Practical Skills

02/04/19- Acting

We began today's acting lesson by reading our script through. Our teacher gave us notes as we went along about characterisation. My notes were to connect more with my character and understand his feelings in each song. We talked about our characters and the deeper meaning behind their feelings. I wrote out a few lines about my character in the first person, so that I could get into Franks shoes and begin to feel his emotions: 'My name is Frank n Furter and I am a transvestite from Transsexual in the galaxy of Transylvania. My servants are named Riff Raff, Magenta and Columbia and I am working on creating a beautiful creature named Rocky Horror'. My strength this lesson was my knowledge of the show and how I used this to understand Frank more. For example I understood his relationships with the other character so could use body language to show this onstage, moving closer to Rocky to show a romantic connection. My weakness this lesson was confidence, I need to have more confidence in my movement towards other characters to make it look ,ore believable.  My targets from this lesson were to research greater into my character and actors that have played him, to get inspiration on how I am going to play Frank.

Singing 29/04/19

In today’s lesson we wanted to rehearse a song which involved most of the cast, we decided this would be the best use of our time as we could work on harmonies and ask the solo parts within the song. We chose to work on ‘Rose Tint My World’, which is the final number in the show. My parts in the song are quite low for me and I am struggling to be heard. My strength this lesson is retaining the harmonies and being able to belt them our and still blend with my classmates voices. My weakness this lesson was projection. My target from this lesson is to work on projection the song and pronouncing the words, so that the audience can understand what is going on in the song. I will do this by practising at home and listening to the song, so that I know what the song is about, therefore I can perform it in a more convincing way. Also I will experiment with the song and try it up the octave to see if this fits my voice better. Overall the lesson went well and the songs harmonies are coming along well.

Singing 02/05/19

We decided that today we were going to continue working on ‘Rose Tint My World’ as we needed to review our progress and see if it had improved from the last time we rehearsed it. We had some trouble with the backing track today, as it didn’t have the correct instrumental sections in it to for our choreography. We tried using other tracks until we found the track we had originally been working with. The song had definitely improved and I am happy with my vocal sections now, my voice is much more projected and you can understand what I am saying a lot better. We moved on to work on ‘Time Warp’, we have sung through the song many times and been working hard on the 3 part harmony. I am not in ‘Time Warp’ but I need to remember to sing from the wings. To finish the lesson we worked on ‘Eddies Teddy’. We learnt the basic tune and notes of the song. At the end we tried to spilt into 3 groups for a harmony, I was on the middle harmony with Rina. I found the harmony difficult to pick up as it was close to the melody line. My target is that I need to practise the harmony  at home, so that if doesn’t clash with the other notes. 

Acting 07/05/19

We ran through the whole show from beginning all the way to 'Rose Tint My World'. In my opinion this went okay but some scenes are still a bit messy, for example the final death scene. I kept missing cues and messing up my lines, I need to have more confidence when performing my lines, so that I can focus on my character more than looking at my script. My strength this lesson was my energy and my weakness this lesson was not knowing my lines. My target for next time is to be completely off script.

Singing 08/05/19
In today's lesson we recapped the 'Time Warp' harmonies and went through a lot of my peers solo songs from the show: The Sword Of Damocles and Science Fiction Double Feature. We worked on the backing vocals in 'Science Fiction Double Feature', we sing 'oohs' and 'bowowow' in the background to create more depth to the song. My strength today was my patience as I wasn't doing a lot of singing today but I was able to start singing with a lot of energy when I was required.

Singing 09/05/19

Today we went through all of the songs in the show without pausing in between each song. This was useful as we could see which songs we need to work on still and which songs we feel happy with. We also ran through some of the choreography with the songs to start getting the hang of singing and dancing at the same time. Today’s rehearsal went well and I am happy with how the songs and choreography is coming along together. I need to work on making the choreography and vocals in ‘Sweet Transvestite’ more slick, as it is my entrance to the show it needs to be dramatic and strong. I am going to perform in front of family at home and ask them to tell me which bits need cleaning, as it is easier to see mistakes from an audience perspective.

Singing 13/05/19
In today's lesson we worked on 'Eddies Teddy' and 'Hot Patootie'. Both of these are Ghazall's songs and we (the chorus) only sing the chorus with her. So we worked on the harmonies and also staying in time and working out when to come in for the chorus. My strength this lesson was knowing the lyrics to the songs and being able to teach my classmates the tune of the song. ,y target for next lesson is to remember the harmonies for each of the songs we went through today. 

Acting 14/05/19

Today in acting we worked on the final scene of the show where Frank, Rocky and Columbia die. This scene is messy and we don't know all of our lines and cues. My strength this lesson was staying in character even though we were stopping and starting the scene a lot to get it right. My weakness this lesson was knowing my cues and lines, so My target for next time is to be completely off script for this scene so that it flows better and I can give other actors ion stage their cue from my line.

Jazz/ Musical Theatre rehearsal 16/05/19

Today in our Jazz and Musical Theatre Lesson we ran through the whole of Rocky Horror to show our teacher Shannon the final product. We asked her to give us feedback and corrections, so we know what we need to fix before the show.

My feedback:

• Throughout the whole show I need to work on eye contact with the audience and facial expressions towards the audience to make my performance more comical and over the top.
• The spacing in ‘Make You A Man’ needs to be more sparse as we are clumped together 
• I need to make moments more cheesy and dramatic to exaggerate the story line 
• We need to work on the final death scene as it is messy and we don’t know the order of our lines.

Singing 16/05/19

Today's rehearsal we were in the dance studio, so we were able to put our singing and dancing together and do a complete run of all the numbers in the show. I found this particularly helpful as I was able to hear how I sounded signing my songs whilst dancing, so I knew if I needed to make any adjustments, to improve the quality of either my singing or dance. My strength this lesson was staying in character whilst signing. My weakness today was how out of breath I became when singing and dancing at the same time, this is something I need to work on at home. Therefore, My target for next lesson id to work on breath control by running around my room whilst signing my songs to practise not getting breathless.

Technical Theatre rehearsals 17/05/19

For our rehearsals today we went into the theatre with the production students. This gave them the opportunity to practise lighting and placing set into the stage at the right times and also let us get used to the space which we will be performing in. We ran through each scene and song, stopping in between so that the production students could wrote down cues for lights and sound and practise taking props on and off stage. Today was a great rehearsal as we got to work on our final performance, we got the chance to adjust our choreography to fit in the space and also work on projecting out voices to be heard in the theatre space. We specifically worked on ‘Rose Tint My World’ so that we could map out our steps on the q build at the back of the stage, so that we knew exactly where we were going.

Technical Theatre rehearsals 20/05/19

Today in our technical rehearsal we practised with mics, we finished with the show where we left off and continued with the rest of the show. We had the chance to hear how we sounded with mics and without, it made me much more aware of how I project my voice in a large space. I specifically worked on my projection in ‘Sweet Transvestite’ and I am happy with the way I sound in the space.

Technical Theatre rehearsals 21/05/19

We rehearsed the whole show from beginning to end with all the lights and sound fx. We cannot use mics in our performance any more, as we have had some problems with not having enough mics and also not having the correct legal frequencies. However, this will not be a problem as we can project our voices loud enough for the audience to hear. From this rehearsal I have realised I need to work on staying in my character and knowing my cues.

Costume and prop Run 22/05/19

Today’s rehearsal was a success and we managed to do a full costume and prop run in the theatre. It was important to carry out this rehearsal, so we could perfect any costume changes or prop cues etc. We performed it in front of a photographer, who took pictures along the way. It was nice to perform to a small audience, as it warmed us up for our evening performance in front of our peers and family.

ALEXANDRA GREEN AS USHERETTE SINGING SCIENCE FICTION DOUBLE FEATURE

TILIA LAWSON AND BETHANY DOHERTY AS BRAD AND JANET SIGNING DAMMIT JANET

BRAD AND JANET INSIDE FRANK'S HOUSE

LEAH BRADSHAW AS RIFF RAFF

ALEXANDRA GREEN, LEAH BRADSHAW AND RINA YEFET AS MAGENTA, RIFF RAFF AND COLUMBIA SIGNING THE TIME WARP

MAGENTA, RIFF RAFF AND ELLA BOTTON (NE) AS FRANK N FURTER SIGNING SWEET TRANSVESTITE

SWEET TRANSVESTITE

FRANK SINGING TO BRAD AND JANET IN SWEET TRANSVESTITE

MAGENTA AND COLUMBIA UNDRESSING BRAD AND JANET

'PUT THESE ON THEY WILL MAKE YOU FEEL LESS... VULNERABLE'

FRANK PRESENTING HIS BIOCHEMICAL BREAK THROUGH

FRANK FLIRTING WITH JANET

NEHEMIE BABADI AS ROCKY HORROR SINGING THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES

FRANK AND ROCKY MEETING FOR THE FIRST TIME

FRANK ADMIRING HIS CREATION

MAKE YOU A MAN REPRISE

FRANK AND ROCKY MARRY

ACT 2 SCENE 1: BRAD AND FRANKS SEXUAL ENCOUNTER

JANET AND ROCKY BECOME CLOSE

JANET SEES BRAD CHEATING ON HER

FRANK SPOTS DR SCOTT ON THE MONITOR

GHAZALL SHARANI AS DR SCOTT 

FRANK CONFRONTS DR SCOTT

FRANK BANISHES OF COLUMBIA

DR SCOTT SINGING EDDIES TEDDY

MAGENTA GROWS WEARY OF PLANT EARTH

FRANK SIGNING ROSE TINT MY WORLD

ROSE TINT MY WORLD 

FRANK SINGING DON'T DREAM IT BE IT

WILD AND UNTAMED THING

WELCOME TO THE FLOOR SHOW

RIFF RAFF AND MAGENTA ENTER AS EXTRATERRESTRIAL ALIENS

FRANK SIGNING I'M GOING HOME

I'M GOING HOME

BLUE SKIES THROUGH THE TEARS IN MY EYES 

FRANK AND BRAD SAYING GOODBYE

FRANK SAYING FAREWELL TO HIS FRIENDS

FINAL GOODBYES

FRANK, ROCKY AND COLUMBIA ARE KILLED BY RIFF RAFF

ROCKY MOURNS FRANK'S DEATH

USHERETTE CLOSES THE SHOW WITH SCIENCE FICTION DOUBLE FEATURE REPRISE

FINAL CAST BOWS

Final Prop Run 23/05/19

This morning we decided to do run through the whole show with just the props so that we were more prepared for our show in the evening. This was great for us and the production students as we both had equal opportunities to run through our roles in the production. This run was smooth and the show is now really coming together. 

Overall use of practical skills