Workshop (7) - Running down the wrong path...

To begin this lesson, we mind mapped our ideas for the song "She Cries". Below is what we came up with:

• James sings it all, but I possibly harmonise for some parts
• Physical theatre showing me at various auditions
• Others all at the auditions and be quite bad, but I would be good but still fail - to add a bit of a comedy element to the piece
• Rob could be the choreographer at the front of the session
• Possibly return to the warm up / stretching line from the "Opening Sequence"

We then utilised the majority of these ideas and created a section of this number. We returned to the taxi that we created in the "Opening Sequence" - however, James and I were passengers in the back. Rob became the headlight that I was, and I became the "taxi" placard holder! After we've done the taxi, we break out and put our bags down - i.e, we pick up our stalls, and turn them upside down, and carry them collapsed. When we go to go in our bags, we put the stalls down upside down, open them and then mime looking through them and getting the things we need out of them. We then put our bags down to the side and got into the line from the "Opening Sequence", and began doing our stretches. Meanwhile, James is singing at the sides. I run over to him on the line "she cries" as if I am panicking because I don't think I'm good enough. We hug. We then all go into the audition line and learn the choreography. I then get cut and cry again over on James's shoulder...

We then realised that we were really heading down the wrong path with this song as we looked back at the words and realised that what we were doing didn't really fit. We then stopped trying to make anymore as we realised that we would have to alter everything we've done as it really didn't work. We therefore decided to sit down and write down the lyrics that we thought were really important and needed to be used in some way or emphasised - below are the lines we agreed we would have done more with if we had more lessons on our mock:

• "Flames are not what get you burned. It's the cold and the ice"
• "Never look in a woman's eyes" 
• "She cries and you want to hold her. She lies and you want to run away"
• "For all she can take. You've got more there to steal"
• "Always thought I was much strong for hating and still I keep waiting"
• "So I'm stuck in this world of her magic mystique"

We decided that we would mind map another song to see what we could come up with in the remainder of our last lesson. The song we did was "Stars and the Moon":

• I could sing it all, but move through different boys...
• James would be the first guy I sing to / interact with, as he is the character who my character was with but wasn't happy because he didn't have enough money. I then spot Ollie and move over to him.
• I then sing to / interact with Ollie. He offers me everything he has, but then I spot Lewis, who has a lot of money.
• I then sing to / interact with Lewis. We show us to getting married and me with a lot of money, but I am not happy with him. I then see James with someone else looking happy with someone else.
• We could do something clever with costumes. We thought that we could have me in lots of layers of costume. I could wear an ugly looking coat, with a nicer cardigan underneath, and a pretty dress underneath it all. Each time I get with a new guy, I take off a layer.
• We thought on the final line, I could run over to James and hold his hands, but he smiles and then walks away.

We quite liked the ideas we came up with for this number, but today was the last day of our mock workshop progress, so next lesson we shall move on to "Sweeney Todd".