jessiescotsonlma32

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References.

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Amy Marturana, C. (2019). The 21 Best Stretching Exercises for Better Flexibility. [online] SELF. Available at: https://www.self.com/gallery/essential-stretches-slideshow [Accessed 3 May 2019].

Thevoiceteacher.co.uk. (2019). [online] Available at: https://www.thevoiceteacher.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Defining-the-Key-Voice-Qualities-in-Musical-Theatre-Belt-Mix-and-Legit-A-Review-of-the-Literature.pdf [Accessed 25 Feb. 2019].

Bbc.co.uk. (2019). BBC - Sing - Learn to Sing: Warming Up. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sing/learning/warmingup.shtml [Accessed 3 May 2019].

The Theatrefolk Blog. (2019). Creating A Strong Ensemble. [online] Available at: https://www.theatrefolk.com/blog/creating-a-strong-ensemble/ [Accessed 18 Apr. 2019].

Dolan, M. (n.d.). Expert Advice on How to Improve Stamina - wikiHow. [online] Wikihow.fitness. Available at: https://www.wikihow.fitness/Improve-Stamina[Accessed 6 May 2019].

Swolept.com. (2019). Fixing Anterior Pelvic Tilt: Posture tricks to make your butt and gut smaller. [online] Available at: http://www.swolept.com/posts/fixing-anterior-pelvic-tilt-posture-tricks-to-make-your-butt-and-gut-smaller [Accessed 6 Feb. 2019].

Harvard, P. (2013). Acting Through Song. 1st ed. London: Nick Hern Books Limited, The Glasshouse.

Men’s Health. (2019). Health and Lifestyle. [online] Available at: https://www.menshealth.com/uk/health/ [Accessed 3 May 2019].

YouTube. (2019). Heathers - Candy Store - Vocal Guide: Heather McNamara. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubBAlBGfEP4[Accessed 18 Feb. 2019].

Hishon, K. (2017). Creating a Rehearsal Schedule. [online] The Theatrefolk Blog. Available at: https://www.theatrefolk.com/blog/creating-rehearsal-schedule/[Accessed 6 May 2019].

Inc.com. (2019). How to Spot Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic-Learning Executives. [online] Available at: https://www.inc.com/molly-reynolds/how-to-spot-visual-auditory-and-kinesthetic-learni.html [Accessed 18 Mar. 2019].

Huffpost.com. (2019). HuffPost is now a part of Oath. [online] Available at: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hiit-workout_n_4426903?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAHMZ2aR9437ytRHQqCrpvEwq0QWDaztxzlTeN1ICR5lefjzYM8FuWmjoZ7Iiad9Uv8V_UPMBhhm4bt4frTbDI4J19GK1DLYRSdePIa3s0YYvdOyBMSl6ilhNgLKqtKqngmBRcfIcTNw5LvbJ0mD7bk6D9x4FFxggxh-HySt6jbj_[Accessed 3 May 2019].

Kayes, G. (2000). Singing and the actor. 2nd ed. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

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Spine-health. (2019). Muscle Tension. [online] Available at: https://www.spine-health.com/glossary/muscle-tension [Accessed 9 Apr. 2019].

Questions, S. (2019). Stanislavski In 7 Steps: Better Understanding Stanisklavski’s 7 Questions. [online] Student Resources. Available at: https://www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/stanislavski-in-7-steps-better-understanding-stanisklavskis-7-questions/ [Accessed 21 Jan. 2019].

S. Phillips, P. (n.d.). Developing Muscle Memory for Improved Singing - dummies. [online] dummies. Available at: https://www.dummies.com/art-center/music/singing/developing-muscle-memory-for-improved-singing/[Accessed 27 Mar. 2019].

Bupa.co.uk. (2019). Shin splints | Health Information | Bupa UK. [online] Available at: https://www.bupa.co.uk/health-information/muscles-bones-joints/shin-splints [Accessed 3 May 2019].

Djarts. (2019). Singing with Twang. [online] Available at: https://www.djarts.com.au/singing-tips/vocal-twang/ [Accessed 23 Apr. 2019].

St. Louis, M. (n.d.). How to Spot Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic-Learning Executives. [online] Inc.com. Available at: https://www.inc.com/molly-reynolds/how-to-spot-visual-auditory-and-kinesthetic-learni.html [Accessed 6 May 2019].

Spotlight.com. (2019). The Actors’ Guide to Audition Prep. [online] Available at: https://www.spotlight.com/news-and-advice/tips-and-advice/the-actors-guide-to-audition-prep/ [Accessed 4 Apr. 2019].

ThoughtCo. (2019). The Stanislavsky Method - an Overview of His Acting Techniques. [online] Available at: https://www.thoughtco.com/stanislavsky-system-acting-method-2712987 [Accessed 8 Apr. 2019].

Myprotein. (2019). What Is Metafit Training? | Burn Fat For Fun - Myprotein. [online] Available at: https://www.myprotein.com/thezone/training/what-is-metafit-training-burn-fat-for-fun/ [Accessed 1 May 2019].

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Overall opinion.

As the show is approaching I feel confident in the character choices I have made as I have experimented within the scenes as my ensemble character and as Ms. Fleming which has involved me making choices that have and haven’t worked in order for me to establish what decisions to disregard and keep. I believe that a big factor of this has been me attending all of the rehearsals, I haven’t missed anything that has been choreographed or harmonies that have been given out. By being off book for the show has allowed me to experiment in the scenes and in the songs that I’m in as I haven’t been restricted to performing the scene behind a script.

My areas of confidence lie in:

- My knowledge of the harmonies, I have taken the harmonies away from the rehearsal studio and practiced them at home which has allowed me to make them stronger and not second guess if my harmony is incorrect.

- My memory of the dance numbers, I am constantly trying to improve my dance technique as that is what I believe to be my weakest area out of the three disciplines. Due to this, any moment I had spare during rehearsals I was using to revisit choreography and ensure to know what I’m doing and be precise with the movements.

- My stage presence, I understand that as a cast member that it is important to keep the energy of the show high so that the audience isn’t bored. Musical Theatre is an art form that allows us to present the audience with real life situations that have been exaggerated 10 times over and they won’t question it. I also have a good understanding of where to populate areas of the stage, we don’t ever want one side of the stage looking fuller than the other side as this will look disproportionate and unorganised. Such a small detail is what makes us different from students putting on a show to professionals, if one area of the stage is empty I will immediately move over there to ensure that it is not.

My areas of weakness lie in:

- Improvising choreography is a weak area of mine, I wouldn’t class myself as a choreographer as I don’t have the ability to create movement on the spot. When we are asked to improvise, this makes me feel uncomfortable and panicked. Something that I can do is create a set sequence of movement that can be saved and used for choreography’s in the future so that I always have something prepared.

- Being consistent with my character from the moment I enter the stage to the moment I leave. I’ve found myself finishing a scene and then heading off stage and coming out of character as I’m too concerned with where I’m supposed to be next instead of staying in character in the moment. Something that I can do to help this is create a show track so that I know where I’m supposed to be throughout the show at all times - these will ease my mind and allow me to focus on being present in the scene.

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Planning for the show.

For the show, we created a rehearsal schedule which can be seen above.

A rehearsal schedule allows the entire cast to be able to see what scenes or numbers of the show we will be blocking each week, because of this the cast can be prepared in learning the appropriate material which enables them to be prepared for rehearsals.

A schedule also gives us a guideline of where we should be up to in regards to the progression of the show, we are able to see if we are ahead or have fallen behind the plan which would either give us motivation to work harder and faster or to maintain the good work effort.

Finally, it is beneficial to have a schedule so that the cast can have a structure to work with and everyone is aware of what has been completed and what is still needed to be done.

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Health and safety within the studio.

Health and safety in any environment is absolutely essential and should never be overlooked or compromised. They are certain procedures and rules in place in order to keep everyone safe which we’ll be exploring.

Before we think about warming ourselves up or getting physical within the space we need to inspect the area that we’re in and analyse if there is anything in the way that could cause harm or damage to anyone. All of our bags and belongings should be put to one side of the room neatly, this ensure’s that no one can trip on anything.

A performer needs to keep themselves hydrated with water which should be bottled to prevent spillages reducing the risk of falls. According to Dance Informa drinking more water can also assist with healing from an injury and injury prevent, as water encourages blood circulation meaning toxins are flushed away from the injured area (Dance Informa Magazine, 2018).

Along with hydration comes a healthy diet, a performer needs to eat in order to have energy to move and rehearse. Starting the day off with breakfast is absolutely essential, such as, a Banana which is a slow releasing energy filled with potassium and according to Men’s Health also ‘helps keep your blood pressure in check.’ (Menshealth.co.uk, 2018).

Finally, we need to ensure we are wearing the correct attire. Dance wear such as a leotard and tights should be worn as these are practical and smart, due to the flexibility of the material you won’t be restricted movement wise like you would be in a pair of jeans. Suitable trainers or jazz shoes need to be worn, these will be most beneficial whilst performing jumps and leaps and are a great way to prevent shin splints. Shin splints is used to describe pain of the shin bone which is commonly caused by leaping and jumping due to the person not landing correctly. It is important to understand how to correctly execute leaps and jumps and land through the foot meaning that you land on your toes, through your demi-pointe and then finally flat on the floor.

Warming up in any class or for any kind of activity is important and should be carried out correctly.

Warm up for acting:

When warming up for acting we need to ensure our voices and mouths are warm but also that our minds are ready and we can think quickly. The reason why we do this is to help with improvisation, as an improvised scene isn’t set whoever is in the scene needs to be able to think quickly and input new ideas into the scene and be open to accepting them.

We can do this by taking a look at Drama Games website which has several exercises we can use to get any group focused and ready: https://dramaresource.com/drama-games/.

One game being ‘The Alphabet Game’ where you have a conversation and each sentence must begin with the next letter of the alphabet, this means that you need to be imaginative and think about what’s coming next.

Warm up for singing:

When warming up for singing we need to ensure that the voice, mouth and tongue have been warmed up and exercised correctly. To begin, start chewing in order to warm the jaw up and loosen it.

Then, move onto take your tongue around your mouth and imaging that you’re painting the entire of your mouth to get your tongue to stretch and reach everywhere, this will get us aware of our tongues movement and will help with diction.

Finally, before any vocal exercises start, you should yawn as according to the BBC ‘yawning opens up your throat and helps your voice resonate.’ (BBC, 2014) and it allows the soft pallet to be lifted which creates more space at the back of the throat, enabling us to deconstirct.

Tongue twisters are a great way of warming up without putting too much strain on the voice as they allow us to focus on warming up the mouth, tongue and working on diction without worrying about the notes. When you become comfortable with the tongue twister you can then vary the melody of which you’re delivering the sentence to enable movement in the larynx as you go higher. Some tongue twisters can be found here: http://www.spiritsound.com/twisters.html.

We can then move onto sirening with a closed mouth shape which can be used as a quick warm up in an audition scenario, as you move through the top of your vocal range to the bottom of the vocal range you’re exploring every note in between and can go back and forth in places where you are most weak.

Warm up for dance:

In dance it is important to increase the blood rate, we need our bodies to be warm and it is dangerous to exercise cold muscles. One way we can do this is with High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT).

According to Daily Burn, “HIIT, or high-intensity interval training, is a training technique in which you give all-out, one hundred percent effort through quick, intense bursts of exercise, followed by short, sometimes active, recovery periods. This type of training gets and keeps your heart rate up and burns more fat in less time” (Huffpost.com, 2019), meaning that quick warm ups and exercises are just as effective. When warming up we need to ensure that we increase the blood flow around the body so that we warm up our muscles to not cause injuries to ourselves.

Stretching should also be done after any form of high intensive exercise is completed to increase flexibility, such stretches that can be completed are:

- Lunging Hip Flexor Stretch

- Piriformis Stretch

- Triceps Stretch

Which can all be found here: https://www.self.com/gallery/essential-stretches-slideshow

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Yo Girl/Meant to be Yours

During Yo Girl the ensemble acts as the voices in Veronica’s head, we’re taunting her over the awful things she’s done and trying to isolate her. A lot of the choreography features the ensemble running around her and shouting things into her face which segregates her from her surroundings and makes her feel claustrophobic. 

When the cast aren’t surrounding Veronica I’m staring at her to draw the audiences attention to her and to try to make her feel isolated and guilty. The choreography is really fast and needs to be executed with a sharp dynamic in order for the movement to look slick. Everyone needs to be in time with each other and my reasoning for this is that we’re almost an army against Veronica and we want to tear her down by making her feel regret.

Meant to be Yours.

During Meant to be Yours the ensemble are imitating the people that have been murdered by JD which are Heather Chandler, Kurt and Ram. We imitate these character by using characterised movements that we have previously seen in the show. The dancing is fast paced, because of this it is essential that we are precise with the movements we are carrying out and that we don’t throw anything away otherwise the choreography will look sloppy and unrehearsed.

We’re using harsh and sharp movements in the choreography to show the intensity of what we’re trying to portray. Whilst singing we’re using Speech quality in order for us to deliver the same intensity that we’re trying to deliver with the dancing as we are with the singing which further builds the intensity for the scene.

Both of these songs happen after each other so it’s essential that we are cautious of our breathing during these numbers so that we don’t fall short of breath and aren’t able to carry out the lyrics.

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Feedback and reflection of the show so far.

It is crucial to continuously work on analysing your own performance within a show to ensure that you're working to the best of your abilities by ensuring you push yourself. Also, if there’s an ensemble number where everyone must look the same, it’s important to recognise if you’re in time with everyone else and doing the same movements.

Feedback.

- The movements in ‘Beautiful’ need to have more motivation behind them, so when my character is dashing around I need to know why I’m dashing around and where my character is going. Reflecting back on my character motivations will help me to remember this. On the line “I pray for a better way” my character wants there to be no more bullying and to be in an environment where everyone is equal and respects each other.

- There are a few effective freeze frames in the show which are: Heather Chandler summoning Ram to take her cruel note to Martha (before Candy Store) and Veronica alerting Kurt that Freshman have joined the party (during Big Fun). Both of these freeze frames are vital as they show true representations of characters, Heather Chandler teasing someone because she’s bored and Veronica attempting to help Heather Duke out of sexual harassment. It is vital that everyone who shouldn’t be moving is completely still so that no audience member is distracted by any ensemble character and misses these key details in the show. 

- On my first entrance as Ms. Fleming I was delivering the line “Ah, Heather and Heather” the same way it is delivered on the track. I wasn’t actively conscious that I was doing this and had gotten into this habit due to listening to the soundtrack on repeat to rehearse. I was directed to cough to get the Heathers attention, I liked this delivery more as well as it is a more sarcastic approach.

- Personally, I need to go over the choreography for ‘Big Fun’ as I currently don’t know the routine as much as I would like to. I also need to keep running the routine continuously to build stamina so that I’m able to dance and sing effectively without the singing being compromised due to lack of breath from dancing. Towards the end of ‘Big Fun’ is a dance section that is staccato movements and the arm positions are angular, this means the movements needs to be sharp and held in position using muscular tension which I have mentioned in a previous post. We need to use muscular tension as this will change the dynamic of the movements and make them look more intense.

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Shine A Light/Shine A Light Reprise.

Shine A Light is my characters song where Ms. Fleming is trying to engage all of the school kids to share their fears and realise that it’s ok to talk about things such as suicide as long as it’s in a safe environment.

During the song there are some high notes that I need to be able to reach which aren’t an issue for me as I feel more comfortable singing in a higher register than I do a lower one. The song is powerful and uses qualities such as twang and belt. Whilst researching safe ways to practise belt I found a few risks in Belting technique from the book Singing and the Actor which says “women are advised to avoid belting in the pre-menstrual phase of the menstrual cycle. This is because the vocal folds tend to be oedemic (slightly swollen) at this time” (Kayes, 2000). Which suggests that using Belt around the menstrual cycle period is potentially dangerous as you are up to 100% health. This would explain why occasionally when I use belt it is more strenuous on my throat than other times. Something that I can do to aid myself in times where I’m struggling to produce a strong Belt quality is to lift my soft pallet to ensure that I have good posture. By keeping my neck long by lowering my chin to my chest is helping me to de-constrict the space at the back of my throat as “people with poor head and neck posture often have difficulty controlling their nasal port [soft pallet]” (Kayes, 2000).

I have struggled with one of the highest notes of my song as the director wants me to slide into the note which I find really strenuous. To make this easier for me I can change to using Twang quality instead of Belting which would be less effort and still allow me to retain the dramatic high points which are needed 

This song is a chance for me to have fun with my character and explore how far I can push the craziness of her, I believe we see more of Ms. Fleming’s personality in this song so I’m working on bringing that out.

Shine A Light Reprise.

Shine A Light Reprise is a short song in which we act as the voices in Heather McNamara’s head, it is a manic song completed with vocals and choreography provided by the ensemble. We use sharp movements to show the difference in dynamic from the previous song Sine A Light and to add intensity to the movements as this is a stressful and painful time for McNamara who is about to attempt to commit suicide.

The routine makes use of choreographic devices such as repetition which means it’s important for us to deliver the same energy of the choreography the first time we performed it as it is the third time. We shouldn’t see any lack of energy by the time we have finished the repetition section, a way to increase stamina so that we don’t get tired easily is through repetition of the choreography. This enables us to build our movement memory so that the body is used to how the choreography should feel when it is performed correctly and to build our stamina.

Towards the end of the song we have choreographed simple movements to the words to create more depth and meaning to them which are:

“if everyone committed suicide, would you?” - which we move and turn away from McNamara to isolate her

“probably...” we walk away and leave her on stage with Veronica.

Visually this looks really effective as it sets a different intention behind dancing for the sake of dancing and moving with intention.

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Blue.

Blue is a number that now involves the entire cast of the show vocally and physically and is set at a graveyard as Kurt, Ram, Heather Duke and Heather McNamara have come to visit Heather Chandlers grave. They are all heavily drinking and things start to escalate to groping and grabbing, to put an end to it Heather McNamara calls Veronica to save them and nominates Veronica to be date raped instead of the two Heathers.

Blue is an extremely characterised song in which we can use Acting Through Song to tell the horrific storyline in a more comedic and entertaining manner. The harmonies for this song are simple and were really easy to grasp, the difficult part was that we were learning the harmonies from the original broadway track and then we moved to our backing track which is in a higher key due to one of the jocks being played by a girl. Due to this, some of the harmonies didn’t fit the first time we ran the song and the harmonies ended up going higher than what we had learnt. Gillyanne Kayes says that “Twang may be used in crossing the gear changes in both directions, and it is especially helpful in blending the vocal registers” (Kayes, 2000), which means that we can use Twang quality in order for us to reach the higher notes and not draw attention to the gear changers that will happen from singing in chest register to singing in falsetto. Using Twang will enforce the sound so that we can create a fuller sound in a higher register without the volume that would be created from a lower register being compromised 

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Me Inside of Me.

Me Inside of Me is an ensemble number that takes place after Heather Chandler is murdered by JD and Veronica and they are forging a suicide note in order to not be found responsible. As this song is about suicide it is vital that we execute it well so to not offend any audience member but also to portray the storyline across well as this is where we truly see Veronica and JD committing an evil act.

Various characters appear throughout the song and we are able to see different characters opinion on the situation which includes the cops, the principle and my character Ms. Fleming. From this point on, the show and themes intensify with more death and horror to come.

As I wasn’t given any direction on how to act in this scene I decided to experiment with different approaches. I first decided that I would take the suicide note very seriously and try to portray the importance of the effect that suicide can have on people. I did this by showing the principle that she needed to take this more seriously by recognising the event and not trying to continue as if nothing had happened. I didn’t like the outcome of this, as Ms. Fleming is an ex hippie teacher I feel that she would be more passionate about the well-being of others and how this has effected them.

I then decided to deliver the lines “our children are dying” more dramatically and almost shouting to make everyone around me listen followed by “I say we get everyone into the cafeteria and just talk and feel together”, I decided to emphasis “talk and feel together” whilst using big gestures with my hands. After I delivered the lines this way I got a laugh out of my director which was a good sign that what I was doing was right and I was finding the comedy in my character without trying to force it to happen.

I want to show Ms. Fleming as a character who is kind and caring but goes about it the wrong way sometimes - this can be showcased by Ms. Fleming taking the suicide note and making copies of it to show to the other students so that they can try to understand Heather Chandlers pain. This isn’t something a teacher would do in actual life as passing a suicide note to every student is an inappropriate and dangerous thing to do as you could trigger someone with suicidal thoughts.

As this is the first time we see my character for a long period of time, I need to be conscious of what I’m doing on stage and that it is clear enough for the audience to understand. I’m actively working on different mannerisms to ensure that Ms. Fleming can still be recognised as a teacher with an authority figure but also communicate across her free no care hippe attitude.

Physically wise, I’m allowing my shoulders to roll forward to show a more slouchy and relaxed posture. I’ll occasionally place my hands on my hips with a popped leg to show my laid back nature. I’ll be wearing Dr. Martens for the show which will allow me to feel more grounded as they’re a heavy shoe and I want to move around the stage in a slow and casual manner. I plan to bring my Dr. Martens in for rehearsals from now on so that I can feel more in character and try to embody Ms. Fleming more.

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Ensemble number - Big Fun.

Big Fun is an ensemble number that is set at a party in Ram’s house that includes all of the cast, similar to the opening number Beautiful it follows the students around and contains scenes that give us more context within the number. In Big Fun it appears that everyone is able to get along with each other and no one is purposely trying to harm one another, including the Heathers.

Character choices.

When the song begins I wanted to enter as childish and chaotically as possible to show the difference between my on edge character in Beautiful and my more carefree and intoxicated character in Big Fun. During Big Fun my ensemble character interacts with everyone else, including the jocks who in previous scenes my character has been cautious of. In a setting that isn’t a school environment I decided that I wanted to show my character being able to become more relaxed as the situation that Big Fun is set in is a mutual one where no one holds the power. My character challenges this by approaching the Heathers and makes a sexual suggestive move towards Heather Chandler, who in a normal situation my character would stay clear of, but in this alcohol influenced and carefree atmosphere isn’t scared of approaching someone who is of a higher social status than they are.

Choreography.

The choreography in Big Fun is repetitive and uses muscular tension to make the movements really sharp and effective. According to Spine-Health “Muscle tension refers to the condition in which muscles of the body remain semi-contracted for an extended period” (Spine-health, 2019). Although muscular tension is often related to causing pain in the body, we are using the tension to strengthen our muscles and make simple choreography harder for us, which over time increase strength. Greg Holdaway reports that “A trained dancer however, is working on their alignment by "pulling-up" and using conscious effort to specifically "get it right". By doing so they are increasing muscular tension throughout their body, and eventually develop a tension/alignment habit sometimes referred to as "the dancers grip” (Alexandertechnique.com, 2019). This shows that using muscular tension correctly can improve things such as posture; by ensuring your shoulders are rolled back, feet are in a parallel position, the pelvis is in a neutral position and your neck is long.

As the song and choreography is so repetitive I was struggling to remember which lyrics were the right ones to sing and what the movement was. Our director kept running the number in order to help build stamina and to help instil the choreography in everyone. The more we were running the number the more sections I was able to remember, this was because I find that repetitive is really helpful for me throughout the song I was consciously thinking of the sections that I’d previously forgotten. To ensure that I’m quicker at picking up and remembering choreography in the future I will ensure I’m spending any spare time that I have going over the routine full out instead of marking so that my body gets used to me doing the routine full out every time.

Harmonies.

The harmonies for this song are really simple and there aren’t many as the majority of the song is either solo lines, duets or the ensemble singing as unison.

As the song is set at a teenage party we want to try to communicate this through the singing, movement and acting. The dancing can have a more relaxed and drunken feel to it, for example, if someone were to do a pirouette they could then fall out of it and imitate that they’re vomiting and they’re dizzy but the vocals still need to be clean and tight. To imitate that we’re immature and unsupervised children we can use a vocal quality called twang.

What happens physically in the body when twang quality is used is “a tightened aryepiglottic sphincter with high larynx and tongue.” (Kayes, 2000). When twang is used, a nasal sound is created as the sound we make when singing is brought down through the nose. This sound can be used to imitate a child like voice as the noise made is whiney and emphasises an American accent which will help us to be more consistent accent wise.

Putting the two together.

We then sang while we performed the choreography and soon realised that this song was going to be difficult stamina wise. The song is a high energy number which needs to be consistent throughout so we need to finish the number as strong as we started.

We’ve been doing Metafit which is a high-intensity workout including a series of body-weight exercises with interval style training which is designed to keep your body burning calories long after your training session is complete. According to My Protein “The exercises are high intensity, meaning you will burn maximum calories in a short period of time” (Myprotein, 2019), as the workouts are 30 minutes long they aren’t massively time consuming which means that we can be doing them at home as well as in class.

I’ve noticed that my stamina has been improving as I’m able to sing whilst dancing easily than before which means that the metafit workouts are working.

Scene after Big Fun.

After every student being able to bond over alcohol and partying, the Heathers take control over the party to remind everyone that they may not be in school but they control any situation that they’re in. They suggest a cruel party game in which they volunteer Martha to take part not knowing the reason behind her involvement. The Heathers encourage the students to get Martha involved by chanting her name; at this point my character is sick of the unnecessary taunting and bullying Martha is subjected to and is reluctant to join in but eventually does due to the pressure of the Heathers and the fear of being bullied myself.

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Fight for me.

In the scene before Fight For Me we are finally introduced to JD who is faced with the decision of bowing down to Kurt and Ram or standing up for himself and creating conflict. JD chooses conflict and now finds himself caught in a fight with the two jocks much to Veronica’s enjoyment.

Fight For Me is a solo sung by Veronica featuring harmonies provided by the ensemble, we are all on stage in frozen positions whilst we watch this fight unfold. My character’s motivation for watching the fight happen is no one has ever stood up to the jocks before and been successful - if this new guy can defeat them then that means that anyone can stand up to them and doesn’t have to be subjected to their bullying anymore. 

Harmonies.

Unison is used frequently in this song wether that’s everyone singing the same note or everyone starts on the same note and then separates to their different harmony line. For me, one of my weaknesses is being versatile on harmony lines, if I were needed to pick my own harmony out instead of being taught it then I would only be able to find the Soprano line and not the Alto line this could be because I have always been put on the higher harmonies as I have a strong upper register and haven’t been able to practise singing a lower harmony.

As a whole cast we were all struggling with the end section of this song this is because each harmony groups starts on different notes and has different times where they begin. The Soprano line first starts on the down beat and is followed by the Alto line starting on the off-beat which was difficult because the Soprano line has three sustained notes and the Alto line has 16 upbeat notes which needed to be in time with each other otherwise the notes would clash and sound off. Whilst singing our three notes, the director wanted us to mimic the music by singing softly at the start of each note and end singing loudly; which is known as a crescendo. This was another problem we faced as the Alto line couldn’t hear when we had started our first note we had trouble with staying in time with each other.

To resolve this, our director played each harmony on the piano so that we could physically see the patterns for our harmonies and we would know when our notes moved. For me, this really helped as I’m a visual and kinesthetic learner which means that I learn best when seeing things and actively doing them. For this situation, I drew out the pattern of the harmony, which is also known as graphic notation, so that I could physically see which notes to sing, which is shown below:

                    -/ x 1                                 ----^ x 4 --------^ x 8

The numbers represent how long the note is held for, the arrows represent that the note gets higher and the slash symbol represents coming off the note quickly. The other way I can learn effectively, is if I physically do what needs to be learnt, so me practising harmonies is a great way for me to learn them. 

These two ways of learning harmonies might not work for everyone else but they work for me, it’s important to understand how you learn best as according to Inc. 65% of the population are visual learners and only 5% are kinesthetic learners (Inc.com, 2019). If you’re trying to learn harmonies by reading notes on sheet music and you’re an auditory learner this is not the best way to learn for you, an auditory learner learns best through hearing, so recording a harmony and listening back to it would be the best approach for them.

Moving on in the future, I will continue to record any harmony I am required to learn just incase I could forget it as it’s always something to refer back to. I will continue to make graphic notations as this works really well for me and practise harmonies often as repetition uses muscle memory. According to Pamelia S. Phillips muscle memory refers to your body remembering how to do a task. In singing, your voice remembers how it felt to sing a certain note or exercise so that you can recall that feeling the next time you sing the note (dummies, 2019). This is why rehearsing harmonies correctly is essential to learning, if you rehearse the incorrect harmony you’re building muscle memory for something that is wrong.

Blocking.

Once we were able to successfully sing the harmonies for Fight For Me, we then moved onto the blocking of the song. 

The blocking for the song is simple and effective when done correctly, we hold freeze frames at the start of the song whilst Veronica sings which is a moment where we can bring out the comedy aspect by making our facial expressions over the top. As the song progresses we move from the freeze frame into a slow motion section where we’re reacting to the jocks being beaten up by JD. During this my character is ecstatic that the jocks are being taught a lesson and is cheering with everyone else. At the end of the song is where we can show the difference in dynamics in the blocking as previously the singing as been sustained notes and slow motion movement. The end of the song is really exciting as we see the jocks finally be beaten, our director suggested that we go with the intention that there’s a climax and then an explosion - to imitate this, I decided that when JD is dragging the jocks around I will creep on my toes and when he lets go of them I will jump to take my energy really high in an attempt to visually create a crescendo. 

[jessiescotsonlma32]

Choral song - Candy Store.

In the musical this number is usually sang by the three Heathers alone and each one of them takes the alto, melody and soprano line. For our show, all of the female cast members will be singing a harmony line in order to support the Heathers on stage to create a fuller sound.

Our director found a vocal guide for each harmony line on YouTube and had sent them to us prior to the rehearsal so that we could familiarise ourselves with the harmony. This helped speed up the process for learning Candy Store as it meant that our director didn’t need to figure out the harmonies and then teach them to us.

As I’m a Soprano I will be following the harmony line that Heather McNamara sings as she is a Soprano. It’s really useful that these videos have been made as there is no excuse for anyone to not know their harmony line as they have been made available to a site that everyone can access. Furthermore, everyone has access to the same harmony line as the method we usually use to learn/record the harmonies is our director will sing the line and we record them on our phones - this isn’t always a reliable way of obtaining copies of your harmony as people could miss their chance to record their harmony line due to the speed that we must work at so we don’t fall behind the rehearsal schedule. 

Motivation

The Heathers are the main narrators of the song and we are supporting them vocally on stage whilst they dance. As an ensemble member in this number, it is our job to support the Heathers and react to them in the scene.

For my character, I have given myself a reason as to why I’m singing the same lyrics that the Heathers are. I’m using it as a way to remind myself of the horrible school environment and if I step out of line then they could torment me the same way they are tormenting Veronica.

[jessiescotsonlma32]

Opening number - Beautiful.

We started at the top of the show and began with learning the harmonies and blocking for the opening song, Beautiful. The song is 8 minutes long in duration and is crucial to the show as it introduces the majority of the characters and sets the scene. Veronica is used to introduce everyone and gives a brief back story behind each character, this could almost make the audience feel that it is their first day at Westerberg High School and we’re giving them a tour.

The first line the ensemble sing is “Freak! Slut! Burnout! Bug-eyes! Poser! Lard-ass!” which tells you that you’re in a high school where everyone hates each other and is simply trying to survive each day without being bullied or taunted. These insults are shouted with a fighting effort with a staccato delivery, which means they’re spoken sharply, and they match the musicality of the music behind the lyrics. There are stressed beats in the music to highlight the sharpness of the song which could be an attempt to make us feel things like anxiety, hatred and fear. 

The ensemble have a difficult job by opening up the show as we need to be able to communicate to the audience that we’re in a high school and where everyone sits regarding social status. The Heathers are at the top end of social status whereas Veronica and everyone else are fighting fighting to survive at the bottom.

Craig Mason from Theatre Folk says “A strong ensemble is the same as a strong cast – actors who play well-defined characters. Every actor in the ensemble should have an individual character” (The Theatrefolk Blog, 2019). This means that to give every character on stage depth then we need to look at every characters back story regardless of whether they’re a main role or not. By putting in the background work behind your character means “the more your ensemble creates dimension to their characters, the more alive they’ll appear on stage” (The Theatrefolk Blog, 2019).

To help me to create an ensemble character I looked at Stanisklavski’s 7 Questions which are:

Who am I?

Where am I?

What time is it?

What do I want?

Why do I want it?

How will I get what I want?

What must I overcome to get what I want? (Questions, 2019).

I have been thinking about these questions for every scene that my character is in to better understand why I’m in the scene and what I bring to it.

To make a more detailed description of our ensemble character we can also look at these list of questions: 

In the build up to the Heathers entrance, every character is frantically rushing around on stage trying to get where they’re going and be ready for when the Heathers arrive. The ensemble stand in line and create a tunnel for the three Heathers to walk through. This is a huge visual representation of how much power and control the Heathers have over the school and it shows how much every student is willing to do to be their friend. The musicality of the song changes for the Heathers entrance into a more angelic and soothing sound along with the singing qualities from the ensemble, they change from a fighting effort to an indulging effort creating more light and sustained notes.

Blocking/choreography.

Our director allowed us to create our own movement for certain sections of this song which is a rarity as it’s not very often that any cast member is asked to create something in a show due to rehearsal time constraints or the show is a repeat from a previous tour and they already have choreography that works.

At the start of the song all of the ensemble are on stage in freeze frame positions. I’m picking my nose and bent over taunting my friend that I’m going to wipe my boogies on them, I chose this position to really play up to the fact that we’re supposed to be in high school and we need to communicate across just how immature everyone is. I believe I have created a strong opening position that will communicate clearly to the audience and have followed the movement by me fighting with my friend and then running off to play tag with them. 

Before the Heathers walk on stage we have been given set choreography to be performed in a tunnel shape that is simple but really effective when done correctly. The choreography needs to be sharp and precise and is mostly arm movements, to ensure that I’m performing the choreography full out every time I can check weather I’m stretching and straightening my arm as high as possible and using muscular tension so that if someone were to try and move my arm they wouldn’t be able to. I need to ensure that my fingers are spanned out and that my posture is tall and correct. It’s very easy to occasionally have the wrong posture when you’re making a conscious effort to ensure you have good posture. Sometimes over working your spine can lead to your pelvis tilting instead of being kept in a neutral position which can be seen below.

(Swolept.com, 2019)

At the end of ‘Beautiful’ there is a small section of choreography that is used to symbolise a celebration for Veronica as being accepted into the clique of Heathers. By chance, our director tried out movement that we as a cast have previously learnt in one of our dance classes. The movement fit perfectly with the music which shows just how versatile choreography can be, our director changed the dynamic of the choreography but everything else was still the same - using choreography that we already knew saved so much time and now we are able to clean and polish movement that we are already familiar with.

Character choices.

Ensemble character:

Throughout the number I have given myself motivations so that I’m walking with a purpose everywhere I go on stage and have created a back story. In the song I’m showing a new student around the school and teaching them that if they’re going to survive, they need to be able to defend themselves and bully everyone else before they get a chance to be bullied. My character isn’t malicious to teachers or other students but can defend themselves against anyone apart from Kurt, Ram and the Heathers; as these are people that my character is cautious of. When it’s possible, my character will challenge Kurt, Ram or the Heathers if what they’re doing is unnecessarily cruel or causes harm to other students.

As I’m showing the new student around the school I’m filling them in on who to avoid and who’s nice as nobody did that for my character.

Ms. Fleming:

There is a small scene within ‘Beautiful’ where my character Ms. Fleming is introduced and interacts between Heather Chandler and Veronica. For Ms. Fleming, this is a regular occurrence of catching the Heathers late to class and receiving a poor excuse from them - this is confirmed by how quickly she doesn’t tolerate their excuse and gives them a punishment of detention for a week. 

When my character interacts with the Heathers I make sure to hold my ground and ensure that I have good posture to show that she’s not threatened by the Heathers and that just because they may have power over the students does not mean they have power over her. Ms. Fleming confirms this by issuing detention to assert her dominance over the Heathers.

[jessiescotsonlma32]

Audition day.

For our final production of Heathers I am auditioning for two characters, Veronica and Heather McNamara. As I have known about this show for a few years I already have a good understanding of the characters and the story so didn’t have the added pressure of learning an entire musical, songs, characters and scenes from scratch.

As auditions can be nerve wrecking it is essential that you do all of the work prior to the audition so that you can be as calm and confident in the audition room as possible. Writer and actor Kate Redford has her audition tips posted on Spotlight which are: 

“- Do your research; - Print your sides off to take with you; - Familiarise yourself with the lines; - Read the entire script (if it’s possible to get hold of) not just your scenes; - Plan your journey/outfit” (Spotlight.com, 2019).

As I have seen this show live and watched the Bootleg countless times I have a good understand of the storyline and characters - this then allowed me to research deeper into the characteristics of each character in order to get a better understanding of their mannerisms and personalities. I also studied the scenes that I could be asked to do in order to get a better understanding of why that character is in the scene and what their purpose is. It’s very important to find a characters motivation for a scene as this makes it more truthful to the story instead of being in a scene because you’re written into it.

To continue to build my knowledge of the characters in order to portray them effectively in the audition, I had a look at the songs we would need to sing for each character in the audition which are: Dead Girl Walking and Lifeboat. Both of these songs are written for Mezzo/Soprano’s which is an advantage for me as I’m a Soprano with a strong belt so I know I can sing these songs comfortably in my range.

Having learnt the relevant sides and songs for each character I then picked out my audition clothes (smart no branded blacks), character shoes and decided on how I was going to style my hair and makeup.

Veronica audition:

Whilst singing ‘Dead Girl Walking’, I played the character off as a child having a tantrum. I entertained the idea of Veronica singing this song because she doesn’t want to be friends with Heather Chandler anymore and because this embarrasses Heather Chandler in front of people who are scared of her. She threatens Veronica that “not even the losers will touch you now” meaning that they’re not going to be her friend because Heather Chandler said do. It’s a very childish thing to declare that Heather Chandler was going to isolate the rest of the high school (and other high schools in the area should Veronica transfer) against Veronica just because she decided she no longer wanted to be friends with someone, so the idea that Veronica is now having a tantrum about the whole situation seemed to fit.

In the song where Veronica is with JD there’s an interlude in the music where I’m not singing so I decided to draw on the comedy of the character here. To do this I got myself caught in my jacket and whilst trying to take my hair down in an attempt to be sexy as Veronica is a very awkward person. This received a good response from the panel as they laughed, the feedback I was given was to make myself more awkward at the start of the song and play to a younger age, this can be done physically by turning my feet inwards and messing with items of clothing like my sleeves to close off my body language.

Heather McNamara audition:

Whilst singing ‘Lifeboat’ I started singing the first half of the song really timidly and without much movement as this is the one time in the show where we see that the Heathers are like everybody else. Heather McNamara looses her cool, calm and collected persona and has a break down in front of her class mates and this could be an intimidating time for her as if everybody else see’s that the Heathers are just like them, they may not fear them anymore. With the second half of the song I decided that she would really loose all sense of composure and just not care about how she looks or what she’s saying and used it as a cry for help that she’s feeling really vulnerable right now. 

The feedback I was given is that I hadn’t grasped the concept of the song correctly, I was treating it as McNamara’s breaking point from a truly horrible tragedy of her best friend dying; which it was but at this point in time McNamara is having a breakdown that because her best friend died she now needs to take the public bus to school with everyone else instead of getting a ride from Heather Chandler. I had come to realise this when I looked over what happens before MacNamara sings her song which is her monologue. During the monologue she says “I feel my heart beating louder and faster, and I’m like Jesus, I’m on the frickin’ bus again ‘cause all my rides to school are dead” which then takes a much more lighter approach to the song and brings in comedic moments during the sensitive song.

I was then asked to audition for Martha, Ms Fleming and Heather Chandler and have the songs and scripts learnt for the next day, this meant that I needed to learn a lot of material in a short amount of time. I recorded the scenes on a dictaphone and listened to them on repeat as this is how I learn all of my scripts and continuously wrote out the lyrics for each song as repetition works best for me. I ensured that I didn’t stay up to late so that I was able to be fully rested for more call backs and so that my vocal health didn’t suffer as when I’m stressed I tense up my throat.

I was called in for Ms Fleming and read the lines for the bathroom scene which I delivered in an authoritative manner, I made my voice deeper than usual, spoke with a stern tone and had good posture to assert my dominance and opened up my body to show I was confident.

I later got the role of Ms Fleming, I believe that I got this role as I suite playing a character in an authoritative position and I have a strong singing voice to deliver the song ‘Shine A Light’

[jessiescotsonlma32]

Heathers the musical.

Plot:

Heathers is a musical written by Laurence O’Keefe and Kevin Murphy which is based on the 1989 movie Heathers written by Daniel Waters. The story follows Veronica Sawyer, a senior at Westerberg High who wishes to be part of The Heathers clique to make high school life slightly more bare-able. 

The Heathers (Heather McNamara, Heather Duke and the ring leader Heather Chandler) are beautiful, rich and feared by all running the school as they choose and please. Once Veronica has joined their clique, she realises that the popular life isn’t for her if it comes at the price of being cruel and bullying helpless loners. 

A new guy called Jason Dean (JD for short) enrols at the high school and Veronica finds herself being drawn towards him, he’s attractive, mysterious and a loner so Veronica can relate to him. After Veronica has an argument with Heather Chandler she accidentally poisons the leader of the clique and JD persuades Veronica to stage a suicide. The couple then take it upon themselves to rid the school of toxic people in order to make it a better place, but Veronica soon realises that JD is killing people out of hatred and is torn between being a good person and love.

Themes:

Heathers the Musical explorers dark themes in the show such as teenage suicide, sexual assault, bullying, violence in schools and sexuality. These subjects are taboo in general conversations but the show openly talks about them in songs and uses comedy to normalise and ease the audience.

Character breakdown:

Below is a quick run down of the characters I will be auditioning for, it is important to understand a characters traits and personality so that they can be accurately brought to life. Another thing that is important to keep in mind that when you are cast as a character then it is your duty to portray that character and not your interpretation.

Veronica Sawyer - 17. Burns to be both cool and kind but doesn’t yet know how to be both at the same time. Fierce sense of right and wrong, keen sense of ironic humour. Thinks she’s an old soul, but she’s still innocent enough to be blindsided by love or shocked bu cruelty. Mezzo-Soprano.

Heather McNamara - 17. Beautiful, innocent, stupid. Can be mean on command if Heather Chandler orders it, but actually quite vulnerable and fearful. Soprano.

Martha Dunnstock - 17. Nicknamed “Martha Dumptruck”, the opposite of confident and popular. Huge and beautiful soul, optimistic even in the face of rejection. Mezzo-Soprano.

Ms. Fleming - 45 to 50. Ageing hippie teacher, still yearning for the day of the Age of Aquarius reaches Ohio. Resentful of today’s entitled youth, protective of the underdogs. Despite a penchant for self-promotion, genuinely cates about the students in her charge. Soprano.