Business (13) - Task D - Preparing for GSA

ROUND 1:
"Perform one Musical Theatre song of no more than three minutes. Needs to be age appropriate. Bring sheet music and full piano accompaniment. Character and show needs to be researched in detail." - http://lornaclarkra.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/business-6-task-c-gsa-research.html

Musical Theatre songs for sopranos that I like: 

• "Think of Me" from "The Phantom of the Opera"
• "Summertime" from "Porgy and Bess"
• "Greenfinch and Linnet Bird" from "Sweeney Todd"
• "Wishing you were Somehow Here Again" from "The Phantom of the Opera"
• "No one mourns the Wicked" from "Wicked"
• "If I were a bell" from "Guys and Dolls"
• "Don't forget me" from "Smash"
• "Where Did The Rock Go?" from "School of Rock"

I have decided that I am going to sing "Wishing you were Somehow Here Again" from "The Phantom of the Opera". The character who sings this song, Christine, is about my age and sings this song to her dead father at his grave. I chose this song as it shows a good range vocally, as well as being very emotionally demanding, so would enable me to show that I can remain in character and be convincing whist maintaining my vocal technique. Whilst singing this I have to remember the context - the fact that the Phantom is watching her and he is kind of the father-figure in her life.


ROUND 2:
"Perform a one minute solo dance of any style. Bring music on a CD. Perform the same song from round one again, plus perform a song from the list given by GSA. Prepare two contrasting modern speeches (post 1950) at no more than two minutes each. One should be in your own accent." - http://lornaclarkra.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/business-6-task-c-gsa-research.html

Musical Theatre (15) - "Rent"

In yesterday's lesson we sang through "Rent" and then blocked it. We had sung this before but needed to go over the vocals to improve the harmonies and vocal energy throughout.

Vocal energy:
We knew that the vocal energy would improve when we added movement, but we needed to get this energy without the movement to ensure that we are using our diaphragms to avoid strains. If you do not put enough energy in to it then you are probably not using your diaphragm and instead are singing from your throat. However, this could also be from a lack of training from the majority of the class. Therefore, in the vocal warm-up I ensured that I did some breathing exercises to engage the diaphragm, inter-costal muscles and pelvic floor.

Harmonies and solos:

When singing along to the actual track, our vocals sounded fine, however, with the backing track some of our timings were off. Cameron struggled with knowing when to come in and I lost my timing in places on my solo part. However, after singing through the piece a couple of times with the backing track, we managed to improve our timing. As I am doing a version of "Rent" at the moment outside of school, I already knew and was confident with the harmonies for the ensemble verses of the song. Below is the first verse that everybody sings:

• "How do you leave the past behind when it keeps finding ways to get to your heart?"   -   this is sung in unison by the entire cast
• "It reaches way down deep and tears you inside out till you're torn apart, rent!"   -  boys continue with the melody. girls sing a harmony a third above. everyone shouts "rent" in unison.
• "How can you connect in an age where strangers, landlords, lovers, your own blood cells betray"   -   everyone in unison.
• "What binds the fabric together when the raging, shifting winds of change keep ripping away?"   -   boys on melody. Taylor and Alice sing the third above harmony. I sing the fifth above harmony.

The harmonies still need work as some people get distracted by the harmonies going on and so don't sing the melody. Therefore, on Tuesday we shall all stay behind after school to go through the harmonies together.

Movement:
We haven't completely staged the whole piece yet, but we wanted to keep it fairly naturalistic. It isn't a dance number, but is more of an angry piece with blocking. Therefore Cameron and Henri start centre and just do what comes naturally. Whenever anyone is supposed to be on the phone (i.e. me when I am on the phone to Joanne, and Benny when he is on the phone to Allison) we stand stage left on the L-shaped steel decking. We have movement for the dance-break though. Mr McKay (who did the production of "Rent" last year with me - he played Angel) decided that he would use similar choreography to last year. Instead of running sideways, Dan got Henri and Cameron to run forwards and back. However, Tyler, Warren and I run sideways behind them. We all do four runs and four hops on both legs, a circular lunge (Cameron and Henri go one way, and the rest of us go the other), two punches and a full turn jump. The running represents their anger and shows that their anger is too intense to control. The circular lunge creates a sense of unity between the ensemble as well as a sense of tension. The punches and jump also shows their frustration and anger.

Summary:
All we have left to do for this piece is to go through the harmonies and polish the movement.

Auditions (19) - King Lear Monologue

Today we all performed our monologues to the rest of the class. The feedback I got after performing mine was the following:

• "Really impressive"
• Clearly worked on it as I got the correct meaning across. 
• Slow down in places. As it is Shakespeare, I need to slow down so that each word is heard.
• Remember that I am an upper class lady, so perhaps compose myself at times.

I have now annotated my monologue with where I shall be really angry and where I shall compose myself slightly.

AAS (24) - PP&T - Set and Props

Above is our first draft of what we would like to be our set between each of my character's blackouts. It is crucial that our set is different each time to show that Emma has passed out and is disorientated. The design above is not necessarily how we will have our set for the performance, as when working more on this scene, we may have more ideas.

AAS (23) - PP&T - Additional Scene

In this lesson we ran our entire scene again a few times. We were trying to improve our characterisation and add more depth to our characters by applying the character decisions we made last lesson. We worked on the movement side of things as well and decided that we want to get off of script as soon as possible to enable ourselves to really commit to the movement and character. It would also enable us to use props - this is something we would like to start doing soon, as a lot of props are involved in this scene, and we need to be comfortable with what we are doing with them.

Another aspect of performance we worked on today was volume. At the beginning of this scene, Ollie and I are having a conversation about smoking, whilst Lewis's character is shouting frantically to anyone and everyone. What we had to work out was how we could make Ollie and I heard over Lewis's shouting. In the play we watched, both Foster and Emma were miked. However, we decided to bring mine and Ollie's conversation further down stage, and Lewis further upstage. Also, now that Lewis is using his diaphragm more now, his shouting is slightly lower in pitch, thus making it less piercing and over-powering. In addition, Ollie and I are projecting more. I found it quite challenging to present my character's confused and disorientated state whilst speaking louder, but after practising this a few times, I began to get the hang of it.

Moreover, we have added another two pages to the end of our scripts. In this scene, Foster settles Emma into her new room and tries to make her feel at ease. Ollie and I didn't get much time on this scene but we ran through it once to learn what happens, and once to do it with our desired blocking. We know how we shall stage this scene now, but shall also learn this scene off by heart, as soon as possible, to enable us to practise this scene without any restrictions.

What I shall do between now and next lesson is label my script with my character's intentions, objectives and feelings throughout the play, as well as trying to learn as much of it as I can off by heart. Next lesson, we shall work through the script in small sections to really perfect each little detail and moment (for example, where and when the Doctor refers to her clip board / notes; what she thinks when she reads the notes and thus what facial expressions she would pull whilst reading).

Auditions (18) - First Attempt of Classical Monologue & Research

To begin this lesson, we got into pairs to tell each other about our chosen monologues and to them perform them to each other. Ollie and I formed a pair and the feedback he gave me from my first attempt was that I used my pauses nicely, but I needed to do more research to find out the relationship between my character and the man she refers to as "him".

Between performing this monologue to Ollie, and performing it to the class, I managed to do a little bit research. Through this research, I learned that my character, Goneril, is one of three sisters, and is actually referring to her father in this monologue. I knew that I needed to do more research on this, but wanted to try out the monologue first before doing a lot of research into it. As I have decided that I like this monologue, I shall do a lot more research on it. My feedback from performing it to the class was as follows:

1. Doesn't have to be perfectly read. Think about how you would speak when you're actually angry - you might pause in strange places.
2. Be more ruthless! She is extremely angry and is at the end of her tether. She is livid.

Brief synopsis of the play:   (Notes taken and condensed from the following site - http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/kinglear/kinglearps.html)

•  Set in ancient Britain. Elderly King Lear is deciding to "give up his power and divide his realm amongst his three daughters (Goneril, Regan and Cordelia).
• He planned to give the largest piece of his kingdom to his daughter that "professes to love him the most" - certain his favourite, Cordelia, will win.
• Goneril and Regan play along (constantly being deceitful), whilst Cordelia refuses to participate. 
• Lear is angered and disowns Cordelia. Lear banishes Earl of Kent (his friend) for trying to speak on her behalf.
• Meanwhile, the King of France and Cordelia marry. Cordelia "reluctantly leaves Lear with her two cunning sisters". 
• Kent disguises himself and becomes Lear's servant to try to protect him from his deceitful daughters.
• Lear, a fool, some knights and the disguised Kent move in with Goneril. She treats Lear with no respect and like an old man.
• Lear sends Kent to Regan with a letter to say that he will stay with her. Regan puts Kent in stocks. Lear arrives and is horrified. Kent is let free. Lear tries to find out who did this, when Goneril arrives. He realises that Regan and Goneril are working together. 
• Regan and Goneril plot to kill Lear. Gloucester finds out and warns Kent to send Lear to Dover. They leave immediately but Edgar remains behind. Regan and Goneril find out. 
• Cornwall (Regan's husband) "gouges out Gloucester's eyes. A servant tries to help Gloucester and attacks Cornwall with a sword - a blow later to prove fatal."
• Cordelia sends French troops to Dover. Regan and Goneril send their own troops to fight the French in Dover. Gloucester also tries to go to Dover and finds his son, Edgar.
• Kent sets off with Lear to reunite him with Cordelia. Lear sleeps through the battle and awakes to be told Cordelia is defeated. He hopes to be imprisoned with her to avoid his evil daughters. However, Cordelia is sentenced to death, not imprisoned.
• Regan and Goneril are both in love with Edmund (Gloucester's "conniving" son who ordered Cordelia to be executed). Goneril poisons Regan. Edgar fatally wounds Edmund. Goneril finds out and commits suicide.
• Edmund repents before he dies and "the order to execute Cordelia is reversed". He is too late - Cordelia is hanged. Lear carries his the dead Cordelia. Lear goes mad with grief and dies. "Kent declares that he will follow his master into the afterlife". Edgar becomes the ruler of Britain.

Musical Theatre (14) - Specialise

In today's lesson we performed "La Vie Boheme", "Seasons of Love" and "Santa Fe", and sang through "Rent". "La Vie Boheme" is still lacking a bit of energy, so unless we all have the same high energy, we will have to have more set movement in this number to ensure that everyone is moving and doing something! "Seasons of Love" sounds a lot better now we have added more people on to the "oo's" underneath Taylor and Alice's solo parts. Originally it was only us girls and Owen on the "oo's" when we weren't singing, but now everyone sings them, making them more prominent (but not over-powering). Vocally, "Santa Fe" was a lot better than what it has been but it was a little bit static. Therefore, we have adapted it so that Lewis, Cameron, Owen and Henri move about and interact with each other more, as well as moving over to and interacting with Tyler, Warren and I. We haven't staged "Rent" yet, but this is on the list of things to do! However, vocally, the piece went quite well today - however, everyone needs to learn the lyrics and I need to teach the harmonies to the other girls for the chorus parts.

Having started this unit almost two months ago now, the stage we are at is quite worrying. We should have thought about things such as set, lighting, sound and costumes a long time ago. Although we have done some costume designs, we need to actually get / make these costumes and consider the different aspects to putting the show together as well. Taylor has decided that she would like to look in to costume and make-up design, whilst Will has decided that he would like to learn how to use the lighting desk, so he shall do some research and learn to do this. I have decided that I shall edit any backing tracks that need editing. As Cameron and I would like a backing track to "Tango: Maureen" without the long dance break, I thought that I could edit the track so we could have the best quality backing track without a dance break. Everyone is going to specialise in one (or maybe two) aspects of the production - therefore, I shall edit mine and Cameron's track and any other tracks that need editing as well.