Grease Dance with Emily and Kat 30th January

Today we continued rehearsing for our Grease dance. We ran through with the music which gave us a chance to improve on our timing. This also helped us to understand how we need a constant pace and cannot lack, otherwise we will lose where we are. When recapping the transitions, it was clear how fast changing it would be which meant we all needed to ensure we were fully focused. We mostly marked the movement due to limited space, but this is sometimes useful as we can concentrate on things like our timing. Our queues became much better by the end of this lesson.

 My target for next lesson is to work on my focus (where my eyeline should be), which should be mostly to the front of the audience and eye contact with our partner pair in the duo section.

Lesson Analysis 27th January

In this lesson, we recapped our character dances with our double casts, along with a choice of music by 'Cocorosie'. All the songs used that will now be part of the final play were:
-Gallows
-Smokey Taboo
-By your side
-Japan
-Lemonade
We chose 'Gallows' which worked well with the music as it's eerie and slow tune with overlapping voices represented the confusion and concern of 'Ticket', who is panicking about their lost admission. Originally, we independently thought of a with a series of movements so we then combined our movement with our double cast and adapted it to create a phrase. This was effective as we were able to see different perspectives of movement we'd each come up with, and weave it together.


3 ideas around how the movement could be incorporated in the performance
One of Inhibition's line reads "You - are - talking - absolute - fucking - SHIT!". This seems a very powerful and emotional sentence, as it breaks the sentence up and isolates each word to give it more significance. If we incorporated the movement into this, the pauses for each word could involve movement for each pauses to emphasise it, maybe done in unison with the dynamics of anger to reflect on Inhibitions' feelings. This could happen for many of the characters in their strongest emotion at the time.


We also decided on everyone's production roles, which include Marketing, Sound editing, Lighting, Props and Costumes. Me and Livvie are in charge of sound editing, which includes using the songs above in parts of 'WLOD'. I think I'll be useful in this role as I enjoy editing music as I have created soundtracks for past shows in my high school.

Lesson analysis 20th January

In today's lesson, we started by walking around the space in any direction we wanted. We did an activity circling around 7 states/levels of tension, for example Level 4 was 'Neutral' meaning we were at a calm, simple state. These states were easily shown through the pace of our steps and intensity of our facial expressions. This was an interesting excersise as it made us think about our choice of movement and expressions to link to the 7 states.

We then quoted one of our characters' lines using what state of tension we felt it should have. For Jane, the line I used was "Yeah, well the only alternative, would be for it to happen to you. And I don't think you want that, OK?' I thought this was a level 5 as I feel Jane portrays a sense of urgency as she wants to get it over with, and also slight panic in her speech as she seems in a rush. However, this character seems somewhat prepared and has continuous positivity, because she always presents herself with an abiding smile despite the upcoming events she will encounter, forcing her to put herself in the firing line. E.g taking Lisa's place as the victim of the goat attack. For my other speaking role 'Ticket', I used the following lines "I lost my ticket!....So what should I do?!......I do hope so". My level of tension was between 5 and 6, because in comparison to 'Jane', 'Ticket' was increasingly stressed and and shows a higher sense of urgency. Reason being is that the character shows strong concern and no signs of ease, whereas 'Jane' is just there to do her job (protect others from danger). This activity helped my characterisation development for the play.

Next, we explored act 2 and discussed the meaning of subtext, which is words/thoughts that aren't said directly to someone, often what we really want to say but adapt what actually comes out of our mouths. For example, you may be tired and grouchy and someone ask you if you how you are. Your subtext could be 'just leave me alone' whereas you actually reply with 'I'm good thanks'. There are many reasons for certain uses of subtext, such as avoiding possible awkward situations etc. 

In our seperate cast groups, we went through the whole of the Act once with complete subtext, and secondly without the subtext. It was interesting to see the contrast of the conversations our characters have, when they say what they wanted to say, and what they actually say.

Lesson Analysis 22nd January

Today we started with doing Quad warm ups, where we lined up in three rows and jumped in unison with our rows but on different counts. This type of warm up got raised our energy levels and got us motivated in preparation for our lesson.

We then went through stylising he pedestrian movements for one of our characters, pairing up with our double cast member to decide on three key movements. As we focused on our character Jane, our first choice was the action of flicking our hair off our shoulder, as this portrays her classy yet quirky personality. We also used a hand gesture of writing on a clip board which is because she is in a smart secretary-type uniform and has a check-list of appointments in the actual play ("I'm getting hijacked at.... 6). We lastly chose to do one twirl with our arm extended upright, which reinforced her feminine and fancy manner. Throughout these movements we locked a large smile and held an upright posture because her character always stays positive and enthusiastic, despite her involvement with the story, and must keep her 'professionalism' up by her polished body language.

Next, we had to then develop our movements as well as add more to make a short motif. We exaggerated the hair flick, repeated the writing gestures which were done in a fast pace, gently plumped our hair slowly, again slowly twirled out, 'strutted' forward in a moderate speed as well as reach out across with our arm. These developments helped emphasise and make each character's movements more contrasting to one another.

Our chunks of movements were then choreographed together, in which the double cast for each role would perform their motif in the centre. At the end of their phrase, they would become still until the next people entered and spun the previous people out of position to replace. As we performed over background music of a song by 'Cocorosie', it became very atmospheric and connected well to the aura of the play.

Afterwards, fixing on Act One, we individually chose a page of lines that were between Lisa and our character (Jane), entwining our developed movements into the lines. For example, I chose to use the hair flick gesture when saying "Because you told me". I chose this because I felt Jane would have said this with an undertone of 'Don't undermine me', and the hair flick represents that.

Overall this lesson beneficial as it made us consider the natural motions of our roles by embellishing quite basic movements to fit better with that character.

Homework 16th January - Set by Rachel

What is 'Given Circumstances'?

- Given Circumstances is a technique introduced by Stanislavskis, which is about the influence of the conditions of the situation and environment, on performance. Reflecting upon acting, actors could be given certain circumstances for their specific role in which they would then work around this basis of knowledge. These types of conditions will include who your character is, their main purpose for their part and why etc. This will give a basic profile of the role, allowing the actor to use their imagination to fully complete the description and portayal of them. Giving out too much detail prevents individual's own interpretations of that character, so it is more difficult to explore different sides to that role.

What is Dissociative Disorder?

-Dissociative Disorder is a condition in which sufferers experience a mental detachment from their physical state, and a disconnection between 'feelings, thoughts, sensations, perceptions and memories'. Dissociation in general is something that can often be controlled and used for things. For example relaxing yourself from stress related situations may mean you distance yourself from reality in order to have your mind at peace. However there are different types of Dissociation within this disorder. Some types are when you frequently suffer dissociation, sort of becoming trapped within your mind, which gets in the way of your everyday life, affecting social relationships, work etc.
Many symptoms come out of this disorder as a whole, including ending up in an unusual location without understanding how you got there, recognising people you know as strangers and receiving comments from others about your odd behaviour. Symptoms like these are well reflected in The Wonderful World of Dissocia as Lisa in Act One comes across many different personas she doesn't recognise who are infact disguised figures of people in her real life. She is also in Act Two told to sit down as she uncontrollably sang and danced around her hospital room.

Why does Lisa imagine one of my characters in Act One?

- In Act One, Lisa imagines a woman called Jane, who is dressed in a secretary-style uniform but which bandages and an eyepatch on. She takes the fall for Lisa who originally is about to be brutally attacked by the Goat, and in her place offers herself to the Goat. Lisa may have imagined Jane in Act One because I think she is a guardian angel in some ways, as she protects Lisa from danger he encounters in this unexpecting journey. Lisa wants to feel safe yet free. Jane's bandages and eye patch also indicate her frequent 'sacrifices' for the young woman. 

Singing Duets & Solos 9th January

In today's lesson, Kim explained how a few of us still need to perform a solo/duet/ensemble to fulfill our assessment. I need to perform a solo, in which I am not to push myself to reach my target grade.

Our choice of my song comes under a selection of musicals; Les Miserables, Cats, Hairspray, Joseph. This will be involved in the variety show, and comes under character songs. I am deciding between two songs; Les Miserables' 'Castle on a Cloud', and Les Miserables' 'I Dreamed a Dream'. Although I want to challenge myself I don't want to set myself too high of a mark as we only have a few weeks. I am leaning more to 'I Dreamed a Dream' as I am more strong with chest voice than I am with my head voice

Grease Dance Rehearsal 9th January

This lesson was taught by Kat and Emily, and we were focusing on our similar recreation of the dance style performed in Grease. We were divided into 4 groups in which we would take inspiration from the Grease dances. The style was mostly the jive, involving many leg flicks and spread jazzy hands.

After each group had created 8 counts of movement reflecting those used in Grease. We taught them to the rest of the class and then linked them all together which kicked off the starting phrase. We then rehearsed the dances with music whilst filming it so we don't forget.

I am really enjoying this type of dancing as its fun, energetic and has a lively mood.

Link to Grease Dance Rehearsals 

Lesson Analysis 6th January

Today we began our auditions for casting of 'The Wonderful World of Dissocia', our new contemporary play. Prior to the audition, we were given a selection of small samples taken from the play. I chose Lisa's speech as it was interesting to interpret how the character would say the lines as she is responding to herself(no one else present with her). When auditioning, we were told to repeat certain lines but in a different mood/emotion. For example, I was asked to repeat them in a really happy mood, as if I was a cabin crew member with a very positive attitude.

I had rehearsed my lines thoroughly beforehand in preparation for my audition, but I soon started to jumble my words as I got nervous under the pressure. I'm usually fine with memorising and speaking my lines, but I think this was more of a challenge as you  had to really understand what the lines meant. This was difficult as the character Lisa goes from directly speaking to someone to getting lost in her own mind/thoughts. This audition although didn't go as well as I hoped, gave me more experience in how to prepare yourself for possible auditions in the future.

Lesson 15th January

For today, Rachel held our lesson in a room where we all sat around in a circle. We used these 2 hours to discuss our given roles for the upcoming play, and did mini activities to understand deeper about our characters. This involved questioning our Act Two's character's disposition, their journey to the hospital ward from home, their lifestyle, their friends etc. We did this by pairing up with our double cast member, which helped discuss certain decisions.

This activity was helpful as we started thinking about each character with a genuine life and background rather than just their parts/lines in the play, in which we can feed this through to our roles in the performance.

Unit 14 - Musical theatre Performance - Assessment Record Sheet

Form 1

Form 2