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 !!