As if I want to be thinking about this months afterwards.
Four pages and a long time later, I've completed one of my assigned tasks for the day. Please read it and tell me whether I'm being too stuck up and know-it-all-y. It's so hard to tell.
Anything Goes
Performance Skills Evaluation
Pre-production (audition process)
The audition process was not a good one for me. In fact, you might say it was one of my worst auditions ever, and definitely my worst ever audition for a musical. Basically, I was of the sure impression that my experience and hard-worked networking in the area would get me through. Unfortunately I was dead wrong. I forgot the very first line, my throat was dry so my range was limited and it turned out that I’d been networking the wrong people all these years. I was prepared, perhaps a little too prepared, and confident, but I wasn’t quite treating the audition as a performance in itself, which I think was probably a crucial factor in the total failure of that audition. When I found that my role was that of an ‘SS America Glee Club Member’, well, that may have just been the most disappointing three seconds of my life. I was assured that the role was better than being just in the chorus, but wasn’t truly convinced since the Glee Club had apparently just sprung up out of thin air in order to accommodate extra cast members. Still, I decided to give it a bloody good go, since at that point there really isn’t much else you can do. Make the role your own and so forth. Still, you know that feeling when you just feel like you’re wasted? I had that. I’d come so far, landing major roles on both stage and screen and now, in what could well be the last school musical I ever take part in, I’m stuck with a part like this. Oh well, I thought. It’ll come together.
Making and Shaping (rehearsal)
For the first…. oh, term and a half of the production process, the Glee Club still didn’t know what they were supposed to do. We seemed to be a part of the chorus, who, when asked, could say ‘oh, I’m not in the Chorus, I’m in the Glee Club’, which seemed pretty pointless, really. On top of this, the rehearsal process was incredibly frustrating for most concerned. I think it was less hard on the people who hadn’t really taken part in a show before. I basically felt like I was doing nothing for hours on end, which during the early rehearsals was all too painfully true. It’s impossible to do work in the same room where other people are rehearsing, as well.
I don’t want to sound like a stuck-up little git, either, but the dancing and the music was sort of easy for me. I know it wasn’t for everybody, but I have had a few years training in that area and it made the whole thing incredibly dull. It also really frustrates me when people can’t grasp basic harmony - at my theatre group we learn music far harder than that without any written notes at all, all from memory. I’m not criticizing anyone else, just saying that it was harder for me to cope with a total lack of challenges at a really slow pace.
There wasn’t much communication between the production team and the cast. They really should have asked less people to come to each rehearsal, or hold separate rehearsals at the same time, or something. It’s hard to enjoy the process when you’re giving up your time to sit and watch. I don’t think many people really got that it’s supposed to be enjoyable, either. Make it fun, especially with little kids, and you get better results. Yelling at them and pushing them around isn’t going to help.
Production (Tech and Dress rehearsals)
This is where it really all started to come together for me. The costume was an enormous help. When I was wearing it I could stand somewhere alone and really immerse myself in the character. It also really helped that the Glee Club started to understand what they were doing, even if it was only a couple of extra numbers. Another things was that the director asked me to take part in the background dancing of the “All Through the Night” song. I asked Ali Rowe, playing one of the Bonnie’s girls, to dance with me, and through this we established a ‘backstage’ relationship between our characters, Andrew and Ali. I even wrote a short story to help me work with that in mind and add it to my performance. It got to the point where I felt compelled to salute whenever I walked past Nick (the captain). There was a day when I sat backstage and thought ‘jeez, this kid’s really taking me over and he’s not even in the script…’ Poor Andrew. Still, he really helped me through the last bit of the production process. A few other chorus members followed our example by establishing links with other members of the cast to their characters, and I think it was a benefit to everyone.
Changes to the Role
Andrew really moved up in the world from the start of the rehearsal process. It was easy to adapt to changes because he didn’t exist before, so I could mould him to my liking. The poor lad was only seventeen, and he left home to earn a living out at sea, only to meet Ali on board. Unfortunately, she’s all too wrapped up in what’s going on among the cast that she hardly notices him until Billy’s in jail and she can turn her attention to less interesting people, like Andrew. Enough about that, though. I had to adapt to a few things - I had to change costumes in a fairly short amount of time, for example, because I had to be female for the Heaven Hop number. How I was to change was altered several times and I really had to be in charge of it because the production team was rather more worried about more important things. I started off with my own leotard and borrowing trousers from someone else, so I asked Sarah Quek and we would run down to the changing room after De-Lovely to swap trousers. Then it turned out there was a leotard missing, so I had give mine up to someone else and me and Sarah were swapping entire costumes. Then Sarah came down with something on the second night and went home, so I had an entire change of clothes to myself. It was kind of a personal dilemma that got more complicated with each added factor. It was easier when I had my own leotard because I could wear it under the sailor’s costume, though when I lost that I still wore tights and the correctly shaped underwear under the rest of it. People underestimate how much time can be saved by wearing layers. I had to switch to alto during Heaven Hop, as well, because the Bonnie’s girls needed a bit more volume so they stuck my voice onto their part. It was still pretty easy to adapt to that, though, because when you’re a chorus member and someone asks you to do something different it feels great. It’s nice to not be just part of the crowd anymore, and definitely suitable motivation.
Self-challenges
My goal with this production was to really put my character across in performance, even if no one noticed. The whole thing would have been a lot easier if I’d found him earlier. It’s supposed to harder to connect with your character if he doesn’t have lines, as well, but I really didn’t find that, it just took a lot longer. The other goal was to get through the performance without giving up or getting fired, and I was pretty close to just walking out a couple of times, as well. I guess I managed that all right, but it was definitely one of the hardest productions I’ve ever put myself through, and for all the wrong reasons. I wish it had been more challenging for me, but you can’t have everything, I suppose.
My Contribution
I think my experience was my main contribution here. It was great that people felt they could ask me about things - especially on the music side of things. I was also, as were many of the older students, expected to act as role model for the younger cast members. Their enthusiasm really depressed me, but sometimes it’s easy to give them a nudge in the right direction and it gives you the feeling you’ve fixed something, even if it wasn’t noticeable before. I also joined in when we were going through the dances for those that hadn’t quite caught onto it before. That was sort of fun, too. I honestly think that if you make something enjoyable it’s better for everyone involved. That was more towards my ‘can’t beat them, so join them’ stage at the end of the production, though. I wasn’t much help for the first few months. I should have won the prize for least-enthusiastic in the cast, not someone you want to have around. Next time I’ll have to bury that somewhere, because you also have to enjoy something for yourself before you can pass that on to other people.
Independence and Initiative
I had a bit more independence that I think I would have liked, in this case. The dancing with Ali was awesome - we totally got to do our own thing, and we even had a real routine towards the end, including ‘kissing’ of hands and looking out towards the moon (or at least, I was pretending it was the moon, we never really discussed it. It could have been a shooting star or something, I suppose). The costume issue was something else that I was very much on my own with, in terms of how I was going to get changed.
Collaboration
The chorus had to wait outside before entering through the side doors, and a certain amount of decorum was expected… this was pretty hard to achieve, and I and a couple of others from my year level were the key people in keeping it calm and reasonably quiet out there. I’ll be the first to argue that my attitude left something to be desired, at the beginning but I don’t think I disadvantaged anyone regardless. I came on time to rehearsal even when year elevens were given the morning off.
Time and Work Management
I managed to get through the whole process without any completely sleepless nights, and all my work was in on time. It definitely wasn’t easy though, and I’m not even sure how I did it. It has something to do with priority management - if an assignment can be left until tomorrow, leave it until tomorrow, don’t try to get ahead. It also has to do with evaluating which teachers are likely to give you extra time for which projects, something I grew remarkably good at during Anything Goes. I’d probably make a bigger effort to get more work done during rehearsals, next time. It’s hard to concentrate, but badly-done work can be touched up in the evening, as opposed to having to write the whole thing out without at least any notes or anything.
Skill Level
I think the thing Anything Goes really improved for me was my ability to immerse myself in a character. I’ve never really done it so strongly before as with Andrew, despite his lack of existance in the script. I learned something from that, for sure, but the production didn’t enhance any musical or dance skills for me, at all. My strengths still lie in music and singing, but where my weakness used to be the acting portion of my own personal triple threat, I now feel like its my attitude problem that needs to be worked on. I felt left out when people were enjoying themselves and I wasn’t, and I’m determined to discovering the secret to that and utilising it in the future.