Thursday, 24 March 2016

The Wiz 24/3

In this lesson we ran through the Wiz scene and Emerald City section as well as act 2 up to Y'all Got It, as well as blocking the final scene.

In this rehearsal Jess was Dorothy so I did mainly off cast sections, however I found this really helpful as I hadn't had an opportunity to just do my off cast sections therefore I could learn the order much better so I knew what I was doing. I got to understand the Ozians more through doing this and I felt I could perform it a lot better. I decided as an Ozian to make everything I did ten times bigger and over the top to give them more personality, when the character itself is part of a group where no one really has personality because they're all so similar. I think if our characters weren't as dramatic The Wiz characters wouldn't have much of an effect to the audience as it does with the Ozians atmosphere and dynamics.

Now we are starting to input more of the chorus parts its adding more depth to the show making it more powerful and makes the show more fluid. I think once we have all the chorus members it will be really compelling to the show and give us main cast more of a boost of energy and help us really kick into it.

In this lesson I think that my strengths were energy and focus, I need to improve my knowledge of the chorus choreography so that I can then contribute more to it which was my second target for myself, I will achieve these by getting with a main chorus person and learning the numbers and scenes in which I am involved in that have been done and then help with the others, I will do this within the next fortnight by rehearsing at lunch times.



Wednesday, 23 March 2016

Dance 22/3

In this lesson we continued with Ease On Down The Road.

In this lesson now that we had basically gathered the movement we focussed on characterisation within the dance and putting the singing with it. This was good as it helped us build up stamina as it is quite a demanding number.

After rehearsing it we finished it and then kept going through it, I made sure to add small character moves such as we do a shuffle across the room but we all have different arms so I decided to make mine girly and sassy so that it is more Dorothy like.

I think I could still improve characterisation for this but I think it will come through practicing it in lunch breaks and at home also once we have the singing down we can use that to boost our characterisation. Also we need to improve on our energy so to do this we need to improve our stamina I will do this by practicing many times over in my free time for the next few weeks.

Tuesday, 22 March 2016

Wiz 22/3

 In this lesson we did a rough run through cleaning anything that needed to be as well as adding in little sections of the songs after this we discussed all the dance numbers and how they were going.

With the run through we did the beginnings of the songs as well so that we knew the order of the show more confidently as well hearing how everyone was doing with their songs, it was nice to hear everyone do sections of their songs as most people had only sung by themselves unless you were double cast. Fitting in the songs really helped me understand my characters journey more and help develop her more as well as understanding her physical journey I could recognize her emotional journey also.

To add to this adding in the songs really helped with the relationships between Dorothy and the friends as a lot of their knowledge of one another is through the songs. Especially with the Ease On Down The Roads as I feel they represent the bonding between the friends each time, its like their little anthem.

With the dance numbers we were all allowed to choose one to be in charge of and choreograph I decided that I wanted Everybody Rejoice because its a big number as well as a fun one so I thought it would be a challenge with the number of people but enjoyable, being a dancer I have always loved choreographing so I was excited when we got to do this. I had to Rent class of year 13s for my number which meant their was 17 of them so I had to find a suitable time to get them all together, I spoke with Kat and decided that I was allowed to take up a hour each week of their dance lesson on a Friday which was helpful.

I feel that in this lesson my targets would be that I need to improve on my knowledge of all the songs as well as the blocking of the songs, I will do this by listening to the songs at any given opportunity so that they stick in my head and practice whenever I get the time and should be on top of this within a week, I usually learn songs this way so I know this is a realistic goal. In this lesson I feel that my strengths were focus and energy.

Thursday, 17 March 2016

17/3

In this lesson we went through everything we had blocked which was the majority of act one. We then focused on going over Emerald City and the end of act one as they were the ones we had done the least.

With the Emerald City scene we made it more blocked than improvised as otherwise it got messy as there was too many people on stage for it not to be blocked. I thought this was a good idea as it was cleaner which as a result added to the Emerald City Aesthetic, to add to this the Emerald city is very big and over the top so I came up with the idea that when the Ozians are describing what they have heard that the wiz looks like to do actions for example "a nine foot dragon" they surrounded the friends in a semi circle and leaned over them in a intimidating manner to represent the dragon. I think overall my idea really helped build the characterisation of the Ozians as well as their image as whole, this will also make it more visually interesting for the target audience which is of a younger audience because they prefer more visual things then just talking.

As I am in this scene both on and off cast, I found it easier to create a relationship between the characters as I could tell both points of view, therefore made it easier to develop my characters. I found that the Ozians are very stuck up and think that they rule Oz and that they are the best and don't like strangers coming in trying to disturb their perfect world whereas Dorothy at first is in awe at the City and the Ozians until they become horrible in which she is then embarrassed and daunted by them.

I think that the show is coming on quite well I think personally we still have far to go but we will get there, I think it will start to further develop once everyone is confident on their lines and cues so that we can then piece it all together. After doing the emerald city scene Jordy and |I went over a few ideas for our production role of multimedia thinking about what green effects we could use to make it more impressive, we came up with a landscape of the Emerald City to give more of an effect.

I think that my strengths within this lesson were contribution and characterisation. I think that my weaknesses were energy and lines, to improve these I will make sure that I get enough rest and have something that will help increase my energy levels like bananas, to improve my lines I will continue to learn them each night so that they get stuck in my head and make it easier to characterise I will do this within the next few weeks.



Wednesday, 16 March 2016

Dance 15/3

In this lesson we did Poppies, crows and Ease on down the road.

At the beginning we did crows, this is Ashley's number so we got what he wanted for the number first before listening to the song so we could start creating some material. I came up with the idea that we should have emphasis on our arms, knees, head and feet so that the movements were more crow like. Ash said that he didn't want it too dance like and more characterisation, I liked this idea as I think it made easier for the crows to focus on that and use it more within the simple movements so they became more. 

After this we did Ease on Down the Road, I really enjoyed learning this number as it is very fun and groovy, I also really like it because it gives the friends something that is just theirs and allows us to really show our relationships through it. To add to this I think that this dance becomes more fun because it is the time where the friends can just be relaxed and enjoy themselves which I think we show within the dance.

Even though this is the first Ease on Down the Road we have learnt but is the third one in the show, I thought it would be good in the other two if we incorporate moves from this one into the first two so as they come along in the show, its like they have built up to the final dance and as if each friend has a section each that represents them.

I think I need to improve my characterisation and focus placement within Ease, I will do this by going through the routine and think about specific ways that Dorothy would execute the movements, this should be able to do this through practicing the dance at college for the next few weeks with the others. For crows we need to improve characterisation there as well this will come through practice and finishing the dance also we need to clarify the timing so everyone knows it.

I watched the poppies and was asked to give feed back I thought it was good I liked the start of it, worked really well with the music however there focus wasn't too good and confidence on moves and timing but they can fix that through rehearsing for a first time it was good.

Tuesday, 15 March 2016

15/3 Wiz rehearsals

In this lesson we continued to block the last few scenes of act 1, and then started to devise a new scene to act as a pre-prologue. This was to make it more original. The idea was to base Dorothy in a club and a bit of a mess before passing out and hitting her head which then puts her into a place where she ends up in The Wiz scenery.

I think that the new idea is cool however at first it was quite confusing, but once we went through it it made more sense, making it more trippy will be effective as someone said we can make everything bigger and more dynamic like the costumes and set. As Dorothy it makes it more interesting as its like she's going into a Disney like atmosphere, a complete contrast to her reality. Therefore making it a more modern story appealing to our audience/era more.  

I think the devising of the scene went really well as well as the blocking. My weakness was probably trying to act drunk to improve this I'm going to try and let loose more and watch a few films which include actors doing to see how they do it realistically.

In this lesson we also blocked the Meeting the Wiz scene and the Emerald City scene. With the Emerald city section I was acting off cast, and got given the part of one of the citizens. In this scene their is a lot of imagery within the script this made it easier to block movement, also because we are Ozians we could make it as big and dramatic, I gave a few ideas within this as I'm better at creating movement it being one of my strong skills within musical theatre. I like this scene as it is more energetic and fun especially with the movement as well as the lines being quite comical.

Lastly we did the meeting the Wiz section for this Jess and I swapped back over so I was learning the scene as Dorothy. This scene was fun as I hadn't had a chance to work with Max yet or had a chance as Dorothy with the Wiz, we kept experimenting different ways for Max workout how he wanted to act the Wiz, as well as the relationship between our characters. Eventually we worked out that at first my character was confident against the Wiz but then quickly intimidated by him, I liked our final outcome because it made scenes more dynamic. My character has quite a big impact within this scene because otherwise the friends wouldn't be brave enough to say anything also a bargaining chip against the wiz. My interaction with the other characters within the scene i would say for the friends is that she is trying to protect them but also not too focused on them at the same time as the majority of her attention is upon The Wiz.

Overall I think that it was a successful lesson, I had learnt more lines by this lesson so I had partially attained one of my improvements from previous lessons, I think my strengths of this lesson we inputting ideas as well as characterisation with others, my weakness still being lines slightly, confidence and still characterisation to improve these I will continue to learn my lines and practice them in front of a mirror to develop my characterisation still I will do this until i have learnt all my lines and am happy with how I portray them.

Friday, 11 March 2016

Wiz 10/3

In this Lesson we finished blocking for act one and had solo singing sessions with Kim.

Now that we had finished blocking act one it made it a lot easier to learn lines as I could associate movement with the lines which was helpful as well helped me get the order of the show more clearly within my head. This helped me develop my character as I worked out her journey I could connect emotions with certain sections and start understanding the relationships she has with the friends and how they start to occur. My character really impacts on the scene because if she wasn't there I feel like the friends would end up in a frenzy. I think as a whole we are all still developing our character relationships and will do until we finish the blocking, as what I have discovered is that every time we do a scene we find a different angle to one of the friendships.

In the singing session with Kim we went over As Soon As I Get Home, we set the pace so that Jess and I were both comfortable with it, we decided to keep it quite slow at the beginning and then increase in speed, I suggested this as I said it shows her distress increasing throughout the song and I felt it gave us more to work up to at the end of the song. I decided at the end to build it up but then retract quite suddenly near the end into my head voice to show more of her sadness across as she says "What am I doing here?... I wish I was Home" to show she has calmed down but she doesn't know what to do just that she wants to be home. Also as she is alone in this point of time, she allows herself to let loose her emotions, as I said in my character interpretation how she has this wall up stopping her from freely using her emotions. This really helped me evolve my character as it allows me to show more emotion as she hasn't shown much at this point of the story also makes her more dynamic.

I think that my strengths in this lesson were focus and ideas contribution through coming up with different movement suggestions. My weaknesses in this lesson would probably be characterisation, to improve this I will go through each scene and write what my character is going through in that particular scene as well as the relationships within the scenes such as lion, Tinman and Scarecrow, I will do this for each scene as we get to it and have it done within the next two weeks.



Thursday, 10 March 2016

Interpretation Of My Character

My character is Dorothy.

A basic observation of her as a character would be that she is a typical irritating teenager that just avoids all her responsibilities. However when you go more into detail of her story, with the death of her parents she probably has a lot of insecurities and problems. Then as a result she puts up this difficult persona as a façade, as if she is putting up a wall of sorts to cover how she is actually feeling and not letting anyone in which then as a results frustrates her Aunt Em because she cannot understand her or how to help her.

Throughout the story she obviously meets all the different people however with the main three friends they each in a way represent something she is insecure about.

With the Scarecrow he represents brains, therefore it can be the fact that she needs to start using her brain more and to think about everything she is doing and how it is effecting others. To add to this I do think she starts off very naïve and as the story progresses she does get a lot more mature and smarter so it shows her development with this aspect.

For the Tinman he represents heart or affection, this would be how she isn't showing much and failing to let how she actually feels show and keeping her emotions to herself. As she meets all these friends across the show we see her show her emotions more and have a less harsh attitude and by the end of it she can freely share her emotions.

The Lion represents courage, she is afraid to show her feelings and afraid I think to be herself, having to go through all the obstacles she has to it makes her toughen up and linking with the affection she has something to fight for therefore her courage overrides her fear which as a result makes her see how much Aunt Em cares for her from everything she has done for her and how brave she has been.

Overall by the end of the story I feel she has completely come out of herself and found who she is and what to appreciate in life and where she has to go.

Wednesday, 9 March 2016

Wiz 8/3

In this lesson we finished blocking act one and did solo singing sessions with Kim.

Finishing the blocking for act one was good because I didn't even realise how far we had got with the blocking, also it made it a lot easier for us to memorise our lines as we could associate it with the scenes in which we have blocked. This also really helped me develop my character as I was able to see the adventure she takes and the obstacles she overcomes and how she does it, the story is really all about the development of Dorothy so to start to understand this is really helpful for me to play my character correctly. I loved learning through blocking how it was so different to The Wizard of Oz and how all the relationships are so different as well even though they are supposedly the same story. As this blocking is like a first draft I'm sure it will change a lot through the process as we grow as our characters and our relationships build, however we have started it off involving a lot of movement to appeal to our younger target audience which the show is aimed at.

With Kim I went through the song Home which is the finale and my characters climax song, I hadn't sung this yet so I was quite nervous I had listened to different versions previous to this lesson so I had a feeling how I wanted to perform it as well as how it went. I like the song but it is a killer sing so I was a little worried but with Kim we went through it setting the pace and how to sing the end section as it was quite high. This song is the full on turning point for my character, she has got to her final destination she has learnt all she had to by this point she is a completely different person and she is just letting it all out in this song which is what I wanted her to portray in this song. This song is very similar to her first one As Soon As I Get Home but at the same time is very different, in the first one she is concealing her emotions a lot and just stating the obvious whereas the last one she is releasing all emotions she has been holding in the whole time.

I think my strengths in this lesson were characterisation and focus however I think I need to improve my energy and contribution wothin blocking ideas I can do this by looking through my script in act two and write down any suggestions or ideas that I have I will do this in my free time by next lesson so that I am prepared.

Tuesday, 1 March 2016

1/3 with Dance

In this lesson we focused a lot on singing with Kim as we hadn't done much of it recently. We went through the songs, Ease on Down the Road and No bad news. I liked going through these as firstly singing is a personal fave within musical theatre but also I hadn't heard many of the class sing before so it was cool to hear everyone and to get to know the songs more. Because it was kind of the first time that we were all singing to together, I think it was good that we did an upbeat fun song that everyone could get into.

After we did singing with Kim we started working out No Bad News which is Evilenes song. We firstly discussed how we wanted as a group to base the song as in each version the workers are doing different things lastly Rachel put forward that we should make it a vinyl factory and everyone liked it as it went with the time of the show and made the dance more interesting and less confusing for the dancers. I really like this idea as makes the piece more edgy and cool also i love a good prop with a dance. Dorothy isn't a part of this number as it is before the witch and Dorothy have met one another. So I mainly helped with choreography ideas with Bu, but I also started working on my number I have to create which is everybody Rejoice. I researched different versions people had done and then listened to the version we had before writing down ideas that I had as well as costume ideas.

In this lesson I think that my strengths were giving choreography ideas, my weakness was probably not the song lyrics 100% to improve this I will learn and listen to the songs whenever I can so that they stick in my head and make the whole show process easier I will do this by easter holidays.

In dance we went over with Kat what we had done in the lesson for No Bad News. After this we split into two half of us worked on the Crows number and the other half on the poppies number. I was involved with the Crows number. We came up with a lot of material within the number, I came up with certain moves that I thought were more characterised and crow like so the routine didn't look too dancey because that wasn't what ash wanted who was in charge of this number. At the end of the lesson we performed it to the other half of the class. We then had to write targets for ourselves based on our work in the lessons and the performing it.

I said that my coordination went well and that i remembered all the choreography. To improve i said overall that the crows needed to improve with timing however this was the first time with the music so I think after practicing with the msuci and making sure everyone knows their counts it will be okay we can practice when we have a free slot up until the show. Another improvement was posture, this we can also develop with practice, trying to maintain a crow like posture without the dance to give it more characterisation maybe do some research on crows so you can get more crow like habits in which we can insert into our routine do this by the next few rehearsals.