Alfie's Musical Theatre Blog

  This is my write up for 'Revolting Children'. Here I talk about my SMART targets, the themes of the musical, and what skills are needed for the routine.

  In this initial workshop with the choreographer I tried to focus on my timing and my pace and energy. I was also focusing on my movement memory, because when I learn choreography, there's high chances that I can forget it after practising it a couple of times. This is important so that an audience can be interested in my movements and believe my characterisation. At (0:21-0:23) you can see that I'm out of time with the rest of the group, and also looking the wrong way. To improve on this I need to make sure that I properly learn the choreography, and focus more on my timing. My body language needs to suit the character, which should be a ten year old student in primary school. I tried to initially understand this character by focusing on what they're talking about, and rebelling. Running in at (0:02 - 0:007) I need to have more energy and my facial expressions need to be more poignant and resemble a rebelling 10 year old. Next rehearsal I want to focus on my characterisat...

  This is my write up for the Rent Rehearsal with the Musical Director. Here, I discuss the different skills we have to work on, what we, as a company, decided on, and my SMART targets for the session.

  This is my Peer Observation with my response.

  This was the first singing rehearsal for the song "Seasons of Love" from Rent. In this initial workshop I tried to focus on my projection of my voice so that I could be heard over my peers. It's important to work on projection so that everyone can hear you. At (0:24-0:34) I am holding my head up so that my voice can be louder and heard better, as it will travel better throughout the room. As an alto, I needed to raise my pitch to match the performer in the original song. Having a naturally deep voice, focusing on the pitch is important so that I can match both the backing track and my peers. Also, raising my pitch helped me to project as well, as going deeper forces me to lower my head which means that my voice won't travel as much throughout the room. The musical director stood at the front of the room helping with harmonies. I went on the lower harmony being an alto, so I need to make sure I keep up my projection. My target for the future would be to work on my ar...

  This is my first rehearsal log for Hamilton's 'Non-Stop'. We explore the script and analyse this, looking at the characters and their relationships. I also talk about the context of the whole musical, to get a feel of how my characterisation should be as the character of Aaron Burr. 

  This is my solo assessment, with feedback from my director. It also includes my own self assessment on my solo piece and my SMART targets on how to develop from the feedback given from my director and from myself. 

  In this initial workshop with the director, I focused on my articulation and pronunciation of my lines. This is important so that an audience can understand what I'm saying very clearly. During my speech in the song (0:31 - 1:00), I'm trying to focus on my projection because I'm not singing the words, but instead I'm talking them. This means that my articulation and projection are especially important because people, both audience and peers, need to hear what I'm talking about. Next rehearsal, I want to focus on slowing down my lines, as during this initial workshop and in the speech, I'm going through my lines fast, as can be seen in the gaps during the music. This means I also want to work on my musicality. 

These are my Smart Targets for this course. I will refer back to these during rehearsals and the final showcase to ensure that they are properly met. They are extremely important in order to achieve the best performance in the showcase. I want to be sure that I achieve the right characterisation, tempo and spatial awareness to show the energy and confidence of Burr in Hamilton.

This is my initial skills audit on the Musical Theatre unit in B-TEC Performing Arts. It shows my initial understanding of the skills required to perform and rehearse musically. I will refer back to this audit throughout the course to make sure I know what to work on over time.