Rent Opening

Today we quickly ran though La Vie Boheme with no problems so we decided that we would move on and work on the opening of the show as Tom and Toby had planned out what they wanted to happen during the opening so weall agreed to let them take charge of the lesson.
Tom and Toby descrided as wanting the opening to be manic and unorganised to show off the fact that were all poor and almost homeless. So for the starting instramental they want everyone running on stage being frantic an bring on rusty junk. So we all talked about what kinds of objects we would find in a a rundown building.

Chairs
Ladders
Boxes
Industrial lights
Bin
Posters/paper
Stools

We came up with these ideas of what the others could brig on during the intramental, so from the strat of the song everyone is bring all this stuff on and moving it around the stage while I as Mark, am at the front of the stage singing. After im done singing I run and sit on the table while Tom starts his solo, on my next lryic of "We're Hungrey" I grab the table and Tom dose the same on "It's the life". On the next 3 "How we gunna pay" me and Tom get up of the table put our arms on each others shoulder and then sing out to the audience on "Last years rent". I run to stage right and Tom goes stage left to where Meg, Dom and Dan i tyring to burn his posters for heat while Tom is singing, i then run over to them for my verse. On the next "How we gunna pay" we go down low and start to rise for the "Last years rent", we then jump into slow motion for Freya's verse which we then freeze after for Toby's solo as collins. I then grab my camera and start to film Tom playing guitar as the others rise around the table during the next "How we gunna pay", a intramental starts which is the queue for Toms idea to have a live feed coming from my camera projecting him playing guitar on the table. Also during theinstramental Tom Choreographed a dance for the others to do behind his guitar playing that was inspired by broadway musical American idiot. when we all start to sing agin i jump on the table and Tom is crouched in front while everyone else starts to crowd around us until the end of the song where they all spread out to the back leaving me and tom at the table ending the song.

La Vie Boheme Part 2

Today we contiued to collectivly choregraph La Vie Boheme, we started at the beging so we could decide on how we get to our seats. Bennie is already sat at a table in the restruant when we are all stopped as a group for the waiters line "Oh no, please not tonight" but everyone starts to walk to their seats after Roger goes "What", this happens to show that the group aren't bothered by the waiter and believe him to be having a joke with them. Mark and the waiter exchange a few lyrics to each other where the waiter is still trying to convince us not to stay but Mark (I) still believes he is joking. We are all standing our the table and take our seats on the lyric "The enemy of Avenue A will stay". Bennie comes over to us and starts his solo on how he is trying to clean up the streets, we're stopping him and the bohemia is dead. As i get up on the table to start Mark's eulogy we decided as a goup that Angel would lay down on the table pretending to be dead as he is a more flamboyant character who wouldn't care what peopel think so he would just lay down on the table. In the background the rest of the cast start to act out the nativty with Johanne (Freya) givning birth, Roger cradeling a crying baby and Collins mking barn yard noises until we reach La Vie Boheme where start the choreography from last lesson.

Continuing from where we got up to in our last lesson for La Vie Boheme, we talked and came up with the next couple of steps to follow for the last part of my solo. On the next "La Vie" everyone turns their head to me, then on the one after that they point to the left and slowly start to rise. On the last "La Vie" they all drop back to their seats except me while I sing "To any passing fade", I then proceed to get up on the table while the others start to rise again for the lyric "Instead of one of them". We all dance for a little bit the take our seats again which we decided was a good idea so that Maurine and Johanne could have their conversation without having any distractions. After maurine and johannes dialogue we decided we didn't want any group choreography now and instead wanted to freestyle what we do in our solo's or group singings until we reached Mark and Mimi's "Why Dorapht" lyric. After this we all starting at Dan S ends cross our legs in cannon down the line and then on a loud beat in the music we swap leg. Maurine and Johanne have a second conversation infront of us and then it goes into group singing. We discussed and decided that we would freestyle the last part of song until the end of La Vie Boheme.

La Vie Boheme Part 1

Today we started work on our next production in double drama which is going to be the rock opera called "Rent". our cast list is:

Mark: Ashley

Roger: Tom

Collins: Toby

Angle: Dan M

Mimi: Meg

Joanne: Freya

Bennie: Carl

Maurine: Lorna

Paul: Dominic

Waiter: Dan S

We started working on choreographing La Vie Boheme and disscussed as a chorus what we would like to do. We decided from the first "la vie boheme" we would create 8 different pose times for each "la vie boheme". We then started a hand movement from the la vie boheme that followed Mark's line "To loving". The hand movement was agreed that we'd start with arms straight out crossed, left above right and then on each step of the best Wed do the following movement:

Cross arms infront

Move L hand to L side

Move R hand to R side

Lay arms on to each other (L on top)

Rotate L arm up

Rotate L arm down

R hand to under chin.

We ran through these movements with and we needed to change our starting poses so that our 8 pose We'd all be sat down. After that we continued with more hand movement following where we left off:

Stretch R arm forward

Grab and pull R back using L arm

Link arms with person next to you

Look Left

Look Right

Unlink arms

We talked what we wanted to do next and as a group we said it was too early for us all to get and start dancing now so we continued hand movements but a more reptative vibe to the next set of movements so we came up with the following choreography:

Raise R shoulder

Raise L shoulder

Look Right

Look Left

Shoulder shrugs

Repeat again doing the opposite direction of what we had just performed.

This was our first Rent lesson as a group we had managed to collectively go through each other's ideas and work a choreography for a section of La Vi Boheme.

Berowne character profiles

These are several character profiles from different sources on Berowne form "Love's Labour's lost". I had research and these profiles on my character so that I understand my characters personality and can answer questions about him if needed to at an audition.

(http://www.novelguide.com/loves-labours-lost/character-profiles)

Berowne- In the beginning, Berowne is the main person against the strictness of the rules for his study. He is also the first, however, that is shown to fall in love with the woman Rosaline. Berowne plays an important part because he is the only one to justify their love for the women and tie it into their studies.

(http://www.shmoop.com/loves-labours-lost/berowne.html)

Berowne is the second in command, but some people think he's way more interesting than the King. We wouldn't hold it against you if you told us you believed him to be the protagonist of the entire play. But Berowne wouldn't want the King's job. He's more of a sideline commentator, a chorus, a class clown whose job is to take note of everything going on around him and reflect on it.

We might argue he's even a truth-seeker. He's creative, impulsive, anarchic, and articulate. And he'll always say what's on his mind. He keeps the King sharp. Let's look at several key aspects of Berowne's character as a means of getting to know who this man really is.

In the first place, Berowne is something of a wise figure in Love's Labour's Lost. Among the men, Berowne seems older, more experienced, and seasoned. He doesn't seem have the same naiveté that characterizes the other lords. For example, Berowne alone argues that the King's plan to shut out women and focus on studies might be problematic.

Lastly, let's look at Berowne and language. The man can talk. He performs some verbal gymnastics in this play, the likes of which leave us (and people around him) a bit awestruck. He's one of those people who is so witty and quick that you are often left speechless by him, later beating yourself up for having nothing to say, and no words to throw back at him. Berowne's mind is a wonderland of words, images, rhymes and jokes that spill out every time he talks (he can't help it!). He is Shakespeare's double, a man exceptionally gifted with language.

(https://www.playshakespeare.com/loves-labours-lost/characters/2946-berowne)

Berowne is a lord at the court of Navarre, among the King’s best friends and one of the three who agree to join him on his scholarly retreat, though he is rather skeptical of the feasibility of the plan.

He has a well-earned international reputation for mockery, and is accepted to be the most intelligent of the courtiers of Navarre, a fact that pleases him. He is looked up to by others, including the King, when it is necessary to get out of a tight spot, as he is able to rationalize anything if need be. He does not expect Rosaline’s ability to match him in wit, and is put slightly off-kilter by her ability, though even more so by having fallen in love with her. He recognizes that she is unfashionably dark-complexioned, and is amazed that he could fall for her even so. Love has long been the chief subject of his mocking, and he especially likes to comment on bad love poetry, though he commits some himself. Extremely long-tongued, he can riff for hours on a theme when he takes it up, and his linguistic extravaganzas continue even after he swears to give them up. His joking can be extremely nasty at times, and he is called on this by both Holofernes and Rosaline. He accepts Rosaline’s prescription to take the edge off his humor by spending a year comforting the dying.

Shakespeare monologue practice

Today I researched how to effectively perform my Shakespearean monologue from Love's Labour's lost by Berowne. I research my character and I first interpreted him as a romantic character dealing with the idea of being in love. I performed my monologue with this idea of my character in mind but I was still not comfortable with my performance of the monologue. I talked with my teacher miss McSherry about how I could perform my monologue. We read through the monologue and miss helpped me realise that a lot of the dialogue in the monologue is very dirty and full of innuendos. This development help me realise that my character is dirty minded and prefers to be a stereotypical "player". Knowing my character had these character traits helped me to develop my character to be a bit of a big head nars. Which helped my overall development of my character of Berowen. Miss McSherry also help me on my physicallity of my character and how he would at times walk around and at others he would make inappropriate gestures. Overall this has helped me to set my my monologue as well as find the humour in my monologue which I had not seen before

FFE Speaking in role 2

(Sitting on the edge of his bed, paused in thought)

I have been fired… they fired me... Mr Harrington thinks I’m bad for Clive, he believes I’m turning his son into a cissy, I’m not turning Clive into anything I’m trying to help him learn about something the boy cares deeply for. Clive is my friend and Mr Harrington thinks I’m trying to turn Clive against him. He threaten me, said he was going to send me back to Germany, write to the immigration office saying I’ve been trying to fraternise with his daughter, Pamela. He called me a “filthy German bastard”; I am nothing like them… I am not one of those German. I’ve tried to help his son… his daughter with their life, I’ve been teaching Pamela French, History and to play piano and he repays me for this by threatening me. I have helped his Son discover who he is and what he needs to do to help his future and Mr Harrington calls me a filthy German bastard. He’s going to send me home… he’s going to send me to Germany, I can’t go to Germany, I can’t go back there… but they won’t let me stay here. I have nowhere to go, no one to turn too. I have nothing.

FFE Speaking in role 1

I ran in to Clive today. He’s a nice boy, I was searching for his mother when I ran into him and he told me that Mrs Harrington was in the music studio. I was astonished to learn that the Harrington’s had a music room in there cottage, I thought it’s a rather odd thing to have at a cottage but Mrs Harrington dose love her music. Clive informed me that the music room is actually in the back of the cottage because; in his words “His lordship doesn’t care much for music”. I Clive, I think he is a charming young man but he doesn’t show much pride towards his farther. His father’s dislike of music worried me as I was practicing my gramophone last night so I feel bad knowing I may have irritated him during the night. Me and Clive proceed to talk, he asked me about how his sister tutoring was going, he then asked me if I lived with my family, I informed him how I actually stayed in a Paddington that resembled a basement. I then told him how I felt that he and his sister are my first family; upon learning this he proceeded to tell me that “This isn’t a family. It’s a tribe of wild cannibals. Between us we eat everyone we can”. His view on his own family puzzled me as I couldn’t stop thinking what he meant by this.