WWRY

Today we received our casting for our upcoming musical 'We Will Rock You'. I will be playing 'Killer Queen' who is the evil character of the musical who is taking over planet mall with only computer programmed music and banning all live music and instrument playing.

I am really excited about this part as it is unlike any part I have ever played before, and unlike anything I have ever thought I could play. The character is very strong, independent and incredible firey. She knows what she wants and will do everything to get it.

I think I will have to look at some videos on You Tube of the production before I decide how to play this character as it is really important for me to get this right as it is easy to shy away from big, bulshy parts which will affect the show quite drastically as the audience wouldn't believe the character and her position of power.

Today I looked at some video clips of people who have played Killer queen on the west end. There were a few varieties of people playing the part;

Some where very over the top, and dramatic, and very much playing up to the comedy side of the show, which I found a little uncomfortable to watch.

There were others who were very solemn like and manipulative rather than screaming and shouting, which I quite liked as it seemed more sinister and, to me, much more believable.

I think that I will attempt to play the part more like the second description as I think that from an audience perspective, a less rowdy evil leader, is much more believable and therefore, more enjoyable to watch.

Elle is going to be playing Commander Khashoggi and I am very excited as we both have some ideas about where to go with our characters relationships, so that we can get the most out of our parts. Also, Elle is an amazing dancer and will be able to choreograph our songs really nicely.

Elle and I also worked together last year in Cabaret and really enjoyed working together. We put in loads of time for extra rehearsals and fine tuned every part of our scenes until they were something that we were incredibly proud of. So I am really glad that we are working together again this year as I know we can do a really great job.

I have been looking at some ideas for costumes. I have decided to look at something similar to what the actor wears on the West End, because I think it is very fitting to the character and suits the personality and style of the show. I looked at a long cheetah print coat, with shiny leggings, a corset and maybe some big army boots. I think that this will look great as it's kind of rocky and if I add some personalisation, could look quite futuristic, which will suit the show.

Today, we began our rehearsals by splitting into groups and creating speed runs of 'We Will Rock You'. We did this to get a bit familiar with the show and the layout of the script. We started by reading through the script quickly in our groups, and picking out key information to then build up a brief summary of the play within short scenes.

This was a really helpful task as we were able to understand key information about the script and learn basic information about the storyline before jumping straight into blocking. It was also great because we watched each others performances, and some groups had picked up other bits of the storyline that we had missed out or not classed as important, which were really worth taking note of.

Today we sat in our separate casts and began a table read of the script. This was so that we could get more familiarised with our scripts and to help us begin to learn our lines. It also started to get ideas floating around in our heads about things such as blocking, costume, characterisation, etc. I'm really glad we did the read through today as it was a great way to ease us into rehearsals and a much more interesting way for us to read the scripts as it was much better listening to others reading their parts and also as we were playing with pitch and accents which was funny as well as helpful to our characters and the show itself.

Today, we started blocking scenes 1 to 8. The opposite cast began up to scene 3. We had to watch them very closely so that we could mirror their blocking for our cast, and they did the same when it was the other way round. This is good as we all get a chance to input ideas and have a look at the stage picture that we will be a part of so that we can contribute ideas. Also, having the same blocking for both casts means that we can all work together in private rehearsalas and also means that if, for any reason, another cast member was unable to do the show or one of the performances, the opposite cast member could fill in for them. Hopefully this will not happen but we will be prepared if it does.

I was really happy with our first rehearsal as everyone was really into in and there was a great energy. It was also great watching our show slowly be put on it's feet. It was nice to kick off the rehearsals with this positivity as we are all in a really good place for moving on with the show and having a really great time.

Despite lots of our cast members having seen the show and contributing idea from what they have seen on the West End, we are really interested in making the show a reflection of our ideas as well, as a lot of people in the cast have some really great ideas about blocking and dances etc, so we are going to take some influences from the west end production but also make sure that we put in a lot of our own input to. We'll enjoy it more if we see our ideas coming to life and that will make for a much better performance as the audience will be able to see that we are enjoying ourselves, and rehearsals will be much more fulfilling and productive which can only be positive for our performances.

At the moment, my characterisation could really do with some work, however it is quite early in the rehearsal process. I have begun with an American accent which I have picked up from the west end production. I think that the accent is important as It is a contrast of Khashoggi's strong English accent, and sets Killer Queen apart from Khashoggi. Also, I think that in some ways, and American accent can sound more evil and menacing in this situation than an English accent. I think I need to focus a lot more on body language and posture so that my character is more believable. I think that I should have good posture, and broaden my shoulders to represent power, I also think that my steps should be wide whilst walking to look as though I'm “owning” the area in which I'm walking as it looks very powerful and controlling which Killer Queen is.

Today I found out That Elle, Mel and Dylan have been assigned to choreograph the dance numbers in the show as their production roles. I am really excited about this as I know that they are going to do a really great job with the routines.

The rest of the cast also chose their production roles for the show. I chose to be a part of marketing as I think that it will be great to get involved with the creation of the Program, Tickets and posters for the show. Amy, Danielle and I have split up the tasks. Amy is taking on the program, Danielle will be creating the posters and I am assigned to Tickets. Whilst we have these specific tasks, we have decided that all of us should feel free to contribute to the other areas of our production roles so that we can get the most out of our tasks and our ideas.

Today's lesson was interrupted by dance exams which mean tthat we were unable to use the studio. Instead we worked on production roles, learnt lines and worked in small groupd on our blocking. This was actually quite a good use of our time as we had a lesson to go over blocking and making changes that we wouldn't have been able to do otherwise as we would have been moving on with other scenes. Elle and I discussed some ideas about our scenes and dances. For example; We discussed how we would use levels as much as possible depending on the stage set up, to show levels of power and things. We also decided that Elle would appear very weak in our scenes together but very powerful when not in scenes with me. This would show how she is lower in the power spectrum but gets very ballsy when in the secondary position.

Today's lesson again was about production roles. We really focussed on sensible plans for completing our tasks. In my production group, we set deadlines for first drafts so that we could see what each other had come up with and find out what we needed to tweak in order to make sure we had the best marketing tools possible so that we got a good audience for our shows.

In today's lesson we were not in the Drama studio, and won't be until after half term. However we have a large classroom space to work in which is okay for now.

We used today's lesson to go over our blocked scenes, which was helpful as we are then able to imprint sequences and movement patterns into our heads better, as well as help us to learn lines by matching lines with movement.

Also, a few of our cast members were not able to take part in our rehearsals today as they were helping the year 12's with their production of 'Grease', so the rest of us had to work around the people who were missing. This was lucky that we had a double cast as we were still able to continue with the blocking of the show, and the opposite cast would have to explain to the others what they had to do.

We worked on the heartbreak hotel scene where the bohemians had been 'zombiefied' and ended up by the '7 seas of Rye'. As I was in the opposite cast for this scene, I was playing a bohemian. We mostly worked on what the bohemians would be doing in the background, as the Gallileo and Scaramouch dialogue is reactive to what they see of the bohemians. So we were acting very 'dopey' and not toally aware of what's going on around us, whilst also still functioning and drinking and socialising with each other. However, we decided not to move around too much so that the audience were not distracted from Scaramouche and Gallileo as their dialogue is very important. This part of the show is the turning point in the show to where the bohemians, along with Gallileo and Scaramouche, begin to triumph over Killer Queen and Khashoggi by discovering Rock.

I think that today's rehearsal was really productive. This scene is one of the longest in the play and one which contains all cast members and is therefore quite challenging so it was important for us to begin this early on as we were aware that it would need a lot of choreographing and focus.

Today, we spent our short lesson of the week (1 hour), setting up the stage blocks for the show. Elle, Grace, Lauren and Myself spent most of our time building and making decisions about the Killer Queen side of the staging as that is the part that we would be using most. We made sure that there were lost of levels and nice symmetry. This was more challenging than we thought as we had to take costume into consideration as Lauren and Elle would be wearing Character shoes so had to be carfeful of the height of the stageblocks so that they weren't in danger of falling over, as well as me and Grace also. We also put a ramp in the centre of our staging to almost connect the two stages so that Khashoggi could be part of the other stage when necessary.

Overall, I am really happy with the staging as it is perfect for all of our ideas and will be really great for dance numbers. This has made me even more excited about the show as I can see it all beginning to take form.

Today's lesson was a speed run of the show, using stage blocks so that we could get comfortable with the new layout of our show and to make any changes necessary based on the new staging. We, again, used our process of one group being blocked, whilst the other cast took notes and had to them complete the same blocking based on what they had taken notes on.

This was really helpful as it was important for us to get used to the stage as quickly as possible so that we can move on with advancing with the show.

During today's lesson, The main focus was choreography. The focus in the dances were not any of the ones that I was in, today, so I decided to sit and learn my lines. I ran them with Lauren as she was playing Khashoggi in the other cast. Elle was helping Sam with choreography with the year 12's so she was not available for running lines until later on.

This was a helpful use of our time as learning our lines is, obviously, a really vital part of the rehearsal process. Now that I am more comfortable with my lines, I will be able to focus more on characterisation and movement which will help make for a much better and more believable performance.

Once again, today's lesson was based around choreorgraphy. Once again I ran lines so that I coujld get much more comfortable with them.

During today's rehearsal, we noticed some issues with our staging. Elle, Lauren, Grace and I were not keen on the ramp that we had decided to put up as it was risky to walk on with heels, and so decided to take it down and replace it for stage blocks that lowered on the last step so that we still had the connection with the other stage, but was much more comfortable and safe to walk on. This meant that entrances and exits could be much smoother and less life threatening!

Also, Elle and I recorded the bikini wax scenes with Megan. Elle was miming her lines behind the camera and signalling when she was done so that she could not be heard on camera and so that she had the right timing when the video was played to the audience, as Elle was speaking live whereas my lines were recorded. However, we had to do this scene again, as I had not learnt my lines for this particular scene as I kept thinking that I didn't need to as it was recorded, forgetting that I would need to know the lines for the recording! I tried it by reading the lines off of the script being held behind the camera, however it was very obvious that I was reading the lines, so we organised to record again the next week, so that I could learn the lines. I also spoke to Megan about a different approach to Elle's lines, as I was struggling with noticing her signal when she was done. I suggested that we used headphones plugged into our phones and calling eachother from different rooms. This way I could react to Elle's lines and she could still get the timing right without being heard on the camera.

Also, Elle taught the year 12's the choreography and then worked on my part of the choreography. This was so much fun and I really love the choreography that Elle has made up. Despite some Year 12's not being at the rehearsal, the dance still looked great and was really effective, so I am really excited to see how it turns out in costume with everyone there.

Some of the lighting was being set today too, which was exciting. We were able to run some scenes and work on a bit of blocking whilst also helping with the lighting for our scenes which was great as not only did we get in some more rehearsal time, but we were also able to have some input on the lighting for our stage.

Today was our last rehearsal before Show day! We did not have a run through until 4 O'clock so I decided to take some time to work on last minute songs and blocking tweaks. Elle and I spent a lot of time re-working our duet. 'It's a kind of Magic', as it was really important for us to get it perfect. I also decided to work on 'Another one Bites the Dust' with Elle as I was really nervous about this song because it's quite a big number and important within the storyline. We went over these songs a few times and made some last minute changes. We left the rehearsal feeling quite confident with our changes.

Based on today's rehearsal, I am really confident that this show is going to be a great success and an amazing way to end our year together. I am really proud of everyone's commitment the show and the effort people have put in and am really looking forward to performing to the audience.

After each show we sat down as a class and received notes from Rachel. The majority of the feedback was really great. However, I felt a little worried that I had not received many notes on my performances, as I would've liked to know what I could've done better as I never felt completely content with my performances, but I guess I can take it as good news that I didn't receive much feedback.

Context of We Will Rock You:

We Will Rock You is a show based in the future about a time where real music has been replaced by computer prgrammed tracks. There are 'Gaga Kids' who conform to the rules of Killer Queen and are completely in sync and not at all origional, and then there are the bohemians who have spent their lives searching for Rock Music (though they unsure of exactly of what they are looking for). I think that it is a reflection of the change of music in the charts now compared to what was once in the charts when bands such as 'Queen' were number 1.

Cultural and Historical Context:

This show was written by Ben Elton and brought to the stage in 2002. This was a when singers such as Shakira and Atomic Kitten were in the charts with their, less than original music and covers of previous icons. I think that this played a big part in the creation of this show as the Icons mentioned within the play were named as heroes against the music that was being created by 'Global Soft'.