Wednesday, 6 February 2013
31.01.13 - Singing
Lena wanted to help us all with our singing in parts, so at the beginning of the lesson we all gathered around the piano and did working on parts. Split us into groups, singing 'London bridge is falling down', 'Mary had a little lamb' and 'Peas pudding hot'. Lena suggested looking at another a song with singing in parts in, so me and Emily looked at 'I want it all' from 'We Will Rock You' as me and Emily both play the same part and have to sing this song. So we took in turns to sing it and give each other feedback. By doing this it helped me get more confident at singing our duet and in our part singing.
29.01.12 - Rehearsal
Today we had an extra rehearsal and doing a run through of act 1 and act 2. We started off by talking about circus in a bit more detail and if we still think it's entertaining and it there anything we could do to make more funny and appealing to the audience. As we spoke what a circus is and that they are suppose to be funny, we thought it would be good to add some things that are funny. Also a lot of the lines are funny in the play, we have to make sure we show when we say our line, so we don't miss out on any laughs. Also the clowns have to be very funny too, so they need to work on that we thought, as at the moment its not very funny, its more just random movements.
Everyone was getting on really well and no one was stressing out. We all worked really well again as a team. When we did the run through of Act 1 and 2, we made sure we tried to make the liens that are meant to be funny, sound funny. She gave us some feedback and said that they did, just make sure your making it clear. Rachel also suggested(after seeing Act 3) that we do a lot of improvisation when we aren't doing anything. We need to still play our animals when improvising. We thought this looked good and went quite well, but we moved around a lot and it looked quite messy. To overcome this matter we just did the movements in the same positions we were in with our partners. And when our partner starts dancing, just carry on improvising and moving around like your animal would, around your partner still.
It was quite a productive lesson and we got a lot done and got Act 3 tidied up a lot more than what it was before. Even the clown routine was looking really funny now, after they worked on it and we all helped them out and gave them suggestions.
Everyone was getting on really well and no one was stressing out. We all worked really well again as a team. When we did the run through of Act 1 and 2, we made sure we tried to make the liens that are meant to be funny, sound funny. She gave us some feedback and said that they did, just make sure your making it clear. Rachel also suggested(after seeing Act 3) that we do a lot of improvisation when we aren't doing anything. We need to still play our animals when improvising. We thought this looked good and went quite well, but we moved around a lot and it looked quite messy. To overcome this matter we just did the movements in the same positions we were in with our partners. And when our partner starts dancing, just carry on improvising and moving around like your animal would, around your partner still.
It was quite a productive lesson and we got a lot done and got Act 3 tidied up a lot more than what it was before. Even the clown routine was looking really funny now, after they worked on it and we all helped them out and gave them suggestions.
24.01.13 - Musical Theatre
Today we did a full run through of Act 2 and looked at the jumps/dives again to make sure they were perfected and looked good from the audiences point of view. It was a bit stop and start, because of lines or Rachel didn't like something or we didn't but it came together well. Rachel told us that when we all go to sit down or spread out, don't lose your character and have general chit chat, as it will look obvious and it won't look very good at all. Make sure it relevant to the play(what your talking about when you sit or stand with your groups).
When we run through Act 2 again, I tried to stay focused and in character. I made sure I didn't just talk about a load of rubbish, but I actually spoke about things that were happening in that scene at that moment. I stayed in character quite well, as I play a bit chavvy, and rebellious. I find it very easy to stay in character, if you know that character really well. It's just hard if people aren't concentrating very well, then its distracting and it distracts you and gets you out of the zone, so then you don't stay in character. This is why we all need to concentrate all the time and not randomly chit chat. I need to remember for next lesson to stay in character as much as I can, and stick with that character throughout the play.
When we run through Act 2 again, I tried to stay focused and in character. I made sure I didn't just talk about a load of rubbish, but I actually spoke about things that were happening in that scene at that moment. I stayed in character quite well, as I play a bit chavvy, and rebellious. I find it very easy to stay in character, if you know that character really well. It's just hard if people aren't concentrating very well, then its distracting and it distracts you and gets you out of the zone, so then you don't stay in character. This is why we all need to concentrate all the time and not randomly chit chat. I need to remember for next lesson to stay in character as much as I can, and stick with that character throughout the play.
23.01.13 - Musical Theatre
Started blocking act 2 of DFTA today. Before we did that, we all read through Avt 2 together as a group so we could get to grips with the script. It's suppose to start off with Dizzy doing a dive and the gang catch her Emily was playing Dizzy, but she didn't really want to do it. So Rachel was fine with it and it didn't change the way the play went at all. So LuLu(played by Mel) did it instead. So just a couple of lines were given to Mel. Rachel's idea was to add in a bit of physical theatre to the play, so she suggested we all hold the person opposites arms in one long line,facing out to the audience and hold on nice and tight to make sure Mel doesn't fall. We worked on this for a long time, as we wanted Mel to feel safe and make she wasn't getting her when she dived. Rachel saw it from the front and said it looked really good. Mel said she didn't get hurt either.
Once we did it with Mel, later on in Act 2 we had to do it with Ben. Ben plays Zack who owns the circus and wants the gang to help him. That's why in this particular bit he is teaching Angel(played by Danielle) how to dive. So we did the same again, and made sure we worked on it for a long time, making sure Ben felt okay about, and again it went really well and there were no casualties. We had to make his dive look like we were professional by this point. When we did it with Angel, I thought it would be a good if she doesn't actually do it properly and we forget she is going to dive. So I suggested the 4 people at the end should still be holding hands, but talking amongst themselves not realising Angel is going to dive, so we fall over with her. This would work really well I thought, as it will look quite funny as Ben has just done it all professional and then it shows a down fall in the fact that maybe we cant do it, as Angel mucks it up. It also shows what typical teenagers would be like; not paying attention, being clumsy etc.
They were the most important things we had to worry about in Act 2. Everything else we blocked looked good, and everyone was happy with what we had. We all worked really well as a team. I think for next time I need to make sure I know all of my lines properly and cues and go through Act 1 and 2 in my head.
Once we did it with Mel, later on in Act 2 we had to do it with Ben. Ben plays Zack who owns the circus and wants the gang to help him. That's why in this particular bit he is teaching Angel(played by Danielle) how to dive. So we did the same again, and made sure we worked on it for a long time, making sure Ben felt okay about, and again it went really well and there were no casualties. We had to make his dive look like we were professional by this point. When we did it with Angel, I thought it would be a good if she doesn't actually do it properly and we forget she is going to dive. So I suggested the 4 people at the end should still be holding hands, but talking amongst themselves not realising Angel is going to dive, so we fall over with her. This would work really well I thought, as it will look quite funny as Ben has just done it all professional and then it shows a down fall in the fact that maybe we cant do it, as Angel mucks it up. It also shows what typical teenagers would be like; not paying attention, being clumsy etc.
They were the most important things we had to worry about in Act 2. Everything else we blocked looked good, and everyone was happy with what we had. We all worked really well as a team. I think for next time I need to make sure I know all of my lines properly and cues and go through Act 1 and 2 in my head.
21.01.13 - Dance
Today we looked at videos from the dance company DV8 and look at their physical theatre movement in relation to our play DFTA.
This is an example of their work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NShJJr1ztkM
The way they move is very relevant to DFTA, in the different ways they use the parts of their body to explain or show how they feel or want to say. I personally really liked there work. I thought it was really clever and very easy to understand. There was a specific dance where this man uses his whole body and uses lots of different motifs to show feeling. I really liked this piece and it looked like it worked really well.
After watching their videos and getting lots of ideas from them, we started to do some choreographing on our DFTA dances in Act 3. We started the main dance in Act 3, which was the animal taming routine. It was really easy, but when we knew we had to play animals, we knew it was going to be a lot more trickier than we thought. Sam told us to get into pairs and think of any animal movements and come up with a count of 8 to start with. So I got into pairs with Emily and we came up with a monkey movement. We knew monkeys walked very low and sort of shuffled and not walked, so we did that and made lots of monkey movements with our arms. Also monkeys swing on trees, so that came into our little duet routine. When we did it looked really good. Throughout the rest of the routine its about the animals escaping as they get captured and Sam vaguely started to choreograph that bit. We all came in together into the middle and all tried to struggle to escape.
This is an example of their work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NShJJr1ztkM
The way they move is very relevant to DFTA, in the different ways they use the parts of their body to explain or show how they feel or want to say. I personally really liked there work. I thought it was really clever and very easy to understand. There was a specific dance where this man uses his whole body and uses lots of different motifs to show feeling. I really liked this piece and it looked like it worked really well.
After watching their videos and getting lots of ideas from them, we started to do some choreographing on our DFTA dances in Act 3. We started the main dance in Act 3, which was the animal taming routine. It was really easy, but when we knew we had to play animals, we knew it was going to be a lot more trickier than we thought. Sam told us to get into pairs and think of any animal movements and come up with a count of 8 to start with. So I got into pairs with Emily and we came up with a monkey movement. We knew monkeys walked very low and sort of shuffled and not walked, so we did that and made lots of monkey movements with our arms. Also monkeys swing on trees, so that came into our little duet routine. When we did it looked really good. Throughout the rest of the routine its about the animals escaping as they get captured and Sam vaguely started to choreograph that bit. We all came in together into the middle and all tried to struggle to escape.
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