Thursday 28th January 2016 - West Side Story Evaluation

            I think that the prologue went better in the second evening show, this is because there were more adlibs and other background noise and movements that contributed to the overall aesthetics of the scene. This means that the audience were more engaged into what was happening, this is because no matter where they were looking on the stage there was something going on, rather than just looking at what was happening at the centre of the stage. In the first evening show this was not as strong, because of this, as a class we decided to all add more into the first scene. In my opinion I think there was a big improvement fro the first show to the second, we looked at different insults that would have been used by the Puerto Riccans in the 1950s, these were things such as "micks" and "dirty American". This is because we wanted to it be the right context for the era that the show was set in. In my opinion I think that when we moved down the scaffolding to trap Baby John, this had improved a lot from the dress run as we had added in more background noise. This allowed us to add in more of our characters into this scene, all of the sharks that had trapped him, showed their alliance to Bernardo, this was by running to help him.This shows them that the boys are brave, as they are not afraid to get involved in conflict. I think that the worse part of this scene for me was when Abi runs in and we get into a physical fight This is because by the end of the four shows both of us had hurt ourselves as we had pused each other on the floor multiple times. If I was to do this again I would choreograph the fight in a different way so that the first part of it was more threats and petty physical contact, rather than just going strait into a full energy stage fight. As well as this I think this would look better to the audience as it would have gradually built up to a climax. However even though we were placed very close to some audience member, I thought that we had good proxemics in relation to the audience as neither of us came into contact with anyone, as well as this we were very close to the scaffolding and neither of us came into contact with that either. When Officer Krupke and Shrank walk in, I think that this went really well in both shows, this is because in the rehearsals of this scene we had worked on the reactions in depth. For the line "Top of the day Officer Krupke" I think that i used the correct voice technique, this line is supposed to be said in a mocking way towards Krupke. When i said this is both shows i rolled my eyes and took a few steps back, this was also so the audience was not blocked by cast members. For the rest of the prologue in both shows-but more developed in the second show i showed my characters anger towards the Jets by constant looks and gestures towards them, especially when the Sharks are told to leave.

          Similar to the prologue, i found that when watching this back the characterisation for this scene was better on the second evening show, some of this could have been a result of the whole cast feeling more confident with the performance as we had already performed well twice. Our reactions towards Glad Hand were a lot more developed in both performances compared to our last dress run. When personally researching my character i found that i should have different reactions towards krupke and Glad Hand compared to Shrank, this is because Shrank is a more serious intimidating character that the PRs fear, on the other hand Glad Hand and Krupke are more comical characters that both gangs can mess around with and make fun of. I think that i showed this well in my final performance, especially in this scene where i laughed at Luke and kept quiet and still when James walked on, i believe this showed the audience the relationship these characters and my character. In my opinion i think the weakest part of this scene was the reaction when we end up opposite to someone of the opposite gang. We spent time in lessons working on this, however everytime we rehearsed this scene we wended up with a different partner in a different space and therefore we were unsure of where we were reaching for our partners. As a result of this i think this section looked messy as we were bumping into each other. In addition to this on the last show when the music stopped i did not time my walks accuratley enough, because of this i didnt end up opposite a partner, this made my reaction seem a little out of place. 

          I am happy with the relationship that i had with Phoebe on stage, we had worked  on this in rehearsals for a long time to make sure that we portrayed the right idea to the audience. However i think that this could have been developed more, there were times in the show that i think we showed this well for example on the line "you came with your mouth open" when i went up to Phoebe and she slaps me, we showed the audience that we have a flirty relationship, where we feel comfortable to wind each other up. In the scene before America i noticed that we did not have very good proxemics with the audience or each other, i saw that the boys were standing in a line for the majority of the scene. This meant that we were blocking some of the audiences view, i tried to move out of the scene a little when saying my lines, however i did not do this enough to show the personality of my character well enough. 
                
          In Docs Drugstore scene on the first show i was trying to focus on my characterisation i the background too much that i lost focus and missed the que to one of my lines, this was one of my targets last year and therefore i should have worked on keeping my focus up during a performance. However after the first show i improved on this a lot as i kept up the level of characterisation and kept my focus do that i didnt miss a que. For the next peformance i need to work on my character development sooner so that i can keep the level of focus needed to perform a seen accuratly. 

            When watching back I thought the quintet went very well in all of the shows, this Is the result of many rehearsals with Kim making sure everyone's timing and pitching was right. Personally I thought that my contribution to the singing in this scene was good, in early rehearsal I struggles with the pitching as well as the timing so I spent time listening and singing through in my own time to improve this. I thought the movement in this scene worked really well, we had developed in later rehearsals so that we could use more of the set, therefore I think the audience would have been fully engaged in the scene. I think part of this is because similar to the prologue wherever they looked there was always something happening on stage. I am happy with my overall characterisation in this scene as i kept my main focus to the gang, meaning that all of my movements showed how i was part of the sharks, i did this by making gestures to other sharks, eye contact etc. This scene developed well in rehearsals allowing us to have the same level of energy in both shows.

          For me the rumble went better in the second show, this is because i had better special awareness and focus, in the first show me and Abi ran into each other causing both of us to fall over. Even though i think we both covered this up well enough and just carried on with the scene and eventually ran off. However in the second show i was more aware of the space and other people around us that were looking around us properly to make sure that i didn't bump into anyone else. On the other hand i was happy with my characterisation in the scene especially when Riff and Bernardo die, on reflection i thought that i have a good level of change in reaction when the atmosphere of the scene changed. I started the scene feeling confident that the Sharks were going to beat the Jets and be the greatest gand. However i ended the scene feeling extreamly scared, this is because my gang leader had been killed as well as the police were on their way and i was worried they were going to catch me.

             Like some of the other scenes i think the singing was better in the second show for the song "Somewhere", however i don't think that this song could have been developed any more, as we had worked on it in many rehearsals. It had improved a lot early on but then stayed at the same energy level for later rehearsals, in my opinion the reason was better in the second show was that the cast felt more confident and therefore this was portrayed to the audience. In the finale, the life went well in both shows, i don't think this could have been improved any more. During the dress run we had to condense the number of people carrying Alex because it was too crowded, however this meant that he was heavier to lift as there was less people to support. This meant that we make sure that we were all lifting at the same time, so that everyboy had an equal amount of weight on their shoulders, i think we did this well.

           Overall i think that my characterisation in the play was good, however i think there could have been some areas hat i could have developed more. For example in the rumble when we are cheering on Bernardo to get Diesel and Tony, i think i could have got more involved in the scene. For the next show my main targets are to remain focus and special awareness during a performance and to improve the level of energy that i bring to my character. When working towards my next performance these are going to be my top priorities to make sure that i can give an overall better performance.

Friday 15th January 2016 - Finale

          In todays rehearsal we worked on the finale scene where Tony dies, this is important that this scene has a tense atmosphere as it is the end of the play, and therefore we have to make sure that the audience are fully engaged in what is happening. We worked on the entrance of everyone who comes in when the gun is fired, we decided to come from all different stage entrances to show that everyone had just dropped whatever they were doing to get to the crime scene to see what was going on. Because of this i came running from the steps near the scaffolding so that as well as this different levels are being used. In addition to this we run in at slightly different times, this allows the audience to believe that people had been coming from different locations around the area. When each person runs in they have to have a sudden stop when they first see Tony on the floor with a gunshot wound, in addition to this we all glance at each other as if we are all realising that the rivalry between the two gangs has caused this death as well as the death of Riff and Bernardo. In this scene everybody is on edge with a mixture of feelings of anger, regret and fear, this is because Maria has taken the gun off of Chino and is pacing around pointing the gun at people standing around. When the gun is pointed towards me, i backed away, a few other people were doing this too, in my opinion this shows the audience the fear that everybody is feeling as their lives may also be in danger. As Maria breaks down and drops the gun everybody standing around slightly becomes more relaxed as she is no longer threatning to kill anyone, we then gradually move in towards Tony, and all look down at him and then at each other before all picking him up on our shoulders. This is the representation of carrying him at a funeral as he has died and the tow gangs have made peace with each other because of the death of three crutial characters in the story. When doing this we all bow our heads down to show the dissapointment we have in ourselves as everyone had contributed to the gang rivalry that had got too out of hand, and we all have have something to be ashamed of, this shows the audience that our characters are feeling this. 

Monday 11th January 2016 - Teaching America

          In this dance rehearsal i had to teach the America dance to a few other people who hadn't had he chance to learn it at the same time as the other people involved. I started going through the male dance breaks without music so that Jordy and Eliott had a chance to pick up some of the harder dance moves, once they got these we tried it with music. When we did this they found some bits harder than others, this is because the music is quite fast and therefore it is hard to pick up. To help with this we just went through it multiple times so that they had a chance to pick it up more. Once they had learnt this we moved on to the movement in the song, to do this we first just talked through it without music and after doing this twice we put on music and ran through this more until they knew what they were doing.

          Once they had learn all of the movement we were able to focus more on the characterisation in this number, this mostly consists of reactions between the boys and the girls, as well as acting proud and confident to show the girls and the audience that we are the best. The more we ran through the song, their reactions became better and more engaging, after a few rehearsals all of the boys had more connection on stage and it was more obvious to the audience that we were a close gang. To make this song more interactive between the two sexes we decided to start mocking the girls in a jokey way when they were dancing, this helped show the audience how confident proud the Shark boys were.

          Personally i think the hardest part of teaching the boys the dance was trying to get the boys and their partners to have a relationship between them, that shows the audience that even though they like each other they do not have a problem mocking and making fun of them. when i started rehearsing this number this is the part that i found the hardest, however i think that after a few rehearsals me and Pheobe had worked on having a cheeky flirty relationship on stage that was visible to the audience.

Monday 11th January 2016 - Dress Run

Today we had our first dress run, this allowed us to see if there was any changes to the choreography that we had to make because of costume restrictions. For my character I chose to wear black jeans that had elastic material, this is so I could dance easily in them. As well as this it was our first run in the set, this also meant that we had to change some things because the scaffolding is a lot higher and takes up more space than we originally thought.

Prolouge - I had to change my positioning in the opening scene, because of the scaffolding I have to go out further than in previous rehearsals, this meant that I had to work out different times that I had to move, this is because I now have to run down stairs and along the scaffolding. We have also had to work on the timing of when we all run into the middle to trap Baby John, this is so we don't all run down the stairs at the same time, we need to space it out more so that the steps are not crowded with lots of people all trying to get down at the same time. 

Gym Dance - In this run we started adding more adlibs into this scene so that the energy could be built up, as well as this we started to build the relationships between characters. This helps the audience understand the conflict between the gangs and Glad hand, as well as this, in the script it us mentioned that the gym is "neutral teritory". Because of this the conflict has to be more subtle compared to when on the street, part of the reason of this is because Officer Krupke and Shrank are there to observe their behaviour and to make sure that there isnt any problems. As well as this we worked on the change in atmosphere between when Tony and Maria first meet to when Bernardo catches them, we wanted this to go from being a calm and sophisticated atmosphere to being tense and argumentive between the two gangs. In this rehearsal i think this was the best it had ever been, as this was a complete contrast and allows us to keep the audience enganged on what is happening in the scene.                                                                                                                                                  

America + Scene - Although i though the actual America dance went really well i think the scene that runs into it needs more rehearsal, this is because in my opinion i think at the moment is it visibly weaker than the actual dance. I think that to improve it we need to work on the proxemics involved, this is because i notices that the boys in this scene are just standing in a line, i think that this is partly to do with because Jordy, Elliott and Josh have not have the chance to learn this scene as they had just been focusing on learning the dance. Therefore they were not entirley sure on what they were doing, however their reactions to what was happening in the scene was very good. Because of this i found it easier to make my reactions better as i had someone else to interact with on my side, this was better than previous rehearsals as before i was the only boy other than Bernardo and i found it diffcult to react when i was supposed to. I thought that the transition into the dance was good as it was smooth and looked very natural rather than making it obvious that we were going to stop having a converation and start singing and dancing, if we continue to work on this i think that it will contunie to look smooth in the final performance. In my opinion i though the dance went very well based on the movement, however i think that we need to continue to work on reactions and characterisation. Personally i think that this is important to this scene as it is a battle between the boys and the girls and i think we need to represent this by our reactions, facial expressions, background adlibs etc.

Doc's Drug Store - In my opinion i think that this is my weakest scene, i need to work on my characterisation fro when i walk in to when i leave. I also need to work on my change in characterisation when Shrank wallks in, this is because we have to act neutral towards the other gang when around him and act as though we are not having a war council. Another thing i need to work on is the aggression toward the other gang, at the moment i don't think it is obvious that we are rival gangs in this scene so i think we need to add in more looks and actions towards people from the opposite gang. On the other hand i think that my reaction towards Shrank when he is insulting the PRs was good, i get up from sitting down and look at him, i thought that my facial expressions were good to show that i was angry that he was insulting me and the rest of my gang, however i think this can still be improved in the next rehearsal.

The Quintet - In this rehearsal the Quintet went very well, this was because we had previously worked on the movement and the singing in seprate rehearsals, we decided to start on the scaffolding nearest to the lighting desk. ( This is the shark area ). We sing the first few lines up here and then go down the stairs and go back to back to the Jets, then we walk round each other where we eventually break away. Both gangs then split off so they can group together, we worked on this so that it would appear to the audience that we were planning how we were going to bring down the opposing gang.  I thought it would be more interesting for the audience if there was more levels being used, me and Max decided to climb up the scaffolding and Jess climbed up the ladder, whilst i was up on the scaff i kept moving around as iff i was keeping look out for anyone, once we had noticed the jets we moved down tot he ground with the other sharks to plan what our next move would be. For the climax of the song we all moved into the center of the space. When we are there we occasionally make eye contact with the other gang memebers, this is to show the audience the bond between the gang members and when the lights go down we all run off and hide in the dark to get ready for the rumble. when doing this we all have a confident attitude as we are getting ready for the rumble and to become the best gang. As well as the movement our singing was good as everyone had the correct pitching and timing, this is because we had practiced this in previous singing rehearsals with kim. in addition to this everyone had looked into what their characters personal objectives were, for example Maria and Tony had to be focused on each other, Anita is focused on Bernardo while the Jets and the Sharks are only interested on becoming the best gang on the street and beat the opposing gang. I found that this exercise helped me with my overall characterisation for the rest of the show and not just this number. 

The Rumble - This scene was not as strong in this run through as i had previously seen it and therefore we have a few things that we need to practice in future rehearsals of this scene. I think one of the things that needs to be improved is we need to make the hatred between the two gangs more obvious to the audience, this can be improved by more looks and gestures towards each other. However i think the level of background noise was good, it was an equal amount from both the Sharks and the Jets, i think that is this is repeated in the final performance it will look really good to the audience and they will be fully engaged into the scene as it is full of energy. As well as this i think that my reaction was good when Riff dies and then again when Bernardo dies, this is because i wanted to have a complete change in characterisation going from being really confident that the Sharks are going to beat the Jets to being really shocked that two peoples lives were lost. 

Somewhere - I think this scene was good however parts of it needs to be improved such as the part when we make peace with someone from the opposite gang, at the moment i think it is too feminine as we are currently hugging each other, i think we need to change this so that our reactions towards each other are more masculine. I also think that we need to rehearse the singing with Kim another time, because it sounded as though some people were unsure on what they were singing, this is because part of this is sung in a round and i noticed that a few people were singing the wrong line. However i think with one more rehearsal we will be able to perform this well.

Finale - When we did this our reactions were not detailed enough and the lift did not go as planned, because of this we have scheduled a rehearsal of just this scene so we can focus on it more. This is because this is the finale scene and needs to capture the audiences attention for the last time and therefore we need to work on it a lot more.

Tuesday 15th December 2015 - Tonight Quintet

     We started to work on the tonight quintet, this is a five part melody that is sung by the Jets, Sharks, Maria, Tony and Anita. The start of this rehearsal did not go so well as we struggled to keep in our parts and in time with the music, this was our biggest challenge and therefore we worked on ways that would help us improve our timing. For example we listened to the whole song and counted how many beats there was inbetween phrases, after doing this I thought that our timing had been improved but was still not perfect.

Monday 4th January 2016 - Run-Through Of Movement

Prologue
     We ran through the prologue to clean the choreographed sections of this, this is because this scene is the opening to the show and therefore as it introduces the characters to the audience. This is the introduction to rivalry between the two gangs and therefore we need to successfully build up the tension so the audience can understand the friction between the Sharks and the Jets. In our rehearsal of this today, i thought that we did this really well, the more we rehearse this number i think it becomes more interesting.  When we went into the next section where we have to use stage combat to show the relationship between the two gangs. Mine and Abi's stage fight is improving as the rehearsals go by, this is because we have choreographed exactly what we are going to do, this is so we do not injure ourselves or each other, also so that we know our spacing to make sure we do not move into the audience or another pair.

Gym Dance
     When rehearsing this i thought that the first section went really well, this is the bit when we are dancing with our partners, everyone is doing the same thing. This is because we have spent a lot of time making sure that our timing, spacing and accuracy of movement is all correct so that it can be performed successfully in the final performance. Me and Phoebe have worked together on the movement so that we can perform our partner work well, because of this i think that we have improved a lot since the first rehearsals. Personally i think the main section that needs to be practiced is when the Sharks are competing with the Jets, i feel like i am unsure of some of the movement material. To change this i am going to work with Phoebe so that we can improve our performance, before the next rehearsal we are going to rehearse so that we can get all of the movement. 

America
     In this rehearsal we had to add other people into the dance, this is because we were supposed to have five girls and five guys, this meant that we had to split into two so that me and Max could teach the rest of the boys and Amber, Phoebe and Jess could teach the rest of the girls. This has helped us develop this number as we have been able to pay more attention to detail, as we have been able to split into smaller groups and work on smaller sections rather than just an overview of the whole dance. After rehearsing we performed it to the rest of the class, I thought this went really well as we have all developed our characterisation and the personality of our parts really well and this has helped us perform this better.

Thursday 17th December 2015 - America Singing Rehearsal

     In todays lesson we focused on the singing on America, this is because we had mainly rehearsed the dancing. We want our level of singing to be a high as our dancing, therefore it was important that we work a lot on this more to perfect this. After we had warmed up we just sang through the song without movement, this is so we could focus on intonation and articulation rather than just characterisation and performance. This was important so that we are singing the correct notes and our timing with the band. This was the first time we ha sung through with the piano rather thank just singing along to the original version whilst dancing. Although this was a good way to learn the words and the timing it didn't help us technically develop the singing in this number.


      After we were more familiar with the pitching we decided to try doing this with the movement and dance, it took us a few times to run through this as we were not used to singing certain phrases and pitches. However once we had practiced I thought that we had a better idea of what we were doing. On the other hand I felt as though it was difficult for me to concentrate on the characterisation, movement and singing at the same time, this is because some of the parts and melodies were different in this version of the song rather than the one we had previously been using and therefore some things were not like we had learnt.


     Also as part of this rehearsal we worked on characterisation, this is especially important for this number as the point of the song is that it is a battle between the boys and the girls and therefore we have to act as though there is friction between us. We worked through each line of the song so that we reacted appropriately to what was being said. One example of this is where there is a section where the boys and the girls each have a line and it is an argument between them. Our last line in this section is "If you're all white in America" this suggests that there is a racist explanation to why the Puerto Ricans are being treated the way they are, this is performed in  different way to the last line which is "If you can fight in America" this is because this is said more in a comical way compared to the idea of being discriminated against because of their race.


     For me personally after this rehearsal I feel more confident about the rest of the rehearsal process for this number, as we have now looked at both the singing and the dancing. As well as this is we have focused on characterisation, which has helped me in-between the dance breaks and choreographed section to keep my character even when not specifically doing anything.