wicked at the Apollo theatre.

Last Thursday I went with my family to see wicked in the west end. I had heard a lot of great things about the show but I had never got round to seeing it before now. I was instantly impressed the second the show started by the giant moving dragon above the stage and the monkey men that just jumped out of nowhere. It was a dramatic start to a very dramatic show.

I found myself instantly fascinated by the whole thing. I have always loved the wizard of oz and watched it constantly when I was little and I can safely say the wicked witch (Elphaba) was the scariest ‘bad guy’ of my childhood. However I will never see the wizard of oz in the same way again, infact I’m not sure I could watch it again. Wicked is not my favourite west end show but it’s by far the best story line in any show I have ever seen. I was honestly in shock at the end. It was weird that suddenly such a well loved story full of dreams of a young girl that just wanted to go home and an evil witch that I grew up with was actually all twisted an back to front and completely wrong. And I was pretty sure the whole way through that I at least knew how it all ended, Elphaba dies, but not even that ever happened!

The story line was so brilliant and cleverly written that even my seven year old sister appreciated how clever it was. This just proves that wicked is an absolutely amazing show to go and see, if it can impress my little sister and my Nan whilst making everyone question one of the greatest loved films of all time it’s obviously a very diverse show that appeals to everyone.

The singing was breathtaking  I can’t remember how many times I got Goosebumps and when Elphaba sang defying gravity I was pretty sure tears were coming. The costumes were so extravagant and so much work must have gone into them but they really did make the magic of the Emerald city jump out at you. And the set was just wow. The wizard thing (big gold head) seriously scared the life out of me and all the slight movements it did made me wonder how much work must have gone into it.

I loved it sooo much I can’t wait to go again and I’m still amazed at how clever it is and I can safely say that wicked is much better than the wizard of oz and I couldn’t ever watch the wizard of oz again without getting incredibly angry with a certain few characters that look like butter wouldn’t melt.

Rock challenge show case.

On Tuesday the 15^th of February Kings Langley performed at Stevenage in rock challenge. Usually we would have been performing with the aim of winning and earning a place in the next heat at Portsmouth, however due to how amazing we have been in previous years we already has a place at Portsmouth and were just showcasing at Stevenage.

Preparation

Even though we weren’t competing there was allot of pressure on us to be the best and prove to the other schools there that we do deserve our premier league title. The week before everyone attended a lot more rehearsals than usual and a lot of time was spent painting and adding the finishing touches to the set (a huge gingerbread house). Everyone was starting too excited and very nervous.

The day before our last rehearsal went very well and the set looked amazing as did the costumes.  At this point I think it was still odd to believe that tomorrow was the big day. Everyone had worked so hard especially the teachers and the fact there was no more time to practise or change anything was a bit scary even though it all looked great.

Show day

We had to get to school for 7:30 in the morning. The excitement made the early start not to bad at all. Our rehearsal was going great until we realised our set was slightly too big for the stage. After a panic from performers and teachers alike it was sorted out in time for our second rehearsal which went perfectly and all the other schools there thought we were brilliant and everyone was feeling a bit cocky after that.

The madness started in the changing room when everyone began to get ready for the show. It was great to see everyone in costume with hair and make-up done it all everyone looked fantastic. The nerves really started kicking in when we were waiting for the school on stage to finish their performance so we could go on. Everyone was half heartedly practising their dances. When we finally got to the stage it was petrifying to hear our music start. The whole performance went perfectly and I had so much fun on stage. The whole day was great and then to find out we had won 13 excellence awards just made it all perfect. I really love our rock challenge this year I can safely say it’s my favourite so far and now I can’t wait to go to Portsmouth and show everyone just how amazing we are!

painting the set.

bhangra

this week in performing arts we worked on perfecting our bhangra dance and making it flow. It looks really effective at the moment with lots of technical arm movements. The street section of the dance is well polished now and everyone knows exactly what they are doing so its looking pretty professional. We have been researching bhangra dance as homework and i have found out quite a lot of interesting stuff about the dance style and the people who are famous for it. Bhangra is really exciting to learn and so different from everything else we have done so far. its great learning about different cultured dances and then attempting to create our own bhangra piece.

in costume design we are continuing to work on our we will rock you mood boards. we have already written about the history of the show, the music, costumes and storyline and now we are focusing on the characters and how there personalitites influence the clothes they wear and there make-up and hair style ect.