Musical Theatre Worksheet

Context of the piece – The number we performed ‘Turn it off’ is from the 2011 Musical by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The creators of South Park and in turn the South Park Musical which was nominated for an Oscar. The musical is satirical of religion and all of the negatives that come with it. Such as: preaching; war and homophobia. Turn it off is specifically about homophobia within the religion and all about repressing it, “Find the box that’s gay and crush it.”

The time the Musical was created – In 2011 this Musical was released. In 2011 a big part of America was that a candidate for presidency ‘Mitt Romney’ was indeed a Mormon. He was incredibly bigoted and this gave it a lot of popularity and attention. The musical was unfortunately not aimed at him due it being in development for seven years however, the timing of it was perfect!

What type of musical is it and what is the style of dance, acting and singing performed in it? – The main style in this musical is camp! The vocal stylings range across the board such as ensemble style ballads with Turn it off. An emotional anthem with I believe and of course, a use of harmonics and soul with ‘You and me but mostly me.’ Dance on the other hand, it ranges creatively from tap to tribal influences.

What impact did the musical have on the industry at the time? – The three most prestigious awards won include: Tony award for best book of a musical; Tony award for best original score and Grammy award for the best musical theatre album. These three awards are very prestigious due to the Grammys being the centrefold of music awards and Tony’s being the centre for performance! The musical is still being performed as strong as ever with over 7 years of fun and grossing over £500 Million. The impact was great due to the controversial topics Meaning more people went to see it and many religious groups buying out tickets so the public couldn’t see it

What skills and techniques are you going to have to focus on to rehearse and perform this piece? – For me, the main area is the ability to sing while dancing. Our choreography may be simple but it is a challenge to have a strong diaphragm while moving about frequently. I believe I understand the character of Elder Cunningham and the number itself.

Strength when learning this piece? – I found a lot of strength in standing and acting like my character. He is very hunched and excitable Which I was able to really bring to my advantage when doing a Dance move as I could be crazy with it and if I slipped a little, that would be fine as it would look in character.

Weakness when learning this piece? – Anything dance related. Dance is my weakest area out of singing, acting and dance.

What have you learnt from this piece and what skills can you take with you to the FMP? – I have certainly learned how to perform in an ensemble while standing out. I have really worked on singing in a more male octave and created some lovely harmonics with Ethan as the top Tenors. I believe I can take my strengths in singing and acting through!

Photos for Microsoft

T25APCSB – 19/04/18

T25APCSB – 24/04/18

In rehearsal today we had singing workshop with our singing tutor Emily and our musical director Alex. We had a run through of the opening number, which at this point is sounding incredibly professional. After that we moved onto two other songs, Pandemonium and Magic Foot. Pandemonium is a song we have looked at once before which heavily involves the dynamics of harmonisation and providing a incredibly strong backing to the vocals being provided by the principles with solo sections. The song carries notes on for long periods of time as well as being prone to be filled with belts and crescendo’s. Thus making the song an anthem within the musical. Pandemonium is performed in a way that relates to the song title as it is chaos with all the different musical moments blending and yet standing out.

As you can see from this video we are all getting familiarised with our parts and harmonies meaning that it is a little rough around the edges, however it is generally sounding great and their is plenty of room for improvement, which is always a great thing. One thing I was struggling with was singing down the octave, even though I am in the Tenor/Soprano section, I am trying to sing as much as possible down the octave in order to make my voice stronger with lower sounding tones as currency my strengths in singing is incredibly high or moderately low. I currently do not have a middle ground and I would love to find strength within it.

“You should appreciate your lower range more.”

In these bars, I am singing in all of these with the top one being in the boy group while the bottom two are part of the Tenor/Soprano section. Regarding both I am wanting to sing in a more masculine sounding octave to challenge myself as I am much more prone to sounding as feminine as I can quite possibly be.

Pandemonium will be a fun challenge for my voice.

The next song we did today was ‘magic foot’ this is Barfee’s solo song. Within this song, Barfee is performing an ode to his magic foot which seems to be the reason behind his success. This is a very strange subject matter, so the song is also very strange in itself with how it is performed.

As a group, Emily the tutor was having us perform many ensemble lines which concentrate on rising volume and ending the line in a crescendo. This is for a very theatrical effect that can supply a loud and entertaining but comical/dramatic backing for the already funny song about a magic foot.

In the photo you can see the annotation of (wacky vibrato).

 

Here is a video of fellow Student Harry Dixon explaining what Vibrato is and how it is used in Magic Foot. The wacky vibrato brings originality and quote on quote weirdness to this musical helping it stand out as a very individual piece of music.

T25APCSB – Rehearsal and ensemble character change. 16/04/18

In rehearsal today all of us within the ensemble were given our cliques. I was originally put into the free spirit and home schooled children, and I completed the rehearsal as this character. However throughout the lesson I was not enjoying being a part of this group, it wasn’t as challenging and I preferred the character styles within other groups in the ensemble. To me I was very much already a free flowing character and it would be much better for me to be a part that I can research about. As well as come up with a character that can fulfil the believable but musical over the top style. Luckily I was able to swap with a fellow actor to be in the ‘Politically forward group’ as I call it. This is going to challenge me as I will need to understand Political standing points and research on Politicians with positive views that will be reflective of the character Schwarzy.

In the rehearsal the opening number was rehearsed, I originally entered with Leaf Conybear’s group, looking confused and unsure of everything however now I will be entering with the Political group, hastily but joyful and youthful as they are a very lovely group who are pro feminism, politics and LGBT rights!

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A big reason behind this rehearsal was to understand our character groups and to keep movement alive and strong on stage.

Despite this one rehearsal where I was in the Home Schooled kids, I am very aware of Schwarzy’s group and their beliefs. I am very excited and I believe my character is going to be difficult to make as I will need to keep it separate from me but that is what is going to make it incredibly fun!

In these three photos above you can see that the cast is divided into three areas. The main seating in the middle and on either side, us spellers sitting in the bleachers. We are sat in rows of three and on the stage right side none of us are sat directly next to fellow clique members however on the stage left, the rows are mainly made up of Marcy Park’s mean girls and a few other ensemble members. These seating plans will change and evolve as the musical progresses, such as sitting orders and of course how it will be like once we have bleachers. The bleachers will be used to give the stage a more American Gymnasium affect.

We are still in early stages from what you can see but the whole reason behind rehearsals is to tighten the performance. As well as make adjustments, for instance me changing to a group that would challenge me much more. Within the performance, anyone on the sides had a cue to stand up with the lines all because you love to spell, people would stand on syllables but unfortunately most of us forgot however through the process we will work on that etc. Another movement which will need tightening is how on the line singing about automatons we as actors will be sitting and standing on certain syllables within certain words, all of this will be practised and polished.

T25APCSB – Exploration of Cliques through Mean Girls.

CLIQUE – A SMALL, EXCLUSIVE GROUP OF PEOPLE; COTERIE; SET.

– Dictionary.com

The 2004 American Cult Classic teen comedy Mean Girls is a film which is well known for its impact on teen culture and its emergence of labelling high school students into cliques, this is still very apparent in any media based around high schools or education, most apparent in Riverdale and 13 reasons why. I chose to sit and watch this film so that I would be able to take notes and gain information on stereotypical high school cliques and how they are characterised and portrayed through media. Most notably the clique of upper class stuck up mean girls known as ‘Plastics’.

The reason I have done all this is due to the fact that the musical we are doing for our Final Major Project, is being heavily influenced by high-school, this will be through: set design; characterisations from people; how the ensemble will be dressed and how they’ll be representing and of course other small aspects such as linking a spelling bee to merchandise etc.

While watching the film I immediately was introduced to how a high-school stereo typically worked and who and what cliques were and of course who was in them.

These included.

• Varsity Jocks – The football players who all wear varsity jackets and are very boystrous and full of Testosterone.
• Unfriendly Black Hotties – The popular black students, all incredibly attractive and of course black, which is what makes them very exclusive.
• The Burn Outs – The students who spend more time smoking Cannabis than actually doing work.
• Asian Nerds – The stereotypical nerdy group with Asians in, this is one Clique that accentuates the stereotype of all Asians being incredibly smart.
• The Cool Asians –  Another group of Asians that are popular and are known for style and of course are extremely exclusive, so much that the other Asians are stuck into the Nerds.
• The Art Freaks – A more open collective of students from multiple art departments, considered very uncool.
• The Plastics – These girls are the ‘IT’ girls of the school. They all have rules and believe them to be better than everyone else, all gorgeous and incredibly sassy.

The main clique I focused on was the Plastics. They could easily relate to Marcy Parks, Marcy is the poster child of intelligence and doing amazing but obviously that can also bring cockiness and of course the feeling of being above everyone else which The Plastics from Mean Girls certainly do.

The Plastics, a clique that can be compared and associated with Marcy are physically always poised and posed, they will know what angles to stand at in order to look their best, whether that is looking to the left or having more weight resting on your right heel. Their arms can be doing another thing such as being on their hips, holding a phone or just be slightly raised, it all depends on what they prefer. Their hair is always fashionable and representative of what is in at this moment, “That’s so Fetch” – Gretchen Wieners. During a scene in Mean Girls, two of the Art Freaks are explaining who the ‘The Plastics are’, a description given out about one of the girls is “her hair is so big, it’s full of secrets.” This is referring to her big hair and giving a sarcastic and jokey comment on why it is like that.

The personality of a Mean Girl/Plastic could be one of many things. Within Mean Girls, they are represented as being incredibly dumb and so clueless of quite literally everything. Except for when they need to upset someone “And evil takes human form in Regina George.” While in something such as The Heathers, they may not be smart but they are a lot more organised and calculated…

Karen from mean Girls is very unknowing of a lot and despite being gorgeous she does not know anything this apparent when she asks the famous question, “If you’re from Africa why are you white?” As well as that she is literally described as being “the dumbest girl you’ll ever meet.” With all that in mind, someone within that clique could be looking extremely blank and confused or they could be looking incredibly evil while seductive, maybe just somewhere in the middle.

Aside from Mean Girls, other pieces of media show many characters who fit the description of being a Queen Bee with minions, money, looks and everything. Whether they are smart or not.

• Heather Chandler – The Heathers, 1998.
• Amber Von Tussle – Hairspray, 2007.
• Cheryl Blossom – Riverdale, 2017.
• Sandi Griffin – Daria, 1997.
• Chanel #1 – Scream Queens, 2015.
• Cordelia Chase – Buffy The Vampire Slayer, 1997

Now back to the looks of all these Plastics, they usually wear a lot of Pink “On Wednesday’s we wear Pink.” – Mean Girls.

The girls within this Clique will always look expensive, they will always have clothes that cost a lot and will follow designs and patterns. The clothes will always be what is trending and sometimes a little over the top.

– Heathers: The Musical. As you can see in this image, the Heathers are all wearing incredibly stylish coordinating uniforms that would of been at the height of upper-class fashion in 1980’s America, they all strongly posed and are looking fierce. Like these types of girls do.

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With all this in mind I am able to figure out a character in case I am cast as a mean girl/mean boy ensemble character.

Sassy, pouting and hopefully pink! I will sing in my American voice and if I ever speak it will be confident, calculated and a little stupid as, I mean I am a spoilt rich white guy who has everything and always looks great.

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16/04/18.

I have now discovered that I am in the clique that represent the LGBT supporters and politically forward clique.

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17/04/18.

Overall this was created in order to explore the cliques, it has mainly explored the Mean Girls. The other cliques in this film can be compared to others.

• The Art Freaks can be compared to Leaf Coneybear’s clique of home schooled kids who are very different to most and live in their own little word. Just like the art freaks do. An example would be how Damian Leigh and Janis Ian do not interact with other students and clearly march to the beat of their own drum.
• Olive Ostrovsky and her timid group do not fit into a certain clique due to their main theme being shy and the films cliques never addressing shy groups.
• Marcy Parks as addressed throughout is incredibly similar to the Plastics and is getting portrayed that way throughout. All the mean girls and guys all have uniforms and are in accordance with each other.
• Chip Tolentino is being fully portrayed as a jock with his fan club and fellow bros, he is utterly representing The Varsity Jocks. He is worshipped by his followers…
• William Barfee may not be Asian in our production but his intellect and lack of social skills fit him right into The Asian Nerds.
• The group I am in which is Schwarzy’s group does not necessarily fit into a clique from Mean Girls. Although their representation is felt throughout, whether that be characters fighting for what is right or the homosexuality within the film.

 

Project Proposal.

 

QUESTION 1: Review
During the first seven units of this course I have been able to discover more about myself as a performer and what makes me confident within a performance. As an actor I have had the opportunity to play a variety of diverse roles such as Howie from Our Town and the surly British archetypal colonel in Dick Barton which has developed my skills in both naturalistic and character acting. For me, costume and props is a rather proportional part of finding my confidence which leads to a successful characterisation. Singing and dance are areas in which I am building confidence through performance and practice, and I am looking forward to challenging myself on this musical theatre project in all three areas.

Question 2:

Section 2: Project Concept and your contribution (approx. 200 words)

 

Our production is The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee; a musical comedy by William Finn, Rachel Sheinkin, and Rebecca Feldman with additional material by Jay Reiss. It will be being performed at The Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal from the 13th-16th of June. The musical itself is an American Comedy, meaning that the humour will be appreciated or lost in translation due to how English comedy is much more dryer that American comedy. The target market will not only be our families, but also the general public, and the demographic is going to be teens to early thirties and I believe the humour, including: toilet humour; cynical-ism and satire will be enjoyed across all ages.

During this production I shall be a ensemble member who will be supporting the main characters in many scenes through dance, singing and acting. Other production roles I will undertake throughout the journey will be documenting the rehearsal process through photo and video, as well as helping within the makeup department, fundraising and helping with front of house on the night. All these responsibilities will help me immerse myself and assist others within the production.

A challenge for me within this will be getting to grips with taking part in a big musical which I have never done, however I plan to work as hard as I can with everyone else involved so that any short comings will be avoided. The other main proximity that will be a challenge is going to be working with forty plus people and being able to not get overwhelmed.

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Section 3: Evaluation (approx. 50 words)

Throughout this process I will be keeping a record of everything that happens and critically expand on it, meaning that I will always be reflective and always working towards a high level. I will be researching many aspects which will prove useful with both the production and all of the literal parts of this journey.

T25APCSB – 27/03/18

Today was the first official rehearsal for our unit eight production of the Putnam County Spelling Bee.

In my opinion, this rehearsal was successful. This is due to how well we (us first years and second years) as a collective were able to work together through this singing rehearsal of the opening number.

In the rehearsal we were sat in our vocal groups: Sopranos; Tenors; Altos and Baritones/Bass. While in our sections we were introduced to our harmonies, the timings of when to come in and out and whether we would be singing certain sections in our vocal groups or in our gender groups.

During this rehearsal I struggled with timing, a point in the song I was having difficulty with was between bar 112 and 116 where our tutor had us boys all singing together. My mistake was that on bar 113 we sang the lines “hear the word.” The individual word of ‘word’ is held for three beats and goes from an F to F after lowering then rising in tone. With holding ‘word’ for the correct time, I was holding it longer than others and I was accidentally holding it while heading into the brief rest before the girls sang their line.

As you can see in the photo, bar 113 ends with a crotchet worth only two beats. I was holding it for longer.

Like all things within Performing, repetition gets you used to what you’re doing and helps you learn how to do it correctly. In this case, after going over this section a few times which is natural in any rehearsal/practice. I was indeed able to understand and grasp this little section. It was vitally important that I did learn the timing as coming off at the wrong section can make a performance look more mediocre rather than professional.

Aside from timing within that small section, the rest of the rehearsal went sufficiently spectacular for me. The song sat very comfortably within my range and had me singing to the best of my ability as it was a song that required belts at certain moments like most musical theatre songs do.

One aspect of this song I love is, the fact it is a giant ensemble song that relies on us chorus members coming in at the right time and being able to supply supportive tones and really give the song some kick in certain areas. For instance, through bar 41 until the end of bar 45, we as an ensemble sing for the first time just after Schwarzy has a solo line. This makes our appearance that comes out of nowhere much more theatrical as we are going from a quiet small solo line into a big group singing piece.

Here you can see highlighted, the areas I sing with. These are the Tenor sections as I have marked my Tenor areas with yellow and the boys only sections with Orange. The reason I have annotated the Tenor sections in a different colour to the boy sections is because of how in future songs the relevance of performing in different parts will be much more relevant. It is also a great idea to have the score laid out much neater so that reading it is simpler.

After this first rehearsal I am feeling fabulous and excited for the Final Major Project! I feel the song is setting in fantastically and it is so much fun. It’s generally easy for me and is a great test of what I can do vocally.

Here is the link to the video of us all performing the opening number all the way through.

https://youtu.be/tL_ExWWQigU

We are all starting to work together quickly and successfully while having fun with the singing and in my opinion, the song sounds great for our first time performing it all together for the first time. I am hoping through rehearsal and team work we can keep the quality of this song on the up!

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Bibliography!

• QUICK NOTE. – All the music terminology and what they all mean was learned from these links and this book.

(1) – Ukulele. A beginners Guide for Absolute Beginners.

(2) – https://www.letsplaykidsmusic.com/music-note-values/

(3) – http://www.piano-keyboard-guide.com/music-note-names.html

SWOT for Turn it Off.

What are your Strengths in the piece?

1. In this piece I find a lot of strength within my physicality. As Elder Cunningham I portray him as a very stereotypical nerd with glasses and a hunch! Physicality and acting is a huge part of any performance hence why I have added in glasses despite it being questioned by other members of the collective. The physicality of Cunningham is meek and a little camp which has been commented on by fellow class mate Greg (Elder Mckinley) who spoke to me about how funny and accurate my portrayal is.
2.  A strength I have within the piece is that Ethan who I sing with during all the ensemble parts within the piece, our voices go great together. Even though my tones are much more feminine. We are able to match pitch with our different tones and create a great strong sound in order to harmonise with the rest of the vocal groups.
3. I have a lot of energy and excitement which carries through into the appropriate moments within the song such as my solo line ‘all right it worked’ or in the section that has us all singing ‘turn it off’ over and over. Enthusiasm is key!
4. I honestly have so much confidence for Turn it Off and I see the confidence as a strength!

I honestly love this piece, the choreography is fun and all the singing fits my range. I am partnered with great people. My only weakness with this piece is purely just confidence when I am performing a section where i’m not directly next to Ethan as he is able to help me pitch correctly, this can be overcome with more practice.

SWOT – Musical Theatre.

Strengths in Musical Theatre.

1. My first strength is that once I am involved with a production and I know who i’m going to be portraying (or the type of character I will be portraying) I can delve into characterisation and really bring personality and life to this character.
2. I have a broad high range when I sing which generally can range from a C3 to a F5. This is great for portraying types of characters such as Elder Cunnigham in Book Of Mormon or Lafou from Beauty and The Beast. This high range can open up many parts for me including female parts which can be altered for a male.
3. In a performance, I am able to act while singing or dancing, as to me that is a huge part of a none speaking performance. For instance, during the performance of Rocka Ma Soul by Alvin Ailey the aim of our facial features and expressions was positive, excited and confident due to how we were slaves who had been set free. While with singing, during Alexander Hamilton from the musical Hamilton, I made sure my physicality was always very strong and reflective of the nautical and empowering music featured in the song.
4. I am able to lightly read sheet music and explain a beginners amount of how to with reading musical scores. Such as explaining what the note is and how many beats this bar is worth and how long you will be able to hold the word/note for.

 

Weaknesses in Musical Theatre.

1. My first and most apparent weakness within Musical Theatre itself is starring in a full professional Musical. My only experience in Theatre besides College is a Secondary School Production of The Wizard Of Oz where I was the Cowardly Lion and a performance of Acorn Antiques the Musical at an Amateur Dramatics society. I do have experience within the aspects of musicals such as: dancing, singing and acting, in singing and acting I feel very confident within, dancing not as much but I am much more confident then I was at the start of the year. This is due to performances of: BlackBird; Limon and Higher Ground by Mia Michales.  I thoroughly believe I can put whatever experience I do have within this field and turn it into a field of expertise.
2. Despite my confidence in singing, I do find it rather difficult at moments to generate a note within myself and sing it, on the contrary however. As part of an ensemble I can match pitch, harmonise and generally sing to a great standard (in my opinion). My weakness here is solo singing which is another aspect of my performance which will be improved through the FMP but most importantly, has been improved upon this year.

What Opportunities has this unit allowed you?

1. This year I have been able to perform in multiple immersive theatre styles such as: scare; contextual education and of course ensemble showcases. I have been able to learn about myself as a performer and that having a costume or a prop may be the difference between a rehearsal and a show. I have also learned that as a performer I am very passionate and I love to be interactive when performing such as scaring people or telling children stories.
2. I have been given the opportunity this year to dance in a number of styles that I did not consider I would enjoy such as Jazz and contemporary. However due to experiences such as being able to create choreography and being professionally filmed (also opportunities brought on from this year) I have found a love for trying new dance styles. This will be  very apparent within the FMP as I will be involved with multiple dances and styles.

What threats may prevent you from achieving your best?

1. Despite my confidence and range mentioned previously I do struggle with voice control and keeping in time when on my own. However as part of a ensemble I should be able to be secure with singing.
2. In dancing, I usually can lack the control and often can become messy through mistiming myself and or tripping on certain moves.
3. I do have stagefright once I am on stage, this can shoot my nerves and really impact diction and the tempo of what I say due to these nerves. This could really impact what I am singing or how I’m dancing due to the panic.