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!