the talent studio

The talent studio After school on a Monday i take part in a singing/drama club called ‘the talent studio’ in Watford. Its run by Jeff,a familiar face in the west end who most recently played Javert in Les Miserable’s. I got into this club through a friend and have been taking part for 10 weeks now. The first few weeks were full of games and short acting improvisations that were designed to get us to know each other because it is a completely new drama group so no one knew each other previously. Then we started looking at singing techniques and in such a short time i have already learnt some very helpful tips and some great voice warm up techniques. Jeff’s voice is stunning and so powerful and i get Goosebumps just listening to him and i think his loudness and brashness when singing encourages the rest of us to be loud and try hard as well which is very helpful. He also taught us in great detail about different parts of our voice from the ‘witchy ‘ sound found by the top of your mouth to the ‘bear, soft’ sound found in your throat. Hes also taught us some great songs my favourite of which is ‘purple summer’ from ‘spring awakening’ a musical i am now desperate to see. We’ve also started learning about animalistic acting and comparing a persons character to that of an animal to gain a greater understanding of how they should compose themselves. I really look forward to Mondays now and this term were putting together a small show which is very exciting

2012 Rock challenge showcase

On February the 22nd it was finally time for our school to showcase our entry for this year’s rock challenge at Stevenage leisure centre. With so much effort and time going into our performance this year it’s safe to say everyone was very excited to finally get to show off to the other schools there that day. This year our theme of a ‘midsummer night’s dream’ meant that there was extra pressure on us as everyone is well aware of this famous play unlike in previous years where the story we performed would’ve been previously unknown to the audience this and the fact that we are now a premier league school meant a lot more effort and time went into this year’s entry.
Once we had got there it was clear everyone was just as excited to be there as us. Watching the other schools rehearse was lovely for us and seeing just what everyone else had managed to put together and it really helped us get into the spirit of the day. When it was time for us to rehearse we all got a bit nervous because of the expectation on us, this was good though as it made everyone realise we did have to be the best there and we knew we were capable of it. I thought both our rehearsals went really well and I loved every second of it! Hearing the audience cheering along from the moment the tap dancers started was a really great feeling and I think it motivated everyone to put there all into it.
After the excitement of our very successful rehearsals died down the madness that is getting everyone ready for the real performance began. It was really amazing watching everyone get dressed up especially the fairies as there make up and costumes were just so lovely and extravagant. I think this year’s costumes and make-up are by far the best yet as so much detail went into everything. The costumes that our btec group made looked even more spectacular on the dancers especially with the amazing make-up as well.
Once everyone was ready the real nerves began to set in as this was when we realised we now had to own the stage and be the absolute best we could be. And we were! The performance couldn’t have gone better! And the noise from the crowd made it so much more exciting. It’s safe to say everyone was chuffed with how it went! It was definitely worth all the hard work just for the buzz that came after knowing we had done so well. The nice thing about Stevenage is that we don’t have to compete so there is no real pressure yet there is an almost nice pressure to be amazing. I had the best day and I can’t wait for Portsmouth now!

evaluation of jazz workshops

The jazz workshops I participated in were really enjoyable and I had great time learning about the dance styles I wouldn’t usually even think about. I found learning the rock and roll version easiest I think because its most like what I’m used to but the contemporary was still great fun to try out. I enjoyed rock and roll most as well because it was really pace and cute and the music choice was well selected to make it more fun. If I was to do my own workshop again I would perhaps try to break down the moves I’m teaching more because some people struggled with street as it was so different to the ballet/contemporary style they were used to. And maybe pick a faster song because the one we choose was quite slow and people may have enjoyed it more if it was faster and had a stronger beat, this would also have made movements look more effective. I think that the workshops worked really well and everyone had a great time. More importantly we all learnt how to teach a routine to a group of people and break it down to make it easier which is an important skill to have. The routines themselves were really lovely! The ballet one especially flowed well and had some nice technical moves in that were nice to learn and looked very effective. Considering it was our first go at teaching an entire routine I think everyone did a really good job and the final outcome shows this.

costume construction final outcomes

In costume construction we have been working on putting the final touches on our rock challenge fairy costumes as well as adding bits to goblins costumes as well. The hard work involved in making the costume was finished a while ago with all the sewing on of fabrics and dying of leotards and tights but this last few weeks have been devoted to getting the leaves and roses we made onto the costumes to give them that ‘wood land’ effect that is required of a midsummer night’s dream. We also had to cut up some dark brown trousers and decorate them with leaves to be the goblins costumes. The four main fairies costumes also had to be completed with a lot more roses being put on Tatiana’s and glitter. Thankfully we have managed to get them all finished in time for the show and now it just stands to see if they’ll survive being used on stage. I’m very pleased with how all the costumes look and I’ve enjoyed making them a lot more than I thought I would.

WE WILL ROCK YOU @ the domminion theatre

On Thursday during half term I went up to London with my mum and sister because my sister had been begging for weeks to see the lion king, luckily for me we got a bit lost and ended up walking past the dominion theatre where we will rock you is currently playing and she fell in love with the giant gold Freddie mercury and the pictures all around advertising the show and so we ended up getting tickets for that instead. Happy days
I saw well will rock you about 4 years ago and I loved it back then but seeing it again now means I can appreciate it a lot more because I can understand a lot more of the adult humour and I never fully appreciated the technical side to this show such as the lighting and computer animations which are incredible. Another thing I appreciated a lot more this time round was how well it was written, in my opinion we will rock you doesn’t have the most thrilling story line like musicals such as wicked and les mis do but it’s a perfect story line. I think this because my 9 year old sister understood exactly what was going on and it really thrilled her wondering who the killer queen would catch next and would they ever find the lost instrument, where as when she watched wicked bits had to be explained to her. It’s also the perfect story line because there is a lot of very well carried out adult humour which the adults and older children really love! It’s like it can’t go wrong.
Of course the songs are probably the most amazing part of the whole show because they all come from Queen. They also are fitted in perfectly with the show, like there’s not a single song that you think ‘wow that didn’t need to be there’ showing again how well written it was. The cast this time round were just as perfect as the time before and I think the whole show is just so much fun, you leave feeling really excited almost which doesn’t happen with a lot of musicals, I think the somewhat light-hearted story line helps this a lot because shows like les mis and blood brothers are truly amazing but the story line means you leave feeling like you’ve been on a roller coaster of emotions, unlike we will rock you.
I love this show and it’s my second favourite musical of all time and I could honestly go and watch it every day and not get bored because it just has so many amazing moments in it! I would recommend it to everyone

variety show

Variety show.
In performing arts now we are working towards a big end of year show that will show off all that we have been learning through the last two years. Firstly we had to pick a theme that would enable us to have a wide variety of acts so we weren’t limited. We toyed with the idea of an Oscar’s themed show and an ‘around the world’ theme but in the end we settled of loosely basing it around the musical ‘Annie’ but focussing more on the dreams of the orphans. Straight away we got started on choreographing the opening number which we decided should be two popular Annie songs ‘maybe’ and ‘its a hard knock life’. We decided for maybe we would just focus on the singing and make sure it sounded good; for it’s a hard knock life we choreographed simple dance moves that fitted well with the musical we had chosen. Rehearsals for both these numbers were very successful and everyone had a lot of good ideas to put forward meaning it was easy for us to get it done quickly which was important as we have a whole show to devise.
To incorporate our costume construction work into our show so because our costumes were made based on the show ‘we will rock you’ the easiest thing for us to do was choreograph a we will rock you number. We settled for two songs ‘don’t stop me now’ and ‘somebody to love’. We choose these songs because they are very well known and there is a lot of room for dance and singing in both of them. Getting a routine devised for ‘don’t stop me now’ proved harder than the Annie songs because everyone had a bit of a different idea about how it should look. I think because a lot of people haven’t seen the show they interpret it differently to those who have but this was interesting because in the end we got a very good routine devised that everyone really loves performing.

costume construction evaluation

EVALUATION
For costume constriction our task was to design a fairy costume for the production of a midsummer night’s dream. We were told to focus on the fairies in the production and design a costume that would be effective on stage as well as easy to dance in and comfortable. It must also fit the theme of a midsummer night’s dream. To make the skirt I folded bits of satin fabric over in two and sewed them onto the top band of the skirt. I did repeat this step with a variety of colours that fit the scheme that I had chosen which were pinks, purples and greens. I choose these colours because they are fairy-like and also have the woodland colours that fit the production. Once I had finished sewing on the satin I added roses and leaves to the skirt to add to the effect it will have on stage and to make it more fairy-like. The leotard and tights were dyed to match the colours id chosen for my skirt and then I sewed on more roses and a few leaves onto the leotard so that it would look prettier and match the skirt better so they look like a proper set. I had to make sure the roses and leaves were secure by adding a few more stitches than really needed as if it was to fall apart on stage the whole effect would be lost and the performer wearing it would be put off. Making this costume was quite easy once id got the hang of sewing on the satin as this was the fiddliest part.