Embarrassment
For one of our lessons we spent the entire two hours working on songs in the musical that we weren't comfortable or confident singing. We mainly focused on the ensemble songs in order to make sure that everyone was doing something as well as to make use of the full cast when we have the opportunity.
For the first hour we focused on 'Embarrassment'. This song ranged from solo/duet and ensemble singing meaning we could also work on characterisation of specific characters. To start with we sang the whole song through with the piano working out timing and rhythm. This is good as it gives us a solid structure to work with. Once we know that basics of the melody we can then start to progress to work on movement and vocal technique in terms of characterisation.
Whilst singing this song as an ensemble we came across as too 'choir like' and soft toned. When the texture to this song is harsh and mocking as it is putting down the character 'Joe Casey' because he is a reformed young offender. In order to help people understand and develop their own understandings of the atmosphere of the song and the way it should be sung. Our director got the cast to separate where we were all together accept the two 'Joe Casey's' and sing directly at them standing in a line. This helped as it meant we could see them and start to act through our singing channelling the emotions. However, in some respect we were still focusing too much on the vocal correctness rather than the acting. In order to try and get us more into our characters our director had us insult the two Joe's in order to get into that mind-set and find our tones in our voices. At first everyone was hesitant and didn't want to say anything. Then eventually a few people would shout out a few insults here and there. This encouraged more people to do the same as it made the atmosphere less tense and awkward and almost relaxed people into the idea.
After doing this we then sang through the song again. This time however, there was more enthusiasm and confidence. People were having more fun with the song and its context and were more relaxed. This then also created a natural blocking where we would step forward/move forward as the song progressed. At the end of the song we all centred around the 'Joe's' and pointed at them singing 'you're an embarrassment'
WWW.
I believe the exercise of shouting insults at the two 'Joe's' helped us get into character and work on our characterisation when singing. As, as a group we tend to forget about this. This worked well as it gave us confidence in our characters as well as in our vocals as we didn't feel pressured when performing to be vocally impressive. I think that as a group we are also starting to understand crucial emotions/atmospheres that are created through certain songs. For example, in embarrassment its a mocking atmosphere full of exaggeration and teasing. Therefore, we are using our physicality more and using facial expressions in order to portray the emotions. I.E. crossing our arms, cornering the Joe's and raising eyebrows/smirking.
Personally I felt as though my characterisation improved greatly. As usually I focus a lot on the vocal performance and making sure its as good as it can be rather than the acting part of it. However, I was acting on behalf on my character and adding emotion into my vocals almost making it sound spoken. Therefore, creating a more convincing and impressive vocal performance in terms of performing a musical number.
EBI
Next time we could start to properly block it with characters immersed in the scene. In order to smoothly block it in rather than it being acting then singing.
We could continue to work on characterisation in our vocals as well as our physicality in order to portray a convincing performers of the 'Our House' cast.
Baggy Trousers
For this song we had already blocked the whole song with a dance routine. Our main focus was making sure we sung as well as singing the right parts as the majority of this song is sung by the character Reecey. Therefore, to start with we got our scripts and sang through the song. Understanding when the ensemble are supposed to sing and when its just Reecey. Once we had done this we also worked out harmonies in order to make it sound aurally engaging and to give it some life and character to assist the dance. We then tried putting both together (dancing and singing) However, it didn't really work as we were still all focused on the movement and were too fatigued from the dance to sing.
EBI.
We need to work on singing the song as an ensemble as at the moment there are only a few people singing due to our main concentration on the dance and timing.
We need to work on singing whilst moving at high energy levels as this is an issue. Baggy trousers is a very high energy dance with jumping and running therefore we are finding it difficult to sing whilst performing. In order to solve this we could do little exercises whilst singing the song and increasing in difficulty to gradually increase our vocal stamina. Eventually being able to do the entire dance routine with a strong vocal backing.
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