Rehearsal Portfolio

Date: 26/09/2017

For our first voice lesson, we figured out our own vocal range, which involved us figuring out at which point in both our chest and head voices which note we can get up to.  We were also asked to fill out an audit sheet, which is when you assess you’re own voice, for example, you’re range, i.e. soprano or tenor.

Audit Sheet:

Voice Research

Jazz Research

Peggy Lee

Peggy Lee (1920 – 2002) was an American jazz singer, known for her tempting tone and distinguish vocals throughout her career as an artist.

Her big break was in 1941, when she began singing in a club , where she was spotted by jazz musician Benny Goodman. A few days later, Lee had her first collaboration with Goodman, with the track ‘Elmer’s Tune’, which later on became a success, followed by ‘I Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good)’ and ‘Winter Weather’.

In my second voice lesson, we were asked to choose a jazz song to perform the following week (first verse and chorus only), and the song that I chose was a song by Peggy Lee. I chose one of her most famous tracks ‘Fever’, as its a song that I know really well, and I feel like my vocal range belonged in that song.

Personally, I thought that my version of this song was a little bit off in some parts, as jazz isn’t really my strong point, but to perform a song by Peggy Lee influenced me into looking into more jazz artists.

Musical Theatre Unit

West Side Story

West Side Story is a musical adapted from one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays Romeo and Juliet, set in modern day in New York City. The Musical was written by Stephen Sondheim, directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins and conducted by Leonard Bernstein.

Plot:

Two gangs, the Jets, lead by Riff, and the Sharks, lead by Bernardo, are at loggerheads, when they both battle it out over the control of the turf after the Sharks come to New York from Puerto Rico. The situation then takes it to the next level, when Tony, co founder of the Jets, falls in love with Bernardo’s younger sister Maria.

Photos from the 2009 Broadway Production:

  

West Side Story was first thought about in 1949, as Bernstein was always destined to write a musical based on Romeo and Juliet, previously naming it ‘East Side Story’. This version would be set during the Easter-Passover Celebrations, in the slums. Then, Bernstein met with (soon the author of ‘West Side Story’) Arthur Laurents, came up with another idea of having two gangs, who are at war with each other, one gang from the setting New York City, naming themselves Americans, and the other gang from Puerto Rico. Later this year, Sondheim was keen on writing lyrics for the piece, and rehearsals went underway for the Broadway production of West Side Story a year and a half later.

West Side Story Reflections

Week 1 (21/02/2018 – 23/02/2018)

As it was the first week back after half term, recapping some of the songs that we’d already done really did help refresh our memories, in terms of the choreography and time.  The numbers that we recapped were ‘America’, ‘Tonight (Quintet)’ and the Jets dance in ‘Dance at the Gym’.  For the rehearsals, we always use the 2009 Broadway soundtrack of West Side Story.

All of these videos were recorded a couple of weeks before half term.

When it came to recapping them this week though, both of the runs went a little bit messy, as some of us forgot parts of the choreography and there were some timing issues throughout.

Moreover, the Sharks ran over their dance and then the Jets were taught the ‘Mambo’ section.  In the show, the Sharks normally do this section, but in our version, we chose the Jets as it would look like they were taking the mickey out of the Sharks Puerto Rican culture.

 I did find the ‘Mambo’ section fairly easy at first, but when the music is played you soon realise that its got quite a fast beat to it and it was quite difficult getting  the timing correct.

When it came to the next session, we were left to our own devices, as our teacher wasn’t in due to illness.  The guys worked on ‘Gee, Officer Krupke’, which is when the Jets take the mickey out of the officer’s approach to them and mimic his personality.  In our version, the Shark lads are included as well, due to the limited guys in our class.

 Then, the girls worked on ‘I Feel Pretty’, which, again, the Jet girls, including me, were used in this number as well.  This song is about when Maria is having a girls night, and she is now all loved up, and the girls thinks Maria is acting a little bit strange.  We came up with a version, that involved Maria’s lines, from the beginning to ‘by a pretty wonderful boy!’.

 Week 2 (28/02/2018 – 02/03/2018)

This week was pretty much the same as last week.  Even though we didn’t get a lot of time this week due to the weather conditions, we were able to slightly stage some of the numbers in the theatre.

Also, we staged some of the numbers using either chairs or stools, we had the rostrer set up in the theatre for us, which have us an opportunity to play around with the staging a lot more.

Week 3 (07/02/2018 – 09/02/2018)

As it was a couple of weeks before the show, we felt like the theatre was the only space in which we could rehearse in, and this helped us to figure out where we would need to go for each of the numbers.

For ‘I Feel Pretty’, instead of having Maria sing the whole section of the song that we were going to showcase, a harmony was added and I was put with the low harmony.  I do find harmonizing quite challenging, but this gave me an opportunity to showcase my harmonisation skills.

Using different levels helped make all the songs, not just this number, more interesting to watch, as if everything was just on one level then it would look quite bland.  On the other hand, a number like ‘Dance at the Gym’ doesn’t really have to have levels, as it is set in a dance hall.

Overall, this week was about taking the numbers that we had rehearsed in the studios, and making them bigger and play around with spacing.

We also got given the order of the songs, so that we know which side we have to be on when we enter and work on transitions as well.

Week 4 (14/02/2018 – 16/02/2018)

As it was a couple of weeks before the show, we chose to rehearse the numbers in our costumes (of what we would think our characters would wear) and see what looks good and what needed to be changed.

Before rehearsing in costume, we recapped some of the numbers that some of us were unsure about, or that needed developing, and started staging all of the solos, duets and any group songs that we were unsure on (‘Something’s Coming’, ‘Maria’, ‘One Hand, One Heart’,  ‘A Boy Like That’ and ‘Jet Song’.

Jet Song

Some of the numbers that needed developing included ‘Dance at the Gym’ and ‘The Rumble’.

Week 5 (21/02/2018 – 23/02/2018), week 6 (28/02/2018 – 02/03/2018), week 7 (07/03/2018 – 09/03/2018), week 8 (14/03/2018 – 16/03/2018) and week 9 (21/03/2018 – 23/03/2018)

All of these weeks were spent on perfecting any numbers that needed a little bit of work on and on designing the set.  Furthermore, we were given the order of the show.

Order of the show:

Set:

Flats and close ups:

We also to have a few washing lines for the theatre, as we thought that as the majority of the show is set on the streets and in alleyways, seeing washing lines hanging about would perhaps transport the audience back to the 1950s, when things such as this was quite common.

Colour of the washing lines: