5/03/15 -7/03/25 Week 1: This week was the start of our rehearsal process for our Final Major Project, which is Footloose the musical! On the 5th of March we got our cast list, this was a very emotional day for me, as I didn’t get the part i hoped for. I got an ensemble character and I was very disappointed because I had auditioned for the main role, Ariel. I did let my disappointment get the best of me on this day, this musical means a lot to me and for the longest time I have wanted to play the main role, so when i found out that i got the character i did it was very emotional and I broke down. It really set my mood for the whole day and I was very upset, I felt like it was a reflection of how bad I am at acting, singing and dancing. I felt like I needed to sit out for the rest of the day, because I didn’t feel like I was good enough and I was bringing everyone down. But after a couple hours I eventually calmed down and joined in with learning the opening number. I now realise that in future I should not let the roles I get bother me that much, as it’s not very professional and it’s only going to be so much worse in the actual industry. I really wanted to just go home and feel sorry for myself this day but I stayed in college and fought through the day and i was very proud of myself and I felt like I really accomplished something, so I am very glad I eventually calmed down and joined in.
Overall for week one:
It was a tough week for me personally, because I cared about the role I got too much. I was annoyed at myself and my tutors, but I soon realised that it’s nobody’s fault but my own and I clearly just was not strong enough in my auditions. I now realise that in future I need to be grateful that I got a role and not let it bother me, and just get on with the show. I should just enjoy the rehearsal process and definitely have a stronger mindset for cast list weeks!
My targets that I have set myself for the rest of this project are:
To not let my emotions take over and dampen my ability to perform to my full potential.
To research my character and portray it to the best of my abilities and make it my own.
To make sure that I enjoy the rest of the rehearsal process and show that I enjoy what i’m doing when i’m performing.
video-20250307-152122-522e708b.mov
This is the start of our opening dance ^
12/03/25- 14/03/25 Week 2:
This week, we worked on the opening number some more! We started to work on the dialogue in the dance, the Chicago friends are played by me, Thomas F, Martin M and Robert F. There is a little part just after the chorus where we have a little conversation with Ren about him moving to Bomont! I was really happy to have been given the chance to play this role and be a part of this little dialogue. We had to make sure that our characteristics where being shown, throughout the dance and also in the little dialogue, which was pretty difficult, as it’s difficult to carry a characteristic into a dance. But I would say that we did pretty well at it and we picked up the dance very fast, we also managed to get the blend into the dialogue very quick too!
Overall for week 2: I think that my focus was amazing this week, I think that I did very well at just knuckling down and getting on with it. My focus levels did drop and some points throughout the days of this week, but I quickly realised that I was not focused and I was just messing around and then i corrected myself and got back into focus! I think that this week was definitely better than last, as I was mentally there and I joined in every lesson! I was very proud of myself for getting over the casting and moving on! So far I am really enjoying the rehearsal process, despite not getting the character I wanted so I realise that this industry is still fun no matter what character you have!
My targets for next week: Wear all black clothing, focus at all times of the lessons! Make sure that I don’t let my other classmates distract me from doing what I need to do.
To research my character some more and make sure that my characteristics make sense and match the characters as well as having my own!!
The video was cut short but at the end we did do the dialogue!
19/03/25-21/03/25 week 3:
On Wednesday we couldn’t do dance as we had to attend ambition hub at 12.30pm, so we took this time to do a production meeting and talk about what peoples plans are for their own production role.Production roles are Dance warm up, vocal warm ups and acting warm ups. in vocals we learnt the three part harmony in the opening number where there is three different songs signing over one another. This was really challening because at first we couldn’t get it and people didn’t know what they was really singing. Annabelle and Charlottle led a physical warm up and then Annabelle took the lead and did some corner work. After the warm up Jess took me, Thomas, martin,Rob and Cody and added some movement after the short lib so we wasn’t just stood on stage dancing by ourselves. After we did this we did the full dance and Jess then decided some parts of the dance needed tweaking. In are acting session we did this thing where you say what you doing and basically you’d go in the middle then someone would step forward and say what you doing and for example the say been a cat so then the person who stepped forward then has to act like a dog. After the acting warm up Thomas and Tyler led a vocal warm up and they was just doing a basic video where they was humming, lip rolls etc. Then me and Annabelle took the dance/ physical warm up which was just some basic stretches etc. After all the warm ups got completed Annabelle and Steph finished all of act one blocking and just cleaned a few scenes up, hopefully in the coming weeks we are just doing full runs of act 1 and then block act 2 later on after we had some full runs of act 1.
week 4 26th-28th march 2025
Wednesday- Today in dance Charlotte and Annabellle led a physical warm up then after the physical warm up was finished Annabelle and Isabelle led some corner work then they started to finish some dance of i cant stand still this song is mainly focusing on Ren which is played by Cody but he interacts with everyone on stage such as the nerds, gangsters,teachers and the four girls. This all happens in the school hallway while Ren is dancing away . Us as the teachers we don’t really understand we he is trying to vibe with teachers as we cant do dance like him so we end up messing the dance up and i fall and Thomas catches me.
Thursday- we start of with Eric and he was teaching us the opening number to get the harmony’s right before we move to the next song. in dance Annabelle and Isabelle led corner work and a physical warm up before we cracked on to some dance. The dance we did today was still rockin which is the opening number to act 2 which includeds all the cowboys/cowgirls Ren, Ariel, Rusty and Willard. This dance is incredible its such a good song lots of bouncy movements could be added to this Isabelle taught everyone this dance and i found it easy to learn with Isabelle Rather then Jess but i feel like its just different way they both teach us. In acting me and Annabelle took the physical warm up and we did a ten mintues worth of stretching and we threw some cardio in as a surprise for everyone. After this we ran through all the dances with what we have learnt until break. after break we did a full run of act one too see what people remembered and to see what needed fixing or slightly changing. After the run through we got given some feedback given and it was just more about energy and smile more while on stage and look like you want to be there.
Friday- We had are weekly scrapbook session i took this time to look through the script and start looking for peoples costume ideas to help them with an option. In the afternoon we had a run through of act one and went through all the dances with energy.
week 5 – 2nd till 4th April 2025
Wednesday- we had our weekly Wednesday session with Jess and we was doing dances Charlotte led the physical warm up but she seemed like she rushed it because personally i didn’t feel like we was warm enough so while people did corner work i had to stretch more to make it feel like i was ready. Jess, Isabelle and Annabelle all sat at the front of the room writing notes down and if that dance was not decent enough they would stop it and make us do it again with a lot more energy and making sure people was doing the moves with full extent and not doing it like they don’t wan’t to be here. In the afternoon we had 1 hour and half to go through songs or scenes what people don’t understand or wasn’t 100% sure on.
Thursday- eric worked on solo songs this week so i was sat looking at costumes as I don’t have a solo song in the show.
in dance charlotte led a 5 minute warm up which was long enough for a warm up they need to be at least 10 mins max. after the warm up we did some corner work which was kicks, turns, etc. After the warm up was done we ran through heaven help the man I’m free to make sure we all knew the timings go it all. Jess and Isabelle gave us some feedback on how we can improve in every dance not just one.
EASTER HALF TERM ( 2 WEEKS OFF )
Over half term we had some tasks set buy the vocal team to learn Still Rockin’ and I’m free heaven help me and the finale.
week 6 23rd-25th April.
Wednesday- We had a physical warm up led by Annabellè, Isabelle and Myself before we ran through all the dances of the show, the reason is because we had two week off so we had to make sure everyone knew what they was doing in the show in dance wise
Thursday- in vocal Eric ran through I’m free heaven help me, this was a challenging thing because some people could hold notes and some couldn’t but that was a task to do over half term set by the vocal team which is Thomas, Tyler H and Maggie but people didn’t learn it so Eric had the pleasure to get everyone knowing the song.
in dance we was touching up still rockin making sure the moves were strong and making sure are faces were smiley and not looking like we didn’t want to be there.
Friday- In the afternoon we was doing a run through of act 2 to see how it flowed. This was challenging as people knew what they was doing and some people had not been in lesson so they had to catch up which was not fair on everyone who has been in and learnt everything in act 2.
week 7-
Wednesday- In the mornings dance lesson, me and charlotte led a physical warmup before we started dancing, I made sure that everybody was stretched enough and warmed up to prevent injury. Then we finished the ‘let’s hear it for the boy’ dance, we started by going over what we had already learnt just for a recap. Not many people remembered the dance which really annoyed me because we kept having to go backwards instead of moving on, this caused me to not really want to dance because I just wanted to finish the dance as we are running out of time yet people were still not willing to go home and practice the dances. Isabelle lead this whole day because she had choreographed the dances and I think she did really well with making sure that everybody was up to date and knew what they were doing. I think that next time we have a dance session I need to not let everybody else slacking get to me and affect my hard work.
In the afternoon session we went over every dance in the show, which helped us see where everybody was at and it also helped us to see who actually went home and learnt the dances and worked hard. Those who didn’t know what they were doing was told to go home and actually do something productive so that we didn’t have to keep moving backwards.
Thursday- In the morning session, we had Eric for our vocal lesson. In this session we went over the song that most people were struggling with which was ‘still rocking’ first, we did also go over the finale song too. The majority of people did not know this song and there were only a handful of people that had gone home and learned it, me being one of those people. Eric’s session was very stressful this morning because everybody was getting very agitated with the people who did not learn the song, as the vocal production team set it as a task for everybody to go home and learn it. Still rocking is the opening number for act 2 so it has to big and we have to put energy into the dancing as well as the singing, people should know this song like the back of their hand by now but they still don’t and it’s very irritating.
After Eric’s session we had dance with Jess, in this lesson Isabelle led a physical warmup to make sure we were all ready to dance. Then we moved onto going over what we learned yesterday in ‘Let’s hear it for the boy’ and we also added some little cheesy musical theatre jazz moves. This lesson everybody worked hard and seemed to know what they were doing which was an amazing feeling after the stress we had yesterday with it.
With Steph in the afternoon, she blocked some of the scenes from act 2 which I wasn’t in. I could have definitely used this time wisely and got on with some course work but instead I did just sit and talk which was not the smartest of choices. Next time I’m not needed in the scenes we are going through I definitely need to make sure I am using my time wisely.
Friday- This morning we had scrapbook as usual but instead of finishing at 12:30 we decided to finish scrapbook at 11:00, have a little break and then move to B25 and do a full run of act 1. After lunch we did a full run of the show with head mics for the first time. I would say that it went pretty well, we did have a couple of technical issues but we worked around them and did really well for our first full run with mics!
Week 8- 7th- 9th may 2025:
Wednesday- We decided to start at 09:30am instead of 11:00am however, not many people actually showed up because they didn’t read teams. I did not make it for 09:30 due to some personal reasons but I did try my best to make it before 11am which I did. Due to only a few people showing up we couldn’t really do much so we ran some songs with the people that showed up and we also ran through some dances until everybody else came at 11am. When we had a full class Isabelle took charge and did a physical warmup and then got straight into watching us do a full run, she was taking notes and making sure everybody was smiling because most people looked like they were being forced to be in our show. She started to pin people out as we were dancing and singing which was very helpful because once they got called out, they actually started to look like they wanted to be there.
In the afternoons session we did more a less the same thing but we just ran the songs and dancing, but Isabelle started to let the people who were doing a good job sit down, by the time there were only a couple people left they did not know what they were doing.. They didn’t know the dances even after MONTHS of learning and going over them, they also did not know the words to the songs again after MONTHS of learning them. In every dance we ran I was one of the first people called out for doing a good job and I was very proud of myself. Once we had finished all the dances Isabelle decided to give everybody a speech about how important it is to be learning the dances and songs on your own as well as in college, she also told everyone that it’s not fair on everyone else who is doing a good job and working hard. Which I completely agree with.
Thursday- In Eric’s session we made him watch a full run of the show, but we did have to do this in B41 which didn’t really work as well because the space is a lot smaller and it was a lot harder to fit everybody in the space to do dances. We did very well though considering that we have a very big class and we were in such a small space, Eric gave us some tips on how not to get so out of breath whilst singing and dancing at the same time. He also gave us some feedback for our group as a whole which was to look more enthusiastic and look more lively when we are on stage, he then gave some feedback to those who have solos.
After Eric’s session we decided to clear up B25 a little bit, so we cleaned out backstage and moved all the props and set into tidy spaces so it was easier to bring them out on stage and also to prevent anybody from injuring themselves.
In the afternoon session, we did a full run of the show with costumes, props and lighting. I would say that the full run went really well, there were a few technical issues which we worked around but we still managed to do a really well job considering. There were some issues with people changing costumes and not being able to get changed in time, which is understandable but we all tried our best to help our peers with changing if they needed it whenever we could. But overall I think we did really well as a group in this full run. I think I should definitely work on my energy levels throughout the show because I noticed that when we got to act 2 my energy levels had definitely gotten a lot lower. So I need to work on that for next time!
Week 9- 14th-16th may- Show week!!!
This week as a whole was very nerve racking as I knew that I had my math GCSE and then straight after we had our 2pm show. College wouldn’t let us in the building until everybody was finished with their exam which was around 1;50pm, so we had to postpone the show by a little to make sure that we had time to get ready for it. I was very nervous for the show as my best friend and her mum were coming, as well as all my college friends but once i got on stage I was completely fine!!
performance day!!
Due to majority of our class having a maths GCSE, we didn’t have much time to prepare for the 2pm rehearsal as we weren’t allowed to enter the college building until around 1:50pm which meant we had to postpone the open rehearsal by about 20/30 minutes.
open rehearsal: 2pm- In the 2pm rehearsal I thought that I had very good energy throughout! In the opening number, I really thought I brought the energy to whole number even when running on! We had an issue with people standing at the back when we were running on through the crowd so we almost didn’t get to the front on time but I just carried on as i usually would and made sure to give all I could. The next scene I was in was ‘I can’t stand still’, Which I played in a teacher in, I think that in this scene the teacher role that I played could have been taken like I was being serious. I was trying to be serious but it wasn’t portrayed like I was so I was very disappointed with my acting in that scene but it all came together very nicely with the telling students off for being outside lesson and then feeling a groove for the music and breaking the law a little bit. It was a very good progression piece, my character fell over when she first tried to dance because of the law that reverend Shaw put in place. The next scene was the Burger Blast scene, which I played a waitress in, I didn’t really do much in this scene other than take peoples orders which was easy enough as I have experienced waitressing jobs! I took their orders and then when things in the front of the scene started to get heated I pretended to apologise on behalf of the diner which I thought was a realistic move. I could have definitely dragged it out a bit more because at one point we were stood there just watching the argument happen, so I felt like I should have taken a bit longer with acting like a waitress. In the gym scene, I thought that my character was very good and stood out in this scene. I thought that my interaction with the other people on stage was very good and it added quite a bit to the number! I could have definitely danced a little more full out but I was crammed into the curtain for the dance part which made it very awkward to dance, it did annoy me a little bit because I saw how much room others had and they just decided to leave me dancing with the curtain, which wasn’t cool.
Act 2: Still rocking- I definitely slayed this dance number! It was my favourite dance out of all of them, that type of line dancing/ jazz is definitely my strongest style of dance so I don’t really have anything negative to say about this dance.
Let’s hear it for the boy- I would say the same again for this dance, it was one of my favourites and I really put my all into it. I don’t really have anything negative to say, I thought that me and Thomas had really good partnership in this dance and I thought that we had a lot of chemistry as partners which really showed throughout the whole dance.
The town hall- For this scene it was mainly just supporting Ren in the background of this scene and being sad when the reverend/ town council says no to rethinking the law. I thought that I did show really good emotion in this scene, I just told myself to imagine that dancing was actually banned and we were actually in the scene, because dancing is my favourite thing in the world so it really helped to bring my emotion out.
The finale- By the time we did the finale I was just so relived that we were more a less done with the first show. I just let loose and had a good time on stage which was very fitting for this dance, so I definitely did the right thing. I made sure that the audience saw that I was having a good time!
6pm show- Overall in the 6pm show our performance was not the best, the 2pm show was so much better than the 6pm. So many things went wrong that affected our performance, people were not as strong as they were in the first show, a lot of the reasoning for this was:
- set being brought on at the wrong time or just not being brought on at all.
- People being nervous about their family and friends being in the audience.
- Curtains being opened and closed at the wrong times.
- Backdrops being put on stage upside down.
- Mics crackling and screeching.
- people being late on stage.
- A student falling over twice.
So as a whole performance we had a lot of things that affected our performance abilities, I thought that the 2pm show was a lot better than the 6pm on which I was very disappointed by, I expected the last show to go a lot better but due to technical and set problems. All of these problems definitely affected our motivation for this show which was not the greatest, but we worked through these issues and I thought we did a very good job at still powering through and getting on with it. I think for our next show, we need to not let the issues and our nerves get to us as much as it did. But as a group overall, I think we worked really well together and I’m very proud of us! Our progress throughout this whole project was amazing to see.