Betsy-Jo Warren 2939

Final evaluation

On Thursday 23rd of February I performed in my showcase called ‘A Night at the Musicals’ it contained all three art forms that I was being examined for. The idea of this showcase was to have each performance go into the one that had previously been on stage, this is so that there were smooth transitions and that the performance didn’t seem jumpy. In order to prepare for this I had to develop my existing skills in order to prove could acting and dance.

In this showcase I had to show that I was capable of performing all three art forms. In order to do this I had choose songs and dances from musicals that included all three, me and my group decided that All that Jazz and Cell Block Tango from Chicago would be perfect as they contain monologues to act while I would have to sing and dance. I also had to take part in a solo performance and an ensemble singing piece.

In order to start learning Cell Block Tango and All that Jazz I had to learn about the choreographer and his background. I started to look at how Fosse grew up and learnt about all of the promiscuous clubs and bars he used to perform in. This foreshadowing his later career and how it includes sexual tones throughout. Fosse’s style is very contorted and focuses on certain parts of the body, for example he would choreograph movements where only the wrist would be moving and the performers would have to isolate the rest of their bodies.

I had to be able to perform the same dance routine to the one that they do in the show, however many versions of the dance are performed in chairs, my group and I felt that it didn’t look very intimidating, and wouldn’t be functional for our showcase as wewould need to be able to get of stage really quickly and try to take the chairs with us as there would be no time for stage crew to take them away. When researching different versions of Cell Block Tango, My group and I found one where the performers were using a ballet bar. This looked effective as it allowed us all to have different levels and would work better with the limited space we would be provided with when the stage was built.

Before I started to learn the choreography the group had to decide which character they would be paying, I picked to play June, the woman who stabs her husband ten times, this was important as it allowed me to start working on characterisation straight away. One skill that i struggled with was my characterisation as I didn’t have the same amount of confidence in my acting ability than I did within my singing and dancing ability. Because I knew I would have longer to prepare my character it put me at ease and allowed me to really go into depth, and figure out what qualities made my character how she was.

When i started to learn the choreography i felt like June was the sassy woman and that the change in music while I was performing my monologue proved it. So when I would perform my monologue I would have her come across as crazy to emphasise how much her husband has affected her mental state. However In order to improve my company and I would record ourselves performing the sections that we had learnt .This meant that when we watched them back we could see where we needed to improve. When watching it back I realised that within the context of the show Chicago, my character would be found guilty if she acted the way I was playing her, This motivated me to change how I played my character and make her come across as much calmer and calculated in order to imply that her murder was pre planned and not an ‘accident’.

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I started learning the choreography in different sections starting with the parts that were the most challenging and would take the longest to perfect. However half way through learning the routine we all knew that it would have to be modified so that we could have the maximum amount of breath control and be able to project while singing. This meant the kicks and hair whips have to be removed so that our song wasn’t being aimed at the floor in some sections and lose its power for the audience.

When learning all that jazz the main problems I had was timing and being able to get into those awkward Fosse positions. The reason this was important was because I needed to be able to show that I could perform the style of dance that my practioner (Bob Fosse) would choreograph and to depict my understanding of his choreographic style. All that jazz was an easier dance routine to learn as it was all dances and sang in unison. I learnt All that Jazz relatively quickly, this gave us more time to polish off the dance and make sure that all our movements were executed at the same time in order for it to have the desired effect for the audience, and to show that I had an understanding of the dance and knew how it was meant to be performed.

To improve upon All that Jazz we recorded ourselves performing it. This enabled us to see if we were all in time and allowed us to be picky with our problems.For example one movement we had to fix was when our hands had to come down and be flat. As before we watched the recording our hands were all facing different angles.

I had to source all of my costume and props, as I didn’t own a leotard or character shoes I had to purchase some. The only problem I faced with this was that I struggled to dance in a heel. This was something that I had to put practice into and to do this I would bring them to every rehearsal and wear them to rehearse in. I also soaked them in water and scored the souls of the shoe in order to have the maximum amount of grip, so that I could build up my anger and power throughout the dance and not feel unbalanced.

The second challenge I faced was the height of the bar we had to dance on. As I am currently 5” tall It was difficult for me to look ‘stretched out’ and ‘promiscuous’ while reaching the height of the bar. In order to fix this our technician had to cut it down and lower it so it was more accessible for the smaller members of the group. However even when this modification had been completed, the bar was still difficult to use as there was a leg facing vertically on the floor, this meant that we had to be aware of it and step over it within the dance without making it obvious for the audience members watching. On the night of the show we all did this with ease and carried on making our faces and movements the focus point of the show.

It was necessary for me to rehearse with other teachers as they were able to improve upon skills that other teachers couldn’t. An example of this is working with Mrs Guy. She is a singing teacher and helped me to improve upon my confidence while singing and my projection by teaching me how to support my voice. To do this I had to pull up my muscles in my lower abdomen and make sure my diaphragm was wide. After learning this and working with her for a few weeks I felt capable to perform in the showcase confidently, and give myself moments to show my individual talent to the audience. One of these moments were when I sang my solo ‘Somewhere That’s Green’ in Little Shop of Horrors. This is the song that I had to on work the most at as I wouldn’t have anyone else’s vocals to depend on. This was when my work on projection was crucial as I had to be able to sing out through the whole theatre. I was told by Mrs Guy to ‘Sing behind you, and to project your voice to fill all of the space behind you’. This

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was so that I would use more energy while singing and push myself to project even further. The one aspect about singing and projection that shocked me was that you need to but in so much more energy to sing the softer, more intimate parts of the song than what you need when you’re belting out a song.

Somewhere thats Green was not the only song that I had to work with Mrs Guy on, I also sang with my ensemble, ‘Little Shop of Horrors’, Skidrow’, ‘Seasons of Love’ and ‘Cell Block Tango’. It was important for us all to attend these sessions as she helped us with our harmonies and solos. She made it possible for us to structure our vocals in order to let the solos shine through, an example of this is in seasons of love when we all sing the bridge together and build up the energy for my final high note where everyone stops singing and the audience then only have one vocal to concentrate on. Though this was an amazing ensemble song to perform it did take me a while to be able to comfortably reach that high note. It was important for me to be able to execute it perfectly as the other members of my team were counting on me, If I didn’t sing it properly or my note went flat it would taint the rest of the performance and bring the energy down within the performance. In order to not let that happen I would practice that high note as much as I could, singings in rehearsals, dinners, after schools and even in the shower, which would actually help my voice as there is a heightened amount of water vapour in the air soothing and lubricating the vocal chords as you sing.

Other than projection, another skill I needed to improve upon was my characterisation. This was when working with my Drama teacher really helped as he always pushed us to emphasise our emotions and to think about our body language and proxemics while performing a scene of libretto. When I said that i would play Audrey in the little scene before Somewhere thats Green, I was challenging myself and trying to push myself out of my comfort zone, as Audrey is a character I haven’t really played before. She’s very coy and girly however in her own world at the same time. The hardest thing for me to get right was her voice as it is very high pitched with an American accent. In order to improve my understanding of this character and how others had played her I watched some video clips on YouTube. While watching I found that a common theme was her walk, where she would have hardly any function in her legs caused by her pencil skirt and her high heels. And she would always seem to look away as she is quite a vulnerable character. I started to try and add these characteristics to the scene, and others had noticed the amount of research id done into this character. My teacher said that I needed to continue practicing those characteristics on order to make my characterisation much more believable. I feel that even when performing the showcase the aspect of Audrey I struggled with the most was her voice and accent, as I felt that I slightly dropped it on the night. Therefore If I were to go back and try and improve upon one thing before the showcase it would be my voice and intonation of my character Audrey.

I feel one rehearsal technique that helped me improve the most was to record ourselves and watch it back as it showed to us where our faults were and what our performance looked and sounded like to an audience. It helped the most when learning ‘All That Tango’ as it allowed me to see if I was in time with all the other dancers and if my movements were sharp enough. One key movement I remember it helping with the most was our hip rolls within ‘All That Jazz’ as everyone was starting at different angles and it looked messy. It allowed us to watch it back and make a decision as to where we were going to start our hip rolls from. We all decided the back left corner would be the perfect place as it was at the same angle for my whole company. I feel that recording ourselves also allowed us to see if there were any chorographical problems. For

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example Rebecca and I have to cross over each other in order to get into the right places for Ella’s monologue. Recording this showed to us whether it was a messy transition or not. Though in rehearsals it wasn’t, when it came to the showcase, I looked a bit unbalanced as I had to guess how much space I had between myself and the bar whilst walking backwards.

We also recorded some of our singing lessons in order for us to be able to hear our different parts and learn them. This was important as it is easy to stand next to another performer and sing their part instead of your own, so by doing this we were able to hear all the different harmonies but pick out our own and learn it without confusion with the others.

To receive a better understanding for Chicago, I first had to understand why it was made and who by. When we first started our preparation for our showcase we stated off with research. We learnt about Fosse’s timeline of work and how he rose to fame. It became clear after watching some of his repertoire that his night life background had really made an impression on him and therefore on his work too. The darker more promiscuous atmosphere he has in his work shines through in Chicago Starting with the outfits worn by the women and finishing with the suggestive chorography demonstrated by the ‘spread eagle’ within Velma’s monologue.

However we didn’t just have to learn about his past, we also had to study the different aspect of his choreography and what made it his own style. I learnt that Fosse took inspiration from himself, it was the reason he wore hats, as he was going bald. Or the reason he isolated different body parts, as his knees were turned inwards and he had to make up a whole new way to dance.

Being able to pick out certain movements that make a performance Fosse style and add them into our own choreography as crucial, we had to learn about the fosse walks and how he would isolate only writs or only legs. I feel that our rendition of ‘All That Tango’ was in true Fosse style, and demonstrated our understanding of Chicago and Fosse himself.

While rehearsing Cell Block Tango we came across some problems, some of them had been captured over our video recordings and rectified however others were made to be improved for practical reasons. One of the most prominent ones was when we had to change the place of a hair flip and some high kicks. The reason we had to remove the kicks were because some of the people within my company were unable to execute them as they required more dance ability than what we had. They reason we had to change the placement of the hair flip towards the end of the song was because, it was impractical to sing and dance at the same time. What I mean by this is that we were singing towards the floor and the level of volume dropped as we were singing. This meant that there was a risk that the back of the theatre wouldn’t be able to hear us at this point. To rectify this problem we moved the hair flip to just before we had to start singing and made it sharper in order for it to seem more aggressive and give to finale more power.

While practicing for our showcase we knew that we would need a male partner to dance with throughout Cell Block Tango, this meant that we firstly had to choreograph our solo sections dancing with the man. My section was shorter than the others however they all followed the same pattern, this was so that the choreography would be easy to learn for whoever would be playing the male lead in our dance. My section of the song was all building up to when I stabbed my ‘husband’ with a carving knife. This was the key moment within my monologue and the point when I would have to start choreographing the male lead. We would all practice being the male for each other in our rehearsals so that we were all familiar with the footwork and could lead the male as we would need to look more powerful.

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After we had rehearsed our parts and felt confident within them it was time to teach our male lead Jack, who had volunteered for us, his parts. To do this we would have lunch time rehearsals and make sure to go through each part as many times as possible. We had to make a few changes with which arm we stab him with or hand him a drink with so that we were using our upstage arms. However they were the only complications we had with working with someone else.

When the stage was built it became clear that we had a lack of stage than what we once had while rehearsing. This meant that we had to adapt our proxemics while dancing in order for us to be able execute the choreography at as high of a standard as what we had been doing in rehearsals prior. It also meant that we could stage how we would enter and exit the stage. This was important as the idea of the showcase

was to have each act coming on straight after the other, depicting that we would need to move quickly in order to stay in time with the music.

I really enjoyed working within an ensemble as it let me experience what it is like within the industry as almost every performer in the industry has been a part of the ensemble within a show. I liked the fact that we all depend on each other and we push each other to be the best that we can be in order to put on the best performance possible. I also learnt so much from the people who surrounded me, for example Rebecca would help me with my dance technique as it wasn’t very good when I first started, and Paige and Ellie helped me with my singing as they have been part of the choir and knew how to help me support my voice and how to look after it. I have developed my confidence whilst working with them and in turn made my contribution to the performance much better and much more valuable.

Within the showcase i had one solo song ‘Somewhere Thats Green’ and solo sections within the songs Little Shop of Horrors, Skidrow and Seasons of Love. I feel that my skills in projection and articulation improved massively as the rehearsal process went on, as the help from Mrs Guy and looking after my voice really made a difference. Because of this improvement my confidence within my singing ability improved also. I think what helped with my development the most is starting off singing songs that were in the ensemble, meaning that i could bounce off of the others energy and push myself to project. This way my singing ability could improve as I needed to be able to sing my part in order for the song sound appealing for the audience.

Because of my growth in confidence I felt that I could sing a solo song after a scene of libretto. This was a challenge for me and I needed to be able to support my vocals as I had no one else to rely on. This used to be a weakness for me as my articulation was poor and so was my projection and characterization. From watching videos and listening to the soundtrack I was able to resonate with the character and make it believable for myself and the audience. When I started getting positive feedback it motivated me further to improve upon my skills and my character.

When I began learning dance techniques i needed to improve on my timing, dynamics and characterization. However from getting help from my dance teacher and learning basic jazz and the Horton technique helped me build a foundation to start learning ‘All That Tango’ and a high standard. However I skill that did help me was my ability to learn choreography quickly and to be able to retain the movements. This allowed me to put in extra practice at home so that I could get my technique perfect.

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Betsy-Jo Warren 2939

In order to improve further I need to continue to develop my dance skills and make sure that my body and muscles stay flexible. I also need to continue to develop my knowledge of the different styles of dance in order to make sure that I am a versatile performer and can dance in many different shows in many different styles. I need to continue to look after my voice and build up my repertoire, and I need to work on my characterization and accents so that I am able to play a wide range of characters.

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