Thursday, 8 January 2015
Saturday, 1 November 2014
Weekly Summary & Analysis
Week beginning 20/10/14
This week had a strong focus towards other aspects within our goals, more specifically, songs. We decided to have 3 snippets from 3 Frozen songs but alter the words to fit our narrative, for the 1st Pig's house scene. This immediately engages our target audience, as they are the main target for the audience of Frozen, and therefore will engage with our production, with its recognisability. My input this week mainly consisted of constructing the alternative lyrics for these songs, and the choreography that went alongside it. The choreography is simple, and so I may change it later on when the production is near completion, to make it more interesting for the audience. The choreography also needs to utilise the space more, and I will address this in the next lesson, as it seems quite static at the moment. The lyrics that I alongside the rest of the cast created relate directly to the narrative, and have a slight comedy aspect at times, with a little improvement on the syllable count for certain lines to make it rhythmically accurate, and editing the tracks so that they flow into each other, the songs will be complete.
With the additions of other children's stories such as Little Red Riding Hood references and the Frozen alternative songs, the suitability for the audience becomes more apparent. The audience will enjoy the common narrative of the 3 little pigs if we were to adapt it, giving it a more modern, up-to-date theme and having the additions to back the modernisation aspect up. With the references to Red Riding Hood, they are subtle enough to both be glossed over or noticed, depending on the engagement level of the audience, therefore, through comedy, we aim to engage them to the point where they understand the links between multiple fairy tales.
In rehearsals this week we practised our voice work by telling various opening lines to stories that we created independently. I found this highly useful, to create and perfect an engaging, clear and professional voice for performance in children's theatre. From applying this work in the rehearsal of the production, we felt that it flowed better and was clearer as a whole, with every voice being heard, which gave way for more comedy to flow successfully as well.
I believe that we worked highly professionally this week, creating the choreography and lyrics for the scene and perfecting them was a great strength. The weaknesses of these are minor, and can be ironed out by the next lesson. It is that the rhythm is slightly off due to the syllable count, and the choreography could be made more interesting if it wasn't so static, and I will make it my own personal aim for the next lesson to revise these weaknesses and alter them to make the scene more professional and engaging for the audience.
I feel that personally my character is not as solid as I would like, and will aim to improve this through more character work. However I feel that by the time we get on to the 3rd house scene, that scene will help me reach my goals in character development, and so to improve this as a company we need to devise the rest of the production, so that we can reflect on our characters and make improvement when doing a full run-through in lessons.
Week beginning 3/11/14
This week saw a lot of choreography for the 2nd and 3rd pig sequences. I felt that all three pigs should have a different style of sequence. The 1st pig had singing, to the Frozen remakes that we crafted, and we decided that the 2nd pig should have a dance/movement sequence, with my sequence being the chant to get the children in the audience involved in the house building. I choreographed a few movements to the lyrics in the chant, to make it more visually appealing. We then constructed lyrics for the wolf's section of the chant, to which the pigs reply in a scared and fearful tone "brick by brick", much like the audience would for the 3rd pig when he (I) asks them to shout that line back to him. This creates a comedic side to the situation, as we three pigs use our tone of voice to make it both clear but emotional, and combined with the over-exaggerated actions from both the wolf and the pigs, the children will find it funny. I also made the point that the wolf should survive but be scared off by the pigs, and we finalised this idea by putting Ali on Jake's shoulders, as I pass a wolf mask and coat up to Ali so that the two of them can create the mother of the Big Bad Wolf. I again adopted a comedic voice to add to the hilarity of the construction, as I hide behind Ali and Jake's creation as the third pig, sniggering and mimicking a slightly accented female voice representative of the wolf's mother. The lines that I speak will set up the ending, as we decided that the pigs will have tea outside the 3rd pigs house, with the wolf being forced to apologise to them all by his mother. This will both teach the children to obey their elders subconsciously, but also when staging this scene, I will suggest that Liam really exaggerates the apology, almost having to muster everything in him to vocalise the apology!
When staging the 2nd pig's sequence, I decided that the song that the pigs dance to whilst building the house should be something recognisable to the audience so that they become more engaged, but if they don't recognise it, it should have a rhythm that they will get involved in. I chose the song 'I Like To Move It' by Reel 2 Real as it has a consistent beat that makes it easier to choreograph to, and I supplemented this notion with simple choreography that still looks effective on stage. The song is funny in itself, with the strange vocal tones that the children will find comedic on its own, but supported with strange and entertaining dance moves will only further their engagement and enjoyment.
This week we focused on the movement and choreography of both set pieces previously discussed and how they could be more engaging for the audience. The movements we make will be loud and over the top so that not only anyone in the audience can see them, but also as many children's theatre actors have this trait to keep the target audiences' focus. We have tried to apply this idea to our movement, and with some improvement to facial expression, the idea will be successfully approached.
In my own performance, I have ensured that this week I focused on my use of voice alongside my facial expressions so that not only my body is being used clearly and effectively, but my face and voice as well. Its not just movement that keeps an audience engaged, and I have sought to find comedic aspects in these tones and expressions to further secure that engagement.
Strengths of this week: The movement pieces are well on their way, and we managed to complete the 3rd pigs sequence, and are about half way through the 2nd pig's sequence. From this, we simply need to finish the 2nd pig's dances, and the scene, and the ending to the play. Afterwards I suggest we run the entire production, and then tidy up anything that wasn't to our satisfaction as a cast. The movements we have created are entertaining for audiences, as the chants engage the audience directly in their participation, and the dance moves so far are comedic and simple so that the audience can clearly follow what is happening on each rhythmic beat.
Weaknesses of this week: I hoped to complete the 2nd pig's sequence in its entirety, but this is not a huge problem, as we can then give it even more of a focus in the next lesson so that the ending also has enough time devoted to it. However, it does mean that another lesson will be taken up by staging, when we could be tidying the production as a whole.
For the next week of rehearsals, I suggest that we work on finishing the entire production so that we can clean any mishaps in our full run through. As well as this, we should focus on our facial expressions when choreographing the net few movements for the 2nd pig's sequence, as we will then find it easier to use these engaging expressions in future rehearsals. With practise comes perfection, and we should therefore rehearse as if we are performing to our target audience at all times.
Week beginning 17/11/14
This week only contained one lesson due to a UCAS focus day that the Howard had on Thursday. We also didn't have Liam present, and so we worked with what we had, and decided to do a speed run of the entire production to see if we knew it off by heart with no stops. It was a largely successful rehearsal with no real problems, other than having to multi-role due to the absence of the Wolf. I took a lead in ensuring the choreography was accurate when we performed it, but I did not need to do much as it looked good, with minor improvements needed to rhythm, and will soon be ready to perform to an audience.
This week also let us work on some team-building exercises and trust exercises. I found that this bettered our work as a company and as an ensemble, which I feel is vital as a performer. Working on stage requires thinking as one body with your peers, knowing exactly what is going on at all times, so that any changes made can be addressed professionally in a performance. I felt that these exercises gave us more trust in each other, for example, I had to run and dive through the air and trust that my fellow cast members will support me accurately and safely, and they accomplished this.
This week I worked on my movement, particularly in the choreography, to ensure it was appealing to our target audience. I made sure it was over-the-top and engaging, without being too much like a pantomime, which is not our focus area of theatre. The exaggerated movements help the audience understand what the movements are, as well as look interesting from any area in the audience, which was the other focus, I wanted to ensure that any audience member no matter how far back would be able to see the performance clearly.
Strengths: Company had a tight focus and knew the production to a sufficient standard. To improve this knowledge, we should run the show at least once every lesson, remembering to be engaging to the target audience the entire time.
Weaknesses: With minor improvements, the piece will be able to flow without any slight pauses.
For the next few rehearsals, we should run the entire production every lesson, to keep it fresh in our minds each week, and to make sure we include every detail, even the quick-witted dialogue when available. We should also rehearse in other areas, like the stage, as the two schools may have different performance spaces, and we need to be prepared for any eventuality.
This week had a strong focus towards other aspects within our goals, more specifically, songs. We decided to have 3 snippets from 3 Frozen songs but alter the words to fit our narrative, for the 1st Pig's house scene. This immediately engages our target audience, as they are the main target for the audience of Frozen, and therefore will engage with our production, with its recognisability. My input this week mainly consisted of constructing the alternative lyrics for these songs, and the choreography that went alongside it. The choreography is simple, and so I may change it later on when the production is near completion, to make it more interesting for the audience. The choreography also needs to utilise the space more, and I will address this in the next lesson, as it seems quite static at the moment. The lyrics that I alongside the rest of the cast created relate directly to the narrative, and have a slight comedy aspect at times, with a little improvement on the syllable count for certain lines to make it rhythmically accurate, and editing the tracks so that they flow into each other, the songs will be complete.
With the additions of other children's stories such as Little Red Riding Hood references and the Frozen alternative songs, the suitability for the audience becomes more apparent. The audience will enjoy the common narrative of the 3 little pigs if we were to adapt it, giving it a more modern, up-to-date theme and having the additions to back the modernisation aspect up. With the references to Red Riding Hood, they are subtle enough to both be glossed over or noticed, depending on the engagement level of the audience, therefore, through comedy, we aim to engage them to the point where they understand the links between multiple fairy tales.
In rehearsals this week we practised our voice work by telling various opening lines to stories that we created independently. I found this highly useful, to create and perfect an engaging, clear and professional voice for performance in children's theatre. From applying this work in the rehearsal of the production, we felt that it flowed better and was clearer as a whole, with every voice being heard, which gave way for more comedy to flow successfully as well.
I believe that we worked highly professionally this week, creating the choreography and lyrics for the scene and perfecting them was a great strength. The weaknesses of these are minor, and can be ironed out by the next lesson. It is that the rhythm is slightly off due to the syllable count, and the choreography could be made more interesting if it wasn't so static, and I will make it my own personal aim for the next lesson to revise these weaknesses and alter them to make the scene more professional and engaging for the audience.
I feel that personally my character is not as solid as I would like, and will aim to improve this through more character work. However I feel that by the time we get on to the 3rd house scene, that scene will help me reach my goals in character development, and so to improve this as a company we need to devise the rest of the production, so that we can reflect on our characters and make improvement when doing a full run-through in lessons.
Week beginning 3/11/14
This week saw a lot of choreography for the 2nd and 3rd pig sequences. I felt that all three pigs should have a different style of sequence. The 1st pig had singing, to the Frozen remakes that we crafted, and we decided that the 2nd pig should have a dance/movement sequence, with my sequence being the chant to get the children in the audience involved in the house building. I choreographed a few movements to the lyrics in the chant, to make it more visually appealing. We then constructed lyrics for the wolf's section of the chant, to which the pigs reply in a scared and fearful tone "brick by brick", much like the audience would for the 3rd pig when he (I) asks them to shout that line back to him. This creates a comedic side to the situation, as we three pigs use our tone of voice to make it both clear but emotional, and combined with the over-exaggerated actions from both the wolf and the pigs, the children will find it funny. I also made the point that the wolf should survive but be scared off by the pigs, and we finalised this idea by putting Ali on Jake's shoulders, as I pass a wolf mask and coat up to Ali so that the two of them can create the mother of the Big Bad Wolf. I again adopted a comedic voice to add to the hilarity of the construction, as I hide behind Ali and Jake's creation as the third pig, sniggering and mimicking a slightly accented female voice representative of the wolf's mother. The lines that I speak will set up the ending, as we decided that the pigs will have tea outside the 3rd pigs house, with the wolf being forced to apologise to them all by his mother. This will both teach the children to obey their elders subconsciously, but also when staging this scene, I will suggest that Liam really exaggerates the apology, almost having to muster everything in him to vocalise the apology!
When staging the 2nd pig's sequence, I decided that the song that the pigs dance to whilst building the house should be something recognisable to the audience so that they become more engaged, but if they don't recognise it, it should have a rhythm that they will get involved in. I chose the song 'I Like To Move It' by Reel 2 Real as it has a consistent beat that makes it easier to choreograph to, and I supplemented this notion with simple choreography that still looks effective on stage. The song is funny in itself, with the strange vocal tones that the children will find comedic on its own, but supported with strange and entertaining dance moves will only further their engagement and enjoyment.
This week we focused on the movement and choreography of both set pieces previously discussed and how they could be more engaging for the audience. The movements we make will be loud and over the top so that not only anyone in the audience can see them, but also as many children's theatre actors have this trait to keep the target audiences' focus. We have tried to apply this idea to our movement, and with some improvement to facial expression, the idea will be successfully approached.
In my own performance, I have ensured that this week I focused on my use of voice alongside my facial expressions so that not only my body is being used clearly and effectively, but my face and voice as well. Its not just movement that keeps an audience engaged, and I have sought to find comedic aspects in these tones and expressions to further secure that engagement.
Strengths of this week: The movement pieces are well on their way, and we managed to complete the 3rd pigs sequence, and are about half way through the 2nd pig's sequence. From this, we simply need to finish the 2nd pig's dances, and the scene, and the ending to the play. Afterwards I suggest we run the entire production, and then tidy up anything that wasn't to our satisfaction as a cast. The movements we have created are entertaining for audiences, as the chants engage the audience directly in their participation, and the dance moves so far are comedic and simple so that the audience can clearly follow what is happening on each rhythmic beat.
Weaknesses of this week: I hoped to complete the 2nd pig's sequence in its entirety, but this is not a huge problem, as we can then give it even more of a focus in the next lesson so that the ending also has enough time devoted to it. However, it does mean that another lesson will be taken up by staging, when we could be tidying the production as a whole.
For the next week of rehearsals, I suggest that we work on finishing the entire production so that we can clean any mishaps in our full run through. As well as this, we should focus on our facial expressions when choreographing the net few movements for the 2nd pig's sequence, as we will then find it easier to use these engaging expressions in future rehearsals. With practise comes perfection, and we should therefore rehearse as if we are performing to our target audience at all times.
Week beginning 17/11/14
This week only contained one lesson due to a UCAS focus day that the Howard had on Thursday. We also didn't have Liam present, and so we worked with what we had, and decided to do a speed run of the entire production to see if we knew it off by heart with no stops. It was a largely successful rehearsal with no real problems, other than having to multi-role due to the absence of the Wolf. I took a lead in ensuring the choreography was accurate when we performed it, but I did not need to do much as it looked good, with minor improvements needed to rhythm, and will soon be ready to perform to an audience.
This week also let us work on some team-building exercises and trust exercises. I found that this bettered our work as a company and as an ensemble, which I feel is vital as a performer. Working on stage requires thinking as one body with your peers, knowing exactly what is going on at all times, so that any changes made can be addressed professionally in a performance. I felt that these exercises gave us more trust in each other, for example, I had to run and dive through the air and trust that my fellow cast members will support me accurately and safely, and they accomplished this.
This week I worked on my movement, particularly in the choreography, to ensure it was appealing to our target audience. I made sure it was over-the-top and engaging, without being too much like a pantomime, which is not our focus area of theatre. The exaggerated movements help the audience understand what the movements are, as well as look interesting from any area in the audience, which was the other focus, I wanted to ensure that any audience member no matter how far back would be able to see the performance clearly.
Strengths: Company had a tight focus and knew the production to a sufficient standard. To improve this knowledge, we should run the show at least once every lesson, remembering to be engaging to the target audience the entire time.
Weaknesses: With minor improvements, the piece will be able to flow without any slight pauses.
For the next few rehearsals, we should run the entire production every lesson, to keep it fresh in our minds each week, and to make sure we include every detail, even the quick-witted dialogue when available. We should also rehearse in other areas, like the stage, as the two schools may have different performance spaces, and we need to be prepared for any eventuality.
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