PRACTICAL SKILLS

This page should be used for your rehearsal logs, videos of rehearsals, information about the techniques, skills and methods you are using. Also, any production roles you undertake should be documented here.

Blog 1

Acting

In acting, we started by researching different duologues, to find one we wanted to do and me and Kady chose to do a duologue from the play “The Effect”, for our final performance. Some targets I had set for myself for this piece was:

• Have more of a thought process throughout my lines so it doesn’t feel like I am just reading off of a script.

• Figure out a way to add movements and actions into the piece

• Try and make the scene more interesting, as it could easily be made quite boring if we don’t do it right.

After running through this a few times, highlighting words and sentences where we would take a break, this turned out very effective, as it gave the scene more of a natural flow throughout it.

Singing

For singing, we were split into various groups of different sizes, and given a song. I was given, “What you mean to me” from Finding Neverland, with Kady. This song, although at first seeming daunting, could really show how I improved over the course of the year, as it’s a very vocally demanding song, and will require a lot of practice. Some targets I have set myself over the first couple of weeks, were:

• Have better breath control. This is so I can sustain notes for longer, and hold more power in them.

• Develop my acting through song, as I feel like I could improve this, to give a more convincing performance of the song.

As well as being given our songs, we had our 1-1s with Cheryl, which my feedback was similar. I performed “Why God, Why” from Miss Saigon. I was told this was a very good song for my range, and I should add this to my repertoire.

Dance

For Dance, we were split into two groups, and I was put into a group where we had to dance to “The Banana Boat”', from Beatlejuice. This song is a lot more difficult than our previous pieces as it’s more acting based than anything else.

Blog 2

Acting

This week during acting, me and Kady were given a new script to work on, as we both weren’t happy with the original script, so we chose one from “100”, which is about what happens after death. We found this script to have very interesting premises, so we thought we could do this very well.

During the week, I spent time rehearsing the Duologue, but a challenge I found was figuring out which lines went where, as I knew the lines, but couldn’t do it in order. I resolved this by writing out my lines on paper, with the prompt beside it, so I could get more used to the order of things. In our Rehearsal lesson, we performed to Siobhan, and it was good, but I feel like it needs a lot of work to be done on it. We were given feedback for our performance, which included:

• Stop paddling feet

• Crack on with learning lines, be more confident with them 

• Think about the pathways of the imaginary children

I find myself fidgeting a lot on stage, which is something I need to improve upon, as it makes the scene look messy.

We had no clear idea where the children were in the scene, as we had to imagine them, so they felt all over the place, so we needed to figure out pathing for them. 

During a later lesson, we were meant to perform, but Kady felt very uncomfortable and not confident with the scene, so we didn’t end up performing to the fullest of our abilities. I ended up doing the scene with our acting teacher, Emma, so she could give me viable feedback, but with the strange circumstances, my feedback remained the same.

Singing

During this week, me and Kady tried focusing fully on our song, so I supported Kady with the bits she struggled on. We eventually had to perform in front of Cheryl, and Kady didn’t end up singing. After this rehearsal, Kady decided to drop this singing piece, so I could focus on performing more. This made me feel very discouraged to carry on with this song, as I really loved the idea of performing this song with her, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable forcing her on stage to do it with me, if she genuinely didn’t want to do it. Me and Cheryl came up with a compromise however, of finding someone else to perform the song with me, so the time I spent learning it wouldn’t be wasted. I agreed to this, however, I feel like I would perform worse, as I felt more comfortable and confident performing with Kady.

I was told to focus more heavily on: 

• Breath Control

• Grounding, so I didn’t strain as much

This, however was short lived, as the person stepping in for Kady didn’t want to do the song either, which left me very discouraged at this point. Me and Cheryl ended up deciding it would be best if I just performed a Solo, as this would create less stress for others, and for me. We decided on “Why God, Why?”, from Miss Saigon, which I think is a beautiful song. This was decided on Friday, so I didn’t have time to perform in front of Cheryl at any point, but this gave me more time to work on my technique with the song

Dance

These weeks in dance was very productive for us as a group, and me as well. Before this, I felt very uncomfortable performing this piece, as I felt like I would look stupid on stage, but now Choreo was being set more, I felt more confident and comfortable, which I was very proud of for myself. During a dance lesson, where people were focusing on Portfolio work, me, Olivia, and Kady went through the song and found a segment I could Choreograph, and this wasn’t done as of yet. I picked a part where I tried to add more of a light feel to the piece, to make it more into a comedy, as this is the vibe we were going for. It was a segment where I stood on top of the table, and moved about in a comical manner, flailing my arms about while sidestepping. Being able to do this also made me more confident with the piece, as I’ve added a segment to it, so I knew what was happening, and I finally started to enjoy the song a lot more.

My next steps to improve this are:

1. Gain more confidence within the piece

2. Learn Choreography so I don't rely on others

Blog 3

Acting

During our acting lessons, me and Kady began working on the feedback we received from the Tutors. Our acting tutor wanted us to add some mime at the start, so I decided to walk on stage with this imaginary child, as Kady started on stage. This was to give the audience some semblance of how the scene started, and what was happening. Me and Kady also decided to add proxemics into our piece, which Emma suggested in feedback. This made the two characters feel more like they were complete strangers, as they never made direct eye contact.

My goals for the next few weeks is to clean everything up, to make it as engaging and good as possible. I will do this by finding time to rehearse with Kady, and we’ll sit down after every rehearsal and discuss what we could do to improve each time.

Singing

During these lessons, I worked very intensely on Why God Why. I received many bits of feedback from Cheryl, and my peers, which was:

• Project more

• Have a stronger accent within the song, so I don’t lose it and break immersion

• Have more acting through song, as I was very static in places.

We also gave feedback to other peers, where we sat down and wrote notes about each other's songs.