As we pretty much finished DFTA last week and wont be coming back to it for another month now, as the final performance is on May 1st, we can now start WWRY!! First of all we got into our casts and had a complete read through of the play, or as much as we could for the first hour or so, just to get to grips with it. I found this really useful as I could see who I was working with and start coming up with ideas of what I could do for the blocking.
We started off right at the beginning as we haven't even started blocking it yet. Unfortunately we didn't get round to blocking any of the scenes I was in. So as me and Em both play the same part, we went through our lines together and helped each other out. We had a look at the songs as well. I decided what I need to do next is make sure to research Britney(my character a bit more) because in the west end, its played by man, but I'm playing a lesbian, but with masculine qualitys, so it would be good for to research into it.
Wednesday, 6 March 2013
Monday, 4 March 2013
26.02.13
Today was the day we were performing to the people from The National Theatre. They were planning on coming in at 1:00pm. So we all came in at 8:30am and focused on Act 2 the most, because we knew we had to work harder on Act 2. We made sure everyone knew there lines really well. About an hour before they were due to come, I made sure I had all my props ready for the show, so I didnt have to rush around last minute to find them. I needed to make sure I had my mask for Act 3, in the animal dance. Thats the only prop I needed.
As me, Lauren, Charlotte and Amber had to go straight into singing the song Clown, after Act 2, Rachel suggested we have our purple 'The Peoples Circus' tops on underneath our school uniform costume. So we stay on stage(with the lights down)when everyone else walks off and we take off our tops to find our purple tops on underneath. This worked really well in rehearsal as we didn't need to rush off stage in a hurry. In rehearsal I panicked, because I couldn't take my shirt off, but Rachel said don't panic, just do it in your own time and Kim wont put the lights up until she can see we have our hoodies on.
When it got to 1:00pm we all took our positions behind the stage ready to come on. Overall I think the performance went really well. Some people forgot their cues or lines, but as a group we know other peoples cues and lines, so if we knew someone forgot it, we would step in. So thankfully there were no lines missing. I think I did really well. I remembered all of my lines and cues and felt like performed fairly well. The things I need to improve on is maybe interact a bit more with the "gang". Also when it got to the bit to sing Clown and we had to take off our school uniform tops, unfortunately the lights came on too early and I was still putting on my hoody. I spoke to Rachel and she said that they couldn't of waited any longer, as we were standing in the dark for ages. It wasn't really anyones fault, but as group we need to come to a clear decision on whether we will carry on getting changed in the darkness and wait till everyones dressed OR if we will just get changed with the lights on, so the audience can see us transform/change.
The two ladies from The National Theatre said to us that it was really good and we just need to make sure to look on the things that need to be improved the most, make some twickes to it and it will be fine.
As me, Lauren, Charlotte and Amber had to go straight into singing the song Clown, after Act 2, Rachel suggested we have our purple 'The Peoples Circus' tops on underneath our school uniform costume. So we stay on stage(with the lights down)when everyone else walks off and we take off our tops to find our purple tops on underneath. This worked really well in rehearsal as we didn't need to rush off stage in a hurry. In rehearsal I panicked, because I couldn't take my shirt off, but Rachel said don't panic, just do it in your own time and Kim wont put the lights up until she can see we have our hoodies on.
When it got to 1:00pm we all took our positions behind the stage ready to come on. Overall I think the performance went really well. Some people forgot their cues or lines, but as a group we know other peoples cues and lines, so if we knew someone forgot it, we would step in. So thankfully there were no lines missing. I think I did really well. I remembered all of my lines and cues and felt like performed fairly well. The things I need to improve on is maybe interact a bit more with the "gang". Also when it got to the bit to sing Clown and we had to take off our school uniform tops, unfortunately the lights came on too early and I was still putting on my hoody. I spoke to Rachel and she said that they couldn't of waited any longer, as we were standing in the dark for ages. It wasn't really anyones fault, but as group we need to come to a clear decision on whether we will carry on getting changed in the darkness and wait till everyones dressed OR if we will just get changed with the lights on, so the audience can see us transform/change.
The two ladies from The National Theatre said to us that it was really good and we just need to make sure to look on the things that need to be improved the most, make some twickes to it and it will be fine.
25.02.13
It was our last day of rehearsals, before we showed the two people who were en charge on the competition. We had to make sure we worked really hard and concentrated. We first went through a complete run-through of Act 1, 2 and 3. It didn't go very well, because people kept missing their cues and lines. We figured that the worst run through act we did, was act 2. So without any pauses we ran through act 2 once more, to make sure we knew it and helped each other with the cue lines, making sure they know them. A lot of people accidentally cut some of peoples lines too, so we went over those cues with the people we needed too. After a run through of Act 2 we felt a little more confident about performing tomorrow.
Rachel then spoke to me, Charlotte, Lauren and Amber about singing the song 'clown' by Emeli Sandi. Rachel has mentioned it on numerous occasions, but no one has actually done anything about it. Rachel sent us a video yesterday of the song on youtube, but with a ukelele. As Ben can play the ukelele, he was happy to try to play it whilst we sung. We all came together to give it a quick go and it worked quite well. We then added harmonies in. I did the melody with Lauren and Amber and Charlotte did the harmony and went higher. It went really well, considering we've only just tried it and put it together today.
This is the video Rachel showed us:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yvt0ukL6_Ok
It's a good slow cover and we think it's good to start off Act 3 with it. Then everything gets really mental, so it will build the tension up.
Rachel then spoke to me, Charlotte, Lauren and Amber about singing the song 'clown' by Emeli Sandi. Rachel has mentioned it on numerous occasions, but no one has actually done anything about it. Rachel sent us a video yesterday of the song on youtube, but with a ukelele. As Ben can play the ukelele, he was happy to try to play it whilst we sung. We all came together to give it a quick go and it worked quite well. We then added harmonies in. I did the melody with Lauren and Amber and Charlotte did the harmony and went higher. It went really well, considering we've only just tried it and put it together today.
This is the video Rachel showed us:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yvt0ukL6_Ok
It's a good slow cover and we think it's good to start off Act 3 with it. Then everything gets really mental, so it will build the tension up.
Wednesday, 13 February 2013
11.02.13 - Dance
As we had choreographed the first part of act 3, the animal taming routine. We now started on the other part of the animal routine and try to get that done. Sam said we need two people to help lead the choreography, so Mel and Elle did. Sam suggested this because when there is isn't a leader, everyone talks at once and over each other and we find it hard to get it done. Even though they were leading it, we could all put in our own ideas/input. We decided to keep the whole 'pairs' thing in, and we'd come in our pairs and do a party trick. As Emily was absence, I came up with a few ideas. We can both do the splits so I thought of walking on stage and doing the splits, then doing some gymnastic moves. Which will look good, as you have acrobats at circus's. Every other pair came up with ideas which involved having a prop. So I thought of using juggling balls to do tricks with. We choreographed it all the way up to when the clowns come in causing havoc with the animals and lock the animals up. It looks really good and Mel and Elle did a really good job of choreographing bits of it. Obviously we need to clean it up a bit, but what we got was pretty good.
Wednesday, 6 February 2013
06.02.13
Rachel was not in again today, so she left us all a message and told us what to work on. She told us to run through Act 1 and Act 2 without scripts and go over Act 3 with Sam, if she's available. We already had an idea of what to do, and instantly came up with a plan.
The first thing we did was sit down and do a read through without our DFTA scripts. It went okay, but still some people didn't know their lines or cues so it was a little frustrating. But we overcome this, by going over those bits again. I knew all my lines, and found the read through went okay. We then all decided to get up and run through Act 1 without scripts. Emily was the only one who went on with a script, so she could prompt any of us if we got the lines messed up or someone forgot them. This went really bad and no one was concentrating at all. Everyone was forgetting their cues, their lines, and everyone was talking on stage. I was trying to get through it without arguing with everyone, because no one was paying attention and no would pay attention anyway. As everyone was getting annoyed we had to start it again
The second run through went a little bit better than the first one. As we knew the first run through went awful, we knew we had to concentrate for this next run through, as it was important. We did the same thing, with Emily holding a script to prompt us. Everyone acted more professional and worked together properly as a group really well. Some people still needed promoting every now and then, but at least it went better than the first one and we overcame it really well. I could concentrate a lot more and I felt much better after doing a proper run though and we happily run through Act 2 too.
Unfortunately the atmosphere was very odd and awkward in today's lesson, and that why we didn't really concentrate at all. I think it's because we had no teacher to take direction. But all realised we should of been professional about it the first place. We all at least once or twice spoke during rehearsal time, but we definitely all learnt from that. The second half of the lesson everyone worked on their blog's as we knew we were falling behind a bit. Thankfully I got quite a bit done.
Later during the day we also run through Act 3. Near enough everyone is in Act 3. As Josh.M was sttruggling with his timing Emily helped him with it, as if he didn't get it right, it would confuse the rest of the group as he was the one at the front, starting it off. Josh eventually was getting the hang of it.We went over bits of the dance that needed cleaning up. After a while, we thought we needed some more ideas for Act 3, as we hadn't finished it properly all the way through. So we had a look online, on youtube and Grace found a really good video of dance that we could use. It involved people standing in straight a line, facing the audience, and doing different levels of movements with our arms. People were suggesting start with the smallest and the front and the tallest at the back, but I thought it would be better if we had the tallest at the front and the smallest at the back, so the person at the front can only be seen and then all the audience will see are the arm movements. We took a while to work on it as it was quite hard for everyone to get the timing of the arms. Plus we had an odd number of people so the we couldn't do it in a count of 8. So we would double up the people to make it 8 counts. We found this worked really well and it looked really cool from the front. We then all positioned/moved our arms at the same time, into a different position to change it up a bit. Then we brought our arms all the way to the top together at the same time and on each count until we get to 8, we brought our arms down really quickly and then the music completely changed to fast paced and we hadn't planned anything afterwards, but we all just suddenly broke out of the line and went mental. It worked really well and we ended up adding it in. We were all so chuffed and it put everyone in a better mood. Emily came up with the idea that when we break out, we act like our animal characters. So mine would be a monkey. This worked well as then Ben comes on with his whip and starts taming the animals. We all pulled together really well at the end of the lesson. It was less stressful and everyone was concentrated and the performance came together really well in the end.
The first thing we did was sit down and do a read through without our DFTA scripts. It went okay, but still some people didn't know their lines or cues so it was a little frustrating. But we overcome this, by going over those bits again. I knew all my lines, and found the read through went okay. We then all decided to get up and run through Act 1 without scripts. Emily was the only one who went on with a script, so she could prompt any of us if we got the lines messed up or someone forgot them. This went really bad and no one was concentrating at all. Everyone was forgetting their cues, their lines, and everyone was talking on stage. I was trying to get through it without arguing with everyone, because no one was paying attention and no would pay attention anyway. As everyone was getting annoyed we had to start it again
The second run through went a little bit better than the first one. As we knew the first run through went awful, we knew we had to concentrate for this next run through, as it was important. We did the same thing, with Emily holding a script to prompt us. Everyone acted more professional and worked together properly as a group really well. Some people still needed promoting every now and then, but at least it went better than the first one and we overcame it really well. I could concentrate a lot more and I felt much better after doing a proper run though and we happily run through Act 2 too.
Unfortunately the atmosphere was very odd and awkward in today's lesson, and that why we didn't really concentrate at all. I think it's because we had no teacher to take direction. But all realised we should of been professional about it the first place. We all at least once or twice spoke during rehearsal time, but we definitely all learnt from that. The second half of the lesson everyone worked on their blog's as we knew we were falling behind a bit. Thankfully I got quite a bit done.
Later during the day we also run through Act 3. Near enough everyone is in Act 3. As Josh.M was sttruggling with his timing Emily helped him with it, as if he didn't get it right, it would confuse the rest of the group as he was the one at the front, starting it off. Josh eventually was getting the hang of it.We went over bits of the dance that needed cleaning up. After a while, we thought we needed some more ideas for Act 3, as we hadn't finished it properly all the way through. So we had a look online, on youtube and Grace found a really good video of dance that we could use. It involved people standing in straight a line, facing the audience, and doing different levels of movements with our arms. People were suggesting start with the smallest and the front and the tallest at the back, but I thought it would be better if we had the tallest at the front and the smallest at the back, so the person at the front can only be seen and then all the audience will see are the arm movements. We took a while to work on it as it was quite hard for everyone to get the timing of the arms. Plus we had an odd number of people so the we couldn't do it in a count of 8. So we would double up the people to make it 8 counts. We found this worked really well and it looked really cool from the front. We then all positioned/moved our arms at the same time, into a different position to change it up a bit. Then we brought our arms all the way to the top together at the same time and on each count until we get to 8, we brought our arms down really quickly and then the music completely changed to fast paced and we hadn't planned anything afterwards, but we all just suddenly broke out of the line and went mental. It worked really well and we ended up adding it in. We were all so chuffed and it put everyone in a better mood. Emily came up with the idea that when we break out, we act like our animal characters. So mine would be a monkey. This worked well as then Ben comes on with his whip and starts taming the animals. We all pulled together really well at the end of the lesson. It was less stressful and everyone was concentrated and the performance came together really well in the end.
4.02.13 - Dance
In this lesson Sam wanted to start working on Act 3 with us as it is the most important act, because this is when there is the most movement and we start to perform the 'circus act'. She first worked with the clowns and in the mean time, whoever wasnt a clown worked on their blog or helped eachother learning their lines. Then about half-way through the lesson she worked with the 'animals'(that is everyone apart from the clowns and Ben and Amy, as they play the people who run the circus). Sam asked to get into pairs and make up 8 counts, that related to whatever animal we were. I was with Emily and we both decided we were monkeys. After looking at the videos from DV8 a couple of weeks ago in Sam's lesson and in independant study, it was quite easy to think of 8 counts. As we are monkeys we came with ideas of what monkeys do when they move; swinging, walk low, arms are hang down. So our first 4 counts was of our arms in a swinging motion. Then Emily rolled on the ground and jumped back up again. So I thought of the idea of turning around in a low postion and staying like that and snuffle next to her and keep moving like a monkey would. Sam helped us to create the bit after our bits in pairs.
31.01.13 - Musical Theatre
As rachel was not in today, Kim took over the lesson and she told us we need to start making our ties for the school that we are from in DFTA. We suggested not to have any logos on them and just make them simple, but realistic. So we ended up having purple and black striped ties as the colour theme for the school St.Matthews. We had to double up the paper, so it would be thicker and realistic again. We cut up some colleran in the shape of ties and then starting glueing them down and then we started to paint them. I started by painting the purple stripes first then the black ones, so it would be easier. I suppose in this lesson we didn't get round to doing much, apart from the ties as Rachel wasn't there, but the ties needed to be done.
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