Kennedy Bates Performing Arts Blog

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Safety in Dance

- hair tied up so you can see facial expressions and so it does not get in your face.

- always have water so you keep hydrated.

- don’t wear any jewelry so it cannot get caught on anything you’re wearing.

- wear tight clothes so you can see all of the shapes your body is making.

- either dance in bare foot or with jazz shoes, this is because you don’t slip on the floor.

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Skills audit 2.

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Today's rehearsal

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hCzGn8hRw7Q

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Bob Fosse research

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Community Arts

Blog//Week 5&6

During week 5 and 6 we decided to add some more scenes and work on the ones we already had. The scenes we added were to do with people hiding in underground train stations to be protected from the bombs and a remberance day scene although we didn’t have time to work on this scene as we were concentrating on the other scenes more.

Working on our other scenes that we had already had run throughs of before we decided that they were a little bit too emotional for our age range which is 9-11 year olds. So instead of being dragged aways from my family during the evcuation scene we decided that i would be tricked into thinking that i would be going on holiday for a month while the war was happening so i wouldn’t get hurt but still showed the concept of how hard it was for family’s to say goodbye to their children during this time.

During this scene i had to act like a child so to show this i decided to slur my words a little and to be really mardy and fussy whenever Emily or Connor touched me as they were my mum and dad. I also swung my arms to show that i was amused by almost anything. My posture was small and slouched to show that i didn’t really care about how i looked as most children don’t, i also kept pulling my sleeves over my hands and messing around with them as i realised a lot of kids do this when they’re bored and have nothing to do. For my voice i made it a little higher pitched and tried to talk like my little sisters would and thought about what they would be like in a situaton like this.

During another scene i played quite a stupid character. This scene was when sargents were looking for more soldiers for the war (The recruitment scene). I firstly start off in the audience with Stuart as we are two people wanting to join the war, at first we are very excited to join and are eager almost jumping out of our seats, once we get shouted down me and Stuart then proceed to pick four more people out of the audience to join the war and we lead them down and tell them to copy us. When we first get into the line i bump into Stuart this is to show that anyone was allowed to join the war apart from women and it is also to create a sort of humour. Carrying on through this scene i have to be quite a loud and bubbly character that is ready to go into the war but when asked if i’m willing to die for my country my voice trembles to show that i’m scared to go into war. Further on Emily goes up to Stuart and says “Are you ready?” in which his response is “Well..No…Not really-” and before he has chance to finish his sentence i nudge him and stand on his foot which he then says “I mean yes!” which is also to create humour. Emily then goes on to talk to the children but we haven’t got as far as to know what to say to them yet. As we march off during this scene i march off in the wrong direction which is to show how clumsy i am but i march off all proud as if i know what i’m doing before turning around and chasing after the others.

Onto another scene which we have been through quite a lot last lesson and got to the point where we are quite happy with the scene is the underground bombing scene. In this scene i play Emily’s mother and in this scene i have to show concern but also show that i’m trying to stay strong for my daughters sake. This scene is quite serious but also shows some type of humour as Emily plays with her stufed tedy Mr Gummy. After Emily has done her short scene Tom, Alysia and Stuart run in for protection fom the bombs, as Tom, Alysia and Stuart are a higher class to me, Emily and Connor. To begin with Stuart starts being horrible which makes Emily scared so i have to look worried and protect Emily and Connor confronts him.

Next week i would like to improve the House rubble scene as we haven’t really looked at this scene and begin the remberance day scene. I also need to improve my walk during the evacuation scene and my voice.

FEEDBACK

Geography

Good audience participation

Good information and simple so the kids will understand

There should be more stage presence

Lewis has a fun character that kids will love

Victoria-just need to get into the character a bit more

Amanda-very confident and good at staying in character

Eevie-have a little but more energy

Christmas

Calhan try to look a little happier and be a bit more energetic

It’s good that when Calhan talks that it rhymes because that will make kids listen more

Good humour that the kids will find funny

Kennedy stay in character

Was good when Libby and Kennedy said their lines at the same time

Athena’s character is a little scary

Vikings

Liv’s character as the narrator is good because she’s informing but also making the story fun

Luke’s laugh is funny as you would’ve thought him to have a deep scary voice

Liv turn the pages of the book so it look like you’re actually telling a story

It’s good when Holly. Nathan and Sam are still doing something when Liv is talking

Luke don’t break out of character

Be ready to improvise if you forget your lines

[kenbates2729]

I agree with olivias feedback towards me telling me that I need to stay in character during performances but this is something I can work on during rehearsals.

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Community arts blog 4

In this lesson, I had turned up late due to personal reasons so in this blog I will write about what I did when I got there. In recent blogs. However, my group explained to me what I had to do and what they have done whilst I wasn’t there. I spoke about changing our idea and having a script to work on in recent blogs. In this lesson, we scripted all our performance part of our community arts project we still must run through the workshop and organise properly what we are doing. In the performance, I am the ice giant Thrym. To how that I am giant like I express a deep voice to show my intimidation and scariness. However, I think that I must work on my movement a bit more due to being to static when I’m talking and when other characters are talking. This is a problem because I feel like I’m not in character as I do this, so that is something to work on. After we performed back what we had and gave verbal feedback to each of the groups. Feedback:

Christmas Group: Age4/5

- They had good audience participation and spoke very appropriately for the age range - Good use of space an all ties there was never any space that wasn’t being used - Calhan read well and liked the way he sounded when reading - Good use of different characters played (Different personalities) - I feel like you need to add more comedy into it for example funny facial expressions or one liners

Geography group: 6/7

- They had good facts and good research done for the individual countries. - You could add more movement as they seem to be surrounded around one spot on stage - I think that Lewis tried to make the facts more fun by adding a different accent and a bit of comedy, maybe the other characters could do the same. - I feel like the performance was quite repetitive and younger children may get bored if it’s the same thing repeatedly. So maybe mix it up a bit or add things in between each country they talk about - They had audience participation and they improved the way that they speak to the audience which is a good thing as they were speaking to them a bit too young

War group: Age 9/11

- Good storyline and will defiantly get your point across - Good audience participation but requires a bit more improvement. - Emily and Connor played their characters as parents well and thy were very believable in their speech for that type of character. - I like the beginning of the piece I think it sets the scene of ww2 and puts the audience in the mood and well-spoken by Connor - Stuart try and act more to the time in your speech and body language

Vikings: age 7/9

-  Holly and Sam need to be a bit louder as they speak - Nathan needs to pick a type of voice and run with it and not change half way through. The starting voice maybe a bit too intimidating - I need to stay in character and be prepared to improvise if I forget my lines and not panic - The Narrator was well spoken and was enthusiastic

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the feedback given by Luke is very positive and reflects well on the progress that we have made as a group. as for adding in comedy we need o work on that particularly due to the children may not understanding if we out in certain jokes

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Community Arts Feedback - 11/11/16

 Geography - Ages 6-7 -All need to learn lines -Talk more directly to the audience, give eye contact -Evie - make eye contact, don’t talk too fast, don’t always speak on the same tone, try an accent, good appearance (always smiling) -Good audience interaction by getting them up and asking them questions and getting them to shout -Don’t whisper on stage -Lots of useful and relevant facts, but don’t give too much all at once -Accents, don’t use slang, speak clearly -Victoria - good costume, don’t use slang (”sumat” instead of “something”), try an accent, good eye contact and clocking of the audience, have a bigger stage presence as Cleopatra, good and useful facts (just need to learn them) -Amanda - don’t speak on the same tone (for example, go up at the end of sentences or on key facts) it will help keep them focussed, try an accent, good facts -Make lines more believable, rather than just saying them. Make them sound natural -Lewis - good accent, useful facts, good eye contact, don’t laugh at yourself on stage, don’t lose focus and laugh on stage, nice and consistent accent -All need to give more energy -All need to project more

Christmas - Ages 4-5 -I like the shushing of the audience (even though unintentionally part of the performance). Use that in the performance with the children but gently and in character before it starts -Calhan - speak much slower, learn the speech, act out some of the speech with really big gestures, move around and go up to audience members, good audience participation (asking questions), good use of rhyme -Byron - don’t laugh on stage, good voice/accent (try slightly deeper), use lots of big gestures (like on “good boys and girls”), good interaction with the elves, you know your cues and lines -Make actions much bigger, use more and bigger gestures -All need to project more -Give it some more energy -Good audience involvement by asking them questions and getting them involved, etc -Good use of referencing local city by mentioning Chesterfield, keep that -Athena - good posture and voice, good use of clocking the audience, very mischievous character (I like it), a bit creepy (something to work on), make brushing more obvious -Kennedy - don’t use natural accent, good energy, funny, good dynamics/interaction with other elf, don’t laugh on stage -Libby - good dynamics/interaction with other elf, quite comical, good eye contact with audience, good audience participation, don’t laugh on stage, try an accent -Good contrast of good and bad deeds teaches children what is good and what is bad, continue to use that in other scenes -Explore how different families celebrate Christmas (contrasting ways) -Explore your characters in more detail

Vikings - Ages 7-9 -Learn the script and lines -Olivia - good inflection of voice and engaging voice, good eye contact, speak slower, try and accent, you knew your cues and lines -Nathan - good projection, nice deep voice, always face the audience, don’t sound from Derbyshire, be careful with scaring the audience in the reveal of Freya, a good comical character -Sam - good pronunciation of Norse words, good use of tone and voice, don’t sound from Derbyshire, act more like a servant to the leader (lower posture and change voice, eg, nervous) -Good pace, it moves along quickly -Actors should engage the audience more -Luke - good characterisation, good projection, don’t sound from Derbyshire, you sound very mighty (make this even bigger) -Holly - face the audience, try an accent, use more inflection of the voice, engage and clock the audience, you know your lines and cues -Don’t block each other and always face the audience, not sidewards on too much -All need to project more -All give it some more energy

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Looking at toms feedback I need to focus on using a more child friendly way of talking when on stage as the audience that I will be preforming to are of a really young age. then this will help them to be more concentrated.

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Peer reviews

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evaluation for community arts

1. Evaluate each skill vocal, characterisation. Looking at: What was good? And why was it good using specific examples from the piece. Vocal - we all projected our voices well. This was a strength because we were in a school hall so the acoustics were not very good so we all had to make sure that our voices were louder. Our diction also had to be good. This made it easier for the children to understand what we were saying. Characterisation - we all stayed in our assigned roles throughout our performance. This helped because you could tell a clear difference between who the characters were. 2. Evaluate your professional conduct throughout the rehearsal process At first, during the rehearsal process we as a group were working quite slow and we would all jut sit around a notebook and pen and discuss our ideas. It wasn’t until the second lesson that we actually started to get on our feet and put in the rehearsal. After this week we were all more focused but still not 100% there as we were struggling because calhan was on holiday so this for us made rehearsals difficult. After calhan got back, that is when we as a group decided to completely change our idea so therefore we had to work twice as fast to try and get it done so we all put in the effort that was needed during rehearsals. 3. What could be improved? And why it needed improving using specific examples from the piece. This should link to the needs of your audience along with entertainment value. We could have improved by adding in more values of Christmas. We only used one, which was that you need to be good to receive gifts, but there are others that also could’ve been added into our piece. If the lesson of more values were added this would educate the children more. 4. If you had more time what would you do to improve these skills/moment on stage? we would have researched and looked into different values of Christmas around the world therefore teaching the children about how other countries value Christmas 5. Do you feel that you were successful in creating a community arts piece that matched the needs of your target audience and did the feedback from them reflect this.

I feel that our performance piece matched the need of our target audience because they all stayed in engaged whilst we were performing and they enjoyed our workshop activities. Then when the classes were leaving they were all very enthusiastic to thank us for coming to perform for them.

6. What feedback did you receive from your peers and the audience as a whole? Did you get the response you wanted from the performance?

Whilst we were preforming at the school for the children all of the children were really engaged which gives off the sign of them enjoying the work that we had created. Then after we had finished preforming out peers were saying how great our piece was and they also commented on how much the children enjoyed it.

7. What were your strengths of the project both rehearsals and performance?

Strengths during rehearsals: during rehearsal I would always make sure that I would show up every week so that we would never lose out on key rehearsal time. this therefore made our rehearsal process more effective because if no one was missing we could get on with our work and make swift progress.

Strengths during performance: on the day of our performance one of the members of another group wasn't here on time for their performance so our group were made to stand in and perform for the other group and that meant that we had to up our exaggeration because we would be preforming to an older audience. Then whilst we were preforming to the audience of older children they were a lot more enthusiastic and joined in more.

8. What are areas for improvement with the project both rehearsals and performance?

Improvement during rehearsals: some days during rehearsals we would all be lacking focus and would rather sit down and discuss ideas instead of actually getting up and doing the acting to reflect our ideas. This would then slow down our rehearsal process and make it more difficult to catch up.

improvement during performance: during our performance because the rehearsal space was so wide and open we struggled to hear our cues on when to come on. This then meant that we were late to come on so it would be a dead stage. If we were to have spoken louder during our performance this wouldn't have been an issue.

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proposal

What are the requirements of your client? Our client brief states that we are to educate young children about celebrations. When and where will your event take place? Our event will take place on 2 December at Brampton primary school in Chesterfield. Who are your target audience? Our target audience are children aged 4-5 years. What are the needs of your target audience? Our target audience needs to be educated on the values of celebrations. Why do you want to hold this event and what do you hope the event contributes to the community? We would like to hold this event so that we can get across to the children what it means to truly value Christmas. Who will be performing in the event? There will be me, Libby Lockwood, Athena Clarke, Byron Wright and Calhan Lee Who have you liased with on this performance? Sam our tutor emailed the questions that we had to the school and then they emailed back our answers. Do you require any special permissions for the event? No. Technical aspects to consider Who will set up the room? We do not need to set up the room because we used mainly props and no set. Who will manage the audience? The teachers who teach the classes will guide them into the hall and seat them where we ask them to. Is any equipment required such as sound system, lighting, chairs and tables? We will need to use a sound system for the sound effects that we have for when we transition on and off of the stage. How will you and your audience travel to the event? Ourselves will either be walking or getting driven to the venue and the audience will already be there as it is at a school.

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Community arts; all about me.

I have watched back footage of our entire performance and my first strength is I am good at acting very childish to portray that I am meant to be looking for the bad children. I show this by always pulling faces behind Calhan's back to show my childish side. I am also good at keeping my energy levels high. This is good because then the children will stay engaged with what my character had to say.

I will improve the way I hold myself because I need to show that I am engaged with what is going off also on stage but often I seem to fall out of character because I focus on what I have to do and when it is not my part I tend to drop out of character. Also I tend to miss my que lines sometimes because I don't stay focused and miss the lines. I will improve both of these by putting 110% focus into rehearsals and performances in the class.

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community arts blog; week 8

During the last few weeks of rehearsals we have taken into consideration all of our feedback that we have been given during the lessons and also changed quite a lot of what we had originally done. This lesson we decided too change Calhan’s character of the narrator to a reindeer and give him an accent. We also worked on our exaggeration skills and each chose scenes that we all wanted to work on.

I took on the role of director again and what we did is we did a run through of our whole piece and I would read in my lines and then I would spot things that needed changing or improving and then we would make a group decision on how we would change it or improve it.

performance skills:

movement & physical - again I improved the way that I held myself because I was looking out for the naughty things that lucy did I would need to  be the more immature elf so therefore in would blob my tongue out behind calhans back.

We did not explore any technical skill so therefore I cannot reflect upon them but the performance skills that i used where affective because I had improved from last few weeks of rehearsal.

Our action plan for the next couple of weeks is to try and book independent rehearsal so that we can have a few more run-throughs before our final performance.

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Community arts; week 4

During this session we performed what we had come up with to the whole class and kerry and then we got given feedback. From our feedback we decided that our performance was to old for our target audience. So that is when we decided to change our ideas completely and take a children’s poem and create a story around he idea of that. We decided to use the elf on the shelf poem and have a narrator to tell the story of the elf looking over the child, but instead of having one elf we decided to have 2 and have one elf look over the good things that the child did and an elf to look over the bad things that she did. We then sorted out who was going to play what role and I played the elf that watched over the bad things (Brandy), Libby was the elf that watched over the good things (Ginger), Athena played the child (Lucy), byron played Santa and Calhan played the narrator. 

During these rehearsals I mainly took on the role of a director and directed the scenes that we worked on as a group. What we would do is all contribute ideas and then i would try to merge them all together and make them work to then direct the together.

Performance skills:

movement/physical - to show that i played an elf i had to exaggerate all of my actions to show that i was excited about christmas. Then to show that i was the elf who looked out for the naughty things that “Lucy” did i would start to blob my tongue out to show that i am cheeky and childish.

vocal - I decided that because we were performing to children that I would speak a lot slower so that they would understand what i was saying better and also that my pronunciation of words would be better because then this also would make it easier for them to understand.

We didn’t use and technical skills this lesson so therefore i cannot reflect on them but my performance skills for this lesson were effective because it helped me to understand that i have to adapt the way I move and talk to help it easier for the children to interpret.

My plan for the next few lessons is to start to work on the sound effects and where they fit into our piece to make the transitions a lot easier.

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Community Arts Rehearsals

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Risk Assessment For Community Arts

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- [x] Agendas - [ ] Blogs 2,3,4,6,8 - week 4; today. Week 6; today. Week 8; today - [ ] Peer assessment libby - today - [ ] Reflection of peer assessment - tomorrow after tutorial - [ ] All about me - tomorrow after tutorial - [x] Risk assessment - [ ] Proposal - Wednesday at college - [ ] Evaluation - Thursday afternoon at home