and confident with this choreography as I have been practicing it over the weeks to ensure that I will remember it for the show. Next was Molly’s movement piece. We had to spend a good bit of time working on this piece because Molly had forgotten most of it so we therefore spent some time going over the choreography. To finish off I practiced the song ‘Rise’. This is the routine which we started choreographing a few weeks ago and will be continuing to choreograph today. We managed to add quite a bit of choreography onto what we already had. This routine is beginning to take shape and we will finish the choreography for this after the Easter holidays.
Today I went to The Courtyard which is the local theatre in Hereford with my dance teacher Laura to observe a tech and dress rehearsal for a show which will be performed tomorrow night. The show consists of lots of different pupils from primary schools from all over Herefordshire which all come together to put on a show. Laura has been working with some of the primary schools over the past term to teach them a dance which they will then perform on the main stage at The Courtyard. This is all because of the project ‘Moving Targets’. The aim of the project is to bring together classes of children from local primary schools. The performance helps the children to unite and appreciate the other children in their class. The routines have been chosen and choreographed specifically to fit this message.
The first school that we were working with was St James Primary School. The children who were performing were in year 5 and they were dancing a street jazz routine to the song ‘This one’s for you’. Before the children could get up onto the stage, they had a health and safety talk. They then went backstage and were ready to begin to practice their routine. They ran the routine once and then it was time to make some alternations. I was sat in the auditorium so that I could look at the spacing throughout the routine. I communicated with Laura when I thought some people needed to be moved slightly. This worked really well and by the end of their session, the routine was looking really good. This did take quite a bit of time because the children weren’t used to having such a big space to dance in.
After lunch, we were working with another school – Trinity Primary School. The pupils from this school were a mixture between year 4 and year 5. Their rehearsal slot had a very similar structure to the first school. However they were performing a different routine. Their routine was to the song ‘Came here for love’ and was also a street jazz style routine. I again, sat in the auditorium and watched out for any spacing issues throughout the routine. Both of the songs that the children have been dancing to reflects what the project is all about. The tracks send out a positive message and will give positive vibes to the audience. Both of the routines were choreographed in a specific way. All of the children started off as individuals and as the song progressed, they moved into pairs, small groups and then ended as one large group at the end. This is a really nice method of choreography and I could possibly use it in the future when I am choreographing routines.
This trip to The Courtyard has been great experience as it has shown me what it is like to work with children in moving a routine from the school hall, to a big stage. I found it really interesting and enjoyed the experience.
Today we were mainly focusing on my contemporary piece because last week we spent a lot of time looking at my Shakespeare piece. The aim of the session was to become closer to my character so that the piece is more realistic and natural. We did this by going through the text and making alternations to my intonation throughout. My characterisation is definitely improving and I will carry on to develop this. I think the reason why I have struggled with the characterisation is because I am still not sound with the whole text. I struggle to remember the start line of a paragraph but once I have this, I know the whole paragraph. My target is to keep working on this piece over the Easter holidays so that it is almost ready for audition when we arrive back to college after the holiday.
For the rest of the session we were working on my Shakespeare piece. Because I have been struggling with learning this text, I sat down with my lecturer and I went through the piece to see how much I could remember. I was pleasantly surprised with how much I could remember because I found this speech really hard to learn at the beginning. However, today I managed to remember up to and including most of the second page. I will also work on this piece during the Easter break.
Today was the day that I was taking part in the singing performance. ‘Escapism’ is a show which takes the audience on a summery journey. The performers were myself, Kellyann, Molly and Robert. We were accompanied by Cara on piano and Sam on guitar. We then also had Paul and Graham on the sound and lighting desk.
All of the cast arrived at The Chapel today at 1pm to get ready for the show. We ensured that we met quite early so that we had enough time to get ready. At 1pm, we spent time getting into our outfits, doing our hair and putting on makeup. Once we were ready, we headed down to the performance space. We were then able to have a small rehearsal in the space before the audience started arriving. During the rehearsal, all of the cast ran their solos to ensure that all of our voices were warm and ready for the performance. The rehearsal also gave Graham and Paul, who were working on the sound and lighting desk, time to ensure that everything was set up in the right place and working correctly. Then, at about 2:30pm, the audience started to arrive. We were due to start the performance at 2:40pm but some people were still arriving at this time so we had to start the show a bit later.
Just before the audience started to come in, I began to feel really nervous. I think this is because I had never really sung a solo before apart from the singing performance last year and the theatre in education performance earlier this year and I was singing solo a lot during this show. Singing isn’t my strongest aspect within performing arts and therefore I have had to work very hard on this performance during rehearsals. Once all of the audience were in, lyric sheets handed out and I was given the heads up to start, the performance started. Here is a video of the full performance:
Everyone did really well during the performance and I was very happy with how everyone performed. Before I sang my first solo I was really nervous but once I had sung for the first time, my nerve started to calm down a bit and I could relax a bit more. I spoke to some of the audience members after the performance and they all really enjoyed it.
On reflection, I have watched back the video of the singing performance with my lecturer and together we looked for the strengths and weaknesses within the performance.
My introduction to the performance was very clear. You could understand every word that I was saying and I believe that it drew in the audience. The first song was ‘We’re going to Ibiza’ which was sang by Molly – Kellyann, Robert and I were on the backing vocals. This song was very well sung by Molly because she sung clearly and used the microphone very well. Some areas for improvement during this song and something that we would apply if we were to do this again is to make the ‘woahs’ much louder and more energetic. We did have some microphones in fornt of us to pick up the backing vocals but I don’t think they picked us up enough. The harmony during this song sounded good and in tune. Another point of improvement would be to make sure that everyone was moving in time with each other and in the same direction. I did stick to the choreography that we had planned for this song but the others in the group may have forgotten this slightly. Molly performed this song really well and has come a long way since the start of the rehearsals for this performance where she wasn’t a very confident singer. However now she opened the performance with her solo with confidence.
Molly then introduced me to the microphone to sing my first solo ‘In the summertime’. My lecturer gave me some really good comments about this solo. Firstly, she said that I had great characterisation and channelled my inner flapper. My voice was loud and clear the whole way through the song and my notes very well held and rounded. Altogether, the song was very uplifting, fast paced and jolly.
Next was ‘Colours of the wind’ which was sung by Robert. Originally, Robert was meant to be singing ‘Wouldn’t it be nice’ by the Beach Boys but he changed his song the day before the singing performance. This made me very cautious and I wasn’t really sure how it was going to go. However, I was pleasantly surprised as he knew all of the lyrics and had clear diction throughout. An improvement that I would give Robert is to make sure that his intonation was clear throughout the song because there were parts when this wasn’t clear. This would have been improved if he had more time to rehearse but unfortunately there wasn’t any more time. Another improvement I would give him is to make sure that he is breathing in the right places because he was sometimes breathing in the wrong places which caused him to run out of air but this would have also come with more practice.
Next was the first group song ‘The lion sleeps tonight’. This song was quite hard to sing for all of us because for most of the song, we were all singing a different note to create the harmony which meant that we had to all listen to each other to make sure that we kept in time but also making sure that we didn’t move onto anyone else’s note. To create the harmony Robert was singing base, Molly was singer tenor, Kellyann was alto and I was soprano. During the song, Kellyann and Molly did get some help from Cara as she was able to interchange between these harmonies to help the girls. I think this really helped them both and it sounded really good. I managed to stick with my harmony all the way throughout the song and I was also loud so that the audience could hear me. Each verse was sung by a different person and these were all very clear. The whole song was very tuneful.
Kellyann was next with her solo ‘Lost boy’. There are some points in this song which sounded really lovely and were very tuneful. Kellyann has come a long way since the beginning of the year in regards to singing. She used to be very shy and wouldn’t sing in front of anyone but today she managed to sing into a microphone in front of a full audience. There are a few improvements that I would give to Kellyann which she could then apply if we were to do the performance again. Firstly, her standing position. All the way through the song she was stood in a defence position which may have restricted her lungs from fully swinging out to enable her to perform to the best of her ability. For the future, she needs to stand in a nice relaxed neutral position with her feet slightly apart and hands either by her side or on the microphone. Also, at some points during the song, she was slightly behind the beat. If she had had more time to work on her piece, she could have worked on this.
I was up next singing my second solo ‘Mr Blue Sky’. When selecting my solos for the singing performance, I made some big adaptations to this song to ensure that it contrasted with my other solo. Therefore, the version that I performed during the performance was a ballad version of the original song. I think this worked really well and I worked with my lecturer a lot during the rehearsal process to make sure that it sounded good. Some comments from my lecturer include that the diction and the melody were very clear throughout the whole song. The higher notes during the song were very tuneful and this is because I have spent a lot of time during the rehearsal process working on developing my upper register because this is something that I struggled with at the start of the year. However, my lower range wasn’t so great and to improve this I could have sang a bit softer and come closer to the microphone to make it sound my tuneful. The backing vocals throughout the song sounded good and clear and added texture to the piece. I think that the audience were really gripped with the song and enjoyed it.
‘The sweet escape’ was next which was sung by all of the cast. The whole piece was very dynamic and uplifting. It drew the audience in and this is evident in the video where audience members start to sway from side to side. I managed to execute the rap part perfectly both times. This is something that I had to work on quite a lot during rehearsals because it is very difficult due to its fast tempo.
The song that finished off the whole performance was ‘Summer holiday’ where we invited the audience to join in with us. I felt like during this song the cast had to sing much louder to keep the audience in time the piano and the guitar. The audience loved getting involved with the song and were very enthusiastic about it.
In conclusion, I think that the performance went really well. As stated above, there are a few things that would be amended if we were to do the performance again. The feedback which I received back from the audience was all very positive and it gave me a buzz after the performance. I think that the programme of songs worked really well. All of the songs related to feeling of escaping whether that be a summer holiday or just getting lost and going on an adventure.
I have put together a programme of songs as well as a script for the transitions in between the songs. This is as follows:
Charlotte: Hello everyone and welcome to ‘Escapism’. Sit back, relax and let the waves of song gently lap over you. I’m now going to hand you over to Molly who will help us to begin our journey.
‘We’re going to Ibiza’ – Molly
Molly: Thank you everyone. Now that we’ve reached Ibiza, I’d like to pass you over to Charlotte who just loves dancing in the sun.
‘In the Summertime’ – Charlotte
Charlotte: I can assure you that it’s going to be very nice to listen to Robert’s solo.
‘Wouldn’t it be nice’ – Robert
Robert: (improvised speech)
‘The lion sleeps tonight’ – all
Charlotte: If you’re feeling lost or lonely, Kellyann’s solo is sure to help you find your way.
‘Lost boy’ – Kellyann
Kellyann: The sun is shining, the sky is blue and Charlotte has something special for you.
‘Mr Blue Sky’ – Charlotte
Charlotte: We hope you have enjoyed the journey and that it’s given you a chance to escape.
‘The Sweet Escape’ – all
Charlotte: Now that we’ve come to the end of our journey, we would like you to join in with us for the last song. (improvised speech)
‘Summer holiday’ – all with audience participation
I have carefully considered the order in which these songs are in because I knew that it had to flow well and entertain the audience. The reason why I picked Molly’s solo to go first was because Molly acts as if she is inviting the audience onto the plane to ‘escape’. I also knew that I wanted one of the group songs at the end which would then be followed by the song with audience participation. Once I had these 3 songs in place, it was quite easy to fill in the gaps from there. I just had to make sure that there weren’t going to be any clashes with the transitioning and that my solos weren’t one after another. The group agreed that once you have sung your solo, you would then introduce the next person. This would make the transition process easier and cleaner.
Today we were beginning to write the script for the narrator which will be used throughout the show. The narrator part will help tell the story and will also give some time in between the dances for any scene or costume changes.
During the half term holiday a few weeks ago, I found a narrator script which had been taken from the film ‘Maleficent’. I managed to find this in my documents this morning so Molly and I went through the whole script and adapted it to what we wanted. Below is a copy of what we have been working on:
“Once upon a time there were 2 kingdoms who were the worst of neighbours. So vast was the discord between them, that it was said that only a great hero or a terrible villain might bring them together. In a great tree on a great cliff in the Moors, lived one such spirit. You might take her for a girl. But she was not just any girl. She was a fairy. And her name was Maleficent.”
“Stefan and Maleficent became the most unlikely of friends. As it will, friendship slowly turned into something else. And on her 16th birthday, Stefan gave Maleficent a gift. He told her it was a true love’s kiss. After all this time, Stefan’s ambition called him away. The king of the other kingdom wanted to kill Maleficent and the gift was to be the next king.”
“Stefan was confused. He came to Maleficent and treated her. He couldn’t kill Maleficent. So, he took something very precious away from her.”
“Stefan became king and had a child with the Queen. Maleficent was mad. Her revenge was so high and so she planned something for Stefan.”
“A grand celebration in the other kingdom for a new-born baby. All fairies were invited except Maleficent. The fairies would give gifts to the baby. A lot of people came to the kingdom. Maleficent and Diaval entered too.”
“King Stefan ordered his servants to seize every spinning wheel in the kingdom by throwing them in the deepest dungeon in the castle. King Stefan sent Aurora away to be raised by the fairies.”
“Aurora grew up into a beautiful girl. Maleficent slowly turned into nice. She took care Aurora with Diaval. Maleficent loved Aurora but her curse to Aurora would be forever although Maleficent tried to save Aurora. Aurora wanted to live in the Moors with Maleficent. So, she talked with the fairies.”
“Aurora met Maleficent and asked her about the curse. Maleficent was sad. Aurora left Maleficent and went to King Stefan’s kingdom.”
“Aurora went to the King but he was focused on killing Maleficent. So, Aurora was placed in a secret room where, there in the corner, stood a spinning wheel. She put her finger on the needle and pricked it. She fell into sleep like death.”
“Maleficent was angry for what she had done. A Prince kissed Aurora in the attempt to wake her but she lay still. Maleficent stayed with Aurora and kissed her on the forehead. Suddenly, she began to awaken.”
“Aurora and Maleficent left the castle. But on exiting, Maleficent wanted her wings back.”
“Maleficent returned to the Moors with Aurora and Aurora was crowned Queen of the Moors.“
“So you see, the story is not quite as you were told, and I should know, for I was the one they called Sleeping Beauty.In the end, my kingdom was united not by a hero or a villain, as legend had predicted, but by one who was both hero and villain. And her name was Maleficent.”
At some point in the near future, I will record these lines in the recording studio. They can then be edited and ready in time for the show in May.
For the rest of the session, I went over the choreography which I have already learnt. This meant that I was able to have a refresher of the choreography because I haven’t done it for a few weeks. I had also had a bit of time to start to think about what choreography could come next for the routine that we are currently working on. This routine is to the song ‘Rise’ by Katy Perry and will represent Maleficent fighting for her wings back. The routine is in the style of hiplet (fusion of hip hop and ballet) so is something that I have never choreographed in before so I found it quite difficult to come up with some moves.
We started the session with a warmup and then moved onto working on my pieces.
The main aspect that I was working on for my Shakespeare piece was the movement. I have carried out some research and found out that this monologue is set in Juliet’s bedroom. Therefore, we pushed 3 white blocks together in the performance studio to make a bed. We then added a sheet of lace and a pillow on top of the blocks to make it look more like a bed. This made it feel more like a bedroom which is where the scene is set. This therefore enabled me to improve my characterisation which is something that I have been struggling with at the moment because I have struggled understanding the text. We then worked on moving around this piece of stage furniture. At first, I started to improvise and move when I thought that I should but at some of the points when I was moving, it looked awkward and didn’t really fit. During the piece I will be using 2 props - a vial and a dagger. Using these props during the piece will help me with my characterisation as it enables me to connect with the character more as these aren't items which I would use in everyday life. I have never been in a situation that is similar to the one that Juliet is in during this piece so using the props makes it easier for me to draw on these emotions and use my emotional memory. The props will help me to connect with many emotions during the piece such as fear, uncertainty, apprehension of what's to come and understated excitement. I needed to work out when I was going to put these props down and where I was going to put them down. After working on the piece for quite a while, we finally got something that we thought started to look right and natural. Here is a video of what I have been working on:
To finish off the session, I went through my contemporary monologue. However, we didn’t really have much time to work on this piece today because we had spent a lot of time working on the Shakespeare monologue because this needed more development.
Today was the second week that I was teaching the junior contemporary dance class.
I started the class with a warmup which involved a pulse raiser, stretches standing up and stretches sitting on the floor. I added some small moves into the warmup so that the class can get used to them before I put them in there routine. The warmup was then followed by some technique - travelling from the corner which involved leaps, chasses and turns. Technique is very important in any dance class and I think that it is very important to spend some time on technique whenever you can especially when the class is new and the children are getting used to the style of dance. The reason why I chose to do these moves today in this class is because they will be in the routine so it gives the children a chance to learn and get used to the steps before it is put into a routine.
We then went through the choreography that I taught the class last week. The dance that I have choreographed for the class is to the song 'I Lived' by OneRepublic. The routine is a contemporary style dance which starts off quite slow at the beginning but then speeds up when it gets to the chorus. I was really impressed with how much the class remembered and I was then able to teach them some more. However, we did have to go over the choreography that they learnt last week because we had a new person in the class.
Once we had gone over the choreography and taught them some more, I ended the lesson with a cool down.
From now until July, I will be teaching this dance class every week. We will be working towards a showcase at the start of the July where the class will perform a few routines on the main stage at the local theatre. I will spend time on a Friday night to choreograph for this class.
The main aim of the session today was to put together a script for the transitions between the songs.
We started the session with a full singing warmup, followed by some recall exercises.
We ran through the songs in the order of which they will be performed. In between each song, we had a think about what could be said to introduce the next song. We have agreed as a group that if you are singing a solo, you will then stay at the microphone to introduce the next person.
One of the songs which we did some work on was “We’re going to Ibiza”. At the moment, there isn’t much movement during this song apart from swaying. I think that there needs to be more movement during this song because this is going to be the opening number and needs to draw the audience in. Therefore, we added some movement during the last chorus. On the ‘woahs’, Kellyann and we will throw our arms up in the air.
We then ran through the whole performance including the transitions in between the songs. The performance is currently running at approximately 30 minutes.
I will work over the next few days to type the script up and have it ready for the start of next week.
With
only one week until the singing performance, we thought that it would be good
to now put on some extra rehearsals in preparation for next week. However, this
proved very difficult because everyone in the group has very different
timetables and it was hard to find a time where most of the group were free to
hold an extra rehearsal. We came to the conclusion, as a group, that we were
all able to make a rehearsal at 5pm on 14th March (today) apart from
Robert who is not currently at college. Holding this rehearsal means that it
would give us a chance to rehearse in the space at which we will be performing
in.
Today
the rehearsal was being held in The Chapel. This is where the singing
performance is going to be held next week. The reason why we are practicing in
The Chapel today is because the acoustics are very different in this room to
what they are in the performance studio. Therefore, practicing in The Chapel
will give us a taster for what it is going to sound like next week when we
perform and we won’t be thrown off when we come to perform.
To
start off the session we carried out a full vocal warmup. This included some
body shakes, intercostal diaphragmatic breathing, scales, arpeggios and the technical
exercise. This full singing warmup therefore ensured that our voices and bodies
were nice and warm ready to rehearse the whole way through the performance.
The
space was set out like it will be for the performance next week. 4 chairs will
form a semi circle where each of the performers will sit whilst they aren’t singing.
In front of them will be 1 lead microphone and 2 background microphones and
behind them will be places for Cara and Sam to play their instruments. Today we
were able to practice with one of the microphones. I have only ever used a
microphone in the recording studio and never in a live performance. Therefore
this is a new experience for me and I found it really useful to rehearse with
it a week before the show so that I could get used to it.
Once
we had carried out the warmup, we were ready to start a full run through. It
took us a while to complete a full run through of the show because we had to
keep stopping and starting to make sure that both Cara and Sam were playing the
songs in the right key and that the tempo of the songs was correct. All of the
songs are sounding really good, especially the harmonies. One thing that we did
change during this rehearsal was the key which ‘The Sweet Escape’ is played in.
This is because Sam was finding it hard to play in the key that I was singing
it in and it would make it a lot easier for him if we dropped it down a
semitone. This now meant that I needed to change the key of which I was singing
in otherwise the song would have been out of tune. I found it quite easy to change
to the new key, however I am finding it quite hard to remain in the key. This
is something that I will work on before next week.
After
having this rehearsal, I am now feeling more confident about the performance
next week. I found it really helpful to practice in The Chapel so that we can
begin to get a feel for how the performance is going to shape. One thing that I
do need to work on is the transitions between the songs. At the moment, the
transitions that we have put in, aren’t really working so I need to script some
lines so that the group can learn them for next week.
