Friday 4th January.

In our first lesson back, we focused on sharing information we had gathered over the Christmas holidays on Matilda and the 'school song'. From sharing this information, I was able to understand the context behind this musical and what characters we were playing. We then got into groups after we had shared the information and each group got a topic to research. My group got Style and Genre. The other topics were social and historical and the writers, choreographer and composers’ intensions. I took notes while people were giving feedback, I did this, so I could read back through them if I ever was unsure. The musical is based on the 1988 chiders novel by Roald Dahl, however in 2010 it was adapted by Dennis Kelly for the stage including music and lyrics by Tim Minchin and choreography by Peter Darling. It received a west end premiere on the 24th of November 2011 at the Cambridge theatre and then followed by Broadway two years later at the Schubert theatre. The show won 7 Oliver awards and 5 Tony awards in 2012. I have not been to see the musical Matilda, so I was unsure what the story was about, I had seen the film but heard that it was slightly different, so in my own time I researched what the musical was about, and this is what I found. The musical is about a 5-year-old intelligent girl who has the gift of telekinesis, she loves to read and overcome obstacles caused by her family and school. I then watched a few clips on YouTube of the musical to get an even better understanding of the musical. 

The style and genre of this musical shows elements of dark humour and fantasy fiction, the whole musical portrays a childish view however in a way that is funny, everything is over exaggerated to represent a child's mind. 

Roald Dahl's intension with the story of Matilda was to show how women don't need men to survive, the story includes a lot of strong independent women for example, miss honey and of course Matilda. Roald Dahl wanted to portray how girls can also be the role of a hero, this is shown when Matilda outsmarts her parents and stands up to Miss Trunchpole. These intensions are also very similar to Tim Michins aims too, he said how he wanted to write songs which inspired people to hold their own destiny when singing or listening to his songs. 

The intensions of Peter Darlings choreography was to create something that uses more rhythmic movement than actual dance, he uses movements that is known as pedestrian choreography which is simple but effective. When I am performing the 'school song' I want to portray this 'pedestrian' choreography, I will make sure to put lots of energy and capability into the movement.

An important skill I have learnt from today’s lesson is independence, independence is key for success, in my own time I did some research which really helped me to understand the context and the story of this musical, when performing I will be thinking about what I have researched and apply this to my performance. A short term target from this lesson will be to carry out some more research in my own time, this will be to understand the performance and what I’m performing even further. 

Monday 7th January 

In our singing lesson we learnt 'school song' from Matilda the musical, the lesson consisted of practicing how to annunciate words clearly and understanding the term dictation. The first thing we did was a few warm ups to get our voices and bodies ready to sing. We did a few stretches and then gathered into a circle to practice controlling our breath, we would breath in for 6-10 seconds and then release the air. As the 'school song' is very wordy we need as much air as possible to sing all the words as loud as we can. After that we then all gathered around the piano to do some scales, we made sounds such as 'la', 'fa' and 'ga' up a C major scale. 

After warming up we went off into groups to learn and rehearse the song, I had never listened to the song, so I was unsure of the lyrics, however I learnt them quickly despite the amount of words we have to sing in such a short space of time. We had arranged and agreed who was going to be a little kid and big kid, I was a big kid. We then performed what we had learnt to the class, as it was our first time going through the song together it wasn't perfect, people were still unsure with the words and what to do, however we have plenty of time to perfect it. 

I think that one of my strengths included being able to pick up the song fairly quickly, this was useful as in the future I am able to focus on other stuff such as being in time with everyone else and maybe improving my projection, as the song is quite high I find it hard to project my voice and sing high, so in my own time I will work on this. 

Tuesday 8th January 

In our first dance lesson we started to learn the choreography for 'school song'. We started off the lesson with a dance routine we do every lesson which includes planks and stretches, this will strengthen our core and potentially make us more flexible. 

We then got onto learning the dance which was fairly simple, the moves are very simple which is what Peter Darlings intension was to create. 

Overall, I think I picked the dance up fairly quickly, however a target I will set for myself is to rehearse dancing and projecting my voice at the same time, I am struggling with being heard while dancing, as there are so many words. Another target is to exaggerate every move and work or my facial expressions, the idea is to look menacing and scary towards the little kids which I need to work on. 

I will practice this dance routine often in my own time so that it sticks, and I don't forget it, practicing regularly will build up my confidence and prepare me for the performance in the future. 

Friday 11th January 

In this lesson we put the singing and dancing together, I found this difficult, however I got there in the end, I found it difficult to be able to sing and dance while being heard. We also learnt how to use facial expressions when dancing to look menacing towards the children. We did not do a warm up in this lesson due to only having half of the lesson to get things done, we had the first half of the lesson to do presentations, a warm up before a dance lesson or any physical lesson is key as you don't want to injure yourself. 

I would say that a strength of this lesson was that I was heard more, when performing the 'school song' I felt more confident and louder. As a group we are all looking and sounding good, we are all working as a team to ensure success. 

An important target is to work on my facial expressions to ensure I look menacing towards the children, this will show the audience what my character is trying to portray, this will also make the performance much more interesting and entertaining for the audience. 

I will continue to practice the dance and song in my spare time, so it sticks, and I don't forget what I am doing also this will be good practice and should build up my stamina for the performance in the future. 

Monday 14th January 

This lesson we mainly focused on singing, we started off the lesson with a few warm ups for example, ‘fa’ and ‘la’ up the c major scale. This helped improve dictation skills, however to improve it further we included the sound of ‘ga’, this was more challenging as we had to move our jaw more. I will set a short-term target for myself, this is to do more exercises like this to improve my dictation, therefore my diction for the performance will be better and the audience can understand what I am saying clearly. 

This lesson we went off in our groups and rehearsed the song a few times with no actions, our teacher came in towards the end of the lesson and filmed part of our rehearsal. When part of our rehearsal was being filmed I tried my best to project my voice, so I could be heard. As we included no choreography in this lesson we were able to just focus on the vocal aspects of things, this was useful as I learnt a few things, such as, how to pronunciate words so it’s clear on what you are singing. 

  

In my opinion it wasn’t our strongest rehearsal, I struggled a lot to project my voice, especially at the part “I have suffered in this jail” and "like you I was curious". When performing this in the future I will make sure that I am projecting my voice, to do this I will make sure enough air is in my lungs to be heard when singing. However, if I am still struggling to be heard I could consider singing down an octave.

In this lesson I learnt that I will need to project my voice so that the audience can hear what we are saying. A short and long-term target is to maintain projection when singing. 

Tuesday 15th January 

As we had no lesson today, in my own time I just refreshed myself with 'school song' very briefly. At home and in my own time I listen to the song a few times and also watched a few videos on different people performing 'school song'. Watching how different people performed this piece made me realise and pick up on a few people were doing that maybe I could incorporate into my performance. For example, facial expressions and body language in different videos are very strong, to make my performance even better I would like to emphasis my facial expressions and also body language more clearly. This should make the audience feel intimidated and almost afraid by me. 

Also, when watching a few of these videos their actions and choreography is very sharp, clean and crisp. This inspired me to create choreography that is similar in a sense that will almost frighten the audience. This is a target of mine, to create choreography that stands out, that is also sharp and crisp. Having good choreography that isn't messy but is clean is very important, you don't want the audience being distracted by messy choreography. 

Vocally I ran though the song briefly just refreshing myself with the words as I find it can be difficult to say all of the words in such a short space of time, so I made sure I was clear on that. At home I briefly worked on my dictation and projection skills as I want to be heard when performing. A target I have set for next week is to be able to be heard when singing the harder parts of the song, "like you I was curious" and "I have suffered in this jail", so I can assess whether I can be heard I will ask one of my friends to listen out for me, this is a good way to assess as they can view it from the audiences perspective and give honest feedback.  

Friday 18th January

In today’s acting lesson we focused on building our character to create a more realistic performance. 

In our groups we spent about 20 minutes devising a short piece showing the social scale between big kids and little kids. 

Our short piece consisted of Jayda (little kid) sitting alone on a chair and the big kids behind her. One by one we would go up to her and make her feel uncomfortable by doing actions such as pushing her head down, this made her close up her body language. We did this piece to show the effects of bullying, the audience seemed to understand this, they showed they understood it by giving us positive feedback, for example the non- naturalistic approach was positive in understanding more about the meaning of the piece.

After doing this for most of the lesson we finished off with school song really focusing on characterisation. We performed 'school song' once to the opposite group, personally I think it went well. Some feedback we got from the performance included, projecting our voices more, also staying in time with each other and don't speed up also just generally cleaning up the choreography to make it look better.  

In my own time and over the weekend I will rehearse and just go over 'school song' so I am clear with it all and do not forget the choreography and words, this means I will be ready for next week’s lessons. 

Monday 21st January 

In this musical theatre lesson, we had our presentations due, therefore we had no rehearsal this lesson. This also meant that I did not do any rehearsing in my own time at home. 

Friday 25th January 

For this lesson I was absent, however during the day I got the opportunity to do some research, for example I watched a few YouTube videos on school song which inspired me and made me think of ways I could improve my performance. 

Something that occurred quite frequently in a few of the performances I watched was making eye contact with the camera, I thought that it would be a good idea if I was to make eye contact with the audience during the performance, so I would be breaking the forth wall, I thought this would be a good idea as it could intimidate the audience even further and could make them uncomfortable. In our next lesson, when we perform next to the other group, I will make sure I am making frequent eye contact with the audience, this allows my characterisation to come through and make the audience uncomfortable, however in a good way. During my day off I think I improved my research skills, researching is a good way to get inspired and also learn new ideas, these ideas will help to improve my performance. In my first lesson back on Monday I will adapt these ideas I’ve learnt and researched into my performance.   

Monday 28th January 

In this singing lesson we got into our groups and warmed up by doing some scales and gentle exercises. I am able to play the scales on a piano so therefore I put myself forward to do this. We made sounds that would help with our diction and just generally warming our vocal cords up, so we would not injure our voices. We made sounds such as 'me', 'ma' and 'la'. Because I was playing piano I didn't get a chance to warm my voice up properly which was a risk as I could have strained my voice.

After the scales we all sang a few songs to warm are voices up even more and to also energise ourselves. I was playing the chords on piano while also harmonising to the rest of the group, this was a fun way of warming are voices up. 

After all the warming up we then ran through 'school song' a few times without dancing to fully focus on our projection, pronunciation and also breath control. All these skills are hugely important as firstly, you want to be heard, secondly, you want the audience to understand what you are saying and lastly, breath control is hugely important in this song as there is so much to say in so little time, especially the part "you listen hear". 

We ran through it all together pretending like it was the real thing, it sounded very good however a few things I need to work on personally to make sure I'm doing my very best. We tried to make sure we included a few dynamics within the piece, for example getting louder and quieter at certain bits will make the performance more effective. An example where we get louder is when we sing "this living ell", this will sound effective as it might scare the audience especially if we use facial expressions and make eye contact. 

Something I need to focus and improve on is whenever I sing the sentences in B flat which are "I have suffered in this jail' and "like you I was curious" I struggle to project my voice as it is very high for me personally. I can either learn to sing high which will sound better and more effective in my opinion or I can sing an octave lower, however I will decide on this closer to the time. 

I got my friends to look out for my projection this week when performing, I asked them to listen to see if I was being loud enough and if I was being heard, I told them to be honest as I wanted to get it right. They said that they could hear me just fine, however, they said that I could push it even more and easily be heard more. They also said that as the performance went on I was getting quieter, maybe because I was getting out of breath. So therefore, I will need to improve my stamina in order to be heard throughout the performance loud and clear. I go to the gym a few times a week, however maybe for these few months coming up I will increase that in order to increase my stamina. 

Tuesday 29th January

In today's dance lesson we obviously started off with warming our bodies up before dancing, this is to ensure we don't injure ourselves, for example pulling any muscles. The warm ups we did where very high intensity, however we also worked on skills such as coordination and multitasking. Firstly, we followed a warm up from another student in the same class, the warm up included repeating a series of tunes while clapping, we would gradually get faster and faster, this I assume was getting us ready for the school song as there is a lot of movement involved and also singing to be done. We then followed another warm up which was very high intensity. We sang through the school song while doing a lot of jumping on the spot few, this was a very useful and effective warm up as I was able to prepare myself for the lesson, it also got my blood pumping round my body. 

After the warm up we dived into some new choreography. In this dance lesson we included props, the props where cardboard boxes with letters from the alphabet written on them in paint. The idea of these boxes was so that the alphabet corresponds to what we sing, as we go through the alphabet we will show the audience hopefully the correct and corresponding letter. However, this could go wrong as someone could show the wrong letter so this lesson I made sure I listened carefully to what I had to do, also people have to throw the boxes at some points, so this could be a hazard and could maybe cause injuries. 

In this lesson I feel like I listened well to what I needed to do, I was firstly quite confused with the whole concept but eventually I did understand, and it turned out very well. I learnt some important skills during this lesson, they included being persistent, being able to multitask, which is hugely important as there is so much to think about when performing this song, and finally, I learnt how to improvise and adapt when things go wrong, for example if I was to show the wrong letter on a block. 

Overall, even though there are a lot of actions to be done I can't let this effect my singing, so I must ensure I can still be heard, this will be a long-term target, to ensure I can be heard well and clearly amongst all the other things to be done.

Friday 1st February 

In this lesson the two groups did different things, the first group for the majority of the lesson would work on their characterisation and develop it even more. They did this to make sure the performance is as good as it can be. By working on characterisation, it makes the performance seem more real and the audience tend to understand a bit more. Next Friday we will be swapping, my group will be working on our characterisation while the other group develop the choreography which the boxes. 

To start off this lesson we firstly did a warm up as a collective, this is very important to ensure we don't injure ourselves and so we can get the blood pumping around our body. 

We started off with some simple vocal warm ups such as some well-known rhymes, we did this to work on our diction and pronunciation. After that we then moved onto some physical warm ups. These warm ups worked on our stamina, we did a few movements such as jumping on the spot while singing the school song, this helped us as we are required to do a lot of moving while singing loudly. While doing this warm up we realised that we were occasionally going out of time to the music. We were going much faster than we needed to, therefore we had to slow down, when performing this we must stay in time to the backing track as it could affect our performance. 

We then did a few exercises such as lunges, skipping and crawling while singing the school song. This massively worked us all, lots of people were out of breath after this warm up.

We then got onto the lesson after a breather. My group this lesson developed the choreography with the boxes, the first lesson we did this people were getting confused however got there in the end, this lesson was much more difficult as we added some more choreography. A very important skill I learnt while learning this choreography and just the whole choreography in general is persistence. If you keep at something you will achieve it, in my case it was the choreography and all the queues with the boxes. 

I also learnt that with this choreography and song in general you must be spatially aware of your surroundings and proxemics, you don't want to injure anyone with the boxes or yourself as this could affect the performance. 

Timing and rhythm was important in today’s lesson, we occasionally go out of time when singing and also when moving the boxes around. It is important in this song to maintain steady rhythm and not speed up unnecessarily, however, in the end we did get there, it just might take some time as there is a lot to remember such as singing loud and clear, remembering the dance and also remembering when to pick up and move the boxes.  

My target for next week is to concentrate on timing and rhythm, I go much faster when singing than I need to, to make sure this doesn't happen I will listen to the song at least five times a week.

In the last five minutes of the lesson we spoke about how we will need to start thinking about costumes and also a mock performance which will be in a couple of weeks’ time. 

Monday 4th February 

In this singing lesson this week, we prepared for Fridays lesson, on Friday both groups will be filmed performing 'school song', this will give us an opportunity to criticise ourselves and pick out on what we need to improve on. 

This lesson we mainly focussed on projection and diction when singing. We did this as you need a lot of energy and stamina while dancing and singing at the same time in 'school song', a certain part in the song requires a lot of breath while dancing and singing. It's crucial we are heard while dancing, if we are not heard the audience may not understand what is going on and we also may not get a good grade. This is something I need to work on, this will be one of my targets for this week, to make sure I am projecting my voice well so that the audience can hear me and what I'm saying. 

Tuesday 5th February

In this lesson the group split up into our school songs group, a few lessons ago our group worked on the rest of the block arrangements while the other group worked on improving their characterisation, so therefore this lesson we switched, and we worked on our characterisation. However firstly, we did a warm up altogether, this warm up was a full physical warm up testing our strength and working on our coordination. We did exercises including planks to help with core strength, exercises that would get our heart rate up and also exercising our brain with a coordination exercise we have used previously in lessons. It consists of moving our feet and arms at the same time which I struggle with, however I am improving each time we do this warm up, this exercise of dance has definitely improved my memory skills hugely. Warm ups such as these are hugely important to ensure we don't injure ourselves, getting the blood pumping around our bodies and raising our heart rate is important for feeling energised and ready to start rehearsals. 

After the warm up we went off into our groups and we worked our characterisation, we did this so that we are able to give a more realistic performance. However, we mainly focussed on cleaning up our choreography as it was a priority as it was a bit messy, we had people standing around on a few occasions unsure on what to do so we decided to prioritise. We got our teacher to help us with some choreography, this was helpful, after this it was much better and cleaner. For example, we added a few extra actions to make the choreography more original, like how we added an extra turn to the head on the word "princess", and on the word "energy" I stomped my right leg and pulled my arm across my neck. I will make sure I am going over the routine and characterisation in my own time to ensure my performance is successful.  

Next lesson we are being filmed, this will show the progress we have made so far and also give us an opportunity to pick out where we need to improve. To prepare for Fridays lesson, I will practice projecting my voice and make sure my diction is good for when I get filmed, I don't just want my projection to be good for Friday’s lesson I want it to be good for the future performance, this is one of my long-term targets.   


Friday 8th February 

This lesson we started off with a vocal and physical warm up, the group got into a circle and sung 'I like the flowers'. We get into groups of four and sing at different times, this helps with our concentration levels. As we are confident with this song we added a physical element to the song. We added choreography to it such as rolling the shoulders and jumping on the spot. This challenged us physically and vocally as some of us find it difficult to dance while protecting our voices. This warm up was preparing us for being filmed at the end of the lesson. 

After this we sang school sung through once which refreshed our memories before we got filmed. Each group took turns to get filmed using the blocks, we will watch these videos of our performance and give feedback back on Mondays lesson. On Monday’s lesson I will watch the performance back and make notes on what I need to improve on. I personally think that my performance was successful, I think that I projected my voice well and my characterisation has improved hugely due to all the work I put into it. However, a few things I thought of while performing that could be improved, such as the choreography, at the moment it can get a bit messy and people begin to forget about special awareness. In order to change this in the future so no one gets hurt while performing, I will talk to my group about spacing and the choreography.  

Monday 11th February 

In this singing lesson this week we focused on perfecting our old performances, ‘Nothing Like A Dame’ and ‘Seasons of Love’ for a performance on the 5th of March. 

However, we did not get a chance this lesson to do a proper warm up, I found it difficult to sing to the best of my ability as I did not warm up. 

We started off the lesson watching the videos filmed last lesson of both groups performances. We gave feedback for both groups. For example, the first performance was ours, the projection was good however, the choreography needs improving and with the second group their projection needs improving however, their choreography is good. A few other minor things that need improving include, being spatially aware of other people and also considering breath control/stamina while performing. By the end of our performance the other group noticed that our energy dips at the end, in order to overcome this so that we are not tired by the end and run out of breath we should do more warm ups at the beginning of the lesson. Some lessons we skip doing a warm up at the beginning as we don’t have time or just don’t get around to it, however, this is very bad as we could injure our voices or body, doing a warm up at the beginning of a rehearsal could also allow our stamina, breath control and many more skills to improve. 

A target I will set for myself is to make sure I am warmed up properly before doing any physical activity in rehearsal, this will ensure I don’t injure myself and also improve those important skills to make my performance better. 

   

After we had given feedback on the school song we moved onto Nothing Like A Dame. Firstly, we just familiarised our self with the song and dance we then ran through it. The first time we did this it wasn't amazing, this was because we hadn't done it in a while, we ran through Nothing Like A Dame four times and by the last time it improved. However, as the song is quite low we still need to work on our projection, this will happen through practice. We also briefly looked at a few skills during this lesson such as accent/dialect, which is key in this performance as they are from the south, so we must make sure we sound near enough the same, so the audience can relate and understand. We also thought about how we must show the audience our relationship with each other, we will do this by 'communicating' to each other and make small gestures. I will make sure I am doing these things by practicing my facial expressions and the accent in my own time. 

We then moved onto ‘Seasons of Love’, firstly our teacher had to familiarise himself with the chords while we just recap the lyrics. With this song we have no actions or choreography we just stand around the piano, our teacher suggested if we stood away from the piano and stand in a line to make the performance look more formal. We went through this song maybe 5 times with different people singing different parts. 

During this song we did a brief warm up, we sang the F major scale repeating lines such as 'la', 'fa', 'Ba' and 'ga'. we did this as most people were struggling to hit the notes. 

A few targets for next week will include just familiarising myself with ‘Nothing like A Dame’ and ‘Seasons of Love’. I will listen to the songs a few times and also sing through them alongside thinking about Choreography. 

Tuesday 12th February 

In this week’s dance lesson, we did a bit of everything. This lesson we did not do a warm up maybe because we had a lot to get through, however this was a risk as we could have hurt ourselves while dancing. The whole class sang through school songs just to familiarise ourselves, we then ran through it without any of the boxes which was difficult in my opinion. We took turns with the other group with the boxes as there is only one set. We used the boxes first, we ran through it a few times with the boxes to ensure we know what we are doing. We worked on emphasising every movement to make the letters stand out, therefore the audience could understand and follow along. When we had to give the boxes to the other group we worked on some extra choreography for bits of the performance, for example the section 'I have suffered in this jail' when the letter L is being shown the people not doing anything will take their hand and place an L on their head to really emphasise the L. In my opinion the choreography looks much cleaner and well put together compared to last lesson for example. As this was our last lesson before half term, I will be setting a target for myself which is to familiarise myself regularly with the choreography and words of School Song, therefore I will not come back and be unsure about moves or words. 

After we all had finished rehearsing School Song we then moved onto recapping ‘Willkommen’ and also ‘Seasons of Love’ for the open performance on March 5th. We started off with ‘Willkommen’ which everyone was pretty confident and familiar with still which was positive as therefore we won't have much the learn. 

Onto seasons of love which we were all determined we wanted to get it right and finish it, we did this a couple of times until it was right, the harmonies and projection is very good however there is a lot of standing around, we came up with some actions which make it bit more interesting. When we get to the chorus we start to clap our hands and stamp on the floor. 

Overall, a short-term target for myself from this week is when we come back from half term I would like to be able to sing one of the parts in Seasons of Love confidently, therefore to ensure this happens I will make sure I know and learn the lyrics.

A long-term target will be to improve my characterisation over the half term for School Song for the showcase on the 5^thof march. Improving my characterisation should make the performance look better and intrigue the audience more. To ensure I am positive with what character I am playing and that I’m playing it well, when rehearsing this song at home in my own time I will be thinking about my characterisation.  

Monday 25th February

This week we all started off as a group doing a warm up around the piano, we repeated sounds such as la and fa in the C major scale. Warm up such as this help’s warm up our voices to prevent us from getting a strained voice. 

We then moved onto the song 'nothing like a dame' ready for the showcase on the 5th of March. With this song we learnt how to pronounce the accent of a South American accent clearly and well, this took time, determination and initiative, however we got there in the end. We were all singing loud and clear while doing the appropriate actions, however a few minor things occurred such as spacing, we figured out that we were coming way too far forward which wasn't necessary, therefore we changed this, this was actually positive as therefore it took less time to walk across to the front. 

Finally, occasionally people would break out of character which was an issue, in order for this performance to be successful we must stay in character. To make sure I stay in character I will practice a few facial expressions in my own time. 

We then moved onto 'seasons of love', we ran through this song a couple of times trying to figure out the harmonies at the end of the song. We concluded that we would finish on the relative minor of the song which is D Minor. We also discussed how we would stand and if we would need any actions for the showcase. In the end we all decided to stand in a curved line so that everyone was seen clearly. Finally, we all agreed that it would be a good idea to add a few actions, when we get to the chorus of the song we will step and click in time to the song. This worked well and made the song a bit more fun and interesting. 

We then finished the lesson with rehearsing 'school song' a few times taking it in turns with the other group. We gave feedback to each other, for example some feedback we got was that we need to work on characterisation, people in our group aren't very sure of what kind of character they are playing. A target I will set is to make sure I understand what sort of character I am playing and how they are feeling at the time. Therefore, this will help me when performing as I will know my intensions and how I am trying to come across to the audience. 

Tuesday 26th February 

In today’s lesson we purely focussed on school song, we got into our costumes that we bought which consist of white shirts, leggings or skirts, ties and also some sensible black shoes. My costume allowed myself to get into character and feel like the part. Getting into our costumes took longer than expected, therefore we did not have time to do a proper warm up, this could have been dangerous, however I will make sure that before I go onto stage I am warmed up properly as I do not want to injure myself, vocally or physically. 

After we had run through this song, we got some feedback from our teacher and other students. Some of the feedback included that we lack characterisation in the Physical education section, characterisation is hugely important when performing, it allows the audience to understand the performance and also makes the performance looks better in general. Another valid point the other group made was that we rush into the end section of the song, this is the part where we kneel at the front in lines. When we rush into this part we are sitting there for a few seconds doing nothing, we could be doing something else in this time we have. during this part of the lesson I learnt how to use my initiative as we solved the problem where everybody wasn't doing anything for a few seconds. 

After each groups had each run through their performance a few times and given feedback we went off into our groups and we added some last- minute choreography to clean up the sections we got feedback on. We decided to lift our right then left fists in the air on the beat as we sing the sound 'eh'. We then crossed both hands over and tilting our heads over to the left mimicking chopping off their heads. Adding last minute choreography could have been risky as there is a chance someone could forget however I learnt to pick things up quickly to improve my performance.  

Monday 4th March 

In this lesson we had the pianist with us today, this was very helpful as we had an opportunity to rehearse with him before the show tomorrow. He gave us many pointers on how we could improve, which were helpful. 

For this lesson we started off with a few vocal warm ups, we started off with the 1121 song which helps us with our diction. We did this a few times each time going up a key. 

After this we moved straight onto our pieces we will be performing in the show tomorrow. We sang through 'Nothing like a Dame' without any actions just, so we could focus on the vocal aspects of things, this helped me understand and comprehend any vocal feedback the pianist was willing to give to us. However there was a problem, when we finished singing 'Nothing like a Dame' through the first time the pianist told us that we were all singing it in the wrong key to how its written on the score, however we were just singing it how it was comfortable for us all, this was because its either way too high or either way too low, so therefore we just adjusted the key to where it was comfortable for us all. However, we did have to change this, this was risky as the showcase was the next day however we weren't being assessed on it. Fortunately, it did work for us all it was just a bit inconvenient and hard to project our voices as it was quite high. I decided that I would be more comfortable singing an octave lower so that's what I did, however I was unable to project my voice the way I wanted to. However, the fact that some people were singing low and others singing higher created a natural harmony. This part of the lesson taught me to be initiative, positive and persistent when change occurs during rehearsals. After just focusing on the vocal aspects of things, we added the actions, taking what we have just learnt about the singing aspect of things on board and incorporating it with the choreography was ok and we didn't have much to improve on as it was good. However, one thing we must not do on the night of the showcase is to break out of character, this is very important as we don't want the audience to be distracted and loose interest. Overall this piece went well, we projected our voices well and good characterisation at certain points.     

After this we moved onto 'seasons of love', this was successful as we didn't need to make many changes. This lesson we focused on the harmonies, there was a small issue as some people were singing the wrong harmony, however in the end we all resolved this, this required the skill of resilience as it took time to get past this point. The actions to this song was good as we did this last lesson, it made the song and performance in general look more professional. 

We then moved onto 'school song', we spent most of the lesson perfecting this as its the piece we are all being assessed on in tomorrow’s showcase, therefore we ran through this piece a couple of times each. We focussed on the singing aspects of things mainly as it was our singing lesson and our singing teacher was teaching us, however this did not mean that we would not put 100% effort into the choreography also. Having the pianist made us aware of the accompaniment and also gave us a good judgment if whether we need to be louder as the piano is fairly loud and you can't change that. After going through the piece, the first time we came to a realisation that the piano was heard over our voices, so this meant we had to project our voices much more. When performing this song for the second time I was concentrating on my breath control as this song requires a lot of breath, this is because there are so many words to be sung in such a short amount of time, I made sure I took large breaths in when I got to the part that is very fast, " you listen here". Taking large amounts of breath allows me to sing loud, clear and also let a lot of words out in a short amount of time. 

Lastly when going through the song for the second time I also focussed on using good menacing facial expressions to make my performance stand out. Having good facial expressions allows the audience to understand and it also generally makes the performance look better. 

SHOW DAY 

This lesson was our last opportunity to rehearse for the showcase tonight. Therefore, we all had to put lots of effort into the rehearsals, we made sure we were all wearing clothing we could move in, no jewellery and our hair was up. We all had our costumes for 'school song', I just wore black leggings, a long-sleeved school shirt, a tie and some black shoes which were comfortable to dancing and move about in. 

In this rehearsal we didn't change an awful lot, we mainly just focused on making sure everything was ready and perfect.

We started off with a similar warm up to yesterday’s lesson, this allowed our vocal cords to be warmed up and ready, this will ensure no injuries occur such as straining of the voice. This session we did not have time to do a warm up as we had so much to get through. This could have caused some injuries, however I made sure I was all warmed up before my actual performance as this was have been a problem if I was to hurt myself during the showcase.    

A few things we focused on included cleaning up the west side story dance as it had been a long time since we had done it, during this part of the lesson we covered a few important skills we must keep in mind, first of all spatial awareness, in this dance there are a lot of people on the stage at once, we must be aware of who is around as we don't want to get injured. During the rehearsal, the opponent I was fighting in the performance got kicked in the head by someone’s leg, luckily the girl was ok, but it makes you realise that you should be cautious of your proxemics. We also looked briefly at characterisation and facial expression, we use these skills to show our character and what their intensions are within the performance. 

Finally, we looked at emphasis, while dancing it was crucial to be able to give a strong performance in the dance as the whole piece is based around a dance fight. Putting emphasis on the performance will show more power and also will give the audience a clear idea on the relationship of the two gangs. 

I would like to be able to show these three skills through my performance clearly and effectively, this will show to the audience that I have understood these skills well. 

Something we did not look at during this part of the lesson was facial expressions, this will be a target I will set myself for tonight, when performing this piece I feel like I could improve my facial expressions, at the moments I feel like I am thinking about what is coming next in the dance and I don't want the audience to notice or think that when I am performing, if I look more relaxed and enhance my facial expressions the audience should not notice this. 

We then ran through 'seasons of love' a few times with the pianist which was much better than yesterday, the harmonies and projection was all very good, we were all heard over the piano which was positive. However, I find it hard to project my voice at the start of the song as I find it is too high for chest voice, therefore, before I do this song, I will take myself off into a practice room and just practice singing these few lines in chest voice. However, if I cannot do this I will not stress about it as we can all be heard, therefore, it's not a big deal. 

Finally, we rehearsed 'school song' as much as we could as its the piece we are being assessed on and it’s the most important. A few things I personally focussed on when running through it in full costume was really emphasising every movement. An example of a moment where I must emphasis a specific action is the first use of the blocks. I am the first person to show a block, which is the letter A. I will try and put emphasis and energy into this, so I am able to grab the audience’s attention with the use of props. 

I also focussed on my breath control and projection, I must ensure I am as loud as I can be as one of the people in our group is unwell, she has a bad throat so therefore she will not be able to project her voice to the full potential she can, this means I will have to be even louder so the audience can understand what we are saying, hopefully we can be heard over the piano. I also must pay attention to the amount of air I am breathing in, I don't want to run out of breath as this could mean I am not heard. 

Over the past few weeks I have been upping the amount of times I've been attending the gym, this means my stamina should have increased as I've been increasing my cardio, I have defiantly noticed a difference, I am not losing my energy as fast as I was before. Normally by the end of the performance I would be out of breath and struggling to fully project my voice, however these recent rehearsals of 'school song' have been much easier. 

My final blog post will be an evaluation of my live performance of 'School Song' from the musical Matilda on the 5th of March at the showcase in front of a live audience.

Overall, I think my performance of ‘School Song’ by Matilda went very well, first of all I will be talking about the dance aspect of things. I will be addressing the skills I thought I had shown during my performance and also some skills I could have improved on.

Firstly, I thought I used emphasis and projected my movements well and clearly, my dancing was high in energy throughout the whole performance, which in my opinion came down to my stamina improving throughout the process of rehearsing for this song. I set a few targets for myself throughout the weeks which was to improve my stamina so the whole performance was full of energy, I said that I would do this by attending the gym more and doing cardio more often, this is what I have been doing leading up to the performance. During the live performance I defiantly noticed a difference, during the last moments of the performance I noticed how I wasn’t as out of breath compared to a few weeks ago where I was struggling to sing due to me being out of breath. By my movements being sharp, clean and powerful I was able to intimidate the audience successfully, especially at the beginning of the song where the big kids sing “and so you think you’re able” the choreography that matches those words was very strong and powerful. 

Secondly, I think that the choreography had improved well, a few weeks ago I set a few targets to ensure the choreography was cleaned up as there was a particular moment (“I have suffered in this jail”) where a few people were unsure on what to do, this began to look messy therefore I took this problem and mentioned it to the rest of the group, we were therefore able to resolve this problem. We added a few other movements that intimidated the audience even further. 

Finally, I was aware of the accompaniment, I was able to keep in time with the pianist playing, I showed to the audience that I had understood the skills of rhythm, tempo and timing.

Overall, I have defiantly noticed that my musicality has improved over the few weeks and that I’ve shown a development in my dancing skills as the year has gone on.   

However, a few things I noticed that could have been improved in the dancing aspect of things was that, I could have been more intimidating when running forward with my arms out, I could have made my movements at that point a bit more sharp, I noticed that as the performance went on my choreography I thought got a bit lazy, I was too focussed on my acting skills, getting the words right and making sure I was being heard. Finally, I noticed that there was a couple of times where we did speed up, however this was a very small and minor issue, I do not think the audience noticed and our group got control of it as we handled it well and eventually got back into time. 

Next, I will be talking about the skills I had shown successfully and also not so successfully in the singing side of things. 

Overall, I personally think that my projection was very good in the live performance, when watching the performance back I could hear every bodies voices equally loud and clear. I noticed that I was also loud and clear despite the dancing and fast tempo, at certain points in the song I could hear myself. I think that throughout the performance I had good breath control, doing the diaphragmatic breathing exercises nearly every lesson really benefitted the control I had on my breath, this meant that I was able to produce more sound due to more air in my diaphragm. Therefore, I felt that I had good projections so that the audience was able to hear me. I noticed that the pianist was playing the accompaniment a little bit slower than the backing track, this allowed us to get our words out, this meant we were able to project more. However, when watching the performance back I did notice that the volume and projection did get quiet and loud at certain points during the performance, to make sure this does not happen in the future I will do more diaphragmatic breathing exercises and also improve my stamina even more.

I also thought that I put good emphasis on particular words such as, the ‘g’ in ‘energy’. However, I still feel like I could have put even more emphasis on particular words to really exaggerate the performance. For example, when I say “why” both times I could have put more emphasis on them to really exaggerate and intrigue the audience. 

Finally, I will be talking about the last aspect of my performance which is drama skills. Overall, I feel like this performance showed good, consistent characterisation skills throughout, this was because I had understood and took a lot of time developing my character, I portrayed who my character was by using facial expressions, in my opinion I feel like I could have emphasised my facial expressions a little bit more, I kept my facial expressions the same throughout, I switched between an angry, intimidating face and also a sarcastic face. When watching my performance back I noticed that I broke out of character slightly when I sung the words “like you I was curious” as this bit is very high, I struggled to sing this part with full projection so therefore I was focussing on that, this meant I broke character a small amount, however this was the only time I did this. Another positive thing I did was made eye contact with the audience, breaking the forth wall allows the audience to feel like they are part of the performance, it’s also an effective way of making the audience uncomfortable and maybe scared. This was one of my targets in one of the weeks, to make eye contact with the audience, which I successfully did. 

When watching the performance back I noticed that I didn’t make much contact with the little kids, I felt like I could have interacted with them and shown some sort of relationship with them by pulling their hair and or shoving them. This would have made my performance much better. 

    

A few other positive and negative points include the use of props and costumes, I personally think that the use of blocks and props kept the audience engaged as it created a hectic atmosphere which could have represented or been a metaphor for a child's mind. 

I also think that the contrast in costumes of the little and big kids was effective, the big kids with the much scruffier costumes and the little kids with their neat, well done up ties shows a difference between the two and gives the audience a good idea of their status. 

Throughout the performance I believe I was spatially aware throughout, at one point one of my peers did get hurt, however not badly, a girl in one of my performances was very close to this other girl and happened to have kicked her in the face, luckily she is ok, if she had been specially aware this wouldn't of happened, because of this happening in the west side story dance it made me aware of it possibly happening in the school song. 

I made sure I wore clothes that I was comfortable in, such as leggings and a shirt that was not too small or large. I wore comfortable trainers that I was able to dance and move about in also. 

Before I went on stage I made sure I did some light stretches and vocal warm ups to ensure I wouldn't injure myself, this meant I was able to perform to the best of my ability.   

Overall, I believe my performance was successful, I believe me being persistent in rehearsals influenced this, I was well disciplined, well focussed, arrived on time and was organised to my lessons. 

I will now be setting a few future targets for myself, I will be setting these to improve my performances in the future, these targets include:

-  Being more confident in rehearsals, this means contributing and giving more ideas to the group. I feel like a gave a few useful points, however I felt as if I could have contributed more. As a musical theatre performer, it’s very important to have good ideas you are able to contribute to the group.

-  In my performance I used good facial expressions, however, I could have used them more to express my angry and vexation towards the little kids. Using good facial expressions will intrigue the audience more and make the performance look generally better. 

-  Although my stamina and my breath control has improved hugely by attending the gym more often and undertaking in warm ups nearly every lesson, there is still room for improvement. I noticed in my performance that my energy dipped towards the end, having good stamina as a musical theatre performer is essential as we must undertake in all three elements, singing, acting and dancing.  

-  One thing that didn’t occur much in my performance was I didn’t have much interaction with the other performers, in my future performances I will make sure I am interacting with all the other performers.