Little Shop of Horrors: Day 17
Again, we began with a warm up as it is becoming a bit of a routine to do so at the beginning of every drama lesson.
After warming up we started where we left off yesterday with the beginning of act 2. Like performing act 1 this was beneficial as it highlighted areas that we perhaps need to work on as well as help is learn more lines. We performed all songs with the backing tracks which allowed us to sing without having the cast singers to fall back on, also exposing us so to speak. It required us to be able to time ourselves properly and sing with enough volume. However, some of the songs were extremely difficult to song through as the underscoring was confusing. With live music it should be much easier as the musicians will be able to go with us and with a combination of actors and musicians, the timing should be much more precise.
After, our teacher took myself and Dan S to work on "now it's just the gas" as we hadn't yet done so. We sand the song through, which is particularly wordy, before moving onto the scene and performed the dialogue. We then set the scene, figuring out how to stage it, where we stand and at what time, how we stand, when do I get up or sit down. Things like this. I think we still need to work on it as it felt very new and robotic almost. It needed a stamp of originality and authenticity, which I think will come as we get more comfortable, helping the piece flow and hopefully, making it easier to watch from an audiences point of view.
In the other room. The others were devising a small movement to the song. In which they rather menacingly sway in their chairs like string puppets which fits the creepy vibe of the piece perfectly. We put our scene and their movement together. We decided to position everyone's seats in a v shape to allow myself and Dan to be seen and have the dentists chair in the middle of the v.
After this we went back to perform the opening number and skid row with as much energy and volume as possible, as they are the opening two numbers. Again, I think the lore we do, the better it gets and I think all that is required is to keep practicing, which will allow us to get more creative with the piece as we go on. We do need to finish the Audrey two though !!
Tuesday, 16 June 2015
Little shop of horrors: Day 16
Today, we were allowed back into the hall, and more importantly onto the stage. This allowed us to run the whole of act 1 in this lesson. This was extremely beneficial as it allowed us to pinpoint areas of weakness in the performance, which we can work on to make the performance stronger as a whole. And there were areas that need work and practice on such as feed me and closed for renovation and transitions between scenes. However, saying this, I thought the run through was rather good and had many strong parts in it. I think the more we do, the stronger it will become, it's as simple as that. We were also given notes on our performance of act 1 to give us suggestions and tips on how to make the performance look better to an audience.
Today, we were allowed back into the hall, and more importantly onto the stage. This allowed us to run the whole of act 1 in this lesson. This was extremely beneficial as it allowed us to pinpoint areas of weakness in the performance, which we can work on to make the performance stronger as a whole. And there were areas that need work and practice on such as feed me and closed for renovation and transitions between scenes. However, saying this, I thought the run through was rather good and had many strong parts in it. I think the more we do, the stronger it will become, it's as simple as that. We were also given notes on our performance of act 1 to give us suggestions and tips on how to make the performance look better to an audience.
Little Shop of Horrors: Day 15
Again, we began with a warm up to get us ready for the rehearsal. Today, we sang through all chorus numbers to see how much we remembered in terms of words, staging and dancing. We performed the opening number twice as the first time was a bit rusty. As I was moved in this dance I was caught out with minor adjustments to my dance, which I soon became familiar with. We also performed "skid row" "ya never know" "the meek shall inherit" and "don't feed the plants".
After this myself and dan decided to go and work on "feed me" as it had been a long time since we had done it together. We done this a couple of times and as far as dialogue and timing is for me, I know what I'm doing. Now I think we need to plan what we are actually going to be doing whilst the song is going on as well as dialogue halfway through the song. We also worked on supper time and sominex to practice our timings. I felt rather strong in this lesson as I knew what my lines where for the songs, I think now, a greater emphasis needs to be put on trying to learn possibly more
Tricky songs such as "Mushnik and son" and "now it's just the gas". As we are yet to do these and need to be addressed.
Again, we began with a warm up to get us ready for the rehearsal. Today, we sang through all chorus numbers to see how much we remembered in terms of words, staging and dancing. We performed the opening number twice as the first time was a bit rusty. As I was moved in this dance I was caught out with minor adjustments to my dance, which I soon became familiar with. We also performed "skid row" "ya never know" "the meek shall inherit" and "don't feed the plants".
After this myself and dan decided to go and work on "feed me" as it had been a long time since we had done it together. We done this a couple of times and as far as dialogue and timing is for me, I know what I'm doing. Now I think we need to plan what we are actually going to be doing whilst the song is going on as well as dialogue halfway through the song. We also worked on supper time and sominex to practice our timings. I felt rather strong in this lesson as I knew what my lines where for the songs, I think now, a greater emphasis needs to be put on trying to learn possibly more
Tricky songs such as "Mushnik and son" and "now it's just the gas". As we are yet to do these and need to be addressed.
Little shop of horrors: Day 14
Today, our teacher took Meg, Dan and myself out into the dance studio to practice our scenes in act 2. This included running the whole act 2 from the end of The Meek Shall Inherit to the finale song. I felt doing this was very helpful as we hadn't really looked at the ending and it was an area that needed working on. The most difficult part I found was actually running on stage and trying to pull Meg from the plant and getting her onto the floor and being allowing her to still be facing the audience. We worked on this in our frees the next day, we decided it would be easier if she becomes a dead weight in my hands and allow me to position her so her head rests on my shoulder and back on my knees, as I crouch. This also makes it easier for me to scoop her up and put her in the plant when she dies.
Once we had run this a couple of times we rejoined the others who were singing all musical numbers in the performance. Before running the whole of act 2 together. I think this went rather well, although it was a lot shorter than I realised. For me, the main problem was Closed for Renovation, the pace got the better of me again, which was why I decided we should practice it in our frees the next day also. It is, however, the song I find most difficult. But apart from that, I felt that the rest of act 2 was good and will get better with practice.
Today, our teacher took Meg, Dan and myself out into the dance studio to practice our scenes in act 2. This included running the whole act 2 from the end of The Meek Shall Inherit to the finale song. I felt doing this was very helpful as we hadn't really looked at the ending and it was an area that needed working on. The most difficult part I found was actually running on stage and trying to pull Meg from the plant and getting her onto the floor and being allowing her to still be facing the audience. We worked on this in our frees the next day, we decided it would be easier if she becomes a dead weight in my hands and allow me to position her so her head rests on my shoulder and back on my knees, as I crouch. This also makes it easier for me to scoop her up and put her in the plant when she dies.
Once we had run this a couple of times we rejoined the others who were singing all musical numbers in the performance. Before running the whole of act 2 together. I think this went rather well, although it was a lot shorter than I realised. For me, the main problem was Closed for Renovation, the pace got the better of me again, which was why I decided we should practice it in our frees the next day also. It is, however, the song I find most difficult. But apart from that, I felt that the rest of act 2 was good and will get better with practice.
Tuesday, 9 June 2015
Little Shop of Horrors: Day 13
Today, most people were assigned the task of updating their blogs. As I only had to to copy and paste my rehearsal notes from my phone notes to blogger, I was up to date in two minutes. This allowed myself, Harry and Dan to set the dance to Mushnik and Son, that Dan had choreographed. At first, we both found the dance rather difficult purely due to the pace of the song and how quick the transitions into different moves were. The routine itself was simple to remember, the main problem was trying to execute it at the speed required without messing up.
Afterwards, we ran through the dance to Little Shop of Horrors and Ya Never Know before our teacher took myself and Meg to go and work on the dialogue running into Suddenly Seymour, which we set and practiced through a couple of times. I think the most important aspect to get right in the song is the movement. Many times, we both moved too fast which didn't fit the tender and slow pace of the song. Therefore, I think we need to work on getting the movements slow enough and with enough meaning to show the audience that these two characters are in love with each other, but are timid in showing it to each other.
Then we moved into the opening number to Act 2: Call Back in the Morning. This number proves to be extremely difficult due to how quick the bars are and the pace of the spoken word as well as the singing, combined with the tune and frequent changes between myself and meg in singing. We decided to listen to the song a couple of times to try and grasp the tune and pace, so hopefully, we will gradually be able to start singing along with the cast track before performing the piece with the backing track.
Today, most people were assigned the task of updating their blogs. As I only had to to copy and paste my rehearsal notes from my phone notes to blogger, I was up to date in two minutes. This allowed myself, Harry and Dan to set the dance to Mushnik and Son, that Dan had choreographed. At first, we both found the dance rather difficult purely due to the pace of the song and how quick the transitions into different moves were. The routine itself was simple to remember, the main problem was trying to execute it at the speed required without messing up.
Afterwards, we ran through the dance to Little Shop of Horrors and Ya Never Know before our teacher took myself and Meg to go and work on the dialogue running into Suddenly Seymour, which we set and practiced through a couple of times. I think the most important aspect to get right in the song is the movement. Many times, we both moved too fast which didn't fit the tender and slow pace of the song. Therefore, I think we need to work on getting the movements slow enough and with enough meaning to show the audience that these two characters are in love with each other, but are timid in showing it to each other.
Then we moved into the opening number to Act 2: Call Back in the Morning. This number proves to be extremely difficult due to how quick the bars are and the pace of the spoken word as well as the singing, combined with the tune and frequent changes between myself and meg in singing. We decided to listen to the song a couple of times to try and grasp the tune and pace, so hopefully, we will gradually be able to start singing along with the cast track before performing the piece with the backing track.
Monday, 8 June 2015
Little Shop of Horrors
Today's lesson began with us watching a channel 4 documentary on the business side of west end theatres to help us grasp the financial aspects of the theatre. I found this very interesting and it made me realise how much pressure there is on producers and directions to succeed and how much of a high risk profession show business is. There is so much money involved and losses can be made extremely quickly, resulting in shows closing without much notice time. It certainly opened my eyes to how much money and pressure is involved in the west end.
From here we started another warm up session as we will be at the start of every lesson.
Next we sang through ya never know to recap yesterday's lesson before moving on to singing "da doo" with the vocals and then backing track. I often found myself speaking to quickly or at least, starting my lines to quickly so I worked on slowing it down to allow it to, perhaps flow more smoothly into the chorus lines. Next we performed the piece before performing "the meek shall inherit" which I think went well personally, I used my script but felt confident that I didn't really need it and was more acknowledging the words on my paper than following them.
Today's lesson began with us watching a channel 4 documentary on the business side of west end theatres to help us grasp the financial aspects of the theatre. I found this very interesting and it made me realise how much pressure there is on producers and directions to succeed and how much of a high risk profession show business is. There is so much money involved and losses can be made extremely quickly, resulting in shows closing without much notice time. It certainly opened my eyes to how much money and pressure is involved in the west end.
From here we started another warm up session as we will be at the start of every lesson.
Next we sang through ya never know to recap yesterday's lesson before moving on to singing "da doo" with the vocals and then backing track. I often found myself speaking to quickly or at least, starting my lines to quickly so I worked on slowing it down to allow it to, perhaps flow more smoothly into the chorus lines. Next we performed the piece before performing "the meek shall inherit" which I think went well personally, I used my script but felt confident that I didn't really need it and was more acknowledging the words on my paper than following them.
Little Shop of Horrors: Day 11
Today, as the start of a new term we began with a 20 minute warm up/work out and vocal warm up in order to get us to focus more and hopefully be and add more energy into our performances when we began.
From here, as I missed the last lesson due to an exam I watched the dance the class had set to "ya never know". As I don't really dance a great deal in the dance I had to concentrate in how my character would react to the interactions with people in the number. I found this difficult as there isn't really a lot I can do , more just reacting surprised and uncomfortable in a typical Seymour way. This meant that for large parts of the lesson. I wasn't particularly needed as our choreographer worked with the people dancing for a majority of the lesson. Although he did tell me what I was doing and when, which I noted and practiced on my own as I had nothing else to do, therefore making use of my time. So when needed we could pull the two parts into each other with minimal mistakes. We moved onto filming it so we had a video to learn from.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDmC5W3rfYI
Today, as the start of a new term we began with a 20 minute warm up/work out and vocal warm up in order to get us to focus more and hopefully be and add more energy into our performances when we began.
From here, as I missed the last lesson due to an exam I watched the dance the class had set to "ya never know". As I don't really dance a great deal in the dance I had to concentrate in how my character would react to the interactions with people in the number. I found this difficult as there isn't really a lot I can do , more just reacting surprised and uncomfortable in a typical Seymour way. This meant that for large parts of the lesson. I wasn't particularly needed as our choreographer worked with the people dancing for a majority of the lesson. Although he did tell me what I was doing and when, which I noted and practiced on my own as I had nothing else to do, therefore making use of my time. So when needed we could pull the two parts into each other with minimal mistakes. We moved onto filming it so we had a video to learn from.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDmC5W3rfYI
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