Friday 22nd May

Today we did a run through of "Little Red Riding Hood" and worked out the plot and the scenes for "Jack and the Beanstalk." So far the only part we have worked out is the opening. We then worked on improving the small scenes and worked out how we would do the other parts like Jack going underneath the Giants door. I think that this could possibly be the most interesting one to all of the kids.

Thursday 21st May

Today worked on our charecters. This was mostly for the ensemble charecters so they'd know why they'd be like when being on the street and making sure that they stay in character. I decided I would be a homeless person. This is the profile I made for him:

Age: 20

Job: None

Family: Alcoholic dad after the mum died

Mental state: paranoid about life

He reads the same newspaper as he can't afford to get a new one. He is hopeful that one day he will get a job and get money. He never went to a hoo but wants to be a florist which is why he hangs round Mushik's store. 

Tuesday 19th May

Today we worked on what Goldilocks will say when she is in front of the curtain. I'm getting worried about this silhouette idea that we are doing. I feel like that we need more practice to perfect it. I think that the kids won't understand what the shapes are because they are rushed and they don't always look like the object that we are creating. As much as I think this, I think that we should stick with this idea because we don't have long before our performance and we still have to do another story yet. I feel like if we changed it now, it would look even more rushed.

We so had a few minutes at the end to start on our next story that was Jack an the Beanstalk. We started on the opening part and I think that so far that it's looks really good and will be more engaging than Goldilocks.

Monday 18th May

Today we did the finale song, we set  n and worked out the basic movement to the song. I think that this looks good but I don't like that the bows are with this song. I feel like that it's quite irrelevant to the song and that we should do a separate curtain call like they do in the actual show. We then started to put a bit of choreography to the dentist song. Although that we finished the song, it definitely needs to be polished a lot so that it looks much better than it does now. The choreography needs to be clean and our expressions need to cheesy, over the top and funny

Thursday 14th May

Today we decided to block the secound act dialogue today. This made us more aware of everything that everybody does in the secound act. We then did the finale, even though we haven't finished it, I think that it looks reallhy good. The only part that I don't like is the fact that the curtain call isn't seperate to the song "Don't feed the plants." I think that they should do seperate curtain call music of the title song like they normally do in the professinal show in all of the productions.

Tuesday 12th May

Today, I missed most of the lesson due to the exam but as a class we had decided how we was going to set Jack and the Beanstalk. We decided that for the Beanstalk, we could use the tower that we use for the lighting but make sure we would cover it with green vines to make sure it looks like a beanstalk.

We then got plans for our performance area. We plan for our silhouette sheet to go at the back and make it easily roll forward with the beanstalk and other props round the side making it easy to move into the performance space. Also, our audience will be in a semi-circle aswell to make so that they feel like they are part of the action with us.

Tuesday 12th May

Today we ran the songs and dialogue that we have done. This gave us to basically run the show up to what we know and what we have done. This shows that the show is really taking shape and that every part we have done is now in sequence and the transitions go into each scene really smoothly and it now runs smoothly. I do think that I need to go over spme of the lyrics of the song just to make sure tht I definately know them.

Monday 11th May

Today we went through all of the songs that we know and did it including all of the dialougue and changed a couple of parts of the dialogue. We then set "closed for renovation." I think that it was really good because most of it is only movement orientted an I think that this suits the number really well as it doesn't need to be  massive dance number as I don't think that it's that type of song. We also ran all of the songs and scenes that we have done so far. I think that the show is now taking real shape and that it looks good and I think that the show will be very enjoyable to watch. My target for next lesso  is to make sure I remember closed for renovation and go over lyrics for the other songs.

Friday 8th May

Today, we continued to work on Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We decided that to create a realistic looking bowl, it would be better if we cut a bowl shape out of a piece of card. By doing this, it will make the silhouette more clear to the kids making it more suitable for our target audience.

We also decided that we would need a narrator so that the kids would understand what is going on so we thought we would have Freya who is playing Goldilocks to narrate what is going on in front of the curtain when she isn't behind the curtain. She will then interact with the children in front of the screen so we can still communicate with the audience so we can use audience interaction using another technique.

Our original plan was to go to Primary School's around our local area to perform our piece but we thought it would be easier if they came to us and we just performed it at our school as we would have all the equipment (i.e lighting) to use aswell.

I think that the silhouette is a good idea but because of the age of our audience, they could be bored and confused as they might not know what is going on. Also, as we have only just started so it may not look that good as it's very easy to go wrong as even if we're slightly off with our positioning, it could look rubbish.

I think that it would help that we have a running order for each scene of the silhouette so that everyone is confident in what they are doing.

Silhouette Research

In this clip we can see that the shadow group "attraction" telling the story about a family in the army. I really like how they decide to do the transitions. I think they are really smooth and it's something that we should definitely use in our piece so that our story is clear and so the kids don't get lost. I also like the way that they use different distances from the light to make smaller and taller people. This was well used when they made the child. I liked the way that the light sometimes changes to almost a spotlight on a particular part of the action. I'm not sure if we could use this because of the facilities that we have and also the type of story that we are doing.

I do think that instead of the music that they use over the top, we should use narration of the story. I think that we could use a pre-recorded voice of the story rather than have seen money come round the sheet to say it because this could be distracting to our audience and it would mean that we'd have one less person to be in the shadow.

YouTube Clip: https://youtu.be/CvQBUccxBr4

Thursday 7th May

Today we rehearsed all the numbers that we have done so far which is "Little Shop of Horrors", "Skidrow and "Da-Doo". We the. Did this again but inuded the dialogue as well as all of the songs.

We then cleaned all of the dances up but the singing in "Skidrow" wasn't good at all but I think that everyone needs to learn their words so that they can be more confident with the singing.

We also found out that everybody will alway be onstage meaning that we will all have more stage time.

Tuesday 5th May

Today we worked on the opening of the show by learning the choreography to the opening number-"Little Shop of Horrors." I found this number challenging but I think that I can do it with some practice. I feel that the choreographer (Dan) made the right decision by making the number have a lot of dance in it as it's the opening of the show and has to have the wow factor so we entertain the audience straight away.

5th May

Today we worked on Silhouette and we have decided that we would do Goldilocks and the Three Bears. When we first workshoped this, I didn't think that we would actually use this as a technique because I thought that because we only have a limited time to rehearse, it would take us a long time to rehearse. This is also another technique so we can vary all of our techniques rather than keep using the same ones.

We started to do a copy of our silhouettes today. The first one we did was the forest. This involved two trees that are both made up of 3 people and then two people with their hands and fingers creating grass on the ground. We used multiple people to make these objects to make them larger and to have more branches for the trees, and have more blades of grass and it makes it look less human aswell.

We then created other objects like a chairs and tables with people bending and sitting in multiple positions. I find that the more flexible that you are, the more versatile you are when it comes to actually making these objects and you can bend into more positions.