29/09/16 Read through and organisation

In today’s lesson following a cast read through o the first act of the script, Kim explained to us that part of our unit includes us having to organise and fill all of the extras casting in the musical by working out which characters we need to cast and holding auditions to fill these spaces. 

Initial thoughts on the script- the script includes a large amount of sarcasm, which we have decided to full embrace and act, so it almost becomes cheesy and predictable almost. We have figure this is the best way to interpret the script a half hearted effort to show sarcasm always come across in a weak and poor way. This is because it is more difficult for the audience to judge whether the humour is meant to be present, putting them in an uncomfortable position. My character especially, Scaramouche is humorously sarcastic, to the point where she has a permanent guard up, blocking people she interacts with emotionally effecting her. It is also clear to me that she finds it difficult to allow others in to her life and to know information about her personality and preferences. For example her responses to certain characters are blunt and could be interpreted as stand offish and rude.

To ensure everyone is aware of which characters we need to cast, our task was to set out a chronological list of the songs from We Will Rock You and with help from our scripts, figure out all of the characters involved in every song. We labelled each song with either an E for ensemble or S for solo. This will make it easier for us to reference in the casting process, ensuring we are all aware of which songs need some extras from the year 12 class. 

To ensure the whole class were organised and prepared to arrange auditions for the parts in the close future, we were assigned a section of the chorus to focus on in our double cast pairings. Amber and I who are playing Scaramouche, are taking care of the GaGa kids, who feature in 2 songs and various scenes. Amber and I had a discussion about the type of character the GaGa kids are and what we would be looking for in the auditions from the year 12s. We want the candidates to have the ability to copy direct movements and simple spoken words and work together as an ensemble. The GaGa kids are under the control and influence of the Killer Queen who runs the Globalsoft corporation, which sees all citizens being clones of one another, acting and dressing the same way. For example during the song ‘Radio Ga Ga’ , all of the Kids perform the same actions which requires team work. They also need to work well with the other members of the GaGa Kids to ensure their actions look in synchronisation. The attributes we are looking for which could indicate this to us from the audition would be enthusiasm, corporation and willing to listen to us and be a part of the production. 

23/09/16 Motifs and developing movement through quotes

Todays lesson was split into two parts- we firstly learnt a motif from Kat, to perform to the class and receive constructive criticism from and secondly we all individually found a piece of media in any form which made us stop and think about how society views situations. This could be anything also that we saw and made us feel angry or that we are passionate about. 

Using text to create a performance piece requires you to translate words to movement. To make this successful there are various ways of interpreting a text including

- Listening to the rhythm of the text and how it should be spoken. This could correlate to the speed the dance is performed, giving the piece of sense of dynamic energy. 

- Thinking about the key words in the text and what their meaning is in the context they are used. Once you have selected these words, you can think about how the words can be interpreted into movement. For example the word ‘opening’ could be used to create large movements of the body, spreading the arms and legs out in different directions to show being open. 

- Is the text positive or negative? This could correlated to the movement type and deciding whether the atmosphere created by the dance should be happt or sad fro example. Movements such as big leaps could be used to  show happiness whereas timid movements such as floored rolls and limbs close to the body could sow sadness. 

My choice of quotes- 

“Helen Skelton’s  revealing skirt sends BBC’s Olympic games Rio 2016 viewers into meltdown.” 

“They’re shorts not pants- Gary Lineker accused of not honouring Match of the Day pant promise, but viewers still turned on”

To summaries these quotes in a nutshell, they are contrasting as the first shows a woman being targeted in a negative light for showing her legs whereas the second shows a male being shamed for not showing enough skin on camera. Sexism is a topic which I feel very strongly about and is something that deeply angers me. This is why the subject matter will give me lots to think about when creating a dance based around it. 

I picked four words from the two quotes which gave me some inspiration to create moves from. 

- Revealing- I will use gradual and steady movements, transitioning between levels, starting with floored work such as rolls and sweeping actions to show the progression.  

- Meltdown- This movement section could follow a scene of climax, almost showing the come down from the highest and most explosive part of the dance. Movements such as reaching up to the sky with splayed hands, followed by a gradual bringing down of the body to the floor, to symbolise the deterioration. 

- Accused- this word can literally be translated in to dance movement by pointing of the finger, looks of guilt and bringing hands out to the side to show innocence. 

- Promising- small meaningful movements such as a turn of the head could be effective, along side gestural begging movements, showing promises and secrecy. 

In conclusion to today’s lesson, I believe I have been productive in creating some strong movement material I can use to out towards our final media movement piece. Choosing words from the quotes has given me some inspiration for dance moves surrounding the topic of the quotes, helping to make my dance as centred around the media as possible. 

S CLUB 7- research and planning

My group include- myself, Luke, Jordy, Sam, Talia, Bryleah  and Amber. Our task is to create a 10 minute presentation on a band of our choice, looking into their history as a band and before they were together. We have a week to put this together and create the performance.

The band my group have chosen to do our research into is … S Club 7. They are 7 piece band who plummeted  to fame after releasing their first single Bring it all back in mid 1999. They formed in 1998 and sadly decided to break up in 2003. They enjoyed 5 years of success, creating some of the naughties best hit songs including reach for the stars, Don’t stop moving and S club Party. 

The group consisted of  7 young members including Rachel Stevens, Jo O’Meara, Hannah Spearritt, Tina Barrett, Paul Cattermole, Jon Lee and Bradley McIntosh. We have decided who in our group will take on the character of each member. Our first task is for each of us to go away and research about our member, finding out how they got in to the band, their life before the band and where they are and what career they are pursuing now.

Rachel- Talia

Jo- Amber 

Hannah- Bryleah 

Tina- Me

Bradley- Luke 

Paul- Sam 

Jon- Jordy

Tina Barrett/ S Club history






Fact File

1) Tina Ann Barrett, born on the 16th September 1976 (age 40) is a London based singing and actress and dancer. Being a member of S Club 7 was her biggest role in the industry. The band went on various tours, made plenty of hit records and won numerous awards.

2) Barrett’s Mother was Guyanese and Father was British. 

3) She attended the London Arts Educational School for 8 years and her first performing job was a dancer in a pantomime. 

4) Before becoming a part of S Club 7, she was going to be in the group Face 2 Face which later became Mis-Teeq who were a 3 piece girl band. 

5) Barrett got the job as member of the band through a series of auditions alongside thousands of hopefuls after seeing the advert on The Stage. 

6) S Club spent 5 successful years as a band and in that time, released 5 number one singles and 1 number one album.

7) S Club 7 starred in their own TV shows including Miami 7, LA 7 Hollywood 7 and Viva S Club. They also has their own film named Seeing Double. 

8) Barrett co wrote some of the songs they released and also was the lead vocalistic on some of their tracks. 

9) In 2003 they announced they were splitting up. After their split in 2004, Barrett released the song ‘Do ya think I’m sexy?’ by Rod Stewart with Natasha Bedingfield and Atomic Kitten member, Liz MClaron. 

10) After this, she kept a relatively low profile and didn’t perform or appear in the public eye for 6 years. 

11) Barrett announced she was together with Paul Cashmore and in June of this year, had a baby boy named Roman. 

12) Barrett has featured in some stage work over the past few years including- 

Playing Beauty in Beauty and the Beast in 2013/14

Playing Wicked Witch of the West in Wicked in The Wizard of Oz 

Playing Fairy Bowbells in Dick Whittington in 2015/16

She has also gone on to doing some presenting work, a common path for singers after they split from their original bands.

S Club 7 peaked between 1998-2003, having a very successful 5 year period of fame and performing. The band's audience were mainly of the teenage years to early adults however children really enjoyed their music too. Saying this, their music was versitile as it touched a wide range of ages, from 4 to 25 being the main age gap. This is definitely what the

20/09/16 Improvisation and teamwork

In the first part of our lesson today we explored improvisation and how we respond to certain situations as actors. The main exercise we did today was called park bench. This involves everyone thinking of a character- gender, age and occupation. One character sits on the bench and another sits next to them. They follow on to have a conversation in their character with one another. The aim of this exercise is for the new character on the bench to make the original character feel uncomfortable sitting next to them, so much so that they have to make up an excuse to leave. The new character will have to verbally convince the original character to stay through persuasive language. This keeps running until each member of the class have been up to the bench. We did this exercise as it helps to improve improvisation skills as it makes you as an actor react to situations and ideas quickly and efficiently. It is also beneficial working with another character as you allow yourself to feed off of their reactions and actions. This is a key skill to own as an actor as it allows for you to be spontaneous in any role given to you.

My characters name was Alice and she was a late teen who had a shy and timid personality. She found it difficult to communicate with people through the typical means of communication therefore communicated through the idea of giving people constant compliments. I played Alice to be very in your face and she likes to touch your clothing and hair when complimenting. For example on of my strategies to make the other character feel uncomfortable was to pull at her trousers whilst saying “I really like your trousers” “The material is so soft” “where are they from” “please tell me where you got them”. This technique is bound to make anyone feel uncomfortable as it is an invasion of personal space. I also grabbed hold of the other character’s hair and started smelling it and saying “hmm… your hair smells really nice” “do you wash it often?” “what sort of shampoo do you use on it, it is a lovely colour”. All of these phrases I was repeating to the other character, touching her hair at the same time did indeed work to make her feel uncomfortable. Following this, a drug addict character joined Alice on the bench. Her character was very open as she was constantly asking where to find drugs and how she could get her hands on some drugs. This made my character feel uneasy and quickly pushed Alice away from being in that situation for any longer. 

I found this activity fun as it was interesting watching other people’s character ideas and seeing how they used their improvisational skills to create an ‘annoying’ character. Despite feeling slightly apprehensive when waiting to go up to the bench, I did feel confident however in my character and how I had chosen to portray her. However the next task pushed my slightly out of my comfort zone as it included quick fire responses which responded to another person, which I found more difficult. This highlighted to me that I need to work on the quick reaction side of improvisation acting as this seems to be something I am not so strong at. The task was that each person was given a sentence that we were to walk over to someone else in the room with and read out in whatever way seemed correct. Some examples included “It really smells over here, was that you?” which was delivered in a disgusted and almost humorous tone and “why don’t you love me anymore?” which was responded to with sympathy and compassion for the other party. Sam came to me with the statement “Why were you with my sister last night”. Looking back on the question I could have created come backs with wit and humour behind them such as “I wasn’t with your sister last night” which would have had scope for a whole conversation to spark you which could have turned into an argument. However the answer I gave was “because she is my friend”. I panicked in my head and said the first answer that I thought of which seemingly didn’t have a large amount of inspiration for conversation behind it. Quick fire come backs are most definitely something I would benefit from working on as this gives me as actress, more ideas to deliver in spontaneous situations. 

The second part of the lesson involved us all as a class, contributing key words that you need to do/ have when putting on a musical. This included everything from the sort of attitude you must have and the way you interact with others involved. 

All of the words we listed come under the heading of team work, which, coincidentally was the first word listed on the board. Working together as a unit is the key to making the experience of staging a musical enjoyable and successful for everyone involved. Having a positive attitude is one of the most important parts as your attitude can easily determine how the rehearsal runs; if it is productive or not. Treating everyone equally is another key part to success, without equality, some members of the cast will be able to get away with behaving in a way others might not be able to. For example everyone should all take responsibility of their own line and song learning as it is unfair to allow some individuals to put more effort in than others. 

Two things I want to work on this year from the board of words that I was perhaps not so strong at last year are enthusiasm and tolerance. At times I found it challenging to tolerate the behaviour os other students as I don’t feel as though the dynamic in our class was always equal. I also found it difficult at times to stay enthusiastic about the musical as I was not happy with the role I received as I didn’t feel as though it challenged me or pushed my ability enough. However two things I feel as though I was good at last year was creativity and supporting others. Being creative last year was a strong point for me as many groups of people had performed their own versions of west Side Story in the past. This meant we had to think on our feet and ensure the ideas and choreography we used was original and stayed interesting for audiences. Supporting others in my class is something I am strong at, especially last year as a large amount of us found some aspects of our previous musical difficult to deal with. This year I am very much looking forward to developing my skills through acting, singing and dancing with my class mates. I hope for a more challenging role in this year’s production which will push me out of my comfort zone and to the best of my ability. 

16/09/16 Introduction to Media dance

This year in dance I will be studying and completing two units; 45- developing contemporary dance techniques and 33- Applying physical theatre. Unit 33 will link into the movement work we will be doing for the musical, We Will Rock You. Unit 45 will be separate from this and involves Kat teaching us some phrases which we will go on to manipulate to develop into full dances based on the subject of the media/censorship. 

 

We created a mind map of all things media related and what comes to mind when we think of the media. A strong theme of lies and not reality came out of this which demonstrates us as teenagers are aware of how the media are able to manipulate and over exaggerate stories we hear on a daily basis. Relating these ideas to movement we came up with using repetition of dance to show the idea that the media reinforce untruthful stories to make them seem believable to the public. Pressure and manipulation were two dance ideas that came out of the idea the media is now a days over dramatised. For example we hear headlines about a celebrity ‘going to the shops’ which is meaningless to most of us. We could use the idea of ‘manipulation’ in our media based dance by dancing in groups and working together as an ensemble to push ideas (movements) on to one another which changes the idea and dynamic of the piece after every person has performed the movement in a slightly differing manor. 

Our main stimulus for this unit is the media however it is a broad subject to explore so to help us break it down, our sub stimuli is the idea of secrets in the media. This includes the untruthful, over exaggerated and lies I mentioned earlier in the mind map. This is a sub section which helped us create movement ideas. Following, are some of the ideas we came up with which link to secrets within the media and how we can portray this through the forms of dance and movement:

- Chinese whispers, the idea of setting one motif and performing it a few times however each time, changing it slightly so it becomes over exaggerated. This is a movement metaphor which indicates how the media feed us a story which gets re interpreted therefore developing a new meaning to the original. 

- Small movements escalating in to a climax phrase. The use of small movements represents the media keeping the true meaning of a story undercover/ as a secret,, which develops on such a large scale that the secret is eventually told which is shown through the climax/ explosion phrase. 

- We thought of some key words which are linked to secrets in the media: combat, conflict, manipulation, hidden, trapped. These words gave us some inspiration to the movements we created in the two videos featured below. 

The first video of myself and Luke was based on a movement phrase Kat taught us however our task was to use repetition and fragmentation to make the piece our own. We used a movement to show secrets escaping the mouths of the media by brushing both hands under our chins and all the way down to the floor (as if signalling being sick) to show how easily secrets can be uncovered. Luke and I thought to interpret this ourselves that we would have me using large arm movements sweeping the floor as if collecting the secrets and preventing them from getting out to the public. After this, Luke grabbed hold of me and pulled me up, swinging me back so I was bending over backwards, facing the audience upside down covering my mouth. This showed how Luke (the media) has so  much power and control over me (the public) almost demonstrating that whatever I was told to do, I would do and believe. 

The second video of myself, Amber, Bryleah and Sam was inspired by the idea of the ‘secret’ being an invisible object which we played around with. I was representing the public, performing different movements and reacting to the other three who were representing the media. I performed two separate movements which I performed for a third time blended together, this conveyed the idea of rumours adding information to the truth (much like Chinese whispers.) This leaves the public with false stories whereas the media know the truth. As our climax phrase Amber Sam and Bryleah surrounded me (the media) and used gestural hand movements to cover my mouth, showing the media stopped the public talking. The finish off our piece from a crouching position I sprung up, taking my head and hands back at the same time. This symbolised the media being over powering on the public and becoming too invasive in our civilian lives. 

These two phrases we created today have definitely given us some ideas and inspiration to work with when putting together this unit’s final piece. Everyone worked well together today to come up with some brilliant ideas which we are all looking forward to developing through movement. I feel as though today's lesson was positive and we all worked as a team to produce some good initial ideas which we will develop and explore in depth in lessons to come. 

15/09/16 Introduction to We Will Rock You

In today's lesson we focused on two main themes. Firstly an introduction to the singing part of our course. For this we did some vocal warm ups and eventually went on to singing a couple of songs from or new musical… We Will Rock You! Secondly we spent some time thinking about how a persons dress code defines them and how characters dress to give off an impression. 

We sung three songs from WWRY which were A crazy little thing called love, I want to break free and Radio GaGa. We sung A crazy little thing called love which showed us the characters relaxed, layer back and quirky side. The song had a relaxed jazz vibe to it and this made us sing the lyrics at a medium tone of volume with a care free sound to our voices, in which I created by lowering my tone of voice and also using body language showing confidence by slightly slouching my body and using irregular swings of the arm. We sung I want to break free as an opposing song to the last. This song is about finding freedom and peace within and therefore required to be sung with passion and drive. We all interpreted this by raising the volume of our voices and articulating our words to show off the certainty of how badly freedom is wanted. I found myself squinting my eyes and clenching my cheeks to suggest the pain and need behind the lyrics. Finally Radio GaGa we found to be such an upbeat song which is very ensemble based. When singing this as a class today, the song brought everyone in the room together which gave off a positive atmosphere. I think this is the song that sounded best for us today. We also naturally added in a 2/3 part harmony without being prompted, which sounded excellent for our first try! Clapping is included as a part of the song which is another contributor to the lift in atmosphere as the song is performed. The majority of the lines in the verses are short and sharp however sum up the point they are conveying in a blatant manor for example ‘We hardly need to use our ears’ you had your time – you had your power’ To make a statement out of these points I found myself using staccato notes to end the lines; this was used to sum up the point made in a simple and easy to understand manor. 

For our second task in the lesson we had a think about how the clothes we wear on daily basis reflect who we are and what impression we want to give to others around us. We analysed the outfits we were wearing today. 

Firstly I was wearing a lot of colour (blues and whites) which I felt rubbed off on my mood. I was feeling positive and I believe my outfit contributed to this because I liked the way it made me look. For example I felt comfortable with how the high waisted style of jeans made my legs look and I love the cut shoulder style of top as I feel it suits my figure. Feeling confident in what I wear for me definitely links in with my mood; if I don't like my appearance I find my mood is effected by this and I tend to feel slightly more deflated and negative. However if I like the way my outfit makes me look, it sets me up for the day, feeling confident and placed in a positive mind set. 

Talia found herself to be wearing a lot of black clothing. She analysed this to be a reflection of the fact she isn't a fan of wearing colour and prefers how black clothing looks in her. Her top also read 'Tell someone who cares' which she found to show the carefree side to her personality.

Megan was wearing a black floral print swing dress with a pair of tights which had a ladder down the side. She said she wasn't bothered by this, showing that she doesn't care too much about what other people think of her outfit which is such a posturing attribute to a person!

The point of this task was the get us all thinking how a person/character’s dress code and all the clothes they wear links in to their personality and mood. Having thought about our own clothing choices and what they mean to us puts us in a positive position to analyse a character’s clothing from WWRY which is one of our units this year, costume design. I know feel better equipped to make judgements on characters costume choice, thinking more in depth about why they might be wearing the clothes they are and how this links to their current situation, mood and personality in the musical.  

20/09/16 What makes a good ensemble research

20/09/16 Researching the market

A large amount of British actors and actresses don't have a website. This may restrict them from gaining online promotion and advertisement. However American based actors and actresses have a higher amount of website context, showing America are a head of our promotion ideas in Britain.


Jenna Coleman

• Coleman's home page is full of photographs of herself looking all made up, as if on modelling shoot. This does not promote her ability to act and the links to her career information are not overtly obvious.
• When clicking on her tabs such as 'Doctor Who' and 'Career' a very limited amount of information appears. This is a negative as this doesn't present her as an actress or provide potential clients/employees with any valid information that may determine if she is considered for a job or not.
• Her gallery page has the highest amount of context included, showing image and appearance maybe important to her.
• The website doesn't include enough information about her career, past experiences and roles therefore I believe it is a weak page.

Helen McCrory

 

• Featuring on her website are links to her biography, trivia and filmography. This will allow audiences and potential clients to read up about her history, past performances and life experiences.
• This website for Helen however is a fan site and therefore isn't official. The information that you can source from the site is about the actress however doesn,t explore her as a performer well enough. The information about her past roles and personal information that clients and audiences would like to view are not readily available as the fans who run the page would not have access to this information.
• Another feature missing from the British websites is the obvious ability to be able to look at the website and gather it is based on an actress. The appear as profiles however with an unclear aim and purpose as to why they are there. 

Raffey Cassidy

• Raffey's website promotes her through the use of a biography, references for past jobs and her CV. Online interviews and the latest news on her latest roles and events she is attending will appear under these links.
• Again this website contains many images however this time alongside some information.
• Out of these three British female actresses websites I have looked at, I would say that Raffey's website is the strongest and has the most chance of promoting her and her talent sucsessfully to potential clients. This is because the website includes the best variety of information about her past roles, life history and photograps of herself. Her website finds a good balacebetween written information and visual prompts. 

Amy Schumer

• Amy Schumer is an American stand up comedian and actress. You can automatically see the difference between British acting websites and American websites. The majority of British websites are fan sites however American websites are well laid out and provide information valid to fans, audiences and clients, (employers.)
• Her website also includes the tab 'contact' which features the ability to be able to book her for work, sign up to her news letter and get in contact with her management agency. This allows for potential clients to fins direct contact details for her, allowing for job opportunities to flow in with ease.
• She is currently on tour and has a tab for this which includes information and videos which support her current project. This shows to audiences that she is an active performer which is a positive and this demonstrates she is available for work.

Acting website checklist-

1) Focused homepage, clearly stating your name, what you do and a clear photograph of you.

2) Page focused on career so far, hiighlighting job roles you have played in the past.

3) as many references as you can collect, showing your reliability and passion for the industry.

4) A gallery page which includes at least one photograph of you in each role you have played. A description of the role/ the client you were working with may be featured.

5) A breif explantion of your life backround and non industry related experiences and jobs you may have had in the past. This shows your skill set outside the acting sector. This also show versitlity. 

6) Video clips of your most well known and recent roles you have played. This shows imediately how you act to clients and agents who visit your website. Also it is nice to have some visuals to go alongside the written information about yourself.

7) An official showreel of all your work, demonstrating all of the different roles you have played.

8) I think it is imporant to supply your personal details such as height, hair and eye colour, ethnicity and possibly your interests, providing the clients with a clear picture of you and your personality.

9) State your playing age and the accents you are able to perform to a high standard. 

10) Supply contact information for you, eg your email, professonal contact number or your agents contact details to ensure client cn contact you easily.