New songs

In lessons we used different techniques in order to warm up our voices before rehearsing our solo's 


http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=2032060941669&set=t.802360116&type=3&theater


When I was rehearsing somewhere over the rainbow I didn't feel 100% confident with my song choice even though i knew the song well. I decided that somewhere over the rainbow as i mentioned before was massively overdone and in places the song was a bit too high which was where i was beginning to struggle a bit. so I decided to begin looking for another song.

rehearsal process - continued

As the show approached all the cast were feeling a bit apprehensive about the forthcoming performance. we had only received the second act quite late on and were struggling to remember all the musical numbers and stage directions as a whole. However as it got closer to the performance everybody seemed to group together and really progress with the whole play.

as soon as we had had our hair and make up done and had tried on our costumes everyone seemed to be a lot more positive and confident about the piece which allowed us to get more done and become more focused as a group.

I personally found it really daunting to get up in front of my peers and act my character to my full potential as it's a little out of my comfort zone and something I'm not used to doing at all. This is where my partner really helped me to come out off my shell. she was fairly experienced with acting and so were  most of the other cast members so they egged us on and made a lot of us hit our potential by being supportive.

although I managed to get into character more I was still concious of wht others thought so I held back slightly as time went on however this slowly dissapeared. 

evaluation

Overall I felt the musical was a great success however I don't think I'd like to go through all the preparation again as it was far too much work. 

I think initially we all had doubts about the differences between the two groups of dancers and actors .It was a little bit awkward at first but as time went on we all got along and are still all close now even after the event. I was also worried about learning lines and performing to an audience, although we still have to perform in dance you can cover up any bits you mess up or in extremities run off stage if something drastic happens. But with acting you have to know your lines inside out as if you forget yours it could affect someone Else's performance and you have to be on-stage for the whole of the set scene especially if you have a speaking part. This is something i felt I dealt with fairly well even though on the day I was filed with nerves.

I really enjoyed working with the actors as I felt they seemed to bring out the best in all of us and made us really get into character which is something i really struggled with throughout the whole process. 

I think I managed to learn my lines fairly well - even though there weren't that many I still seemed to really struggle learning the song words too. throughout the rehearsals and the performance there is one line I can never get right in the first scene and no matter how many times i read over the script and tried to learn that one line I still couldn't get it right. However I managed to learn the majority of my lines before the performance so I was pleased with my self.

If I were to do the whole process again I would like to have been more into my character from an early stage. When watching it back I think I managed to get in to character well however in early rehearsals I was quite reluctant to perform at all due to nerves I think in front of my peers. I think like I said if we were to re do the whole process again I would of liked to work harder on my characterisation from an early stage.

All in all I thought the performance went really well and we worked well as a company to pull off a really great show, even after all the doubts we had.although the process was long and tiring for all involved I would definately love to do it again as I think it was a fantastic experience and something i will never forget.

Make up and costume

The week before the performance we had to try on our costumes and also test out our make up which was nerve racking but also exciting. each main character was assigned make up artists who had spent weeks researching and designing our make-up. They had spent time creating mood boards to decide on which colours to use based on a small amount of information on what the director wanted.

My make up was made up of a fairly yellow base layer, dark eyes and cheeks to make us look drained. we also had round red cheeks to match the tweedle's in wonderland so you could see a similarity between our characters. Our costumes were fairly basic as we were reality characters stuck in a mental hospital. we wore hospital gowns with black leggings or shorts and hats attached to Alice bands with question marks painted on the front. 

all in all I thought all of the characters make up looked fantastic ! it really brought it all together especially after the weeks of rehearsing. I also think the costumes worked well as they helped to set the scene.

what is alice in wonderland

Alice in wonderland is a classic story many of us will remember from our childhood. the original story was written by Lewis carol - originally titled Alice's adventures in wonderland and published in 1865. The story is about a young girl Alice Kingsley who visits a magical land - wonderland via falling down a rabbit hole. In wonderland Alice meets many mystical characters from the mad hatter, Tweedledee and dumb, the Cheshire cat and the evil red queen. Alice then awakens returning back to reality on the river bank with her sister. 

Since Lewis carols book there have been a number of versions of Alice in wonder land  including 22 adaptations for film and television including the Disney classic cartoon and the more recent Tim Burton version in 2010. 

In our version of the classic I was cast as Dumelda twee a reality version of Tweedledum the twins.in film versions i have seen the twins are always together and talking in riddles throughout. nowadays these names Tweedledee and Tweedledum have become almost a nickname for people that look and act alike. they also have a poem which they recite in Lewis carols book :

"Tweedledum and Tweedledee

    Agreed to have a battle;

For Tweedledum said Tweedledee

    Had spoiled his nice new rattle.

Just then flew down a monstrous crow,

    As black as a tar-barrel;

Which frightened both the heroes so,

    They quite forgot their quarrel"

  

in both the book and later adaptations thee twins have primarily been male however in our version both sets of twins are female , However i feel this will be a modern twist on the classic and as long as we both talk in sync and act alike on stage we will hopefully be able to pull of the role .

the rehearsal process

Over the weeks we have been rehearsing different sections of the first act. I found this quite complicated as I wasnt really sure what to do with my character . Unfortunately over the weeks i feel like i havent had much direction as in what my character does or how she acts - so i've just had to roll with it. 


For the majority of scenes i am in I will be at a table in the common room with other patients from the institute , with of course my twin Delia. as i mentioned before we are always in close proximity and seem to bounce off one another. This is something we worked together on over the weeks , especially when we had learnt our lines we were able to play with this idea more. It was great having a partener who was more experienced with acting to help me with the development of my character however i would have liked more ideas and help from the director as I realy struggle with acting as it is. 


Overall I feel the rehearsal process is going fairly slow - you can understand it can be a slight issue with so many group members and trying to plough through a huge script. It also made fairly diffucult with so many people coming in as and when they feel like it as it makes it hard to work through the dialog and choreograph the musical numbers. However i feel the rehearsals so far have been quite well managed and everyone is on a set task for the lesson . 

My character

After Christmas break we were assigned our parts for the upcoming performance of malice. I was cast as Dumelda Twee a character based in reality mirroring Tweedle dumb. the setting was based in a mental hospital where i was being held under around the clock care by nurses.

I was to be accompanied by other characters mirroring those in the well known books . these included Doreen the door mouse Lopsy - the march hare Chessie - the Cheshire cats Madame Miliner - the mad hatter Dr peter - the white rabbit nurse rouge and Blanche - the red and white queen and of course Alice herself. 

alongside me I had my twin Delia Twee , Our lines always seem to be like talking in riddles and we almost seem to bounce off of one another. we are going to aim to work together to create a clear partnership and build on the relationship to translate this across to audience members. 

My character was a fairly straight forward role my self and lauren were almost in our own little world together. our movement was quite free and fluid and from the script its quite clear we can't really function without one another as we answer each others questions and are always in close proximity with one another.

Initially i found it hard to work with my partner as we had some differences prior to this show however as the show got closer we managed to get along quite well and she really helped me a lot with my confidence on stage and bringing my character out. Overall i felt we worked well together and made a fairly convincing performance .

My audition

On the day of the audition I was extremely nervous ! I was shaking and was really reluctant to look up or move at all. This I feel affected my performance and ultimately my grade. If i were to complete my audition again I would like to think i would be more confident with the song in general. As I said my singing isn't really a strong point and this is an assignment I really struggled with. I also think I could have projected and performed more  - I think this was down to nerves I seemed to keep constant eye contact with the floor and fiddle with my hands alot rather than performing like I should have done.

On the positive side I felt i managed to stay in tune for the most part  - apart from when my voice went really shaky on the long notes and I also managed to learn my lyrics off by heart.

Rehearsing the piece

Throughout the lessons we were required to not only take part in vocal warm ups but also to rehearse and perform our solo's in front of peers. This was something I found really daunting. the first time we performed in front of the class my voice was really shaky and i had constant eye contact with the floor. I think this was just down to the fact i haven't sung in front of people before. if i was dancing in front of them i still would have been nervous but as singing isn't really in my comfort zone i really struggled with doing this. However this is something i need to learn to overcome especially with the musical coming up I think its just something i will have to deal with as the process goes along as there isn't really a cure for nerves you can only learn how to deal with them better!

when i changed my song choice I didn't realise how hard it would be to find a backing track. I searched on you tube but all the versions on there i came across seemed to have the talking over the top  - which was the version taken directly from the film.Other versions I looked at managed to cut out half the verses or finished half way through ! it was an absolute nightmare trying to find one but eventually I managed to find a perfect version on you tube which I later used to rehearse and complete my audition with.

I also struggled a bit learning the words as the verses are so similar . It took a lot of practising and repetition until I knew the words off by heart and even on the morning of the audition I was still stressing because I was mixing the verses up completely but I think that was down to nerves really.

vocal warm ups

within classes we were required to practice and use vocal techniques and warm ups in order to prepare us for our assessments. we used a wide range of vocal techniques from using the octaves and scales to train our ears and voices to  use and know every note. as well as techniques such as warming up the mouth and face and projecting our singing voices.

This link below shows a list of some vocal warm up exercises we used and also some helpful you tube videos on how to warm up your voice 

http://www.streetmusician.co.uk/vocalwarmuptechniques/

I personally found the warm up's and exercises very helpful although i have had vocal training before this just refreshed my memory and used new ways in which to use my voice. I struggled with some of the high notes especially in somewhere over the rainbow  - the exercises that our tutor used with us helped me to reach higher notes and hold them for longer by controlling my breath and projection however i decided that somewhere over the rainbow was possibly a little bit ambitious . I decided to look at other songs with a lower vocal range - something i could belt out with ease.

When researching musicals and songs that i knew and loved i remembered my favourite song from Chicago  - mamas song .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoDS1lWdpjw

The vocal range in this song was a lot lower than somewhere over the rainbow but this I felt was better suited to me as i could belt the song out.

assignment 1

As part of our first assignment we had to perform a solo or duet of our choice from a famous musical.Throughout the lessons however we would be taught vocal warm ups as well as techniques in pronunciation and projection. the training we would receive in each session would hopefully prepare us for our solo audition.


Initially I was unsure which song to choose as there are so many musicals I have enjoyed. Initially i thought of doing somewhere over the rainbow from the wizard of oz - but this song is massively overdone in audition situations. 

Musical Theatre

As part of our musical theatre assignment we were required to complete an audition piece aswell as the final performance and copmplete a blog to track our process. I havent had much experience in musical theatre so the whole assignment seemed a bit daunting and it's not something I really enjoy.

For my solo I was unsure which song to choose as I don't have a clue about what sort of songs suit my voice. I initially wanted to sing somewhere over the rainbow from the Wizard of Oz. Below is my reasearch on the musical, dorothy and the song itself.



The film The wizard of Oz was released in 1939 and starred Judy Garland as Dorothy a young girl who lives with her aunt in Kansas.She then travels to Oz in her house which is carried by a tornando where she meets The munchkins , the lion, tin man and the scarecrow whilst being accompanied by her dog toto. Over the rainbow is sang about 5 minutes into the film by Garland. the scene is basically where the horrible old lady on a bike ( a charactor mirroring the wicked witch of the west) tries to steal Toto from dorothy. Dorothy then tries to tell her aunt em what happened, but rather than them listening to her dorothy goes to her room where she thinks of a place where nothing matters - hence the song somewhere over the rainbow.