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.