30/03 Down and Out...

On Wednesday the 30th, we had a single lesson, but it turned out to be a very productive and successful rehearsal. The focus of this lesson was to go over the song 'Down and Out' and to start to add some movement into it.

Before our lesson started, I had a singing lesson at the end of lunch and I asked to specifically practise my song 'My Name is Tallulah', as recently I have been struggling with it. However, it was one of the first times that I actually felt the confidence to project it and to sing it well, as my teacher knows me well enough to pick out what I need to improve on.

After my lesson, I headed over to the main hall where the rest of the class were and we were told by miss to get the stage blocks and to set up the stage. We also had this booth which acted as the speakeasy, and a fake piano which is to be played by Fizzy in the performance, we received these back from the other school which were borrowing them. Once we were all set up and ready for the rehearsal to begin, we all grabbed a chair and sat round in a semi circle facing the stage. From here on, miss explained to us that for the rehearsal we were going to be revisiting the song 'Down and Out' which is sang by Bugsy Malone but with the rest of the chorus acting as slaves. Miss didn't let us have our music sheets but this was alright because all we had to repeatedly sing was 'down down down down, down down down and out'. It was in fact quite difficult not to get tongue tied, especially when having to repeatedly sing the word 'down'. The girls were all on the same note to each other and same with the boys, but the boys had to sing it lower to make it sound more interesting and varied. I sat apart from the girls to begin with, but this was fine as I still managed to hold all of the correct notes.
In my opinion, the hardest part of the lesson was when having to recognise and remember how many 'down down down down, down down down and outs' we had to do each time whilst Bugsy was singing. The first time that we sing it, we are all walking in from the back so we do it numerous times but when Bugsy comes in after other verses, we have to remember to firstly do it 4 times, then the second time only once and the third time 4. It gets very confusing so this is the part of the song that I will really have to focus on and do my own research on it in my own time. After going through the lines a few times, we all had to stand in a line and sing it again, moving our feet this time (a marching rhythm), like we will have to on stage. Also to put us off, miss made Adam, who plays Bugsy Malone, walk along the line singing his lines also, to see if we could keep a straight face and keep the volume. It was very hard to keep a straight face with him making funny faces at us.

After the joy of repeatedly singing the same words, miss told us that it was time to add some movement into the song, which was very exciting :) Miss split us into group A and B, to make sure that people with similar singing abilities were split up making each group fair. Group A were told to come on from Entrance E and group B from the other entrance at the back of the hall. From here on, we had to get one behind each other and slowly march, in time with the song, up to the front of the stage, where we met the opposite group. It worked well and is already looking really effective. We then carried on moving it, and we had to march up from stage 3 to stage 1, where we all stood in a line whilst the soup kitchen women (Ellie and Jade) dished out the horrible muck into our imaginary bowls. When we came in singing the 'downs' again, we marched back down onto stage two where we stood in another line. When we finished singing the 4 'down and outs', group A turned their bodies left and group B right, this was to give the effect that we were still ignoring Bugsy. We turned to the front again when singing the single 'down and out' and then back again to the sides. Finally, when we sang the final 4 'down and outs', we all turned back round again but this time it was more complicated. The first person on the right had to jump down from stage 2 to stage 3 within the first two lines, the second person in the next two lines after and so on. When the person after you to your left jumped down in their two lines, you had to then sit down at the same time. One of my strengths is timing and knowing when to do something at the right time during dances, so I found it very easy and straightforward however, for the others it was quite complicated the first time, but it's really starting to come together.

We unfortunately didn't manage to finish the song but we will be carrying on with it shortly. In the mean time, we need to carry on with learning our lines and taking notes on the movements, especially as now we have started to move the numbers and it will be a lot to remember.

29/03 First After School Rehearsal

We were told the previous lesson, on the 25th that we would have to give up our time to do some extra rehearsals after school. For the first scheduled after school rehearsal, I was called, along with the other 5 girls who are singing with me in the opening song of 'Bugsy Malone'. It was a slow start as we weren't all there at the beginning but once we had all arrived, it started to pick up a little. Surprisingly, we were all shocked to hear that we had solo lines to sing during the song, and even worse, I have the first two!! In my opinion, I always find it hardest to start the first note in any song, so this has made me quite nervous. However, when we went through who had which line, we went over the notes very quickly and sang the whole song altogether, to get a feel of how we are supposed to sing it correctly and to add more confidence and quality into our singing.
I found that as I sing the first two lines, 'He's a sinner, candy coated', they are quite difficult to sing with style, they sound quite monotone so I need to practise in my own time to try out different sounds and styles to see which ones sounds best.
The after school rehearsal didn't last long, so once we sang it through a few times, we got to go home, but we were told to keep practising our lines and to go over the notes and words for the songs.

25/03 First Rehearsal in the Hall

On the 25th, we had a double period (3 and 4). However, this was an exciting rehearsal as it was our first practice in the main hall, on the stage!!

When we all arrived in the hall after break had finished, we were told that we had to clear all of the green chairs off from the stage and stack them at the back of the hall. After, we had to grab a chair for ourselves and sit around facing the stage. Miss then gave us all a sheet of our lesson timetable, which included the dates of rehearsals, where they were and what we were doing in them. There was also a column on the end for homework, which was good as it helps us to prepare for the following rehearsal. After, Miss explained to us what we were going to do for the rehearsal but to begin with we had to set up the stage blocks, which were in fact the smaller ones as we didn't have the proper blocks as they were being used elsewhere at another performance. These however, stood in for stages 2 and 3 just so that we could get a feel of what it will be like having to walk onto an extended part of the stage. We also put on a table and chair to represent Fat Sam's office, and we brought on other tables and chairs when it was necessary to do so whilst running the show. Once we had sorted the stage, miss went through the stage layout again so that it was refreshed in our minds and for those who weren't in the lesson when the designed it in the first place. Finally after a few weeks, I have started to understand the stage layout and I'm slowly starting to remember where the exits and entrances are. During the performance, Tallulah's main exits and entrances are towards downstage right, entrance A, this is because her dressing room is based on this side and it is closer to Fat Sam's office, so for me I don't have it too hard and I'm really starting to use them well.

After we were all prepared with our scripts in hand, we started to run Act 1. The show starts with the song 'Bugsy Malone', which is sang by me, Anna, Abby, Millie, Jade and Jade. So we got into our position on stage as if were singing for him in the Grand Slam, and then had to carry on acting whilst Bugsy and Blousey did their scene. When the Hoods came in, we all had to scream and run off stage. I found this interesting, as it was different and we are finally getting to add in more detail with our characters.

Once I had finished the scene on stage, I left and watched the next few pages sitting in the audience. It mainly consisted of Bugsy and Blousey but then it wasn't long again till I was on so I headed back up onto the stage. This was my first bit of dialogue in the show, so it was exciting. However, I wasn't on long again and after having to perform with Fat Sam and Fizzy, I left the stage at exit C. When I returned to my seat, I realised that I wasn't needed for quite a few pages so I asked miss if I could go and practise my song with Mr Bowden over in the music block. I find the song quite hard and I'm really struggling to find the confidence to perform and to project it well. Mr Bowden made me stand in the middle of the room, away from him, so that it could help me to project so that he could hear me from a further distance and to see if I sounded any different, and it did help me to project more. I am aware of all of the notes but I find that I get scared when it comes to them so I don't perform them as well as I can and I try to skip it, which is really bad. To improve this, I am going to go away and keep listening to the song so that I can really familiarize myself with it. Also, I will try going over the notes many times between rehearsals, so that I can get stronger at them and become more confident within myself when singing them. Once I had finished practising my song several times, it was near the end of the lesson so everyone came back over to the music block where we all sang over Fat Sam's Grand Slam again. Everyone is really getting used to the song now and it is sounding a lot stronger.

18/03 Academic Review Day

On Friday 18th, our double rehearsal was cancelled due to an Academic Review Day which invloved the whole school to have meetings with their form tutors. Although we could've been asked to come into continue with our rehearsals, we sadly had to cancel them as our teacher was a form tutor, and was therefore busy and couldn't run our play, which would be no use to us as she is the one who is incharge of it all. However, those of us who had free periods that day, as some teachers still asked students to come into carry on with work that they were behind in, I came in periods 1 and 2 to work on my evaluations of past performances and to start to memorise and learn my lines for our performance of Bugsy Malone as the part of Tallulah.

16/03 Blocking Act 2

On the 16th, we had a single lesson (period 5) in which we continued to block the rest of the show. In the previous lesson we managed to finish all of Act 1 so the main focus of this lesson was getting Act 2 blocked.

At the beginning of the lesson, we talked about the importance of evaluations, showing our independent study and showing evidence of our work, which brought us onto our blogs. We were told that it is very important to keep up with our blogs as they show the evidence towards our final grade, and if we don't do them frequently then we will forget the important points of the rehearsal. Also, we were all given sheets that reviewed over our previous assignments and coursework's, explaining which Unit it was, our overall mark and what we still need to do and feedback. Many of us have quite a few past coursework's missing, which we have to work on and complete as soon as possible. I am up to date with Unit 1 but I still need to work on my evaluations of 'A Midsummer Nights Dream' and 'Stags and Hens' for Unit 2. We are currently working on Unit 3, but the sheet mentioned what we have to do in it and what we should be aiming for to go towards our overall grade for the BTEC. Once this was all sorted, we moved onto rehearsals.

To begin with, we set up the stage and moved around stage items into the correct places so that it was clearer to where the entrances and exits were etc. For myself, I have it quite easy with the entrances and exits as I am constantly coming on or leaving from A, this is because Tallulah's dressing room is based towards Fat Sam's side and her character is constantly pampering herself, which is why she always spends her free time in it, including when not on the stage. However, Act 2 starts with my song 'My Name is Tallulah', and because of our crafty layout and ideas of me walking around the audience whilst performing my song, I have to enter from entrance E which is the door at the very back of the hall, closest to the audience. As we are not singing or performing our songs whilst blocking the scenes, we moved onto the following scene. The second act is more complex than the first, so we really had to listen in and concentrate on everything that was going on. Tallulah is involved in Act 2 more than the first act, which I really liked as it meant I had more to do and I got to be involved for most of the lesson. In this rehearsal though, I made sure that I put down every exit and entrance, as I forgot to do this in Act 1. Tallulah is still mostly entering from A but there are a couple of moments where I leave elsewhere.

Over the past few weeks, I have been thinking about how I would like to play Tallulah and how much I really want the audience to understand her character and believe the person that I am playing. In order for this to happen, I need to really believe in myself and it will take a lot of practising to get her to how I want her to be. Therefore, during this rehearsal, I decided that it was time to take it up a notch and during my scenes I tried to add in a lot more characterisation. I made sure that I projected a lot more and I've started to add in some facial expressions. During one of my scenes with Fat Sam, when I am sitting on his desk whilst he is busy working, it says Tallulah is painting her nails, so I tried to look like I was productively doing something, it kind of worked, but at least I tried. Another important stage direction that I had to jot down is when I have to go over to the bar on a few occasions to make drinks. Hopefully it will all start coming to me naturally soon enough.

I feel that I have really learnt a lot more about my character as Tallulah whilst we blocked Act 2, as now I am starting to see what she is really like, and her different friendships between most of the cast. She is a feisty young women and I believe that I can play that same character, so long as I work my hardest and aim to be the best. I have really benefitted from this lesson and I really enjoyed it.

Hopefully over the next few rehearsals, we will continue to progress as a class and start to add some fine detail into the scenes and also work on adding in and setting some of the songs.

11/03 Blocking Act 1 and Singing Rehearsals

On Friday the 11th, we had a double lesson (period 3 and 4). This is always a good day for rehearsals as we don't get a break so we can work on it straight for two hours. In the first hour, we looked over a couple of songs and reviewed our previous evaluations of ourselves and in the second hour we continued to block Act 1.

At the beginning of the lesson, miss gave out our previous evaluations of ourselves which explained our previous experience in the performing arts including acting, singing and dance. This was to familiarize ourselves with what we had written so that we could set ourselves targets for the unit which would go towards our final grade. We particularly focused on the acting evaluations and we looked at them against the grading criteria for the unit. This was useful as it gives us a clue and some pointers of what we needed to work on during rehearsals. After we finished going through the evaluations, we did a singing warm up and continued onto sing Fat Sam's Grand Slam and You Give A Little Love. We only sang through these two numbers quickly as it wasn't the main focus of the lesson, but to benefit in the songs, we all had to stand away from each other so that we weren't being carried by anyone else or vice versa. This was a good technique as it showed how you really need to personally know the song and it helped me to remember the different parts that we had to sing than the boys, as I missed the previous lesson. It was a real confidence booster too.

We then moved onto the main focus of the lesson, which was drama. We carried on from where we got to the previous lesson, so from Fizzy's song. As I missed the previous lesson, I also missed a little bit of my dialogue, missing out on my correct exits and entrances, but I wasn't too fussed as I knew we would go over it again soon enough. The blocking takes quite a while in some places so as Fizzy and I had a long time till we were on stage again, so we went over to the music block with Mr Bowden to practise our solos. This was the first time that I had practised it with sir so I found it quite stressful as there was quite a difference in how my singing teacher helped me and how she play it compared to my teacher, but overall I think he played very well. However, I did struggle on the pitching of the final word at the end of each verse; me, faces and Carolina. Although it was winding me up, I kept my cool and kept trying it over and over until it stuck in my head. I also did this with another part of the song. Once Josh and I had finished rehearsing our songs, we headed back over to the drama studio where we carried on with the blocking of Act 1. I only had one scene again though, up until Act 2, so I had no motivation into my characters role but I still included my accent (which I think is really coming along), and as it's the first time of going through it and blocking it, I didn't add too much movement into my role or facial expressions and emotion, but this will all come along swiftly when we rehearse more.

Overall, these two lessons were really useful and I came out feeling a little better about myself and not as stressed, from having learnt a bit more for my characters role as we are slowly counting towards the final performance. Next lesson I hope to work on the pitching of my notes in my song 'My Name is Tallulah' and to add in a little more characterisation whilst blocking.

04/03 Absent!

On the 4th of March, I missed a double rehearsal as I was at a college audition for the performing arts extended diploma course (I got in)! :D However, I was told briefly what happened during the rehearsals and what I did hear surprised me. Another member of my class explained to me that they had gone through the stage layout and it sounded very confusing. I was then told about the idea that they had in mind for the song 'My Name is Tallulah' (the song that I have to sing). I was already feeling the pressure of singing this song alone as it is quite hard to sing perfectly, and especially standing there on the stage with the audience looking at me but no, the new plan is to have the audience sitting around the rounded tables just like they are in the film in the Grand Slam, with me walking in and out of all of the tables and around the audience, not to mention having to interact with them right in their faces. All I can say is that, I am terrified!!

As I found out the lesson after, they had also started blocking Act 1 but only managed to get up to Fizzy's song 'Tomorrow' so I hadn't missed much.

02/03 Fat Sam's Grand Slam

On the 2nd, we only had one lesson which was period 5. During this lesson we focused on Fat Sam's Grand Slam and reviewed our previous assignment.

Firstly when we got into the lesson, we had to grab a chair and sit around the front of the class, miss then gave us all a piece of paper that reviewed our last assignment, which was to put on a variety performance of songs and scenes from different musicals. I was pleased with my overall performance and it has given me that little bit more confidence. However, I was a bit disappointed with the feedback I got back, I can agree that I need to perform more when singing and when not saying a line in the scene, but I was disappointed that I didn't even get one mark for distinction and just managed to get a merit. But on the other hand, this has made me realise that you really do need to work hard to achieve a distinction and you need to put in a lot of hard work and effort and always try your hardest. I have my heart set on this so I will take in to account my stated weaknesses and apply them in my performance of Tallulah in our next production of Bugsy. I will do whatever it takes to show them what I can achieve.

In the second part of the lesson, we had to gather back around Ms Williams and take out or music sheets. This was the first lesson that we were taking a closer look into the song, getting a better knowledge of the correct pitch of the notes and really getting to know it. We started of by focusing on the technical side of singing, including the importance of breathing. Miss got us to put our hands on our waist, just underneath the rib cage, so that we could take a deep breath and expand our diaphragm without raising our shoulders, this helps to produce a stronger and better sound. I already had a great understanding of this exercise as my singing teacher makes me do it a lot during our lessons so I decided to really use it and put it to great use. We then started looking closely into Fat Sam's Grand Slam. Before when we had looked at the song, I found the timing quite difficult in a couple of places; 'at' at the beginning of the second line in the verse and 'the news we're making here' in the last line of the chorus. I've now managed to perfect 'at' but I'm still struggling on the timing of the other line. Also this line changes pitch and it's quite difficult to hit perfectly when the pace changes and the note is a lot higher. Once we sang through the song a couple of times, miss decided to split us up around the room so that we weren't sat next to the usual people we normally do and so that we were next to different abilities. I was however next to someone who sings quite quietly so I could only hear myself from where I was stood but miss said it sounded a lot better standing up and more spread out. We then had to move around once again and I felt confident enough to project more as I was now sure of the notes and the timing. I did discover though, that in some sections it is quite hard to breathe well, I sometimes struggle with breathing whilst singing anyways so I need to work out where it is correct to breathe to ensure I get a good sound. When we finished singing it for the second time standing up, it was the end of the lesson. Miss told us for homework that we needed to keep looking at the songs to familiarize ourselves with them and to get to know them a little better and to also carry on with learning our lines.