Little Shop of Horrors- Day 12

Today we did some work on our character profiles when we are on the street. I thought about my character and I created a life:

Recently fired from his dead end job,

Lives in a one bedroom flat with four other guys,

No way of getting another job,

Angry at the world.

However I'm finding it difficult to play this character over the top and be it for when I sing "when your life's a joke" I skid row. So I need to figure a way to portray this character while being over the top.

Little Shop of Horrors- Day 11

Today we ran through the finale and dentist which I think went well. We also created the meek shall inherit, I find that the song sounds really ominous and I like it. We all sing the chorus and the dance is simple and I like it because it makes it easier to sing when you don't have to be doing a complicated dance. Now I just need to learn the song so when we rehearse it I just have to think about the dance.

Little Shop of Horrors- Day 10

Today we added to the movement of Don't feed the plants and created Dentist. We added the bows to Don't feed the plants and a little movement to go with the singing. I like the movement except the jump, I find it too cheesy for the song. I like the dentist song, I like the balance between the acting and dance in it.

Little Shop of Horrors- Day 9

Today we listened to and learnt the finale, Don't Feed the Plants. I think that for a class with a majority that doesn't sing, we sounded alright, not brilliant but alright. The movement that we learnt to go with it is again simple, we walk in a space holding a small plant and start singing at our point. I think that our costumes should be like really bandaged up with blood stained clothes and bandages, kind of like we've been through war. 

Little Shop of Horrors- Day 8

Today we ran through act 1 putting in closed for renovation and performing all the numbers we have done: opening, skid row and da-doo. I really like how it all looks and sounds but I do think we need to look at closed for renovation again and keep it with the simple movement of cleaning but choreograph the movements more because with everyone going for it and trying to be funny, I think it will look messy.

After running through act one we also started on act two, I tried to read my lines and get my head around what is happening but with three different columns of lines happening at ones I don't think I was successful in getting my head around it. So I need to read through that part and understand what's happening.

Little Shop of Horrors- Day 7

Today we worked on Closed for Renovations, we were all given the third verse to sing and at that moment is when we are on stage moving. The movement is simple, we all walk on stumbling like idiots and then we will start cleaning the shop badly and over the top until the end of the song where we are kicked off the stage. Hopefully it is comedic but I feel we need to spread out and keep the movements simple otherwise it will look a mess.

Little Shop of Horrors- Day 6

Today we did a run through of all our musical numbers we have done, opening, skid row and da-doo. We also ran through all the scenes in act 1 and skipped the songs we haven't done. I feel it went well and once we put in all the songs it will be great. My character, I think I need to work on him and know what I'm doing for him blocking wise for the second scene as I feel it could be better.

Little Shop of Horrors- Day 5

Today we ran through Da-Doo and Little shop of horrors opening. Since we created Da-Doo without Miss there we showed her what we created and we made a few adjustments based on her thoughts, like the "total eclipse of the sun" we all look up to the right but the sun is on the left. After we adjusted Da-Doo we cleaned up the opening and I feel like I got the dance and can do it now.

little Shop of Horrors- Day 4

Today we learnt the dance for little shop of horrors opening. It was really fast but I liked it, it was a challenge because it was fast. The dance itself wasn't that hard, the only complicated part was the spin with the leg up and the shoulder spin and a few box steps beyond that the dance wasn't complicated just fast. I feel like I didn't pick it up as well as I could have but with practice I can get it.

Little Shop of Horrors- Day 3

Today we worked on Da-Doo, the three 'girls' went off with Dan to learn the song and some dance. Meg, Harry, Kyle and I are in the scene before hand so we worked on that and what we are going to do during the song. Everyong else was left to work out what they will do during the song which will help create the scene of a busy street with a street vendor selling plants. During the scene Meg was suggested to play Audry more stupid and blonde especially with the line "after me?" and I agree that Audry is really blonde and slow but I wouldn't say she is stupid, I think she is just slow at processing information and when she speaks it sounds like she doesn't understand but she does. I was given the suggestion to have the voice of a cheesy, American sales person, so it is really over the top and comedic. I think it was good idea to play the role in that way and I just need to work on the accent and the ability to stay in that accent.

During the song Kyle interacts with the scene around him and Meg, Harry and I back up to the back of the stage and do a step click thing throughout the song. However we hold the faces we are left with after the scene throughout the song as we do it. I like it because the audience will find it funny if they notice it but we won't draw the attention away from Kyle if they don't.

Little Shop of Horrors- day 2

Today we learnt the dance for skid row, to go with the singing yesterday. I really like the way the dance allows a lot of acting during it so we can really create the scene of skid row. We start of all frozen in a pose then when we get to the part where we sing "downtown" in groups we unfreeze and start acting to create the rundown skid row. When we reach "uptown you cater to a million jerks" we walk in a circle with our arms out then create a semicircle around the three girls signing.

Meg then walks to the front of the stage and does her solo and then Kyle runs in to take her place for his solo. We do some basic movements during Kyles solo then we filter down the sides of the stage until we have two groups on rather side of the stage singing to the audience. We then move back and create a triangle and do a step click thing. We end with raising our arms on the big finish and drop them on the beat.

I like the movement to this song as it allows us to act during it and really set the scene for the show. However this does require a clear character to play when I'm on the street which I need to work on.

Little Shop Of Horrors - Day 1

We started to create the show by listening to and sing 'Skid Row' (Downtown), Ellie starts the song with "Alarm goes off- till it's 5pm" then Danny sings "then you go" and we all sing "downtown". Toby, Dom, Kai and I volunteered to sing a line and I got "where your life's a joke" . We then learnt all the chorus parts of the song ready to put a dance with it the next day.

I'm nervous about how to perform my line, wether I should sing it or say it and how? But I've decided to sing it until told otherwise. I really like how the song sounded at the end of the lesson and I'm excited to see what the dance is for it tomorrow.

Double (Joe)- 7th

This week we created bits for Jason, my group created the part in Colchis and when Jason finally gets the fleece. My group and I created a rough scene to set the Kings tasks and have Medea fall in love with Jason but we then had the idea that the tasks to happen in shadow. I feel that if we stage it this way, while Jason is doing the tasks we could freeze the action and have Medea give Jason the advice he needs while standing in front of the screen, lit up for the audience to see her. I think this will look good for the audience and keep them engaged because the year sevens will switch off quickly if they are not constantly engaged. We then had the idea that after Jason has knocked out the dragon he comes out from the shadow and claims the fleece that is centre stage while everyone else sets the scene behind the curtain that the shadow was performed on so the curtain can drop and we are in the bedroom of Apsyrtus, where Medea kills him and we leave his body for the king to be distracted while we run away. I like the transition as with Jason in front logistically leave time and room for the scene to be set behind him and if we make the murder dramatic with a lot of blood the year sevens will be engaged and hooked for the scene.

The way my group taught our scene was we talked through our idea so everyone understood which part of the story we are talking about and what happens in it, we then started to block out the scene so everyone can visually see what we planned to do. We didn't get to finish the whole idea because we ran out of time and the whole shadow needs the sheet and lights to rehearse it but I think we got our ideas across to the class. 

Toby's group used the part in Cyzicus, his group explained the story and what they planned to do with it, then we very roughly blocked out the idea. I liked the idea of using three people to create the Giants and there six arms, however I don't feel like we have enough actors to have the Argonauts and the town people scared of them, so I think a better way of telling the story would be a narrator explaining what is happening and that the towns people are cautious but the king is friendly and inviting to party with them.

Tom's group used the prologue, and his group created it as a scene, that we act out while someone narrates what is happening. However I think that we don't need to act out the whole thing, we could keep it simple and have a narrator say the whole prologue in a way that is engaging and funny, we could have someone in a suit come on and start the story badly (they can't hear him and looking down, not engaging at all) then the actual narrator comes on doves him off and starts talking to them about Jasonand his life, using the reading the story skills we practiced and as it is funny we will have the year sevens engaged from the start.

Double Drama - 4th, 5th and 11th

In these lessons we made each other look like our characters with the help of latex and makeup and looked at the use of masks to help our performance. When using the latex, I don't think that I got a good idea of how it works for regular skin tone as we didn't have foundation to work with, but the cuts and burns and Dan's rabbit face really looked good. I think we should include latex for our show as it can act like a mask to help get into character, as I learnt that while wearing a mask, even a small one like a sticker on your face, my confidence grows a little and therefor my characterisation gets better.