Our aims for this lesson were to explore our characters/groupings (ie. royals, servants, magicals etc) physicality, to gain a further understanding of our characters and relationships, and to become accustomed to a physical approach to the rehearsal process without scripts in hand.
All of these points are important for our performance specifically due to it being performed at the Brighton Open Air Theatre, shown below. Because it is outside, it is easy for the wind to take away our voices, due to the lack of acoustics, usually provided by an inside auditorium. Due to the size of the space, potentially seating 425 audience members, Our physicality can be lost if it is not big and over exaggerated. This is important for our groupings, for example if one character group of a specific status has a motif or movement, the actors need to ensure all members are doing it in the same style, level of tension and in unison, to establish their relationship to the audience, even at the back row.
As part of our concept for the production, we are using Kneehigh and their stylised fashion of performance. The four main points that make a piece stylised are The 7 States of Tension, Pace, Repetition and Exaggeration.
We are pulling stylised inspiration from groups/practitioners such as DV8, Frantic Assembly, Complicite and obviously Kneehigh.
GC1- For a successful ensemble in this circumstance, musical and verbal skills are all needed at equal importance, with physical just below. Musically, we need to be able to show our skills with professionalism and flair, to a high standard. This will enhance showing our audience that we can work and create as an efficient ensemble. Our verbal skills can be used in the workshop section of our performance, to be able to communicate well with the students at Durrington High School, teaching them good ensemble skills and about the themes and plot of the Show, We Will Rock You. Our physical skills are important as we need to show our characters so that the audience can understand our relationships, for example Brit and Meat, need to have intimate postures and movements to show they are together. However because we are not performing any dance, our physical skills are not the most vital.
Tuesday's rehearsal videos:
GC2 & GC3-
We began by discussing the way we wanted the performance and workshop at Durrington to go, As a group we talked about the format of the performance. We decided to use duets from the three main partnerships in the show, Scaramouche and Galileo, Meat and Brit and Killer Queen, however Khashoggi (Jordy and Sam) are going to be introducing the piece, and therefore are not singing. From this we chose I want It All, Another One Bites The Dust and Under Pressure. We also chose two songs that utilise our ensemble skills as a company, We Are The Champions and Radio Ga Ga. These are also the songs that we are most prepared with, some with choreography and parts divided and readily rehearsed. I suggested splitting each duet by cast, having one cast
perform one half of the song, and the other performing the next part. This
allows for a more ensemble feel, and for each actor to be able to show their
interpretation of their characters. For example Jaydee and I, both playing
Brit, have a very contrasting take on the role, I used Meat to show her softer and
more sensual side, whereas Jaydee displays her as a harsh and rough tomboy,
showing off her high status at The Heartbreak Hotel.
We then split off into groups, one for the songs and one for
the workshop section. Working on the song choices made, I lead the Radio GaGa
discussion, because Talia and I had already choreographed for this song, and we
planned to use it for the workshop. We also went through each song deciding when to switch casts and when to cut them. Cutting the songs means for a shorter snippet of each song, keeping the younger audience engaged. In terms of organisation, in the group we had at least one person from each pairing, therefore we could decide who would be singing what fairly and with good knowledge of the songs in an effective and disciplined manner. As seen in the videos, Talia, Olivia and myself worked on splitting and working on I Want It All, with our designated parts. We found that because of our younger audience and possible disinterest, adding choreography was vital. Talia and I discussed successfully a simple but effective routine that involves our physical skills, that also allow for audience interaction, using direct address. Splitting off in this way allows for us all to focus hard on each aspect of our own characters and performances, working collaboratively to develop each others performances. For example I helped Jaydee in showing character through her voice when singing, and she encouraged my confidence when directly singing to audience members.
When returning to the other group, we discussed what we had so far, and performed what we had decided on. This first run through was really helpful in gaining a better understanding of what we wanted to teach in the workshop to follow, and allowed us to contribute ideas as an ensemble.
Thursday (day of performance) rehearsal videos:
GC2 & GC3- As this was the day of the performance, we felt it was important to refine and perfect our movement and formations throughout the whole piece, to demonstrate our skills with flair and creativity. Talia and I taught the rest of the cast the rest of the Radio GaGa choreography. This involved using my communication and leadership skills in a professional manner, as it was important that everyone felt confident on the movement as this type of unison fits with the narrative of the song, the meaning behind it and also shows our professionalism when performing.
This time was mainly dedicated to running the performance as a whole, and as for the weaker parts, out of lesson we decided to develop these. Also, we looked heavily at the format and logistics of the workshop. We decided who was saying what and our groupings efficiently. In exercises in lessons, we normally work without pairings in relation to the narrative of the show, however for this workshop we felt it would be contrasting and more interesting for the students if we worked with people we would not normally work with, also showing them to work with anyone and everyone, which is a vital aspect of a successful ensemble.
The most beneficial part of this rehearsal for me was being able to sing through the whole piece with the backing we will be performing with. Beforehand we had used the original soundtrack as it was much simpler for rehearsals, however when being accompanied live, it allows for easier cuts, and for a more fluid medley feel to the piece as a whole. This gave me a lot of confidence for the performance, as my character and audience reaction had improved massively since working on it with Jaydee. However, this is going to be very different to the students as i do not know them, and they may not be as likely to join in and clap etc. Before leaving for the school, Talia and i took time to rehearse our part of the song, recapping the physical and musical aspects to ensure our performance was well rehearsed and showed us working as a successful ensemble.
GC4- Overall I really
enjoyed the So Sing! performance and thought it went really well. I used my
confidence and connections with the group to show emotions for the songs, for
example in the finale song we improvise clapping and simple dancing just having
fun and because all of our smiles were genuine it makes for a better performance.
I used focus in my facial expressions to show seriousness in the lower parts of
the medley which created a contrast. During the split sections using
countermelodies I kept my beat and to my lyrics really well and had no trouble
being able to project enough to hear myself over others singing the other part
next to me. This is the same as the harmonies, especially in the final couple
of lines of the piece, we sang the chorus of 'Keeping Your Head Up' accapella,
which included some really smooth harmonies, which was really effective and had
a massive impact after the performance.
This contrasts heavily to when we performed this same piece
again at a meeting with all of the staff at college, presenting the department
because of the impressive reputation we have developed. The audience were less
involved, didn't clap and smile along like the previous audience, which was
slightly off putting, however I and my ensemble maintained our composition and
flair. This is due to them not being the type of people that would normally be
involved in the arts, however we wanted to show them our skills and impress
them. I found it harder to make eye contact with this audience whilst
performing my solo, which meant it may have looked as though I lost focus throughout.
GC1- For this performance, I need to focus on my musical skills
the most, followed by physical. Verbal is not necessary as I am only singing
and doing some simple choreography. I
need to ensure my physical and musical skills work well together for myself and
also with the rest of the company as this performance is based on creating
exciting medley work in a large group, using harmonies, countermelodies and
different types of accompaniment.
GC2 & GC3- So Sing! is a performance we have been given the chance to
perform in, organised by our college which invites schools, colleges and
theatre companies or artists to come and perform and enjoy others performances
throughout the night. For our piece we are doing a medley of modern and well
known songs. It is important we show our expertise as we are hosting and want
to show what we are capable of.
Initially, we began with doing some counter melody warm ups
to get used to singing contrasting parts at the same time, as some of the cast
had never done it before. This is really helpful for developing a successful
ensemble as it needs you to all work together but separately at the same time.
I helped my peers by explaining why and how counter melodies work from my
previous experiences with it; this gave me and them more confidence in
rehearsal.
When rehearsing with the lyrics we found it hard to develop
well because we were being held back. Therefore we split into groups to
rehearse the songs we were least confident on. My group and I chose 'Tears Dry on
Their Own' and 'Keeping Your Head Up', as these verses is the ones we were
least confident on. We began by decided to split the time equally and work as a
group, repeatedly singing through parts and trying out our own harmonies to
suggest to the rest of the group. I found this rehearsal really useful because it
allowed me to voice my ideas and discuss them further rather than proposing
something to the whole group straight away. It gave me confidence running the
songs with people I am comfortable and confident around whilst helping me learn
lyrics. When returning to the main group, we all knew our lyrics much better
and this allowed us to consider some movements and work on harmonies and vocal accompaniments
during some solos.
For the coming rehearsals I made sure I was contributing and being engaged throughout the session, I was prepared with my lyrics now learnt and harmonies practiced alone and with groups in my spare time.
As for my solo, I received it quite late in the process so I
worked on it out of rehearsal a lot, disciplining myself to at least practice once
a day. As I have one of the verses from 'Tears Dry on Their Own', the octave
was quite low due to Amy Winehouse's style. I struggled a lot to reach these
notes and project my voice enough to be heard well over the piano and guitar.
Other soloists and I from the same song all worked together trying our
different ways of sing our lines higher, making them our own. This allowed me
to perform it with much more creativity and personality, creating a better
performance for the audience.
As for the movement, we all developed some simple gestures
directly linked to some of the lyrics, including reaches and hands on our
hearts, all of which look really effective as an ensemble, but not as a solo.
We also rock slightly t the beginning of the first song, during solos, again
this would not look right as a solo, however when the whole company is
performing such a simple movement all in unison it creates a wholesome feel,
making it aesthetically pleasing for the audience. This also displays our
skills sets. I worked with our choreographer to try out moves, in a discussion
of trial and error during runs of the piece.
GC4- Upon reflection of
the performance, I feel it went really well. My duet/group piece, I Want It All
had a lot more energy and group communication than expected. I interacted well
with my audience despite being apprehensive, but when I got i=n stage I took
it professionally and made consistent eye contact with audience members and had
a confident flair about me throughout. In our whole cast pieces, Radio GaGa and
We Are The Champions, our collaborative creative skills were shown well, during
one of the songs one cast member was in the wrong positioning, however through
efficient non verbal communication between us all we made it look as if it was
intentional, and had a very professional approach to the issue. I really pushed
all of my characterisation, using exaggeration and large gestures when not
doing choreography. This pushed other cast members to build energy and
confidence also. In the workshop I found it hard to create and be motivational
for the students as they didn't really want to get involved, however Sam and I maintained
our professional status and composure, asking the students in our group
questions that appropriately allowed them to contribute well to the ensemble
and imaginative idea for the workshop. This also allowed for the more shy
students in the group to be full involved, which is really important if you
want everyone involved, listening to everyone's ideas allows for more
diversity
GC4- Overall I am very happy with my performance in We Will Rock
You, on and off cast. When playing Brit, I had confidence and flair about me
and my character, showing an intimate relationship with Meat whilst involving
the audience in the song I Want It All. I made sure to make eye contact as much
as possible and get really close to the front row, smiling and looking at
members I knew and didn't know, I feel this enhances a performance, and it is
the kind of production that has a message directed clearly to the audience, and
therefore directly involving them will help them to understand this. When off cast I successfully mastered creating
bubbly energy for the main cast actors, from experience I knew how tough it is
to create an engaging scene when the ensemble is flat, specifically in The
Heartbreak scene and at the Seven Seas of Rye Bar scene. Moments that stick out
for me include in Crazy Little Thing Called Love, On cast I knew my lyrics and
blocking very well and was as confident as I could be, meaning I could really
let loose and have fun, which from looking back, really shows. I excelled in showing
Brit's fun loving character and the meaning behind the well known and loved
song. I also interacted well with my ensemble ad-libbing woops and improvised
movements to each other across the stage, showing harmony and vast
relationships throughout. As for my physical skills, Another One Bites The Dust
was the most successful dance we had in the show. As a Yuppie I showed sass and
order with a small group of dancers, creating gestures and falls and marching,
to display Killer Queens high status with her power over us, and showing her
anger towards Khashoggi at the time.
GC1- I feel that for a musical performance, all three skills are important, the musical, physical and verbal aspects all need high levels of attention and energy upon performance. I feel most confident in my physical and verbal skills in this production, including numbers such as Seven Seas of Rye and One Vision. All three are important in a successful ensemble because it allows for everyones strengths to be shown, but also challenging everyone too. When everyone in a cast is giving full energy and confidence in all three aspects it presents a well rehearsed production, which alongside our creative ideas, makes it appealing for audiences. GC2 & GC3- My rehearsal process was quite evenly split between ensemble
work, and on character as Brit with Talia playing Meat. This allowed me to
evenly learn and rehearse choreography, lines and songs for both. I ensured to
work out of lesson/rehearsal so that I could be prepared for rehearsals,
specifically with Talia as I had all of my scenes and songs with her. When
working as an ensemble, I felt we always worked really well as we often had the
whole cast available, and therefore could all contribute ideas and rehearse
together. I mainly contributed blocking and dance ideas, as I often find myself
having discussions with the director or choreographer about pieces. In terms of
choreography, Talia and I worked privately on Radio GaGa, creating the movement
for the song, to teach to the ensemble. This teaching aspect helped me to
remember my work better, and also gave me a leadership role which I am not used
to, but it pushed me to develop and work professionally, sometimes on the spot.
I worked heavily on I Want It All, as this song is my
opening number as Brit, and is all about what she wants in her life. Talia and I
worked with our director and pianist out of rehearsal on this song, as we
wanted to add some harmonies and work on timing. I suggested splitting the
riffs at the end of the song, making it more even. In terms of rehearsal, we
both regularly met up to run lines and songs rigorously to ensure our performance
was clean and refined, allowing us to develop movement and have fun with the
scenes. It also pulled us together as actors, enhancing the chemistry and believability
on stage. Often Talia would lead the singing rehearsals and I would lead the
more acting based rehearsals as these are both of our strength, and we worked
on blocking/dance together evenly. This was efficient as it used the time
wisely.
Another song I worked don was Headlong, including myself,
Meat (Talia), Galileo (Megan) and Scaramouche (Amber). This song is quite long,
and really needed some choreography. Which, at first, as quite difficult. I
came up with a few gestural ideas myself, and developed these with the group
when we came together. Using my time like this was really useful as I could
take my time and be creative, meaning I could come to rehearsals prepared and
able to teach or develop. We found it quite hard to remember lyrics for this
song as it is quite repetitive but with slight lyrical changes in each
verse/chorus, however this movement helped us a lot to follow the lyrics with specific
movements. This song definitely uses our physical verbal and musical skills, in
that some characters had minor dialogue in the song, and it showed our
characters personality traits clearly. We communicated well through our movements,
making gestures towards each other and making eye contact throughout, and when
singing, we worked on harmonies and looked heavily into timing in our own time,
again creating a disciplined and clean performance.
My line sin this production were quite tricky to learn as
they were often simple additions to conversations, or repetitive lines in a
scene that have slightly different wording ach time, making it hard to get it
perfect. I wrote my lines out and recorded them alone and with Talia, at home
and at college. This structured rehearsal time again allowed me to feel progressively
confident in rehearsal, and understand my character better.
The main ensemble scene I was involved in was at The
Heartbreak Hotel. In this I played Meat and an off cast Bohemian. When being
Britt I found it was really useful and encouraging when the cast reacted and
interacted well with myself and others on stage. This made me feel more
immersed as an actor and added to the level of energy on stage. When offcast I
made sure to react loud and clear, with some gestures, as I was able to follow
the scene with ease because of my previous knowledge of it. These actions and
reactions used our communication skills well, making eye contact with each
other and improvising personal movements to enhance the rough and fun feel to
the Bohemians as a group.
This is my performers showreel. I have selected these specific videos because I feel they show aspects of all of my performance disciplines, singing, dance and acting. I have started the video with my Rooster duet, from my A Level dance course, as it has a popular song accompanying it, and also has an active crowd as the opening audio. Another section from this video also end the reel, giving it a clean, well rounded feel, and a pleasant ending, alongside the ending to the dance. I have included Antigone, performed at the Brighton Open Air Theatre, to show performances in a different theatre, showing versatility. This is also a classical performance, displaying a range of performance skills and experience. Including Rent shows my singing abilities, I chose this specific section of the show as it includes my character acting through song, has a clear shot of me throughout and also includes my softer and louder, fuller singing. The clip from Our Country's Good shows my use of voice, specifically my accent. My character had a soft Irish accent, which again shows versatility, which is important to have in a showreel, as casting directors need to see everything upfront. I have put my contact email and Instagram in the opening shot, allowing anyone interested in me can access my information or get a further look into me as an actor.
Public liability Insurance
From this presentation, I learnt what Public Liability Insurance is. It is basically the way you can claim insurance if a member of the public suffers an injury or property is damaged due to your business. It helps to pay for compensation or other legal expenses, making it a necessity for businesses, especially in the manual labour and performing arts industry. It is not a legal requirement, however it is heavily recommended. As a performer, I plan to create my own theatre company as a part of my career, meaning this would be an essential, especially for a new company in the industry, not likely to have a lot of money.
Contract Law
A contract law is what secures an actors contract, agreed with a director or company, as mentioed in the presentation it is useful to have an agent and accountant to assist you if any issues uccour and to help check contracts, amking sure you are fully equipt and prepared to agree to a contract.
