Broadway wannabees!

Singing part of your world from the little mermaid was a little challenge but fun at the same time.
It was mainly challenging because there were a couple of high notes that I couldn't reach, I'd sometimes push the notes but it would come out wrong or leave my throat in pain, or I'd go in head voice and it would sound off key. But by singing this song more and more I learnt new techniques from my teachers as well as by myself that helped the transition from low to high go smoothly. I learnt that singing some parts lower would help make it easier to fully breath in and hit the high notes and I also learnt that if I sang some parts a little faster I would have less time to think about how high the note is. I can't say however that I truly hit the notes the way I wanted to but I did much better with my last performance compared to when I started. And with the help of the piano I feel like my performance wasn't so bad. But what I should improve on with my singing would be my my breathing techniques and to take my time with the  pianist. I noticed at the beginning that I  would try sing faster than the pianist or I'd go slower, so I think I need to trust that whoever is playing  will go along with my singing. As for the acting I practiced multiple times to perform while singing but then again I don't feel like I reached my full acting potential. I should have set an audience and told a story rather than just sing. By the time I had to perform my final piece I realized that I was more focused in the song than on the performance. So In The future I think I'll need to pay more attention to my performance. I also felt like I didn't chose an audience I was singing aimlessly and I kept walking in random directions. I feel like I used my facial expression well enough but if I'd used my body language more I would have done I little bit better. But over all I really enjoyed working in this piece and getting to feel what it's like to do two things at the same time; singing and acting.

As for the two other performances, I enjoyed them both very much. At the beginning of johns performance he didn't know the lines and he too didn't pick an audience or a person he was taking to. But by the last performance he knew every line by heart and he used emotion and grand gestures which was really impressive. However I fell he should work on picking only certain words to put emphasis on and say the rest normally. Jake did pretty good to, the first try was a little shaky but he got a hang of things when we talked about breathing  and finding an audience.

Meet the husband continued

Brandon: dammit, now I like this guy.
Brandon stands up to leave and Cassie runs back in
Cassie: hey! I'm back turns out it wasn't that big of an emergency. Where's tom
Brandon: (looking at her with no affection) he left.
Cassie: oh. Well that's to bad.
Brandon: yea.
Cassie: so, where do you want to go? What do want to do.
Brandon: actually, I have to go, uh, it's work related.
Cassie: what?  Now?  But I just cleared my schedule for you..
Brandon: (whispers) clear your schedule for your husband
Cassie: sorry. What was that?
Brandin: I said clear your schedule for your damn husband. We sat here for the longest and most painful 15 mins talking about how he thinks your cheatin-
Cassie: cheating? He knows I'm cheating? He said that? Don't mess with me Brandon, I know your mad I left you here with him but that doesn't mean you should say things like that to hurt me.
Brandon: I'm not lying Cassie he knows and he wants to be a better husband... For you. I thought I could do this. I thought I could get involved with a married woman. But let's face it the husband wins, he'll always win and I don't think I want a front seat to the 'happy ever after show'. I'm done Cassie.
Cassie: but Brandon I- I know it's hard but I don't love him, I stopped loving him a long time ago you need to believe that we won't last. And if you just wait, he'll be out of the picture.
Tom comes in after he's overheated the last few lines: I left my keys... (Walks away and turns around) oh and I'm moving out.
Cassie: Tom wait!
Brandon gets up to leave too.
Cassie:wait  Brandon don't leave too! What the hell just happened?

Two scenes

1.https://mail.cheshireacademy.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=4c017356b2734bff98c5b7bd60db538e&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.bhplayhouse.com%2findex.php%3foption%3dcom_mtree%26task%3datt_download%26link_id%3d649%26cf_id%3d24

2. https://mail.cheshireacademy.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=4c017356b2734bff98c5b7bd60db538e&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.bhplayhouse.com%2findex.php%3foption%3dcom_mtree%26task%3datt_download%26link_id%3d145%26cf_id%3d24

Broadway or Bust

This show was really inspiring, I enjoyed watching young adults really push for their dreams and work hard to achieve them. Each new episode brought new challenges, and thing got more difficult and there were more tears and sweat but at the same time these kids were growing. They were learning and they kept moving forwards rather than give up. I was kind of surprised that certain people like Brittany and Evan didn't win because they showed amazing skills they took extra steps and weren't afraid to push passed their limits but at the same time you could see that they had no control over their abilities. So what I learnt while watching this show is that talent does come naturally but it takes practice and self control to really make it to where you want to end up.

Theater notes

Musical vs straight play

Musical Review: less of a story line
Operetta: all singing, hardly any dialogs

Monologue vs dialogue

Monologue: one person
Dialogue: two people

Projection: stage voice
Diction / articulation: clear pronunciation

Proscenium stage/ thrust stage:

down stage: toward audience
Up stage: back


Blocking: movement
Script

Lines- cue line
Adlib improvising lines

When you forget your line in rehearsal say " line"

Costume                
Set.                             Context
Props

Lighting
Sound effects

Actor

Body lang
Social exp
Line delivery
Reaction
Chem/ interaction

Elements of musical theater

Pitch . Note accuracy
Rhythm. Tempo
Dance
Emotion
Expression

Backstory- develop character
Momotivation- why
Find a backstory is what a director would ask you to do

Voices of the High School

My scene is from a play called Voices of The High School, my character is a girl named Stacey. She's an awkward teenager who is interested in her friends brother. The setting is in Bruce, her friend's brother's room. He is in a a box when she enters and the whole play is based on the questions of why and how he got into the box. They also go back and forth dropping hints in the middle of conversations as well as making minor physical contact when Stacey enters the box so you can tell the two are somewhat interested in each other.

As I played the scene I noticed the words were short and direct, straight to the point and there was a huge feel of awkwardness as I read my lines. So I decided to put myself I. The shoes of a girl who has a crush on a boy and knows the boy feels the same way. Except as I read through there were parts where she seemed to be flirting a lot and then towards the end she played hard to get. So I tried to balance my performance and play both parts as a cruelty as I could. Although I feel like the last parts in the scene weren't played very well. For example when Stacey said, "mutual, I see why you like this place. There's no worrying about diets and knocknees or anything," I feel this line was a bit confusing to me I didn't know if she was flirting back or just taking note of the fact that he liked her but she just didn't care. So for me this line was a little of. Also, during my performance there were some lines that I kept forgetting maybe because there were many, oh' s and uh Huh's becase at some point I didn't know were to place them in the scenes. And lines started getting mixed up in my head but all in all I think I managed to memorize as much as I could.

Overall I enjoyed acting out this play because it was a little challenging and I like to try new ways of performing. And it's a good thing that the characters were teenagers because I' m a teenager as well so I didn't have to pretend or work extra hard in that department. I also liked the fact that the lines were short it wasn't so hard to memorize but the scene itself was pretty long so it was a little hard to get all my lines. Otherwise, I think I did an ok job,not my best but maybe with more practice I could learn to act out characters much better.

Winter play ❄️❄️

During this winter I was fortunate enough to take part in the winter play. The Cheshire Varsity Players performed The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee which was originally written by Rachel Sheinkin. It's based on five kids with hopes of win a spelling bee contest. But as they come closer to the price they learn a few lessons on the way. The show was comedic, educational and emotional and I loved every part of it. I mostly enjoyed the musical aspects in the show, partially because I got to perform in it. But mostly because it was well organized and fun to watch. I also enjoyed watching students that I knew get into character, they performed like professionals and I was absolutly impressed.

The Cheshire varsity player's version the 25th annual Putnam county spelling bee, involved five actors playing they spellers, two actors played the judges, there was a counselor, some cheerleaders and the audience ( family members of the conestants). Another interesting part of the play was that three audience members were chosen to take part in the play. The spellers were required to spell the word correctly in order to move to the next stage. If they misspelled the word the counselor and cheerleaders would kindly walk them offstage and give them an apple juice to go. The five spellers each had different characters, one was book smart and looked well groomed to win a spelling bee. Another speller was a perfectionist and losing was not in her vocabulary. The third speller was a little bit all over the place he wasn't considered smart in his family but his spelling was excellent. The fourth speller was a guy with erection problems and all around seemed to have lots of embarrassing scenes in the show. The last actor was a quiet and shy girl who had bad social skills. And All together these actors made the show an entertaining one.

When I heard my dance class was going to be part of a musical I wasn't expecting much, especially when they told me the musical was about kids...spelling. So when I entered the black box ready to dance and move on I was surprised to see familiar faces performing fantastically, they created funny,silly, clever characters with ease. When the dance crew came in it was a bit chaotic at the beginning. Songs were slower than dances or vis versa. But each day we practiced and got the hang of things and soon the show came to life. Sometimes during rehearsal, when the Dancers took a break, I'd sit and watch whatever I could from front stage. I enjoyed the actors and thier vibrant attitude, they were loud and the singing was well performed. The orchestra gave the play more life as well.

Overrall I enjoyed being part of the play, I enjoyed watching from front and backstage. Because I got a chance to see the actors stress out and panic only to conquer their fears and walk on stage with confidence. I was also able to see people I knew, and who I never thought would be part of a play, perform amazingly and actors who I already knew had the talent were still able to surprise me again. The show was well directed, organized and performed.