In musical theatre this term, we are working on the opening piece from 'The Addams Family' Musical. The second year students are playing the roles of the Addams family, and the first years are their ancestors.
I got on very well with this routine, and I think everyone else did too. It has a little comedic edge, and none of the moves are too complicated so it's fair for everyone. We only just started, but we got through half of the dance fairly quickly, and it will be performed in our next performance.
Project Workshop 21/01/19
Today in project workshop we started choreographing the songs we were given from Little Shop. Me and Nehemie were given 'Skid Row'.
We watched a lot of videos of Doo Wop girls dancing and noticed some patterns. The girls used their hands a lot to illustrate a song, and also moved in sync. We used these ideas to create our choreography. At first we started with the girls because they're the first focus in the song.
This is the plan Nehemie drew out:
The different places are numbered so the girls knew what places to be in at what time. The stage is also drawn out to make placing easier, and to give a feel of what the actual performance would be like.
Project Workshop 22/01/19
Today in class we ran through the choreography we had to see if it would fit with the music. We tried different things and improvised a little, and then started to decide what would fit and what wouldn't.
By the end of the lesson, we had sorted out over half of the song, and just needed to clean it up before we approached the others.
Project Workshop 28/01/19
In this lesson, me and Ghazal focused on our characters, Winos, and how we could show who we were through our movements. We had to act drunk, which meant stumbling across the stage when transitioning.
For this part of Skid Row:
Uptown you cater to a million jerks.
Uptown you're messengers and mail room clerks.
Eating all your lunches at the hot-dog carts.
The bosses take your money and they break your hearts.
Uptown you cater to a million whores.
You disinfect terrazzo on their bathroom floors.
Morning's tribulation, afternoon's a curse
And five o'clock is even worse
Read more: Little Shop Of Horrors - Skid Row (downtown) Lyrics | MetroLyrics
We mimicked fights, rummaging through rubbish bins, and drinking out of alcohol bottles. The key to a good performance for us was facial expressions, because otherwise we would have just been emotionless walking across the stage. We made sure that our movements weren't too big as we didn't want attention to be taken away from the three girls.
Musical Theatre 30/01/19
LEAVE SPACE FOR WORK
Project workshop 11/03/19
Today in project workshop we ran through the whole of Little Shop of Horrors and showed Shelley our songs and Addams Family routine. This was an opportunity for me to polish anything I didn't know.
Me and Ghazal went through our choreography to the first song and made sure we knew what we were doing. I also had to quickly learn the choreo to 'Grow For Me' as I wasn't in for that.
Unit 5 and 6 Evaluation
Little Shop of Horrors
Over this term we worked on the musical ‘Little Shop of Horrors’. We had to choose our parts, come up with choreography, and set/props/costume. We were only performing the first 20 minutes, so we had to make it as effective as possible. At first I thought it would be really hard coming up with everything by ourselves, but it was obviously something we had to try really hard with.
To begin, we were assigned different roles within the production. I worked on set and props, and also the choreography for ‘Skid Row’ with Nehemie. To research, we looked at different videos of Doo Wop girls from the 60s. From this we saw how they moved- a lot of it was in the hands and feet. We then drew out a stage plan with the different characters in different places. A key was created so it was clear to the other girls. We used the inspiration we got from the videos and started coming up with movements that mainly consisted of things like hand gestures. We noticed that the girls were always moving in unison, so we decided to make everything the girls did in either unison or canon.
For this performance we had to consider the style of theatre- very over the top. Little Shop of Horrors- before it was a musical- was a B Movie. These types of movies were considered low budget, melodramatic, and extremely over exaggerated. We had to make sure that every movement reflected the type of musical this was, and that meant ensuring we were confident enough to do so.
We didn’t really run into any problems during the process.
My individual responsibilities were making sure the set and props were either finished or accounted for. Last minute, we went up to the Art Department to make signs for the shop front and the tramps. I also did some make up backstage very last minute for some of the girls.
My role wasn’t very active, so I had to use previous acting skills to characterise, and really get into my role as a Wino. I made gestures to the Doo Wop girls, and even to the audience to convey to them what type of character I was.
We had to take into account things like how big the space we were performing in was, and what resources we already had. We also had to remember what parts of the stage were lit, and placed pieces of set at the point of the stage we couldn’t go past.
In the song ‘Da Doo’, there was a line that read; ‘Total eclipse of the sun!’. We used lighting to illustrate this line and sort of bring it to life. We used a red light getting brighter, and then suddenly going dark, like an eclipse. This really brought the song to life and enhanced the production. We also used sound effects like a strange humming sound and crashes from off stage.
I think that our performance went really well. We looked at the scenes really carefully, taking everything into consideration, and made it as interesting as we could. Given that it was only a short piece, it seemed very enjoyable for the audience, and we got good feedback.
While developing work for stage performance, I have learned that everyone plays a very important role in keeping the production together. Without the actors we wouldn’t have had a performance, but without the set team we would have had a bare stage. Overall we did a really good job.
Given that I had some time away from the project, I also had to make sure I remembered what I needed to do. I made sure I was practising what I had already learned, and asked the girls if anything had changed so I was up to date. When I came back, the first thing I did was learn the dance I missed, to make sure it was done and out of the way.
Evaluation of Other Performance Pieces
We also worked on a choreographed piece from The Addams Family. For this piece, all of our performance skills had a part to play as we were singing, dancing, and acting. We had to be able to pick up choreography and work as an ensemble, as we were playing a family.
We had some minor problems with staging. At some points we were all stood in a line, and one end kept getting pushed into the curtains. We had to make sure that our steps were kept small so we could fit everyone on the stage.
I think this performance went really well. We ended up sorting out all problems and the audience really enjoyed it. It was something everyone in the class was comfortable with which meant the final performance was full of energy and was of a really high standard.
Personally, I learned to characterise more while performing when doing this piece, which is something I struggle with. I also focused on singing while dancing and how to improve that as it can be very hard.
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