My college page.
Short Term Target
My short term target is for me to improve on acting through song. This involves changing my entire character and way of singing based on the character I am trying to portray, instead of singing as me.
I chose this because I have a few solo lines in the musical theatre performance of Freaks in the Halloween shows, so therefore I need to improve my ability to act through song.
I plan to achieve this by increasing/defining my movements and using up the stage, whilst making the audience still think I am in the character. I can also do this by changing my tone/ accent depending on the character. I am going to research people who have played the role before, on YouTube, and then take parts from the performances to create my own version of the character. I am going to specifically look at the mannerisms, voice, costume and the interaction with the other characters/audience. I also need to do research on the musical that the show is originally from, so I can get more clarity of the characters personality. researching both of these things would help me understand how to act/dress like the a ring master which would help with the acting part of acting through song, and the research of the voice will help with how to sing like the ring master.
Our musical theatre tutor told me to make a "NYEH" sound. This is to make a horrid sound to go with the horrid characters that we have created for the song "Freaks". The facial movement that goes with the "NYEH" sound is scrunching up the face/ pulling an "ugly" face. This helps with singing the song in the character of a "monster", which I have to for the beginning and the end of the song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No5UFBIeLSM -- I looked at this and took the mannerisms of the Ringmaster.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ri64vKXKKfE -- this I took some parts of my costume from.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqOVwerKS0c&index=2&list=UU4FrN3EI4u9k-LpzEG-0luA -- this is my final performance. In comparison to when I started, I have managed to stay in character throughout the whole performance, even when it wasn't my time to sing and I also think I managed to interact with the other characters on stage effectively. This is shown most noticeably when the cannibal is on the centre of the stage and I'm having a "conversation" with Rhys' character. I believe my accent was pretty accurate for the character, but I think, in the future with the "and we don't harbour fakes" I could speak it quieter and get closer to the audience to make it more effective.
I did not know the song or the show it is from when it was first given to us in class, this meant I was a blank canvas. this meant that when I sang it for the first time there was no characterisation. This is why I chose my short term target to be on this, as I could develop it a lot easier. I steadily progressed with the development of my character over time, because of an amalgamation of my own research and help from my MD.
list of technical terminology that I used for the character
Diction: because my character was very over-exaggerated my voice was very loud and clear, because my character made the words elongated and pronounced each vowel sound, so my voice could still be heard even through the accent.
Blocking: This happened a few times, for example, before going to my solo, when singing the chorus, I move from downstage centre to centre stage, and the 'freaks' surround the visitor, and the other two ringmasters, then i step back into upstage centre and start my solo. also after the solo I move to upstage right, and continue the song from there.
Direct Audience Address: I used this by singing directly to the audience for my solo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfYdMFymtVM -- I need to learn the lyrics. I also need to make eye contact with the audience, (in this case the camera) and I need to do bigger, more characteristic expressions, and to change my voice to sound like the ringmaster.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNu4ZFnFWis&feature=youtu.be -- I need to make my gestures much bigger, I also need to work on my diction and the ringmasters accent. I also need to get a costume together for the ringmaster character.