Weeks Review

This week we went through the entire play with script. We went through each song and rehearsed over a song depending on whether we were confident with it or not. I enjoyed doing this as it helps me get familiar with script. I have struggled with learning lines in the past but I find the more I go over the script, acting out each scene, the easier I find it to recite later.

After going over the play we began to perfect the dances, and sing without backing tracks. This was strange at first as the backing tracks are faster than the recorded piece. After continuously rehearsing we were able to make it work. We also learnt a dance for "Just the Gas". I really like this piece as it is a bit different to normal contemporary pieces. We act like Jack in the boxes throughout this dance, this fits with the music perfectly.

Little Shop Of Horrors Weeks Review

This week we went through the script again and the songs. We also choreographed the dentists song. I really enjoyed learning this song and the ideas that were put forward. For example the trio are going to have a toothbrush each to sing into, this adds a comical effect on the song.

This is again a very cheesy song, and after a while I have begun to enjoy the over-dramatic, cheesyness of the play. Each song has different levels of harmony, and I am often placed in the higher notes. This does strain my voice but I also believe it is really good practise for me as it allows to stretch my vocal chords to there limits. This play is.both physically and mentally demanding which is what I really enjoy about it.

Little Shop Of Horrors Weeks Review

This week's we mainly rehearsed the songs and dialogue we did. We also choreographed "Da Doo". The choreography is easy to remember as it reflects the things we sing. This song is ment to be cheesy, so every time we perform it we have to be over the top. This includes putting on a cheesy grin. When choreographing this song we were able to help think of movements to go with the words. This just helped me remember is even more.

Going over the script helps me to remember the order of the scenes. Although the trio have a restricted amount of lines, we are on stage for almost the entire play. This means that we need to know our cue of our hearts because we cannot go off stage and look for our next intro.

Over these past few weeks I have been learning the songs ready for the lessons.

Little Shop Of Horrors Weeks Review

This is week's we learnt a few songs and went through some of the dialogue in the script. I.enjoyed going through the dialogue as I was able to form my characters accent. I used to find American accents hard but now, after listening to others put on this accent I find it a lot easier. The trio have a very distinctive accent. We have a stereotypical street way of communicating. It's nothing like Seymour who has an innocent geeky kind of accent. Or Audrey who has a high pitched American accentuating a twang of Jersey. The trio's accent is a lot more common, and obviously UN-educated.

When reading through the script we also sang the songs that are placed in the scenes, creating harmony. This week we also learnt Little Shop Of Horrors dance. I really enjoy this song as I only have one solo throughout this play and this song has my solo in it. It's an easy song to sing which is good as it allows me to focus on the steps. There is an improvised peice of singing which the trio have to do. It was hard to figure out and we haven't quite mastered it yet but I am confident that we will.

Chiffon Character Profile

Chiffon:
Name: Chiffon
Age: Mid/Late teens
Birth place: Skidrow
Education: Dropped out of school in 5th grade

Chiffon is one of the trio. This trio is formed of: Crystal, Ronnette (in our show Ron) and Chiffon. If I could describe my character it would be:

• Sassy
• Confident
• Street wise
• Money obsessed
• All knowing
• Watchful
• Manipulative
• Smart

Little Shop Of Horror week review

This week we found out who got what role for "Little Shop Of Horrors". I got the role "Chiffon". I am one of the three girls who act as an all knowing, street wise trio, who narrate/sing the story as it goes along. We started and finished the choreography for "skid row". This song introduces the characters and sets the scene so this is an important number. After learning he steps we where able to add pur own characters personality into them. For example the trio I am in are confident and sassy characters, so they have to be confident and slightly over the top with the movements.

I think the real challenge is singing and dancing at the same time. Being too enthusiastic with the steps can make our voices shake as we do each movement. I found that fluency is the key here. Instead of jolting whilst taking each step, I flow my moves together making a smooth path of steps/movements this prevents any voice cracks or shakes.

I really enjoyed learning this dance. I also enjoyed singing this song. The trio use a lot of riffs in there songs. This is a challenge for us because we are not professional Broadway actors. I enjoy ridding notes and find it easy in fact, but I find projection hard. I decided to practise my projection by singing the song every day gradually getting louder.

Little Shop Of Horror week review

During half term we were told to read through a section of the script "Little Shop Of Horror" and learn the song "somewhere that's green" ready for the auditions on the first day back. The first lesson we had, we sang Little Shop Of Horrors as a group. After singing and after watching a few of the boys scenes, the girls where taken into a separate room and asked to sing "Somewhere that's green" one by one. 

I find auditioning for roles hard as I always get nervous, causing my voice to shake. Through out the week we were given desperate scenes to perform in front of the class. We were given the scene were Audrey confesses her past to Seymour. Due to the restricted amount of girls in the class and excessive amount of boys, the girls had to continuously do the scene. We each performed the scene 4 times, with different people playing Seymour on each turn. I liked this as it allowed me to explore the script in different ways. I was able to interpret the scene in my own way, performing it differently each time.

We will find out who gets what role next week.

evaluation

Our performance this term didn't go very well. When we were asked to create a list of WWW (what went well) and another list of EBI (even better if) the page was full of improvements. My group actually found it easier to come up with bad points and we struggled intensely on creating good points. Our biggest problem I think, was the fact that we made our performance to film based. Our performance might have been good if we would have made it 2 hours long. Our story was too complicated that yelling it in the space of 30 minutes was a big challenge. From the start of this term my group had struggled with creating a story line and we would often drift into film techniques, rather than performance techniques. Another problem was the stage combat. We over-used the stage combat and even even though we rehearsed it a lot, it still didn't look real. It looked as if we had just thrown in fight scenes at any given opportunity. Another problem was fluency. We hadn't practised exiting and entering stage, so when we didn't need to be on stage we didn't know where to go, making the performance look messy. Also the lighting didn't go as.planned and the ending was completely ruined because the lighting didn't change. This tells that we were far too dependant on lighting to make our performance good. We shouldn't depend on lighting, the price should look amazing without it. But instead we all stood on stage, frozen, for at least 10 seconds not knowing what to do, just waiting for the strobe to switch on. The audience could not relate to the characters, so when they died they didn't really care. We needed to engage the audience in the characters a lot more. I think saying a short monologue on each of their lives was no where near enough. The romance also didn't engage our audience and seemed childish as well. Looking back on the performance I would change almost everything about it. We were too stuck on a film based idea, and when we realised this would not work, we didn't have time to change it. I am glad we were able to see all these improvements, this tells me that next time we won't make these mistakes again.

weeks review

This week we finished the performance. We still need to go over and perfect all the scenes. We also filmed Carl's news reporting scenes. These scenes will be placed at certain points in the play, the first one will be placed at the beginning letting the audience know the basic outline of the play. The second is after the mission, this is when the group begin to deteriorate and the last is when we tell the audience of the new world.Carl was dressed in a suit when filming these scenes,to show that he is a different character.

This week we also perfected the ending scene. We decided to add strobe light when Jamie kills everyone, this makes the deaths easier to do. When "killing"characters on stage you run the risk of it looking awful. When you try to kill a character in a realistic way it ends up looking fake, instead we decided to make it UN-naturalistic and add strobe and slow motion.

In the ending scene the men also gang up and kill James (Ashley) for this we decided to add music. We wanted a piece that contrasted with the violence so we have decided to use elegant and light music to match the heavy violence. This adds a sense of irony to the play.

Next week we will do a full run through in costume.

weeks review

This week we filmed and created a movement based mission scene. We decided to incorporate dance into the piece to portray the fighting. This week we also organised the lighting. We decided not to over use lighting as we want the main focus to be on the performance. We also decided that all the scenes in "base" would be the same, so we don't keep changing the look of our scene. We kept the lighting in the base to very cool colours, using white with a silver undertone. White also represents the future or modern day. For the other scenes we focused mainly on how all the characters were feeling. For example fight scenes had red lighting to show the fury and violence and anger.