My Theatre Company Research, Phone Calls and Budget Work with General Tour Research

Friday 23rd October (Early Research - My Theatre Company)

In this lesson we began to look at what it would be like to produce and own our own theatre companies. I decided to research theatre companies, what makes them successful and the types of theatre companies already in the industry. 

A Commercial Theatre Company is the type of company that produces 'hit productions' on a regular basis. They are supported by loyal investors known as 'angels' to help them choose the current and upcoming productions that will produce the most money both for the them, the investor and the theatre they are touring to. They also try to use well-known actors to play the lead roles, having a star in the cast will often help with publicity and therefore increase income. They rarely own their own theatres and therefore they lease from one of the commercial theatre landlords for between six weeks and three months, maybe more depending on the success of the production. 

Subsidised Theatre Companies use government money and make no profit, they use donated funds to keep their company going. The Arts Council issue project loans to allow them to produce specific shows or expand the company. They have to keep their expenditure as low as possible, but make their theatre accessible, by having low ticket prices and carrying out community work and educational programmes to assist with costings. Because of the governments involvement they must regularly report back with what they are doing with the money they have been given and give reasons for doing so, this money not only pays for the productions, but day to day life too. 

I also wanted to look at the various type of theatre, and how each one differs from another, so that when picking where to tour my production I could be efficient as possible in choosing. 

A Receiving House is a venue that produces no original work, they usually only host commercial company work but I found that they are 'open for regotiations'. Most of the West End theatres are receiving houses, owned by entertainment businesses or sometimes commercial theatre company producers so that they can show their own work for less money, but getting the theatre is the difficult and costly part. Recieveing theatres that are not on the West End, are owned by a small company of people that change and re-hire different staff depending on the production being shown. 

Producing Houses, also known as Building based Theatres are often found to be involved in co-production deals with other theatres. This means they all she the costs and profit that the show they all produce makes. It is usually the risky shows or newer productions that are shown in these deals. 

For my company, I would like to involve Shakespeare as much as I can, I feel it is important to educate younger students on it as it is seen as boring and difficult to read or produce in modern society. I have an idea to tour shortened versions of Shakespeare plays to high schools, with workshops. I have a great interest in Theatre In Education and feel that Shakespeare is usually only explored through English literature and /or language at a secondary school level. Because I will be touring to school I will hopefully work with between 15 and 30 students at a time, meaning I will need at least 10 members in my company. 

Friday 13th November (Company Budget Work And Ideas)

In this lesson we began to look at the budget form we will be filling out for our own theoretical theatre companies. In pairs we looked at making a budget plan- 

• Estimate income on audience
• Divide ticket sales between ages/prices/how many shows
• Cost to make and sell programs
• Sponsorship
• Money from businesses in return for logos/adverts in programs, posters and leaflets

To help in creating a realistic budget form with good expenditure and income, we created some Budget Making Rules- 

1. Over estimate expenditure to give better profit
2. Don't over spend on less important items
3. Buy necessities first
4. Have contingency of at least 10%
5. Negotiate
6. Get Sponsorship
7. Be innovative about creating extra income
8. Call in favours 
9. Seek out publicity deals

At this stage my proposal to the schools will be a full 30-45 minute performance, class workshops and Q&A (about the play, company, industry etc.)

Some possible costs for me will be costumes, makeup, scripts, props, set, travel and any handouts/leaflets. 

Friday 20th November (Phone Calls)

In this lesson we were calling up any theatres we would like to tour at, however because I have a Theatre In Education company I had to ring schools to discuss performances and workshops, their prices and what they would want from my company. We also needed to contact any other types of companies for other things such as costumes or any tech equipment for hire. We had to come up with an opening sentence or two to help us with the phone calls, this was mine- 

"Hi there, my name is Emily, I'm a performing arts student at Worthing College and as part of my performing arts business course I am creating a theatre company and research how I would go about putting on a performance, do you have a few minutes to answer some questions?"

I then went on to ask some of the following questions- 

• do you have theatre in education companies visit your school regularly? 
• would your English or drama department be interested in Shakespeare?
• how much would you be willing to pay for (variation of performances, workshops and Q&A's)?
• if not Shakespeare, what would your school be interested in? 

I was quite successful in my phone calls. I contacted Worthing High School and Durrington High School and both said they would be interested. I was not told anything about prices by either schools because money would be involved at a later stage in organisation, however Worthing High School said that they rarely have TIE groups visit and that they really enjoy having them in, but suggested we approach with more options, such as other types of literature, just in case. Durrington were slightly less interested but this was my first call and I may have seemed a bit nervous or unprofessional. 

From this I learnt that being professional even on the phone is important and clarity is vital, when talking to Durrington I felt i was being quite vague but didn't know what to say, whereas with Worthing High I found I knew what to say and how to make the general conversation better and flow more naturally.

http://www.iasoundandlight.co.uk/followspots.htm
Above is a link to IA Sound and Lighting, they sell different types of lighting and sound equipment, which I would use for my companies production. To hire a lED 100 follow spot for a week would cost £45.
Drax Lighing- http://www.draxlighting.com/cgi-bin/shop.pl?
type=fullhire&item=Robert%20Juliat%20Buxie%20followspot&section=Lighting+Hire&subsection=Follow+Spots Also have a follow spot for hire, costing £80 for the week. The Robert Juiliat Buxie Followspot comes with the stand and appropriate cables.
Another site I found, Innovation Production, offers different types of followspot, the one I would be interested in, Canto 1200 costs £75 for a week to hire. http://www.innovation-productions.com/acatalog/Followspot_Hire.html

In comparrison, IA Sound and Lighting is cheaper ot hire, however Innovation Production have a better quality product and I would therefore choose that. I called this company to ask about how i would go about hiring their lighting equipment. I was very succesful, I was told that I can order what I like online through their website and pay using card. I was told that their team members would come to my location (depending on where that is) and install the equipment for me. 

Thursday 22nd October (Rent Another Day Blocking)

James, playing Roger wasn't in this lesson unfortunately so me and Charley, playing Mimi in the other cast, looked at the movement in the song Another Day. To begin we wrote down the feelings that go with each section of text, and when we split into our character groups Charley and I did the same but with movement-

We tried these movements out and decided that they worked well. We had a slight problem with the end part, because for the last verse starting 'I can't control..' because we have to go to the other side of the stage, but because of our theatrical conventions we can't just walk around, so we have to go off stage at the top of the scaffolding to leave the apartment then go around the side where the audience is. I suggested we walk around the back quickly to the other side in a break in the lyrics, this is very short but it is just enough time and after son rehearsal I feel we can do it in time.
From this lesson, I feel much more comfortable with the blocking of this song, before I felt like I was standing around and not knowing what my characters motive was. I feel a lot more comfortable with the notes that I have so sing because I hadn't sang it through properly before this lesson. I also am more confident in the feelings that I need to portray throughout the song, and the way I need to stand.
In this next lesson I would like to work on I Should Tell You, because I haven't before, I want to rehearse Another Day further and look at the harmony at the end of the song.

Friday 16th October (Rent Run Through Page 1-Out Tonight)

In this lesson we did a full run of scenes 1-6, with both casts so that we all had a chance to perform professionally for the first time in the space. I found this really helpful because I have not had the chance to fully run my songs properly yet. I was off cast at first which gave me the opportunity to get used to the space before being my main character. My homeless person characterisation mostly involved slow movements and hunched posture to show that I was cold and timid, and acted violently in a petty fashion to show I was defencive when people interacted with me. When I played Mimi I experimented with proxemics by being closer to Roger at times and acting as if I was 'playing hard to get' by being more affectionate with other characters. As Mimi I tried to stray more towards to rougher end of our staging, according to our theatrical conventions the side with the tree and screen is where most of the homeless characters will be compared to the other side.

Feedback-

• Rent needs more movement

The song Rent at the beginning needs more movement because it is supposed to be high energy and full of action, we want to capture the New York vibe in just this song which means we have to have a lot of people moving quickly on stage, or give that illusion. I have suggested w have some slower sections to show the less privileged parts, I feel we need as much violence as we can get considering what happens to Collins during his part of the song.

• Transitions need improvement

The transitions in our piece lack the energy that the actual scenes have, we need to figure out a way to develop the scenes between songs so that they fit better. One person suggested we used city sounds to divide between locations, I think we could add some stylised pedestrian movement to maintain the busy vibe we were aiming for in the first song.

• Out Tonight

When  performing Out Tonight I felt quite awkward because I didn't really know what I was doing and we didn't have the scaffolding we will for the show. We have decided we will do units and objectives to help us have more purpose when singing. Rachel suggested that we get in the audiences space a bit when we sing this song, Mimi is a drug addict and lack some of the social norms sometimes in these situations and we need to show that and clearly as possible. This will be a challenge as we are breaking the fourth wall and in the rest of the show I can't do that. 

Friday 16th October (Dance Guernica Lesson 1)

This lesson was the start of a short dance project based on Pablo Picasso's painting 'Guernica'. It depicts the scene of a small village being blown up in the second world war and the devastation and pain of the people there, it was very crowded as the bombers strategically dropped their bomb there when they knew the village would be busy and this is shown in the painting with images that look like hands reaching out, crying faces and odd limbs in crooked positions. We looked at the painting and discussed how we can use this as a stimulus and created a mind map of words to use as inspiration for our choreography.

We then wrote a list of words that would create movement in our dances-

·         sharp

·         heavy

·         control

·         fast

·         punching

·         repetitive

·         attitude

After this we were taught four positions that related to the words we had come up with, they involved reaching, pushes and lunges in a desperate way to show the emotions listed above. We then decided an order for these to go in, I decided to have my floor positions first to act as if I was climbing up and out of rubble to survive. After this we created 3 of our own that fitted the brief, I was on the floor curled up for one, crawling for another and reaching for another, we then added these to out original 4 in order. We were then taught a floor sequence and a travelling motif. I found the floor sequence quite fun as I have not had that much experience in this and I feel I did well in creating levels and contrasts in speeds. The travelling motif was a challenge for me as we had to leap and this is something I need to work on, I needed some help from others but I got it eventually.
Following this we got into groups, I was with Charley, Paige and James. We started with our beginning position on the floor huddled and stretched out, we did this to symbolise hope and courage. We tried to use the picture and try to create some of the shapes and atmospheres with our bodies through the tempo and formations we used. To finish the lesson we performed these and self assessed ourselves. I thought as a group we had good unison, our facial expressions were realistic and effective because they correlated well with the feeling of disaster of the piece and our movements. Our dynamics were also really effective in that they showed the people dying and also the people surviving. For next lesson I would like to finish the dance and create a good ending for it and also explore crossing pathways. 

Thursday 15th October (Rent Singing)

This lesson was dedicated to singing some of the major group numbers in the show, we worked on Rent and Will I. To begin with we looked at rent, as we have only ever sung this with a backing track which is going to be different to our live band in the final performances. We sang through Rent with the piano and realized it needed work. We appropriately split into groups according to the script, for example near the end of the song Roger sings some lines with one half of the cast and Mark sings with the other which transitions into everyone singing together but with the boys singing the lower melody and the girls singing the same but on a higher octave. We stood in these groups best we could so that we could get used to signing together and we could listen to each other as we sing. This was really helpful as I don't usually sing the higher octave because my voice is stronger on the lower one and it was therefore  a challenge for me, someone suggested that some of the girls sing the lower octave because there are so many more girls in the cast and that the higher notes overpower the lower ones. This gave me confidence because I know that I can sing the lower notes for now and when I become more comfortable with more rehearsals and development I can sing the higher notes when it comes to the final performances. After this we ran through the song once more and some of us struggled with the groups, so we had the idea to just have boys and girls instead. I didn't agree with this and when we sang it through I raised the point that it sounds too feminine and loud then manly and quiet. Therefore we returned to our original groups and decided that that worked the best.

In the second half of the lesson we looked at Will I, this song is difficult as it is in the round and each group sings a different octave or harmony. Previously some of us got together and sorted our groups, who is in them and the octave they will sing at. This was very difficult ad there was only six of us and we didn't know who would prefer to sing what or who would be more comfortable, there is also the complication of double casting because some people won't be able to be there for parts of it or not be able to be seen in the character that they are. We organised ourselves into these groups and sang it through roughly with a backing track we had found. This was successful but we needed to work on the solo as Dannii wasn't feeling confident with it so she had worked out her own harmony that she was much more confident with and wanted someone to sing the melody with her. I volunteered because I feel I can help Dannii with her confidence as I was in a similar position to her last year in that I knew I had the talent to sing my solo but I wasn't used to singing in front of many people or having the confidence to do so. We worked on this with the piano a few times before running it with the whole class. This was successful as it was all in time and the harmonies worked really well. Next we wanted to play around with the volumes and dynamics of the song. We decided that once every group was singing, we would crescendo before one person per group keeps singing at this volume and everyone else in the group would sing quieter to highlight this one person. I was chosen as one of the singers as it was originally Charley, however she will not be able to sing it when she is on cast so we will swap around. I did not have a chance to practise this but I think it sounded really good and in sync, it flowed well and added something special to an emotional song. This song already contrasts to a lot of the other fast paced songs and because we have worked on it in such depth it will be very memorable and effective when it comes to getting the audience emotionally involved. 

Friday 9th October (PAB Theatre Company Structure and Roles)

To begin the lesson we wrote down a list of all the roles in a theatre company that we could think of in pairs-

1. actors -Performs the pieces chosen
2. directors- Directs and is in charge of main on stage decisions and how the actors perform
3. producers- In charge of production teams and provides connections between other companies and within the company
4. set design- Artistically draws and creates the set, working with producers, directors and actors to create effective working and aesthetically pleasing staging
5. prop design- Designs any on stage props and small pieces of set that the actors need to use
6. lighting technician- Works through the script with the director to know where and how to light the stage
7. sound technician- Is in charge of the mics and any songs or sound effects used in a production
8. musicians- Form the orchestra for a live band in shows
9. choreographer- Creates the dance numbers, works with directors and actors
10. costume designer- Creates costumes for the actors, including the order of any changes and works with a dresser to organise this with the actor they are dressing
11. box office staff- Deals with the audience as they enter the theatre, helping them with tickets and programmes etc
12. stage hands- Quickly moves set and props around the stage between scenes, usually during blackouts
13. hair/makeup design- Designs the hair and makeup for the actors depending on their characters and the context
14. publicity manager- In charge of promotions and advertisements for the shows and the company
15. casting director- In charge of which actors get which parts in a production and have a huge part in the audition process
16. chief executive (CEO)- Initial starting point of the company, in charge of all employees and any major decisions
17. finance/admin staff- Monitors the expenditure and costings the company has
18. education manager- Educates any young performers in the company, and has contact with schools for ticket offers and workshops
19. artistic directors- Designs and monitors any artistic decisions such as set and props designers, costumes, hair and makeup and choreography 
20. stage manager- Helps with line and lighting cues and manages backstage
21. company manager- Manages the whole company and keeps in contact with every team leader in the company
22. fly man- lifts and organises the set on stage

After discussing what each of these are and mean and what their roles in a company are, we put them into a flow diagram style chart of importance.

Presenting Theatre- Shows various shows and touring companies

Producing Theatre- Has one show at a time and this is the only place that this show is professionally produced, until it comes off stage 

Friday 9th October (Rent Run Through Page 1-28)

In this lesson we ran through the first half of the first act of the show. In this I have to sing Rent, Light My Candle, Life Support and Out Tonight. Overall the run was very successful and songs that I had not sung with an audience before went well. The opening song Rent needs improvement, this run proved that we need a lot more energy on stage and more movement with more people, it is a bad start to a show that has a lot of energy and the lyrics in the song are punchy and bold, the atmosphere and movements need to match this otherwise it will look wrong and not make sense. After this I was just using stylized pedestrian movement on the streets and I walked slowly off stage in unison with everyone else during the beginning of One Song Glory, to prepare for Light My Candle. Walking off during One Song Glory was an idea of mine so that I will have time to prepare for Light My Candle back stage, before this we had no other way to walk off stage to be able to get into the flat in the right way according to our theatrical conventions of going backstage to get up high on the staging block at the entrance of the apartment then going down the side to enter properly. The song Light My Candle went well but we struggled with the new backing track as it was different to what we had used before, our blocking was much better than previously though. The Life Support song was successful, I would not normally be a part of it when I am playing Mimi but some people were in other rehearsals so I had to step in to make up numbers, I am glad I was allowed to though as I needed to rehearse this. Next was Out Tonight, which actually interrupts Life Support and I wasn't expecting to have to sing it so I wasn't prepared and hadn't warmed up my voice enough. Because of the spacing and situation I could not do the chair (pole) choreography that we had worked on last week. These things aside I feel I did very well, I hit all the notes and felt very confident with it; this has given me confidence for future performances and rehearsals. Doing regular mini performances to my class in rehearsals is really helpful, it makes me much more comfortable with my peers and also helps them to help me if I need it and it builds my confidence massively.

At the end of the lesson we wrote down what we feel we need to improve on, what went well in this lesson, things that we can work on in the next lesson and we organised some out of lesson rehearsal times with any people we have group or duet songs with.

Improvements- 

• Opening song- confidence with choreography and spacing
• Blocking of Out Tonight
• Knowledge of staging layout
• Light My Candle blocking

What Went Well-

• Out Tonight lyrics/notes
• Knowledge of overall blocking
• Light My Candle singing

Things to Improve On Next Lesson-

• Off cast characterisation
• Life Support singing
• Consistent characterisation

To finish this lesson we organised out of lesson singing rehearsals with people we have duets or group songs with, I am going to rehearse with James next week. This will be helpful because we will have time to focus on things like timing and harmonies without feeling we have to move on quickly.  

Friday 9th October (Rent Dance La Vie Boheme)

In this lesson we worked on the La Vie Boheme dance for Rent. We ran through the dance in character for both casts like we had worked on last lesson before assessing what we need to tweak and work on. I suggested that we try to sing along to the song because we will have to in the real show, this would help to prepare us for that. I also suggested that we start to look at our entrance, the anonymous ensemble characters are already set up in the cafe and the named characters, Mimi, Roger, Collins, Mark, Angel and Maureen, come into the cafe with some dialogue at the beginning of the song, they are then welcomed in with high energy by the people sitting at the table, this will obviously change with each cast. We ran through the dance a few times with both casts and realised that we need to improve on our dynamics. There were many suggestions to use the table and chairs to our advantage but because we don't have those yet it made more sense to go lower rather than higher. Therefore we decided to choose a line and at this point everyone will position themselves either on a chair, standing, but mostly on one knee facing out to the audiences in a punching motion to add emphasis to the line and add a slower and more focused section to the song, as the rest of the dance is very fast paced. This was successful as it works for both casts which means we don't have to change over and learn two different parts and it also made it much more direct. 

In the second part of the lesson we worked on the chair duets for Santa Fe that were choreographed last lesson, unfortunately I'm not in this part of the show as it doesn't work for my character and I was working on Out Tonight when this was devised, therefore I wasn't included. I did some peer assessing and made suggestions for the others in this part of the lesson. For example when watching I noticed that they sway theirs heads sideways which was out of time, so I made a suggestion that they all followed one person so that they are in sync with each other. I also suggested to Kat that we use some of the other class and the year twelves to fill out the space but remain still and only perform very minor stylised movements occasionally to prevent from seeming stationary and pointless on stage. 

Thursday 8th October (Rent Out Tonight Early Scaffolding Choreography)

To begin this lesson we discussed how things were going and areas that we felt comfortable or not so comfortable in, personally I am feeling very confident with La Vie Boheme, Light My Candle and I feel I know the narrative of the play very well. I wrote that I wanted to work on my off-cast characterisation and Out Tonight mostly. Therefore Charley and I were to start choreographing Out Tonight while the rest of the class devised a dance with chair duets for Santa Fe.
Charley and I started by setting up five chairs in a line facing away from ourselves to act as a scaffolding pole that we will have to dance with. We sang through the song with a backing track to warm up our voices before singing it through again while improvising some movements that we had thought about previously to see how they would work. We found this to be quite difficult at first, because we didn't really know what we were doing and both felt quite awkward without having any direction. Therefore we tried again but facing each other so that we could use a competitive feeling to provoke emotion and aggressiveness. After this we had some ideas for what we wanted to do so we discussed our movements and made them clearer with an order in our heads. This was quite challenging as although we play the same character we have our own different interpretations and our routines, characterisation and interactions with other characters will be different. I suggested that we start in the corner and turn around dramatically at the beginning of the song to set a feeling of authority and draw more attention to ourselves. This entices the audience and will contrast with the previous song 'Will I' as it is a very slow and meaningful group piece. Going from this to a powerful, high energy solo will be memorable and show that Mimi is troubled and this song and her job doesn't fit her personality. The way I am portraying Mimi I only want to have this type of sex appeal in an aggressive way only in this song, to suggest that she is stuck in the job and the rest of her have matured.
To finish the lesson we performed the first verse and chorus to the rest of the class to practise performing the song and become more comfortable with what we ad devised. The reaction we got was great, I felt very confident and being in character for this specific song made me learn a lot about my character and how I want her to be portrayed.
Rent - Out Tonight Early Choreography - First Verse And Chorus

Friday 2nd October (Rent La Vie Boheme And Opening Song Dance Development With Self Assessment)

In this lesson we worked on the opening scene physical theatre to the song 'Rent' and the song 'La Vie Boheme'. To begin with we walked through the Rent song to remind ourselves of what we wanted to work on. I suggested we work with the spacings more and try to bring more energy by having more people on stage. Because we are signing at parts throughout the song it is difficult to do this well and perform high energy  motifs, so we went through it once without singing at all and this proved to have more energy in it. We then did it once more and recorded it, in this run I found it easier to have more energy as I did before when I didn't sing because I knew how to portray the energy and improve my characterisation. Whist watching this recording back we made notes through self assessment-


WWW: Timing and unison with walking, positions and exit. Basic characterisation with posture and use of dynamics


EBI: More facial expressions and knowledge of routines. Ending positions.


Target: Work on second group routine with floor positions.


In the second half of the lesson we worked on La Vie Boheme. In this lesson we started thinking about how we had staged the dance and what characters need to be where when they need to sing. For example when I am playing Mimi I need to be with Max, playing Angel, for our duet section and with Luke, playing Mark for my line with him. I suggested that when we space out into pairs to dance that we spread out and face different directions instead of all to one way, so now there are some pairs facing the front, some to the side and some to the back, to ensure all of the audiences get to see properly. Some of us had to change the way we move and where we go for this but it actually looks better this way as we has some extra time to get to where we need to be which looked awkward, so now we have filled that time with walking in character to the music. We also changed some choreography for some people, for example when I play Mimi I am with Max for our part and not Luke, so I had to learn a new bit of choreography and swap this with Charley when it is the other way around. This was beneficial because I had to teach someone else my choreography which I haven;t had to do many times before, but it really helped me to remember the dance better. It was also really useful to learn new choreography as it was devised in a different part of the space which gave me a lot of choreographic ideas and formations.

WWW: Characterisation, interaction with other characters, exaggeration and high level of energy

EBI: Extension in movements and clearer formations

Target: Look at positioning and work in theatre space

Thursday 1st October (Rent Page 1-15 Run Through)

In this lesson we ran through the scenes and songs from page 1 to page 15. For me this included the opening song Rent, being a 'bum' on the street dotted around the stage, some simple movement during the beginning of the song One Song Glory and the song Light My Candle. The opening song wasn't as successful as we hoped it would be, it was quite confusing as we had done some more work on it since we were last in the theatre space so it was difficult to get used to the staging again. I suggested that we involve some solo improvisations of running across the room doing some forms of physical theatre inspired by Frantic Assembly, and nearer the end having everyone come on stage facing the audiences and singing directly to them, this worked well because everyone was involved and it helped to immerse the audience by breaking the fourth wall and interacting directly with them. We decided that this song needs to be an angry, energized song as it opens the whole show. After this we returned to our initial positions on stage on the floor huddled in small groups as homeless people, I made sure I kept a slouched posture and didn't make too much eye contact to show fear and hopelessness. My next action was to walk slowly, maintaining this character during the opening counts of One Song Glory. When I am off cast I will just move to another spot on stage but as Mimi I will walk off stage to prepare for Light My Candle which I have to start in section G, which is only accessible from behind the curtain and up stairs made from staging blocks when you start off stage. We don't have this set out yet as it is too early in the process but I made sure to act and react to the space as if it was real. Next was Light My Candle, my first duet with James, playing Roger. This is the first time these two meet officially as Roger explains in the lyrics he has seen her around before but they are introduced properly in this scene. I feel my run of the song was very successful, I didn't need my script for most of the song and I felt relaxed and comfortable with the notes I had to sing. Mimi uses her sexuality and confidence in a comedic way which I really emphasised in this rehearsal, it got a very good response from the rest of the class as people laughed and when I looked around the room everyone was watching and seemed engaged, this gave me a lot of confidence and made me think about what more I could do with my character with humour. For example upon looking through my script in more detail I realised that Mimi has some sarcasm in her lines and I really want to use this as much as I can because from my research of watching other schools/colleges performances of Rent, the movie and the filmed Broadway performance this take on Mimi's character hasn't been done before. I feel confident using comedy and therefore think it will work well. After the lesson Charley, playing Mimi in the other cast, James and myself spoke briefly about blocking a simple plan for movement, just how we will walk around the stage, when we will walk to certain places and specific movements we need, and noted this in our scripts.

To finish we sang through the song Seasons Of Love to work out the harmony groups and make sure we knew the lyrics, as this song is very important for the narrative of the play and to stay true to Larson's initial intentions.

Friday 25th September (Rent Speed Runs)

In this lesson we wanted to look at the plot of Rent, to do this we were split up into our casts, with non double casted parts evenly divided up into both. In these groups we did speed runs, one group doing the first act and the other group doing the second act. I had to do the second act, so we read it through and picked out the most important things that happen in it and created a way to demonstrate that visually and through important dialogue. We tried to be our characters as much as possible but because we didn't have every character in each group some people had to multi role.
I feel my group was successful because we included every important aspect of the narrative in the show, and we included every song efficiently and smoothly.





From this, many aspects of the show were a lot clearer to me-

• Order of songs
• What people and characters are in each scene
• When I am on stage
• The layout of the staging
• Spacial awareness
• Narrative of the play
• Meanings of the songs

Doing a speedrun of the second act helped me because I now understand the order of the songs and when I am on stage a lot better. I also know the staging and rhe layout of the spacing, this helps me top be much more aware and confident when blocking my scenes. I feel a lot more prepared about my character interactions and with my general knowledge of the play.


Theatrical Conventions: A rule you make for your own show that you must abide by throughout rehearsals and performance
Immersive: Involving or encouraging the audience into the set/action/performance space
Fourth Wall: The 'wall' at the front of the stage that divides the actors from the audience, in our show we are breaking that and not having 'walls'
Traverse: Having the audience on either side of the actors on stage
In The Round: Having the audience surrounding the actors on stage

This is a diagram of the layout of our staging- 

Friday 25th September (Rent Opening Song Physical Theatre Development - Dance)

In this lesson we looked at the physical theatre routine we had created for the song Rent that opens the show. We knew we had to develop it as it didn't have the energy we need and with our characters it wont work, we found it didn't flow well and wasn't busy enough on stage.

We began by running through and film what we had previously choreographed with the music and noted down what we need to improve on through self assessment-

• using more of the space efficiently so that each audience section can see everything easier
• have more purpose when walking or moving, using stylised pedestrian movement
• refine movements better using dynamics and timings
• make the movements and motives more realistic
• develop characterisation

We then realised we needed to break up from our groups to make it more interesting and natural, so in pairs and small groups we choreographed motifs, based on the stimuli of people in the street in a violent circumstance. My group and I wanted to be as physical as possible so we looked at lifts or jumps to create levels and bring energy to the piece, we settled on using different types of trust falls and using the floor space to create the scene of people being chased. 

I contributed narrative ideas to this piece, such as each group and partnership having a motive to follow and choreograph around as their stimuli. I made suggestions on the final formation and the movements we could repeat to keep the energy up and not look awkward while singing. One thing that we were struggling with was keeping the pace up and a lot of people moving around the space, I discussed with others that we could have everyone randomly running across to a different side in various intervals to create confusion on stage, which ended up being in the piece. I feel this adds a lot of energy and has a natural style that we really wanted to portray, to put the audience in a street setting and start off the show with them involved. 

To finish we brought it all together with our new additions and ran it through, it fitted well with the music and before filming it we added more characterisation and energy to develop it. 

2nd Video Of Rent Opening Song Physical Theatre Development - Dance (25-9-15)

Thursday 24th September (Rent Early Character Work)

To begin this lesson we discussed some simple foundations of our rehearsals, as this is our first lesson with characters we can now work on character. We now know that we will take at least one hour out of our Thursday or Friday lessons to dedicate to singing our ensemble or group songs, and also work on songs with less people in when some people are running or scenes.
As I have never been casted the same role as someone else in a cast I really want to focus on my own interpretation of my character as much as I can. We were asked to think of at least two ideas for our characters origin or past-

• Mimi didn't have a father figure at a young age because her father left due to troubles with his wife, Mimi's mother, and money, so she had to take on that responsibility herself to look after her younger siblings (two brothers). This has lead to her not wanting to be feminine and being afraid of seeming 'girly' and vulnerable in that way later in life.
• She had a boyfriend before moving to The Alphabet City who gave her aids due to unprotected sex and was the person that introduced her to harmful drug use. The problems with her father as previously mentioned caused her to fall hard for this man even though she knew he was bad for her but because she was weak in self esteem at the time she ended up being abused by him and only stayed with him for the drugs. When he found out that she had aids he left her, which is why she is afraid to tell people she has aids or make it into a problem because she is afraid of being judged or left alone again. This breakup left her alone with little money and a bad drug problem and so she found herself in NYC trying to make a living like many others.
• Mimi danced when she was little, her parents would pay for her lessons but they couldn't afford it when her father walked out on their family, therefore she had to give up her childhood dream of dancing. This is why she has the job at the Cat Scratch Club, as she has experience in dancing and being feminine is a good thing, this helps her confidence a lot but she only does this for the money, she would rather have more respect off of other people but this is the only job she can get with her lifestyle. 

We then, in pairs, created small improvisations with different characters in situations that would reflect the decisions we had just made that would also make sense with our characters. We continued this moving around the room in different partners. This was really helpful for me as I struggled to make up things about my character from her past as I don't know a lot about her, Improvising on the spot is something that I feel very comfortable with and it helped me to come up with more characteristic as I acted my scenes out and gave me an idea of what my character is going to be like in later development and rehearsals. We were then given provocative situations in pairs such as finding a dead body on the street or suspecting a close friend has gotten into drug use and discussing this in character. I also learnt a lot from this exercise because I began to understand how my character would react and interact with different characters in the cast.

From this we made at least 3 definite decisions about our characters that we found out from this workshop-

• She is afraid of being feminine in front of other people in daily life
• Her father left at a young age and she doesn't have a good memory of him
• Doesn't keep in contact with her mother much as she is afraid she'll be disappointed
• She doesn't like or deal with commitment well

This lesson was really beneficial for me as it was the first time I worked with the character of Mimi, I am very excited as I wanted this part a lot and I am looking forward to seeing ho my character develops and how it contrasts with the other Mimi in the other cast. I have learnt a lot about my skills in character development and good techniques in devising, I feel I can use these in performance to keep in character and react or interact appropriately with others on stage. 

Friday 18th September (PAB Audition Evaluation/HE Research)

In my audition for West Side Story and Rent I was required to sing two songs, one from each musical. The options for West Side Story were Somewhere and A Boy Like That, and the options for Rent were Out Tonight and Light My Candle. I chose to sing Somewhere and Out Tonight because I feel this shows a variety in my vocal range and the most contrasting character. I feel the song Somewhere is very romantic and heartfelt, showing a vulnerable and feminine character whereas in Out Tonight the level of energy is very high with a lot more movement. I really tried to get into the character of Mimi as much as I could to sing Out Tonight as this is the character I wanted to play the most. I was confident and used the space well, trying to worry less about my actual signing and more about being Mimi instead of myself.
One aspect of my audition that I thought was successful was my energy, this is important in an audition because I want to make a lasting impression and this shows that I will have lots of energy in the final performance and throughout rehearsals which is professional. This linked well with my characterisation, I had to have a lot of energy to bring the character of Mimi to life, especially in this song. This is because the song is about her life and how she wants to be treated, the lyrics describe her lust which contrasts with her surroundings of being in the club where she dances for money. I moved around the space using appropriate hand gestures towards a specific point in the audience to make it easier to focus on my character.
In my audition I feel I could have been a lot more professional, when asked questions in a short interview after I sang I was still thinking too much about my singing rather than what I wanted to put across. I did not answer the questions about the character I wanted to play in the way that I had prepared to, i feel this let me down and I will try to prepare an answer next time instead of being confident in mt knowledge of the musicals. I was also worried throughout that I was going to be asked questions about West Side Story, luckily I only had to opportunity to discuss Rent, I feel this is because I made it clear that I wanted a part in this more than West Side Story. I definitely prefer Rent and only really read into this, which is very unprofessional as if I was asked about the other option I wouldn't have much to say and even if my performance was good This could really have effected my casting.
This audition has given me the experience I need to be successful in future auditions for shows and drama schools. I have learnt that it is very important to be confident no matter what, because even if your talent isn't as good as others, being confident shows potential. This also applies to your energy level, having as much energy as you can shows how far you can go, as it is easier to have a low level of energy, showing whats harder proves that you do that and anything below it. I now know that being prepared is extremely important, the interview plays a big part in auditions especially for drama schools and research is key. This also helps with job interviews and being able to conduct yourself professionally in the industry.

Friday 18th September (Rent Character Work/Production Roles)

In this lesson we began by going through our cast list which we had just seen, I have been casted as Mimi, the character I really wanted. We talked about how it might be a vhallenge for me as I have not played a character like this before but I feel confident and prepared enough for the role. After this we looked at a high schools production of Rent to see what ours might be like and point out things we liked or didnt like.

After watching some important parts of this we talked about our production roles, I chose to take part in lighting, set and props. I chose lighting because I feel it is anaspect of theeatre that I lack experience in and i chose set and props becaause I know I am good at this and I feel it is an important aspect of our performance and needs a lot of people to take part in it. I have been chosen to be head of props, this is a lot of responsibility and for this I will go through my script taking notes on what props we need and when. I will then organise who is bring what or whether or not we needto make props and start to set up props tables around the performance spaces. I have also been chosen to be the lighting liason for the first act of the show, meaning I will discuss with Kim what lighting we think we should have before the shows.

After this we started some character work, such as doing a role on the wall sheet to give our characters back stories and more detail, we then filmed each other explaining them:

Role On The Wall Explanation Video

HIV and AIDS

The main difference between HIV and AIDS is that HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is a virus that can infect and attack the immune system, making it less efficient and stopping it from defeating the virus. There is no medication to stop HIV yet, but some can help control it. AIDS is the condition that HIV can lead to, but you can have HIV without getting AIDS. AIDS stands for Aquired Immunedeficiency Syndrome and the symptoms for it can vary and change depending on the person. 

Main Causes Of Homelessness

There are many different causes of homelessness that all fit into two categories; personal and structural. Personal reasons include lack of qualifications for a job, lack of social skllls and support, debt, bad mental or physical health, family or relationship breakdown, different types of abuse or crime from a young age, parents wirh alcohol or drug problems, family history with homelessness and having been in care, prison or in the armed forces. Structural causes are more general. such as unemployment, poverty, lack of affordable housing or requirements for benefits. Some of the most common reasons for homelessness are relatives or friends no longer able to accomodate and orovide for them, relationship breakdown and domestic abuse.

'Starving Artist'

A starving artist is someone who gives everything they can to achieve their artistic aspiratrions, usually in film, visual arts or theatre. They are usually on minimum wage and barely get any more, if they do they spend it trying to 'make it' in their industry. 

Friday 18th September (Rent 'La Vie Boheme' Early Choreography Lesson 2 - Dance)

To begin this lesson we recapped some of the things we discussed in last weeks lesson about a dance stimuli. We spoke about what the stages are in devising a piece of dance and came up with this order:

• Choose a stimuli
• Research
• Improvisation/experimental with movement material
• Select and refine
• Add choreographic devices
• Ensure there is a climax
• Ensure there is a clear structure

We then looked at how to refine movement in devising dances what you need to look at to do this;

space, dynamics, levels, timing, relationships.

This linked with what we are devising at the moment for the song 'La Vie Boheme' in Rent which we then worked on. We blocked through our dance with the music a few times before adding some choreography in our partners to it. I was with Luke and because we do not know our characters yet it is okay to just choreograph without worrying about who is singing that part. Luke and I tried to keep the energy high by adding in a lift, we also used fragmentation to add a cha cha cha motif again in a slightly different way. We incorporated some hand gestures and experimented with doing movements in unison in different directions. 

I think this lesson as very successful and next time we will hopefully have our roles and therefore we can adapt what we have done to make it appropriate for what each character is singing and work with different people. For example Mimi and Angel have a small part together that they need to not be dancing in to be able to sing clearly but still need to be the main focus. 

To improve I would like to use more dynamic and levels and use my extension to make the movements more refined and clean. 

Rent And West Side Story Audition

For my audition for Rent and West Side Story I prepared two songs, Somewhere from West Side Story and Out Tonight from Rent. I feel I sang Out Tonight well, I had lots of energy and moved around the performance space with appropriate hand an bodily gestures. I had a clear voice and projected it well throughout the theatre,  I had a straight upright posture to help with my singing and keep professional.I didn't have to sing as much of the song Somewhere as I was expecting to, I only had to sing the first verse. This made me think I wasn't wanted for West Side Story as much. I then was asked to sing Will You Light My Candle from Rent, which caught me off guard because I hadn't prepared this properly, however luckily I do know the song quite well. From this I will now, if there are song options to choose from, Learn and prepare all of them just in case I am asked to sing more. I forgot some of the lyrics from this song so I had to stop and move on to my interview. I wasn't asked as many questions as I expected, I said what character I wanted to play, in this case it was Mimi Marquez from Rent. I explained that I thought her character was afraid to show feminine characteristics because she feels it makes her vulnerable. I feel I can connect with the character in that from my personal experienced and continued to explain that I had never had the chance to show all of my singing abilities and I really want to be able to express my confidence and performance energy that I had developed over my previous year on the course.
Upon reflection, I'm happy with my audition, being asked to sing an extra song that Mimi sings gave me confidence of getting the part I want and compared to my audition last year, I have made huge improvements in my singing, stage presence and general confidence.

Friday 11th September (PAB Audition Study and Preparation/Audition Notes)

To begin this lesson we looked at the important qualities an actor would need in a professional audition and in a show or rehearsal situation, we created a mind map of our ideas.

In preparation for our auditions next week for Rent and West Side Story, we talked about and came up with some possible audition questions that we might be asked:

• What character(s) are you interested in?
• What is your opinion of the play(s)?
• What do you think of the director(s)?
• What do you know about the shows history?
• What past experiences do you have in musical theatre performance?
• What are the themes of the play(s) and what do you think of them?
• What was the last professional performance you went to see?
• Who is your favourite actor and why?
• Who is your favourite theatrical director and why?
• What qualities will you bring to characters?
• What experience do you have in the industry other than performance?

We then, in small groups or partners, took these questions and created an audition interview situation to help practise for next week.

This is was helpful and beneficial to me because I feel I don't have much experience in audition interviews. Having this practise in a comfortable situation where it is okay to make mistakes and get constructive criticism back gave me a lot of confidence and after I felt much more prepared for my upcoming audition.

Thursday 10th September (Audition Notes)

In today's lesson we discussed vital elements of being prepared for auditions, and the difference between castings and auditions. A casting, also known as a 'go see' will not be creative or active, and mostly based on appearances, as apposed to an audition which tests your skills.

Audition Notes

• The audition starts from the moment you walk in the building

This is because the directors will be judging how you are around other people and outside of the audition, therefore you need to be careful of what you say and do.

• Always arrive at least an hour early for normal auditions

This is important as punctuality is something they will look for in people they are auditioning, if you arrive early you can mention your name to someone and you might be seen earlier, making you look better in comparison to others.

• Arrive 2-3 hours early for open auditions

Like before, it is important to be early because with an open audition it is open to anyone and if you get there too late they might not let you in to audition.

• Scan over or read scripts if they are available

Familiarise yourself with the lines and the context of the piece you are auditioning for.

• Be prepared to improvise in any audition with any people

Improvisation may be a part of your audition to test how well you socialise as well as your skills.

• Prepare and research the script, casting director, company and own availability

This allows you to be prepared as possible, and maybe look better than the other people auditioning too. Researching the script will help you understand the way you have to sing or act and also if you are asked to read a section of the script you will know the context and therefore any accent or characteristics.


Why did you choose your audition songs?

The songs I have chosen to sing in my audition are 'Somewhere' from West Side Story, and 'Out Tonight' from Rent. I choose to sing 'Somewhere' because I have not sang a slow sing like this with legato sounds throughout.
I have chosen to sing 'Out Tonight' because it has an upbeat tempo which contrasts to 'Somewhere' as it is a lot slower and calmer. This way I am showing more skills and versatility in a short amount of time. I also picked 'Out Tonight' because one of the parts I would like to play sings it in the show.

Friday 11th September (Rent Street Style Physical Theatre Lesson 2)

In this lesson we improved on our physical theatre street routines in our groups, we did these to the song 'Rent' as it is probably the song that we would use. It is also the first song in the musical and we need to make sure we have lots on energy for it. Doing our routines to a Rent song was really fun and added a lot of energy and enthusiasm as a class. It gave us an idea of how our final performance might look. We just ran through what we did last lesson with the new song at first, and then develpoed our routines by changing them slightly and adding things like facial expressions and expra movements. We then created an order for all of our groups to go in so that they over lap and blend well, making it all flow better.
The first run was succeessful, however my group and I decided we need to improve our timing with the music and the unison of our movements. The things that qent well were the link to the narrative of the play, being chased by police or finding someone for money, we remember the routine well, our facial expressions and we used the rhythm of the music well.
As a class we talked about the important qualities of the film, I thought this includes the levels they use, their exaggeration and the high energy. My ideas for recreating these things in our production are to use the scafolding to create more atmosphere with the levels, also I think we should be in character when the audience comes in but as people on the street rather than our actual characters. I really like the idea of coming out of the scafolding whilst siging songs like 'Rent' as an ensemble and increasing the volume and singing to the audience.

Doing this without our specific characters was really interedting as it allowd us to think about how we would interact with the ensemble when we do get our characters. As we did not have the set it was quite difficult to move around the space not knowing where we could and couldn't move or where the audience would be.

I think we could build on group interaction by combining groups together to create more complex routines, this would make new groups that we can combine ideas in and this will help us to work better as a company. At this stage, my character interactions are quite minimal, there is only one or two other groups on stage when I am and I find myself having to pretend to interact with people that aren't there.
My character interactions with other characters are quite minimal at this point. As we don't have our named characters yet, we are just playing anonymous people on the street. This means we are all equal in status and authority.


After discussing these things we ran it again with the Rent song, this was much better than before. The timing with the music as a class had improved a lot and the timing in my group of our movements were in unison. My character was much better, I had more active facial expressions showing aggression and power. As a company we used the space much better, at first we all gravitated towards the middle but this time we walked around the room in all four corners to make it more even and give all the audience a chance to see us.

To improve, I think we still need to work on our group unison, we are in time but it doesn't look as natural as it could.

Friday 11th September (Rent 'La Vie Boheme' Early Choreography Lesson 1 - Dance)

Today we looked at the song 'La Vie Boheme' from Rent and the type of dance they use in it. We began by discussing some of the influences and themes of the song, such as community, family and living life t the full. We also talked about stimulus, a starting point or something you get ideas from. There are three different types of Stimuli, visual, auditory, text and concepts/themes. Examples of visual stimulus are paintings, films, photos, sculptures, colour, shape or animation. With this type of stimuli you need to consider the way it has been created and the prominent aspects of it. Auditory stimuli would be things like music, rhythm, instruments, voice, percussion, words, poems or noises. In this you need to consider the way the sounds flow and how they blend together. Examples of text stimuli is scripts, poetry, literature or news items. It helps to consider the writer or context of the piece, this will hep to create the right type of movements. Theme or Concept stimuli includes things like war, death, family, emotion and friendship. You need to consider the relation between yourself and the themes when using concepts.

In my previous experience of performance I have used text based stimuli such as scripts to create drama, I did this by taking part of a script, for example Taking part of a script and choreographing physical and dance of a specific character, taking their characteristics and portraying them more physically.

Thursday 10th September (Rent Street Style Physical Theatre Lesson 1)

During this lesson, we discussed 'thug like' movements in the ensemble of Rent, during scenes set on the streets of New York where homeless people or people living in poverty would roam. We talked about the types of movements that they would use and in groups of three, developed small routines using the 'shoal of fish' technique by Frantic Assembly, making sure to walk very closely together as one before adding our street like movements in. We worked on travelling around the room in a way that would create hustle and bustle on stage, but in a random way. We achieved this by making sure not to walk into other groups and spontaneously changing direction, which was difficult at first as we couldn't keep together well, but as we practiced more it was easier to coordinate with each other better. We found it quite easy to do this but as we added our movements it was challenging. My group and I would walk around in threatening way, with our shoulders back, using our facial expressions by squinting at people and turning our noses up slightly. We walked with big confident strides as a company and then broke up in formation as if we were approaching someone, then came back together crossing our arms before dropping to the floor in a crouched position watching others around us intimidatingly. We would then carry o walking in a slightly different formation and repeat this routine with slight changes such as instead of dropping to the floor we would pose in a pose that seems like we are attacking someone on the floor.

This will help us in our final performance because it is giving us an idea of how to play ensemble and smaller background roles, it helps us to keep energy throughout the performance even if we are not the main focus.

Do develop this I think we should try to find a place to fit it into a song and have more than one group on at once, creating more of a busy atmosphere, and make these motifs more natural. We could do this by varying what we do and also blending groups together so that we don't look separate.

Guide to professionalism in auditions

In today's lesson we discussed vital elements of being prepared for auditions, and the difference between castings and auditions. A casting, also known as a 'go see' will not be creative or active, and mostly based on appearances, as apposed to an audition which tests your skills.

Audition Notes

• The audition starts from the moment you walk in the building

This is because the directors will be judging how you are around other people and outside of the audition, therefore you need to be careful of what you say and do.

• Always arrive at least an hour early for normal auditions

This is important as punctuality is something they will look for in people they are auditioning, if you arrive early you can mention your name to someone and you might be seen earlier, making you look better in comparison to others.

• Arrive 2-3 hours early for open auditions

Like before, it is important to be early because with an open audition it is open to anyone and if you get there too late they might not let you in to audition.

• Scan over or read scripts if they are available

Familiarise yourself with the lines and the context of the piece you are auditioning for.

• Be prepared to improvise in any audition with any people

Improvisation may be a part of your audition to test how well you socialise as well as your skills.

• Prepare and research the script, casting director, company and own availability

This allows you to be prepared as possible, and maybe look better than the other people auditioning too. Researching the script will help you understand the way you have to sing or act and also if you are asked to read a section of the script you will know the context and therefore any accent or characteristics.