Workshop: Light my candle and I'll cover you

Today we worked on our notes from last lesson staring by working on "La vie Boheme". We ran through this number 4 times until we were happy with our end result, while running through this number we worked on getting up and moving more throughout the song when were all singing at points, we also worked on the dialogue at the end where we all tell stories about each other and how we could make it more appealing. when anyone starts to speak we now all cheer them on as well as having the person who is having told a story about them act it out e.g. Mimi start to do a dance when her story is being told. We then quickly worked on "Happy new year B" to see if we had worked on our timings of our lines in the song which we had so quickly moved on from to work on "Light my candle". We worked on the song by having Tom and Meg repeatedly perfrom the number while the rest of us watch them while suggestng ideas to make it more appealing. One of the main attrabutes of the number we wroked on was how to make meg more flirty with Tom. After we'd finish working on "Light my candle" we strated to do the same with "I'll cover you" having Toby and Dan M slowly working through the number as we all suggeted ideas on how to make them appear as a gay couple to an audience, this was the last number we worked on this lesson but we had managed to work our way through the mojority of notes given to us the lesson before.

Full Run On Stage

Today is our last rehearsal before our workshop performance of "Rent". So we spent our lesson doing a full run through on stage and in costume. While running through Miss made several notes on each number to work for the performance.

Tune up #1: Ashley slow down the opening  paragraph, audience needs to here the dialogue I say. Both Tom and Ash watch the timing of this number.
Voicemail #1: Sounds good, could be louder.
Tune up #2: sounded good no major notes.
Rent: Ashley hold the note at the end of the first note, don't slide off it. Everyone sings last line not just Ash and Tom.
One song glory: Careful with voice, Tom goes very red, remember to breathe.
Light my candle: Meg and Tom you could both be louder
Voicemail #2: Sounds good but Dan S need more energy with the lines.
Today 4 U: looks great, Ashley don't look so scared of Dan M. Tom careful where you put your guitar so it's not in the way.
You'll see: All 3 of you need to watch your timing in this number
Tango Maureen: Sounds and looks great.
Life Support: Dom try speaking your lines, Carl louder and watch the timing on your line.
Another Day: Sounded good but everyone needs to watch our harmony when we first come in to the song as we're off tune.
Will I?: Sounded really nice.
Santa Fe: Everyone needs to go over the backing vocals we all sing as everyone clearly doesn't know what to sing, also some people need to go over the dance steps as not everyone is confident enough.
I'll cover you: Looked really nice performance
We're Okay: Sounded nice, remember to grab the phone.
La Vie Boheme: Good energy, Ashley watch the timing for when you first start to sing
Seasons of Love: Most of us need to sing a lot louder as we're not clear in what we are singing.
Voicemail #3: Looks great try to be a little bigger with your actions Dom
Happy New year B: This number works really well and sounds good.
Seasons of Love B: We all need to project our voice more.
Without you: Needs to be a lot louder and everyone needs to remember to sing the last line.
Voicemail #4: Looks really nice and funny.
I'll cover you reprise: Looks really lovely but would like to move Toby on to the lower decking for this song.
Goodbye love: Sounded nice to start but Ash and Tom need to looking into the timing of your argument as you keep ending up with a long pause in the music. Some people also need to sing louder.
What you own: Sounded really nice but everyone needs to make you know when you come on to sing.
Finale: Need to look at our dialogue after Meg comes in as we are struggling to fill the time we've got with the dialogue we have.
You're eyes: Sounded Nice, no major notes for this number.
Finale B: Sort out the timing for the start of the song when we say our lines but everything else is good.

Whole show run

Today we attempted a whole show run through our show from start to finish. With our run through we only made it to act II "without you before we ran out of time.

Tune up #1: Nothing wrong with that his number other than I need to go over the lyrics and not confuse them with the lyrics from Finale A.

Voicemail #1: Sounded good no problem

Tune up #2: Need to go over timing of this number again for Bennie's entrance as we kept going faster then the backing track.

Rent: sounded good. I need to not fall on the last note of the first verse and everyone needs to remember to sing the last line.

One song glory: Sounded good, Tom watch your breathing.

Light my candle: Needs to be louder as the number is hard to hear.
Voicemail #2: This number went well with no problem other then Dan S was requested to be more other the top with his dialogue.
Today 4 u: This number ran through smoothly with no problems in our performance.
You'll see: We need to spend time on the correct timing of this song as we keep falling out of tune with the backing track, we were recommended to try and speak the lines instead of singing them.
Tango Maureen: Vocally this number sounded good but to improve the vocals me and Freya stand in the middle of the stage while the others now dance around us so we could focus on our vocals more.
Life support: We all need to speak our lines in this song so that we can be heard as right now we our all struggling to project our solos in this number.
Another Day: Once again we need to project our lines as this number is really quiet also we all need to watch our pitching for when we start to sing our backing vocals in this song as our first notes didn't sound right.
Will I?: This number sounded good with no problem.
Santa Fe: We all need to go over the choreography in the show as not all of us know the steps to the number, we all need to go over our backing vocal for the number and when we actually sing in the number as not many of us are sing at the moment.
I'll cover you: Need to focus more on the singing instead of movement.
We're okay: No problem with the performance of this number
La Vie Boheme: sounded good but we all need more energy with this number and to make all our movements so much bigger as well as to cheer each other on (Embrace the bohemian).
Seasons of Love: sounded nice but needed to be projected louder.
Voicemail #3: sounds good but Dom was asked to go bigger with his action if he could.
Happy New year B: We need to work on our timing with this number as not everyone is sure on what they are singing and when. We were also recommended to try speaking the lines more then singing.
Seasons of Love B: sound nice but need to be louder while singing as we can not be heard.
Without you: This number needed polishing with the movement we do in our pairs as not everyone is sure on timing or the actual movements they do.

Requested practice

Today we had just come back from christmas holiday so we all requested several song to do this lesson so we could refresh our memory. We started by working on "La Vie Boheme" as it had been a long time since we had performed this number and after we had we realised that we needed to work on this number again in another rehearsal we also realised that we still needed to sing through the last part of the number. We moved on and looked at "rent" which was fine other than the last verse which everyone needs to sing with confidence so that it sounds good. We ran through "Today 4 u" which we spent time on workshoping ideas for this number as we hadn't set this number fully yet. Through out the first half of the song Tom and I fumble around the stage as Angel knocks us about as well as in to each other. When the drum solo starts in the song, Dan as Angel slides down into the audience in which he flirts with the audience members instead of actually performing a drum solo. The number ends with Dan doing a spin on the table.

Seasons of Love B

Today we looked at seasons of love B and what we wanted to happen in the number.  We split into groups that slowly walk on stage from the back of the hall then cross  onto opposite sides of the stage, then walk off. After we had worked on this for a bit we ran through the first seasons of Love which leads into voicemail 3 and happy New year. We refreshed our memory over theses 3 numbers as well before we then tried an Act II run through all of what we had done so far so we worked through the show.

Seasons of love: The number ran well but as a group we need to work on our volume of the song as well as our pitching of ntes when we hold the lyric "Love"

Happy new year B: This number is getting better we all just now need to be confident with a lines as well knowing whether we want sing them or just say them to the tune.

Take me or leave me: We still haven't done this number yet.

Seasons of love B: This number has no problems as we had created this today.

Without you: We went through this number with little problem except we need to remember that we all sing the last without you and turn to face Angle.

I'll cover you repries: This number ran smooth with just the need for a little bit of improvement needed for the harmonies on the number.

Goodbye Love: We spent sometime working on each part of the dialogue in the song so we could perfect the interactions between each of our characters.

What you own: We ran through this number with no problem

Finale A: We ran through this number a couple of times as we were trying to work on our interaction between each other as well as the timing of our lines.

Your eyes: We skipped this number today.

Finale B: we ran through this number with little problem.

I'll cover you reprise

To day we started to look at I'll cover you reprise as we had song through this song in our previous lesson. We started to think of ideas of how to set the number and I came up with the idea of having 4 chairs in a line on each side of the stage and a gap in the middle. We would be sat in this order at the start:
Tom (Roger), Lorna (Maureen), Dom (Paul), Dan S (priest)
Me (Mark), Carl (Bennie), Toby (Collins), Freya (Joanne).
We have Mimi in the middle already starting her eulogy first and then when she finishes I swap seats with her so she is now sat next to Bennie who she came with, I then swap with Maureen so I'm next to Roger and finally Maureen swaps with Collins so everyone is next to the person they should as well as Collins being centre stage for his solo.
As we had sang through this number last lesson we found this easy to sing through today. We all rise one by one just before and after we sing with Collins. We have no movment while singing as its a sad song to be focused on the death of Angel.
We performed this song several times focusing on the vocals of the song so we could have a hard hitting affect on the audience.

Backing Tracks

Today miss arrived and gave us the backing tracks for every number in the show using our email addresses and blogs. So in lesson we sang through every song to try the backing tracks out
"Tune up 1" backing track: with this backing track I struggled to stay in time with the music as it progressed through the song as either I was going to fast or to slow compared to the backing track.
"Voice mail 1": has no backing track.
"Tune up 2" backing track: I managed to stay in time with this track after getting yse to the pace from the last track so we made it through this song with little problem.
"Rent" backing track: this number went fine for us to sing along with but at the end miss reminded us we need to shout less for the songs as it causes us to lose the tone.
"One song glory" backing track: Tom sang through this number with no problem.
"Light my candle" backing track: this was their first time singing through this song but they managed to sing through it with little mistake of keeping in time.
"Today 4 you" backing track: this number me, Toby and atom sang through our first part of the song with little difficulty as we had practice it before but Dan struggled to sing the rest of the song as hasn't done the number before.
"You'll see" backing track: this number we went well other than a few mistakes with timing of lines.
"Tango Maureen" backing track: With this number we got up and ran through the dance as well as the song as it had been a while since we had practice the dance.
"Life support" backing track: we ran this number with no problems.
"Another Day" backing track: this number had little problem except some of us struggled to sing a long with our part at the end of the song.
"Will I?" backing track: ran through this with no problem.
"Santa Fe" backing track: ran through this with no problem.
"I'll cover you" backing track: ran through this with no problem.
"La Vie boheme": we ran through this number with little difficulty until the end where we all tell stories of the other characters which we tried to do but have never done before so we struggled with the timing.
After we had sang through those song, we then had a listen to "I'll cover you reprise" as we were going to set it next lesson. We sang through with little problem and put ourselves in groups to sing the last part of the song.
"With a thousand sweet kisses": Freya, Meg, Lorna, Dan M and Tom
"Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes": me, Carl, Dan S, Dom