Spice Girls Presentation Evaluation

Research Content & My Contribution:
Our Spice Girls sketch was successful in that we maintained our characters well, gave a lot of information about our own characters before after and during the Spice Girls and focused on the reasoning behind their break up, which is something we wanted to look at. My contribution included gathering information about my character, Baby Spice and also my area to research. We decided to allocate these out-

I had to look up why Virgin wanted a new girl band and how the fans reacted to them. The research aspect of my contribution was not the easiest for me. I struggled to find specific bits of information that I was looking for. It was important for our group to know about why the Spice Girls were wanted because this was a part of our scene, we plan to discuss why Virgin records approached us on a talk show style show. I also had to look up their audience reaction and their fans. I found that they gained a lot of fans very quickly, meaning we then knew that we would have to act as if we knew that we had support and had the confidence to carry ourselves in a certain way when performing as these characters.

In the sketch, I had to answer questions on the area that I studied, to prepare for this I looked up some real interviews in the earlier months of their debut, which also gave me a clearer idea as to how they interacted.

From this clip, I found that the girls have a lot of energy and their separate personalities come out. Especially between 'scary' and 'ginger' spice, they all talk over each other a lot which is something I reported back to my group. I feel that my character, Baby Spice, didn't have much to say, and maybe is more shy than the others, however she is sweet and unlike the other girls in ways, but seems to pull them together well. I noticed that Victoria, 'Posh Spice' remained very secluded throughout the interview, when saying her name she simply replied with 'Victoria' and is very composed and classy. This compared to Sporty, Ginger and Scary really adds to the idea of her being posh. 

This clip shows them being even more natural on television, they are very free and improvised in the way they discuss and present themselves to the public, enhancing their fun loving vibe they describe. From what I have found, This interview was 3-4 years after their success, and you can see some of the tension between them, especially compared to the earlier first clip.
I also researched some of the Spice Girls merchandise that was available, this included mugs, stationary, chocolates, clothing and dolls-

Devising Strategies:
In terms of devising we found this stage the easiest due to our planned research. Because everyone had their own sections to look up, we found that when putting it all together we had everything we needed. Initially, we found ourselves repeating parts that didn't matter, we practised our song 'Wannabe' more than needed, as this was supposed to seem improvised and free anyway. By using a trail and error method, we decided on the questions previously mentioned for Megan, our show host, to ask us and improvise our answers based on the research we all did. This way, we found small lines or jokes that worked well and chose to keep them , but keeping with our 'on the spot' style, influenced by the Spice Girls themselves. To make it easier, we decided to create a scene plan to secure our narrative-

When rehearing, we found it challenging to create an ending that fit the brief of the story of the band, which meant we needed to include some form of break up. We considered doing small monologues each to the audience, whoever this would have become quite boring for the audience as it would be a lower tone compared to the rest of the piece. we then planned to do a recorded scene and show it, but we decideed that doing a dramatic scene on stage would be much more effective due to the general vibe of the group. This also allowed us to bring up reasons as to why the girls often bickered and show their true opinions of each other, showing the audience the level of research we had done, without taking away from the presentation style that we had chosen, still incorporating the improvised, random interview feel as well as the dynamic of the band.

What I've Learnt About Working As A Musical Ensemble:

From creating and performing this piece, I have found that the most effective methods of working together involve all contributing and all having separate areas to focus on. Rather than one person leading, we found that if we all had an equal say and compromised efficiently we got things done well. Although it took us a little time in the beginning to find this rhythm and level ground it worked really well and allowed us to perfectly portray our intentions to the audience. Our main goal was to show the dynamic in the group from the inside and out, displaying the bands professionalism, but also the bare honesty between them, along with their own separate personalities. I think that if I were to do this again, I would have prioritised things better, ensuring we got everything done to our desired standard in time, we struggled to all create effective costumes, and revise the narrative, possibly making our performance seem unprepared. I also learnt that if everyone in a group is prepared to take their role seriously, you can really get a lot done in an effective way without compromising the quality of work produced. 

The Life And Times Of The Spice Girls-