Monday 26th November 2018

On Tuesday the rest of the group began with working on “Razzle Dazzle”. I am in this scene, but I’m just sort of sitting around watching this all unfold. So, I decided it would be more beneficial for me and Zoe to go off and work on our piece to ensure that we were 100% confident with the song. So, we ran over the piece as a whole and identified that the cane piece still wasn’t as strong as we’d like it. It was much better after the breaking down and working on our faces that we did the other week, so we decided to try it again but this time work together to identify where we went wrong and that we were both in time together. Sam mentioned to us at the end of last week that we really need to use diction in order to get our volume up on the song as it’s quite low, so both Zoe and I went through the script and identified the parts where we felt that the volume dropped and we ran over this and tried to use Sam’s idea about diction in order to get the volume up.

I decided it would be a good idea for me to familiarise myself with the Razzle Dazzle choreography so that I would know how to react and what to react to. So, I spent the last 10 minutes of the lesson watching their choreography. Nadine told us that on Thursday we would be having a mock exam. This shocked us all because everyone felt that the show was nowhere near ready. For me this acted almost as a warning light as I knew that I wasn’t comfortable with any of my scenes in terms of my lines.

So, Thursday came around and I’d been working tirelessly to attempt to learn my lines and I felt fairly comfortable with most of the scenes apart from mine and Rachels scene. This was manly because it hadn’t really been pieced together much like everything else had. Rachel wasn’t here on Thursday as she had an audition for university and I was well aware that the real date for the exam was getting closer and we still hadn’t pieced it together yet, so it was worrying me, but this meant that I still had time to familiarise myself with the lines.

So, the mock I felt didn’t go half as bad as what I was expecting. It wasn’t perfect, in fact it was far from it, but I was relatively happy. We did have to skip over I can’t do it alone as Rachel wasn’t her but the work Zoe and I had put into Nowadays and Hot Honey Rag really did pay off and we both couldn’t stop smiling throughout because everything was going right. Nadine then gave us some feedback:

1.       She said that the singing and choreography for all that jazz needed a bit of clarification, she said that the beginning was strong, but it was when we got to the call and response bit was when it kind of fell apart and became messy. A lot of us knew that it’d fallen apart when we were doing it as we were all looking at one another in desperation praying that one of us was confident with what we were doing.

2.       Roxie boys it was clear that we weren’t confident with the dance and it really showed in our faces and that we should be more confident with the dance.

3.       In mine and Alex’s first scene together, it was mentioned that Alex kept facing his back to the audience and that he needed to make sure that he was facing the front, this was partially my fault because I keep turning away from him in an attempt to almost conceal myself away from him and he often would try and get me to look at him.

4.       During Razzle Dazzle it was mentioned that I look a bit out of place, and I completely agreed, I really felt like I didn’t know how to react to what was going on, I didn’t know whether to be shocked because he’d stolen the limelight or angry about it. I figured this would be something that I needed to talk to Richard about.

5.       Another thing that was said was that during Razzle Dazzle when Alex run up the stairs was that he needs to be careful on the rostra staging because if he’s wearing socks he could easily slip over and really hurt himself, I need to think about this as well because I don’t own any jazz shoes and had just planned on wearing black socks, so I need to be careful if I do get up on the rostra.

6.       Nadine said that Nowadays was okay, but we need to interact with one another more when we are singing. I think because both of us aren’t confident singers we’re focusing a lot when we’re singing to make sure it sounds alright and we often forget about our faces. So, I think this is something that we need to work on during our spare time rather than wasting lesson time on it.

7.       After Zoe and I had finished our dance no one really knew what was going on afterwards so, Nadine mentioned that this was something that we needed to clarify nearer the show.

On the Friday everyone was mainly working on what they felt needed the most work. We began by clarifying the harmony in All that Jazz, we decided that it would be better for more people to do the higher harmony and for Rachel to do the lower harmony as she’s comfortable with it and she has quite a naturally loud voice. We then ran over Roxie for all of the boys in the scene and really worked on knowing the choreography and ensuring our faces didn’t look like we didn’t know what we were doing. And then I spent a lot of the lesson just writing down my lines and reading them over and over again as I feel like this is the most beneficial way for me to get to know my lines. Rachel wasn’t here again so if she was, we would’ve gone over our scene together, but I figured I would learn the lines so that when she was in, we could instantly get to rehearsing without scripts which would benefit our characterisation and rehearsal process.  I did mention briefly to Richard about how I should react in Razzle Dazzle and he said that he would opt for the angrier kind of reaction just because the whole show is about Roxie gaining the limelight and then all of a sudden he has it. He said that we would work on it during the tech runs when we would have some time to work with props and lighting as well. 

Monday 19th November 2018

Tuesday began with Zoe and I doing the choreography for our number “Nowadays/ Hot Honey Rag”. When I did the audition, I did mention to Nadine that I would preferably like to do this number as it’s my favourite. I like this number because you have the calming nature of the song which then compares to the jazzy upbeat nature of the dance break. However, I’ve only ever watched the film version of Chicago I’d never actually seen the production onstage, so when Nadine mentioned that we were taking the choreography right from the stage I was a bit worried that I wasn’t going to enjoy it as much.  But I was completely wrong, it was very different to the film version, it was a traditional Fosse style, which is out of my comfort zone. But I still really liked it. I felt that once I was comfortable with the choreography I could really add in my fun-loving, a little mischievous, character.

As I’ve mentioned several times, I’m not a comfortable singer. Although I feel like I’ve come a long way in this unit with developing my understanding of sol-far singing and how your body and breathing techniques assist your voice, I definitely have a long way to go. With the song “Nowadays” you use a chest voice, which is great because that’s my comfort zone, however, the song does remain pretty low which makes it harder for me to project my voice. Alongside this I had other things to worry about such as staying in tune, ensuring that my characterisation was perfect and then also worrying about the movement.  As a dancer this came as a challenge to me because I’m used to just worrying about the movements and my facial expressions, this is a whole new ball park. Considering that I’m not 100% confident in one of the areas in which I need to focus on I feel like the dancing and characterisation may suffer a little bit for it.

We completed “Nowadays” which was mainly singing which enabled me to concentrate on my singing especially in the first verse/chorus and we just stand, but with this needs to be some good characterisation in order to keep the audience interested because if not I’m just going to be stood there singing and it’s going to be fairly boring for them. Where the dance element really starts is when we complete a cane sequence. By adding the use of the cane to the performance makes it more challenging for us as performers but enables us to show off to the audience a little bit. Initially I struggled with the cane sequence, but I didn’t want to give up because I felt that it would look really effective if me and Zoe could get it perfectly synchronised. After we’d had a few attempts at this we began to understand the timing of each part of the sequence, however we decided that it would be more beneficial to carry on and learn the rest of the choreography rather than worry about making everything perfect as this could be done at another time.

We then proceeded to learn the choreography for the dance to “Hot Honey Rag”. I was particularly excited for this part as this was the whole reason, I auditioned to be Roxie in the first place. As this is the showstopping piece both Zoe and I knew that it had to be spectacular, therefore both of us were very willing to work hard on this piece to ensure that it was perfect. As we were both strong dancers, we were able to pick up the choreography fairly easily, so we learnt it quite fast. This allowed us some time at the end to polish a few things. Since we’d learnt this so efficiently it meant that we would later have time to focus on the signing and characterisation of the piece, Nadine also left about 16 counts at the end of the piece for our own choreography. Zoe and I briefly spoke about what we could put here, and we both decided that we need to play to our strengths here and incorporate our flexibility into it somehow in order to wow the audience.

On Thursday we began with our regular warm up and then we found out that we were going to be working on our song today (Nowadays). We felt that it would be beneficial if we consolidated what we learnt on Monday so that we were confident with that first and then we could incorporate the singing as we went. First of all, Zoe and I sat down and had a conversation about parts that we were unsure of within the piece and then we talked about the ending. We’d already established that we needed to put something at the end that was particularly impressive, therefore I said that my strengths included leaping and turning, and Zoe’s strengths happened to be the same. Therefore, we decided that we had a base idea for the ending. So, we began with our weaknesses in the choreography and we went over those first, this included the cane sequence, and then we began to construct the ending.

I was still struggling with the cane sequence. Personally, I think because I’m not used to dancing with a prop it became difficult for me to incorporate this in the piece. However, I had a good idea that may help out the both of us. I suggested that if we both performed the sequence to one another and then the other one could point out where it was going wrong and where it could possible be improved. I went first, and Zoe mentioned that I knew exactly what I was doing but she could tell that I was worried about dropping the cane because she could see it in my face. This definitely needed to be sorted out because it’s great if I know what I’m doing, and it goes well but if I drop my characterisation then the audience are going to lose interest. I then watched Zoe and noticed the same thing, so we decided that it would be beneficial to us to break it down section by section and then work on our characterisation alongside it. That was we would not only begin to feel comfortable with knowing what we were doing we could then remember to include our facial expressions alongside it.

For the ending we included a sequence of leaps and turns and decided to end it with the splits, thus making it a grand finale for the audience. We felt that this would be a good use of levels within the performance as a lot of the performance had been completed pretty upright, in the traditional Fosse angular style.

Then Ralph came in and we began to go through the song. The first starting point was that Ralph pointed out to us that we’d been singing the first two nowadays wrong. The first nowadays was lower than we thought and the second one was higher than we thought. He pointed out that if we looked at his score you could see the difference between the two notes. We weren’t given scores, so we didn’t know this, but this helped me out in understanding why a score was so important. I’d heard several members of the group question why they didn’t have a score, but I was confused as to why they were worried because they had the lyrics, but now I understand. Because if you look at the score, the way you’re supposed to sing the song matches the way that ralph plays, which would’ve helped us in understanding how high/low we would’ve needed to sing the nowadays. We then sang through the rest of the song and Ralph was happy with the way it sounded, but he did mention that we need to be louder, which I knew would be a problem for me anyway, he suggested that we stand tall and think about the sound coming from the front of our mouths and ensure that we use diction.

Sam began the lesson by talking to us about the importance of diction. He said that using diction is like using a microphone. If you place your hand in front of that microphone and sing you won’t be heard but if you remove that hand, then you shall be heard. By using diction, it assists with your projection. Therefore, I feel like I need to consider this when singing “Nowadays” to help me project more.

After this we ten attempted to sing, dance and act the whole thing together. Honestly, I thought it was going to be a car crash, but it wasn’t. the singing we focused on in the beginning I thought a lot about the use of diction. The cane sequence went particularly well even though I could see my face dropping at several points when catching myself in the mirror. The ending we added was a little messy and needed fixing, but Ralph and Sam said that for a first time run through it was particularly successful, but they both mentioned that characterisation was key. So, I think the next step forward would be to ensure that our characterisation remains constant.

Friday Nadine came in and took Rachel off to do “I can’t do it alone”. I knew that I’m sat there during her performance, but she suggested that she should learn it and get more comfortable with it first before I come in which I felt was a valid point on her behalf. So, I went off with everyone else to go over the Roxie/ reporter scene and dance with Richard.  First, we performed the scene and the dance in its entirety so that Richard could gather and idea of what we’d got so far. I think it’s safe to say the dance fell apart a little. Nobody thought to video the dance when we did it, so we all forgot what was happening and that was Richard’s first comment, that the dance needed working on. His second comment was discussing how we were going to make an obvious transition from the reporters to Roxie’s boys. He suggested the potential use of a prop or additional piece of costume that would distinguish us from the characters. I began to think outside the box a little bit and instead of having a costume or prop I decided that I would use my characterisation instead of obviously changing/ getting rid of a prop. I felt that this would enable me to show off my dramatic skills. So, for the reporters I’m very much like a show off, wanting my headline to be the most heard and the most startling, and then for my boy I’ve constantly got a performance face, quite sultry but I don’t try to steal Roxie’s limelight, I’m quite neutral and quiet.

Richard then spent some time working with Roxie and going over her monologue, whilst this was happening, I decided to grab hold of my script and clarify what parts of Roxie I was actually singing as I still wasn’t quite sure. I felt that this would be a more useful display of my time rather than just sitting there. After this was finished, we then collectively went over the dance and song. Richard mentioned that we all looked unsure and that we should break it down and go over everything and then slowly piece it back together, much like me and Zoe did. I find this type of practice useful because it helps me to remember the choreography and then add in the other elements (singing and dancing) into the mix, with maximum efficiency and minimal confusion.

During this Rachel had started on her choreography for “I can’t do it alone” with Nadine. So after we'd finished going over Roxie, I took this opportunity to ensure that I was running over my lines as I have quite a chunky paragraph after she finishes her performance. I’m never very good with remembering lines and I feel like this is a definite weakness of mine and something that throughout these processes I have gotten better at. I also began to think about my potential responses to her actions and some of the things she says, I thought about how I would sit at that table almost angling myself away from her to really show my dislike towards her. Rachel has a few little jokes that are imbedded into the song and I thought that when she says those lines, I would acknowledge how stupid those jokes were and accent them with an eye roll or a really sarcastic laugh just to reiterate to the audience my pure dislike for Velma.

 After I finish the Roxie dance, I have to rush of quickly and get changed into my Roxie costume in that time I realised I only have one very short scene to do this, which I think is going to be a bit of a problem for me. So, we began working on the scene before mine and Zoe's dance and found out that this scene relied on timing the action with the lines. For example, Lex says will the defendant please rise, and at that point I have to rise onto the staging that I’m stood in front of, Keira bursts in and says her lines and cuts someone off and that then result in everyone rushing out. So as a group we need to make sure that everyone knows their cues and that the scene flows rather than keep starting and stopping. The song before this is “Razzle Dazzle” and everyone who is in the judge scene is in “Razzle Dazzle” including me, so we decided that we needed to consult Richard on how one scene would flow into the other next lesson as we'd run out of time.

Monday 12th November 2018

We began with the same warm up in dance as per usual, but I’ve often been doing the warm up in socks and today when we were moving around I kept finding that I was sliding around a lot. So I thought it would be a good idea to remove them in case I fell whilst dancing. We did the warm up with the star-jumps and the counting again, and once again I was able to project more and I found that I wasn’t so out of breath afterwards. Today I would be dancing as we were doing the choreography to “Roxie” in which I’m a part of the company. However before the dance occurs there is a group of reporters that all say a headline of a different news paper. As we read our these lines I discovered that I was using the same voice that I used for when I’m being Roxie, now considering that someone else is playing her at the moment I figured that it would be best if I changed my pitch/ tone of my voice so that it’s different.

We continued on to the dance which is mainly all about Roxie, therefore I decided that my character should be quite subdued and not too elaborate as the focus really needs to be on her at the time. A lot of our movements are the same as hers but not quite as big, by filling down our movements it makes her stand out more and us seem like the back ups like we are. The company have to sing in this song as well which I’d completely forgotten about because I was so focused on the dancing. When Nadine played the backing track we all haven’t it our best shot but none of us really knew what we were singing so we decided as a group that this needed to be worked on with Ralph, so for the duration of the dance we mainly sang. Although we need to concentrate on both elements (dancing and singing) it allowed us to get the motor programme of the dance in our heads and that way we would be able to focus on the singing as we’d be confident with the dance.

We then did a run through of “All That Jazz”. Personally I feel that I coped very well considering I learnt the dance in one lesson and very quickly. I remembered the base choreography however because we’ve lost someone from the class it really confused me as to where I need to be in the spacing for certain parts and everyone got a bit muddled. So for most of the run through I stayed at the back of the space to ensure that I could still go over the main choreography and not get in anyone’s way doing it. After the dance was over everyone agreed that there were certain bits that we needed to go over, so we refined these and then did a run through again. We added in the singing as well and I noticed that I was able to reach the note of the harmony and everyone else did as well so it sounded really good!

On Thursday’s lesson we began with Sam talking to us about the difference between a tone and a semitone. A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone and it is the smallest musical interval. It is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically. It is defined as the interval between two adjacent notes in a 12-tone scale. A tone is an interval equalling two semitones. For example, the distance between C and D is a tone, because between C and D there is a distance of two flats (from C to C# and from C# to D). In terms of instruments a classic guitar, electric guitar, bass, ukulele, and many more, each fret corresponds to a semitone. We completed a very similar warm up compared to last week, beginning with our breathing exercises, which meant breathing in for 8 counts and exhaling for 10 counts. Before we started rehearsals for Chicago I was never able to understand or know how to control my breathing and ever since these rehearsals I’ve been able to develop my understanding and control of my breathing, which in turn assists me with my singing.

We then began with singing over “Roxie”, this was particularly beneficial for me because although I know the song, I know it from the perspective of singing it as Roxie, not the company. Once it had been clarified which parts the company sing and what they don’t, I was able to understand how the chorography links with the song. The song almost works as a conversation between Roxie and her “Boys”. For this song I had to also consider my portrayal of the “boy” that I’m playing, simply because I don’t want to be acting feminine because one, I’m not and two, I don’t want to act in the same way that I do when I’m Roxie because I’m not her at this point. After we’d finished doing this the others went over “Cell Block Tango” as they were still unsure of it, so I decided to go into another practice space and try and match up the singing with the choreography so that I was sure of which piece came where.

Singing and dancing at the same time has never been my strong point as I don’t have a naturally strong voice in the first place, so this particular musical is quite challenging. In terms of the choreography it’s not necessarily complex it’s just concentrating on two of the elements at one time can be difficult, and in order to make the performance successful both of these need to be of good quality. If you can sing really well but can’t remember the dance then it’s just going to look atrocious. So I felt like this is a very important thing for me to focus on in order to make my performance successful. Initially I struggled because I couldn’t remember the choreography because I was focusing on ensuring that my singing was in the right pitch etc. so I decided in order to make this practice beneficial I should break it down by verse and chorus and make sure that I was happy with both the singing and the choreography before moving on. I found this to be particularly helpful in assisting me with working on both singing and dancing at the same time.

Then on Friday’s lesson we started off with a gentle run through of “All That Jazz”. We simply marked through the choreography so that we could gently warm up and not sprain any muscles but also to ensure that the spacing and arrangements were correct and so they could be corrected if needed. It also allowed us to keep refreshing our minds with the song and choreography so that we wouldn’t forget about it.

After this we started going through the scene with “Roxie”. We began with the reporter scene before the song ensuring that everyone one understood how the scene would finish and how we would then enter as the boys. We had a brief discussion about showing the difference between us being reporters and then into Roxie’s showcase boys. We decided that as the reporters we should have a prop or some kind of coat that would identify us as reporters and then remove this to then be in all black for the dance. Roxie went over her monologue which allowed us to hear the first part of the song which she sings and performs be herself and then allow us to know our cue when to come in. then we clarified our spacing and formations which then allowed all of us to try the whole scene again. This rehearsal process I find to be very helpful because we as the performers get to hear our cues and understand how the show will work on the night. I don’t find it helpful when we learn the choreography and the song but then don’t know the scene beforehand or afterwards to know what happens before and after the dance, an as to where we enter and exit the stage.

Following this Richard came in to assist me and Alex with our scene that we performed to Nadine last week. We talked together through what we’d already worked on in terms of our placement and our costumes and then we performed our piece to Richard. He then helped us with the corrections that Nadine mentioned last week in terms of building and dropping the tension. He then added a few additional changes. The first one was to do with Alex telling me about what I should wear, he suggested that Alex should get closer to me, so much so that I would need to bend my back in order to get away from him. However the way he should do this, is that it should almost be choreographed so that it reminds the audience that we’re still performing our lives in a show. I really felt that this suggestion would help the audience as well as my performance as when Alex gets closer me it’s almost like he’s telling me that he’s the boss and that I should listen to him, which helps decrease the tension and that point.  The other suggestion that he made was that instead of Billy almost grabbing Roxie’s neck he should actually grab it, this also helped to show Billy’s rage but and then drop the tension for Roxie, and then allow her to explode after this. The final suggestion that was made was about our staging. Originally we had Roxie enter upstage but it was suggested that we move it so that she comes into parallel with Billy as it shows there is equal power at that point and then when Billy moves closer to me the audience can see the movement of the feet.  

Monday 5th November 2018

On Tuesday we began with the same rehearsal as last week including the physical and vocal warm up. To my surprise I was able to get in more air and project my singing a bit more than last week. Already I can see a difference in my vocal ability and that’s just from one exercise! The rest of the group were working on “Cell Block Tango” which I’m not in. Therefore me and Alex decided tht we would try and work on a scene together.

We decided to work on the scene right before Roxie and Billy go into the courtroom. In this particular scene there’s a lot of tension between them two. We first thought it would be helpful to actually listen to the accent that they use in the versions in order to help us pick up the accents ourselves
Considering that we’re both not so confident with the accents. In many versions that I’ve watched Roxie is portrayed in a variety of different ways, in the film version she’s quite uptight and snaps at anything Billy says, however in the Broadway versions on YouTube she’s made out to be quite scared and snaps at Billy only at the very end which helps to build the tension in the scene. We began by watching the previous versions of this scene so that we could gather the ideas for staging and costumes etc. We discovered that there was a lot of changes in the staging in the sense of the shifting of power, Roxie would often move downstage or upstage to parallel Billy, and they’d often end up facing one another at the peak of the argument.

We really liked tthe idea in the shifting of staging so we started of with Roxie upstage and she’s complaining about the dress, as in essence she’s the protagonist. Then we had her move downstage when Billy begins to shout about telling her what to do, she remains downstage until she starts complaining again about her not getting enough “showtime” this is when they become parallel with one another. We felt like this is a poignant point to show the audience that this whole thing is a show by adding in some over dramatic shouting and excess drama such as Billy almost grabbing hold of Roxie’s neck.

I thought that in order to portray my character successfully I should aim to include a range of emotions in this scene to not only develop my character but to portray to the audience the “show-like” nature of this production. I decided to begin with my character just being meant as she’s just in disgust about the dress, I feel like by doing this it shall help to begin the scene as quite calm and then allow it to escalate as it develops. When we decided to add in Billy grabbing my neck it was quite a heated moment so I felt like I should tone down my aggressive nature when this occurs so that it comes as more of a shock to the audience, I decided that this should cause my character to act a bit shocked in order to fuel her aggressiveness when they begin to swear at one another.

We briefly discussed the use of our costumes. Alex felt that due to the formal nature of the event to come we should dress accordingly including my horrible lace dress. By having the horrible lace around my neck it’s a clear contrast to what I would usually wear which shows that Billy is controlling her. Usually Roxie would be dressed in quite sultry black tight clothing so by wearing a loose incredibly horrid dress it allows the audience distinguish Billy controlling nature. When running through the scene we found that at the start the scene was a bit empty, Billy was just waiting for me to enter, so Alex decidedly that he would bring a briefcase and a load of papers aligned on a table and when he starts talking about who says what he would then rifle through those papers. This helps to add to the “show-like” nature of the performance, where the papers could be inferred as scripts.

Thursday’s began with us warming up with similar warm ups to last week, apart from instead of the counting we did a different exercise. The group would walk around the space and partner up and then we would label ourselves one or two. One’s would then act out their morning routine and two’s would have to copy. It’s not particularly musically important but in terms of a drama perspective it allowed us to get into the mind of our characters and their traits and the way they may act. It was then suggested to us that our character may sing in a different was to what we do as an individual. For example the use of an accent and how that may differ our singing voices.

Next we were told about the importance of sol-far. This is basically the idea that you can look at a score of music and sight-sing the notes in that score, basically knowing how it sounds like before you sing it. Unique syllables are linked to each note of the musical scale, for example, do,re,mi,fa,sol,la,ti etc. Sam added a hand gesture to represent every syllable for every note. It helps to provide and visual back up for identifying intervals (which are intervals between notes). The use of sol-far can help you figure out harmonies as well, by matching the end note of which you want to harmonise and then using do, re, mi, find the third note up from the end note! I never understood how to figure out a harmony and I think by being shown this I’ll be able to figure out my own harmonies when singing things like a duet.

After we’d been told about sol-far singing we then applied it to our harmonies in “All That Jazz”. After last week I really struggled to find the lower note and I think this was because it wasn’t the tune and that’s what I’m used to singing so I decided to go into the sopranos. Even though I’m not naturally a soprano I felt like this was easier for me to sing. The way sol-far was applied was that because the tune is higher we used do,re,mi downwards to find the third. In my opinion I felt more confident singing the higher and felt tht I could sing louder than what I was in the lower group because I felt more confident.

The group then began singing over “Cell Block Tango”. I’m not in this number so Alex and I went into another space and went over our scene together. We felt relatively happy with our staging ideas so far, so we did several run throughs but without our scripts this time. I think over the course in musical theatre I’ve got a lot better at learning my lines and realising the importance of having to know the lines because I know how much it can hinder rehearsals and your character development. 

On Friday the group went over “Cell Block Tango” both singing and dancing, so me and Alex were left to our own devices again. We were very confident with our scene and decided we would work on our songs together. Alex did his solo first and I noticed that he was often looking down and not giving it as much personality as he would if he was acting. I gave him this point as feedback and then acknowledged that I need to do this myself, as it enables me to develop my character and make it believable to the audience. My song is “Nowadays” which is a duet with Zoe but she was doing “Cell Block Tango” so I decided it would be a good idea to familiarise myself with the lyrics so when it came to going through the song with Ralph I would be prepared. I also figured that by watching the previous versions on YouTube I could gather a few ideas about props and staging etc so that me and Zoe could have a discussion later on about these elements.

At the end of the lesson Nadine called us in to show her what me and Alex had me working on with our scene.  After we’d performed she mentioned that the tension in this scene is supposed to rise and fall, but in our scene the tension remains quite high as we just end up shouting towards one another a lot. After thinking about the performance I felt like we could change the volume of our voices at various parts in order to deplete the tension and then allow it to rise again.

Monday 29th October 2018

I wasn’t in the lesson on Tuesday because I was ill, so I decided to research my character so that when I came back into lesson I would have a developed understanding of my character, which would benefit my later rehearsals. When looking at my character I discovered that she begins as a “floozy” she seems a bit dim-witted but is desperate for fame, so desperate that she’ll do anything to get it, like sleep with someone. As an audience you’re made to believe that she’s just and innocent, fame driven girl, but then as the plot develops we find out that she’s so fame driven that she’d even kill for her desires. We find out about her devoted husband Amos and how she really doesn’t care about him, but he would do anything for Roxie, even cover for her when she murdered Fred. This wickedness is another part of her character. There’s several layers to this character which I believe is going to be hard for me to portray, it’s going to be a challenge but I’m willing to put the work in order to portray this as successfully as I can.

Chicago was inspired by the real-life 1924 murder trials of Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner, Annan was the basis for Roxie Hart. While living in Kentucky, Annan married her first husband, Perry Stephens. They were divorced, and Beulah then met car mechanic Albert "Al" Annan. They went to Chicago together, where they were married on March 29, 1920. There, Albert found work as a mechanic at a garage and Beulah eventually became a bookkeeper at Tennant's Model Laundry. At the laundry she met Harry Kalstedt and began an affair. On April 3, 1924, in the married couple's bedroom, Annan shot Kalstedt in the back. According to her initial story, they had been drinking wine Kalstedt had brought over, and got into an argument. There was a gun on the bed and both reached for it, but Beulah got it first and shot Kalstedt while he was putting on his coat and hat. Originally when I was looking over the lines I was worried about having to do a Chicago accent but now from looking at the background of the character I should really focus on a Kentucky accent, due to her originating from there. Accents are definitely not my strong point, however if I want to make my character believable I need to add the accent.

Before we sung anything on Thursday we worked on warming up our voices, I never really understood the use of warming up the body along with the voice because I didn’t think it was really relevant. However Sam told us that the body and the voice work alongside one another. This idea is that if your body is tense you’ll be unable to breathe correctly thus straining your voice.  You don’t want to put a strain on your vocal chords because you failed to loosen up the muscles. The first part of the warm up began with us walking around and finding a random partner and then alternatively counting from 1 to 5 and then swapping over the numbers we counted. This began to warm up our voices gently but it helped to wake up our brains and engage us into what we were about to do. I found that this really made me focus on what I was being asked to do and I felt that it mentally prepared me for the lesson and engaged my brain. Afterwards we starts with humming some scales, starting with a hum is a gentle push into the warm up as we don’t want to go straight into singing as it could still strain our voices. The idea of going up and down the scales is to ensure that every part of our voice is warm this is both the chest voice and the head voice. I never even knew that there were two different kinds; I just thought that there was low and high. However I’ve discovered that I’m definitely more confident with using my chest voice, I feel like I’m able to project my voice much better than when I’m using my head voice. I often struggle with the transition from chest voice to head voice, which I think is something I need to work on. However my song “Nowadays” remains in chest voice, so although this isn’t important for this particular part I feel like it shall benefit my strength in singing if I can do this.

We then moved onto singing up and down the scale but with different sounds, for example the sound “Za” comes from the front of your mouth, however the sound “Na” comes from the throat, so this exercise helps to warm up the muscles in our mouths as well as our voices. Once we’d finished warming up we were told to get into 4 groups depending on whether you were a soprano, alto, tenor or base, I had absolutely no idea what he was going on about. When he explained to me that a soprano was a high singer and a base was a low singer I could gage where I thought I was, so originally I placed myself in the alto group. “All that jazz” was the song we were working on, and there’s one harmony in the piece that the company sing, when the harmony was divided and I heard the alto bit I heard that bit was quite low, which was definitely using our chest voices. Even though I’m comfortable with my chest voice I really struggled to find the note to start the harmony, as naturally I just wanted to sing the tune. However I stuck to it and attempted to find it along with the other members of my group.

During the drama lesson we began by doing a physical warm up as Nadine was coming in to finish the choreography for “All that Jazz” as they didn’t get it finished on Tuesday. The warm up began with the usual stretching and working through the feet in order to prevent muscle strain, but towards the end of the warm up we were told that we were going to multitask and warm up our bodies and our voices at the same time. This consisted of small jumps on the spot whilst singing the 1,12,1 song, which also involves going up the scale. This was incredibly difficult. You couldn’t quite get enough air in to breathe and sing at the same time, it definitely worked on improving our intercostal muscles to intake more air at a time. Then they ran through the choreography, being a dancer I am able to pick things up fairly quickly, so I just watched for the first run through, then Nadine went over the very end bit so I decided it would be beneficial for me to join in and get into a space where I believed I would fit in so that I would only need to focus on the first bit. After this was done they went from the beginning again, so I watched the beginning and joined in with the final bit. Then more choreography was added onto the end so I learnt this as well. Then we went from the beginning again and this time I joined in. I feel like this whole process strengthened my ability to pick up choreography quickly, considering that I took it into my own hands and figured out a way to learn the choreography that would be beneficial and efficient for me and the rest of the class, because it would’ve been pointless to make the teacher go over what they’d done, it would just hinder the rehearsal process.

The targets I’m going to set myself for this unit are:

1.       To try and develop and extend my knowledge in and around singing.

2.       To really think in depth about my characterisation and think outside the box a little bit.

I’ve decided to set myself these targets in order to help me develop my knowledge in the world of musical theatre, specifically singing as I know it’s a weakness of mine. The reason I decided to set myself a target of thinking in depth about my characterisation is because, I feel like I often forget about this key part and I don’t develop my character until the last few rehearsals and this isn’t good enough.