Variety Tech Run

My tech run was pretty simple, I wanted general cover lighting so that i would be seen clearly. However I didn't want too much light directly on me because I need to be able to see the balls I would be juggling. There was also only one music track that I bring in and out by signalling to Katie. 

This was all that was really needed for my tech run and it was pretty simple!

Variety Rehearsals

Because I knew what my act was going to be pretty soon in. It meant i could get to work on practising the skills I needed pretty quickly. The mains skills that I needed to work on was my juggling.

I could juggle balls to a pretty decent standard but I wanted to do something a little bit more exciting than just juggling three balls, so I decided that I would learn how to do a couple of tricks with three balls. Once I got these down I started to see if I could learn how to juggle rings.

This is a video of me practicing some of my juggling with rings and balls.

After I worked on these I thought that I could try to learn how to juggle clubs as these look really good on stage when done correctly. I had really struggled with these because there is a whole different technique. This is a video of me juggling some clubs.

I decided that I was not comfortable enough with rings and clubs to juggle them on stage, so I decided that it would be better to do do just balls really well rather than clubs badly. From this point on, all of my rehearsals consisted on working on my ball juggling and the fancy bits of my card trick, such as the card flick.

Nothing really changed in my rehearsals from this point on.

Cats Evaluation

We were part of the year 13 performance of Cats. We were in the song 'Peaks and the Pollicles'. In this song I played the part of paparazzi. This involved us taking pictures of the models before the song, and then during the song performing the dance routine we had we been rehearsing in lessons. I was really happy with how the dance went. 

I think that I showed good strength in this performance. There was one lift that we did and it went really well, we did take another lift out because we did not feel comfortable doing it with the space we had on the side of the stage. I also think that another performance skill I was happy with was my extension. It was something that in all of my previous performances I had not been very happy with, so using the mirrors and watching videos of he performance back, I worked on improving this for this performance I was really happy that this performance had my best extension yet. 

Something that I felt that I could work on in the future after this dance is my flexibility. I have felt that the warm up routines we worked on in lessons helped with this, but as it probably my weakest skill, it could still be improved a lot more. I can work on this by doing some stretches and high kicks to work on the flexibility in my legs. 

Overall I was really happy with this performance. My main target after this is to improve my flexibility. I want to be able to do a decent high kick by a couple of months time. I can do this by practicing my high kicks and working on stretches.

Evaluation of Variety

On the 19th May I performed in the Variety Show. My act consisted of juggling and magic. I was over the moon with how my performance went. I was worried in rehearsals that I would be too nervous and stumble over my words or not have the stage presence I desired, but having watched back a video of my performance I was really happy that I was clear and understandable as well as a little funny (if I do say so myself). I was also really happy that both the magic and juggling couldn't have gone better! There was a risk that I could drop the balls or other things at the wrong time, but everything went exactly to plan. I thought that my stage presence was good because I was on my own and so I had to command the space. I also had to make sure that every part of the card trick was clear to the audience, not just the audience member on stage. This meant projecting my voice well and showing the trick to the front. I think I did this really well and used comic timing well to get the effect of the trick across well. I think this suited the variety bracket well because juggling and magic are both very old forms of entertainment that has been used in variety entertainment for many many years and so my doing it is very much similar to acts that would have originally been used in variety performance.

Practice Routine

Contemporary Theatre Comparison of Texts

Cats is a musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It was based on a series of poems by T.S Elliot. It premiered in 1981 in the New London Theatre in London. Because the musical is based on a series of poems there isn't an especially obvious theme or story running through it. There is however a slight storyline regarding Grizabella as she tells the story of how she was once a glamorous cat but now she is not, before going to the heavyside layer and regaining her glamour again. The version of Cats that we were a part of had the overall theme of Fashion. Instead of being Cats, the characters were all part of the fashion business as models, designers and other parts. This was quite a radical exploration of the text as there isn't any reference to fashion in the script. It was also a good premise for having the year 12s involved as we played paparazzi and Journalists trying to get pictures of the models at the 'Jellicle Ball'. We also played party guests at the end of the performance, which involved coming on and mingling before singing and dancing at the end. We were there to add more of a hustle and bustle to the stage and make it look as if there is more people, although we not have any direct impact on the story or any of the songs.

The original staging was set in a junkyard which did not change throughout the performance. Because this version was set about fashion, the staging included a catwalk, an office area, clothing rails and other stage blocks. Like the original performance, none of this changed throughout the performance. The different areas were good for showing the different type of character. For example the models spent the majority of their time on the catwalk and the designers would have spent time in the office. This performance also had the use of projection. This was used to give a bit of background to the characters when their song was happening, this was useful because it was not always clear what connection the different characters had to the 'story' or each other. It was also used for the Email to Mrs. Mistoffelees, and news articles. Because of the lack of storyline, these projections were really helpful to the audience to give them a bit of added information and understanding.

The build up for the performance was quite stressful because lots of it was quite last minute. We were aware of being part of the main dance to 'Peaks and Pollicles' for longer but the Finale and other songs were very much last minute, this meant as a cast we had to all come together to be able to produce something of a really high quality to match the year 13s. We also had to be emotionally invested in our role. Because we were all playing supporting roles, it was really important for us not to steal the limelight. We had to make sure we were positioned right on the stage so that the focus wasn't on us but we added a bit of depth to the stage.

My first impressions of the song we were in was that it was going to be quite manic and busy, so I made sure that in rehearsals I made this obvious in my movements and the way that I carried myself onstage. I have seen videos of paparazzi so I knew the kind of way they act when they are doing their job, they are very up in every bodies business. It was quite odd to try and recreate this because we still had to make it so that we weren't too much in the way, we had to make sure we got the right balance. It was also hard to compare our role in the first act with our role in the second act, this is because it was very hectic and busy in the first act and in the second act it is a lot more relaxed in the way that we move because we are party guests so more sophisticated. Having the interval in between gives us a good bit of time in between the two very contrasting roles to get into the zone.

I felt that I did really well in my dancing because I had been struggling in the past with this throughout the year and I felt very comfortable and in control through this. I was really happy with my extension as this was a target I have been setting myself throughout the year. Something I feel that I didn't do so well with was my facial expressions, because we were so rushed with the dances and most of our participation in the show, I had to really concentrate on making sure I got all my movements correct and in time so I feel this took priority over my facial expression. I definitely think that my physical skills took more priority over my interpretive skills. If we had more time then I think I would have been able to focus on the interpretive skills as well as the physical ones. I think overall I was happy with the performance and it was good how we all came together as a cast to be able to perform well at short notice.  

Evaluation of Perfomance

My performance took place on the 16th April.

The first scene I am in is the Lift scene. I felt that this went really well as a whole because all of our movements were correct, and the audience laughed so we managed to get the comedy side of it across. I was really happy with my lines in this scene. I had struggled with getting them to be both loud and clear. Normally one seemed to be more prominent than the other in rehearsals and I knew that it was really important that the audience heard the lines as they are funny but can also be seen as linking to Vince, as well being the first really obscure stuff she hears after seeing Victoria. If I were to change something in this scene if we were to do it again it would be that there would be some music and all the passengers would move to that, as I feel it would add another layer of comedy to this short scene. 

The next scene I am involved in is the Goat scene. This was the scene I was most concerned about because I was struggling with the line learning especially in the parts where the subject changes, because if I miss a subject change it could mean a vital part of the text isn't said making the story unclear. In the performance I remembered all of my lines so I was really happy with this. Another thing I was worried about in this scene was the movement. It was the one scene I rehearsed the least with Rachel, so a lot of the movements and proxemics were ones that me and Luke both had a lot of input with ourselves and ran it by Rachel rather than her tell us the blocking. Because of this however I felt that I had a bit more free reign over where I moved around the stage, I had to make sure the vital parts were there, for example the tying up and the pushing down had to be down in the right place on stage and I had to be there in enough time to do it. I was really happy that my movement including my posture suited the character of the Goat, being sly and suspicious at first and then changing to mean and really hunched over after the big change in tempo in the scene, when I put the rope around Lisa. I had done a lot of work on the my voice for the Goat as I wanted to show he is sly but almost friendly at first, I don't feel that in the performance I did the best I could at this, I think this was partly due to nerves, which is a shame because I feel that this could have added to my character a lot more and made him more convincing. Overall I don't think my characterisation in this scene was to bad because I showed a dramatic change between the first and second part of the scene before Jane enters. I don't think I would change anything drastic within the scene, however I feel that I could have improved the characterisation in my voice so it was different to all the other characters and my own voice.

I feel that the Brittany scene went really well. I had a lot of fun in it and I think that my movements onstage fitted with the 'confusion' of Lisa. The thing I would say about this scene is that at times I felt that I was overacting and a few of us were drawing attention away from the dialogue. It was hard not to at times, especially with the hot dogs. Because we have to act as if we are confusing Lisa, it was tricky to try to be nonchalant. I feel that we could work on non-verbal communication better in this scene so it is still funny but does not detract from the dialogue too much. 

In Act 2 I play Vince. There is such a dramatic change between my characters in the first and seconds acts that it was quite hard to make the switch from stylistic acting to naturalistic. I had to take a minute to compose myself before going onstage because Holly and I had a tendency to giggle during parts of this scene and we didn't want this. I think that I showed good naturalistic movement in this act, but still showed emotions such as anger so a link between the characters in the first and second act can be made. 

Overall I feel that the show went really well, everybody in both casts did really well and we all had such a laugh putting it together and performing it. I felt that I learnt a lot from this show in terms of stylised movement as well as naturalistic acting and voice.

Thursday 16th April

We had the whole day for rehearsals before our show. We started off with making sure that everybody had the right costumes. I had the same costume for Passenger 2 and I did for Passenger 3 the day before. I used the same thing for the goat that Luke did the night before, I didn't wear the horns because I couldn't easily get them to stay on. We decided that we didn't need to obviously look like a goat because it says it in the text. The main focus for my in this rehearsal was running the show fully without stopping and with the full and correct tech. Because I was absent for the tech run, there were a couple of positioning things I had to work on. These were simple as most of them were just making sure I was in the right light and to make sure I was downstage enough. It was also the best chance to work on all my entrances and exits coming on from the wings all at once. Before this we had only done it for particular scenes. It also meant that I had to do costume changes for the first time. Thankfully I had quite a bit of time between my scenes so they weren't rushed apart form changing from Inhibitions to Vince. 

It was also the first time we had run Act 2 in the correct setting. It was very different being in the round because you had people all around you and had to act it more naturalistically and not act towards the audience. It was easier in the lighting sense because we used house lights so we were always in the light.

After our first run, we felt that the Brittany scene needed the most work so after a short break we worked on this again. We were all a bit sloppy on our lines and group movements but the second run of these scene gave us all some time to talk through what we were going to do so it didn't look bad during the performance. There are a few parts in this scene where we all have the same movement, for example the 'we beg you to reconsider' line. We all get down on our knees and shuffle towards Lisa but some of us didn't do it at the right time so this needed sorting out.

Easter Rehearsal

In this rehearsal we did worked on act 1. Because I was not there for the tech run I had to watch Luke's performance, and get movements and stage positioning from that, the only thing I had to change was how early in the Goat scene I had to get down from the top block. Up to now I had been up on the block until the part when Lisa talk about her hour, but now I am down from the block after my first line, meaning I have to very the way I move around the stage and work on my proxemics. This run was a good opportunity to work on this, I wanted to make sure that I moved around enough to keep the audience interested but not so much that it detracted from what I was saying or looked forced. Me and Holly both had to make sure we were both further downstage as well so we are in the right lights.

I also got a chance to work on my non verbal communication once Jane enters. I don't have many lines so I have to show my emotion and frustration through my body language and facial expression. One of the things I want to get into my performance is a distinct change in Laben's System of Efforts. I feel that there is a dramatic change when I tie the rope round her. It goes from a low number to a high number, perhaps from a 3 to a 5 or 6. This is something that has helped my in rehearsals to show a dramatic change.

13th March

In this lesson we ran Act 2 in Lena's room. Because we are double cast it meant that we had to take turns in doing this. My cast started off and it went really well. I have one part in this act that I have to focus on. Because we weren't in our usual setting and we didn't have the staging we normally do, it was really just useful for our positioning and lines. I was happy with my lines in each of the subject changes but I am struggling to remember certain lines that change the subject, such as the line about the message on the phone. I also got the giggles during this run through which didn't really help with lines.

Singing 13th March

Our main focus this lesson was to learn 'Everything you Didn't Do' By Jamie Cullum. 

Before learning this, we started my looking at vocal warm ups. In the lesson before we had done more research on them and came up with a couple individually. My ones were about developing range. We then showed our techniques to the class and teach it to them. This was useful as it meant that we all got to learn and try a load of different rehearsal techniques that we hadn't necessarily come across before. 

We then started to learn 'Everything You Didn't Do'. We listened to the song first to get a general feel for it, before doing it ourselves. This was helpful because it meant we got a feel for the tempo and the different sections of the song. 

We split the songs up into the sections when we learnt them, the verses are very similar so once you've learnt one, you have pretty much got them all, the same goes with the chorus.

For next time we look at this song, I want to be able to improve my projection, and I think as I learn the song more this will come more naturally. I can also use some of the rehearsal techniques I learnt at the start of the lesson to help with this.

Friday 13th March Dance

In this lesson we carried on from doing 'The Peaks and the Pollicles' from Cats. We had already been working on the dance and we started with going over the movements from last week. Then we added in some new movements. One of the bits that we added in was a slower section of the song in which we dance in pairs. My partner is Holly Hopkins. This adds a new dynamic to the dance because of the change of pace. We added a bit at the end where there is a face off scene between the paps and the journalists. The movements we do here link with the lyrics and it works really well.

My targets for next week is to work on my extension as I feel that this is something that is lacking in my rehearsals and will therefore effect my performance.

Tuesday 17th March

In this lesson we ran through the first 30 minutes of the play for both casts. The first half an hour contains the Victoria scene, lift scene and pretty much the whole guard and oathtaker scene. For me this means that it just the lift scene. I am in this scene in both performances although it is not a long scene nor is there much dialogue when I am in the other casts performance. My cast went first. It was the first time we got to practice our entrances. We come on early when Lisa is on the phone, we did this because it meant we could rush into the 'lift' without it looking too messy from the wings. We have a square of light at the front of the stage which is our 'lift'. I decided that I would deliver my lines overly loud because it is such a cramped space it makes it more comical the louder I speak. We also got a chance to get used to our entrances and exits, these are important in the lift scene because they have to be pretty sharp to keep up the levels on confusion.

19th March

We were in the exhibition hall for this lesson. It meant that we didn't have the space we were used to but it wasn't a problem.

We started off with a warm up which got everybody a bit more into the mindset of getting some work done. Most of the class went to work on their scenes, however me, Taylor, Amber and Olivia were talking to Rachel about our production roles, becuase I am marketing with Luke we talked about getting in local schools to come and see some rehearsals and run throughs. I then looked up the head of drama for the local schools and made a list for contacting later. 

We then watched the other classes performance of their scene. I enjoyed the physical theatre element of the chosen section and the interesting traverse staging.

Then we performed our chosen scene, we decided that we would do from the start into part of the guard scene, my only part in this is the lift scene, and because Luke wasn't here that day it meant that I got to do it and was was a great opportunity for me to perform it to an audience. I went really over the top with the voice in the scene and I was happy with how it went. I also thought the movement had the humour in it that we wanted as it is meant to be a funny section.

10th March

In this lesson our main focus was to work on the Brittany scene. We had worked on it previously but it was a good chance for everybody to work on it again with everybody knowing their lines and with there being more chance to work on the movement as this is a very important part of this scene. Because the idea of the scene is the characters confusing Lisa, it means that if it has a fast pace and lots of confusing movement, then it is easier for Lisa to be confused.

We worked on some movement in this scene in times where there is lots of confusing, one of the main points is when I am on the floor and Biffer trips over me and then we proceed to run about in lots of confusion, but it has to be with the intention of confusing Lisa, not just random running about. Also at the end of scene, when everybody goes off to battle, because I have to come back as Vince very shortly after, I leave on my line "We don't stand a chance" where I run up through the audience and can then come back down dressed as Vince.

In this scene the thing I need to focus on is non-verbal communication because I don't have that many lines but I still need to show how my character is feeling. Using the states of tension is good in this scene because there are times when the mood of the scene changes very quickly and so to be able to show the change in mood through my movement is vital.

March 24th

In this lesson we looked at act 2. It was only the second time we had looked at this act since the first lesson we blocked. Becuase we had mainly been focusing on the first act up until this point I was really struggling with my lines. Because of this I didn't feel that I could as much into my acting as I would have liked. Because we went first in this rehearsal, it didn't give me an opportunity to observe my opposite. Although I felt that my acting took a backseat for lines, I did get the opportunity to look at different ways of moving around the space. In the section where I get quite angry we had it so that I would stand up and walk away from the bed with a tone in my voice that showed I was angry but was subdued in volume because I would still be in a hospital so wouldn't be able to shout. This worked really well, and I felt that it was easier to deliver the frustration that Vince is showing when adopting this tone. What I will be working on for the next time is making sure I am line perfect so I can focus on voice. In this act and part of this act especially, I think that movement isn't as important as voice, because this is a naturalistic scene and people tend not to move so much and it shows good contrast between acts.

Thursday 26th March

In this lesson we focused on the oath taker scene. Because me and Luke aren't in this scene it gave us a good opportunity to run some lines for the goat scene. It was really helpful to have this time to ourselves as it gave us the chance to try out different ways of portraying our character and having the other person there to get feedback from and to work on ideas that they may have had. In this time I decided that I wanted to play the Goat as a sly character being very shady. This means that I will have to think about my posture as a sly character will tend to be hunched over for example. I would also focus on voice. I think that my choice of voice will be smooth and slow paced.

Variety

I started my devising process by practicing juggling balls and working on a couple of tricks that I can do during the performance. Once I had had looked at that and was comfortable with juggling balls I looked at juggling rings. They were harder than balls but once I had got the general technique it was just about practicing until I was happy with being able to juggle rings. After I was happy with juggling rings and balls, I started to think more about the magic side of the performance. I looked into some more tricks which I could do in my performance and how I would link them to the juggling. I worked out how I would do this and so it was just practicing both my magic and my juggling so I would be able to do it in front of an audience and with confidence. 

The week after I looked at juggling clubs, it was the first time that I had juggled clubs so it took a while to get used to it as it is a lot harder than both balls and rings are. By the end of the lesson on monday I was really happy with the progress I had made and knew that by the performance I would be confident enough to juggle clubs as part of my act. I spent a bit more time working on the magic, as it takes some slight of hand and so I want it to really slick for the performance.

After I had knew the layout to my routine I started to think about things like music. I am still undecided about the music for the start of the performance. I am either thinking about using a remix of 'Enter the Circus' which I can use the comedy side of because the music really wouldn't fit my performance. Or 'Welcome Back My Friends' by Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Both of these songs are good because they mention about shows in their lyrics and they both have a circus feel to them which fits my juggling.

The overall layout for my routine is going to be some music to start then me doing a magic trick will will go 'wrong' I will then do some juggling with different objects and then the magic trick will go right.  

For my costume I have been looking at lots of different magicians and jugglers to see what kind of thing they wear. It does vary dramatically but mainly they dress smartly, so I will probably wear a something not too different from this.

Homework Task About Pace

'Why is pace so important to the delivery of the play'

Pace - 'Move or develop (something) at a particular rate or speed' '

I think that pace is important to this play because although it does have some serious parts, there is lots of comedy moments and so timings and pace become very important. The first act of this play I think should be fast paced throughout, there shouldn't be any lulls in pace and there should be constant movement. On the other hand, act two is a lot slower, there are blackouts, as well as parts with little to no dialogue. Because of the very sudden change between the two acts, as a cast we have to make sure that the speed from the first act, doesn't carry on into the next.

The play 4.48 Psychosis is a play written by Sarah Kane. It explores the subject of mental illness through a very Brecht like way. There is no setting or no real characters and the dialogue varies from naturalistic to almost poetic. The lack of setting is similar in Dissocia because although it vaguely mentions settings, there isn't any real description of them. Although Dissocia doesn't use any Brecht techniques, it still has a very fast pace matching 4.48 Psychosis.

An example of a slow paced performance is the production of Electra we saw. I felt that although there wasn't any cuts, I didn't feel that it went anywhere in excitement levels. which is similar to the second act of Dissocia. Although there is lots of things going on, there isn't anything particularly thrilling or out of the ordinary.

Lesson 12th February

In this lesson we read through act 1 of the play. We did not have Rachel in this lesson so we took it upon ourselves to do a read through. It was the first time we had read through the whole of the act together as a class. It was quite challenging because it was double cast so it was hard to split the lines up. However my opposite wasn't there for the lesson so it gave me a good opportunity to read all of the lines. What i found really helpful about the read through was having other cast members around to say their lines instead of having to imagine them being said like I had when reading through it alone. The thing that surprised me with the read through was how some people delivered their lines differently to how I imagined them in my head and this sometimes meant that I had to change the way I delivered my lines and it gave them a completely different meaning. The part that I found the most helpful to read through was the voice over parts. Even though they aren't long passages of speech, in the actual performance they will only be voice and no movement so it gave me a chance to try out different ways of delivering the lines so I could put plenty of emotion into them.

It was useful doing the run through before tacking the large chunks of blocking because it gave us all an overall feel for the play before picturing it on stage