Auditions (29) - "Spacewang" research

The http://www.dramaonlinelibrary.com/plays/spacewang-iid-153450 website said the following about my monologue and the play:

"A short monologue in which a teenage girl roams the streets of Withernsea in search of aliens. Nora may seem your stereotypical fourteen-year-old girl: playing truancy and nicking vodka to neck behind the wheelie bins, but looks can be deceiving. Today is a special day for Nora and her homemade alien radar kit. She’s sure all the signs are pointing to a possible contact, tonight, and she wants to make sure she doesn’t miss it. Though Wells’ monologue has many comedic highlights, it is also tinged with melancholy too as the audience slowly realises who Nora is really trying to reach. Spacewang was first performed at Hull Truck Theatre in 2011."

The monologue is as follows:

"Shoplifting is a piece of piss. You just, you basically just: nick it. And then you get caught. And the security man goes: ‘What you doing?’ and you just have to say really loud: ‘NO, CARL’ or whatever his badge says. And if there’s any old ladies near- by, or nuns and that, and there always is, they look over and Carl gets well con- fused. Starts steering you by your shoulders to his little office. And you hang on till you’re just in the doorway then shout: ‘COS I DON’T WANT TO SHOW YOU MY FANNY. AGAIN.’ He panics and you just run off. Next time you nick something though he remembers what happened and you can see him thinking ‘not worth it’, just lets you get away with it. So you can get quite a lot of vodka really, it’s no trouble. And actually I’m quite good mates with Carl now. He gives me this little nod near exotic fruit then in about five minutes he’s out the back on his break. We get pissed between the wheelie bins. And I did show him my fanny in the end but. Just to say thanks but. He wasn’t fussed."

 My character is 14 and appears to be quite lonely, as she has a fascination with aliens and doesn't seem to have any other interaction with people (apart from Carl). I assume she doesn't have supportive and caring parents as she often shoplifts and gets drunk.

Auditions (28) - "Spacewang" monologue by Tom Wells

Last night, a teacher from my theatre school emailed me a few monologues for audition practice. One of the three monologues was a comedy one starting with the line "shoplifting is a piece of piss". I decided that I wanted to try this one as I didn't think that the "divorce papers" one suited me. As I received it last night I hadn't done any research on it at all so was reading it cold.

Therefore before performing it in class today I was told that I wasn't get any feedback for the first attempt as I needed to do research into my character and the actual play itself. Also before performing, I had to cut down my monologue to an appropriate length as it was over a page and a half long.

Although this was just a cold read, the reactions from those watching were very positive. However, I need to make my voice sound more common. I also need to do more with my hands - I was speaking with my hand out but my palm was facing up; this works for a lot of it, but it would be more engaging to have my palm facing downwards.

We then split into pairs and helped each other with our monologues. Rob said that this attempt was a big improvement. I took the note about my hands and tried to work with them, however, I still feel like I need to add more movement in to the piece. I also changed the way I said the line "I DON'T WANT TO SHOW YOU MY FANNY AGAIN". In this attempt, I really exaggerated it and went over the top with it - making it as melodramatic as I could. I also imitated the security guard, Carl, to show a contrast in my voice (in terms of pitch and tone).

My next step will be to do research on my character and the play itself.

Musical Theatre (25) - Act One Run

Today we ran the whole of Act One from start to finish (however, we skipped "We're Okay" and "Tango: Maureen" as I have a really bad throat at the moment and am not supposed to be singing). The main thing we need to work on from this lesson is knowing our lines! Sadly, there are still some songs which we have already done where people are still using scripts.

• "Rent":   Needs more vocal energy, but movement was a lot better.
• "Light My Candle":   This was the best it has ever been today. Henri and Taylor acted throughout, their character interaction was very believable, and their vocals were strong.
• Voice mails:   These need to be really over the top in terms of characterisation.
• "Today 4 U":   Owen sings thing really well but will need to project more so he is definitely heard when we put the show on stage. 
• "You'll See":   Is getting stronger every time they perform it. Will's voice has really improved since the beginning of this unit. He puts a lot of energy into his performance (in terms of vocals and character work), however, the rest of the people in this number have to match Will.
• "Life Support":   We had to spend quite a lot of time today on getting the timing right for this number. The names were all spoken at the wrong times, meaning that the actual song itself came in late. Another thing that needed work for this number was our American accents. Throughout the entire show progress so far, our accents have been fine, but when it came to saying the names at the beginning of this song, we became quite British and common! 
• Transition:   Originally, we all stayed where we were at the end of "Life Support" in a freeze frame until "Will I?". However, we have now changed this as not everyone will be singing "Will I?" now. Therefore, everyone acts as if they are saying goodbye then walks off in different directions. However, I remain where I was and Owen stands facing the back where he was. Owen and I remain in these positions in a freeze frame during "Another Day".
• "Will I?":   This song has changed the most since we started doing it. Originally, everyone was in this number and it was performed in a round - unfortunately, we couldn't get this number to work in terms of coming off at the right time, and it was all a little bit too repetitive. Therefore, Mr Webb cut people out of this number, so only people who the song was relevant to, sang it. Mimi and Roger sing this song, as they both have AIDS and they just broke up in the previous song, so is very relevant to them. We also wanted either Angel or Collins in this number too, as both of them have AIDS. Originally, Lewis was going to do it, but he was struggling with the tuning of this number, so Owen is doing it instead. As I was singing the first solo in this song anyway, I am still in this number. Although it is not clear whether my character has AIDS or not, it is still relevant to my character as I could be singing about Maureen, or the lyrics still would make sense if I sang about my sexuality and how my parents aren't supportive of this ("for mummy's sake kitten no, Doc Martin's this time"). The staging for this one is really simple. Roger stays centre, Mimi stands stage right, I remain in my position from "Life Support" and Owen stands between Henri and I. So that the piece isn't too repetitive, I shall sing the first round (as before), then everyone else will join in with me. As we were having trouble with the timing, we shall sing in unison. The fifth time, I sing as a solo - Owen and Henri exit on this one. The final round is sung as a solo by Taylor (I walk off on this time). The fact that Taylor is left on the stage on our own emphasises her feeling of isolation and emptiness, thus foreshadowing "Without You".
• Angel discussion:   Mr Webb and I had a long debate about when Angel dies, when she should wear her wig and the staging for "Without You". Mr Webb spoke about having Angel take her wig off when she joins in with the song "Will I?" but I thought that this could either be a little bit tacky, or it would be too much too soon - this could be saved until "Without You" when he is dying. Mr Webb and I finally agreed that he wouldn't take his wig off here and would save it until "Without You" as it would be lovely (and very abstract) for him to put the wig back on during "I'll Cover You (reprise)", as it would show Angel changing from how he was when he died to how he will be remembered by everyone at the funeral. Our staging conversation was about split screening. Mr Webb was speaking about having a split screen for "Without You", but I feel like this would detach the audience from the emotional side of the piece. I agreed that it would look good to have a split screen and would work well in a play, but as it is Musical Theatre, I feel like the audience would suspend their disbelief and the location doesn't really matter. I would prefer to create the right atmosphere and a moving looking piece, rather than keeping it completely realistic and obvious. We will hopefully be staging this number next lesson.

Musical Theatre (24) - Act Two & Audacity

In this lesson we ran the whole of Act Two from beginning to end. What we desperately need to do is learn the dialogue between all of the songs to ensure that the songs flow better from one to the other. By having the appropriate dialogue between musical numbers, not only does the audience get a better understanding of the plot, but this also enables us time to move any set on or off stage.

Our feedback from Mr McKay about "La Vie Boheme" was mainly to do with movement, and that we need to keep the energy going the entire time. However, our other note for this number was to ensure that we know all of the words for the "bisexuals, transsexuals" part. I also feel like we need to articulate more here to make sure that the lines are clear.

Our main note from the teachers was to ensure that we know all of our lines and how the songs go! We also have to set "Without You", "I'll Cover You (reprise)" and "Goodbye Love" still, but apart from these three, I think we have pretty much staged everything else. Mine and Alice's note for "Take Me or Leave Me" was "boom". They said that they were really happy with how we acted it and the energy we had put in to it - they liked our character relationship too and how we varied our proxemics when our emotions and intensities of emotions changed dramatically. However, I am still not overly confident on the harmonies for this number, so I need to listen to them more.

There is a section of dialogue in "Goodbye Love" between Maureen and Joanne. Due to us cutting a lot of Act Two, I personally felt that this was really not necessary; I also feel that it takes away from the main action. It was not used in the movie version of Rent so it is clearly not essential to the story. Therefore, I explained my thinking to the class and told them that I would edit the backing track on audacity so we don't have a long section of music in the middle. The top left image shows me putting the track on to audacity, whilst the top right image shows the track after I made the cut in the track. I halved the instrumental section in the middle which the dialogue is spoken over. I thought this would be appropriate as I left enough music for the characters that are not needed in the rest of the scene to leave on. As Alice and I aren't doing the dialogue, I thought that we could look at each other (whilst still being emotional from the funeral), make a smile to comfort each other, and then hug to show that we have forgiven each other - then we would leave, before the next part of the song. The bottom left image print screen shows me fading out the instrumental part to ensure there isn't an abrupt stop before the next part of the music comes in. The bottom right image shows that the track was saved and exported successfully.

Business (18) - Task F - The Rights & Ticket Prices

As I had done the research into printing, venue hire and microphones, Lewis did some research into the hiring the rights to put on a musical. The rights include the scripts, the score and to actually put the production on. Lewis worked out an average cost for the rights of a musical by looking at the following website: www.josef-weinberger.com

The cost for the rights would be as follows:

• £310 for scripts
• £195 for musical scores
• (Option A) £100 per performance OR (Option B) 16% of total ticket sales

Tickets:
Assuming we sold all of the tickets for every show, then we would have sold 1200 tickets. We will sell our tickets for £5 each, and £2 for concessions. If we said that concessions take up 60% of the audience, then we would sell 720 concessions and 480 standard tickets. The overall concessions tickets prices would be (720 x £2) £1440, whilst the standard tickets would be (480 x £5) £2400. The overall ticket sales would be (£1440 + £2400) £3840.

Option A:

• Script prices and score prices (310 + 195) = £505
• Four performances (4 x 100) = £400
• Overall price for Option A Fee (505 +400) = £905

Option B:

• Script prices and score prices (310 +195) = £505
• 16% of ticket sales (16% of 3840) = £614.4
• Overall price for Option B Fee (505 + 614.4) = £1119.40

Conclusion:
Unfortunately, we have to go for the option which costs more, so we have to go for Option B, costing us an additional (1119.4 - 905) £169.40.                                           

AAS (37) - Completing CIDN & Going over PPT

I spent the first half of this lesson working on the "Curious Incident" scene with the physical theatre group, whilst Lewis and Hope put Rob into their Brechtian scene. We began our session by simply walking through our piece from beginning to end, stopping whenever we encountered a problem. The alterations we made today are as follows:

• The first lift. We have been having trouble with this lift for quite a while, so we decided that it was best to spend a while getting this right. The first thing that needed correcting was how Ollie got in to the lift. Originally he ran in and had to jump up. However, we have changed it so he just steps into, putting his weight through his arms on to my shoulders, and just lifts his legs one at a time with momentum. The next thing we changed was how James got Ollie's legs. Orignially, James tried to lift Ollie's legs, rather than just taking them once Ollie puts them up. We also changed where James stood to ensure that Ollie wasn't leaning to one side and thus going off balance. 
• We edited the section between the station guard part and the information dialogue. Oliver felt awkward having just backed away from Ollie, but then returning almost instantly to pick him up - therefore, we have added a little bit of movement in to prevent this. As the last movement we did was all walking round Ollie, we do another circle around him to have continuity and to make the piece flow.
• We also sorted the slow motion section, during the Ed dialogue. We all discussed where we wanted certain things to be in the space (e.g. where we wanted the board with the times on to be, or where McDonald's is, etc.) - this ensures that this section is consistent and makes more sense. We have semi-choreographed our movements now, so that we interact with each other at points. For example, I move as a child towards the pasties stall, whilst Oliver moves towards McDonald's. He bumps in to me and turns round as if he's angry at me, whilst I poke my tongue out at him. 
• The other part we polished was the very ending. We re-arranged what way we would walk off before the final scene (which changed our position in the line) to make more sense for our places for the final scene. This made our transition smoother. Also, we changed what lines we walk off on at the end, as the original lines didn't work now for our new places. 

Our tracks of dialogue are currently being put together with music underneath and sound effects at appropriate places (i.e. a train sound effect for when Christopher and Man with Socks narrowly miss the tube). After going through our scene, the class spent the rest of the lesson working on their scene from "The Government Inspector". However, Ollie and I decided that we didn't want to be in this scene as we both have a lot of lines to learn for our other scenes. Therefore, Ollie and I spent the rest of the lesson helping each other learn our lines. I helped him with his scene from "Waiting for Godot", whilst he helped me with "People Places and Things". 

Musical Theatre (23) - Random Songs & New Song List

"Happy New Year B":   Today (28/11/16) we began working on "Happy New Year B". We began by singing through the song. The majority of the cast didn't know this song, so we listened to it for a few times first. We then sang it with the backing track a few times. We have been finding this song quite challenging as the song is quite conversational, so we have to fit a lot of lines in to not a lot of music. Also, some of the lines overlap. Thankfully though, there are no real harmonies for this song, thus suggesting that the group is all together and creates a real sense of unity. However, once we got fairly comfortable with the song, we then staged it. The first section of the song is a conversation between Joanne, Maureen and Mark about making another protest. This will be done on the L-Shaped decking, stage left. We then jump down to the actual stage to join the rest of the cast on the first "Happy New Year". By singing the first part on a different level and section of stage shows that we are in a different location at that time. On the first "Happy New Year", we all greet each other with celebratory hugs etc. Will then enters stage right and we all just stare at him. We have left a gap between Benny and the rest of the ensemble. The use of proxemics here makes the situation more awkward for Benny and shows everyone's dislike for him. We don't have any other set movement, but we just act and interact with each other. On Owen's solo line of "it's gonna be a Happy New Year", he pushes Taylor towards Henri (DSR) in an attempt to get them back together again. We then all leave stage right to leave Taylor on stage with "The Man" - i.e. her drug dealer.

Musical Numbers:   We have cut a couple of songs from Act One, as they are not really needed, but a lot of songs from Act Two have now been cut, due to our performance date fast approaching. We have also changed where our interval will be due to the two acts being completely different lengths. I think that this was a good decision (to cut songs out) as we are running out of time, so it is better to perform less of the show to a high standard, rather than trying to do the whole show and it not be great. We have been careful about what songs we cut out to ensure that the show will still make sense. The difference with our version is that Mimi doesn't die and come back (i.e. "Your Eyes" and "Finale B"), and instead we don't see Mimi and Roger get back together.

• Our Act One is now as follows:
  
  • "Tune Up #1" /// "Voice Mail #1" /// "Tune Up #2" /// "Rent" /// "Tune Up #3" /// "One Song Gory" /// "Light My Candle" /// "Voice Mail #2" /// "Today For You" /// "You'll See" /// "Tango: Maureen" /// "Life Support" /// "Another Day" /// "Will I?" /// "Santa Fe" /// "I'll Cover You" /// "We're Okay" /// "Over the Moon"

• Our Act Two is as follows:
  
  • "La Vie Boheme" /// "Voice Mail #3" /// "Happy New Year B" /// "Take Me or Leave Me" /// "Without You /// "Voice Mail #4" /// "I'll Cover You (reprise)" /// "Goodbye Love" /// "Seasons of Love A"

05/12/16:   We began this lesson with a vocal warm up and then Henri and Taylor sang "Without You" a few times. Taylor knew this song, but Henri wasn't overly confident with it so they sang through it a few times. After this we all sang through "Happy New Year" again to ensure that we remembered it. The first time we sang this today, the vocals were a bit out of time in places and the acting was a bit flat. We did it again but put more energy into it thus creating the right atmosphere and mood for the piece. Afterwards, we then sang through "Goodbye Love" for the first time. We hadn't sung this through before, so we sang it a few times. We didn't bother staging it as a lot of people didn't know the song well enough yet. Therefore, we moved on to "I'll Cover You (reprise)". Lewis knew this song, but the majority of the cast didn't know the backing vocals, so we worked on the harmonies for this song. The backing vocals are important in this number as they are symbolic of how everyone is supporting Collin in this tough time.