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.

 

Thursday 19th March- presentation

Today we showed an extract of our plays to the other class. I personally feel this was well needed as acting in front of a live audience was something our whole class needed. This acted as reassurance to us that actually we have put a lot of work in to Dissocia and it is paying off. We could see this through the amount of laughs we received off of the audience and we could also tell from their facial expressions that our acting was justifying the content of the play.

Whilst watching the other classes play, Our Countries Good, a contemporary piece about a play within a play, indicated to me how they have used certain theatrical devises within their performance that I could adopt as new ideas for Dissocia. The main device I liked about their piece that doesn’t appear very frequently in Dissocia, is physical theatre. They performed a fantastic piece of physical theatre at one point where a group of actors were crouched around Amber, who was delivering a monologue in the middle of them moving on the spot in an anti-clockwise direction, making a slight humming noise. This was effective because as a member of the audience, we couldn’t see their faces as their backs were turned to us. This added an element of mystery to the piece as we were left to interpret from the words which were spoken by Amber, as to the mood and atmosphere of the scene.

I found that giving and receiving feedback was one way in which helped me realise what went well and not so well in today’s practical based lesson. One key point the other class brought up about our showing of Dissocia was the way the script uses humour to express the feelings behind some of the characters and how well we interpreted this form the lines. This made me realise just how vital the humour element of Dissocia is the play as a whole and how reliant we are on getting the humorous moments correct to an exact science.

I feel today I have learnt how to expand on the ideas and elements we already include in Dissocia by watching other pieces of contemporary theatre and analysing which parts would fit in to our play in an appropriate manner. I also got out of today that all of our hard work and determination regarding the staging and character development work for Dissocia is really paying off as the feedback we received was all positive and constructive.

Dance- Cats with Emily and Kat

Today, we added several sections to the Cats sequence we have been working on over the past few weeks of our dance lessons. To start the lesson, going over and marking the work we have previously done to the dance really helped me to refresh my memory and revise the movements and where they are placed in the routine. This also helps me to get in to my character before the lesson properly starts and encourages animalistic movements to be created by myself.

The first sequence we learnt was a short piece in which Emily had choreographed and in my opinion, was the most challenging sequence we have done so far in Cats. It includes sudden backward movements and springs out to the side which conveys well to the audience Cat like movements, sneaky, jagged and mysterious. I feel that this sequence challenged me the most out of everything I have already learnt for the Cats sequence as the moves are all to be performed very close together and in a small amount of counts. The space we have on stage also contributes to the difficulty of the piece as we haven’t much room to fully extend our body. However to overcome this, we will have to do some of the movements on the spot where normally with enough space, they would be travelled.

We also worked on some unison work within our ensemble groups which contribute to the fight scene. Within the unison, there are different movements and levels going on which adds to the mystery and visual pleasure, for the audiences appeal. These moves are also applied to the sequence in counts of two which improves the visual accuracy and sharpness of the piece, making it look organised.

Finally, we choreographed our own solo pieces to the ending of the Cats ‘Pekes and the pollokals’,over 32 counts.

Tuesday 17th March- Dissocia, run through

From today’s run through of the first 30 minutes of Dissocia, by both casts, I feel it has taught me a lot about my character, Lisa and how she needs to react to certain other characters throughout the play. For example, I need to add more uncertainty and displeasure in to Lisa’s tone of voice and facial expressions towards the fact Victoria has turned up at her house all the way from Switzerland. Also, during the opening scene between Victoria and Lisa, there needs to be more frequent mood changes, this will add dimension to the piece and a naturalistic effect to the non-naturalism of the piece and subject.

One thing I felt went well today was the fact I remember my lines and my que lines to a higher level than i expected I would. This showed me that all the work at home I have been putting into learning lines has in fact paid off and will benefit me in the long run as  can now concentrate more on my characterisation skills. I also felt like I made good use of the performance space, I was able to use the staging blocks at one point, the floor to sit on and the rest of the space to wonder around in in moments of confusion perhaps when delivery specific lines.

One thing I need to improve on for next lesson is the sense of mood change and how I react to other members of the cast. I will do this by going through the opening scene in my script and marking hwere I feel a change in mood is appropriote. This will indicate to me where I need to alter my character and help me perform and play Lisa at a higher quality.

13/03/15 Dance- Cats

The main chunk of today's lesson was to expand and develop our choreography in the two groups, Paparazzi and Journalists for Cats. In my group, the journalists our aim is to get the Cats on the catwalk to talk to us about fashion and the happenings of the fashion event.

Today was the first rehearsal we had all members of our group present. This really helped as over the past few weeks we have choreographed particular pieces for certain people in the group and they haven’t always been there at the same time to try these. As everyone was present, we were able to try these movements out and that’s what went well about today’s lesson in our group, our piece started to come together in a professional style.

I feel today in our group, our strength was team work and listening to each other’s ideas about what sort of moves we were going to include and where we were going to include them. I also feel we physically worked efficiently, especially on the lift sequence. This part, involving a team effort to lift Jess up on the Luke’s shoulders for a desperate need to seek information from the Cats effect, took a lot of time to work out and perfect however I know feel this, along with the all of our piece has finally come together.

A weakness of our team and something we need to work on for next week is our timing as a group. To improve this, we need to go over the routine and make ourselves more familiar with the material therefore making memorising the movements and working in sync, a lot easier and pleasant for the audience to watch.

Today’s routine.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMCkf0u2Y-I&feature=youtu.be

Singing- Kim 13/03/2015

Today in class we individually presented to the rest of the class our vocal warm ups that we set last week in the lesson. I had the vocal technique, articulation meaning how a performer sings their notes in other words, staccato and legato.
My two vocal technique exercises were singing / speaking consonant sounds such as 'p, p, p, p' in rounds of 4 in a quick manor. This helps to improve a singers staccato notes by pressuring the vocal chords in to creating these sharp sounds at a fast pace. The second exercise I performed was to improve staccato notes which are long and tied in to on another. The exercise was repeating the phrase 'Don't you dare dunk Denise'. This is a difficult phrase to repeat as it includes an alliteration and will improve on how singers perform staccato notes by repeatedly singing the phrase.
For me, the most beneficial part of today was doing the breathe control exercise which Amber conducted. The exercise was to breath in for 4 counts, hold for 4 and let a note out, where ever we felt comfortable with and hold it for as long as possible. By doing this exercise, breathe control was highlighted as an area of weakness for me personally as I noticed each time we did it as a class, I was one of the first people to have to take a breath. To improve in this weakness however I will repeat this exercise to achieve longer notes with less breathing time in between.

The main focus of today's lesson was listening to and singing the first part of our new ensemble project, 'Everything you didn't do' by Jamie Cullum. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xOq2QTaZAq0 

Today we used diction in the song to ensure the audience would be able to hear every word we sing clearly because it is important for them to have an understanding of the lyrics as they tell a story. 

Other vocal techniques that were present in the song include staccato and legato notes (articulation) and breathe control as the chorus line 'everything you didn't do' ,'I'm particular the word 'do' , is required to be held for 6 counts.

We also had some ideas about using a three part harmony for the end of the song as this is possible. We figured out as a class where they come in and this is our target for next week's rehearsal.

Tueday 10th March- Britney scene

We all felt that the Britney scene needed the most work today as it is the longest scene in Dissocia. The scene itself is very demanding as it relies on pace and fast transitions between movements and moods. For example, in parts of the scene, the content requires those involved on stage to be running around at a level 7 state of tension around Lisa as she is having a mental break down moment.

Compared to last week, everyone has improved on learning their lines and it was evident when rehearsing of this today however we still remain to need to do more work on this. As a class on the whole regarding the delivery of line, we all need to be more confident that we are correct with what we are saying as this will allow the scene to flow better than it has been today.

Something that particularly stood out today that went well was the ending the act two, involving all of the characters on stage surrounding Lisa and suddenly, all the characters charge off stage in to battle. At this point, the mood of the performance picks up dramatically and automatically gives the audience a lot of action to take in and feed off of.

Another element that I can clearly see from this rehearsal today that I need work on is what facial expressions and tone of voice is appropriate for me to apply to each scene. Certain parts of the script are difficult to distinguish what tone they are to be spoken in and therefore what facial expression you are required to associate these with. To improve on this, I will go away and do some work on figuring out the pragmatics of my lines and what their underlying meaning is.

6/3/15 Dance- Cats development

Today, we carried on from our last lesson, where we learnt some choreography and choreographed our own sequences to a song from Cat's the musical.
We used this lesson to elaborate on the content we already had and incorporated Jess and Paris in to this as they were absent from our group last week. We added a couple of lifts in today, which involved Jess being lifted gradually up on to Luke's shoulders where we held a fast freeze frame of us, the journalists, keen to interview the Catwalk models.
Our use of cannon, unison and ensemble work joined all of the movements together in our piece to create the effect of need for information from the models.
Overall, today we got some key movements completed for our piece and I feel my group worked effectively to achieve this. For next time, we will work on created some more of our own movements, stemming from the choreography that Emily has already taught us.

6/3/2015 Singing- Kim

Today in our singing lesson with Kim, we chose a vocal technique for example dynamics, breathe control and articulation and were asked to prepare some vocal exercises to help improve these whilst singing. The technique I chose was articulation and I worked in a group with Bryleah and Izzy to create our exercises.
I create two exercises for my vocal technique, articulation.
Exercise 1- repeat the sentence 'Don't you dare dunk Denise'.
Firstly, say this sentence using staccato, saying each syllable in the sentence and then carry on to sing the line in legato, long and pronounced wording.
Exercise 2- chose a letter from the alphabet 'p, t, d' and repeat them at a fast pace in rounds of 4. For example, 'p p p p'.
After, we got in to a circle and put in to practise some of the vocal exercises we had created. The one that had the most impact on my technique was Livvie's breathing exercise where we had to breath in for 3 counts and let out a 'ah' sound every other count. This helped me to understand where to breath when singing and how to control my breathing patterns through out a song.
Overall, today I have learnt the importance of vocal exercises for the voice and how necessary it is to do these as often as possible when an musical theatre student.

Below, is my planning sheet I worked on in the lesson.
Photograph taken my myself.

Dissocia- blocking the Britney scene- Thursday 5th March

Today in our lesson, we finished blocking the Britney scene. We made some technical decisions today on how we are going to stage this scene.

One of the major decisions we made today was the formations that we stand in for certain parts of the scene. We used a range of levels and varied movements to expand and elaborate on the scene's content. For more official parts of the dialogue, we used levels and different highs to create visual pleasure for the audience. In more informal parts, we used varied movements, such as when one of the attacks on Dissocia takes place, everyone is going to be on the floor doing sudden random rocking and swaying movements to show vulnerability and unexpectedness to the attack.
The characterisation and our response to movement is going well overall for us a a cast. We have all managed now to understand our character to a high level and are able to interpret this in to the acting skills we have learnt for Dissocia which are in general, very non naturalistic. Also, our class has a good understanding of pace and how the humorous levels in the play, are such a large part of the performance coming together and making sense.
Something our class need to improve on is the rate we have learnt our lines. I know myself, I have fallen behind with line learning however now we have almost staged the whole of the play, I find it easier to remember lines when I have movement associated with them. Over this weekend, I will go over my lines, clarifying them and ensuring I know them well enough to speak whilst acting with as little prompt as possible.

Dissocia Questions to be answered weekly

Principles of ActingCriteria 1

• What is the context of the play?

The context of the play Dissocia follows a 21 year old woman and main character, Lisa Jones, who suffers from a mental illness, dissociative identity disorder. The play follows her journey inside her mind in to a world of her own called Dissocia. Along her way, she meets many characters who help and hinder her on her mission; to find her missing hour she lost on the way back from New York.

• How is your role linked to the context of the play? 
• Can you list at least three more detailed examples of your understanding of the genre of the piece? How does the context present challenges to the performers?

The context of the piece places a large challenge on the performers to convey Lisa’s illness in the correct manor to the audience. As mental illness is a grey area, we as performers have to be careful we treat it with respect and recreate themes and ideas related to the illness in a respectful fashion.

• What are the biggest challenges for you as a performer tackling a play written in the style your play is written?

Criteria 2 

• Do you consider yourself to have an effective and positive manner? 
• Do you approach research creatively and in a disciplined manner? 
• What do you consider to be your most important contributions to the rehearsal process? Particularly focus on highly positive ideas/guidance you provided? 
• Do you respond to direction well and use feedback from the director in a positive way to improve your work? 
• Are you supportive of others? 
• Do you approach characterisation  in a creative and inventive manner?
• How are you using vocal and movement skills in a confident way? 
• Is there a high level of believability about your interpretation of the role? 
• Does your performance demonstrate a high level of commitment and focus?

Contemporary Theatre
Criteria 1 

• What are the themes of the plays you are in?
• Explain in your own words what you  understand of the social and/or political purpose embedded in the themes of your plays?
• How has the Director's interpretation of the scripts affected the way the meaning of the play is represented to the audience? 
• (Set, character understanding, use of colour, lighting, costumes, music etc) 
• What interpretive choices have you contributed to the development of your character/the play/s?
• Explain in full your understanding of the style of each of the plays? (tragedy, comedy, naturalistic, stylised, Brechtian, fairytale, absurdism)
• How does the style of the play/mono you are performing in support the themes within the narrative?
• How are you developing your understanding of the character and themes on a weekly basis? 

Criteria 3

• During the the rehearsal process have you demonstrated a high level of originality?
• Are you able to develop and contribute ideas both with and without directorial support? 

 

***Questions below should be answered after both the full performances and after the monologue assessments***

Principles of Acting
Criteria 3

• Have you produced a performance in which you were able to handle any mistakes and recovery quickly if required?

Criteria 4 

• Discuss ways in which your character/s were imaginative and confidently performed?
• What were you trying to communicates to the audience about the narrative? the character?

Contemporary Theatre
Criteria 4

• Were you able to clearly express everything you planned for your character/s?
• Did you successfully reflect the intended style of the play/s in your performance/s?
• How would you describe your level of focus and engagement in your performance/s? 
• What would you consider to be the most imaginative differences in the characterisation you created for the play and the monologue?

VARIETY REPORT FINAL

Variety Report-

Holly Hoskison year 12 Musical Theatre

 

 

 

Variety performance is a set of entertaining acts put into a show for the pleasure of an audience. These acts can be anything from dance, singing, acting to a specific skill such as juggling, beat boxing or an animal act. In this report, I will research, explore and analyse variety as a genre from its origins and traditions to its present day existence.

 

 

History and Venues

Variety performance dates way back to the 18th century and prior when the public used variety events as a social gathering at the end of a long week. In the present day, 21st century variety performance is best known for its annual show called The Royal Variety Performance, which is shown in London’s Palace Theatre.  This show is one of the world’s most famous and highly respected variety events, hosted by the Royal Family which you must receive a special invite to appear in.

There were different venues where variety performances would take place, these varied from rooms in drinking houses and pubs to purpose built music halls.

Variety performances began in music halls and drinking houses, dating back to 18th century London. Victorian Musical Halls of the 1830s to 1900s would consist of acts performing whilst audiences would eat, drink and interact with the singing and comedy acts. Acts such as male and female impersonators and characters songs were a popular appearance at shows. These events would be lively and for the working class who attended, the highlight of their social calendar; a weekly event in which they would very much look forward to as it was a retreat from their working lives. Workers of this century were paid a few shillings a week,  (a few pounds a week) and would spend their remaining week’s wages on seeing these variety shows. This implies how appealing the shows were to the paying public who had minimal money to spend. The fact music halls were an opportunity for the working class to relax after a long weeks work, suggests as to why they were so crowded and popular. The Victorian Musical Halls later became so popular they would hold shows three times a week to house their growing audience base.

The same would apply to saloon bars and drinking houses, working class audiences would spend their wages on one night out however these would appeal prehpas more to the males as these shoes were more sexualised compared to those of music halls.

American vaudeville is another genre of variety performance, which developed from the idea of freak shows and American burlesque, which peaked between the late 1880s and the 1930s. American vaudeville also developed as a branch of American life after the civil war. The shows consisted of unrelated entertaining acts and similarly to music halls, would attract audiences of the working and middle class who would spend some time relaxing here as a retreat from their working lives.

The London Palladium is one music hall, which has definite links to variety performance, past and present. This venue has held 40 of the annual British Royal Variety Shows, which are world famously known to be rich with talent and entertainment. The Palladium was first built in 1910 however was re built in to a year an ice rink, The National Skating Palace a year later. This however failed and was later redesigned by Frank Matcham, a famous theatrical architect who turned the Palladium in to the successful theatre, as we know it today.

At the beginning of the 1920s, the theatre was a premium venue for variety performances. On a lower scale, rooms in drinking houses and pubs were also used as venues for variety performances. These venues would be for those of the working class and were only able to spend a small amount of money on food and drink whilst watching the variety show. The most popular songs sung in music halls were funny and humours, comedy acts which audiences seemed to enjoy.

 

Types of acts

The Lion Comique was a type of performance, found in variety shows which started in Victorian music halls. The act, Lions comique was a parody of upper-class toffs, making fun of well-educated classes to audiences of working and middle class. Audiences found this appealing as they enjoyed watching other social classes being scrutinised at their pleasure. Alfred Vance and G. H. McDermott made Lions Comique popular and as how we know it as today.

In the days early days of musical hall, character acts and speciality acts were very popular among audiences and there were many different types of these.

Adagio acts were a mixture of dance and acrobatics. This act saw women being thrown, spun and swung around by the men. The most well-known Adagio act was titled Romance in Porcelain and was by the Ganjou Brothers and Juanita. They performed from the 1930s until the group decided to end their act in the mid-1950s. They were among the highest paid performing variety acts of the 1940s as audiences clearly very much enjoyed witnessing women with high skill and flexibility being moved by men. In a way, male members of the audience were exploiting the women of the Adagio act as they would never have had the opportunity to see women in this way before. The women who took part in the Adagio act would have been extremely flexible and would have maintained a nice figure, which men would have admired, therefore paid money to witness in musical halls during the mid-20th century.

Character songs are songs usually within musical performances that show large amounts of character and include relevance to the narrative. A recent example of a character song performed in variety is A Perfect Day sung by Susan Boyle at the 2010 Royal Variety show after winning her place when she won Britain’s Got Talent earlier that year. Here is a YouTube link to her outstanding performance in the variety show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgO5P0HoAgk

Her performance is memorable as her characterisation is stunning and developed. The emotion she carries with her throughout the song is consistent and accurate to the lyrical needs of the song. Her ability to produce vocals of such a high standard at the same time as delivery such an emotive performance is an amazing talent and is why audiences pay money to se her live today.

In the late 19th century, riding a bike became the latest fashionable craze and with this, the cycling act was developed in variety performance. These acts saw groups of cyclists perform tricks on both one and two wheel push vehicles and bicycles.

In the 1880s, The Elliotts and the Seven Musical Savonas were popular because they were the only cycling band currently performing in variety shows. Later on in their successful career, they split into two contrasting acts. One was a cycling act which performed tricks and the other was the World’s Only Saxophone Band who played over 50 instruments between the seven of them. Hatsley, one of the seven performers rode a unicycle on the high wire while playing the trombone. This was something audiences had never witnessed before, making the prospect of danger and skill involved in the act, a new and exciting element to add to variety shows.

Another cycling act who became famous in early variety was Kaufmann’s Cycling Beauties. They were an all-female formation cycling team who wore full Edwardian fashionable dress or tight-fitting short-legged sporting gear which, as pictured below, looked surprisingly similar to modern sportswear one would wear to participate in cycling, water sports of running.

 

 

 

 

 

With the new discovery of electricity in 1879 by Thomas Edison, the 'Electric' acts were born in variety, and made an appearance in music halls. The act exploited the new invention of electricity in a positive way. Volta would electrify himself before lighting gas jets with the tips of his fingers or set fire to handkerchiefs by touch. This was one of the most dangerous acts that variety shows had ever witnessed and suddenly transformed music halls in to more thrilling places when these acts were showcased. The danger and possibility of something going wrong with the act, live, seemed to excite audiences because this was a totally new prospect to them. The idea that the new discovery of electricity could be made in to an act so quickly, would have made audiences wonder what could be next in technology advances and therefore what this would bring to variety performance.

The Victorina Troupe developed the sword swallowing act, which saw them swallowing a bayonet fitted to a loaded gun. Miss Victorina, the lead performer, swallowed a lit electric light bulb which shone through her flesh.

 

Camp Variety Speciality Acts of the 1940s

Renee Dymott, known as ‘the unusual girl’, was a young lady variety performer who wore pointe ballet shoes on stage centre, performed pointe movements such as releves and plies at the same time as playing a banjo. The idea of such an act sounds preposterous however watching her perform her speciality act, is in fact capturing and fascinating, explaining why audiences would watch her and others with unique and individual acts to offer.

Anna Howe’s act saw her dancing around the stage in a long gown and high heeled ballroom shoes. At the same time, she was playing the violin and bending backwards, gently landing on the floor and reversing this move, recovering to her original upright position, dancing around the room. When watching a video of Howe’s, you can clearly hear the audience’s reactions in the back ground. You hear laughs and a positive response, this shows audiences enjoyed viewing something with a unique edge to it and speciality acts clearly were the answer to their wishes.

Similarly to Howe’s performance, Vesta Tilley, a woman playing the xylophone and tap dancing whilst doing the splits, gets audience response when performing her act, as it is so unique and has never been attempted before. All three of these examples of speciality acts sum up the genre well, these acts are unique to the performer; require high levels of skill however don’t have any purpose besides entertaining their paying audiences, which they fulfilled fantastically!

Below, is a YouTube clip of Reene Dymott, Anna Howe and Vesta’s; Camp Variety Speciality Acts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMzQVe-ytA0

Male and Female impersonators

A male impersonator is a female performer who dresses as a male and acts as him whereas a female impersonator, is male performer who dresses as a female and acts as her.

Vesta Tilley, known as the tap dancing xylophonist, was also a male impersonator in the 1940s. Her real name, Matilda Alice Powles, was born in 1864 and passed away at the age of 88 in 1952. She was an English music hall performer who also stared in the United States variety for over three decades. At the age of 11, she gained her stage name Vesta Tilley and went on to become one of the most famous male impersonators of her era.

 

 

 

 

Julian Eltinge, born in 1881 was an American stage, screen actor and female impersonator. After appearing in the Boston Cadets Revue at the age of 10 in feminine garb, he was noticed by big shot producers and made it on to Broadway in 1904. As he began to rise to stardom, he appeared in vaudeville, touring Europe and the United States. Eltinge then took part in a musical comedy series, later returning to vaudeville in 1918.

Eltinge’s work as a female impersonator, sourced from YouTube;   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4e-n_BI8os

This YouTube clip shows Etinge’s work as a female impersonator. Here, we see she had an entourage of backing dancers filling the stage, performing Can-can stylised movements.  The act revolved around Eltinge prancing and dancing around the stage in a humongous flamboyant dress piece, complete with a feathered head set. In the interview after, she mentions many people have asked who made the outfit. This shows that another reason for people attending music hall variety shows is because of the beautiful outfits. These especially appeal to those of lower and middle classes as they wouldn’t have been able to afford outfits of anywhere near the beauty and quality of those seen in variety shows. This just another one of the many reasons the paying public love variety shows, past and present.  

War recruitment within variety

As we have seen in my research in to variety, the audiences very much enjoy and pay attention to the shows therefore, by collaborating war recruitment in to a variety show was a fantastic way of getting naïve young men to sign up to the army, at the same time as their parents and lovers allowing this to take place. The best example of war recruitment in variety is ‘Oh What a Lovely War’. The use of young women dancing around the stage in raunchy outfits, tempted the young men to sign up as sexual pleasures were suggests as a reward. Also, the performers of the variety show would sing songs with lyrics encouraging the young men in the audience that if they came to the army, they were doing a good deed for their family and country.

Phrases were spoken by the female performers such as “I’ll turn you in to a man” and “I’ll give you the time of your life”. This was suggesting to the audience that by men signing up for the army, they would be highly respected and their sexual urges would also be fulfilled.

Blackmail was another technique used by the performers, “A kiss a kiss from this lovely lady, for the first man to volunteer.” This gave the young nervous and fragile men a final push in to joining to army. This suggests how powerful variety acts could be, as war recruitment really did work for encouraging men to join the army when combined with variety.

 

In depth study of two chosen acts

For this section, I have gone in the detail of two acts I have chosen and would like to perform in the end of term variety show. For the show, I will chose one of these acts to stage and perform for real. My two chosen acts are a dance solo and a musical theatre song.

1)    Ballet and contemporary dance solo

This is my first choice in act I would like to perform at the summer variety showcase. Ballet dance is something I have been doing for years and I am currently working on the grade 7 and intermediate exam syllabuses with the Royal Academy of Dance.

My first chosen piece relates to the work of late variety performer, Renee Dymott, who performed pointe movements such as releves and plié at the same time as playing a banjo. My chosen act relates to Renee Dymott’s act as they both express passion and sense of meaning through movement of the same elegant form, ballet. I have learnt both from watching Dymott’s act and taking regular lessons, that ballet is a passionate type of dance and takes a lot of strength to perform and perfect.

 

 

I would dance this to either a classical ballet piece of music or put my own twist on it and venture for something more contemporary. Here are a few pieces of music I have in mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ea90L91eZk Swan Lake original Dance of the Signets piece.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcFI8c5f6yo Nicole Cross’s cover of Sia’s Elastic Heart which I think would be a good piece of music to choreograph my solo to as the lyrics are very emotive and I think the audience would be able to connect with these easily.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8dSiyWIfEo This is a cover of Wrecking Ball, originally by Miley Cyrus covered by Boyce Avenue and Diamond White. This was a very popular song and the lyrics are relatable therefore I think dancing to this would be an effective way of using lyrics with emotional ties.

The venue I would be performing my ballet solo in is our very own Sealight Theatre in Worthing College. The size of the stage is a fairly large, plenty large enough for me to use the space well when dancing. I think this space is fully suited to a ballet solo; you can easily play around with the lighting on stage to create different atmospheric feelings which help set the scene of the performance for the audience. I am planning on using a dime blue shade of lighting when performing, as I think this will add a certain feel of fluidity and confidence to my solo.

I am aiming to base my choreography around a Swan Lake theme, including moves I performed when dancing Swan Lake, dance of the Signets last year however, putting a unique contemporary twist to the dance. I will include some of the signature moves from the original dance however include slightly more contemporary style moves in to the dance. I am planning on doing this to increase the individuality of the piece, and I am hoping to find a common medium between classical ballet and contemporary dance. I am also doing this as the show is based on variety performances and I believe my piece will be unique to everyone else's as it will involve two different styles of dance.

 

Also, the ballet solo I am planning to perform will include lots of movements, which requires me to make effective use of the stage space. Luckily, the Sealight theatre space is well suited to performances which need a large space as the stage is a fair size however the seating is very close to the stage space, making it an intimate performing space, with the capacity to hold over 100 people. This results in the ability to seat large numbers of people to share our performances with. This will increase the amount of feedback we receive which is a positive factor as a performer, allowing praise and constructive criticism to be taken. We will be performing to each other, therefore the audience will be our fellow class members, teachers, friends and possibly family. This could include children of a young age therefore the content must be age appropriate, which my dance definitely will be. I believe I can make my dance emotive, capturing the audiences’ attention, making them concentrate on working out why I have included movements I am planning to and how they relate to the music.

I feel it not to be appropriate to use any props for my dance; I feel the music I choose will be my biggest aid when performing. However for costume I would like to keep it simple by wearing black footless tights under a black skin-tight leotard with crossing straps over the back. I may wear my ballet shoes to dance my solo in because they aid me when doing pirouettes and turning on stage flooring. I want to keep the costume relatively simple as I feel what I have in mind for the dance will express my passion and message in a suitable fashion whereas a spectacular costume choice wouldn’t do this.

I believe this solo dance will suit my skill set to a higher level compared to the singing performance of a character song from a musical, as I wish to express myself through dance and movement. This is due to the fact that in the past, I have done a large amount of singing work. This variety show is a chance for me to express my love for both ballet and contemporary dance in one piece. This also allows my fellow class members and teachers to witness a different range of my skill set from a different perspective.

 

 

 

2)    Duet from a musical

My second chosen piece relates to the work of recent one off variety performer, Susan Boyle who appeared on the 2010 Royal Variety show after winning Britain’s Got Talent. This relates to my chosen character song as Boyle also sings a challenging character song and uses lighting to set the mood of the piece. I have learnt through watching Boyle’s Royal Variety performance that lighting can change the whole feel of a song and therefore will use this knowledge to greater my performance of I Dreamed a Dream in the variety showcase.

I have a strong passion for singing, numbers that originate from musicals and I also enjoy performing duets with fellow class members. My second chosen piece I would like to perform in the variety show also relates back to the work of all character song performers of variety, both past, Marie Lloyd’s hit ‘My Old Man Said Follow the Van and Don’t Dilly-Dally on the Way’, performed in music halls in 20th century Britain, and present, Susan Boyle with I dreamed a dream form the musical, Les Miserable. She performed this as her signature piece on television variety show, Britain’s Got Talent.

Singing is a skill I have learnt and acquired over many years of singing in choirs, with my past schools and taking weekly lessons at college. I have a strong love for singing of all styles, including songs under the genres’ alternative, pop and classic musical.

The venue I would be performing my duet in is again the Sealight Theatre. The size of the theatre is large therefore is a considerable amount of room to have to fill with your voice. The space we have available is great to perform songs in as the acoustics are good, making your voice project around the theatre, filling every corner. For my duet of I Dreamed a Dream which I would perform with Jess, the lighting I would use would alternate throughout the song. I would begin the performance with dime neutral lighting however as the song progressed, the lighting would increase in brightness to a full beam. I would like this to happen gradually to reflect the meaning and mood of the song. As the notes become longer and higher and the lyrics become deeper and more meaningful, the I would like the lighting to reflects this as I believe this adds to the visuals of the performance, allowing the audience to follow the happenings of the song.

For the performance, I would use a radio microphone which allows performers to have more freedom to act without having to worry about their voice being heard. Despite the fact this is a song Jess and I would be performing, we would use the space effectively to tell the story of the song. I have some movements in mind which Jess and I would be working as a pair to tell the story of the lyrics in I Dreamed a Dream. This includes walking around the stage area however not acknowledge one another’s presents until the end chorus, when at this point the lighting would be full beam and our voices would merge together to create a powerful piece of vocal work.

Our costume choices would be a plain white dress, hair up neatly in a bun and put together with a pair of simple black shoes. We would wear this as the song is a very emotive and powerful piece. If sung in the correct tone, I believe that by wearing an attractive simple outfit won’t take away from its true origin.

 

Variety shows and performances have been a large part of our society since the 19^th century. Throughout my report, we have discovered where variety shows started and how much they have meant to our growing society over the last couple of centuries. In conclusion, variety shows have been one of the most influential parts of our performing arts history and have entertained audiences for hundreds of years and will go on to do so again for years to come.

 

Link to Variety Report Bibliography- Click here

Variety Report, Holly Hoskison

Year 12 Musical Theatre, 2015.