Lesson Analysis 16th December

Today was effectively our last rehearsal although we had an all-day tomorrow before the shows at 4.30 and 7.30. We went straight outside to rehearse scenes 2-5 with the songs and props. I think I still need to work on stronger projection, reason being is although I'm DS right infront of the audience, the speakers were about half a metre away. It was difficult because the speakers could not face centre stage because the microphones would cause a screeching sound. So, they face the audience which means as well as it being hard to hear the music, it was hard to be heard over the music. This was solved by lowering the volume on sections where people did not have microphones.
I found today useful as we finally got to rehearse more than once with all the set design out.

Grainne found an push toy for the chicken prop, which although needed to be painted and decorated to look like one, was an interesting idea as the scene where the chicken runs on stage can be pushed on by one of the year 13 extras.

Tech Rehearsal 15th December

As we hadn't had a tech run in ages, we needed to set up every detail of the scenery. There were small problems that we found solutions for, such as the audience seating was on uneven grounding, so adjusting it's placement and even using pieces of cardboard to wedge underneath was used. Grainne and others used shears to cut back branches that would obstruct where something might be happening (My Narrator spot was overtaken by branches). We also had the problem of when people have to fall down to the ground (When Milky white and the Mysterious man die), which would end up very muddy if the possibility of rain. So, we used a large piece of cardboard to spread out on a section of the soil. A prop table was organized back behind the stage, labelling each item so we could quickly pick them up in between sections for when they're needed.

For tech, we had a drawn-out schedule of when each person would be wearing a mic, and who they would then pass it on to. The mic's were purposely for the songs, so I didn't receive one until scene 5 where I have my solo and I say my biggest set of lines.

Lesson Analysis 15th December - Full Run through outside with Katie

Today we did another complete run through of 'Into the Woods'. By now everyone was very confident with their parts, so it ran very smoothly and we were self-prepared for the upcoming shows in 2 days. We still needed to bring our costumes and props in though, to make sure we have all of them. For character Jack, we needed a chicken prop and someone suggested finding one attached to a stick that you could push, much like a child's playtoy:

Self-evaluation for Dance Perfomance

BTEC Dance Performance; End of term self-evaluation

Physical Skills	Needs Improvement		Satisfactory		Good		Very Good		Excellent
Posture and alignment					✓
Flexibility							✓
Strength							✓
Balance					✓
Co-ordination							✓
Use of extension,					✓
Ability to reproduce movement accurately							✓
Interpretive skills		Needs Improvement		Satisfactory		Good		Very Good		Excellent
Working with the music and use of phrasing (musicality)										✓
Demonstrating use of emphasis and facial expression				✓
Projection/focus						✓
Ability to apply a range of dynamics								✓

Now you have reviewed this terms performances (musicals/dance show/cup dances) and have reviewed your progress in lessons, set yourself 2 CLEAR TARGETS for next term.

1:

Use stronger facial expressions and emphasise movements more

2:

Extend arms further and exaggerate musical quality in movements and dynamics

Lesson analysis 8th December - Full run through in Lena's room

Today we had another non-stop run through lead by Katie, who was observing each of us and collecting any notes to feed back to us about our strengths and what we can improve. I needed to work on projecting louder and being more sharper with my cues. As a class we also needed to treat all upcoming rehearsals as if it was the real show, as it can become a tendency to lack in enthusiasm which could influence the actual production night. We then had a second run through in order to take the comments into perspective and show how we've acted upon these.

 I found this helpful as it gave us a chance to run the whole play through without stopping mid way, and then to reflect upon our criticisms.

11th November after College rehearsal

In today's rehearsals we now had a new location for our 'woods', which was originally outside the Sealight Theatre. Due to complications with the audience's view limited at times, and the lack of natural props etc., the new location is set in a much more 'foresty' environment, layered with tall and short trees with some curving over which resembled an archway. There is many more openings around the centre meaning there will be smoother entrances and exits. There is also so much more we as a class can do with the placing of props, such as the placement of Rapunzels tower between the trees so it blends in better.

We re-blocked the staging as some of us now had new positions we would come on from and leave, and carried on practising just with the lines and not the backing track as we needed to figure out the sound etc. which will be carried out in our next tech rehearsal.

Blocking scene 5

As this was the last scene, all characters were involved in this section at some point as the story comes to its conclusion, as the Baker finally manages to retrieve all 4 items needed to reverse the witch's curse. Rapunzel too finds her beloved prince, milky white can now produce milk, the witch is 'returned to her former state of youth and beauty' and  so on. The finale song begins with the two narrators (holly and I) with a solo each, in which then the rest of the cast joins in to continue the song. We have not figured out the blocking yet for where our positions will be for the finale dance, but my character remains DSR.