WEEK 2 Acting: 

In the second week of Acting, we were tasked to do some devised work. We were then given a script about Two people on a boat, who are lost at sea. We had to adapt the script however, to add more atmosphere, and also create an ending. This gave me a sense of how we can change even the slightest situations to change the atmosphere completely different. For example, we decided to make the ending that they never left the shore in the first place, and they were panicking for no reason. This being accompanied by me in the background, miming to fish, adapts this very serious script, into a more funny one.

WEEK 2 Dance: 

During our second week of Dance, we began by researching Bob Fosse. This gave us many ideas on the general consensus of what Traditional Jazz had to offer. After this, we were put into our groups to do the warm ups we created, and this lasted for roughly 15 minutes. After that, we, as a whole class, attempted to learn a jazz dance piece, which I wasn’t the best at, but I hope to learn more in the following weeks, thus get better.

WEEK 2 Singing: 

During our second week of Singing we warmed up our voices, then were taken in one by one to do our singing exam. I ended up singing Waving Through a Window from Dear Evan Hansen. After the exam, I decided I wanted to work on three Major things for this term in singing. Character during song, Projection and Head Placement. Improving all these will hopefully make me a better singer overall.

WEEK 3 Acting: 

During our third week of acting we, as a group, read through the script of The Servant of Two Masters. I read a character called Truffaldino, who was a Zanni, which is a lower class, servant character. He’s also an Arlechino, which means he’s a bit of a clown type character, who is a comic relief for the Panto. I really enjoyed reading this character as he has a lot of funny lines, and is overall quite an exciting and humorous character, so I would like to play him when we do the actual play of it.

WEEK 3 Dance: 

This week, we started by doing a warm up, and then we went over our dances in our bigger groups, to try and clean them up a bit and make them look more clean looking. After that, we went over our Jazz dance we worked on, and improved upon it. We then got in smaller groups of 2-3, and worked on it together, and gave each other feedback on what we can improve. Then, we got into a smaller group and came up with a dance relating to a performance called “Heavyweight”.

WEEK 3 Singing: 

During this week during singing, we started learning about the diaphragm, and how it works. After, we began doing vocal warmups by relaxing our body in order to be able to feel our diaphragm working, so we could try and implement that during singing. We then began doing tongue twisters to try and be able to sing with more clearance. We then got in our groups, and rehearsed our selected Christmas Songs to the class, and we then had a vote for which ones we would sing in the Crooked Spire, these were: Walking in a  Winter Wonderland, It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas, Last Christmas and I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day. 

WEEK 4 Acting:

During our fourth week of acting, we began by watching sections of different comedy plays. We started off by watching sections of “Peter Pan Goes Wrong”, which is a very light hearted play, where it’s the original story of Peter Pan, yet everything that could go wrong, goes wrong. An example of this was when The Sound Effects crew kept playing a Cab horn sound effect at every instance, which made the characters have to improvise there was a Cab in various situations they would not be a part of, like in the middle of the ocean. This gave me various ideas about adapting the script we were doing, such as, having more modern elements apart of this clearly very old times, for example, someones phone going off. What I like about this is we can play these off as real mistakes, like how they do in real pantomines, which adds to the comedic factor. After that, we watched sections of One Governor, Two Masters, to try and draw inspiration on how we want our play to be adapted. We came up with ideas, but what we settled on is the idea of a Mad Director, where they’re constantly firing people, and they want a perfect show. 

WEEK 4 Dance: 

During this week of dance, we began by doing a warmup made by other people in the class, which involved Cardio, Mobility and Stretches. The Cardio section involved jogging with different parts of your body, for example, having high knees. This let our heart rates increase, which meant we could safely do Dance without injuring ourselves. Then we moved onto mobility which involved moving parts of our body, slowly, to make sure we don’t pull muscles. An example of this would be rotating our head round, to make sure we can move our necks freely during our session. Then stretching was also to make sure we didn’t injure ourselves by pulling muscles. This week we worked on our Jazz dance a tiny bit, and I went through this a lot more slowly, so I understood the steps easier, so I believe by next week I’ll be relatively confident with it. Following that, we worked on our “Heavyweight” piece, in which we had to teach two people the Routine, since they couldn’t partake the week prior, which led to it being slightly rushed, so we couldn’t add any more sections. We then moved onto more “Street Jazz”, which we had a look through a few songs and had to recreate sections of it. We chose Single Ladies by Beyoncee, then added it to our Jazz dance we had just learnt 

WEEK 4 Singing: 

During our fourth week of Singing, we were set three tasks. One of which was going through Maintenance of our voice. In our group, we chose to do Harmful Substances, and how they affect your voices, so I began writing about how different drugs, and substances can create shortness of breath and create bile build up in your throat, which will harm it substantially. We then had to answer a few questions on Acting Through Song, in which I talked about how important it is, as it can bring new life to a performance. Then we warmed up our voices with one of the Warm-ups our tutor sent us, then went through “Walking In a Winter Wonderland”. We tried to figure out different harmonies for it, and we had 3 clear and complimenting harmonies. We had a lower section, and two relatively higher sections, yet with the top sections doing a triplet scale during the section near the start where the song goes “In the Lane, snow in glistening”. On the “Lane” line, the more confident singers in the high group did a descending triple scale, which gave the song more variety and made it sound very pretty.

WEEK 5 Acting: 

During this week, we were set the task of adapting the script, specifically the introduction scene. We thought the amount of lines would be too much for one person to remember, so we decided to split them up to two characters, so we decided Tom and Mason would do the lines, evenly split up, who are Pantalone and the Doctor. Then in the following lesson, we picked out outfits for all of us, and my character, Truffaldino, wore a checkerboard pattern trousers, a jester's hat and a scruffy white shirt. We did this to show Truffaldino’s sporadic nature, being a bit silly and over the top, both with his actions and his dress sense. After this lesson, we went into the Theater and we showed everyone how characters would move, speak and act in certain situations. My character is very jumpy and moves a bit like a bumbling idiot, with his arms flailing around him, with his knees being extremely high when he runs.

WEEK 5 Singing: 

During this week, people performed their powerpoints they did relating to Vocal Health. My group's topic was Harmful Substances. We talked about Vaping, Smoking and how Medication can affect your voice, and it dries it out. I learnt that you can try and reduce these issues by drinking plenty of water, often, and I also learnt that dairy products can affect your voice negatively, as it coats your vocal chords. During the second lesson, we went into the theater and played games, which warmed up our voices quite a bit. We tried to learn discipline by staying in the zone for a lot longer without getting distracted. I think I’ve improved on this quite a lot as I found it extremely difficult to stand still and stay focused, but I’m slowly getting more disciplined. We then split into four groups and sang four different songs with the same tempo to try and keep in time with each other. The three songs were As The Saints Go Marching In, She’ll be Coming Round the Mountain and Sweet Chariot.

WEEK 5 Dance:

During this week, we carried on with our Jazz dances, and we needed to add two counts of eight. We added more sections of single ladies to it, which led to it looking more polished and clean. After this, we looked at more Lyrical Jazz, and studied how they moved and what made it different. What I took away from it is that the music is usually related to the Dance, so it follows a particular story. My favorite of the ones we watched was a dance to the backing track of Cry me a River, by Justin Timberlake, as the movements were so beautiful and elegant, and the music really added an extra layer of emotion and semelance to the piece.

WEEK 6 Acting:

During this week of acting, we started the week by creating a puppet show of all important scenes of The Servant of Two Masters. We got in small groups, and my group was Harry, Tom and Leo. We went over the introduction scene, the marriage scene, the scene where Truffalindo messes up the cases, and the scene where Brigella is found out. This was really fun, and gave us a way to show how we wanted to adapt different scenes, but more improvised.

WEEK 6 Singing:

During this week of singing, we were set tasks by our teacher, as she had Covid-19. We were told to work on our songs, so we ended up mostly doing Walking in a Winter Wonderland. We experimented with how we wanted to harmonize. This was slightly difficult as our main High Harmony person was off ill, so it seemed very dry. I do think we’ve improved on this quite a lot now as we all have our own harmonies and we’re way more confident.

WEEK 6 Dance:

WE DID NOT ATTEND DANCE THIS WEEK DUE TO GENERAL FLOODING.

WEEK 7: Acting

During this week of acting, we started working on the first scene of the Servant of Two Masters, which introduced all of the characters, as well as showing our roles. The scene started off by the Stage Managers, which were me, Kady and Caitlin, checking off a tick box, before interacting with the audience, berating them for being too early, before we rush into places, almost like this is completely unplanned. This led into the introduction of the characters where the Doctor and Pantalone one by one introduced different characters, and then they spoke a little bit about who they were, ect. This leads to my character, going over what the first scene will be, while making little jokes to try and get the audience in the feel of the whole show. I struggled slightly around this point, and other points, as I’m not very good at prompts, and when I should say my line so this is something I have to work on. We then went very briefly over the engagement scene, where we played around with different ways to enter the scene and present outselves. 

WEEK 7: Singing

During this week of singing, we did not attend due to us having the day off during teacher training day.

WEEK 7: Dance

During this week of Dance, we started by learning some Indian dance styles from an external company. We learnt belly dancing and traditional indian dance, which I wasn’t very good at, as there were lots of individual body movements but all happening at the same time, so it got very confusing very quickly for me. During the afternoon, we worked on lyrical Jazz, where we chose a song and then wrote a piece around it. My group consisted of Harry, Layla and me, and we chose Cry me a River. We didn’t get that far along in the piece, as Harry ended up dropping Layla, which meant she couldn’t practice anymore, and as she was the main focal point of the piece, it was very difficult to carry on. We need to improve as a group on trust, so we can do falls more easily and safely.

WEEK 8: Acting

During this week, we started by looking into the engagement scene some more, and deciding different ways we could adapt in further. This ended up turning slightly hostile, as people weren’t informed with part changes, and there was little communication within the group, so people were upset with the prospect of being put into a lesser part, without being told. This showed little respect in the group, and showed the lack of professional standard. Having had this experience, I realized that I can handle situations like that quite professionally, and I know that in the future, we can handle this situation better.

WEEK 8: Singing

During this week, we started by doing a basic Warm-Up, then we carried on doing our Spire Performance songs. We put all of our time into trying to perfect the songs, as well as the small routines, so the performance is a lot more than just singing. This relates quite heavily to our Acting Through Singing coursework, as we spoke about how this can greatly improve our performances. I now know how to implement this into our performances, as it can be quite simple things such as just swaying, as it gives energy towards the piece. We also worked heavily on the different harmonies for Last Christmas, Winter Wonderland and Merry Christmas Everybody. For Winter Wonderland, we had a 3 part harmony, which included, Alto, Soprano and Base. We all knew which one we would be a part of, as since our first singing assessment, we figured out where we stood in that mark. I was Alto, which I need to improve on a little bit, as projection isn’t my strongest point at the moment.

WEEK 8: Dance

During this week, we got straight into our final pieces of this section, where we began combining all the different dance sequences into one for the final piece. We started out by making four individual poses, which we linked together with different actions in between them, to make it more of a dance, which was, all together, two counts of eight. This I found, to begin with, a little bit difficult, as I couldn’t think of poses, however, with a little help from Toni, it made it a lot easier. After we cleaned that up, we moved onto adding our Footsteps on the Dance Floor piece to link it in, since our final piece will be an collection of all of our pieces put together.

WEEK 9: Acting

This week, we worked further on the engagement scene, to try our best to perfect it. We ended up working on the section where Sammi, playing Fredrigo Rapsponi, could finally come on stage. I wasn’t massively in this section, as I had already left the stage at this point, so I spent my time trying to learn my lines, as I have quite a lot of them to learn. After this scene, we moved onto the one where Porter and Leo’s character, Florindo, interact. I felt like my character here had to be very clumsy and a bit full of himself, as he’s trying to show off, so I played him very much like that, which I think turned out great. Some feedback I received was to use movement more, to look more animated, so my character is more distinctive.

WEEK 9: Singing

During this week of singing, we polished up our Christmas Song performances, while filling in people who weren’t here with the dances. I found some parts of the “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” Dance, mostly the order of when we have to do actions, so during free time, I worked on the dances, so I could perfect them. I still believe I need a little more time, but it should all be polished up in the next couple of weeks.

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr5dL5hs8qk

Merry Christmas Everybody - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z96FWYEcKoo

Last Christmas - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xh1cUg_Bz8

Walking In A Winter Wonderland - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihG1AC5RLLQ

WEEK 9: Dance

During this week of Dance, we worked more heavily on our Final Piece, which we were more nitpicked on, so all the little mistakes would go away, so it looks overall more polished. After this, my group, consisting of me, Mason, Harry, Tom, Leo and Layla, added our “All That Jazz” and “Steam Heat” Dance. This started out with a brief refresh, which we all picked up on relatively easily. One of the hardships of this however, is some people becoming distracted, and not focussing hard enough, so when we were doing full run-throughs, a few members struggled, as they didn't know what they were doing. Another issue we encountered was timings, as the songs we had before, and the song we were using for the final piece were vastly different tempos, so we had to sort out different timings, as well as cutting some bits, mostly in the All That Jazz dance, to keep it in the 8 counts of 8 we were given. 

WEEK 10: Acting

This week, we decided to work on the scenes we worked less on. I think a main flaw we had as a group, is that we worked on the engagement scene too much, so had a lot less time to work on the rest of the play. During this, I wasn’t involved in many of the scenes, so I stood at the sidelines, watched and gave advice. As Stage Manager, it’s my job to make sure everything’s going as it should, so I made sure communication between different Tech Roles were correct, so people knew when to take props on and off, which characters are on, on the following scenes, and to make sure people knew their cues for the props. I believe I am not the greatest at this tech role, as I believe I would excel in other fields, mostly director, as when I was watching, I believe that I can give out feedback very well when it comes to others performance, and skills. A major downside I noted was the levels of energy, as for a lot of characters, it felt like they were literally reading off a script, and barely moved or showed characterisation. I brought this up to the cast, however, it was disregarded and, in my opinion, wasn’t followed by most of the cast.

WEEK 10: Singing

This week, we practiced for our Spire Performance more, where we started with a very thorough vocal warm up. After this, we did a full run through of all of our songs, while Cheryl recorded them, so she was able to give some group, and personal feedback to some people, while we made our own. We watched each video twice, so we could focus on different aspects throughout the video. We only managed to watch a couple of the songs however, being Winter Wonderland and Last Christmas.

Winter Wonderland Feedback

Personal Feedback

My personal feedback was to look more confident with myself, while keeping still, as I have a nervous habit of playing with my clothes, or hair while performing. I can combat this by focusing more heavily on what I’m actually doing, as a lot of it is subconscious.

Group Feedback 

One of the group feedback points was for everyone to sing the same harmony, apart from a couple of people who were singing Soprano. A lot of the harmonies were varied, and people were singing different notes. We all stood up and sang bits of the song, and Cheryl pointed out who was making the mistakes, and how they had to do it. I wasn’t one of those people so I was doing good in that remark. Another feedback, which we always received, was to look more enthusiastic and happy. This song is a very joyful song, but we all look miserable. I think this is because everyone is focusing too heavily on sounding good, so they aren’t presenting themselves correctly. This feedback also applies to me.

Last Christmas Feedback

Personal Feedback

A major point I noticed with me is remembering the lyrics. In the video, I could see myself multiple times and obviously look around to see what everyone else is singing, or mumble. This can be sorted easily however, as I just need to learn the lyrics.

Group Feedback

Something we all have to get better at, is acting through song. This applies to me as well, but this is supposed to be a very emotive, sad song, and a lot of people don’t look that way.

Another thing is the choreography, which is just when people have to remember to put up their hands on their chest, and on when to sway, and which way. Everyone in the class, with Cheryl, went through the dance so everyone was more confident in it.

WEEK 10: Dance

This week, we focused more finely on our Steam Heat, All That Jazz piece. We had one of the students, Kady, who is an extremely good dancer, help us out with what we can do better, and to get timing more on track. This helped massively, as this week, people were a lot more focused, and could learn everything better. In one of the sections, we take our hats off, and Kady suggested it would look a lot better as a cannon. It took a few tries for people to get a hang of it, but we eventually got it. Kady had to count out loud and clap on the beats, and we all knew which beat we took our hat off. I was on count two. After this, we ran through the whole song multiple times with everyone in the class, where Toni gave out lots of feedback, mine being to straighten my arms out a lot more, which I haven’t improved upon from previous weeks, but after the run through after I was given the feedback, that issue was gone.

WEEK 11: Acting

During this week, our teacher was ill, so we instead had Siobhan, who wanted us to do a complete run through of our play, and she would give feedback at the very end. This run through was horrible, and put into perspective for some people, that we hadn’t used our time correctly at all. I knew this, and tried to speak out during previous weeks, but no one ever listened, so I just worked on my own character while most people weren’t doing anything. In this performance, people still had scripts, and didn’t know cues, or what scene we were skipping to and doing. After the performance, we were given our feedback. She told us it was very messy, she didn’t understand the plot, she didn’t know which character was who, and our characterisation was a mess. She then put us in our groups of characters, so put the Zanni’s together, and the other groups together. This helped me understand how to play my character a lot better, as we could discuss what makes our character, our character. I was a bit of an outlier in this however, since I was playing an Arlechino, but I could still take points, and help out. Later on in the week, we were told to choose scenes we’re comfortable with, and we’ll do them for the final performance, as there doesn’t need to be a plot. This ended up with a couple of people, without discussing with anyone else, choosing the scenes, ending up with me having two scenes. This really frustrated me, as I put so much time into learning all of my lines, and trying to make my character as best as possible, to be rewarded with two scenes. I tried to discuss this with the cast, to no avail, so I had to deal with it. 

WEEK 11: Singing

This week was our 1-1 singing assessment, in which we had to sing a pre-60s musical song. I chose to sing Oklahomas, “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” as this was the only pre-60s song I was confident enough in.

We started the class, with a vocal warmup, where we put on a 5-minute youtube video, to warm us up. After that, we did a couple of warm-up songs, like the Vista song, and my personal favorite, The Little Green Frog.

We were then told to wait in Studio Two to be called in to do the assessment. I didn’t feel vocally warmed up enough, as the person running the vocal warm-up, in my opinion, didn’t do a good enough job. If I was running it, I would put on a 15-minute vocal warm-up video on youtube, and done a lot more singing warm-ups, for example, the one where we’re split into three groups and sing, Coming Round the Mountain, Sweet Chariot and Oh when the Saints all at different times, as this is a quite important assessment and we needed more warming up. In the Studio, I focused on being more confident with Lyrics, and notes on particular words.

I was eventually called into Studio One to do the assessment. Cheryl put on the song, and the first challenge I had to deal with was the ridiculously long introduction. One thing I had feedback on myself already was how to deal with introductions. I then sang the song, and I felt relatively confident. I didn’t mess up in any places I thought I would and I remembered all the lyrics. After the song, I sat down to receive my feedback. Cheryl immediately said she didn’t think the song suited my voice, which in hindsight, I completely agree with. The song is supposed to be a very low, hearty song, and I sang it relatively high. She went through my feedback from last time, and crossed off Head Placement, as it was fine during this performance. I still had to work on character and Projection however, and I still haven’t made them perfect yet. However, Cheryl did teach me how I could project better, as it’s in my stomach. One thing I need to improve upon now though, which I picked up on, is confidence, not in song, in general, as I am very hyper-critical over myself, and don’t like how I sound, so I need to get better at that.

WEEK 11: Dance

During this week, we focused more on the final piece, which we were given more feedback on by Toni. A lot of it was relating to the feet that move or step, when we move on beats, and the Canon near the start. We kept running through, and Toni pointed out people who were doing it wrong and they improved. This week, my arms were still straight, so I improved upon that, which I’m proud of.

WEEK 12: Acting

Today was the performance day. In the morning, we tried to rehearse, but everyone was panicking about everything, so we got barely anything done. We then watched the level two final performance, which was very good, and made me nervous, as ours was so much worse than theirs. We then finally had more chances to rehearse, and all of these went alright. Nothing bad happened, but I kept giving the same feedback to have more energy, and no one listened. This really upset me, as now I felt like I was going to get graded worse, and it’s more difficult to bounce off other people’s characters, when there is little energy. So I just had to try and hardest and hope for the best.

For the Final Performance, it felt alright. All the scenes I was in felt like they went okay, and I tried my best to put in a lot of character and energy to compensate for other people. I really thought Leo and I did great in our scene, where he employs me to be his servant, as we had to improvise the first bit a lot more, as the Porter wasn’t there for the final performance, which I believe was very unprofessional. Being backstage was horrible, as people would constantly talk and mess about, so I couldn’t hear my cues, but we did it, and it wasn’t the worst thing in the world. After the show, I asked the audience what they thought of it, and the collective agreement was that it wasn’t very good. The scenes were confusing and people looked like they didn’t want to be there.

I think a major thing that ruined this performance, was the constant arguing and falling outs, for really petty reasons. We had to remain professional in those circumstances, and we didn’t which caused the performance to suffer because of it.

WEEK 12: Singing

This was our Spire Performance, which out of all of the final assessments, we were most confident in. In the morning, we went through a very intense vocal warm-up, and went through all the songs once. Cheryl was happy with how it looked, so we walked to the spire, sat down and waited for our performance. Our first one was Winter Wonderland, which in my opinion went great. We all sang the right bits, and everyone sounded great. Next was Last Christmas, which was less good. People were very out of time with each other, as people couldn’t hear anyone as well, as the church was very big and echoey, but we finished it, and we did our next song, which was, It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas. This went amazing. We did all of the actions right, everyone sounded great and it all went smoothly. Lastly, it was Merry Christmas Everybody. This also went great. It was very high energy, and everyone was having a lot of fun, and the audience enjoyed it.

Overall, the performance went great. It was a lot of fun to perform, and the audience really enjoyed it. One thing we need to improve upon though, is staying on time with everyone. The Mayoress of Chesterfield came up to me, Kady and Cheryl afterwards, and told us we did great, and asked if we wanted to perform in the Mayor's Christmas Party, which we agreed to.

WEEK 12: Dance

This was our Final Dance performance. We went through a few final run throughs of the dance, where we picked out little things that could be better. Toni said that during the final section, people that are off stage need to be on stage quicker. This didn’t affect me as I was already on stage at that point, but it took a while for everyone else to get on stage, as they didn’t know which beat to move on stage for. Our rehearsals were cut short however, so we got less time than we would’ve preferably needed.

Our actual performance went very well. We did everything that we needed to do, and I wasn’t off time, and I was always in the right space. This improves upon previous weeks, as before, I sometimes got out of position or was slightly behind beat. During my groups performance, timing was a little bit off however, and we messed up the cannon ever so slightly, but we nailed everything else.

For what we could have done better, is just overall, make sure people know the song well enough, so they can stay in beat to it more.

Evaluation

Dance

1. How did you use your learnt skills and techniques in your final performance?

The skills I learnt for dance this term consisted of the different dance styles, such as jazz, and how to portray emotion within dance. An example of this was in our All That Jazz, Steam Heat dance, there was a lot of sass involved, as we had to snap our fingers and do big, over the top body movements, so that came in handy.

2. How did you communicate with the audience?

With Dance, this question is slightly tricky, as it’s harder to engage with an audience, as there aren’t any words being spoken, however, body language is an extremely important way to communicate. I showed confidence as my body movements were very powerful, and stiff, where they should be, while also gentle in other places. An example of this would be the Cannon of everyone taking their hats off. It communicates charm and confidence as we’re all portraying ourselves very well. I made eye contact through the audience throughout as well, to make it feel more personal.

3. How did you use your research in your rehearsals and final performance?

During this project, we researched a lot into different fields off dance, heavily focusing on Jazz this term, and there are many different ways Jazz can be done, for example, in Street Jazz, there are many over the top movements, with isolated arm or leg movements, and it feels very improvised, whereas in contemporary Jazz, it feels a lot more smooth, and well rehearsed, so as we were doing our different sections, I thought about which style of dance we were doing, and added features from that style to my section.

4. How did you use feedback to develop over the project?

A lot of my feedback revolved around having more energy in my body, for example, stretching out my arm full length. I only got small pieces of feedback over the term, but it was mostly little imperfections within routine, such as which foot I needed to step back on.

5. What was your contribution to the rehearsal process and performance?

During a lot of our routines which we made ourselves, I was mostly the director on what we would be doing, what the timing would be, and trying to keep everyone focused. During our Steam Heat section, there were a lot of changes we had to do, to fit the amount of Beats we had and stick to the timing of the song. An example of this would be during the section of travel, where every four beats, we’d raise our hat. There was a lot of confusion about: timing, which feet were crossing over which, how we’d raise the hat. I stepped back and corrected people who were out of sync with the timing, and choreography.

Singing

1. How did you use your learnt skills and techniques in your final performance?

During this term, I was taught a lot of Vital Skills and techniques, which really helped my singing journey, especially within my final performance. An example of a technique would be a Vocal Cry. This was very helpful during Last Christmas, as it was a very emotional song. Another technique would be being able to use my diaphragm correctly, as if I wasn’t able to do that, it really halts my projection, and my breath control within singing. 

2. How did you communicate with the audience?

I communicated to the audience by portraying different emotions across the different songs. In “Last Christmas”, I made my voice sound more wispy, with Vocal Cry, and made my body language follow, as if someone has been recently hurt by someone, as it is a sad song. However, in a more upbeat song, such as “Merry Christmas Everybody”, my body language, posture, and tone of voice was a lot more of someone who is excited and happy. During our performance, we had different actions, and during the chorus of this song, we clapped our hands, and we swayed them over our heads, communicating to the audience our emotion. More so, in "Last Christmas", I made eye contact with the audience, while using my arms, to gesture towards the audience when I sang "And you still catch my eye".

3. How did you use your research in your rehearsals and final performance?

A lot of the research we did this term for singing was mostly about vocal health, so going into the final performance, I made sure my voice was as vocally warm as it needed to be, as well as bringing water with me, as it’s a safe drink to have which won’t lace your vocal chords with anything, so I could sing to the best of my ability.

4. How did you use feedback to develop over the project?

My feedback over the last couple of terms mostly consisted of how I project my voice, and the position of my head. I fixed the latter issue relatively quickly, however I still found it very hard to efficiently project. However, after my second singing assessment, I was taught a method, where I would pretend to be shouting “Hey” to my mum downstairs, and Cheryl said to have that energy while signing to project your voice.

5. What was your contribution to the rehearsal process and performance?

I would’ve liked to contribute more to this subject, however, I am not the greatest singer in the room, so I didn’t really have many great ideas on what we could’ve done. I did suggest a few harmonies, which we ended up doing, which was during the end of “It’s Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas”, but that was the only major contribution I had.

Acting

1. How did you use your learnt skills and techniques in your final performance?

A lot of the skills I learnt from this were mostly character skills, on how to present characters in a particular way. I tried to make Truffaldino as energetic and as fun as possible. I did this by being an extremely bouncy character, who was constantly moving, and getting up in people’s faces. 

2. How did you communicate with the audience?

In acting, I physically spoke to the audience on many accounts, as my character had many monologues, however, something I really enjoyed doing was a little joke I came up with on the night, where, every time I would come on stage, I’d say “Hello Everyone!” and raise my arms, prompting a response. This gave me a sense of character in the audience's eyes, as I was physically recognizing them, and scalding them when their response wasn’t to my character's “standard”.

3. How did you use your research in your rehearsals and final performance?

A few weeks before our show, I watched a lot of different adaptations and performances of “The Servant of Two Masters”. I did this to ensure I had a firm grasp on my character. This turned out great, as before, I didn’t really show my character too well but I ended up being way more energetic, and how an Arlechino should act.

4. How did you use feedback to develop over the project?

The main feedback everyone received was to be louder, as it was really difficult to hear a cue to come on, or for the audience to hear us at all. This made me work on projection a lot more, putting more power into my words, while being more confident with my body language and posture. 

5. What was your contribution to the rehearsal process and performance?

I was the stage manager during our production, so my main role was to make sure props were in the right place, and all the cast knew when to come off, on, and their cues. I attempted to contribute within direction, on how people could be more energetic and like their characters, but no one followed my advice. I also contributed by learning all of my lines very early on, so we could then focus on more of the acting side during my scenes, which made it a lot smoother, as we had more of a grasp for what we wanted to do in the end. Unfortunately however, most of my scenes were cut during the final performance, so we were unable to show a lot of them.