WWRY - Singing With The Band

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

This was the first rehearsal that we spent singing through all of the music with the band compared to just the piano or a backing track. Because we were using our voices for a long period of time, before we started the lesson with a vocal warm up t make sure that no one would strain their voice especially this close to the show, we did exercises such as scales in different keys and tongue twisters, this helped me reach the lower notes in my songs that i am not used to singing and usually find challenging. During the larger ensemble songs
i worked on making sure that i am performing as part of a group rather than lots of soloists. For example in one vision, we were working heavily on timing especially for the section where the lyrics split and one half sings one line followed by the other half singing the next, at first this was challenging. However after moving past this i we were able to listen to each other so that everyone knew what was happening, to be able to successfully rehearse and perform these kind of songs there needs to be a mutual respect for everyone in the cast, one example of this is taking on a responsibility of learning all song words (and dance movement). I find these rehearsals much easier once i know all of a song as i don't feel pressured to pick it up last minute and risk letting down the cast, therefore i am grateful that i spent time individually learning the lyrics and melody for this song before rehearsing it with the band and other performers. On the other hand when rehearsing smaller ensemble songs such as I want it all, Headlong and Crazy little thing called love, i found that other skills such as showing communication during the song was more prominent compared to respect for each other, this because when working in a larger group it is more likely that you do not know all of the cast members as well and therefore do not necessarily know how they work best in a rehearsal environment. My performance communication with the other actors i am performing with has definately improved, i have noticed this especially in Crazy little thing called love as me and Liv are a lot more comfortable interacting with each other to portray our relationship to the audience. Because i am double cast and my character dies at the end of the first half the songs i perform have different characters singing them for example the smaller ensemble songs i am Britt and the larger i am playing either a yuppie or a gaga, i think i portray these different characters well. One example of this is that during the gaga songs i am very robotic and synthetic in my movements and facial expressions etc, however in my Britt songs i am a lot more free and improvised this shows the contrast in the two sides of Planet Mall.

What am I finding challenging?

I found that in this rehearsal, because there was the whole cast plus the band, people were getting easily distracted and quickly losing focus, i noticed this most in One Vision when the lyrics split into two groups, because this was challenging, some people in the group were not being respectful and were doing things that would distract others. This was something very difficult to move past as it was difficult to keep an open mind when things are not working out greatly, however because we were very determined to get this done so we could move on to other things that needed working on, collectively we were able to work through this and successfully rehearse this song to a good standard. Although i have spent time learning crazy little thing called love i am still struggling with the lyrics, this is the first time we have sung through this and neither of us are completely sure on what we were doing, because this composition is slightly different from the original both of us need to spend more time going over this before the performance. In addition to this because this was the first band rehearsal we found that the tempo was slightly off in some songs, which created issues as the singers were either singing too slow or too fast to keep in time with the music, however this then meant that the song didnt sound right.

What did I learn this lesson?

This rehearsal has proven to me that a mutual respect for each other is incredibly important so that you work through things at a good pace. This allows you to be open minded about other peoples ideas and be able to listen and be willing to help others who may not pick things as fast as others. As you gain mutual respect you can begin to do things for others as well as yourself, one example of this is making sure you learn all of your lines and lyrics so that rehearsals can run smoother.

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

I think in this rehearsal my peer support was effective throughout, for example when we were going through songs, if the tempo was either too fast or too slow, i was able to communicate this to the musical director when needed. This helped the overall group performance as we were able to correct this ready for the final performance, as the musical director was then able to feedback to the drummer who kept the beat and rhythm for the music.

How could our performance and preparation have been improved?

I could have improved our preparation by making sure i was 100% sure on all lines and song lyrics, this would have made the rehearsal for Crazy little thing called love more effective, for my next rehearsal i am going to be more responsible and show my respect for my other ensemble members.