After having a run through of both acts I didn't feel as comfortable as I should have been at this stage because the this was the day before the show was put up. The first point of improvement that affected myself and a few others was performing the dance choreography confidently. Having practiced for months I knew the choreography for the songs however what was proving a challenge was the jellicle songs because there were three appearances of the same song in the play. The order in which they were in confused me, this translated in my body language on stage and made me stand out from the others around me because they knew what they were doing. This was also mentioned in the notes after the run. To improve on this I will go to college early and put in some hours learning the dances so I don't stand out as the one who doesn't know what they are doing and drags the performance down.
The second point of improvement was on the second song 'naming of the cats' were my group seemed to be squashed in the office corner. Due to the design of the set the left side had less space making it difficult for us to stick to the choreography originally planned. I think that we need to adapt to the set and move upstage to allow ourselves more space. Playing around with the space would allow us to walk in symmetry to the other group creating a better visual effect than where we are currently positioned. If I was in the director's shoes I would have one of the groups stay in the office and say their verse then the other group upstage right leaving the other group on the catwalk. having that alongside with some good lighting would add a bit of mystery and suspense which is what we were trying to achieve with the song as its all about 'who will it be' who gets chosen for the Heavyside layer.
Rum Tum Tugger is the song in which my character is represented. The journey of the song went very well and at these late stages I am just looking to tweak the little things in the song. Last week I suggested having more year 12s in my song so that I could interact with them for the first verse which I excluded in the choreography process. After discussions with my teacher we concluded having two girls that I come in with, this instantly made me think of them as my assistants. Linking that to the context and my character it made no sense because why would a model have assistants for? After the run the director mentioned me thinking of a reason why they went off when after the first verse. This got me thinking about developing their characters which led to the idea of having the as super fans and instead of the leaving the stage they would stay on. The next step for tomorrow is to create some choreography to enforce that they are Tugger's super fans. Completing this point of improvement will give purpose to my first verse which is what I was originally trying to accomplish by having some year 12 girls.
With the show tomorrow then run was an eye opener to how much we had to cover to reach the level of performance we have been rehearsing for the past few months. From a personal perspective I had a lot of tiding up to do. One of the songs I found challenging was Bustopher Jones because its meant to be funny but non of us seem to get the comedy. With the show a day away we really should be laughing our brains off. I think that one of the main reasons why myself and a few others are not finding this funny is because it is not at all funny. The people impersonating this overweight character need to go for it a bit more and maybe analyse the scripts to understand the jokes. In the beginning we are all Bustopher Jones therefore I think I could improve my entrance for example the way I walk. I think if I walk in a funny walk the audience might laugh a bit which will change the atmosphere and allow us to go for a it which will then allow the song to fulfil its purpose. The vibe that that is currently expressed in this song makes it harder for us to fully portray the choreography that we have because I think everyone is a bit tentative because we are not sure if its working. Personally need to step up my game because if everyone did that for tomorrow then it will look good as we would all be putting in the effort. This is one of the songs we spent less time on because there is no Bustopher Jones in our cast , another obstacle we faced with this song was having enough hats. I think it looked odd to the audience we had during the run through as some people had hats and other didn't which could have led the audience to imply that there was a reason for this decision when it was just lack of detail from the prop team. Having the show tomorrow I think that I cannot rely on others therefore I should set my own hat tomorrow for example have a sticker on it with my name on it.
The next point of improvement I noted after today's run was my improvement needed in my vocals in a few of the songs. The songs included the addressing of cats which was a group song that seemed to need a lot of work. I think that one of the factors affecting this song would be the time spent on it. When I get home I will listen to the song over and over to help me get confident with it. Another song that needed vocal lifting was Old Deuteronomy were I had a solo that I was struggling with. During the rehearsal process I focused a lot of my attention to the songs I felt more confident with. My plan to improve on this for tomorrow is to come in early and get one of the voice teachers to help me with vocals of this song. My confidence in this song affected my body language on stage which made it difficult for me top help enforce the purpose of the song. I think that this had a knock on effect to the other characters on stage because they seemed less confident after I had sang.
The last point of improvement that we touched upon in the notes was the song Mr Mistofelees. This song has undergone the longest journey in contrast to all the songs in the play. First we had choreography which excluded Niamh then changed it to help her fit in but that didn't work out well therefore today we decided to have her as a dictactive. This new idea worked very well with the previous song which is something we lacked at rehearsals. Tomorrow if we have her as a dictactive it would give her something to be doing while she is on stage because currently she just stand in the middle which looks odd. Having her as a dictactive also enforces the importance of Deuteronomy to the play and shows why she is often mentioned in the majority of the songs and why she gets to choose who makes it to the heavyside Layer.
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