Task 1-reflections

From the 16th-20th:

Monday:

On Monday the 16th we had our first workshop session. We measured each other for our costumes in Aladdin. We found this useful because some of us didn’t know how to measure so it will help us for future reference if we ever need to do it again. I paired up with Robyn, and as we had already done measurements in Cadets we didn’t really struggle.

Tuesday:

On Tuesday the 17th our first lesson was singing with Carly and this is where we ‘auditioned’ for the part we wanted to go for. We got into groups and read a scene together playing the character we wanted. I was in a group with Robyn, Brogan and Alice, we took it in turns to read for the handmaidens and princess blossom and Robyn read for Aladdin. From this, I learnt that we needed to project our voices more because for this performance were not using a mic. I found it quite difficult to be louder as I’ve always been quite quiet but I went out of my comfort zone and tried to do the best I could and tried to be ‘over the top’ because its a pantomime. This is something i definitely need to improve on as its important for pantos that you really get across how your character is meant to be. I think as we do more and more acting ill get more confident around the people we’re with which will make it easier to perform in front of them, but as this was within the first few weeks i was nervous about it.

For our second lesson we learnt ‘can’t stop the feeling’ from the trolls movie which is one of the songs we sing in the panto. We all knew this song but we had to look at the trolls version which is slightly different. At the end of the lesson Carly revealed what part we are got in Aladdin, I got Rose who is a handmaiden to the princess and Alice and Grace got the other 2 handmaidens. Im very happy I got this part because I wouldn’t want to straight away jump into learning loads of lines when acting isn’t my strong point. With learning these few lines I think it will help me to slowly gain more confidence in acting.

In our Third lesson which was Dance, we did a long warm up and ab workouts which will help us to be stronger and build muscle and we did corner work so people can get more familiar with basic steps. We then practiced a lift which we are going to do in ‘Fabulous Baby’ with Widow Twankey. This made us all realize it wasn’t as easy as it looks and we really had to keep concentration to lift the person up and she had to feel comfortable with who was lifting her. It was useful learning it early on instead of too near the time so then it comes easier to the people lifting instead of panicking or not knowing how to do it safely until the day.

Wednesday:

On Wednesday the 18th we only had one lesson which was with Carly. We blocked scenes 1-4 and kept doing it over and over. We had do be over dramatic and interact with the audience making sure our voices are clear and loud. We also learnt that we really have to make sure the jokes come across funny by making certain words have a stronger sound. When we did our scene we had to make sure that out of the 3 girls we could see that they’re 3 different personalities and get that across by using our voices by sounding over excited and over the top about everything we said. At first I found this quite difficult but as we kept doing it it became easier to get into character. Something we didn’t really think about was posture which is a weakness i have because sometimes i don’t know how to stand when acting or how the characters posture would be. This is always seen in pantos and is always clear which character is which.

Thursday:

On Thursday we had our 3 hour dance lesson with Hayley and we started choreographing ‘Fabulous Baby’. We learnt about a minutes worth and we had to focus on lots of things to make the performance really good and energetic. For example, at the beginning when we are pretending to have a chat we really have to use our faces to show were not just standing there. I found this quite difficult as its awkward at first but when you get into it more it becomes easier. As we see widow Twankey start dancing we had to start to get more energetic and getting into it with big facial expressions, smiling and building up to the dance. We had to make sure were doing strong movements and engaging with the audience so the dance looks clean. A weakness as an ensemble was that when we were doing the first bit of the dance everyone was doing it differently, which later on we fixed, this is because sometimes we lack on concentration meaning wee not listening properly. A strength we had however was from as soon as we learnt it we put lots of effort in and practiced it a lot and put energy into it.

Monday 23rd

On Monday we had our first workshop/work experience session. We all had to go around and answer questions about our thoughts on invisibility. I found it hard to write about it on the spot, but as we thought about it more and more it made sense and we had things to write about. We all had to come up with thoughts of what it meant to us and then we had to go into groups and anonymously discuss other peoples opinions on what was written on the piece of paper and then decide on the ones we thought were the best. We never really got told what it meant and why we were doing it, so we guessed that we had to interpret it in our own way. Then we went into groups and had to choreograph a small piece (4 counts of 8) to a contemporary/movement based piece. As a group we worked really well together and we managed to get it all finished. We struggled on finding a song that matched with our choreography so i think next time to make it better we could find a song first and then choreograph to it, it would’ve been easier like this. The teacher also got us to slide on the floor and do some “basic” contemporary dance moves, however it was very painful and as she didn’t get us to stretch properly it was difficult to move around. This was a weakness for most people as everyone was in a lot of pain and no one could really do the movement he was trying to teach us, also it didn’t get used in what we were actually doing so we didn’t understand why she got us to do it.

Tuesday 24th

Today in our first lesson, we practiced scene from scene 1-4 and our main focus was to try to make our characters significantly different. My weaknesses that i found was that i need to project my voice more and consistently stay in a very princess-like position showing we’re girly. After this we carried on from scene 5-8, we went through a piece in the play which is meant to be a badly danced ballet piece to swan lake music. During this we still had to make our characters clear which in a way i found easier because as were handmaidens we are supposed to be girly therefore it was easier to dance to ballet and look graceful. In our last lesson which was Dance we learnt some more of Fabulous Baby. As a group i think our weaknesses were trying to get into straight lines and have neat spacing in general. Our strengths were that we all put a lot of effort in and made it energetic and joyful. Something some people struggled on was co ordination, sometimes making the lesson longer as they would have to be taught how to do it correctly which was sometimes frustrating for people who could do it as we wanted to carry on learning the dance.

Wednesday 25th

On Wednesday we had singing in which we learnt ‘can’t stop the feeling’. I think as a group we found it easy to be able to sing the songs in parts but one thing we had to work on was dynamics to make it a strong performance as its the opening of the play, our volume is something that needs a lot of work, as we haven’t known each other long i think we find it hard to give all confidence.

After this we had work experience again and we learnt more of the choreography based on invisibility. We worked well as a group and picked up the choreography easily, no one really had problems learning this. This time it was easier to be more engaged to what we were doing as we were actually learning the piece that were going to be performing instead of just learning random dance moves. Something I think we could work on is using our face more to create emotion, however this was hard as we weren’t explained what it was meant to be about so we didn’t know what emotion to give.

Thursday 26th

On Thursday we learnt some more of Fabulous Baby. I think what we did well was that we tried to use facial expressions and look happy and sassy as its a very showgirl number. We can use this in future as well so for every ‘sassy’ number we do we can look back at this and remember everything we got told to do like: always show energy and look like we are enjoying it and to really make every movement big especially hip movements. Things that we all struggled on was our spacing, when they lifted Twankey we had to make sure we left enough space around Twankey whilst we were doing step bull changes in a circle, also some of the choreography was quite fast and we had to practice it over again until we got it right but this is a good thing so that in rehearsal we can practice it confidently.

Also when we went out into a circle we had to try lots of different methods and see which one looked best and neatest. I think this is a good way so you can try different ideas and then figure out whats best. As a group also we always need to make it more exaggerated and over the top even if we feel like we look silly we don’t because the more we give it then the performance will look a lot better.

Some of our strengths as a group are:

Good at remembering choreography

Good at helping eachother out to help others perform to their best ability

work well as a team to achieve a good atmosphere

committed to choreograph in fabulous baby

constructive criticism

Some of our weaknesses are:

develop strength on exaggerating

focus in rehearsal

script annotations

be louder and bigger all the time

confidence

look like were enjoying ourselves more

we get distracted easily

Cathy workshop:

On Monday we had work experience, we started putting together the actors with the dancers and got the actors to learn the dance piece. A big struggle we had as a group was when the counts were and when to stop after a certain count of 8s, some people found this hard as some have never done dance before. Gradually after doing it loads of times we managed to get it better than it was before, we only ever got it right a few times but with practice it will be fine. All we did was practice over and over again so my strength was that I knew what I was doing, its hard to find a weakness as this is what we were doing literally all day and thats the only piece I was in.

Tuesday 1st:

On Tuesday in our lesson we did all Act 1 of Aladdin. After, Carly gave us some notes/feedback and it was mainly about our exiting so she got us all to practiced how our characters would walk on and off stage. This was very useful because it helps us to show our character more using gestures and posture to present them. A strength I found was that its quite easy to think of how a girly-like character would stand but still make the contrast different to Alice and Grace, however I felt quite shy and awkward doing this as we are still getting used to each other and we just had to do it in-front of everyone.

After this we had more work experience, we carried on putting the piece together and quite a few things had to keep being changed so that it would look right. Our group had to try to choreograph a small piece to a speech but we worked badly as a group and I found it extremely difficult to work with them, partially because only 2 of them were in my class and the rest weren’t so I didn’t really know who they were properly and also I kept getting really frustrated because I was trying to concentrate on it and the teachers kept coming over. Our piece ended up getting cut out of the performance which was quite annoying for us as we’ve tried to put something together to then be told were not doing it anymore. As we were the only group not doing anything other than the dance piece that everyone was doing, we found it really boring and we weren’t happy. Something I think I could do better next time is maybe just speak up and ask for help instead of getting frustrated about it and try to engage with the other people more as I feel like our group didn’t interact with each other making us seem lazy.

Wednesday 2nd:

On Wednesday our first lesson was singing and we learnt “Wedding Day” which is the finale song/dance in Aladdin. We got split into harmonies which was quite difficult because we kept merging into the same one, I found it easy to remember my own harmony but as its such a small group we have to make sure the contrast is really there otherwise we all just sound like were making the same sound. We managed to finish the whole song and it was quite easy to learn for us as the chorus is the same making it easier to remember. After this we had work experience again, as I was only in for an hour, when I got there it had been fully finished which meant we just kept going over it until it was perfect, it was boring as we just kept having to repeat the same dance moves and I found it hard to sit still during other peoples speeches, they kept telling me off for this and I was getting upset as I was trying my hardest. We later on performed to our parents at meet the tutors evening, it went well and we thought we did the best we could, all the parents thought it was good too. As a group we learnt that even though we didn’t have long to learn it we could still make it work if we put effort in and listened to what we needed to do and it still looked professional.

Thursday 3rd:

On Thursday we finished Fabulous Baby. We had to use a lot of energy and enthusiasm to make the song have more meaning. In this number we are egging Widow Twankey on and all have to be very sassy, use facial expressions and clear body language to show this. Mainly in this lesson we focused on body language and how we can all dance the same but still do it as our individual character. One of my weaknesses was definitely trying to find my own poses to do and thinking up of sassy movements, I’m quite bad at thinking of stuff like this on the spot, but I can go away and come back next lesson knowing what poses I’m going to do. One of my strengths however is that my choreography memory is good so I managed to remember all of it, this is a good strength I have about me, as it means when were learning stuff I van get on with it quickly without having to go back trying to remember choreography, and also what helps is that we film the numbers so we can go home and practice them. Next time I think we need to focus on giving more ‘happy’ faces so that we look like were having a good time and when we do our ‘sassy walk’ it looks more showgirl-like if we give it face because otherwise it will be boring and look like we don’t want to be there. For the whole of the 3 hour dance session this is what we spent doing so it was useful to us as we could get a lot of practice in that time as we have 3 other numbers to learn still.

Tuesday 8th:

On Tuesday we learnt the song “Wedding day”. Ryan choreographed this with us and we managed to learn quite a lot of it in a short time. A struggle that reoccured when learning this piece was thinking quickly on my feet of what poses I could do with my partner, so with this we asked for help, I think what I can do to improve this is watch more dance routines to get more creative ideas to do with dance and choreography, as this will also help for next term as we are doing devising. Later on in the day we had Carly and Ryan who got us to try to perform Fabulous Baby whilst singing with no soundtrack only backing music, this was a BIG fail and something we all need to work on as a group. I think the main reason we did badly was that we haven’t done it without a backing track before and never really sang to it so our stamina was bad, also as this dance is very difficult and exhausting alone without singing! As we’ve just finished learning this dance it was hard to try to straight away sing without any soundtrack but as we get more confident with the dance and if everyone knows the lyrics I think it will become muscle memory as far as dancing and get easier to sing especially if everyone works as a group and practices.

After this, we all sat down and Ana went through loads of questions about our character in Aladdin for example: how old they are, their childhood ect… this was really helpful to us as it can help us present our character more and think about them properly and not just imagine what they look like, but understand how they would act, this will help with any role we get because you always need to keep in mind your characters background and age so you can act out how they would behave. We then got into groups and discussed what we thought each other characters would be like, this helped because then we could also see other peoples views on it. We then had to come up with a word to describe our character. I thought of the word ‘Feminine’ because my character is quite mature but girly at the same time. We then had to apply this to when were dancing and acting, for example: when we run we have to run how our character would run. I enjoyed doing this because it really helped to show our character and make it realistic so that when were dancing we don’t merge into one or a completely different character and people don’t forget who we are.

Then we practiced singing “Wedding day” and danced al of what we learnt of it so far. Carly got us to sing it running on the spot which I think is useful because when we actually do it we will be dancing and it helps us to build up our stamina, we should do this for most songs and is helpful to do this with any song. We all now need to start putting both together and using our own voices because if only one person sings no one else will but if we all try together as an ensemble it will really help to start doing it now instead of waiting till last minute and it sounding bad. Carly then asked us to perform it in groups of 4 and get feedback from each other which was helpful because then others can see our mistakes and we can see where we need to improve. Some feedback I got given was that even when I went wrong not to let it show by making faces, but just to carry on smiling or improvise as no one will notice as much and also it doesn’t matter if we go too wrong as its a Panto. Another thing I think I need to work on as a dancer is when doing the movements I to fully extend my arms on each movement and always give over 100% energy and make it even more exaggerated as its a pantomime.

Thursday 10th:

On Thursday the first thing we did was a warm up with Ryan and we did a meditation type of thing where we were lying on the floor and we had to practice using our voice to make a “fffff” sound and a “shhh” sound called fricatives to help us warm up our voices, we can apply these exercises when about to sing, or if were late to singing warm up, then do these on the way. This is something I and a lot of people weren’t familiar with and can help us in future to warm up if we don’t have time or just to help with singing in general.

We then all had a group discussion about ‘Healthy voice’ from the book (singing for dummies, Ps Phillips, 2011). Here are some notes that we took. We went through the things that are bad for your voice and effect your lungs. Some things we found were: Alcohol, this is bad for your voice because it makes your blood vessels dial and when they dilate the blood thins and comes to the surface, which makes you more susceptible to a haemorrhage on your vocal chords. Therefore you should limit your alcohol and drink plenty of water on days where you choose to drink. Another thing thats really bad is cigarettes, it causes inflammation of the tissues in the throat and long term use or association can permanently damage your vocal chords. Dairy also builds up mucus in your throat so if you’re going to perform that day you shouldn’t have dairy, just water. Some tips/healthy things for your voice that we learnt were that: To use full volume hen you need to be heard, but don’t scream/ talk at a reasonable volume don’t be loud all the time, notice your articulation as you speak, avoid speaking with tension. This lesson was extremely useful as I didn’t know about a lot of these things and how badly they can actually effect your voice, this helps us all because from now on and for future reference we will know what to do and what we shouldn’t do.

ABSENT FROM 15nd TO 21st (in this time at home I had a really bad migraine meaning I wasn’t able to physically practice anything but I did some coursework and looked over the dances to keep my memory fresh)

Tuesday 22nd to Thursday 24th:

On Tuesday we learnt cant stop the feeling and friend like me. Carly choreographed Cant stop the feeling with us, we had to think of different movements in slow motion and then had to get into twos to learn a partner routine. As an ensemble we struggled to do the “salsa” bit as it was quite fidley, none of us apart from some people have done this before and can be quite tricky to dance with a partner if you haven’t before. A strength we had was singing along to it as we were familiar with this song so this was an advantage to us. Something we need to work on is using our faces especially during the slow motion bit as this has to be extremely exaggerated and funny to create a good performance as its the opening number.

On Wednesday we had a workshop session with Emma in which we had to build the rostras for the audience to sit on, we had to work as a team to do this and we came across many problems like some of the legs were the wrong length so we had to make sure other people were holding it up right so we could change the legs. It was interesting to us as we’ve never done anything like this before and its quite a big responsibility.

On Thursday we went over all the dances we have learnt because it was the last day of rehearsals. We went over fabulous Baby without the soundtrack but we kept forgetting the words so it made it hard to keep on doing the dance without showing that its gone wrong, over half term we all need to look over the song and make sure we know exactly what were doing so were prepared for when we come back, as we don’t have much time now. Something we need to work as an ensemble to deliver a good performance is just to carry on otherwise it will be obvious that we messed up and people will realise, however if we save each other in it it will look good. We did this all day and I felt like this was good for us because we could ask all the questions we wanted to and we had the time to clean it before we go away over half term and don’t know what were doing, as an ensemble we thought about what we needed to improve on and really worked on these.

HALF TERM

(wouldn’t let me upload rest of them)

Tuesday 12th- Thursday 14th Nov:

On Tuesday we went through the whole of Aladdin, including the dances as well. As an ensemble we didn’t do well on the dances, we seemed to be lacking in volume when performing the numbers and our spacing wasn’t great either. The main skill and weakness that was affecting this all is our stamina, all together we need to work on this as were not going to be able to ever do a number if we don’t have any stamina. A way that we can improve this is by keeping on practicing over again and also Carly get us to sing running on the spot which is a great way to help us. Something I did badly was that I forgot a lot of the Wedding day song and because we have to sing at the same time it made it even more difficult to do both correctly. A way that I can improve this is by making sure that in my own time I go over the dances by watching the videos and practice singing them at home. Over half term I honestly didn’t really practice them because I had maths revision and my maths exams and was really stressing about that, but again coping with this and equaling things out is something I need to improve on and I can do this by doing maybe an hour of each a day so I’m not overloading my brain and making myself stressed. However a strength that I had was I think that I was louder and tried to use more volume than I usually do and with the props and things its definitely making it easier just to ‘go for it’ and present that pantomime character.

From the 18th-22nd November (rehearsals)

Monday 18th to Friday 22nd it was the week before Aladdin so we rehearsed fully from Act 1 to Act 2. We firstly started off by just doing a run through and seeing how long it took us, the first run through they did I wasn’t there however I got told that it was too long and that the scenes need to be quicker. We also spent a lot of time cleaning and finishing numbers. We knew what we were doing in ‘can’t stop the feeling’ and ‘wedding day’ but the main issues were spacing in ‘friend like me’ and ‘fabulous baby’ so we went over the spacing and because this was the first time properly rehearsing them in the theatre we didn’t realise we had as little space as we did. A lot of the spacing needed to be changed and we had to be aware of whats around and not bump into each other. It was quite difficult for us at first to get used to it but we just had to get on with it and still go for it even if we had to move slightly to make the spacing even.

We also did a tech run in our costumes as well to make sure the mics were ok and also to set the lighting and make sure it looks good with the costumes, for us this was quite boring as we just had to stand there whilst they set the lighting but we understand that its important and necessary and that also we get to see what the process is like and to just do what were told to do and listen otherwise it will be our fault if it looks bad and also we had to make sure our costumes were okay to dance in as some people had dress-like costumes. For our 3 character we knew it wasn’t a problem to dance in our costumes however we needed to cut out the hats because to all of them had elastic so it would’ve looked off if half were wearing them and half weren’t. Our strengths as an ensemble were that even though it was sometimes boring for us we pushed through it and were patient and took the time for everyone to go through what they felt needed to be cleaned, another strength was that even when things were changed around we were able to adapt to it and still deliver a good performance. My personal (and possibly as an ensemble) weakness was that I think we should’ve spent more time going over the dances with no soundtrack so we got used to singing a lot earlier on as this affected me in the performance as I felt I wasn’t able to sing as loudly as I could. Also I feel like instead of always practicing the dances we should’ve gone over some scenes and spacing instead of just practicing in any position we wanted too, I think in future we will remember this and use our time better to practice.