I'm Goin' Down, I'm Yelling Simba

Get it... because I'm the Mufasa understudy... and he calls for Simba in the gorge... then falls into the gorge... and dies... I'm sorry.

The last few days have been hectic. We've really been getting to work! So let's go back and see what we've been up to!

Wednesday

Today was the day that truly sent us into mania. In the morning; after doing our normal warmups (seen in the last two posts) we headed outside to start the "blocking*" stage of rehearsal. We spent half of the period working on this. I don't want to spoil too much but the basics are simple. There are 3 semi-circles around the main cast. One row is my row, at the back, we're the "chorus." The next two rows in front of me are the Ensemble. Then, like I said, it's the main cast. That main cast is people like Zazu, Mufasa, Rafiki etc. The only "main" cast that isn't there is Simba and Nala.

In the left and bottom right images, I look so confused.
Also, I know I was behind Chloe, Chimera and Alesha in
the top right photo, so where'd I go?

*Blocking: In contemporary theatre, the director usually determines "blocking" during rehearsal, telling actors where they should move for the proper dramatic effect, ensure sight lines for the audience and work with the lighting design of the scene

After working on that for a while, we moved on to bits and pieces towards the end result. Miss Richardson took me, Faith, Jaime, Jade, Jess, I just realised how many j's that is, Ella and Keisha into a practise room to learn the Zulu part of Circle of Life. I would just like to say for the record, it's harder than you think. And no, it's not "pink pyjama's, penguins on the bottom." The rest of the lesson was spent learning that and trying to sing it.

Today we also had Drama period 5, meaning, we could spend the period practising our lines. That meant, me, Jakita, Daniel, Kerri, Jess and for help, Ella and Molly, all went into a practice room and spent the entirety of that period just going over the script. Meanwhile, people from GB were messing with, *cough* I mean, testing out, the costumes.

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

At Home

Talking about costumes... Wednesday night, I was feeling artsy, so I tried out a makeup look for my character!

As a cheetah, I needed the spots and the nose. Which, both were done using eyeliner. Also, for the hair, I did two space buns. If you want a detailed description of how I did the makeup, I will update my slide (seen here) with a slide on how to do it.

Thursday

Today, was also hectic. For the first half of the period, we did some more blocking, this time for the finale and what to do at the end. Just saying, the finale is very similar to Circle of Life, but better. We then moved onto, once again, bits and pieces the needed to be done. We split into 4 groups, Actors/Understudies, Singers, Dancers and Ensemble. I, however, was split between singers and understudies. I first went with Miss Richardson and the Chorus. Today, Miss taught us that we were doing some harmonies with Jakita and Meagan in Just Can't Wait To Be King. We went over that a few times before moving onto Circle Of Life Zulu. Miss Richardson let us go and do whatever we needed to do if we didn't want to sit around with them while Jaime and Faith did their solo bits. I went out to Mrs Clark and worked with the actors in the first scene for the rest of the period. We went over some lines and I learnt that Nadia is a really good actor!  Here's a photo of us practising the Finale.

Things are getting serious and I love it. I'm really excited to see the final product!

I hope to do some more acting in the future!

Let's Get Down To Business To Defeat The-, Oop, Wrong Movie...

Monday 20 November: We're getting closer and closer!

Today we went over the script! But before we get to that, we did our warm-up's as usual. This time we started with a new warm-up, though it was similar to the other warmups we've done before. This time it was a different tune and an "ooo" sound. This kind of stuff helped us later on when we were actually singing... Anyway, now I know about 3 or 4 new warmups to use in the future.

Before we knew it, we were up and dancing/warming up to "Can't Stop The Feeling." Listen to it here! After doing normal warm-ups to that, during the chorus, we do a grapevine-like-step, clap, then do a little jump step thing. After doing that through the entire song, we go back to doing Hakuna Matata (as seen in my last post that can be seen here)

Starting something new, we move onto reading through our scripts. Having no role of my own, I listening silently, throwing in a few jokes here in there, considering most of the main characters are my closest friends.

Next, we moved to starting our blog posts (haha, I'm actually just writing this at home.) While I sat staring at the blogger "New Post" screen, Mrs Clark was playing around with the costume items right in front of me, distracting me even more than writer's block.

Anyway, I've been thinking about what animal I'd would like to be as apart of the ensemble. I would like to try and portray a... *drumroll* CHEETAH. I'm not completely sure as to why but I feel like it might have to do with the fact I love cats... 

*What is your animal?* The Cheetah!

*What does your animal look like?* cheetahs are known for their iconic black spots and tawny brown coat. One of the most differentiating features of the cheetah is its two black stripes which look like tear-lines, which stretch from the corners of the eyes to the corners of the mouth. 

*How does your animal move?* Obviously, cheetahs move quite fast but when they're moving as slow as a walk, they move quite elegantly, a strut almost.

*What are the personality traits of your character?* Considering Cheetah's are quite solitary, sneaky and protective creatures, I think I would like to portray an awkward-ish character.

I would love to challenge myself with the makeup portion of my costume, as a makeup lover myself.

I would love to try something like this ^

I look forward to maybe doing a bit more singing and making this whole show come to life!

P.S sorry for the shorter post today, like I said earlier, writer's block has been haunting me for a few days

Hamlet The Musical, But It's 6 Times Shorter, With Lions & Less Death

BREAKING NEWS Progress has been made in the realm of Lion King; The Musical!

Today, Thursday the 16th of November, in preparation for our lesson, we had to get changed into our P.E gear as today, we would be doing a lot of moving around.
First things first we started off with a simple 8 count warmup with Miss Richardson and our other warm-up that is "Mini mini ma, Mini mini ma, mini mini, ma ma ma ma ma" repeated over and over. This both really help with singing higher parts and overall warming up my voice. I find the mini ma one is an easy way of warming up.

Here comes the difficult part of our warmups. Yesterday Miss Richardson taught us a new warmup. Everybody can recognise Rossini: William Tell Overture: Final even if they don't know the name. Just to prove that, click here to hear it. It's the iconic race tune! Anyway, at first this may simple, but try it yourself. How we do it is, first we try the song with the words, which goes: "Papa's gotta ping pong, gotta ping pong ball" to the tune. Seems easy right?  It's about to get harder. Then we add in some arms, starting with your right arm, start with it up then pull it down to the beat, a simple 1, 2, 1, 2. Again, still seems easy. Then with your left arm, start with it up, then pull it so you're pointing to the side, then down. Now put it all together. It's super hard to sing and control your arms at the same time, but when you are doing musical theatre, it's crucial to be able to do multiple things at once.

After we were all warmed up, we played Space Jump, an improve game where the main aspect is to have one person start out doing something like, let's say, bouncing a ball. After a random amount of time a judge or teacher says "Freeze" or "Space Jump." That person then freezes for the next person to come up and create a new scene based on the pose the last person was in. (Because I'm so bad at descriptions, here's a video with an example, and probably a better explanation.)

Meagan trying to deal with Nathan being so melodramatic during Space Jump. 

Finally, we moved onto some more choreography. This time to Hakuna Matata. Today it was super simple! Starting out with a box step while clicking, playing hand games in time to the music and ending with a Super Mario Jump!










See below a video of the choreography

Here's an image of me derping out and looking at the camera while trying to focus on the choreography all at the same time.

Summer and I working hard at the Choreography

I found being able to do the hand clapping in time a bit difficult at first, as Chloe (my partner for practice) didn't really know what she was doing at first, but then I taught her and she was fine!

Ooh, I forgot to mention, the cast list went up today! (the names in brackets are the understudies)

Unfortunately, I did not get my own proper role. But, I am Daniels understudy as Mufasa! So I've got to be ready to step in at any time, just in case something bad happens to him, that I totally had no part in... Anyway! I'm proud of those who did get a role. Of course, I was upset that I didn't get a role that I wanted, but quickly after I had gotten over it, I realised I'm not always going to get the role I want. 

Something cool regarding the roles though, I'm going to be apart of the Chorus, which is a separate group from the ensemble that I guess will be doing harmonies?

As I don't really have my own role, I was hoping, on the night, that I could be like apart of the whole makeup and costume scene. I feel that because I have such an interest in making my own costumes and have experience doing makeup that it would something I was quite good at as well as being really committed to it! Jaime, Jakita and I have already been so intrigued by the scene that we've created a slideshow full of idea's and inspirations. It's still a work in progress but here it is!

I can't wait to see the final product!

Arts & Culture

How do you think a culture's ideas and values are shown in their art?

https://www.firstlighttravel.com/nz-self-drive-itineraries/south-island/south-island-culture-and-heritage-tour/itinerary

Maori Art
Charcoal drawings can be found in limestone shelters in the centre of the South Island. Most portray animals, people and fantastic creatures, possibly reptiles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_art

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_art

Māori visual art consists primarily of four forms: carving, tattooing, weaving and painting.

Lion King: The Musical. Let's Go!

Session Two of prep towards performing The Lion King Musical.
Today I have learnt how to do a couple new vocal warmups.
I am wondering whether or not I'll be able to get a role that I want or will enjoy.
I think I'll be happy as any role I'm given. I would just really like to have a speaking role with a song as well. Nala would be fun to play.

Musical Theatre - Arts Festival 2017

This year for Arts Festival, I signed up for Musical Theatre with, Mrs Clark, Mrs Beer and Miss Richardson. This year, we are doing The Lion King.
Today in Musical Theatre we kicked off the next four weeks with three sections of different activities. When signing up for Musical Theatre, you aren't just signing up for acting, otherwise, it would have been called Theatre NOT Musical theatre.
First, we started with Drama activities, 16/16, Tequila, 123 and Copy Clap. These things each, in a way, helped us figure out how to work as a team or "ensemble."
Then we moved on to some vocals practises. We started with a vocal warmup, which was kinda silly, but practical. Next, we got into two groups to sing The Lion Sleeps Tonight. One group (group one a.k.a my group) was the group that actually sung lyrics and could sing a bit higher. While the other group sings the "Wim ba way" bit.
Last but not least we learnt a few parts of the choreography (dance moves) to Thriller and Can't stop the feeling.
I found picking up the choreography quite easy but keeping it in time with others was challenging.

Superheroes in Art 2017

This is Shay

1) Why did you choose your character?
I didn't really choose them, I was given my thumbnail paper, just made her up on the spot and rolled with it.
2) What is he/she doing?
Posing.
3) Why did you choose the colours?
I felt like the pastel colours contrasted against the regular/darker colours in "Shay."

100 Word Challenge 2017

I watch as the sky gets lighter and lighter as our shuttle plummets towards Earth. A word from the captain says to be careful leaving the station. Following the other passengers off the craft, I change into suitable clothing."Oh, my Jegus" I hear Jakita from the carpark. Running out. I see what she and Molly were looking at. What 65 years have done. Nothing but a swamp and a few trees. Inches of water has swamped what was grass. I remember learning about this “climate change will make the worlds sea level rise”. Well done New Zealand, well done.