Assessment day 5th December

On the 5th December, we had our Musical Theatre assessment, as a group we performed a Musical number called "OMIGOD" from Legally Blonde, the characters within this song are Margot, Serena, Pilar and Elle,
Abbi Humphrey played Margot, Chris O'toole played Serena, Stacey sherman played Pilar and Danielle Nicole played Elle. For this group number I thought the vocals were very powerful, as I watched the performance back I could see that we all had good energy within the song and the projection was good which also made the performance powerful as well, everyone who participated in this number new the lyrics and they had great characterization which made the song perfect.

For my solo I chose to sing "U.N.C.O.U.P.L.E.D" from Starlight Express, my character is called Dinah the Dining car, and she sings this song in a country/western accent, the vocal range of this song is a mezzo which is a classical female singing voice that the vocal range sits between the soprano and the contralto type, After watching back the performance I wasn't happy with the results, only because I sounded very croaky I didnt project as much as I should, if I could change the song then I would, only because when Ive rehearsed the song I constantly think it is to low for my voice so I tend to get nerves and think that I'm not singing the song properly so it makes me not want to sing it, however I got advised to sing this song by my teacher as it suits my voice but I do need to stop singing in my comfort zone and start trying different ranges.

For "a little more homework"  I thought the song went well apart from the line that Heidi was singing which was "and the days ahead coming on so quick, you gotta get outta the way, keep running" we all mucked up on that part due to Heidi not being in but we had carried on with the performance, I also thought the performance was powerful but not as powerful as "omigod".

Overall I think the full performance was fantastic, we all had great enthusiasm, great attitude towards the musical number and the acting and chracterization was great which gave the performance the extra WOW.

If I had the chance to perform the musical numbers in order I would work more on my own solo to add the final touches that would show a bit more personality of my character. For the other two performances I wouldn't change anything, only because we rehearsed everything on every break we got, we did muck up a bit but as our teacher tells us "if your going to muck up, muck up in style"which I can proudly say we did so overall I was thrilled that everything went smoothly.

During the process of our musical theatre assessment, we'd got the option to rehearse our chosen musical numbers to add the final features that will make the performance more interesting to watch. When, where and how I rehearsed my solo was either at home, or in a break in between lessons. When I'd rehearse at home, I would focus more on the vocals and lyrics to make sure I had the accent, tuning and timing right; also previously when I performed my song to the class I had forgotten the lyrics, so at home I'd go through the lyrics over and over so I got them right for the next performance, in college I'd spend time on the movement to involve interacting with the audience. I then arranged a group rehearsal on a Thursday a few hours before the assessment to ensure that everybody knew the different harmonies and lyrics, for both Legally Blonde and 13, however only 7 people turned up, so I can say I put the effort in for everybody else to learn the lyrics that they were unsure about but yet only half the class turned up, so for future reference I will rehearse all numbers if this were to happen again, but only to my self.

Last friday 29/11/13

In the this lesson we had a dress rehearsal starting from Legally Blonde working through everyone's solo performance, than the finale song which was "A little more homework to do" from the musical 13.

For Legally Blonde (OMIGOD), you would think to wear pink considering it is about a Blonde girl who gets into law school, however everyone who participated in this number hadn't worn pink, they had worn very classy costume, whereas I had brought in a red dress for this performance to add a bit of brightness to the performance, approaching the assessment day I'd change my costume to a beige office type top with black leggings and black formal heels.

My solo song was (U.N.C.O.U.P.L.E.D.) from the musical starlight express, The character who performs this song is called "Dinah the Dining Car" her costume is a sparkly/shimmery dress with roller skates, as I don't own anything sparkly I decided to wear disco leggings, and then buy my dress from the sale section in Primark. The dress was blue and it had silver sparkles dotted within the dress, so when the lights were shining on me, the sparkle would react with the lights and shine more.

For the finale performance "A little more homework to do" My costume for this was a white top with a picture of glasses printed on the T-shirt. I  thought to wear this only because the glasses would symbolize "geek" and as the musical is based around 13 years old's the glasses would work well with the song as they still have a little more homework to do.

 At the end of the lesson our teacher was informing us that the dress rehearsal hadn't gone well, so we then rehearsed the two group numbers on every break we'd got to get it perfect and just before the assessment which was on the 5th of December, I set up a rehearsal time to rehearse everything in running order from the first number through everyone's solo to the last number.

Last lesson 22/11/13

In today's lesson we rehearsed "OMIGOD YOU GUYS" with movement, then we recovered any movements and harmonies that didn't sound right. After we then rehearsed "A little more homework" from the musical 13, we then sat in our harmony groups ( high, middle, low) for this number, I'm in the middle harmony group. Then we got given some time to practice our own solo musical songs that we chose to perform: we then performed them to the class and then we took notes of everyone's performances, the song I chose to perform was U.N.C.O.U.P.L.E.D.  from starlight express. I had performed this song to the class then I read my feedback ( which is the picture) and I agree with all of them purely because my last performance I was bored, I didn't project I wasn't confident because I thought the song was too low for my voice, however since i practiced the song over and over I had it in the right tune that made me comfortable to sing, however these comments has pushed me to try harder for next time. 

Musical theatre assessment feedback

From this I am happy with my comments,

they have gave me the confidence to try harder for next time, and help me improve for future references.

In one of the comments it implies, that I needed to project more, I think the only reason I couldn't project loudly was because of my nerves,

When I sing, I think my tuning is out so I tend to turn my volume down so no one can hear if I had sung a note wrong.

I think if I didn't have such doubt in myself when in comes to singing I wouldn't be so nerves

Legally Blonde

Omigod You Guys
Last week we learnt the song (Omigod you guys) from Legally Blonde we had only learnt half of the lyrics, most of us got given a solo part within the song and then by the end of that lesson our teacher (Dave) selected the person who was going to play "Elle" which was Danielle, So in today's lesson we finished the song, including Elle's lines.
Overall I thought the song was up beat and very exciting it contained a lot of energy and enthusiasm, its a type of song that  puts you in a good mood, which I enjoyed.

When we finished the number I wasn't impressed with the end. It's sounded like a bunch of drowned cats, which was only because we hadn't got enough time to practise each given harmony; also we didn't rehearse it as much so maybe for future reference we could focus more on the ending the anything else. If we'd practised each harmony I reckon it would of sounded like a proper choir than drowned cats.
Here is a Video of our performance so far...
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=595759457150586&set=vb.205058039554065&type=2&theater