10th- 15th may Little shop of Horrors

During this week we have perfected all of the dances, and everyone has improved alot, we are now in time when we dance and it actually looks good now. Ive been spending some time at home looking up my character 'Orin', and been trying to get his voice and style down to a T, i have the leather jacket so all Tom has to do is get his hands on a dentist top, because he is head of costume for the production.

Im very excited because I'm also playing drums in the show swell as acting, so i can show off my performing skills through music also, i need miss to give us the music sheets as soon as possible however, because it takes time learning a new song, especially musical numbers which are technically quite difficult. Especially on drums.

Towards the end of the week we have been focusing on mainly dialogue, we have run it from start to finish now, I'm quite happy because i have a big part in Act 1, then get killed before act 2, so it means i don't have to learn too many lines! I really need to start learning my lines now and practice the dances at home swell as in school. I also need to spend a little time at home working on my characters solo song, which will be quite funny if i get the character spot on, I'm going to watch youtube videos of the movie version and show version so that i can incorporate ideas from both and play the part as well as i can.

Next week i think we will probably run it a few more times to get us used to the play, and then maybe start working on individual songs, i need to ask miss about the sheet music as it is essential that we get it soon. Im a little nervous about singing because i haven't really sung solo in front of my friends, I'm sure if i practice enough ill be fine.

Mr Kelly story telling 15th may

I can't really write much about this lesson because again the majority of the class were out of the room, we decided to try and cast everyone, which ended up taking the whole lesson because of a few debates, at the end of the lesson i was quite disappointed with parts that were given out because i didn't feel some people would suit the characters they were given, i also feel that not many people are getting a chance to be the main character and show us potential. I was quite disappointed when one of my classmates asked not to have a specific part and then was given it, i feel the casting was inaccurate and rushed, hopefully next lesson we can smoothen things out and ill have to just deal with who got what part. Next lesson we will be starting the first scene to jack and the beanstalk, i look forward to the sing songs we are having in the performance, as i feel this will engage and focus the audience, and keep them entertained

Mr kelly tuesday 12th may

In todays lesson most of the people in our lesson were actually taking an exam so were absent throughout the lesson, the rest of us who didn't have exams started planning the next story out, we began scripting each part, decided on how we were going to tell it, and what characters would be in it. We managed to get a brief full script by the end of the lesson, however we will have to go into more detail when the other classmates rejoin  us because they will maybe want to change ideas and move things around. We had the idea of adding in classic sing along songs like ' You've got a friend in me', when jack tells his mum he wants to keep the cow, we thought this would be a good idea because a sing along will be able to have audience participation, hopefully they will be familiar with the song because its in a very popular children's disney film called Toy Story. Although we thought this was a good idea, i had doubts because some of the children might not know the songs or the words, we don't want anyone feeling left out at all. Next lesson we will be sorting out a cast list for the short story of 'Jack and the beanstalk'

Mr Kelly Storytelling Goldilocks 8th may

In todays lesson we Finished off the story, We created alot of new images, for example, we made the bears beds and the table that the porridge goes on. The longest thing we spent on with the shadowing was the actual house, it was very difficult to make a cottage using shadows, however when we did manage to, it looked really effective, we had a chimney on the top to make sure the audience know its a cottage. We decided today that we would have Freya narrating the story, although this may sound a bit strange and sounds like it may ruin the effects, i feel that it will help the children to understand what is going on in the story. We also made the decision in the lesson to perform in our own school, that way we will be able to use our stage, and also it should look really professional because by that point, we would have practiced it on stage a good few times, also it will be fun for the kids to travel up to our school and will be an exciting experience for them.

Ive found out from doing silouhette work is that i have to be focused all of the time, because if your in another scene and forget to go on, it will ruin the whole piece, every shadow counts, if one person is missing the object doesn't look as it should, the children loose engagement because they can't follow the storyline and the whole thing goes kaput. So its imperative that i stay focused. Also the transitions between scenes need to be smooth ones. We decide to roll off which will show that there has been a scene change, the reason for us doing this is that it clearly shows we are changing the scene and moving on with the story, if we didn't and just casually walked off, it would look unprofessional and the audience would get confused.

Little Shop of Horrors 4th-8th May

In this week we have been working alot on the dance and movement scenes of Act 1, right at the beginning the song 'Little Shop Of Horrors', has a dance choreographed by Dan Mckay, it is really fast and it took me a long time for my muscle memory to remember the dance. Because I'm a principle i start off stage, then walk up the stairs and onto the stage, i am also quite near the front when we stand in our dance formation, which is a little out of my depth, especially when it comes to dancing, i usually stand at the back and copy what everybody else is doing, but I've realised I'm actually quite good at staying in time and acting while i dance. Which has made me more confident. We have also worked on the dance for 'Skidrow', which isn't add fast paced as 'Little Shop Of Horrors', however there is singing in it, I'm not a very confident singer, but I'm also coping well with singing all the right parts, and staying in time with the dancing. For next week i plan to start learning my lines. Because i have quite alot in Act 1, i want to focus mostly on my acting, and the way i want to play the character. It shouldn't be too difficult to get into character because I'm a crazy person in general, and the dentist is a bit mad so ill get along just fine

Mr kelly silouhette work 5th May

In todays lesson we again put of the silouhette sheet, and worked on our shadow story telling, I really enjoyed creating objects, for example when we made the forest that Goldilocks walks in, i became a tree with a few other of my classmates, one of us is quite good at making shadows and could make a bird, so they used their hands to show a bird flying around the tree, which looked really good. It took us a while to get used to acting with shadows, we spent quite a few lessons learning how to work with shadows. We have been working through the Goldilocks storyline, trying to get the shadows to look real, it looks good so far. In one part i have to become a building, which looks good because i make the building with another person to bulk the shape out. It looks really realistic. We also spent some time watching shadow movement videos of professionals performing on stage, to see how we can use our bodies to make different things. In the next lesson we will probably re-cap everything we have done so far, and then start to work on some more of the story, I'm looking forward to new scenes because it means we have to become different things. Overall I'm very pleased that we picked to do silhouette work because it will be fun and interesting for the children, and will keep them engaged for the whole duration. Its a great storytelling technique, but will have to be nailed with precision and accuracy, in order for the children to understand what the story is about, and what our shadows are.