WWRY - I Want It All

What character work and vocal skills/performance skills have I applied, to give an effective group performance? Explain.

This rehearsal was spent focusing on the vocals for this song, this is because it is the first time Meat and Brit sing and therefore this is a first impression of their characters. Because they are very rocky characters we need to make sure that our vocals are strong and powerful top help show the characters personality. This means that i should project my voice as much as possible and belt rather than using a softer tone of voice, this is to provide a contrast between the bohemians and the GaGas that the audience will easily understand. To further add to the performance we have been experimenting with different staging ideas, we have decided that i am going to sing the first first on the staging blocks to Liv and then we are going to go out into the main stage area where we are going to interact with the audience as well as each other, this also shows how confident these characters are. Me and Liv have been working on our communication with each other during the performance, we are supposed to be a couple and we need to show this, we have been rehearsing this song making sure we have eye-contact throughout the performance and have constant interactions reinforcing that we are singing this to each other.

What am I finding challenging?

I am not used to singing songs like this so this was a challenge for me to so something so different, the song is very low for me and so getting used to singing at this pitch is difficult, however i have been practicing this individually and therefore i think i have improved and i still have rehearsal time to be ready for the performance. Because this song is challenging for me i am also finding it challenging to perform this confidently to show off my characters personality, i am constantly thinking about my vocals rather than my overall performance, however i think the more i rehearse this and the more i will feel comfortable about it and then i will be able to work on this more.

What did I learn this lesson?

Even though i knew the song, this was the first time i have sung it through with both the piano and Liv, therefore i am now completely familiar with the timing and pitching, even though i have things i need to work on, knowing the basics allows me to be able to work on this individually and make progress.

How effective was my peer support and communication skills for the benefit of the group performances?

As this is a duet me and Liv had the rehearsal together, this went really well, i think we communicated well, this meant that we were patient with each other and gave each other time and support when needed. For example at the end of the song the timing and pitching changes, at first this took some time to get right and we were both struggling with the melody, however neither of us gave up and we were determined to get it right. After the rehearsal we both felt this was effective and we can both work together to achieve what we want for the final performance, this is because we can work together well and communicate effectively. Neither of us have any issues trying out new things in front of each other, this allows us to be able to experiment with staging and choreography without judgement, creating an effective and efficiently working musical ensemble.

How could our performance and preparation have been improved?

Before our next rehearsal i need to work on my individual performance, i need to become more familiar with my vocals and therefore i will be able to perform this better. Some of my performance is a little wooden and stiff and i want to bee more confident and comfortable in my performance to show off my character effective. I really want top perform this character, showing that she has attitude and she doesnt care what anyone thinks of her, this song is the perfect opportunity to do this.

WWRY - Bohemian Rhapsody

What character work and vocal skills/performance skills have I applied, to give an effective group performance? Explain.

In this rehearsal we have been experimented with different harmonies that would work well in this musical ensemble, as well as this because everybody knows the song therefore we didnt have to spend time learning the words/melody, this allowed us to work on performance and character. This is really important as this is the last song of the show, so it needs to be big finale, to allow is to do this we have tried out different positions that would allow everyone in the audience to have maximum view. Im glad this is something we considered as we are using a different type of staging and audience view is something that needs to be though about. For example orignally we had groups of people standing in different places in the middle of the space and the main characters on the staging, this was thought with the idea that as well as being different to anything in the rest of the show, all of the audience could see at least some of the company. The original idea was that each group had a section of chorus to sing, however we changed this to the company standing together in a semi-circle at three different levels. This decision was made so that everyone in the audience can see everybody, then to add extra impact everyone sings all of the chorus lines, this helped us achieve what we wanted, which was to make the ending song the most powerful to end the show. Also because of this i need to make sure that i am fully projecting to help achieve a big impact, i think that although i am doing this, i can improve this more to give an overall performance. Something else we have been working on as a company is to use character to seperate Bohemian Rhapsody into the different sections. For example when Killer Queen comes on we all improvise movement that resembles a rock concert, this is the loudest and biggest part of the song, creating a contrast to the ending where we return to our original positions and everything is a lot calmer. I think i am doing this well and as an ensemble this looks really effective and keeps the audience engaged.

What am I finding challenging?

Trying to work out the different harmonies and timing for this song was extremely challenging. Part of this is because everybody knows the song so well, its easy to get carried away and just sing the melody line instead of sticking to our harmonies, i found this especially on the line "Biezibub has a devil put aside for me, for me, for me", however we spent time going through this slowly with the piano and once we had beocme more familiar it sounded really good. 

What did I learn this lesson?

After this rehearsal everyone in the company knows all of the song and choreography, meaning that we can now spend the rest of the rehearsal process working on performance skills, this is helpful to our process as we want to give the best performance possible and having time to be able to work on this will help us achieve this. I now know the harmonies well and feel i can confidently sing this in the real performance, this is something i struggled with and so i am happy with my progress, harmonies is something that i often find challenging so this was something that i had to spend time working on to be able to sing it confidently.

How effective was my peer support and communication skills for the benefit of the group performances?

Experimenting with harmonies was something that took time as everyone in the cast is involved. This means that everyone in the company needed to be patient and co operative. I think this is something i did well, when things go wrong i kept focus, this is something that i have got better at, it is easy to get distracted when things dont go to plan but i think this project has helped me develop from this. Because this show is heavily focused on ensemble numbers, i have had a lot of practice working on ensemble skills such as this. When everyone keeps their focus up it allows the whole process to move quicker, as an ensemble we were collectively focused, and although this was a long process, it would have been longer if members of the company were messing around. In addition to this everyone was willing to try out new things, even if they were challenging, i found that this helped strengthen the group as a whole and allowing us to be able to move forward with the rest of our rehearsals. 

How could our performance and preparation have been improved?

I thought this rehearsal went really well and everyone was focused enough to be able to achieve a lot, something that could be improved on is that i think collectivley we need to be more open to other suggestions. For example when cast members suggest things we should be more willing to try things out, although at this stage because we are quickly approaching show week, we need to not let this affect how we work together as an ensemble. 

WWRY Rehearsals - Introducing Year 12s

In this rehearsal we were running the show whilst slotting in year 12s to become ensemble performers for the bigger numbers. We started with Radio GaGa, because we are double casted we have to run each of these bigger numbers twice to make sure that everyone knows where they are, and what they are doing. Although this could become repetitive it was helpful for the year 12s as they got twice the oppertunity to be able to pick up choreography and learn staging. Firstly we went through movement slower to make sure that everyone was caught up, this went well as all of the year 13s knew it and were willing to go through it with those who were less confident. When doing this it is important to be patient with each other, as people have different ways and methods of leaning new things and being able to have the chance to work through things in this much detail and i think that this will pay off in the final performances.

However when we were rehearsing Killer Queen, the year 12s had spent time rehearsing this without us and therefore we were unsure of what we were doing, this meant that we had to decide who was going to be in this number. We started by going through the cast list and working out who could be in the dance bearing in mind costume changes and the time that person had before being in another scene. Once we had done this we started experimenting with movements that would compliment the year 12s but without distracting the audience away from it. This is because we felt as though it was important for bigger ensemble numbers to look carefully put together and not look as though we have just put lots of people on stage for no reason.

On the other hand, when we were going through the ogre battle scene, we all had to work together as we were choreographing this together. This meant that we had to listen to each other, although our director, Kim had the main idea of what she thought would be great for this scene, it was important that we shared other ideas that may improve it. For this scene i think that focus is really important because the speed of movement changes and we need to make sure that we are all doing the same speed at the same time. For example if we were not working together well it could work out that some cast members were moving fast and the other slow, in particular for this scene it looks more effective and dynamic to all be doing the same thing. When working on the last scene at the seven seas of rye we found that it was hard to keep the energy levels up, this is because it requires all bohemians on stage, and it has a large amount of dialogue where the ensemble characters are in the background. Although the bohemians are not talking they are what the scene is about so it is really important that everyone stays in character. When blocking this i found that we had to be very determined to get to the end as it was a very slow process, this also requires a high level of creativity and although it can be challenging to keep this up, it helps keep the whole cast positive, which i think is an important factor of a working musical ensemble.

FREELANCE (Legal, Financial and Contractal)

Public liability insurance

From this video i learnt briefly what public liability insurance, as well as who needs it any why you need it. Although this told me what it was i felt as though it was not enough information and i needed to research it more in depth. I didn't realise that if you were self employed that this would be something that is needed very highly recommend to have, this is because if there is anyone who was injured by anything concerned with your business, you would be able to claim on your insurance and  only have to pay the excess of the premium compared to paying the full claim which would be incredibly expensive. For example if an audience member was to be injured by a piece of set/props etc and wanted compensation, the freelance worker wouldn't need to worry too much about how much they would have to pay out. I think this is something that any freelance worker should obtain, it isn't too expensive and therefore affordable at around £60 a year, personally i believe that it isn't wise to avoid paying for this.

Actor contract law

From this presentation i learnt what an actors agreement was - when you accept the job (find out what you get paid (legally around £18-(Equity) an hour for actors)/hours/advertisement etc). Although you get paid for rehearsals you receive a lower around compared to performances. This is sometimes looked through by a lawyer just to check that everything is in order. There are some clauses that stop actors talking about anything about the release of that project, this is included into the contract, this means that if someone did release information they could face legal issues as they had signed a contract stating against it. I think that it is important to check through with a lawyer or solicitor, and they will be able to  explain anything you are unsure of and ensure that you are signing a contract that benefits you. I found to helpful to be able to see examples of real contracts, just to be able to see the different things that may be included and what is in each section.

Agents

Agents find you work and look out for casting and auditions, one example is united agents who's clients include those who have higher status in the industry as well as some young actors that are just starting out. Some successful international actors have agents in different countries to be able to look out for as many work opportunities as possible, i didn't know this was something that was common however, for example there are many American actors who have British agents as well as American. I found this presentation i didn't know what a co-operation was, this is a very good way of a finding work as a group of actors join together and this works like a agent. Members take turns dealing with the phone and advertisement, rather than just finding work for themselves, they find auditions and jobs for each other. This is why it is important that the group is very diverse so that they can cover the physical requirements for as many jobs as possible, for example if everyone in the cooperative was made up of actors that are all similar it would be hard to reach different things and it would be difficult to share out opportunities if everyone was similar.

Tax returns

From creating a presentation about tax returns i learnt that as a freelance worker the tax that you need to pay is not already taken out of the money you receive from a job, before this i just assumed that it would have already been taken out like any other type of employment. Therefore i found this useful, as well as this i briefly understood that if you are a freelance worker you need to keep all of your receipts to claim back the VAT however i didn't know much context about this. From researching it i was able to know that the only receipts you keep and give to an accountant is ones relevant to your business, i also wasn't aware of how many things were relevant to the business, for example i thought that only things such as paying accountants, however you can actually claim back anything from travel expenses to clothing that is associated to your performance. I wasn't aware that you had to register as your own business

Casting directors

This presentation told me about different types of casting directors including a prime example for film an tv. The Hubbards are known as the top casting directors in this field, they are brother and sister based in Covent Garden, Amy has worked on films like The Hobbit and Tv such Homeland, she has also won an Emmy for outstanding casting in 2002. Dan has casted for American films such as Tomb Raider, as well as casting for British productions they are also involved overseas. Musical theatre casting directors include David Grindrod and has worked on West End productions like Mama Mia, Matilda and Once, He is known as the "king of musical theatre". Jill Green is also a musical theatre director however she specilaises in transfers, for example she would arrange broadway performers to transfer over to the West End, she has worked on productions such as Kinky Boots, Jersey Boys and Beautiful (A Carol King musical). I think it is important for actors to understand how casting directors work and the different types there are, if an actor was particularly looking for work in Musical Theatre, there wouldn't be much point in researching film and TV casting directors, however researching how musical theatre casting directors would be helpful as it may be possible to find out audition information.

Unions

A union is a democratic union of people who aim to make the working lives of their members better, each union has a different set of rules that they abide by. One example is Equity, to be able to apply you need to fill out an application and pay the subscription fee, to be eligible you need to have at least one of the following: Evidence or invoice from paid professional work, be a graduate form university or drama school, work outside of the UK or be a student at in a NQF level 2 course. The cost of this is a joining fee of £30 as well as a annual fee that is based on your annual income. Amnesty international work as a source for Equity, one example of something they have done is a stand up comedian in Burma who was illegally tortured for his "sour" taste in humor, they work with Equity to be able to help performers with any legal issues they may face, particularly overseas. I think that as a freelance performer it would be advisable to subscribe to this as it comes with a certain level of prestige and often shows agents and casting directors that someone is serious about their careers rather than just doing it for leisure. The Creative and cultural skills company provide creative opportunities for young people to work in the industry, this presentation only touched on this slightly, i wanted to find out a little more and so independently i found that they are a charity that provide masterclasses and courses for people who wish to work in the industry, They aim to provide employers with the knowledge of importance of creative skills in employers, they also wish to help support creative industries on a course of economic growth.

Book keeping

This presentation informed me about book keeping, which is the record of financial affairs in business either on a large or small scale bigger companies usually pay accounting businesses to sort this out for them, this is because they specialize in bigger financial affairs and therefore will be able to make sure is in order. However smaller companies or freelance workers would pay smaller accountant to check this as their financial affairs would be smaller and it wouldn't need someone who was extremely specialised. Freelance workers must keep all receipts, bank statements, invoices, payments and transactions etc of everything you are spending in one place so it is easy to access as by law you are able to claim back the VAT on things that are exclusively related to your business. The better you do this the more money you can claim back meaning you have more money to put towards your business. I found out that if you do not keep your books well it is east to lose control of your financial affairs and you may run out of money and may end up in large amounts of debt. I found that there are also some online services that can help you with taxes and book keeping, this may be more achievable to who may don't have enough money to pay for an accountant. As a self employed performer it is very important that you have a good knowledge about financial affairs as it is incredibility important to keep on top of it.

Another one bites the dust (Second rehearsal)

In this lesson we spent time refining each part of the dance, this is important so than for the performance everyone is in perfect time with each other and movements are sharp and precise. We made improvements like making sure that when we are marching that everyone is walking on the same arm and leg and when changing direction, it is a sharp movement. This is because the yuppies are very robotic characters and this type of movement helps emphasis this to the audience. Another thing we added was at the end, after we have twitched on the beat we completely shake on the floor as a ending climax. In this lesson i also worked on my characterisation, this is because in this song i think its important to have a variation, for some of the song we are supposed to be intimidating to Khashoggi however at the same time scared of Killer Queen. I need to work on varying these characteristics so that it is obvious who the yuppies are.

Another one bites the dust (first rehearsal)

In this lesson we started to choreograph for another one bites the dust, even though Bryleah had some initial ideas we were all able to contribute, which allowed us to put together the piece well. The yuppies are the ensemble and killer queen is singing the lead. We started in two lines either side of killer queen and marching to the beat of the music, this is because we are her servants and marching symbolises that she is royalty. she has a lot of power over us and therefore we show this by us doing anything she says and her having comp,late power over everyone. This is shown again when me and Emily take Khashoggi, killer queen then pushes us down and we all bow to her. The first time we did this we were all doing the same movement in unison, however we developed this by changing it to every other person going the same movement, so now it is alternate and looked much more developed. We then take him back and in pairs mirror three positions that would intimidate him, each pair changes, using different levels and directions, this was created by trying out different things in the mirror to see how things could be improved or needed to change to create the best tablo. Because of the contrast of these two movements, we are telling the audience that the yuppies do whatever the queen says because they are scared of her, this emphasises the power of her to the audience. The dance ends with the yuppies marching around the stage with killer queen gradually killing each of us, after running this a few times someone came up with the idea of having a twitch on the beat of the music, this worked really well, as everyone was in perfect time and it is something that i don't think audience will be expecting but it worked really well.

FREELANCE (Organisation skills ordit)

Organisation skills	Level of competence	Where and how I have developed this?
Replying to emails	Green	I am good at replying to emails as quickly as I can. I have my email accounts on my phone and check them at least twice a day, so I am able to keep up to date.
Time management	Amber/green	I am able to manage my time reasonably well most of the time, I am aware of my schedule and when my free time is. However sometimes I do not organise this free time to the best of my ability and this disrupts how I planned to spend it.
Organising myself within other people	Red	I am not very good at working in groups of people I am not used to working with, I need to work on accepting other people ideas and ways of working. Most of the time I like to take a leadership role, however I need to make sure that this works to my advantage rather than against. I much prefer to work by myself so I am not responsible for everyone one else, only myself.
Self discipline	Amber	I am able to work towards my goals, when I find thing that are a challenge I don’t often give up and I am able to work through them and overcome the issues.
Motivation	Amber	I find that I am good at coming up with a plan but I sometimes find it hard to stick to it and follow it through. I find I can be easily distracted and can be put off doing some things if there is a reason to avoid it.
Avoiding procrastination	Amber	If there is a task that I do not want to do, i often find myself tryign to find other things to do that aviod completing said task. I need to find strategies that help me stop doing this. If im able to improve on this i think that i will be able to finish things more efficiantly.
Commitment	Green	I am a commited person, i enjoy being involved in extra enrichment oppertunities and contributing into rehearsals.
Self awareness	Amber	Something i need to improve on is being aware of myself, this is because i need to know how and when different things and situations affect me and how to deal with this. As i improve on this i will be able to know when i need to take a step back and how to not things get to me as much.
Finding solutions to problems	Amber/green	I am able to find solutions to problems well, i can usually find a way to solve issues that occur. Even at first i cannot i can usually see a way to come through.
Acting on solutions to problems	Amber/green	Usually if i have found a way to improve a situation i am keen to act on this, this is because i dont like being stuck on something. I am usually quite determined and dont want to give up on something so i am willing to move thorugh things.
Prioritising	Green	I am good at priortising things well, i organise the timing of things based on how long i have to finish them, how long it will take to finish as well as what resources i need to complete it. Some things take priority over ohters, for exmpla hwn i find out performance and rehearsal dates i have to make sure that i am booked off from work.
Accepting responsibility	Red	personally i need to work on accepting responsibilty, this will help me move on form things that i dont need to spend time worrying about and spemd more time on things that need more focus.
Creating a balance	Amber	I could be better at creating an eqqual balence between different thinngs i have going on. For example i need to spend more tme on my theory work rather than just practical, this is so i make sure that i dont lose mark just because i didnt leave enough time to complete eveything that needed doing.
Meeting deadlines and demands	Green	I am good about meeting deadlines, i have never needed extensions, this is good because i feel it is very important to keep on top of things and make sure they are in on time. This has helped me make sure everything is done, i feel better when i know when each deadline is in advance as i dont like rush working right up to the last minute.
Keeping calendars	Green	I am good about booking rehearsals and knowing when they are in advance so that i do not book anything that can contrast witht it. This is good as i am genrally an organised person which is something i naturaly do, i find this very helpful.
Social network	Amber	I have started a professionla instagram account, whihc i post regulary on, however i think i can improve on this more.
Self-discipline	Amber	I need to work on keeping my focus on things and making sure that when i am working i am completely on task and do not get distracted so that i complete things quicker.