In Rent my characters were; homeless person, bohemian and Vendor in Christmas Bells. The numbers I was involved in were; Rent, Out of Town, Christmas Bells, La Vie Boheme, seasons of love and Finale B. We helped out a lot with set for the year thirteen's such as sorting out the chairs and going through and making the homeless sections more accurate by adding newspaper and bottles to the mise-en-scene so the audience can link it better.
Within Christmas Bells I played a Vendor for this I had to pretend to sell dodgy/stolen coats this part also required me to sing a few lines there was also two other vendors, We had to base ourselves on the scaffolding stairs in Rogers apartment section so that all of the audience could see us clearly as well as have big enough gaps so that you could differentiate between the druggies, vendors and characters. I liked where we were as when we had to perform our lines it was easier to perform to each section of seating and not just one.
In La Vie Boheme I was a bohemian, this was a more physical number as it had movements to the song, for the majority of the number we have to stage talk with one another so that it gives the vibe of a normal bar. When the main chorus comes in we have key movements like a shoulder shimmey these were good as they complimented the choreography as well as keeping with the atmosphere of the number this also highlighted that my character was upbeat and fun loving. I like the movements within the song as it involves everyone and not just so the characters are doing it and as a result making the audience feel more involved and like they are in the café with us.
Tuesday, 26 January 2016
Dance - Unit 32 Developing Physical theatre
1/12/15
Unit 32: Developing physical theatre
What is Physical theatre?:
Physical theatre is a cross between dance and drama. Its proper defintion is a form of theatre which emphasizes the use of physical movement, as in dance and mime, for expression.
Practice and practioneers of physical theatre:
- Steven Berkoff
- Trestle Theatre Company
- Frantic assembly
- Antonin Artaud
- Jacques LeCoq
Physical theatre:
'Faultline' by Shobana Jeyasingh
Themes- Youth culture, Gender stereotypes and Identity(ganags, pack mentality)
Faultline uses gestures and footwork from Bharatanatyam( style of indian dance)
it is influenced by martial arts, contemporary dance.
We learnt a routine from Faultline which was really fun and interesting. Within the dance there were key movements especially using our arms and hands which you could tell were inspired by Bharatanatyam. The Identity theme was also shown through movements in which we were being aggressive. Once we learnt the routine we went into small groups and changed the dynamics of the routine, Megan and I made the routine more heavy to give it more of a threatning feel to add to the themes. To add to this we made some of the sharp parts slower to give it a different feel.
What is a Gang?
A gang is a group of people usually associated with crimes, as a group we came up with words which we associated with Gangs these were: Unity, crime, money, hoodies, Guns, Knives, Brand identity, violence and intimidating.
We created material using some of the words in which we came up with, my chosen words were: money, brand identity, guns, knives and unity. So for one of my moves I do a clap to symbolise a gunshot, for Brand identity I use my hands over the lower half of my face to represent a handkerchief which is usually linked with gangs.
Contact Work:
Contact work is a common aspect within physical theatre, this is when two people work together to do moves and lifts that need two people. Contact work is always very effective within dance as it can add many different elements to the piece whether it be dynamics, symbolism or level of difficulty. Contact work can be quite demanding at times so it is vital that you take all safety precautions, trust is a big thing towards this point so you always have to make sure your partner is comfortable with what they are doing and prepared also that you both know exactly what you're doing and have a someone near as a fail safe.
Unit 32: Developing physical theatre
What is Physical theatre?:
Physical theatre is a cross between dance and drama. Its proper defintion is a form of theatre which emphasizes the use of physical movement, as in dance and mime, for expression.
Practice and practioneers of physical theatre:
- Steven Berkoff
- Trestle Theatre Company
- Frantic assembly
- Antonin Artaud
- Jacques LeCoq
Physical theatre:
'Faultline' by Shobana Jeyasingh
Themes- Youth culture, Gender stereotypes and Identity(ganags, pack mentality)
Faultline uses gestures and footwork from Bharatanatyam( style of indian dance)
it is influenced by martial arts, contemporary dance.
We learnt a routine from Faultline which was really fun and interesting. Within the dance there were key movements especially using our arms and hands which you could tell were inspired by Bharatanatyam. The Identity theme was also shown through movements in which we were being aggressive. Once we learnt the routine we went into small groups and changed the dynamics of the routine, Megan and I made the routine more heavy to give it more of a threatning feel to add to the themes. To add to this we made some of the sharp parts slower to give it a different feel.
What is a Gang?
A gang is a group of people usually associated with crimes, as a group we came up with words which we associated with Gangs these were: Unity, crime, money, hoodies, Guns, Knives, Brand identity, violence and intimidating.
We created material using some of the words in which we came up with, my chosen words were: money, brand identity, guns, knives and unity. So for one of my moves I do a clap to symbolise a gunshot, for Brand identity I use my hands over the lower half of my face to represent a handkerchief which is usually linked with gangs.
Contact Work:
Contact work is a common aspect within physical theatre, this is when two people work together to do moves and lifts that need two people. Contact work is always very effective within dance as it can add many different elements to the piece whether it be dynamics, symbolism or level of difficulty. Contact work can be quite demanding at times so it is vital that you take all safety precautions, trust is a big thing towards this point so you always have to make sure your partner is comfortable with what they are doing and prepared also that you both know exactly what you're doing and have a someone near as a fail safe.
Lesson 3- 17/9/15
Lesson 3- 17/9/15
Unit 9: Devising Plays
ACCEPT+ADD:
Accept the idea and then add to it.
Types of Devising:
- Spontaneous- On the spot, developing skills and team work.
- Prepared- ready for the audience.
- Polished - polished to perfection
Improvisation rules:
1. Keep it simple.
2. Refreshing the facts - choosing a complete new direction when needed.
3. Get to know characters
4. Establish location/setting
We started off talking about the devising criteria and then the devising rules. After this we did some warming up excersizes before doing an improvisation excersize called what are you doing, I enjoyed this as it was more interactive then a exercise like traffic lights. Once we did this, we did tag impro which is a fun game using improvisation and the add and accept rule, this was also effective as it helped us memorize/understand the add and accept rule more. We then spoke about the top tips for devising which were make sure you have contrasting storylines/narratives with some shared ideas, also to have relatable problems and to make sure that they are appropriate for the target audience. After this we recapped on our characters from Crabapple which was a good idea as some had forgotten them. We got into small groups or in my case a pairing with Jess. In our groups we discussed our characters and then refined them so my character is now Emma Charming she is ten years old, has magical powers and is a orphan as she lost her parents in the wizard war. She lives in the rose cottages by herself, has purple hair and she has an invisibility cloak so when people come looking for her or someone she can hide from them and won't get taken away, her biggest fear is confronting her problems.
In our groups we then had to devise small scenes with our characters. Jess character was called Maggie and she is 21 her fear was that she is scared of crossing roads as she has been hit by a car before so our scene was about Emma helping Maggie cross the road using her invisibility cloak to show no one was watching but in the end Maggie does it by herself. Our characters went together really well making our storyline quite effective as sometimes stories can be too random. At the end everyone did there pieces one by one but continuously, we included music in the background between scenes and then once everyone had performed we all moved around the room to the music and back to our starting positions to make it a full performance. The adding of music was really effective as it tied it all together creating more of a performance.
Unit 9: Devising Plays
ACCEPT+ADD:
Accept the idea and then add to it.
Types of Devising:
- Spontaneous- On the spot, developing skills and team work.
- Prepared- ready for the audience.
- Polished - polished to perfection
Improvisation rules:
1. Keep it simple.
2. Refreshing the facts - choosing a complete new direction when needed.
3. Get to know characters
4. Establish location/setting
We started off talking about the devising criteria and then the devising rules. After this we did some warming up excersizes before doing an improvisation excersize called what are you doing, I enjoyed this as it was more interactive then a exercise like traffic lights. Once we did this, we did tag impro which is a fun game using improvisation and the add and accept rule, this was also effective as it helped us memorize/understand the add and accept rule more. We then spoke about the top tips for devising which were make sure you have contrasting storylines/narratives with some shared ideas, also to have relatable problems and to make sure that they are appropriate for the target audience. After this we recapped on our characters from Crabapple which was a good idea as some had forgotten them. We got into small groups or in my case a pairing with Jess. In our groups we discussed our characters and then refined them so my character is now Emma Charming she is ten years old, has magical powers and is a orphan as she lost her parents in the wizard war. She lives in the rose cottages by herself, has purple hair and she has an invisibility cloak so when people come looking for her or someone she can hide from them and won't get taken away, her biggest fear is confronting her problems.
In our groups we then had to devise small scenes with our characters. Jess character was called Maggie and she is 21 her fear was that she is scared of crossing roads as she has been hit by a car before so our scene was about Emma helping Maggie cross the road using her invisibility cloak to show no one was watching but in the end Maggie does it by herself. Our characters went together really well making our storyline quite effective as sometimes stories can be too random. At the end everyone did there pieces one by one but continuously, we included music in the background between scenes and then once everyone had performed we all moved around the room to the music and back to our starting positions to make it a full performance. The adding of music was really effective as it tied it all together creating more of a performance.
Thursday, 14 January 2016
Lesson 3 & 4 - 12/1/16 & 14/1/16
In this lesson we helped out with production roles by doing set for Rent the year thirteen's musical, this was to help out the year thirteen's. This was good because it showed us more of an insight to what we may have to do for our musical. We also did this so that we could support the year thirteen's and get familiar with Rent and our different roles within it. It allowed us to get a feel for the proxemics and the staging. I think that it was a bit tedious but we got a system going so in the end it wasn't too bad.
In the next lesson we did set once again for Rent, however we were setting up the homeless zones this was a good task as it helped character building as it gets you into the feel of the piece and your character. This also helped us with our spatial awareness within the show.
In the next lesson we did set once again for Rent, however we were setting up the homeless zones this was a good task as it helped character building as it gets you into the feel of the piece and your character. This also helped us with our spatial awareness within the show.
Tuesday, 12 January 2016
Dance - 12/1/16
In this lesson we went through the numbers in which we are involved in within Rent, these include La Vi e Boheme, Rent, Christmas Bells and Finale B. In this lesson we focused on La Vie Boheme .
La Vie Boheme is a song based on bohemianism and in our version based in a bar of some sort, in this number we were just simple bohemians. We start the number sitting at a table just slightly dancing to them singing before doing choreographed movements to the chorus section. Then a small group of us run across and start doing more choreographed movement to the song before just dancing.
I quite like this number as its quite groovy and fun, I think that our coordination and musicality as group worked really well in this number however we really need to improve on our focus and sometimes we got a bit silly we also need to work on our spacing however this will come with practising with the set so we need to come and practice it in our lesson times every week until the show so that we have it by then.
La Vie Boheme is a song based on bohemianism and in our version based in a bar of some sort, in this number we were just simple bohemians. We start the number sitting at a table just slightly dancing to them singing before doing choreographed movements to the chorus section. Then a small group of us run across and start doing more choreographed movement to the song before just dancing.
I quite like this number as its quite groovy and fun, I think that our coordination and musicality as group worked really well in this number however we really need to improve on our focus and sometimes we got a bit silly we also need to work on our spacing however this will come with practising with the set so we need to come and practice it in our lesson times every week until the show so that we have it by then.
Monday, 11 January 2016
Dance 20/10/15
In this we lesson we started with a warm up for safety
reasons. We then ran through the dance just to give everyone a little recap.
After this we changed around the routine so that it had a more fluent
composition this impacted my character within the dance as I had to change my
transitions around so that I could get to each section without running into
anybody else. After this we had to teach the main phrase to Jordy as he didn’t
know it, we thought it was a good idea for everyone to know the phrase because
then it adds whole cast unison which is an effective technique to use within
dance choreography. Also one of our key words that links with our theme is
unity therefore this represents that key aspect.
Next we continued changing elements of the dance so that we
could add more dynamics within the piece so that it linked with our themes of
gangs more also toad to our characterization, I think that using dynamics works
really well within a dance as not only does it make it more interesting but
helps dancers within the piece to use the certain dynamics to portray emotions
their character may be feeling in that moment, e.g.: a heavy stamp could be
used to show anger.
We then performed to a small audience so that we could
practice for the show as well as help us focus on our characterization to make
it more of a performance.
Targets: I need to improve the dynamics in my solo section
to do this I will go through it and decide what kind of emotions/dynamics I
want to show and practice by next lesson, also to know the whole dance off by
heart to achieve this I will practice it at home before next lesson.
Dance - Performance evaluation - Group
Dance
Performance Self Evaluation – Group Performance
Our group
performance was a physical theatre based piece, Physical theatre is a cross
between drama and dance using physical movements to convey expression or an
object. Our pieces theme is Gangs and was influenced by a physical theatre
piece called Faultline, Faultline uses gestures and
footwork from Bharatanatyam (style of Indian dance) which is influenced by
martial arts, contemporary dance. We did this routine within a dance show held
at our college, in which we performed to a large audience which consisted of
teachers, dancers and parents.
In
this dance we had a lot of key movements, Symbolism was a big thing for our
piece therefore the majority of movements were gestures, as that is a key thing
used within gangs and is also included in Faultline, a lot of gestures we
incorporated in our piece were linked with a word, for example we had a
movement in which we lifted our hoods to represent how gangs are known for
their clothing, which also links with another movement we did where we covered
out lower half of our face like a handkerchief to symbolize brand identity
which is another key factor of Gangs in these times.
Another technique we used was unison, unison is where all dancers do the same movements as the same time, we used this as firstly it represents unity which was another one of our words linked with our theme, however we also used it because it gives the dance more dynamic so that it isn’t too crazy the whole dance there are moments where we are all together and slow.
Lastly characterization was big in our piece as it helped us convey our theme and the small story line within our piece it, a lot of the characterization elements were helped by the use of dynamics in which added to certain movements within the dance to reflect what our characters were feeling.
Another technique we used was unison, unison is where all dancers do the same movements as the same time, we used this as firstly it represents unity which was another one of our words linked with our theme, however we also used it because it gives the dance more dynamic so that it isn’t too crazy the whole dance there are moments where we are all together and slow.
Lastly characterization was big in our piece as it helped us convey our theme and the small story line within our piece it, a lot of the characterization elements were helped by the use of dynamics in which added to certain movements within the dance to reflect what our characters were feeling.
I
think that one of my strengths within the performance was facial expression I
used this to show the emotions of my character and my characters story line for
example at the end I showed that I was scared to help the audience understand
that something bad was going to happen to my character, I think this is one of
my strengths as it helped me get more into character, helped out the story line
and made the piece more of a performance. Another strength of mine would be
co-ordination and spatial awareness, I used co-ordination by knowing the
routine well therefore being able to focus on other aspects whilst executing
the dance, I used spatial awareness well as there are a lot of movements where
the movements get quite dramatic and people can bump into to each other for
example in the fight duets max kept bumping into Ashley therefore I made sure
that we started further down stage so this would not occur in the performance.
I
think one of my weaknesses for this performance would have been musicality I
think this is because it was quite a strange and unique piece of music and
because it didn’t really have any timing to it I couldn’t get into it,
therefore If this occurs again in a dance I need to listen to the music and put
my own timing to the music so that I can get into it more, It is is important
that you have good musicality in dance as it shows in your movements it also
adds to the atmosphere and emotions of the dance because if someone doesn’t
feel they can fit with the music they can look stiff or a bit awkward and
musicality links with timing they both come together. Another weakness was my
flexibility, lacking flexibility can really hinder your dance ability and
therefore overall performance, for example when you need to be low and need to
lunge to help portray character flexibility can help. As a result I need to
improve it so that I can dance with more fluidity and ease it also helps
improve my skills within dance.
In
conclusion, my targets for my next performance would be to improve my stamina
and strength to do this I need to start doing more cardiovascular exercises
such as running and aerobics I will try and achieve this in three weeks.
Another target it to improve my balance so that I can dance with more control
to improve this I need to improve my core control by doing exercises like sit
ups and crunches, I aim to do this a few times a week for three weeks. My last
target is to improve my flexibility so that my dance level improves to do this
I will do stretches every other fay for three weeks.
Lesson 2 - 7/1/16
In this lesson we started off doing a little activity where we had a list of songs from The Wiz and we had to put them in the right order, this was an effective exercise as it showed who had done their research on The Wiz as well as educating those who didn't know.
After this we had to write down 6 characteristics we knew or thought about our character, Jess and I came up with:
After this we had to write down 6 characteristics we knew or thought about our character, Jess and I came up with:
- Sassy
- Bold
- Soulful
- Caring
- Cheerful
- Naive
This got people thinking about our characters and what they're like this worked well for the next task which was to create a quick summary performance of the first half of the show, this proved to be easy for me as I had watched the show a few times however still got me thinking now about how my particular character is going through each situation within the story. Following that we then had to do the second half of the show as well.
I think our mini summary performance went well but felt that we rushed it a bit,therefore one of my targets is to make sure not to rush things when performing to do this I will practice through my lines slowly and I will do this 4 times every week. Another of my targets would be to make sure that I keep my eye line up even when I get nervous I will try and achieve this by practicing my lines in front of someone so I get used to my lines and being confident.
Lesson 1 - 5/1/16
The aim of this lesson was to go through: production roles, set design and show weeks.
We started off going through all our responsibilities with the other two shows in which we are involved with which are Rent and West Side Story, we did this as it is good to be organised as well as we are helping the year thirteen's so that they we help with our show.
We then spoke about production roles, as The Wiz is quite modern and edgy we have decided to have multimedia involved with production I think this is effective as it will make the show more dynamic and unique which is appealing to the audience as they don't want to see a boring performance. As Jordy and I take Media courses we were allocated as the Multimedia people. I'm quite excited for this as even though i take media it will be the first time using my skills within a live production. Rachel wants sections of projected set therefore asked us to look at Love song by Frantic assembly, Golem by 1927 and her set design board on pinterest.
I watched sections of both productions, I thought that within the frantic assembly their lighting, used to highlight key features was really dynamic, also I thought the projected birds flying across the screen was really effective but simple; lastly they projected images and flashbacks on the screen I thought this was clever and could be effective within our production as we can use effective sets to add the right feel to scenes. With the other production Golem by 1927 I thought that the way they interacted with the projections was clever and worked well this would also be effective within our production.
Jordy and I have created a schedule/list of things we need and are going to do, we want to plan ahead so that once its done we have time for anything that we missed or need to do further. Here is the schedule:
For our set we have decided to have a gauze at the back and low stage blocks in a line near the back of the stage therefore creating a large stage area at the front.
We have also thought about using gobos within the performance to represent things like windows to show shadows, this is effective because makes it more realistic for the audience.
targets: Start creating ideas for stills and videos and making plans for stills for multimedia, do this within the next two weeks by looking at different ideas on pinterest and making notes.
We started off going through all our responsibilities with the other two shows in which we are involved with which are Rent and West Side Story, we did this as it is good to be organised as well as we are helping the year thirteen's so that they we help with our show.
We then spoke about production roles, as The Wiz is quite modern and edgy we have decided to have multimedia involved with production I think this is effective as it will make the show more dynamic and unique which is appealing to the audience as they don't want to see a boring performance. As Jordy and I take Media courses we were allocated as the Multimedia people. I'm quite excited for this as even though i take media it will be the first time using my skills within a live production. Rachel wants sections of projected set therefore asked us to look at Love song by Frantic assembly, Golem by 1927 and her set design board on pinterest.
I watched sections of both productions, I thought that within the frantic assembly their lighting, used to highlight key features was really dynamic, also I thought the projected birds flying across the screen was really effective but simple; lastly they projected images and flashbacks on the screen I thought this was clever and could be effective within our production as we can use effective sets to add the right feel to scenes. With the other production Golem by 1927 I thought that the way they interacted with the projections was clever and worked well this would also be effective within our production.
Jordy and I have created a schedule/list of things we need and are going to do, we want to plan ahead so that once its done we have time for anything that we missed or need to do further. Here is the schedule:
For our set we have decided to have a gauze at the back and low stage blocks in a line near the back of the stage therefore creating a large stage area at the front.
targets: Start creating ideas for stills and videos and making plans for stills for multimedia, do this within the next two weeks by looking at different ideas on pinterest and making notes.
Thursday, 7 January 2016
Wiz Audition Evaluation
To prepare for my audition I watched the 2015 version of The Wiz, for the audition we had to choose preferably either a moetown ballad or upbeat song. From the watching the Wiz I chose to sing I Know Where I've Been from Hairspray as my ballad and Ain't no mountain by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell as my upbeat song. I had decided that i wanted to go for the evil witch or Dorothy, because of this when i watched it again i focused on their two characters and their specific characteristics and how I could use them within my audition songs for example in the witch song she uses a lot of hand movements/gestures and Dorothy is quite sassy when she sings and uses a lot of emotion so i tried to use emotion when needed in my ballad this characteristic also was another reason why i chose my two songs as they contrasted well therefore I could show a range of emotions which is what Dorothy goes through within the show.
In the actual audition I ended up only singing my ballad from Hairspray as i felt it was my stronger song from the two.
My strengths of my performance were that I had good control over my voice when going through the climax of the song and my characterisation to help portray my emotions. My weaknesses were that I was a bit still and could have moved more, also my projection within my acting and looked at the audience more. To improve my weaknesses for next time I can block my song before I go into the audition so that I know what im doing and also practice in front of a small group like friends or family to make sure I project well.
In the final cast list I got Dorothy I am happy with this as I think it will challenge me and help me improve my overall performance skills, I have played a main role before and it excites me as I like to have a lot to do within a show. I think the rest of the casting was really good as well as I can visualise people as their characters. Overall I think that our production is going to be successful and fun.
Wednesday, 6 January 2016
Dance - 5/1/16
In this lesson we presented our Presentations on physical theatre practioneers. Olivia and I had Les Enfants Terribles.
Within our presentation we mentioned who they were, what they did, how they did it and then analysed one of their works.
https://www.slideshare.net/secret/DLYjcpgvcqIRoj -- our powerpoint section
For the movement section I had created a short movement sequence that fit their style and aesthetics, which are quite upbeat, boppy and playful however they also are quite informative and tell stories so I decided to use a song from Horrible Histories as it fits well with their work. Here is the song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJw2oEh0_Ts.
I think our presentation went ok we needed more confidence so for this we could practice more as well as because we were panicking we lost a bit of focus in places so I think this comes with knowing more what you ate doing. Our movement section was really successful everyone picked up really well and also had fun which is the point of the company's work so that was good.
Everyone elses presentations and activitys were really good and effective. I learnt that complicite started in 1983 by a Simon Mcburney, they base a lot of their work on the use of exaggerated movement as well as being inspired by Jacques Lecoq and more.
Within our presentation we mentioned who they were, what they did, how they did it and then analysed one of their works.
https://www.slideshare.net/secret/DLYjcpgvcqIRoj -- our powerpoint section
For the movement section I had created a short movement sequence that fit their style and aesthetics, which are quite upbeat, boppy and playful however they also are quite informative and tell stories so I decided to use a song from Horrible Histories as it fits well with their work. Here is the song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJw2oEh0_Ts.
I think our presentation went ok we needed more confidence so for this we could practice more as well as because we were panicking we lost a bit of focus in places so I think this comes with knowing more what you ate doing. Our movement section was really successful everyone picked up really well and also had fun which is the point of the company's work so that was good.
Everyone elses presentations and activitys were really good and effective. I learnt that complicite started in 1983 by a Simon Mcburney, they base a lot of their work on the use of exaggerated movement as well as being inspired by Jacques Lecoq and more.
Tuesday, 5 January 2016
The Wiz Research
The Wiz
The Wiz is a musical that is a soul version of the Wizard of OZ and written by William.F.Brown and lyrics and music by Charlie Smalls. Fox agreed to back the show in exchange for a first option on a film version, publishing rights and first option on the soundtrack album. It was capitalized at $650,000. It first started October 21, 1974 in Baltimore at the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre, Maryland and then moved to the Majestic Theatre on January 5th 1975 with director Geoffrey Holder who replaced the original director Gilbert Moses the third and they had a new cast. The Wiz book was the original idea of Ken harper who then entrusted Brown to adapt L. Frank Baum's novel The Wonderful Wizard Of OZ to a more African-American culture including black street slang as well as incorporating Charlie Smalls lyrics and music.
When it first started travelling Harper considered closing it all down due to slow business and small profit. By the point of starting at the Majestic Theatre, Fox's investment was around a million dollars but with the weekly cost being around $67,000 and the box office barely gaining half of that, they had to put a closing notice. Doing this the producers then were able to persuade 20th topper Dennis Stanfill to commit $110,000 more for a four-week promo blitz, including a then-radical concept: TV ads. As a result the box office doubled within the first week and then just kept gaining through time.
There was then a film version created in 1978 Produced by Rob Cohen and directed by Sidney Lumet. The cast consisted of :
Dorothy - Stephanie Mills
Scarecrow - Michael Jackson
Cowardly Lion - Ted Ross
Tinman -Nipsey Russell
and others.
However in this version they slightly changed it for example normally based in Kansas its based in New York and Dorothy played by Diana Ross a kindergarten teacher, changing these elements made it one of the most expensive musicals ever made as had to use many New York Locations as well as different studios and the cast.
They then did a live TV version of it in 2015 called The Wiz Live featuring Queen Latifah, Mary J. Blige, Stephanie Mills who was the original Dorothy on Broadway as Aunt Em, Amber Riley and others. This version was more similar to the play than the film however the producers felt they need to jazz it up a bit to keep it modern, they did not change anything drastically just refurbish some of the songs to attract a wider audience. This event really helped out the musical as it is seen to be coming back to Broadway 2016-17 season.
References:
I found a lot of my info from these places:
http://www.refinery29.com/2015/12/98553/the-wiz-live-preview
http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/the-wiz-broadway-tv-1201651417/
The Wiz is a musical that is a soul version of the Wizard of OZ and written by William.F.Brown and lyrics and music by Charlie Smalls. Fox agreed to back the show in exchange for a first option on a film version, publishing rights and first option on the soundtrack album. It was capitalized at $650,000. It first started October 21, 1974 in Baltimore at the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre, Maryland and then moved to the Majestic Theatre on January 5th 1975 with director Geoffrey Holder who replaced the original director Gilbert Moses the third and they had a new cast. The Wiz book was the original idea of Ken harper who then entrusted Brown to adapt L. Frank Baum's novel The Wonderful Wizard Of OZ to a more African-American culture including black street slang as well as incorporating Charlie Smalls lyrics and music.
When it first started travelling Harper considered closing it all down due to slow business and small profit. By the point of starting at the Majestic Theatre, Fox's investment was around a million dollars but with the weekly cost being around $67,000 and the box office barely gaining half of that, they had to put a closing notice. Doing this the producers then were able to persuade 20th topper Dennis Stanfill to commit $110,000 more for a four-week promo blitz, including a then-radical concept: TV ads. As a result the box office doubled within the first week and then just kept gaining through time.
There was then a film version created in 1978 Produced by Rob Cohen and directed by Sidney Lumet. The cast consisted of :
Dorothy - Stephanie Mills
Scarecrow - Michael Jackson
Cowardly Lion - Ted Ross
Tinman -Nipsey Russell
and others.
However in this version they slightly changed it for example normally based in Kansas its based in New York and Dorothy played by Diana Ross a kindergarten teacher, changing these elements made it one of the most expensive musicals ever made as had to use many New York Locations as well as different studios and the cast.
They then did a live TV version of it in 2015 called The Wiz Live featuring Queen Latifah, Mary J. Blige, Stephanie Mills who was the original Dorothy on Broadway as Aunt Em, Amber Riley and others. This version was more similar to the play than the film however the producers felt they need to jazz it up a bit to keep it modern, they did not change anything drastically just refurbish some of the songs to attract a wider audience. This event really helped out the musical as it is seen to be coming back to Broadway 2016-17 season.
References:
I found a lot of my info from these places:
http://www.refinery29.com/2015/12/98553/the-wiz-live-preview
http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/the-wiz-broadway-tv-1201651417/
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