Making a musical 20: The Showcase!

So, it finally happened.
After 9 long weeks (well, it felt long), we finally performed our 'masterpiece' to room full of people.
Was it perfect? Did it go off without a hitch? Hahaha! We wish.
But did we have fun? HELLS YEAH!

Okay, so, we knew there were going to be problems right from the start. Firstly, the left speaker kept blowing, so the music was very muffled for the start. Then, the microphone wasn't on, so people were trying to sing over the music, which wasn't the easiest thing to do. And if that wasn't enough, the disc skipped! Arghhh!
Imagine - mid dance routine, and the disc skips... what does one do? We were all so confused.
But we just picked up and carried on. But the disc did skip about 3 times during the whole thing. lol.
Oh, and wait, on top of ALL that, I (yes... ME) started singing a part too early. And some people joined me... and that was a shambles! lol.

But luckily most of this all happened really early in the first song, and the rest of the show was pretty much awesome (shambles again during "You can't stop the beat", but I thought that recovery was pretty cool!).
Also, I THINK my solo's went down quite well, and I'm very pleased about that :)

Behold the fruits of my labour!

So, where does that leave me? Well, I am now the proud recipient of a certificate outlining my achievement in completing the 10 week course; however I am also free of a Monday night :(
Yes, once again the fear of a dance-less existence has overcome me. I'm going to be doing intermediate musical theatre in October, but between now till then, I wasn't planning on doing anything... however, the very thought of no dance classes for 5 months makes me very sad indeed...

So (haha, you knew this was coming), I MAY enrol for beginners street dance (as you remember, it's my favourite type of dance) which starts on the 22nd of July for 6 weeks.
That will take me up until September, and I will then try to control my dance urges until October (it's only one month... we'll see... haha).

So now the decision I have to make is do I enrol in street or not??

Making a musical 19: The three-hour extravaganza

Yes, last night's musical theatre class was extended to three hours as next Monday is our showcase, and with so much still left to learn and to fine-tune, I was seriously worried we wouldn't be ready.

We still had four pieces from Les Mis to work through, three of them we had no idea what we were doing - and we kept forgetting the words for the other one (well, I did anyway! lol); not to mention the mega 8 minute long Joseph and Hairspray songs!

Without wasting too much time, we went through a lightning fast vocal warm-up and then straight into the lyrics for Hairspray (which I now more or less know... well, I should considering we're performing it next week!).
After that, we did the vocals for the Les Mis songs, and then to the dancing! Oh the dancing :D

A full run-through of the Les Mis pieces actually went quite well. Simply because there wasn't really any dancing, and it was just a case of remembering the lyrics (which I STILL can't do when moving about).
And then we did a run-through of Hairspray. Well, we cut it up first, and went through each section slowly, which was a great help as we were able to fine tune some moves, and change others that were proving too difficult (although I was upset that this little ballet type move got taken out, as I worked really hard to perfecting that, lol). In the end, we actually managed to do it - and then the curtains came across.

So basically what happened was this: Mark (the instructor) pulled the curtains over the mirror so we couldn't see what we were doing. Now, this is vital to any performance, because in a dance studio, you become very comfortable looking in the mirror, and that way, you can always keep an eye on everyone else to make sure you're doing the right thing.
But with the mirror gone (as it would be on stage), you have to start getting into the mindset of actually performing as an individual, but in a group. You can't really look to anyone else for cues, and you also have to think about looking at the audience.
Personally, I am very lucky in this respect, and I'll tell you why.
When I did beginners dance, the room was small, and I always used to find myself on the far left hand side, where the door was, so I could never look at the mirror.
So, my dance education began not looking in a mirror, and now, when faced with a mirror, I don't really bother looking. I try to keep my eyes high as I would on stage (fire-exit level as Mark would say).
But of course, not everyone had had this experience, and so there were ample gasps of fear as the curtains were pulled across.

After Hairspray we ran through the entire show, and I forgot all my solo parts for Joseph which was not exactly great, but I smiled the whole time despite singing the wrong words at the wrong times! lol.
During the Hairspray song in the final run I also managed to get a duet for the role of Edna which was great, because it was a role I was thinking of auditioning for before, but felt I ought to give someone else a chance to take a lead. lol.

So, all in all I can say this: After the 3 hours, I was amazed at how incredibly we'd come together as a class. Some of us had never danced before, others had never sung, and yet together we were simply AWESOME!
I personally can't WAIT for next week's showcase, and if you fancy coming along, please do as it's FREE! haha.

It's next Monday (29th June 2009) at the Old Finsbury Town Hall (AKA Urdang Academy) on Rosebury Avenue, and it starts at 8.
Hope to see you there :)

Making a musical 18: Jamaican accents and the first song!

Huzzah!
I finally got my singing solo part, and it's one of the ones that I really wanted.
Alas, the Elvis solo in the Joseph megamix was denied to me, however I managed to get my second favourite singing part which I actually have to put on a Jamaican accent for... I think I pulled it off quite well.
Either way, I got the part, so I'm happy :D

We advanced in our dancing, however, we're still only working on two songs, and we have to do about 5!! With only 3 more weeks left!!! How will we manage?
I have faith though, so it's okay.

In other news, I spoke to my dance instructor (Mark) about my musical. I figured that since the article about me was now published, it was only a matter of time before he found out what I was up to. Anyway, I ran my idea by him, and he seemed to think it was worth doing.
We both got really excited about musical related things, and since, I've had no end of inspiration.

Having now got the entire story down on paper, words started flowing through my mind, and I started writing lyrics on the bus this morning. I'm actually very happy with them. I showed them to a couple of people, and I got laughter and approval, so I think I'm on the right path to success :D

It's only a matter of time now before it's all completed. Once done, I'll run it by City Academy, and then see what they can do for me in terms of putting it on stage!

An article... but not by me!!

Hey everyone.
It's not normal for me to do this, but I've just had an article written about me by City Academy (the dance studio I attend), and I have been asked to share it with you all... so here it is:

http://cityacademyuk.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/musicalmo/

Please do read :)
Thank you

Making a musical 17: Accidents and writing a play

My apologies for not updating this blog on Tuesday (my usual day for updating the musical blog), but I wanted to write about other nonsense, leaving this one till later.

So, Monday at musical theatre was... interesting to say the least. We learnt the rest of the Hairspray routine, which took up over an hour of the class, and it was AWESOME.
So much fun. There was a slight problem however...

I had a really sore shoulder. Like you know when you sleep funny, and then all day it feels like it needs to click, but doesn't? It was just like that.
So, as we were all getting into our positions at the start of the class, I was stretching my arm - like gently swinging it around.
Next thing I knew, my hand hit something! I turned to see this poor girl holding her face!!!
Her eye was totally red and I was devastated. I couldn't believe I just whacked someone in the eye! How embarrassing. lol... and poor her too, of course.
I apologised so much; but for the rest of the class, I couldn't look at her. And she was standing right next to me. I was so scared of hitting her again :S

If that wasn't enough, about 10 minutes later, we had a jump choreographed into the dance, where we jump and reach for the ceiling. Little did I know there were stage lights right above me. I jumped, and hit my hand really hard into the metal casing of this stage light; and the entire light rig shook. Imagine if it had fell.
I took about 10 steps away from everyone and carried on... lol.
That was a somewhat eventful class.

But, moving on. I am about to start the stage play for the musical, and it's weird, because I've never written for the stage before. The layout and style is completely different to a film script; but it's all pretty exciting.
I've got the whole story line more or less figured out; and the characters too. I honestly can't wait to get this draft done. The thing that will take the longest time is the music - but I'm going to write all they lyrics first, and then work on making catchy music later.

Oooooooh the excitement :D