Saturday, 20 May 2017
Sunday, 14 May 2017
OUR HOUSE - Contributions Throughout Rehearsal Process
In order to receive distinction standard grades, we must include how we have contributed to the rehearsal process. Here are some examples of my contributions:
Rehearsing the dialogue in 'Driving in my Car'
It had previously been decided that Harry would take my line of 'I'm flying Joe' (the titanic pun), but I felt that the blocking of this was not making the most of the joke. I suggested he stood up on the tyres, supported by andy at the waist, and put his arms out straight, making it a clear spoof of the dil,. This works as its not only more comical, but also adds levels to our formation.
'The power of love' Condom Gag
The point when I discover the song, I suggested that we use comical silence to accentuate the awkward situation the characters have found themselves in. However, staying silent in a live performance can look like you've forgotten your lines, so we both look at each other at different times, as if we are equally embarrassed/confused.
Opening Sequence, Margate Pier
When Char and I are off cast, we have to react to not winning the competition. Originally we decided Char would be gracious and that I would throw a strop. However, as we ended up in a still dance position as the winner is announced, i suggested that Char dropped me in outrage, and that I fall to the floor. Not only does this add levels but also makes the stage look more interesting as we are actively reacting, rather than just pulling a face and then leaving the stage.
Minor Characters in Embarrassment
After Jennah has had her line in the song, she and I both struggled with getting involved with the chase of the letter without looking lost or like we were just copying everything anyone else was doing. I suggested that we interact with each other, I could show my frustration and she could attempt and apologetic gesture without letting me get to the letter anyway.
Practical Matters
- Setting up the staging when it had been moved for events
- Moving Keyboards ready for the start or the rehearsals
- Finding and bringing in props for the other characters and getting things for the staging, e.g. cable ties
- Making the programme with Charlotte, and printing a rough copy for Kim to use if she wants to.
Monday, 1 May 2017
VARIETY - Final Evaluation
What about our act was entertaining for an audience?
- Harmonies providing a thicker texture, something more interesting to listen to rather than a repetitive chorus melody without changes dynamically or texturally.
-Changes in genre/mood of the song. For example the changes in drum from salsa/samba/afri-cuban to new orleans brass band rhythms vibe in the middle 8th, we then went to a quite acoustic vibe in my verse. This light and shade in the performance keeps the audience interested.
- Changes in tempo (only once) at the end adding a rit gave the audience an idea that it was coming to the end, so weren't surpassed by any abrupt stops.
What overall effect did we want our performance to have on the audience?
We wanted a chilled, but happy vibe with our performance, overall a feel good song that whilst people didn't know, they still enjoyed and would perk them up. This summery vibe was achieved by keeping the instrumentation minimal, as a very acoustic set, but still keeping percussion to add rhythm and drive to our song, making it so that you want to bob along to it. I think we achieved this very well, a way in which we could improve it would be by smiling more- we were both nervous and I think if we had of interacted with each other a bit more, the audience would have vibes off this relaxed feel, whereas actually we were nervous, and I think this shows in our performance.
How did we ensure we had a technically secure performance?
Whilst we only had 2 full practices with Sam, we didn't need more than that (he's a session musician and picked up the vibe really quickly). Charlotte and I had practiced a lot, so the only things we needed to get used to doing was using the mic and amp. Fortunately, these mice were not condensed, so we didn't need to be within 10 cm away for them to pic up our voices. This means that we didn't really have to do anything differently, we were able to sit back and relax whilst the mice picked us up from a distance.
THE PERFORMANCE
Guitar Playing - overall my guitar playing was solid and in time. The one noticeable mistake that was made was when I missed a string whilst closing the strings and strumming the tempo for sam, however he picked up on how fast i wanted to go anyway, so it didn't effect the performance. At times the guitar was drowned out by the vocals but generally I noticed this and played louder.
Chorus'- whilst in the first chorus I was flat, the rest of them showed a happy summery vibe- our pitching and diction was clear throughout and we matched each others vowel sounds on long notes clearly. The last chorus I took the harmony to add variety, whilst it was low in my range meaning I was a little quieter, it gave charlotte a chance to go for it and ad-lib on top of the guitar and drums.
My Verse - the quiet dynamics of this gave light and shade to the rest of the piece. This was further contrast when charlotte joined in with the 'we can travel side by side' this was an example of melody painting whereby we literally took what the lyrics said and did it ourselves, singing side by side.
The End - It was hard for Sam and I to slow down together, as we didn't decide who would lead the rit, therefore it was a little sketchy but blended out with my vocals on the top.
OUR PERFORMANCE VIDEO
Baggy Trousers
What went well?•Stamina – this is a long piece, and requires energy throughout the whole thing to keep the audience interested. During rehearsals it was clear that we all lacked energy towards the end, but in the performance this was something I kept up throughout. For example, when Harry and Andy jump over Jennah and Meghan, and Valencia and Charlotte did their solo, I kept doing the scissor jump and high knee jumps with straight, jagged sharp actions, for about 8 bars. This meant that we weren’t just waiting around for their duets to be done, but kept the energy and interest up, smoothly moving into the next section.•Commitment to Levels – From an audience point of view, looking at a group of people on stage can be boring or formulaic, (eg all in lines), but my use of levels during the piece in the choreographed and improvised sections give variety and depth to the piece. For example, Charlotte and I using piggy backs, and the staging a the back, doing large dynamic leaps, with all limbs stretched out and tensed, to ducking on the floor. It’s the shade and light, the contrast of how it looks ascetically which works. Furthermore, when we are in two lines, Valencia's and Charlotte’s, we do the our house march, ducking and then standing, by fully committing to this it gives a uniform look within our lines, with sharp pointed hands adding to the edge of the piece.•Communicating the story and character – This was done from the type of movement we did, and how we executed it. For example, when we did high knees, not doing it in a uniform, sporty way. But in a messy, exaggerated fashion whereby we communicate a sense of carelessness, recklessness and other childlike traits. This can also be shown through how we interact with others. My rude and gestures and defensive body language with Charlotte further communicated the idea of childish adolescent banter that school kids have. Finally this can be shown through lack of communication with other characters, for example I blatantly ignored Raven, with the way my body was facing, my eye line and my facial expressions, showing that as a misbehaving student, I am ignoring a teacher
- Harmonies providing a thicker texture, something more interesting to listen to rather than a repetitive chorus melody without changes dynamically or texturally.
-Changes in genre/mood of the song. For example the changes in drum from salsa/samba/afri-cuban to new orleans brass band rhythms vibe in the middle 8th, we then went to a quite acoustic vibe in my verse. This light and shade in the performance keeps the audience interested.
- Changes in tempo (only once) at the end adding a rit gave the audience an idea that it was coming to the end, so weren't surpassed by any abrupt stops.
What overall effect did we want our performance to have on the audience?
We wanted a chilled, but happy vibe with our performance, overall a feel good song that whilst people didn't know, they still enjoyed and would perk them up. This summery vibe was achieved by keeping the instrumentation minimal, as a very acoustic set, but still keeping percussion to add rhythm and drive to our song, making it so that you want to bob along to it. I think we achieved this very well, a way in which we could improve it would be by smiling more- we were both nervous and I think if we had of interacted with each other a bit more, the audience would have vibes off this relaxed feel, whereas actually we were nervous, and I think this shows in our performance.
How did we ensure we had a technically secure performance?
Whilst we only had 2 full practices with Sam, we didn't need more than that (he's a session musician and picked up the vibe really quickly). Charlotte and I had practiced a lot, so the only things we needed to get used to doing was using the mic and amp. Fortunately, these mice were not condensed, so we didn't need to be within 10 cm away for them to pic up our voices. This means that we didn't really have to do anything differently, we were able to sit back and relax whilst the mice picked us up from a distance.
THE PERFORMANCE
Guitar Playing - overall my guitar playing was solid and in time. The one noticeable mistake that was made was when I missed a string whilst closing the strings and strumming the tempo for sam, however he picked up on how fast i wanted to go anyway, so it didn't effect the performance. At times the guitar was drowned out by the vocals but generally I noticed this and played louder.
Chorus'- whilst in the first chorus I was flat, the rest of them showed a happy summery vibe- our pitching and diction was clear throughout and we matched each others vowel sounds on long notes clearly. The last chorus I took the harmony to add variety, whilst it was low in my range meaning I was a little quieter, it gave charlotte a chance to go for it and ad-lib on top of the guitar and drums.
My Verse - the quiet dynamics of this gave light and shade to the rest of the piece. This was further contrast when charlotte joined in with the 'we can travel side by side' this was an example of melody painting whereby we literally took what the lyrics said and did it ourselves, singing side by side.
The End - It was hard for Sam and I to slow down together, as we didn't decide who would lead the rit, therefore it was a little sketchy but blended out with my vocals on the top.
OUR PERFORMANCE VIDEO
Baggy Trousers
What went well?•Stamina – this is a long piece, and requires energy throughout the whole thing to keep the audience interested. During rehearsals it was clear that we all lacked energy towards the end, but in the performance this was something I kept up throughout. For example, when Harry and Andy jump over Jennah and Meghan, and Valencia and Charlotte did their solo, I kept doing the scissor jump and high knee jumps with straight, jagged sharp actions, for about 8 bars. This meant that we weren’t just waiting around for their duets to be done, but kept the energy and interest up, smoothly moving into the next section.•Commitment to Levels – From an audience point of view, looking at a group of people on stage can be boring or formulaic, (eg all in lines), but my use of levels during the piece in the choreographed and improvised sections give variety and depth to the piece. For example, Charlotte and I using piggy backs, and the staging a the back, doing large dynamic leaps, with all limbs stretched out and tensed, to ducking on the floor. It’s the shade and light, the contrast of how it looks ascetically which works. Furthermore, when we are in two lines, Valencia's and Charlotte’s, we do the our house march, ducking and then standing, by fully committing to this it gives a uniform look within our lines, with sharp pointed hands adding to the edge of the piece.•Communicating the story and character – This was done from the type of movement we did, and how we executed it. For example, when we did high knees, not doing it in a uniform, sporty way. But in a messy, exaggerated fashion whereby we communicate a sense of carelessness, recklessness and other childlike traits. This can also be shown through how we interact with others. My rude and gestures and defensive body language with Charlotte further communicated the idea of childish adolescent banter that school kids have. Finally this can be shown through lack of communication with other characters, for example I blatantly ignored Raven, with the way my body was facing, my eye line and my facial expressions, showing that as a misbehaving student, I am ignoring a teacher
What we could have done better- Facial Expressions- Whilst this is a key part of the four gestures at the start of the piece, I was aware that after this I lacked enthusiastic facial expressions, Through the loss of this, I didn’t communicate my characters emotions as well as I could, and to an audience member, could have seemed to be disengaged. An example of this is when Vicky and I do our duet, I ended up looking at my feet, instead of communicated the sassy attitude my character had at his particular moment. I think I didn’t look up because I wasn’t familiar with the routine as much as I’d have liked to be performing it live, so for next time will make sure I know it so that I can confidently look up and show the expressions of my character.- Precision of Movement during the Fight Duet - I had missed the cue to this duet, which completely though me off. I didn’t show the sharpness of attitude with fully extended leg kicks, tight and tensed punches and big, reactive responses. In order to communicate this better I need to be more rigid about the movement, and react more quickly as if it was a real fight scene. At the end of the duet I kick charlotte away, but My kick was slow and soft (through not meaning to hurt her). To fix this I need to straighten my leg, and change the tempo of the kick from slow to suddenly fast with a sense of attack about it, pointed feet and kicking with intention.
Monday, 24 April 2017
OUR HOUSE - Easter rehearsal day- act 2
THE SECOND HALF
NW5
- Lois was on cast when this first came up, but as she didn't know it, Kim asked me to fill in so that we could run it. Whilst I was nervous, I think as a first run it went quite well. The ending was something that was unfamiliar to me, as the chorus take the chorus melody as my character ad-libs over the top. This is something that we scheduled an extra rehearsal on afterwards.
IT MUST BE LOVE
- this song was harder, as the timing with speaking underneath the verses is tricky and ever-changing. Joe has to say his lines quite slowly, as i have a long verse and pre chorus, whereas Sarah's speech is fairly fast, as joe only has half a verse without me joining back in again. The harmony in the pre chorus is something that we left both times, but charlotte took the harmony in the last chorus to add some variety to the refrain.
WINGS OF A DOVE
- The hardest part about this one was fitting in Joe and Sarah into the group choreography of the chorus. As the song is about us. There are points in the song where we join in, and others where we do our own thing, so its just about learning the structure of the song.
- Now we've learnt the movement, next time we need to work on the energy and happy vibe of the song
DIALOGUE AND GENERAL SCENES
- whilst we didn't finish the whole show, we were able to isolate the tricky parts of the act- for example the photographs. As this is nearer the end of the show, it had to be a good finale. The idea is that we would take 3 shots, then theres some dialogue and then we take one last photo before we have the last pose and blackout. It proved difficult for everyone to sort out their poses and positions throughout the shots and the dialogue, but eventually we settled on when we would freeze and when we acted naturally.
OUR HOUSE - Act one no scripts
The aim of this rehearsal was to go though the first act with both casts, without the scripts.
What went well:
- the blocking was something we were able to prioritise more as we weren't holding scripts, meaning we were more aware of how/where we were stood
- this also meant we were able to focus on the way in which the lines were said, the speed, pitch and tone of what we were saying, rather than just reciting lines.
- As it was a slower rehearsal, we were more thorough in each scene, so whilst it was slow, we now know the first act very well.
- The songs were a good energy boost, and really bought the whole cast together, as previously the show felt a bit 'bitty'. Once things started coming together, the energy levels were up and everyone was really getting into it, for example in the number 'our house'.
What was hard:
- this rehearsal was slow- we didn't get as far through as we wanted because we didn't have scripts to prompt us, there were delays with lines and scene changes. This wasn't helped through swapping casts etc.
- the transitions from songs/dances to dialogue was hard, as we had blocked differently to how we did in dance with Kat, so changing that took up time also- having said this, we were able to find smooth transitions between the two at the start and end of the numbers in act 1.
- as it was a long rehearsal, it was tricky to keep the energy and morale up throughout the length of the rehearsal
What did I contribute:
-creative input as to how others delivered their lines- for example when Nathan says 'Can anyone come' I said for him to look down at his shoes as if he's embarrassed to even be asking, that we he can look up hopefully after sarah's response.
- Energy throughout the songs, prompting lines and helping the other cast with scenes that they weren't used to blocking.
What went well:
- the blocking was something we were able to prioritise more as we weren't holding scripts, meaning we were more aware of how/where we were stood
- this also meant we were able to focus on the way in which the lines were said, the speed, pitch and tone of what we were saying, rather than just reciting lines.
- As it was a slower rehearsal, we were more thorough in each scene, so whilst it was slow, we now know the first act very well.
- The songs were a good energy boost, and really bought the whole cast together, as previously the show felt a bit 'bitty'. Once things started coming together, the energy levels were up and everyone was really getting into it, for example in the number 'our house'.
What was hard:
- this rehearsal was slow- we didn't get as far through as we wanted because we didn't have scripts to prompt us, there were delays with lines and scene changes. This wasn't helped through swapping casts etc.
- the transitions from songs/dances to dialogue was hard, as we had blocked differently to how we did in dance with Kat, so changing that took up time also- having said this, we were able to find smooth transitions between the two at the start and end of the numbers in act 1.
- as it was a long rehearsal, it was tricky to keep the energy and morale up throughout the length of the rehearsal
What did I contribute:
-creative input as to how others delivered their lines- for example when Nathan says 'Can anyone come' I said for him to look down at his shoes as if he's embarrassed to even be asking, that we he can look up hopefully after sarah's response.
- Energy throughout the songs, prompting lines and helping the other cast with scenes that they weren't used to blocking.
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