Final 'dance' for camera video

Further Development

If a production with similar themes and the same concept were to go on tour, I would expect the fashion angle of the show to be the main focus and/or selling point, production companies going all out with the designing of sets in relation to fashion, such as long rotating cat walks, actual models and designers contribution to the style of the set and of course the clothing being professional and top quality.

As for the story I hope although the concept would be a big distraction that it doesn't stray too far away from it's roots, including every song like the original, even Billy McCaw and ensuring the cat theme is still reflected somehow.

As for my character I would imagine him to be in a different stylish and classy suit in every scene, and when not in songs designing things which models could wear in the following songs.

Initial questions for Cats

18th April 2015

Q1) What stage is your choreographed song at?

Gus the theatre cat is getting there, we have devised dances for ourselves and the supporting side dancers throughout the song, the movements and structure is simply as the song is slow and nicely paced.

Growtiger's last stand needs a few more run throughs to make perfect, then a run through with the props (swords) to ensure it is correctly learnt so no one accidentally hits anyone else with a bladed plastic weapon.

Q2)How well do you know lyrics?

For Gus the theatre cat my lyric knowledge grows by the day, I find the lines easier to remember if alongside the backing track.

Growtiger's last stand lyrics I'm a little more rusty on as the song is faster paced and a completely different vocal range for me compared to Gus the theatre cat. Lyrics are about 40% learnt at this current stage.

The tempo is slow in Gus the theatre cat so the tempo of the movements would be slow and well paced.

Growtiger's last stand having a faster tempo means movement and space could be used more creatively, an example of this is bigger, more dramatic movements which would have much more of a visual impact as the scene before 'Gus the theatre cat' was slow and the tempo was calm.

Q3) What thought have you given to the narrative?

Gus the theatre cat is going to be based around an event where an article has been published which speaks about his life and the song is a reflection for him to explain to the audience his past and how he was once this incredible cat.

Growtiger's last stand is based on a pirate model show where he played the clothing of Growtiger the pirate. The song is the 'performance' of the clothing as he did when he was in his prime.

Q4)Have you considered stage movement?

For both songs the movement is simply yet at different paces.

Gus the theatre cat having being slow and small movement based it was easier for choreography and stage movement to be learnt. For Cherkanah and I though stage movement was self explanatory we still new where we had to be at the end of each verse and 'improvised' our movement there between verses.

Growtiger's last stand has faster movements but they weren't too complicated, just the movements had to be strong and confidently performed.

Q5)Have you sorted costume?

I have a clear plan on costume, following alongside the initial designs from the costume unit. A grey suit with changeable ties.

Q6) Have you completed your production role?

I plan on finishing a graph on the props for the show and making a start to the props table.

Q7) Have you attended any extra rehearsals?

So far I have arrange one where no one was able to attend but have used break times and after college hours to rehearse lines and help others with choreography.

Q8) Have you cleared your diary?

I am in the process of starting a new job, something I have needed for a while now so I intend to get the dates off around rehearse and show week to ensure I do not miss anything, college > work.

- Target for performance

I want to generate a strong emotional response amongst the audience to make them feel and understand the situation of Gus', how he was an inspiration in his past and wants to go to the Heaviside layer and his Jellicle life could be just like what it was when he was in his prime.

- Further development
So far I think the message of the songs is clear and the choreography has a good structure, it's more about singing the song in tune now so hopefully the 'Gus' section of the musical is understandable and obviously encourages the audience to hope that Asparagus is the character chosen to go to the Heaviside Layer.

Cats dance choreography

Gus the theatre cat

This dance (links are in the mini-project choreography under the performance workshop tab) took many attempts to master as we spent little time on this song compared to others.

Movement though was slow and 'simply', steps, waving arm movements and turns were all used in time.

Growtiger's last stand

Growtiger was quite the contrast to Gus the theatre cat as the movements were faster and had to be more 'fierce'. So swords were used as dance props to allow the dance movements to have more status and allowed the structure of the dance to look more rehearsed.

In conclusion, working on the dances by ourselves was challenging but allowed us to experiment with certain movements and choreographic devices such as canon in Gus the theatre cat.

Types of camera angles

Low angle shot: Used to give object in the image more status.

High angle shot: Used to show the lower status of the object in a picture.

Far shot: Used to show the scene and give a clear overview of the mise en scene for the audience.

Mid shot: A 'normal' shot used to show a person waist upwards.

An over the should shot, used almost as a POV (point of view shot) but giving the audience more of a spectating view, seeing what the object is seeing giving the view high status.

Final dance self evaluation

After feedback from my first draft I was able to take each point for development into consideration when I constructed my final film, although the location would stay the same I ensured I made the dancing and atmosphere very different, whilst still keeping parallel to the stimulus.

The set/mise en scene

Was based in my garage much like the original as it showed a sense of loneliness with the cold flooring and the timeless still objects.

Boxes, equitment, bikes, bins, normal garage stuff was placed around, but unlike my first draft these were more different to see and had less of a status.

The lighting

My first draft had a lot of high contrast lighting which didn't give one specific object any status not many the dance very visually impacting, so this time I make the risky decision to the only lights coming from a set of bright spotlight bike lights, the spotlight aspect to them reflected the stimulus of feeling claustrophobic.

The lights would vary in each shot to ensure the shadow of the camera man could not be seen and that not 'too' much light was on the dancer. Not every light was on at any one time.

Camera

Being a camera orientated unit, I decided to work more on the angles and shots rather than the actual dance as any movement could be interrupted as dance depending on the supporting camera angle.

To show the stimulus I used lots of close up shots and tracking shots to allow the audience to understand and relate to the dancer/themes.

Sounds/Music

Most of the sound in the filming was non-diagetic, such as the music, as having zero noise by the actual dancer assisted in the stimulus.

Although towards the end when the dancer steps out of the dark garage and into a much more open world the sound of his feet on the stones can be held, diagetically, allowing the audience to understand he is now free and can finally be heard.

Editing

I used editing to make the dance more visually impacting, I did this by adding jump cuts from movements to show a change in time, montages and it allowed me to make the dancing linear although the clips were not in order editing enabled me to show them in a different order whilst they still looked in time.

The dance

Aspects of the dance were just small movements, a few rolls and the use of levels, such so they could support the camera shots.

Stimulus

My stimulus stayed the same from the first draft as it was not only interesting but a challenging stimulus.

Narrative structure

One point of improvement was the use of an actual story going on in the dance, and showing character development, I showed this by the garage door opening at the end to reveal he is finally free from his fear or tight, close spaces.

Choreographic devices

Although less choreographic devices were used in comparison to the first draft I still included a variety, such as repetition through levels and spins, retrograde to show the never ending cycling of trying to get free but being brought back down by fear and tempo, some movements were fast and others were slow.

Post show evaluation and Strengths/Weaknesses of the shows

In conclusion, the shows were a success nothing when majorly wrong besides some technical sound issues. From show one, we knew that we had hit the bar, for a first performance it was good, but not the best we had put on. The first show allowed us to realise what we were up against, the nerves we will be facing and conquering, the sudden live challenges we will be facing (technologically and performance/character wise) and of course the improvements from show to show to enable us to become better performers.

After the first show I quickly realised my challenges, the biggest one being breathing, once on stage my breathing becomes quick and short, which is terrible when it comes to singing as I would't have enough breathe to finish lines or dance whilst singing. To aimed to fix this by having more control and focusing on my breathing whilst on stage, also using breathing exercises before the show starts.
Another issue was that I didm't think I showed clearly the intentions of my character, Gus wants to go to the Heaviside Layer, but my first performance showed his songs as almost just some filling acts, to fix this I could use more facial expression and make a more emotional impact with the audience.

An improvement we had to work on as a class was out singing in The addressing of cats as we were sloppy and very unprofessional. The only way this could be improved was line learning, our excuse for the matter was that we didn't get the song lyrics until a few weeks before the show.

By the second show, we felt a lot more confident as a class and I think that could be seen if the two performances were compared. Our dancing on stage was much more in time with the music and each other and our singing was louder and clearer. Overall the second performance was definitely a major improvement.

One thing that went wrong with my performance in the second show was my partner Cherkanah had dropped her sword at the end of Growtiger's last stand, so thinking on my feet, after approaching the spotlight for my reprise I picked up the sword and used this as a reflection moment, looking down at the sword and smiling lightly, this was something I then asked to be kept in for the last performances as I felt this helped the issue of having a greater emotional impact with the audience.

The third performance was a morning showing to a group of school students, usually school students are harder to keep their attention but I believe we managed to keep them focused and engaged with the storyline because of their questions at the end of the performance.

This performance I felt went worse for me as my vocals were off and we didn't have enough time as a class to complete a vocal warm up, next time I must always make time for a vocal warm up. As a class though I thought we did well, our dancing was on point and our changes between scenes went very smoothly.

The last performance allowed us to all show what we had in us. As a class the last was most definitely the most successful, everything went perfectly, besides some technical issues but even then our class recovered nicely and such acoustically, even the tap dancing parts without any music was in time.

Personally the last performance went well for certain aspects, such as the few solo lines I have in the first act were sung in tune and confidently, unlike most other nights, the second act was definitely an improvement from all the nights, taking into account the development points and completing the challenges.

Three strengths of my performance

1) Movement/Character development: My movement through songs and dances was well performed considering wearing a suit. I was impressed by my ability to add character to my movements such as dancing such as an 'elderly' person would dance (reference in show video) and other aspects of being on stage such as walking, I tried to give a gentle representation of my character through this; slow, graceful steps, movements were musical theatre stylised by being big and exaggerated but still managed to uphold old features.

Each show showed me more and more what kind of a character Gus is, someone who is haunted by his past, in the sense that he misses who he used to be, so much so to the point that he believes he still has what it takes to play Growtiger, a character he was most proud of, then hallucinates him performing him again. Every character has a strong reason why they should have won the Heaviside Layer, but when it comes to Gus, being reborn into a new Jellicle life is the only cure, Grizabella winning means he would spiral deeper and deeper into this obsession with his past. That being my opinion anyway of his character in more of a darker path. This being said I think I was able to represent how much Gus actually wanted and 'deserved' to be reborn into a new jellicle life well, my movement, facial expression and all round performance was convincing enough. 

2) Improvisation: In the second performance at the end of Growtiger, a sword was dropped on stage so thinking on my feet when walking back down there I picked it up and stared at it to show reflection of my characters past, this I knew had to stay in so we included it in the last shows, I think this 'accident' helped me to develop my improvisation and also was a challenge I successful completed.

3) Show after show my singing became stronger and confidence enabled me to used more of my voice. 

Three weaknesses of my performance

1) A weakness would have to be lyric learning, as in two group songs I was only 90% clear on the lyrics, I feel next time studying them more and going over songs with the class would be needed to conquer this.

2) Another weakness would be my costume, although I felt like I fitted the part very well it was very much an understatement of look than the one I originally designed, time, money and creative experience were all the things stopping me from being able to create and wear the costume I originally designed, I felt my character would have been supported a lot more through it and his personality and traits would be easier to understand too.

3) My production role would have been more useful, I tried to construct a props table but due to limitations on props and props already having set locations this idea quickly failed.

The shows

Thursday lunch

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Thursday eve

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Friday eve

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Production Roles

My production role of PROP MANAGER, alongside Niamh and Natalie consisted of going through, scene by scene and learning what props were needed. We did this mainly by talking to the owners of the scene and discussing the likely hood of props.

I then created a table listing all the props, what scenes we needed them in and which sing of the stage they'd be. We also looked at if we had the props already on hand or if we had to purchase them.

Are other task was to create a props table in which the props would be homed.

Audition interview

Interview

I tried to be clear about what character I wanted and why I thought it would suit be best, through being challenging and also allowing me to experiment with my movement and speech.

Choreography progression for songs

First Growtigers last stand choreography

First Gus the theatre cat choreography

Second choreography of Gus the theatre cat part 1

Second choreography of Gus the theatre cat part 2

Third choreography of Gus the theatre cat

Second Growtigers last stand choreography

Forth Gus the theatre cat choreography

Throughout the choreography rehearsals it is clear the progression and changes Cherkanah and I make to the dance to make it more visually impacting and have a longer more powerful connection with the audience hopefully creating a stronger emotional response and understanding.

Mini-Project: Pitch - Idea for the songs.

My pitch

My initial thoughts were Gus the Theatre cat song being a celebration of an article which had spoken about his life, and we can see mine and Cherkanah's character reflecting that.

Growtiger's last stand is based around a fashion show, one Gus was in years ago when he was in his prime and he modeled a character named Growtiger as the model shoot was pirate themed.

More is explained through my pitch

Cats the Musical

The Musical: Cats

Cats is based around the lead up to an event called ‘The Heaviside Layer’ where Old Deuteronomy announces the cat who will be reborn into a whole new Jellicle life and go to the Heaviside layer.

The Cats narrative is centered around the book written by T. S. Elliot, the musical adaptation contains music choreographed by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Being one of the longest running shows on Broadway and in the West End with almost 9,000 for 21 record-breaking years in the New London Theatre, Cats is certainly a well-known musical. Since it's world premiere the musical has been performed in over 26 countries and has been presented to over 50 million people world-wide.

Directed by Trevor Nunn, with Gillian Lynne as associate director and choreographer Cats has been spoilt with technical talent, including designs from John Napier.

Our concept: Fashion

The interruption and style of our Cats production, to make it challenging and unique but also fitting in and obeying the demands of the text is the concept of fashion.

When first discovering about the concept we were basing our production on, ideas and costume designs rushed into my head. Costume would now be twice as important in this production as it originally was due to fashion mainly means clothes, treads through them and how people create a visual profile of themselves, an identity through the style and colours of costume they wear.

My character, Gus, in relation to the fashion world I think would be a designer or a retired one who even now is respected and idolised by the fashion industry and the rest of the characters. He could also possible be a retired model that whilst in his prime used to be the most well-known and fearless model out there, a model that would scare off all competition with one step down a cat walk.

Fashion in general:

Trend

Fashion is a huge contributor to what clothing gets popular; trend is the main success aim of a clothing design business, to create an image in which people would wear and influence other people to wear similar clothing.

A massive provider of trend amongst public is celebrities as they are the most popular type of role model for teenagers and young adults these days, which are also the main target audience for the fashion industry as teenagers are growing and needing new clothes every year and feeling complied to ‘fit in’ with the articles of clothing which is currently trending. An example of this is ‘Ugg boots’ which became popular in 2005, and since has become a common teen’s footwear.

Similarly to young adults, some would feel the ‘need’ to fit in with social groups. MASLOW’s hierarchy of needs suggests that being a part and accept in a social group is one of the necessities everyone needs to have to reach their full potential as a person, meaning if clothing is the one barrier which needs to be crossed for someone to achieve the best of their ability then the fashion industry have made the perfect product, a product customers feel they actually need not want.

I feel trend in my character, Gus, isn’t the most important thing to him as he is already well respected by the other characters and if I aim to base him off a designer he would be the one creating the trends.

Identity

Many people believe clothing is important to show the individuality of a person, an example of this is in the colours someone wears; red for example has connotations of passion and love, whereas black has mystery and power. Another form of this is the style of clothing someone might where as well how they are influenced by trend compared to others. The clothing and colours worn by an individual can give a great insight into what type of person they are as well as helping their personality traits to be exaggerated and all contributing to create a specific visual identity.

Identity in the sense of my character would be more performance orientated as Gus isn’t someone you should judge by what you see. Mainly because I aim to keep what he wears plain and formal, but to show his creative side and how he has many different traits he has gained from performing a wide range of diverse characters his tie/bow-tie he will be wearing throughout the musical will change in style and colour drastically whilst his suit will stay the same in almost all of the scenes.

Gus's main identity will be based by his plain old fashioned suit as it will show his current traits of being old but classy, smart and a sense of experienced as suits are generally worn by successful people.

Cats character analysis

My character is 'Asparagus' (Gus the theatre cat) an elderly cat but one of the most experienced cats in Cats.

Through lyric analysis I tried to come up with what sort of a character Gus is, so I could build of this foundation and make him more unique and also fit with the fashion concept.

‘For he was in his youth quite the smartest of cats
But no longer a terror to mice or to rats’

‘For he isn't the cat that he was in his prime’

-          He used to be very smart and clever, but now age has hit him he is frail and is not able to do the things he could do when he was in his prime – an example of which is catch mice or rats which is why he is no longer a terror towards them.

‘Though his name was quite famous, he says, in his time’

-          Used to be known my many meaning he was famous and probably quite successful being good at what he did which was playing different characters.

‘With anecdotes drawn from his palmiest days’

-          He has many stories from his experiences and likes to tell people about the man he used to be and the adventures he went on whilst being a character and how it developed him to become the man he is today.

‘I have played in my time every possible part
And I used to know seventy speeches by heart’

‘I knew how to act with my back and my tail
With an hour of rehearsal, I never could fail’

-          These lines show how he much much experience in acting as he has played many parts; it also shows how he was incredible at what he does as he could learn up to seventy speeches by heart. Furthermore to show how successful he is he says how with only an hour of rehearsal he never could fail which are skills only gained through passion for what he does, acting.

‘And I once played Growltiger could do it again
Could do it again, could do it again’

-          The repetition of the line ‘could do it again’ shows how he not only misses the times he times when he was  an actor but also how he believes he still possess the skills to perform as a character again.

From the lyric analysis I was able to construct a clear character of what Gus will be based around, a old frail character who likes to remember his older days when he was once a star and dreams of being so again or at the very least re living those moments.

PAB Presentation

The Presentation

My PAB presentation was treated like a performance, each slide had specific lines tagged to it which I needed to remember and my visual impact through movement and presentation towards the audience were key to not only maintaining their attention but also allowing them to understand and visualise the information being given to them.

An improvement for next time would definitely be able to have more information into the topics, such a head shots, I should have really revised that slide and notes more.

Something which did go well was my presenting skills, I was clear and managed to keep eyes on me/the slideshow 99% of the time.

Electra Auditions

Auditions part 1

Auditions part 2

Auditions part 3

The Electra auditions were part of a workshop, based around working with masks and others in the class.

I not only learnt a lot through the process of the workshop but also enjoyed it greatly as it challenged me to work and express emotion through a mask, where facial expression is blocked and work with others alongside a script which was different to anything we have encountered before.

Improvement from these auditions could be confidence, the thought of a camera in the room damaged my confidence ever to slightly and as so my performance, working in front of cameras and time are the only ways I could improve from this take-back.

In conclusion on our Electra workshop I think I managed to stay focused and in character (mask emotion). A big strong point aside from my concentration in the workshop was my partner work with Lauren as we managed to work efficiently and with great pace. A weakness to the Electra workshop audition for me was being limited to the masks emotions as I picked a quite depressing and sad looking mask which meant I was limited to sad and depressed movements and expressions.

Doctor Faustus audition

Above is my audition for Doctor Faustus.

I felt my audition went well as I managed to maintain vocal wise, character and allowed and used pauses effectively.

One thing I could improve on looking from this audition is the use of a script as it ruined the realism of the read and overall made the performance look unprofessional.

Another aspect I could work on is movement, I tend to move around quite a bit when I talk/perform, this destroys the illusion of character, something I respect in holding.

Audition Preparation

When auditioning there are three main aspects you should keep in mind, Attitude, Appearance and Attendance.

Your going to have to have a clear positive confident attitude to the people asked to work with, songs, dances and monologues you have selected for yourself.

Appearance is also vital as you do not want to wear something which could make you stand out for the wrong reasons, any facial piercings, fancy earrings, a golden chained necklace etc. Something plain, black but also open to casting, you don't want to be negatively typecast-ed in the audition period.

Attendance is probably the most important as if you're late or not there you can kiss any chances goodbye as attendance is key. Arriving late is not an option you should aim to be at an audition at least an hour and a half before hand just incase they start early or begin judging on who can be reliable (on time)

Costume final sketch book uploads