Jamie Cullum singing assessment evaluation

Today we performed our final singing assessment unit of the year, Everything You Didn’t Do by Jamie Cullum.

One thing that went well for me was my projection and diction. I feel that when I sing with a big group of people, that naturally my level of projection increases. This is because I feel more confident being one of many voices rather than being one of only a few. Also, I found myself pronouncing my words very well and this helped me to understand the meaning of the lyrics, allowing myself to be able to put to correct amount of emotion and characterisation in to the overall performance of the song. This also allows the audience to understand the lyrics to a high standard.

One thing I could have improved on was my familiarity with the lyrics on the second verse. In the performance, I found myself having to really think about the lyrics to the second verse. To improve on this, I just needed to the look at the lyrics to this verse in closer detail then this would have been resolved.

Something I felt went well for everyone is how we all sounded together. The effect that over 30 voices had was very powerful as the volume was high and therefore, this brought out the confidence in everyone involved.

Overall, I am very happy with how the singing assessment went, both due to my personal efforts and how the whole group performed. I am very proud of everyone and how far they have come this year and pleased to have experience this whole year of musical theatre with them!

Friday 22nd May- final singing lesson

Today was our last singing lesson of this year’s unit. The focus was to perfect our last singing unit song, which we will be assessed on later on today. We are singing Jamie Cullum’s song, Everything You Didn’t Do. This is a good choice of song to be assessed on as it contains a three part harmony, which is an ideal technique to corporate in to a song, sung by an ensemble as it gives you the opportunity to show how individuals copes with different intonations, involved in the song. It also contains a mixture of staccato and legato notes which show off a singer’s ability to differentiate between the two note types.

We started with some vocal warm ups, accompanied by Kim on the piano. I always feel that after I have finished my warm ups with Kim, my vocal chords are fully ready to be used to the best of my ability. The most beneficial warm up for me that we used today, was singing octave scales and steadily increasing the pitch. This is a very simple technique which is used on a regular basis however; I find this to be the most helpful for me. This is because it naturally highlights were my vocal break is, the change between my chest and head voice. This allows me to work my vocal chords, as they are a muscle, in to increasing where my break is.

Once all vocally warmed up, the lesson’s focus was to go over, repeatedly, the song for our assessment, mainly to perfect the tree part harmony in the three part harmony featured in the last chorus of the song. We found that one of our weaknesses at this stage was the quality of our diction. We appeared to be lacking on the quality of how we pronounced the first letter of words. This was slipping due to our minds focusing on other details that were vital to make the song work, such as the lyrical order and the three part harmony.

I will be singing the original harmony, which is the easiest to pick up however the hardest to maintain as the other two groups are singing in a completely different pitch which makes it difficult to maintain the base harmony. This is also what everyone else in the group listens out to for guidance whilst singing their harmony; a natural way of singing within a group piece.

I feel I am ready to sing this later on and feel the group is also ready for this. We will be joining together with the other Musical Theatre group to sing the song, around the piano in the theatre. I believe this will be two times more powerful with the other group as there will be double the amount of us.

Private singing lesson

Today, following up my decision to have a piano acompaniment to I dreamed a dream, kim and I found some time after the tech rehearsals were over to rehearse my act and ensure I was comfortable with all of the notes.

The part in the song I needed to work on was from the line 'But the tigers come at night' until the end. Over the course of our rehearsal, kim taught me ways in which I can reach some of the higher notes in the song such as breathing properly from my diaphragm and singing with less breathe in my high range head voice notes.

The way in which Kim showed me, that I found most helpful, to sing properly was to hold my diaphragm and ensure I could feel it detracting and tensing up whilst singing high and long notes. This helped me concerntrate on how I was breathing and ensured I didn't use my throat the sing and breathe with. If the sound comes from the diaphragm, this is correct and is indeed the right way to sing professionally in both your head voice and chest voice.

There were two notes I struggled to reach during the song therefore, Kim picked up on this and we went back to them to sort them out. For this, Kim played scales on the piano and I sung the sound 'ah' and 'e' to them. I found that this helped me to recognise where my voice break lays and helped me build a strong and fluent transition between the two of them. When singing the high octave scales, I could hear and feel my chest voice was struggling therefore, Kim demonstrated how to push my notes out. She told me to imagine there was a piece of string attatched to my mouth that carried on all the way across the room. I was to imagine I was pushing the notes I was singing down the line of string. This was supposed to aid me in reaching higher notes as I have a bad habbit of moving my head in hope of reaching them. i felt this technique really helped me reach the notes expected of me and I will think about the string method when singing tomorrow in the show.

The final piece of advice Kim gace me was how to breath in to a note. This means how much breathe to take before certain notes and how much breathe to release, expecially on one particular section of I dreamed a dream that we focused on. This advice came in to play on the line 'and they turn your dreams to shame'. The word shame is held for over eight counts and passes through five seperate notes, going up their octave. Before my lesson with Kim, I was unable to complete this word wich end the verse as I didn't quite know when to breathe. I am to breathe just before the line and I found that Kim really helped me to realise it needs to be a very fast deep breathe. Also, I am going to use a technique in the performance tomorrow which involves me not letting out too much of my saved breathe and doing this at a steady rate.

Overall, my time with Kim today has been very benifical for me as I have learnt some vital techniques focusing on breathing and how to reach the top notes of I dreamed a dream. I will think about these tomorrow when performing the song to ensure I have the best chance of singing the song to my full potential.

VARIETY SECTION 2

Original act ideas and research

One of my chosen ideas of acts I could perform in the variety show end of term variety show is a ballet and contemporary dance solo.
Research material- here, are some You Tube clips of professional ballet and contemporary routines I have gained inspiration from over my research process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-tW0CkvdD

The dancer Sergei Polunin who stars in this fantastic dance solo, has really given me some new and fresh ideas to add in to my solo. His professionalism clearly shows through when dancing and his brilliantly unique fluidity whilst dancing takes the audiences attention fully on to him. The way he hold his body clearly shows how much dedication he has to his dance and therefore represents his commitment and passion for the sport. Polunin also has exquisite musicality, the ability to dance to the rhythm of the music to the exact not. The way he uses the space also has given me inspiration and ideas of how to recreate this in the space, The Sealight Theatre. I will be performing my solo in.
One aspect in particular which stands out to me about the moves Polunin performs are his turns. Each pirouette turn holds so much strength on his behalf as he has the ability to control every turn as he wishes. My personal favourite pirouette he performs is over two counts of eight in the middle of the routine. He performs a sequence of turns which flow in to one another. These are technically extremely challenging are could, if performed poorly, cause terrible injuries; the way he executes them is truly inspiring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzM9Mt_cpq0

Another dance piece I have learnt a lot from is this wonderful contemporary dance solo, performed by Olga Kuraeva. This piece is in fact all improvised by Kuraeva which shows her sheer talent and knowledge of the dance type. I always appreciate a soloist who improvises their whole routine as this is a skill aquired after many years of dance lessons and dedication.
My favourite element of Kuraeva's piece is the way she doesn't fill every single count with massive movements; she adds in simple yet effective foot and leg work to fill gaps and add to the suspense of the piece as a whole.

 

Monday 13th April- dance solo rehearsals

Today I spent some time alone in the dance studio, brain storming ideas for my solo.  I thought about what type of moves I wanted to incorporate in to my piece. I am yet to decided officially on a song to dance to therefore, I put some backing music on and started playing around with some movement ideas. I started off concentrating on making a couple of counts of eight of movement which I can refer back to within the dance; I can repeat this as the main section of dance throughout the piece however each time it appears, I can alter the timing, direction and focus of the moves.

I worked out a main sequence which lasted eight counts within the half an hour I spent in the studio. This included a head role, side lean, a double jazz pirouette and a double jete through centre stage coming from a diagonal. This will work well with one song I had in mind to dance to, a cover of Wrecking Ball, originally by Miley Cyrus.

 

Wednesday 15th April- dance rehearsal (Monday carry on)

Today, I found some time at home to put the eight counts of movement I choreographed fro my variety performance solo on Monday, and attempted to put this to the cover of wrecking ball I found that I thought would suit the dance and style. It worked really well and allowed me to dance to moves at a slow pace, which I was aiming for.

Wrecking ball cover- Boyce Avenue

Updated act

I have decided against doing a solo dance piece for the variety show and now feel I can express myself in a higher quality through doing a vocal solo.

My chosen performance piece for the variety performance is a character song. I will be singing, solo, I dreamed a dream from the musical, Les Miserable. I have decided to perform this instead of a dance solo, as I believe it will allow me to express my talents to a higher quality as I am able to incorporate movement in to the way I perform the song where as I couldn’t do this with a predominant dance piece.

I dreamed a dream; lyrics by Anne Hathaway

There was a time when men were kind

 When their voices were soft

 And their words inviting

 There was a time when love was blind

 And the world was a song

 And the song was exciting

 There was a time

 Then it all went wrong

 I dreamed a dream in time gone by

 When hope was high

 And life worth living

 I dreamed that love would never die

 I dreamed that God would be forgiving

 Then I was young and unafraid

 So dreams were made and used and wasted

 There was no ransom to be paid

 No song unsung

 No wine untasted

 But the tigers come at night

 With their voices soft as thunder

 As they tear your hope apart

 And they turn your dream to shame

 He slept a summer by my side

 He filled my days with endless wonder

 He took my childhood in his stride

 But he was gone when autumn came

 And still I dream he'll come to me

 That we will live the years together

 But there are dreams that cannot be

 And there are storms we cannot weather

 I had a dream my life would be

 So different from this hell I'm living

 So different now from what it seemed

 Now life has killed

 The dream I dreamed

 

Reasons behind change of act

The first reason behind this song choice is that I have already performed this sing this year. I sung this for my singing unit and was assessed on this. This gives me an advantage as I have recently performed this song, meaning I am confident with the lyrics and way of singing the song. This will allow me to pull off a great performance. Secondly, I have chosen to perform this song as I believe the lyrics give me a great starting point to develop characterisation and meaning behind my interpretation of the song. The lyrics allow this by having such a serious and emotional tone, making it easier for me to create a real sense of performance out of the song.

Research material

I took my inspiration to choose the song, I dreamed a dream from watching Anne Hathaway's Les Miserable performance of the song. I feel she performs this to an extremely high standard as she uses strong characterisation to portray her character through facial expressions and tone of voice.

I dreamed a dream- Anne Hathaway version

Once I had decided on this song, i took to Youtube and did some further research in to the song and other famous faces who had performed this song. Below, are two of my personal favourites as I believe these both contain elements which I wish to carry forward in to my performance of the song.

I believe Susan Boyle's version of the song tells a story that has happened rather than telling a story which is currently happening, which I think Anne Hathaway does. Both of these perspectives work well with the song as they both tie in to the emotional intention behind the song.

 Susan Boyle's version

The final version I watched that gave me my final push of inspiration of how to performed the song, was Glee's cover. They sung the whole song accapella and I feel this gave it an extremely raw feeling and a very naturalistic way  of telling the story of the lyrics.

Glee's version

Monday 4th May- singing rehearsals

Today I used my lesson time to rehearse my song, I dreamed a dream. I took the time in the lesson to sing in a practise room alone. I feel being alone is my personal preferred way of practising as I find I work the most productively in my own company. I sang my dong through a couple of times with the karaoke version and felt I needed to work on reaching the higher notes in the song. For this, I sang an high octave scale, in my chest voice which really pushed my vocal limits. I feel this helped develop my range and enabled me to feel more comfortable around the higher notes within i dreamed a dream.

Monday 11th May

Following last week's rehearsals for my variety act, today i decided to sing my song acapella. I have chosen to sing it with no backing music as I feel it will help me portray to the audience, the meaning of the song and the story behind the lyrics.

Development of act

Idea 1

My original idea was to sing the song, standing stationary in front of a microphone and stand in centre stage, accompanied by the karaoke backing track; the same track Anne Hathaway used in the musical version. This was a very similar version of the song as to which I performed for my singing unit. I initially thought this was the best way the perform the song however after rehearsing the song like this for a week, I soon realised I needed to add some more diversity to the way I sing the song. After all, there are endless ways one could potentially perform the song due to the flexibility of the lyrics.
Karaoke backing track

Idea 2

The fail of my original idea, brought me to my second idea. This idea is indeed inspired by the Glee’s version of I dreamed a dream which was one of my favourite versions of the song, featuring in my research. The way I have decided to perform the song, is acapella. This way of performing the song is potentially a gamble however, I believe my voice is strong enough to carry the sound to every seat in the theatre I will be performing in. Another reason as to which I have decided to do this, is that I believe not having a backing track or music to sing to will increase the idea that I will be telling a story rather than singing a song. I have decided this because I am performing this in a variety show and I believe this is a unique way of presenting a character song. Variety shows are all about unique acts and putting a personal twist on what you do, therefore I believe my act now fits the criteria well.

Lighting plan and positioning on stage

 

Costume ideas; 1 and 2

 

Idea 1

 

Idea 2

The stage- The sealight Theatre and audience

I plan to use the stage to its full potential when performing my act. I will start off the song, sitting down, towards the back of the stage, in the middle. I will do this to automatically draw attention to my being on stage. I will not use any props or complex lighting because I believe all the attention must be on my character through out the song. This will emphasise the fact the lyrics tell the woman's story of loosing love and being heartbroken.

I plan to move around the stage which requires me to have a radio microphone. I will be moving around the stage as part of my characterisation for my character, showing how distressed and lonely she is in the current moment.

Other acts I am invloved in for the variety show

1) Max's act, Both reached for the gun- Chicago

I play Roxie Hart, who acts as a puppet through out this song therefore I am required to make puppet and floppy like movements. To ensure I have perfected this in time for the performance, I will watch the Chicago original version through a few times and really take note on the arm movements she performs. Click here to see We both reached for the gun




2) Izzy and Jess's act, What is this feeling- Wicked

In this act, Luke, Max and I play Garlinda's groupies. We have to act as if Garlinda is at the top of the school's hierarchy and is our role model. We use our characterisation skills to act in an immature high school manor. Luke, Max and I have also worked out two part harmonies to sing underneath Jess and Izzy. Click here to view what is this feeling.

Monday 18th May- tech rehearsal

Today, Monday 18th May, is the day before the variety show. This is the last assessed show of the year and therefore, I have put a lot of effort in to ensuring my act is up to a high standard.

As an extremely last minute decision, I have now decided to sing my song with Kim accompanying me on piano. I have made this decision because when I sung I dreamed a dream in my tech rehearsal, I felt it needed something in the background to add to the mood and atmosphere of the piece.

The lighting I have chosen in today's tech rehearsal for my song is very simple and doesn't change through out the course of the song. I have chosen a mixture of white and blue lighting. I feel these two colours put together really compliments the tone of the song and reflects the emotion behind my character's feelings after being heartbroken. The white represents purity and the blue, suggests vulnerability and a bleak future. I also chose not to change the lighting at any point during the song as I believe the power behind my voice and the way I sing will change the mood of the piece. I don't feel as though I need any lighting alterations or props for this.

Overall, my tech rehearsal went well as I managed to figure out that I need to have a piano accompaniment to put to my song.

Variety show evaluation

I feel my main act performance went well and to plan. This is because I got a strong audience reaction when I had finished. Also, I feel my vocals were strong during the performance and I feel that yesterday's singing lesson with Kim really helped me improve my vocals for the performance today.

I think I used the lighting in a positive way, as all I had on stage was a neutral white lighting. This lighting set the scene of pain and betrayal for me to feed off of. I think if I had included any more colours in my lighting plan, there would have been too much going on visually for the audience. I feel the best way for me to put emotion across, was by putting power, characterisation and emphasis behind the song lyrics and meaning behind it.

I feel I put good emotion across to the audience through my facial expressions and moving around the stage, making use of the space. Facial expressions was one target I set myself earlier in the year to improve on and I feel with this performance, it was clear i have improved over this year. i thought about the context and how my character would react to the situation. This helped me shape my facial expressions through out the performance, with high notes I had a very expressive face whereas low notes having a more timid facial expression attached to them.

To improve, I would have spent more time focusing on my breathe control and being able to hold a certain word which went through 5 notes. This was 'shame', and I feel if I had spent a bit more time on doing some breathe control exercises, I would have perfected this. overall however, I am very happy with my variety performance and how I performed the song to the audience.

 

Cats performance evaluation

My class performed Cats with the year 13s on Thursday 30th April, accompanying them on their matinee showing and evening showing.

The build up to the performance was quite stressful because the fact we were performing in cats was a last minute process from a vocal perspective. A lot of the staging and singing we did in the final piece, was set and choreographed in the run up to show week. However, we had been dancing to Pecks and Pollicles so we were confident of this aspect of our performance.

One thing that went well for me personally is the way I performed when I came on as a fan girl with Rum Tum Tugger. I feel I used my characterisation skills to their full potential here as I went over the top and out of my way to give off the impression to the audience that Magic, who played Rum Tum Tugger, was the main attraction here and no one could get in the way of his authority.

One thing that went well for us as a class is how well we worked together to raise the total volume of the singing. Singing the lyrics off stage always enhances the overall sound quality of the musical as it gives the audience the illusion that there are more people on stage than there actually are. This also benefits the performers as they would have been dancing at the same time as singing. This is a difficult talent to master and they wouldn't have been at their full vocal volume potential therefore, we helped make up for the difference.

Something that went well as a whole cast was the audience reaction we received in between numbers and at the end of the show. For an actor, this is one of the most rewarding parts of preforming, knowing that audiences sought pleasure from the work you have produced. I believe we received this response as everyone gave their all and put a lot of energy into perfecting movements to the point of precise deliver.

In my opinion, all of the year 13 class did really well performing Cats. It is a very difficult skill to be able to successfully performing acting, singing and dancing at the same time. I really look up to their talent to be able to do this so well as all three qualities take such precision to perfect individually let a all at once.

If I were to do the performance again, I would improve my own performance by spending more time pre-show, learning the lines to the songs. I knew them to an extent however I feel that if I was very confident with them, I would have been able to relax in to my role even more and enjoyed the performance to a higher quality. This is a lesson for me, to always be prepared with lines for every show I am involved in.

For the costume department of Cats, there was an extensive range of glamorous outfits used in the show. This was because the show was based around the fashion industry and fighting to be recognised in the industry. Some of my favourite pieces that characters wore were the fur items. These gave the overall look of the outfit an certain edge and also represented wealth within the musical as fur is an expensive material to own. Their bright and glamorous costume choices really complimented their character's personalities and gave the show the extra showbiz factor it needed.

Through out the whole performance, the year 13 class made the decision to have a line of stage block going straight through centre stage, acting as their catwalk platform. This was the main focus of the stage and helped the singers gain attention on them through out the course of the musical. I think the idea of having staging blocks is also a good idea as it gives the actors room to use levels for the audiences benefit. This was something that worked in their shows, as the entrances and exists were all at different levels. This shows hierarchy and authority within a musical; this is part of  the hidden script to the play.

One of my strongest points during Cats was the dancing side. We had been researching for our dance sequences for months and I felt I knew the moves very well. I made an effort to use my knowledge of extension and focus to boost my overall dance presentation to a high standard. for example, the part I played, a journalist, included a large amount of tablos which involved reaching out to people walking the catwalk. To achieve the highest quality of visual dance, I ensured I used full extension in my arms to show sharp and precise movements. This is greatly favoured over using limp arms as this makes  a performer look as if they aren't putting effort in to their role. Good extension is visually pleasing for audiences as it makes the whole performance seem more professional and thorough.

Overall, I believe Cats was a huge success. They really took a gamble, as no theatre company who had re produced Cats had ever done it in the style we did. This risk paid off in the end as all of the elements needed to produce a show stopping musical, came together and worked well. This project is something for us all to be proud of and I am happy to be able to say I was a part of this fantastic piece.

Final performance- Part 1

Final performance- Part 2

Final performance- part 3

CATS- Research and background information and Contemporary Theatre Comparison of Texts

Cats the musical is the year 13s second year musical project of their qualification. Both year 12 classes have been asked to help in the shows, as extras and chorus to add a sense of hustle and bustle to the stage. The more people you have singing on stage in ensemble numbers, the more powerful the sound is going to be for the audience.

Cats the musical is a contemporary musical, written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and originates from the combination of many poems which was turned in to a series of songs; which developed in to a musical. The poems were written by T.S Elliot. It premiered in 1981 in the New London Theatre in London. The musical follows the story of a tribe of cats called the Jellicles. These cats must decide which cat will ascend to the Heaviside Layer and come back to a new life. The play write, Andrew Lloyd Webber is internationally known for his brilliant writing and extravagant musicals including Joseph and his Technicoloured Dream coat and Jesus Christ Superstar. These are both known worldwide for their fantastic structure, songs and are seen to be among Webber’s best work. Cats the musical is no exception to this, including many brilliantly pleasing and entertaining scenes and songs

The original themes running through Cats the musical included identity, loss and beauty. Our version will be sticking to these however putting them under a new over all theme of fashion. I think this will work well as we are demonstrating our wider knowledge of acting and turning these ideas in to a project with themes supporting each other. The year 13s have put a slightly different twist on their showing of Cats; instead of dressing up as Cats and creating their movements in to animalistic frames, they decided to put a twist on the original plot and tell the story from the view of the fashion industry. This gave the year 13s more of a chance to express themselves through other art forms and as the fashion industry is competitive, the themes running through the original musical really tied in to their ideas as Cats are also competitive creatures with a possessive nature.

The year 13s decided to change everything within the musical to be centrally themed surrounding fashion and the working industry. The ‘cats’ were all icons of the fashion world and had paparazzi and journalists chasing them around, desperate for pictures and interview. As year 12s, we played the part of the paparazzi and journalists. We used characterisation to boost how busy the staged looked, making the audience feel intentionally, slightly of the fact there are so many people on stage, with the same intention.

I think overall, the way the year 13s changed the original set up of cats was extremely clever and worked effectively as they worked hard on perfecting the transition between the original idea of actual cats and their idea of humans in the fashion industry. This worked so well because in a strange way, Cats and fashion aren’t that different. They both share and are associated with the same values such as competitiveness, pride and finding the very best. These two ideas parallel on to one another and this is why it works.

Before performing the show, I took it upon myself to do some research/thinking about the characteristics of a journalist and what kind of movements they may do that is individual to them. I watched some videos also, of celebrities being bombarded by press attention and picked up on the kind of atmosphere we need to create as this part. I found their movements to be of a quick response time, this heps them to make the most of the time they have with the target (celebrities.) In some videos i watched, they would often verbally hassle the target to push them for answers. In Cats, I plan to mime this verbal bombardment to give the impression of urgency to the audience.

 
The two characters I played in Dissocia and Cats were very different yet had some similar qualities about them and links between super objectives. In Dissocia, I played a young woman called Lisa who suffers from a mental illness called Dissociative Identity Disorder, which sees her creating a world in her head after losing an hour of her life. In Cats, I played a keen journalist, looking to get the inside scoop and latest new on people from the fashion industry.  

These two characters are different in the sense that Lisa has quite a reserved personality, keeping herself to herself where necessary whereas the journalist has a confident being and is in the face of celebrities all the time. The two have a link however, in the sense that both of their super objectives within the plays is to find something they are looking for. These may be different things however the fact they are both on the hunt for information, makes the way the act similar. An example of this would be that both the journalist and Lisa asked a large amount for questions throughout the course of the script, in an effort to detract any information possible about where they might find what they’re looking for.

On the other hand however, Lisa and the journalist were very different characters for me to play. where Lisa can be a preserved young woman who doesn't enjoy sharing personal information with people, the journalist is the person who would try and persuade Lisa to give up this information to them. They are very different in this sense as journalists have to have outgoing personalities to be successful in their profession. I will managed to get in to character by taking a moment to think about how each one would react to certain situations they will be faced with. This helped me develop facial expressions and gestures relevant to the situation.

Taking the similarities in to account, the link between characters made is easier for me to work out what each of the characters I played wanted to achieve by the end of the play.



 

CATS The Musical - vocal and singing rehearsing

To contribute to the year 13s musical project, Cats The Musical, as a class, the year 12s had to support them in their work by singing in certain songs through out the musical. Below, is a list of sings we featured in;


Photograph sourced from Rachel Maddix, my teacher; she sent this to all involved to notify us of the songs to learn for the musical.

The most challenging song to sing was Up the the Russell Hotel as the notes in this song passed through extremely high octaves, pushing my voice to its natural limits. to overcome this, Kim lead some scales work which helped with my articulation. My favourite song to listen to the year 13s singing and the song that worked well, having a positive effect on the audience was Mr Mistoffelees. This is because the way their voices worked as an ensemble piece sounded brilliant and came across in a strong and bold manner. This was partly because all of the cast were totally confident with the song lyrics, giving a more powerful message to the audience.

We have spent some time in class going over the songs we feature in, taking help from Kim, our singing teach who broke down the verses for us to make the songs easier to pick up on. We also received help from the year 13s who taught us the lyrics to songs such as Heavy side layer and Jellicle songs for Jellicle cats. Having learnt these songs from fellow students, really helped me understand the required tone of the song as the year 13s are actually going to be performing these. Their interpretation of the song is very important to understand as this is ultimately their show and as extras, we will do everything we can to make our skills work to their full potential in place.

Dissocia Performance Evaluation

The Wonderful World of Dissocia- performance evaluation

On Thursday 16^th April, my cast performed The Wonderful World of Dissocia. This is a contemporary theatrical project that we have been working on since the beginning of this calendar year, January 2015.

After going through the standard rehearsal process of learning a monologue from the play, I was cast as Lisa. She is the main protagonist who suffers from a mental illness which leads her to a breaking down of her life, friendships and relationships. For the character Lisa, I had to do extensive research in to mental illnesses such as Dissociative Identify disorder, schizophrenia and bipolar. This really helped me to understand my character and set the scene for me about how she would feel in certain situations she is faced with in the course of the play. Another technique I used to gain a better understanding of the play was to read the script through before I found out my role in the play. This allows you to take in, understand and appreciate the happenings and literature without focusing on one role. This also allows you to go in to the process of finding out the casting with an open mind as you have had the chance to appreciate the personalities of the characters; this makes it easier to find out who you are going to play as well as you have a slight insight in to that character before the rehearsal process commences.

For me personally, the biggest challenge I had to face for Dissocia and the role I was given, Lisa, was learning her lines and applying these to develop my characterisation skills. This was because Lisa is more or less in every scene of the play, as she only leaves the stage three times over the course of the 2 hour play. For any actor, this amount of lines to learn is a challenge however this was the first main role I have been faced with, so this challenge was twice as daunting for me. Despite my doubts at the beginning, I managed to confidently learn all of my lines and it wasn’t as difficult as I had originally imagined. The technique I used was remembering my lines in chunks of conversation. For example, I would see the character, the Goat and think to myself, ‘what conversation do I have with him, what state of tension is Lisa at and what are her feelings towards the situation?’ This aided me because having structure to my line learning really helped me get in my head where I needed to say lines and when.

Performance day evaluation!

The Victoria scene is the establishing scene of the play where you first get a glimpse of Lisa’s character and Victoria, who in this scene, represents the wonderful and weird character’s Lisa will meet on her travels through Dissocia. I think the way Paris and I played our characters in this first scene really aided the audience in working out their personality and what they meant to the performance. Paris did this by making a confident and bold statement as Victoria, by wearing out of the ordinary clothes, speaking to Lisa about odd happenings and delivering these lines with such purpose. I did this by expressing concern and discomfort at the fact Victoria was in my home by using strong facial expressions and body language to do so. This suggested to the audience Lisa may be insecure and not fully welcoming to the idea of someone she hasn’t met before, in her home.

If I were to do this scene again, I would make the way I changed the pace of the scene more regular and fitting to the content. As I was nervous, I think I lost the sense of pace with this scene. In the ideal world, I would have perhaps been quicker to question and dictate what Paris was saying to me, rather than the approach I took, leaving a short amount of time to represent Lisa thinking about what was being said to her.

The following scene was the Lift scene which worked perfectly as it combined humour with anxiety. This was the first time the audience got to see some of the citizens of Dissocia and they made such a bold and certain statement, by wearing outrageous clothing in barbaric colours. This suggested to the audience how odd this so called land of Lisa’s lost hour was and set the audience up for how strange the rest of the play was going to be. The only thing I would change about this scene is to add in some lift music in the background. However for the actual performance, this was technically impossible as you aren’t able to play music and a voice over recording at the same time in the theatre. We did indeed have a song prepared for this scene however we couldn’t use it. We chose a slowed down non lyrics version of lady Ga Ga’s Poker Face. In rehearsals, we felt this fit in well to the awkward atmospheric feeling and went well with the head bobbing being done by the lift passengers, excluding Lisa.

The following scene was the Guard scene. Now this was one of my favourite scenes to perform in Dissocia as the two guards were my favourite characters from the play. Jess and Max played my guards and I think they did a fantastic job of balancing their ‘insecurity’ professionalism with humour in their line delivery. The guard’s lines include a fair amount of swearing. With any piece of theatre, swear words have to be used correctly and delivered with the correct amount of passion and will otherwise they simply don’t work. In this case, the worked perfectly! This was because Jess and Max used these words to express what their character was feeling about the situation. This scene got a big audience reaction as I believe the context the guards were swearing in, to express annoyance towards themselves and other, the audience could relate to in their lives. The whole comedy element was the most effective factor of this scene as this brought the ideas and themes together.

If I were to do this scene again, there isn’t much I would change as I personally felt it went well. The only thing I would alter about the way I performed it, would just be to loosen up and fall in to Lisa as a character. I feel if I had stopped pre-empting the next line or movement and relaxed in to the role more, then the scene wold have been idea. The reason I automatically did this was because this scene requires a very accurate delivery of lines. In certain parts, if you say a word in a line out of place, you could be in danger of messing up the whole chronologies of the scene up.

The Oath taking scene was an establishing part of Dissocia as the audience realise just how realistic and series this place really is. In this scene, the audience are made aware of ideologies that Dissocia holds and how these are put in to place. This is of course done with hints of humour, as the Oath taker is quite a character, wearing a yellow clown costume and having a humorously mixed personality. What I felt went well in this scene, was the relationship and interactions between Lisa and the Oath taker. Their relationship is odd as the Oath taker is made out to be this highly respected figure in Dissocia however on a couple of occasions, Lisa manages to prove her wrong in what she’s saying. Another element that I felt really worked in this scene was the fact we had the rest of the cast, kneeling around Lisa and the Oath taker as the Oath taking was taking place. This gave the scene a more official feeling as the Dissocia citizens seemed really interested in what was happening.

Something that didn’t go so well about this scene and that I would differently was that there was an award pause after the first Dissocia attack took place. This was simply just that we as a cast collectively lost our place, which is easily done when there is so much to think about what with lines, characterisation and stage movements. We managed to recover from this by acting like we were still shocked and getting ourselves back together from the attacked and I made a comment about it to fill the space. To improve this, we should have rehearsed this transition a couple more times than we did as I think in the rehearsal process, we were more focused on other scenes that needed more of our attention and time.

In a transition between major scenes I have my phone call monologue to Vince and a song/rhyme about my thoughts towards the meaning of an hour. I feel that my monologue went well as it almost acted as a narration to the audience, informing them of what was going on in the play as it is very advanced and can be difficult to understand. I feel I delivered my monologue well however if I had the chance to redo this I would and I would slow it right down to ensure the audience could fully take in what was being said. My rhyme about an hour called ‘What’s an hour’ was basically again an aid to ensure the audience understood what was going on Lisa’s head about Dissocia and how this affected her. I saw the rhyme as a sort of thought process which she happened to be speaking, saying aloud o the audience. My target was to work on the delivery of this as in rehearsals I had been doing it incorrectly. However on the night, I feel it was the best I had done it to date as I really thought about slowing it right down and saying the lines as if I was thinking them rather than actually speaking to someone. Thinking about that, helped me deliver it in the correct fashion.

The next scene was the Goat scene, which towards the end, contains material which needs to be faced with maturity and respect. Lisa is almost raped by the goat, who represent the character Vince, who here suggestively may have raped her or abused her in the past. I feel that this scene went well because Henry and I really pushed ourselves in to this as it wouldn’t have worked half-heartedly. We had to make this seem as life like as possible and I did this by letting out an uncomfortably ear piercing scream as he approached me. He made his actions discrete to cover the uncomfortable nature. I feel that Jane entered the stage at just the right time as well, this added to helping the scene not to get too intense and explicit for the audience. The following part of this scene sees Jane taking Lisa’s position for her. You don’t see anything; we staged it so the goat and Jane go off stage for the rape to take place. By only hearing the suggested noises, I felt this was really effective and a powerful source for the audience to feed off of as at the same time on stage, Lisa has a mental break down. The lights started to change also, which changed the atmosphere. This really worked as the noises and Lisa’s mental state worked well together as this suggested well that she is mentally unstable. If I could do the scene again, I would make my character more afraid of the goat and I would work more on the relationship between the goat and Lisa in the build up to the sexual violation. I would do this as I feel I could have added more emotion through my body language towards the goat and what he was saying. I would do this by using the space in a more effective manor, perhaps by walking around more when delivering lines and being livelier when trying to accuse the goat of doing things he actually hadn’t such as stealing Lisa’s purse and fitting a mortise lock on her door.

The Jane scene, I felt went quite well. We did a good job of incorporating the comical side of the scene, Lisa and Jane repeatedly going round the stage in circles on a child’s tricycle with the sterility of killing people with a bomb. I felt Amber, who played my Jane did a really good job of portraying her character to the audience by putting emphasis on certain words to build up this wall of authority only to be broken down when her and Lisa are on the bike. This scene turns in to a comical mess of vulnerability and drunken talk. This worked well and the audience really enjoyed seeing yet another of Lisa’s many sides. If we were to do this scene again, I would again relax in to the role of Lisa and play her in more of a childish and drunken manor perhaps as the idea of incorporating drink in to the scene as such a big element was a last minute idea. I would do this by slurring my words on more of a high level and possibly raising my voice louder than I did.

The final scene of the first act was the Britney and Lost property scene, which contained the most humour out of all of the Dissocia scenes. This is because all of the cast are present on stage and the characters you see are all individually comical. Something that I feel went well with this scene was the pace. Everyone worked really well together to stop Lisa from asking any questions or getting any answers about where her hour may be. Each individual character really went over the top on their movements and noises to create an all-round humorous effect. Without this effort, the scene would lose its scene of meaning and purpose, to stop Lisa from finding her hour. Also, max, who played Biffer; I felt used strong characterisation and delivered the role of Biffer the best I had seen him do to date. This was because he used props and large body movements to represent his clumsy nature, another factor which is used to distract Lisa from finding her hour. If we were to do this scene again, all I would say to improve on was, personally for me, to be sharper on three of my lines towards the end of this scene. These three lines were delivered towards the Dissocian citizens, giving them the message that Lisa needed to find her hour. The lines were very similar and all came in a row. To improve on this, I would have spent more time revising these in detail, ensuring I knew the order they went in perfectly.

The second act of the show was very different, seeing Lisa waking up in a dull hospital room, with doctors, nurses and visitors coming in and out. One strength I felt I have personally in this act was the way I played Lisa in her fragile and angry moments. These lines and scenes were to be delivered correctly and closely thought about as acting as someone who has a mental illness can be very challenging, as you need to be accurate on the way you perform it. I felt I delivered a strong performance here as I did my research in to how Lisa wold have reacted to certain situations she was put through in this act. I used techniques such as swearing, raising my voice and making violent movements to portray Lisa’s emotions. I feel the way Lisa acts, suggests more about her true feelings than the words she says therefore I found a way to show this, through visual body language.

In this act, the sound team didn’t play a certain piece of music for a second time, where it should have been. Therefore, if I were to do this scene again, I would ideally have liked this to be included. It wasn’t a major problem as I only had a phone as a prop for the scene we missed out therefore I could easily hide the fact this happened. In fact, it happened to fit in fairly well with the content anyway.

Overall to conclude my evaluation, I am very happy with the way Dissocia was performed and how brilliantly my class mates and I used our characterisation knowledge and skills to build a fantastic piece of contemporary theatre. I felt I did the role of Lisa justice through interpreting her condition and personality in a specific way, factored by my research and personal way of acting. If we were to perform Dissocia again, it is only small and slight adjustments I would make as the majority was as I had imagined. I have learnt a lot from this play, from the truth about mental illness to how strangely and wonderfully my class mates and I can bring words from a script on paper, to life on stage through intense concentration and effort. All of our efforts paid off in the end, as we produced a really interesting, apposing and humorous piece of contemporary theatre. I couldn’t be more proud of our achievement here!

 

Thursday 16th April- Day rehearsals and Performance Day!

Today was the day of my casts performance of Dissocia! Yesterday was Izzy's cast and they did an amazing job and it all came together so well on the night. Watching the show from an audience perspective was a great opportunity to see how the other cast performed certain aspects of the play and this really helped me to develop my character, Lisa and how I play her.

Today, our cast ran through act 1 and 2.We did this to ensure we had no worries or doubts when it came to the performance this evening. As a whole cast, our main concern was the Britney scene and which order characters are meant to deliver their lines. Because of this, the Britney scene was the first scene we ran through. this run went fairly well however we still had some issues we needed to iron out at this stage. The main problem was that everyone needed a reminder of cue lines and when to move arounf the stage. The problem wasn't so much with the actual lines we have, because everyone was prompt on their lines however not so prompt on their cue lines. This made the scene loose pace, which is one of the most imporant factors of the scene as the idea is to portray that everyone involved is trying their hardest to stop Lisa from finding her hour. To improve on this, we ran through this scene again in the full run we did later on in the day. We ensured this was the focus of our rehearsals as this was the scene that needed the most attention as it is the scene where the audience start to understand the meaning and motives of this act.

Tuesday 14th April- cue to cue rehearsal

Today, we conducted a cue to cue rehearsal. This is mainly for the advantage of the technical side to the performance however also gives actors a chance to get a feel for the performance and what it will be like on the stage with the lighting, sound and effects in place.

As our class are double casted, Izzy’s cast did act 1 for the cue to cue and my cast took act 2. Each cast watched one another to ensure we could visually remember what our character was doing on stage. My production role for Dissocia, is lighting therefore I sat at the top of the staging with the lighting and sound team to direct and aid them in the lighting plan for Dissocia.

One of the most effective sections of the lighting and sound that we worked out today is during the Jane, when an explosion sounds and red light follows this. The way the tech team have intertwined these two elements really work with the dialogue being delivered on stage as these combined, really give off a sense that people are being bombed.

Working out the lighting for act 2 was the focal point of my learning today. For act 2, we are using houselights to convey an uncomfortable hospital atmosphere for the audience. Now, as house lights don’t take up any technical time as such, they do take up cue time and that was what today was about. So, for act 2, the technical side of things was more focused on cue lines for the lights to be turned on and off. This was much needed for me from an acting point of view as my cues for when to make certain gestures and get out of bed I feel, were much needed to be recapped.

Monday 13th April- show week

Today, we used the time in Lena's lesson to rehearse act 2 of Dissocia. This is the act we have done the least work on because it is fairly straight forward and doesn't require a lot attention as the content and happenings of the act are simple, limited and don't require a great amount of effort to block.

I found today really helped me to develop my characterisation and understanding of act 2 as this is something we have not spent much time on. It was also helpful for me to watch the other cast as this helps me develop how I play my character by feeding off the work of the other class. Even the little details of how the other cast perform certain parts of scenes; One example of this is that I have learnt and picked up on is how Izzy lies down on the bed. This seems like a minor detail and of not much significance to the play however I have learnt to lye on my side instead of back, making it easier for the nurses to nudge me awake at certain points. Not only do I find watching the other cast beneficial for the small details however for the larger details also such as how to deliver certain lines and how they portray certain themes and ideas to the audience.

The thing I found that went well today was firstly the level of team work our class rpoduced. We are all very supportive of each other and the other cast and I find that this makes things a lot easier in the process as positive relationships allows situations to work out and character intraction to flow nicely.

Secondly, I found that today having Katie, our learning mentor, at the fron of the class reading out stage directions to the cast on stage helped me to refresh my memory on where I need to be on stage at what time. I found that the second time my cast ran through the secondhalf, that I knew these directions and was easily able to recall my movements and actions, allowing for a more performance ready piece of theatre to be shaping.
My target for the show is to put a stop to a bad habit I have fallen in to in the Dissocia rehearsal process. This is slightly changing certain lines I deliver. This is a bad habit because if I happen to miss out an important/ending of my line which gives the character who has the next line a cue, this could sabotage the whole flow of the scene. I will put a stop to this habit this week by reading over all of my lines a few times in a thorough fashion and rehears as much as I can with my cast.

Wednesday 8th April- Dissocia Easter run through

Today was the first time that both casts had completed a full run of act 1 with no stopping. I felt that by doing this, I now know that the performance date of next Thursday 16^th April (for my cast) and Wednesday 15^th for Izzy’s cats, is perfectly achievable whereas before today, I was starting to get worries as we hadn’t get managed a full run with no glitches. By running the whole performance, it highlighted to me areas of the script I need to refine and go over to ensure I am totally line confident. The area I need to focus on here is towards the end of act 1, where Lisa finds out all of the citizens of Dissocia have been trying to keep her hour from her. I will go over these between now and Monday, the start of show week, until I am line perfect and 100% confident on my queue lines.

Another element of the performance we worked on today was the logistics of the Jane scene, where Lisa and Jane have to use children’s tricycle to move around the stage on as if they were flying in an aeroplane. When we ran this, it turned out to be more challenging than we originally first expected as the tricycle is uncomfortable when two people are sitting on it and takes a lot of power to move. There is no real way to solve this issue, we just have to bite the bullet and go for it whilst performing. By doing this, the scene also adopts a humorous affect, visually which ties in with some of the comments made by both characters on stage.

Another positive that came out from today was having the ability to go over our entrances and exits and queue lines. I see this as a vital part of any performance rehearsal process as if these are under rehearsed or poorly revised, the whole performance would fall apart and not work out. Personally as I play Lisa, my queue lines were my main focus out of these two elements as I have very few times throughout the play when I leave the stage. I remain on stage for the main bulk of the performance. I see this as effective because it almost feels like with Lisa present at most times, that Dissocia and the world she has invented is working and moving around her, metaphorically in her mind. This cleverly links in to the fact that Dissocia is in fact not real and this adds to the clues given off by the content of the performance to the audience to make this assumption.

All in all, I found today a helpful aid in our rehearsal process as it gave us a chance at a full run through for our own cast and also gave us the chance to watch the other cast run their show. This is a useful way of rehearsing due to the fact when you watch the other cast; you can pick up techniques they are using in their show which you believe may work in yours. On the other hand, when watching you get a chance to see how the other cast have a different perspective on some scenes and elements, allowing you to see some ideologies and ideas in a different light.

Dissocia- Lisa's song 'What's an hour'

Here is the links to two potential backing tracks, copyright free, that I will be singing my version of Lisa's song; What's an hour.

The third link is the original backing track which is meant for the song to be sung to however I may in fact sing the song to the second link as I feel this is more suited to the way I am playing and portraying Lisa; as a young independent woman with a passion for great things in life.

1)   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em1dCnFNrbE

2)   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULsJZovo3r0

3)   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuqSfftaBo8

Thursday 26th March- Dissocia, run through

Today was our final lesson and rehearsal of Dissocia before the end if this term, Easter. Therefore this was a chance to clear up any worries or concerns we may have had before the lesson about the play and run through scenes we know need doing.

The main scene we focused on was the Oath taking scene. This has been staged and work on previous to this however we all felt it was the major scene in the play we needed to tweak. After we had improved parts of the scene by re arranging characters on stage and changed slightly the way they delivered certain lines, the scene automatically became more powerful and meaningful as a play on theatrical devices can really improve the way some things are portrayed.

The element that went really well for me today was how I have developed my characterisation of Lisa. My interpretation of her as a character has developed out of her stereotypical traits and has turned in to something very raw and fresh. I have decided to play Lisa as a young woman, who bottles up her emotions. She is a strong woman on the outside however underneath, she is very fragile as she is domestically abused by her boyfriend, Vince. I think I portray her character well as I play her with confidence through the way I deliver her lines to certain characters through out the play however I show her more fragile side by dimming her response and dropping her tone of voice in reply to some questions such as her reply to "Now has anyone other than yourself touched or stroked your hair today". I reply with a distant "No however use a negative tone of voice as which to suggest she is disappointed in the fact no one has touched her hair recently. This suggests rejection in her relationship with Vince, pointing towards an unhappy life.

Today highlighted to me that I need to go over my lines at the end of act 1 as I am the least confident on those. I believe when I have done this, I will be confident towards the whole of act 1.

Friday 27th March- singing- Cats

Today in our singing lesson with Kim, our year 12 musical theatre class had a joint lesson with the year 13 class who are performing Cats the musical as their main project piece for their unit. We Asa class in the year below are using this as a part of our singing and dancing unit.

By watching an extract of one of the songs from the musical really helped me to grasp the atmosphere and the classes image for the performance. This was helpful as I am going to be involved in a dance number and singing number and has now given me the correct insensible as to how to perform my roles. Their level of work ethic and the amount of effort they have out in to the piece they performed to us was inspirational and really set the standard as to where we should be aiming for next year as second year musical theatre students.

In the practical side to the lesson, we collectively learnt how to split a song into part harmonies. We were split in to two groups, I was put in to the harmony group which contained mainly year 13 students, only Taylor, Ashley and I from the year 12 class. The harmony and base line sounded really professional once placed together after we had practised in our separate groups.

'The Pekes And The Pollicles' is the title of the song our class have choreographed, learnt and will be dancing to in the musical performance. This song is all about how the journalists and paparazzi of the dog world are keen to get pictures and information from the cats staring in a current fashion show. For this, we also have to sing some parts of the song whilst dancing. This will take tremendous breathe control and stamina as singing and dancing together is a skill required to make high class musical theatre performers. 

Only Sophie, Katrina and John are singing along side us in this number aptherefore we went to sing with them and Kim in a music room today to sort out who will be singing which parts and how these will be done. It had already been decided that Sophie will be singing the main bulk of the song. Her voice is amazingling professional and really compliments the song and the lyrical meaning behind it. Our class as the journalist and paparazzi dogs is to bark and sing some of the verse and bridge lines. We are doing this due to the fact we need to vocally represent to the audience that we are in fact playing the character of dogs and how this related to the cat walk show. We have to sing the barking parts with aggression and passion behind them as the dog characters are fighting against one another for the best picture and information from the cats. 

I feel today was a very beneficial lesson as it showed me where I am going with the idea of the cats performance and how to play my character. By watching the performance from the year 13s, this also guided me through how I need to perform my character as they were certain if the way they were to perform their's.

Friday 27th March- Dance Cats

Today in dance, we filmed our dance routines for Cats in our two groups for assessment, both teacher and self.

Here is the video of my group, the Journalists, dancing our routine to the Peps and the Pollicles.-

 

I have self evaluated my performance for Cats based on the evidence in which is shown by myself in this video.

I feel one of my strengths is having the ability to recreate and remember the movements we have been taught and created that make up the routine. I feel this is my most clear strength as in the video you can see I am confident as to which movement comes next and so forth.

I feel one of my weaknesses is balance and how long i am able to hold a challenging freeze frame for. This is evident when Luke is leaning on my shoulder and we are both holding a 45 degree single leg balance. To improve this I will have to do some exercises over the Easter holidays which help improve the length of time I am able to hold a movement. This, for example could simply be repeating the same movement I am having trouble with and timing myself for how long I can hold it for.

By after half term I will be able to hold the balance and will work on using more animistic facial expressions to enhance the feel of the dance and improve my characterisation.

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday 24th march- act 2

Today, we did two full runs of act 2 which we have only properly done once before. This was mutually agreed to be the scene that needed to be focused on the most as it was the scene, before our rehearsal today that we had done the least work on.

I learnt today from Rachel’s guidance that in this scene especially towards the beginning, I need to play Lisa in a very unresponsive and dull manner. The message I need to feed across to the audience is that she is angry, depressed and frustrated that she is in the hospital in the first place however even more annoyed at the fact she can’t get out at the moment.

One thing I like about act two is that it is broken down in to twelve scenes which all show how Lisa is progressing towards getting better. I feel each character that appears in this scene to help and guide Lisa is an extremely important part of the play as they directly link to the first act. Act 2 will be the focal point in Dissocia for the audience to see actually how ill Lisa as they will hopefully work out that Dissocia was in fact created by her in her mind.

My major criticism to myself today was that I got my lines mixed up during the vince and Lisa interaction scene with in act 2. This is something I should know by now and only have myself to blame for, Therefore taking this on board, between now, Tuesday evening and Thursday morning, I will ensure I am line perfect because that is where I should technically be at this stage in the rehearsal process.

Overall from today I can see that things are coming together well all in all. The target I have set myself for next lesson is to tone down how I play Lisa in act 2 so she is less enthusiastic about being in the hospital. I am finding this challenging because the whole energy of the previous act is fast paced and witty, resulting in everyone having to be alert and energy full for the duration which brings up the atmospheric feeling. There is such a bug transition between acts and I need to work on showing this transition through my tone of voice, facial expressions and characterisation skills.

Dissocia- production role, Lighting

The Wonderful World of Dissocia

Lighting Plan-

Act 1

1)    Standard lights on stage neutral colour, Lisa is on stage alone in her house.

2)    Line, automated voice- “Thank you.” Page12. As this is said a square of white light appears down stage centre, large enough for the lift passengers and Lisa to fit in.

3)    As passengers leave the stage walking backwards, the square life light disappears.

4)    Now Lisa is in Dissocia, the lights have changed to blue and purple tones, very abstract and weird.

5)    Spot light on the two Guards and Lisa on the line by Guard 2 “No, no it’s the other things…” Page18. Leaving the blue and purple lighting as it is.

6)    Spot light quickly disappears on the line delivered by Guard 1- “She won’t have any of them” Page19. Blue and purple light remains.

7)    Lights increase in brightness but still remain the same colour when the Oath taker arrives on stage.

8)    After The Oath taker delivers the line “And now for the Ceremonial Song!” Page27 there is an ensemble song. The lights here stop being purple and blue and turn in to red and white lights which moving fast and start darting across the stage. These stop at the same time the song finishes on the line ‘Dissocia!’ Page27

9)    Lights return to the original purple and blue they were before the song.

10)                       Soon after this on the same page the Merchanised Voice speaks “Incoming attack…” on this line which is sudden, the lights are to turn in to white flood lights, possible add an undertone of flashing lights if appropriate (depending on epileptic audience member).

11)                       On page28 after the Voice speaks its last line, “Of the Black Dog King!’ these lights are to stop immediately and the purple and blue lights are to resume as normal like nothing ever happened.

12)                       Page29 after the line delivered by Guard 2, “The Black Dog King” they white flood lights are to come back ONLY for the line that everyone says “Queen Sarah, protect us from the Black Dog King” and straight after this, the blue and purple lights are to be resumed as normal.

13)                       The Oath taker and the Attendance exit and with this, the lighting changes to tones of blue, green and white. This is to reflect a change of setting to an outside area. Page30

14)                       When Lisa’s song, ‘What’s an hour’ starts on page 34, the lighting changes to an all-round red light on stage and a white spot light on Lisa as she sings.

15)                       The song finishes and these same lights remain for a while until Lisa realises there are flies around her bottom. At this point she deliver her line starting “Go away….” At this point, the lighting will change back to the blue, green and white outside setting.

16)                       On page 40, the Goat sings a short song. When he starts the lights are to stay the same colouring however decrease slightly in brightness, not a huge amount however it has to be noticeable for the audience.

17)                       On the same page, the Goat will turn Lisa over on the floor and just BEFORE she delivers her line “What are you doing” the blue, green and white lights need to disappear. The lighting now has become dark, with the effect of a backstreet alleyway, very private and secretive however the audience need to be able to have a clear view of the Goat and Lisa. Therefore the lights need to be dimmed straw lights. Uncomfortable for audience as it is a sensitive scene.

18)                       Page 41, Jane enters the stage and as she delivers her line “Hello there”, the lights return to the blue, green and white outside feel lighting.

19)                       Page 42, Lisa delivers her line “You’re what?” this is the starting point for the lighting to slowly change. Between that line and Lisa’s line “Why would you want to do that?” on page 43, these lights need to fade out and a strong red light over the stage needs to slowly replace it. This will happen gradually, fading in at first however by her line, “Why would you want to do that?” needs to be prominent and strong to represent anger, abuse and pain.

20)                       On page 45, Lisa will cover her ears and start chanting, beginning “Dissocia, Dissocia!” as she continues, these red lights need to start flashing and moving across the stage until her line ‘I want to go home’.

21)                       When she has finished speaking these light will go out and there will be a black out.

22)                       Bottom of page 45, Bear delivers the line “Hello Lisa” with this, a spot light appears on bear who is up stage centre and on Lisa who is down stage left.

23)                       Lisa will move over to the Bear. Her spot light is to follow her until she becomes visible in the Bear’s spotlight, where the bears spot light will now include Lisa.

24)                       As Jane enters on page 47, the spot light comes off of Lisa and the stage returns to the blue, green and white outside setting.

25)                       Lisa and Jane get in to the car. The lights at the point the car starts moving, need to blue and white, a sky colour. Over the whole stage.

26)                       Page 50 Lisa says ‘I think there’s a storm brewing’ at this point, the blue colour lighting needs to get dark, so possibly drop the white out for this effect.

27)                       On page 51 Jane says her line at the bottom of the page “Bombs away!” a fire colour, red and yellow light needs to fill the stage as if they are flying over a fire and people burning.

28)                       Page 53 Jane delivers her line beginning ‘That’s the one’ at this point the fire coloured lighting needs to fade out and be replaced with the blue, green and white outside setting lighting. As if they have now landed outside on the ground.

29)                       Lisa is left in the middle of the stage. The lighting for this part where she is speaking to Vince needs to return to the very first lighting we see in Dissocia which is standard on stage lighting neutral colour.

30)                       AFTER Lisa’s line on page 54 “Do what you like” the lighting is to return to the blue and purple all round stage lighting we used earlier.

31)                       Page 58 everyone gets up and sings “Habby Burnday” with this, the lighting needs to change to red and white lights which moving fast and start darting across the stage, used for last ensemble Dissocia song.

32)                       Return to purple and blue lighting when song finishes

33)                       When Biffer stands on a chair and delivers his silent speech, a spot light is on him, page 58.

34)                       Everyone claps, spot light disappears.

35)                       Page 69, Violinist shouts the line “INCOMING!” Here, the attack lighting needs to be used again, the lights are to turn in to white flood lights, possible add an undertone of flashing lights if appropriate (depending on epileptic audience member).

36)                       Lights return to blue and purple when Lisa gets to the middle of the stage and everyone stops making the attack movements. These lights are to be resumed just BEFORE the line is delivered by Inhibitions, beginning “She didn’t cover her head…”

37)                       Page 71, spot light on Laughter and Ticket, just for the line delivered by Laughter beginning “That’s right, you cowardly curs!” Goes away after line, ending with the word protectors!”

38)                       Lights return to the blue and purple.

39)                       AFTER the Army sing the Rivers of Bile song on page 72, the stage lights become red, no longer blue or purple. They are now red.

40)                       Red light disappears after everyone runs off stage and says “CHARGE”.

41)                       Two Spot lights, one on Lisa and the other on Vince. Follows then both when they walk slowly.

42)                        AFTER the line delivered by Lisa “Oh my God – it’s you!” complete BLACKOUT.

 

End of Act 1

Act 2

No lighting changes in the second act. Simply the houselights are on throughout, from start to finish.