We started with a title and an interesting brainstorming tool. Everyone was supposed to come in with an idea of something they wanted to go in our brief history. We got a range of ideas, everything from MGM movie musicals, to modern England, to backwards movement, to courtship through the ages. We then spent the day breaking into groups to discuss these ideas. Over the course of the next week we decided that we would use the seven ages of man speech by Shakespeare. You know the one 'All the worlds a stage...' etc. We would have sections for each of the ages.
To start off we came up with a list of possible songs to use to fit these original ideas, then our instructors brought in music for us to work on in small groups. We were a bit confused by some of the choices they brought in. Very few of their list had anything to do with the list we had all come up with together. From there we all brought in scenes and some folks got started writing new material to go into the show.
As the piece has progressed tensions have run quite high. Everyone is stressing about this piece. People were worried because we didn't have a structure, or they were unhappy with the music choices, or we weren't sure which pieces we were using and which were being cut. All valid concerns, but most of the tension came from the fact we didn't have instant results. No one was willing to trust the process, which is slow, but will eventually come together.
Add to that the lack of communication between the different instructors and you get a big mess. I think our main problem throughout this whole process has been a lack of communication. There is a rather big disconnect and stuff gets lost or twisted in the shuffle. Everyone has a very different idea the kind of piece we are working on. To be honest it has been really frustrating. Both the disorganization and the stress. Everyone needs to chill out, but also people have got to work on their communication skills.
I think however that things are finally coming together. We have a basic running order of the program, and now we just clean and fine tune. There is still quite a lot that is up in the air. We have more material than we can use at the moment so we will have to cut a bit of that. We also need to start blocking everything and working on how we transition from one piece to the next. I think this is where it is going to start to get interesting though. The movement/staging stuff is all being handled by one of our teachers and I think he has some really great ideas. I think we are going to have some really neat things in this show if we get our act together.
I really just want everyone to take a deep breath as we move into this next week (myself included) and really buckle down and get some work done. We have over a week until we perform, which is quite a lot of time if we use our rehearsals well. So key words for this next week are calm and focused.
On a totally side note we finally got our evaluations from last term. I am quite pleased with some of the comments. My favorites were from my acting teacher: Katie is
getting better and better every time I see her. She can be quite bold
if pushed. And from the assistant course leader: There is
sophisticated work ahead that one can look forward to from Kate. Add to that the fact that I got a 1st, and overall I am quite pleased. There are still things I need to work on. I spent a lot of the term working on my lower range and belt, which has come quite a long way, but it means I haven't brought in as much music for my higher register. I want to remind them that I am actually a high soprano. I know I also need to start working on some more 'serious' acting. I tend to gravitate towards the comedic, and even when I bring in a serious piece the teachers have me play the comedic side to it. So I just need to find a balance to all of this. I don't want to get pigeonholed in any one 'type'. I feel my first term at grad school went pretty well considering.
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