Stop There And Let Me Correct It...

...I wanna live life from a new perspective... I'm sorry, there's no escaping the P!ATD song titles.

It's time to bring it all together! With less than two weeks to go, we're in a craze trying to piece all that we've been working on.

This is the coat with the main dress underneath,
please ignore how blurry the photo actually is.

Obviously, we began with our usual warmup, with Covergirl, Five More Hours, and Fireball. First up, after the interval, we go through our final number, learning that we as an ensemble need to go into slomo fighting as Meagan and Nadia begin to sing. We continue to be in slow motion fighting up until the third verse where we begin to move up to the front in our four lines. After that, we did a run through of the full production. It went pretty smoothly other than everyone talking and a few mishaps when it comes to where songs were set. We actually did Hello properly for the first time. I got a little shy and didn't really sing the best I could

After lunch, we once again split into a few rehearsals groups. I once again went with the actors for the whole lesson, though I have a strange feeling I was meant to be rehearsing Hello with the other girls at one point... Anyway! During this rehearsal, I had brought the coat I was determined to wear, so I was almost there with my whole costume! Sadly, there are no actual photos of me with the coat and hat on but I promise you it actually happened!

Sorry for the shorter post today, with less and less time until the performance we haven't really had time to do big things, but thanks for reading and I hope you continue to follow our journey through musical theatre!

Lost A Bet To A Guy In A Chiffon Skirt, But I Make These High Heels Work

More P!ATD related titles muahahahahahaha - Costume edition.

Okay, no extra blog tasks today, so right into the reflection! Thursday was pretty action-packed in the way of choreography. Like always, we start of the day with our warm up dances to Covergirl, Five More Hours, and Fireball. We then ran through Fat Sam's Grand Slam, singing, before finally starting the blocking for it. We first placed the main actors on stage, the ones who don't have lines beforehand, such as Knuckles, Fat Sam, and Tallulah, then the dancers, then the staff and so on and so forth. The basis of the scene is everyone is in the speakeasy, having conversations, dancing, drinking, working etcetera, etcetera. Fun fact: I actually don't start on stage for this part as there's the short scene between Blousey, Bugsy, Fizzy, and Pop Becker where I ignore Meagan then disappear into a "bookshelf" which is actually just the closed curtains. I end up waiting outside of Nadia's office for a chance to audition! The group spends the first period on this until the interval bell rings.

After interval, we split into our individual groups once again. I went off to Kowhai with the actors, minus Fat Sam and his (her?) gang. Once again, we go through our play, fast forwarding through bits we couldn't do. As we did this, Joanne Jones helped some of our cast members start out with costumes (hence the title) I have already started to think about my own costume/s, which has proven itself to be quite difficult. I don't think anyone truly understands how hard trying to find good, casual, blandish, 1920's dresses actually is, as Blousey isn't exactly a over the top kind of person. I do have a few options so far, including the dress pictured on the left (It looks better being worn, I swear) and a few others Joanne has presented to me. Other than that, the school has a red 20s hat I've been using so far, I have a pair of plain black heels that I think suit my character, and I am currently on the hunt for a light brown trench-type coat. Makeup on the other hand is super easy for me, all I really need is a dark glossy lip, blush above the hollows of my cheeks, a frosty blue on my eyelids, a dark brown in my crease with a lighter brown extending to my brow bone, and a small eyeliner wing. That probably made no sense to a lot of people, I apologise.


Anyway, back to the topic at hand, we went over the acting part of the play for the next two hours, until after lunch when we headed back to our "base" or the whare. Before doing more blocking work, we did a couple small acting warm ups. One involved finding a partner. With the partner, upholding eye contact, we had to count to three. Sounds easy, right? Well, you go off each other, eg. one person says "one" the other person says "two" and the person says "three," so on and so forth. Now, we slowly add in actions. One is now a clap, but two and three stay the same. After that, two is now a wave. You continue this until you finally make three a jump. It's actually a lot harder than it seems. Then, using a grid technique, we found another partner and practised forced perspective/slow motion combat. One person would "slap" the other and the other would refute with a "punch." For the rest of the period, we worked on blocking our finale, "You Give A Little Love." While doing so, we started from Meagan's line where she's directing all the Down and Outs into position. This means I have to somehow find my way up to the front so we can talk about going to Hollywood. This must make no sense to anyone who hasn't seen this... If you haven't watch this one (It's really good). Anyway! During this process I figured out I suck at hugging people as I hit Meagan in the face with my shoulder at least once (Sorry about that one, Meagan) See the previous photo for more proof if that isn't enough. Oh! Oh! Combat scene!! We began to work on the splurge/custard pie fight scene that occurs at the end of the play! I'll be honest, I don't really want to get involved in it? Whether it's giving someone a pie to face or receiving one, it's not really my style. Jess still makes fun of me because I feel bad about smashing a cake in her face (that she asked for) for a food fight scene in her English film.

Anyway, that's all for now! Thanks for reading and I hope you continue to follow our journey through musical theatre!

Coz' These Words Are Knives And Often Leave Scars- Nah, It's Just Twenty's Slang

Sorry to inform you, but yes, all of my titles will (hopefully) be Panic! At The Disco lyrics. I apologise in advance.

Before we even began passion projects, Monday was already off to a personal great start. Long story short, the person who I was understudy-ing for is now my understudy, which means I now have the role of Blousey! Which is really cool for me, as this will be my first lead role at Hornby unless you count an angry goddess in Shakespeare or a narrator as a lead role. I'm not sure how many people know, but I actually used to do drama outside of school. I did two years at Hope church and a term at Ignite studios, giving me a track record of about 2 performances with 4 plays. Plus 5 or so years of hip-hop and like a term of ballet. So, I have a little experience up my sleeve ;)

Anyway, not the point. We'll get to the reflection later, but for now?

1920s Lingo!

What better way to get into acting a part of the roaring 20s than to learn how they would've spoken! To do this, we've been given the task to create a conversation between our character and someone else in the cast using 20s slang. So, here's a small conversation between Blousey and Bugsy! (don't worry, there will be a 

Bugsy: Slurred Helloooo, Blousey
Blousey: Oh, go chase yourself, Bugsy! You're completely zazzled!
Bugsy: C'mon Blousey, don't be such a wurp. I have to go see a man about a dog, come with me, let's blouse!
Blousey: Know your onions, wisie, no need to end up in the big house tonight.
Bugsy: Man, no need to be so upstage about it, everything's jake.
Blousey: Go on without me, buster and don’t take any wooden nickels.

Okay, yes, that was very exaggerated and slightly out of character. I'm sure nobody would use that much slang in one sentence. I kinda hope not. No idea what just happened? Well, here's a loose translation

Bugsy: Slurred Helloooo, Blousey
Blousey: Oh, get out of here, Bugsy! You're completely drunk!
Bugsy: C'mon Blousey, don't be such a buzzkill. I'm gonna go get myself some whiskey, come with me, let's get out of here!
Blousey: Know what's going on, wisie, no need to end up in jail tonight.
Bugsy: Man, no need to be so snobby about it, everything's fine.
Blousey: Go on without me, man, and don’t do anything stupid.





Right, with that out of the way, reflection time! Ugh, that sounds like some primary school lesson. Well, like always, we started off with a warm-up. We did our usual, with Covergirl and Five More Hours, except this time we learnt a new dance to Pitbull's iconic Fireball!







After this, and the roll, we split up once again. The main actors went with Mr Aiken and Mrs Clark over to Kowhai to begin blocking, which is like my favourite part of performing because it's the first time you actually get to see how everything is going to come together and your lines are no longer sentences on a page, while the dancers learn Fat Sam's Grand Slam choreography and the ensemble learnt So You Want To Be A Boxer choreography.

Over in Kowhai, the mock stage area and the props were already set up so our first run through was more so getting used to props and spacing. For me, as Blousey, I get to use the old type dial phones and a cool vintage bag, paired with a red 20s hat. I kinda look like a dork with the hat on though... Anyway! It was super fun to watch as the script began to come together. This continued throughout the rest of the day, with a few hiccups here and there with overlapping roles as we had actors who were also dancers or whatever.

Return in a few days to see any new progress. Thank you for reading and I hope you continue to follow our journey through musical theatre!

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!