304- Performance prep.
This May, we are putting on a variety performance to raise money for our chosen charity, Paint Jamaica. "Paint Jamaica go to Developing Communities (inner cities) in search of a space they think they could enhance and uplift, in order to bring about positive change, through the use of power of art and colour to do this." The money raised through our performance will help the Paint Jamaica team to paint more murals and promote education. We have decided that a musical theatre variety performance is the most suitable platform for raising money for this charity as musical theatre as a genre has a very family friendly demographic and would therefore draw in a larger audience allowing us the best possible chance to raise as much money for this charity as possible.
Info about charity sourced from: http://www.tajtenfold.com/blog/2014/8/5/41-fleet-street-paint-jamaica
Task 1- Genre research
History of theatre:
MUSICAL THEATRE:
Key features:
- Acting- Narrative lead plots
- Songs- e.g.
-Ballads, which are usually slow, romantic and reflective.
-Comedy songs, which are funny, so the lyrics are very important.
-Production numbers, which involve the full company and are usually used to show major changes in location or plot, and often open and close acts.
-Rhythm songs often driven by energetic rhythm patterns.
- Dance- e.g.
-Ballet, classical style comprised of codified technique for example port de bras, adage and allegro.
-Tap, performed wearing shoes fitted with metal taps, characterised by rhythmical tapping of the toes and heels.
-Jazz, a style of theatrical dance performed to jazz or popular music, characterised by improvisation, syncopation, and usually a regular or forceful rhythm.
-Contemporary, Characterised by floorwork, use of the torso, breath etc.
Information sourced from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/music/music_20th_century/music_theatre1.shtml and Dictionary.com
Context:
Annie:
Annie is based upon the popular Harold Gray comic strip Little Orphan Annie, with music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and book by Thomas Meehan. The original Broadway production opened in 1977 and ran for nearly six years. It spawned numerous productions in many countries, as well as national tours, and won a Tony Award for Best Musical. The musical's songs "Tomorrow" and "It's the Hard Knock Life" are among its most popular musical numbers. The musical premiered in the West End at the Victoria Palace Theatre on 3 May 1978 and was revived at the same theatre, running from 30 September 1998 to 28 February 1999. UK tours of the show were also staged between 2001-2016. A West End revival began at the Piccadilly Theatre in London opening on 5 June 2017 (for a limited run until 6 January 2018, with Miranda Hart as Miss Hannigan until 17 September, The production was identical to the 2015–16 UK and Ireland tour. From 19 September, for a limited 10 week run, Craig Revel Horwood returned to the role of Miss Hannigan, reprising his role from the 2015–16 UK and Ireland tour. Due to phenomenal success at the box office, the production extended its limited run, with Meera Syal as Miss Hannigan from 27 November * ADD IN POINT ABOUT USING CELEBRITIES TO CREATE MORE INTEREST IN SHOWS
Facts sourced from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_(musical)
It's a hard knock life/ Little girls
Matilda:
Matilda The Musical is the multi-award winning musical from the Royal Shakespeare Company, inspired by the beloved book by the incomparable Roald Dahl. With book by Dennis Kelly and original songs by Tim Minchin, Matilda The Musical is the story of an extraordinary little girl who, armed with a vivid imagination and a sharp mind, dares to take a stand and change her own destiny. Winner of over 85 international awards, including 16 for Best Musical, Matilda continues to delight audiences in London, Australia and on tour around the USA.
Matilda The Musical is the multi-award winning musical from the Royal Shakespeare Company, inspired by the beloved book by the incomparable Roald Dahl. With book by Dennis Kelly and original songs by Tim Minchin, Matilda The Musical is the story of an extraordinary little girl who, armed with a vivid imagination and a sharp mind, dares to take a stand and change her own destiny. Winner of over 85 international awards, including 16 for Best Musical, Matilda continues to delight audiences in London, Australia and on tour around the USA.
Facts sourced from: https://www.birminghamhippodrome.com/calendar/matildathemusical/
When I grow up.
Calamity Jane:
Deadwood City's two most famous peace officers, Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickock, get involved in saving the neck of Henry Miller, the local saloon operator. It seems that "Millie" has been promoting a beautiful actress named Frances Fryer, but Frances turns out to be a boy, Francis. Millie's attempt to cover up is soon unmasked by the angry miners, and only Calamity can cool the crowd with her trusty pistols. To keep the peace, Calamity sets out for Chicago to bring back the miner's real heart-throb, Adelaide Adams. In Chicago Calamity mistakes Adelaide's maid, Katie Brown, for the actress and hauls her back to Deadwood. Onstage Katie is greeted warmly, but breaks down and confesses that she is not the famous star. Calamity once more has to restore order and persuades the audience to give Katie a chance. They do, and she wins the heart of every male in town including Calamity's dashing love hope, Lt. Danny Gilmartin. Calamity reluctantly overcomes her jealousy over losing Danny and discovers her true love for Wild Bill.
synopsis sourced from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calamity_Jane_(musical)
synopsis sourced from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calamity_Jane_(musical)
Windy city
Guys and Dolls:
In New York, the smalltime gambler Nathan Detroit has been eloping from getting married with his girlfriend Adelaide for fourteen years. Nathan needs one thousand dollars in advance to rent a place for the crap game but neither he nor his friends Nicely-Nicely Johnson and Benny Southstreet can afford. Nathan decides to bet against the gambler Sky Masterson, challenging him to have a dinner in Havana with a woman of his choice. Sky accepts the bet and Nathan chooses the prude Sergeant Sarah Brown, who runs a mission for sinners. Sky visits Sarah and invites her to have dinner with him in Havana; in return, he would bring one dozen sinners to the mission. Sarah refuses the deal, but when General Cartwright comes to New York to shutdown the mission, Sarah feels that the only chance to keep the mission operating is accepting Sky's invitation. They travel to Havana and fall in love with each other; but when they return to the mission, Sarah discovers that Nathan used the place for his crap game. Further, she believes that Sky has plotted the scheme to use her. Now Sky has to convince the gamblers and gangsters that arrived in New York to the crap game that they should go to the mission to help Sarah.
Synopsis sourced from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048140/plotsummary
Synopsis sourced from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048140/plotsummary
Sit down you're rocking the boat
Audition Prep:
I would also like to audition for the role of Sarah Brown as I don't feel that the role of Miss Adelaide suits me very well as she is a very lovey character who relies heavily upon her fiancée, Nathan. Therefore, I think that I would more effectively portray Sarah as she is obsessively mad about converting gambling sinners to saints and I can use exaggeration in both physicality and vocal to almost over-do this character in order to create humour. However, I can also use pauses and volume to show my disappointment in being ignored.
Song choice 1: Stay with me- Into the woods
I have chosen this song as it suits my vocal range and shows my vocal control as well as depicting a strong female character who, similarly to Matilda, doesn't fit in with those around her. It also has a crescendo that shows clear emotional distress like in Matilda's solo 'Quiet' in which she expresses her feelings of being overwhelmed by everything around her.
Song choice 2: Little people- Les Miserablés
I have chosen this song as it depicts a child role (Gavroche) in a modern musical and is high paced and energetic throughout. I believe that through this song I can present my ability to portray a child character through my vocals and physicality, and also show that I can maintain the energy levels of a younger character.
Monologue choice 1: Matilda Wormwood- Matilda
This monologue is performed at the beginning of the musical, in which she begins to tell a story that continues throughout the whole of the musical. It is basically her imagination of how her life could be better through this story.
Once upon a time, the two greatest circus performers in the world – an escapologist who could escape from any lock that was ever invented, and an acrobat who was so skilled it seemed as if she could actually fly – fell in love, and got married. They performed some of the most incredible feats together anyone has ever seen. And people would come from miles around: kings! queens! celebrities! and astronauts! But not just to see their skill, but also to see their love for each other, which was so deep that it was said that cats would purr as they passed them, and dogs would weep with joy.
The moved into a beautiful old house at the edge of town, and in the evenings, they would walk and take the air. And each night, the children of the town would wait in anticipation, hoping for a glimpse of the shiny white scarf that the acrobat always wore, for then they knew that they had only to cry, "Tricks! Tricks!" and the great performers would instantly oblige with the most spectacular show, just for them.
But although they loved each other, although they were famous and everyone loved them, they were sad.
Monologue choice 2: Sarah Brown – Guys and Dolls
Brothers and Sisters, resist the Devil and he will flee from you! That is what the Bible tells us, and that is why I am standing here, in the Devil’s own city on the Devil’s own street, prepared to do battle with the forces of evil. Hear me, you gamblers, with your dice, your cards, your horses! Pause and think before it’s too late! You are in great danger! Repent before it is too late! Just around the corner is our little Mission, where you are always welcome to seek refuge from this jungle of sin. Do not think of me as Sergeant Sarah Brown, but as Sarah Brown, your Sister. Join me, Brothers and Sisters, in resisting the Devil and we can put him to flight forever. Remember, friends, it is the Save-a-Soul Mission, located at 409 West 49th Street, open all day and all night, with a special prayer meeting this Thursday at … Oh, never mind!
Experience of the disciplines:
Dance
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Drama
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Singing
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Professionalism:
Do's
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Don’t's
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Audition evaluation:
Overall, I was very disappointed with my performance in my audition, this was result of multiple things: Firstly, I chose to perform a song that I wasn't happy with, therefore I lost confidence in my abilities and my voice became noticeably shaky. Secondly, I let the pain from my shoulder injury distract me throughout the audition which consequently resulted in me freezing during my second monologue due to the shooting pain through my shoulder and neck making my feel like I couldn't speak or move, also throughout the audition I avoided moving too much as I didn't want to further increase the pain. This had a negative effect on my performance because one of my strongest assets as a performer is my use of my physicality and in allowing pain to affect me mentally, I hindered my ability to perform as well as I believe I can/ have shown I am previously capable of.
For this performance, I decided I would like to audition for the role of Matilda as I believe that my voice naturally suits child roles as it is quite high pitch and I speak at a fast pace- like a child when telling a story. I felt like Matilda is a very similar character to myself when I was younger- in the sense of reading a lot and wanting to learn and make things right- and that I could draw upon personal experiences and use emotion memory in order to play this character well.
I would also like to audition for the role of Sarah Brown as I didn't feel that the role of Miss Adelaide would suit me very well as she is a very lovey character who relies heavily upon her fiancée, Nathan. Therefore, I thought that I would more effectively portray Sarah as she is obsessively mad about converting gambling sinners to saints and I could use exaggeration in both physicality and vocal to almost over-do this character in order to create humour. And, that I could also use pauses and volume to show my disappointment in being ignored.
The first song I chose to audition with was Little people from Les Misérables, I chose this song as it depicts a child role (Gavroche) in a modern musical and is high paced and energetic throughout. I initially thought that through this song I could present my ability to portray a child character through my vocals and physicality, and also show that I could maintain the energy levels of a younger character. To an extent I believe that I successfully showed a younger age through my vocal as I focused on using a higher pitch and more innocent tone of voice. However, I think that I used my physicality very limitedly in fear of aggravating my injury, which resulted in me presenting a weaker performance than I had planned, as I remained on the spot rather than performing the movements I had choreographed for this song. Retrospectively, I believe that this was an incorrect song choice for my audition because I had doubts about it about a week before the audition and allowed many of my peers to convince me not to change my choice. However, I had chosen a different song that I was happier with, I may have been able to produce a more confident and committed performance.
The second song I chose to audition with was Stay with me from Into the woods, I chose this song I have chosen this song as it suits my vocal range and shows my vocal control as well as depicting a strong female character who, similarly to Matilda, doesn't fit in with those around her. It also has a crescendo that shows clear emotional distress like in Matilda's solo 'Quiet' in which she expresses her feelings of being overwhelmed by everything around her. I think that this was a good song choice because I performed it with confidence and I also believe that I effectively showed emotion through my voice and facial expressions.
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