Hallucinations Only Mean That Your Brain Is On Fire

Also known as the more or less 'iconic' lyrics from the Panic! At The Disco song, 'Roaring 20s'. *wink wink, nudge nudge*

Maybe from that, you can guess where I'm going with this... If not, passion projects have finally rolled around and we're diving right into the Roaring 20s musical theatre with Bugsy Malone! 

We're already jumping right on in the action, even though we're only on lesson two, with casting already done. With Nadia as Fat Sam, Meghan as Bugsy, I managed to score myself the role of Blousey's understudy! This landed me with a possible mini solo (a whole three words :O) in our (Blousey and co.'s) performance of Hello, which happens after Blousey is blown off or forgotten by someone, again. 

Anyway, that's not exactly why we're here, are we? No, that reflection stuff is for later. For now, however. Bugsy Malone is a musical set in the 1920s, also known as the Roaring 20s, and what better way to get into the mindset of someone living in the 1920s than to... research it! So, without further ado- 

Life In The Roaring 20s

What were buildings like?

To sum it up, it was a whole lot of tall fancy buildings like skyscrapers. I couldn't really find much information that I really understood, a lot of it was architecture stuff I didn't get, but if you want to read it yourself this is where I was reading up.

What was fashion like? (clothing, hair, make-up)
The 20s had iconic fashion, especially for women. From flapper dresses, rolled stockings, cloche hats, camisoles, scarves, to fedoras, suits and ties.

Makeup in the 20s was very all out, as before the 1920s makeup was not as accepted in society, the sudden change caused women to copy makeup styles from movies. This meant women would pluck their eyebrows paper thin, apply eyeliner pencils and Kohl (a dark eyeshadow like powder) to their eyelids and lashes, and overlined their lips for an exaggerated lip line.
20s hairstyles do range but all have similar bases. Most of them have specific names, which is kinda cool, kinda weird? These include 'The 'Dutch boy' bob', 'The Eton Crop', 'The 'Marcel wave'', 'The Castle Bob', 'The 'Shingle' bob cut'.


What was home life like? (jobs, gender roles)
Most obviously, gender issues, with women either being at home taking care of jobs like dishes and cleaning up, taking care of kids or if they were talented enough, performing to entertain, while men went out to be lawyers, clerks, etcetera etcetera.

What was entertainment like? (music, dance, art deco, films)
In the 20s, the radio became the first mass broadcasting medium, while television was still in the process of being properly invented and produced. The 1920s was really when cinema began to boom, with the release of films with sound! This virtually cut out the Vaudeville style of theatre. 


As for the reflection side of things, I already mentioned some stuff, didn't I? However, it the second lesson in and it's already jam-packed!


We start the day off with a warm-up like you should. Our warm-ups, lead by the wonderful Ms Richardson, are short, somewhat simple dances to the songs Cover Girl and Five More Hours. Both, when done at 100%, can really get you in the mood to do some musical theatre! 




(This video is actually from Monday but we're going to pretend it was shot Thursday. Capisce?)

After the roll and warmups were done, my nerves were already starting to freak out, I knew what was coming. I'll be fair, I tried my best to prepare myself for disappointment. That sounds really sad, but really, it's more of a precedent thing. To my surprise, I actually got the role of Blousey's understudy! This means if the main actress were to, say, disappear mysteriously, I would step in. Yes, I'm totally kidding, I would never... ever... ever... hurt someone else for the sake of a role :D 
(Ah, actually, quick edit. There was a little recasting... it turns out I'm no longer the Blousey understudy and am now the main actress, which is really cool because it will be my first proper acting role in a Hornby High musical!)

Once everyone is into and aware of their role, we proceed to begin our first, proper table read! By table read, I mean sit around in a circle read. I'll just call it a script read. As the main Blousey wasn't there, I got to read out Blousey's lines! I was a little disappointed they had left out my favourite conversation between Blousey and Bugsy. The conversation goes a little like...
Bugsy: What's your name anyway?
Blousey: Brown
Bugsy: Sounds like a loaf of bread.
Blousey: Blousey Brown
Bugsy: Sounds like a stale loaf of bread.

After we finished that, we began blogging, given two tasks to complete. One being the 1920s research, another involving exploring our character's identities. About twenty minutes into it, the main actors and the singers were separated to do some workshops with Ms Richardson and Mr Taylor. The singers went with Ms Richardson to learn 'Hello' while the actors went with Mr Taylor to work on accents, projection and delivery.


Me being both went with the singers at first, landed myself a possible short solo at the beginning of the song by opening the song with the famous lines, 'Hello... It's me...' We practised for a while, making sure we were confident singing with each other, as we aren't all completely familiar with each other. After this, I quietly slipped into the acting workshop where they were just doing a read through with each other. This was quickly interrupted by, again, the singing workshop where we were performing for Mrs Beer. If you want to know everything that happened I recommend checking out Nadia's blog.


These workshops brought us to lunch. After a break and a quick location change, we begin to work on our first ensemble number! Though it's not the first song in the soundtrack, Fat Sam's Grand Slam is still an awesome and catchy song. Considering it was the first time some of us has even heard the song properly, I believe we did super well! 


Wanna hear? Watch the video!


So far that's all we've done, but, for just one (short) school day - four hours! - I think it's pretty impressive! The next job would be...

Getting Into Character!

The point of this task is to take our character and create a character profile for them. Somethings will be in the script, others I will add in on my own part!

Full Name - Blousey Brown
Age - Though portrayed by a younger teen, I imagine Blousey to be in her early twenties, ranging from 20 to 23
Place of Birth - A small town in 
ew York, not too far away from Chicago
Most Common Emotion - Either anxious or sassy, it truly depends on who she's with really. She can either be extremely shy or timid when around people she barely knows or can be confident and outspoken around people she's closer to.
Physical Characteristics - When out of her comfort zone, she tends to be more closed in on herself, hunched over and holding herself, slowly walking. When in a comfortable environment, she has more of an arched back, relaxed shoulders, and tends to stride rather than stagger.
Strengths - Blousey is genuinely talented, very hopeful and force to be reckoned with.
Weaknesses - She gets upset quite easily and doesn't speak up for herself, causing her to be brushed aside a lot more often
Fears - I believe Blousey is afraid of being cheated, forgotten, replaced, or overlooked in life, whether it be by lovers, jobs, friends et cetera et cetera.
Their childhood/upbringing - Blousey grew up with her mother, a very outspoken but paranoid person. Her mother is very protective and strict but very talented, which is where Blousey got her talent from. 
Who are their important relationships (with others in the cast) - Blousey's main relationships are with Bugsy Malone, Mr Stacetto and Tallulah. Bugsy and Blousey have a 'mutual love interest,' Blousey works for Mr Stacetto, and there's a sort of love triangle between her, Tallulah, and Bugsy

Thanks for reading and I hope you continue to follow our journey through musical theatre!