We know we want our piece to be about music, and so we came up with the idea of 'music through the years'. In one of our lessons, we brainstormed ideas. (Photos below)
We also had the idea of maybe working on something like this video.
In our next lesson, Louise and I created a small piece of choreography that goes to the song 'Baggy Trousers' by Madness. As much as I enjoyed creating it, I'm not sure if the other two will like it.
It hasn't been helpful that not all of our group have been in for our rehearsals. During this rehearsal we also tried to pick out other songs that we might use in our piece.
Today, it was only Louise and I again, and so we decided to create more content. We created a part that would run into each other. The songs we used are as followed:
Can Can
Barbara Ann
Twist and Shout
Get On Up
Baggy Trousers
For the Can Can song, we began slowly and by humming it, each time someone joins in we would speed up and get louder. For Barbara Ann, we turned to the side and began a sort of 'Jersey Boys' routine, and then we went into Twist and Shout by twisting. At this point Louise sits at the top of the bench and for Get On Up we did a sort of chair duet and then we transferred into out Baggy Trousers routine.
We were working with Gruff Theatre company this week and once we'd shown them the parts we had created and they gave us some feedback:
Create an introduction
Make it more of a chair duet
Be spatially aware
Use the bench in more ways
Think about costumes
Show time more
How do the songs link to Croydon?
From this feedback we began to work on our piece more. We created an introduction that used the square in front of the bench. The idea was that it was meant to be a clock and every time one of us were facing our audience, we would say a fact about Croydon from that year. I didn't really like this, but we wanted to take on their feedback, but when we showed it to them later in the session, they said that it didn't flow with the rest of the piece and it was better without it. I felt that today we got a lot done even if not all of our group was here.
Tuesday 22nd April: Today we finally had all our group, and so we were able to go through the whole piece adding in every section. Again we were working with Gruff Theatre. This was a very productive rehearsal as we finished our piece and we got to refine it and polish it.
Here is our song list:
Can Can
Barbara Ann
Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy
Twist and Shout
Get On Up
Baggy Trousers
If You Wanna Be My Lover
Can Can
We added in a Spice Girl's song because we needed something that was more recent and then we decided to go back into the Can Can because it made a full circle, like a clock. We also used Gruff's feedback, who said to think about maybe being like mannequins, and so we begin and end 'asleep'.
The rest of the class had the chance to watch our piece and here is some of their feedback:
They understood what we were trying to put across
Everyone knows/has heard of the songs
Good song choices
We are aware of our audience and of the passers by
Good use of the space that we had
Members of the public were watching us, and so we must have been entertaining and engaging
All feedback was positive
For costumes, we have decided that two of us will be in all black, signifying how there is no music and entertainment in Croydon anymore, and two of us will be in multi-coloured tops, to show how it used to be.
Today was a very successful rehearsal as we finally had everyone in our group and we were able to finish our piece and get it to a good standard.
Monday 28th: Today was our final rehearsal and due to some complaints, we had to move out chosen site to a bench positioned outside of Clas Olhson, but we adjusted well, however this new area now doesn't connect to our idea of music throughout time, as we are not opposite the watch shop. We kept running through our piece to get it to a good and high standard. We also added one more song, Happy. We wanted to be have a song that is very current and that everyone will know, and we liked the irony of how we are singing a song about being happy however our faces show something totally different. We then went through all the songs to decide what the feeling was for each.
- Can can: happy/creepy
- Barbara Ann: happy
- Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy: happy
- Twist and Shout: happy turning a bit to 'what' am I doing at the end
- Get On Up: forced to make these movements but we don't want to but still smiling
- Baggy Trousers: rushed and forced
- If You Wanna Be My Lover: anxious
- Happy: force unpleasant smile with a 'help me face'
By deciding this, it makes it easier for the audience to understand what we are trying to communicate. We also decided that we are now all going to be in black, and paint our faces white with red lips to look more like dolls.
We also worked on the ending poem. My group decided to incorporate sign language into our piece as none of the other groups were doing this, which makes ours more inclusive. We also use repetition to make it more interesting and we walk around the room to use more of the space and we interact with the audience.
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