Durrington High School and Worthing High School Workshops

What adaptations have we made to suit our performance at the workshops?
We shortened some songs, changed blocking and positioning for the smaller space. We created a new order, we wear performance blacks and added some new transitions. The songs we are performing are Seasons Of Love, Will I, Light My Candle, Take Me Or Leave Me and Santa Fe. We chose these songs because they display all of the characters well and also shows off our skills the best but in a compact way. They also show each character and the narrative the best,

What do you want the audience to understand from the songs and talks?
That there is a group of soulful starving artists looking for hope and love in america. I want them to see the relationships between characters and the different dynamics that couples have, for example Mimi and Rogers relationship is very different to Maureen and Joanne's. I also want them to understand the problems that can come up in relationships, shown in Take Me Or Leave Me, because although they are in a lesbian relationship they have common problems which I think is something that people don't usually expect or understand about homosexual relationships. I want them to understand the meaning behind Seasons Of Love and Will I, due to the fact that they are such powerful songs with a deep meaning. Seasons Of Love shows that we should live each day as if its our last and that a lot can change and develop in a year. Will I shows that you must always have hope at the worst of times but its okay to be down, and disheartened.

Self Reflection- 
Durrington High School
The students at Durrington high didn't grasp the idea of the play to well, they thought it was set in america and that there were lots of contrasting relationships but not who the characters were. Although this is difficult to tell from songs that have been taken out of context but I want to improve this for Worthing high by discussing this with the students. Their response on a whole was very positive, the chair duet workshop, inspired by our Santa Fe interpretation was very successful, they understood the technique and worked well in pairs to create their own sequences. This was quite difficult at first to connect with the students, I felt myself feeling like I was patronising them, but as we worked through the technique we all relaxed and I could talk to them a lot more freely. From the Q&A, they seemed very interested in the course itself, I found myself promoting the college professionally in a way that seems friendly by talking casually but in a confident, formal manner.
Worthing High School
The students from Worthing understood the context of Rent well, in our Q&A session following the workshop they showed that they enjoyed learning about relationships and different interactions, specifically how flirtatious Mimi and Roger were upon their first meeting, and how jokey and argumentative Joanne and Maureen were, as they had been together for much longer. The workshop worked really well, some of them were familiar with it so knew what they were doing, but those who didn't struggled with the timing but really tried and feedback that they thought it was really well executed in Santa Fe, much like the rest of the songs. They also showed great interest in the college and the different types of performing arts courses available, for example I discussed musical theatre and drama, and others discussed dance, and how they all fit together. In comparison to Durrington, the students were much more interactive and our pieces were better rehearsed, This is because we were used to a workshop setting and had performed the pieces once before.

Upon personal reflection I am very happy with  my performances at both schools,  I feel I was informative to the students and discussed the courses available, my own experiences and their futures in an inspiring way that would make them want to succeed.