Bibliography

Borntosingmusic.com. (2013). Singing Vocal Exercises: Why Are They Important?. [online] Available at: http://borntosingmusic.com/singing-vocal-exercises/ [Accessed 18 Oct. 2017].

Danceadvantage.net. (2009). Activating Your Core in an Abdominal Curl, or "Crunch". [online] Available at: http://www.danceadvantage.net/activating-your-core/ [Accessed 20 Dec. 2017].

Hagen, E. (n.d.). ARTSEDGE: How to Sing in an Ensemble. [online] Artsedge.kennedy-center.org. Available at: https://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/students/features/making-art/singing-in-an-ensemble [Accessed 19 Dec. 2017].

Heathfield, S. (2017). 10 Tips to Improve Teamwork in Your Office. [online] The Balance. Available at: https://www.thebalance.com/tips-for-better-teamwork-1919225 [Accessed 21 Dec. 2017].

Lawyer, C. (n.d.). The Importance of Good Posture. [online] Muscle & Fitness. Available at: https://www.muscleandfitness.com/muscle-fitness-hers/hers-athletes-celebrities/importance-good-posture [Accessed 20 Dec. 2017].

Sheth, S. and Gould, S. (2017). 5 charts show how much more men make than women. [online] Business Insider. Available at: http://uk.businessinsider.com/gender-wage-pay-gap-charts-2017-3/#the-gender-wage-gap-varies-widely-depending-on-the-state-1 [Accessed 16 Oct. 2017].

Taylor, K. (n.d.). Singing with Emotion - Ask A Vocal Coach. [online] Ask A Vocal Coach. Available at: http://www.askavocalcoach.com/articles/singing-with-emotion/ [Accessed 20 Dec. 2017].

Thehealthydancer.blogspot.co.uk. (2012). Working With Hyperextended Knees. [online] Available at: http://thehealthydancer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/working-with-hyperextended-knees.html [Accessed 19 Dec. 2017].

Vocalzone. (2016). The Teacher's Secret Weapon: The Method You Never Got Told To End Vocal Strain Forever - Vocalzone. [online] Available at: https://www.vocalzone.com/the-record-blog/v-team-vocal-care/teachers-secret-weapon-method-never-got-told-end-vocal-strain-forever/ [Accessed 20 Dec. 2017].

Evaluation

Yesterday was the final performance of our innovative production 9 to 5. 

During our tech rehearsal we ran into a few problems. The first one was a traffic issue between mine and Cameron’s exit, during the opening number and the First years entrance. There is a lot of people trying to enter the stage at once and some of them, especially at the back, couldn't get to their places in time. We ha to fix thi by making sure me and Cameron run straight until we reach the very back of the stage before turning to go off. We also ran closely side by side, giving them as much room to enter the stage as we could. Performing on stage is a team effort and everyone must work together to create a strong professional show. ‘Team members must have an overall mission that is agreed upon and that provides the umbrella for all that the team tries to do.’ (Heathfield, 2017).

Secondly the majority of our scenes were set too far back on the stage, because of this the meaning and intentions of the scene were being lost. To solve this problem we moved all of the scenes downstage, because of this change we had to make sure to preempt what was happening next. For example in ‘Here For You’ Connor has to crawl on the floor in front of me, so I had to set the scene slightly upstage on my line ‘Let's get back to that letter’ giving him the room he needed to pass in front of me.

The performance itself had a few minor issues but on a whole it ran quite smoothly although I believe it could have been better. The first issue that we encountered was mics. During Backwoods Barbie the harmonies on the chorus were not getting picked up, despite the ensemble crowding as lose to the stage as possible. Also while I was performing my blocking I move quite close to the speakers. During rehearsals this wasn’t a problem but in the actual show I could hear a lot of feedback while I was walking towards them. I tried to fix this by stepping away from the speakers while staying in character although it didn’t completely solve the issue. If I was to perform this again I would be mindful of this problem and perhaps set the scene further upstage so while performing my blocking I wouldn't be too close to the speakers.

The next major issue was the running time of the show. Possibly due to nerves we sped through the first half, managing to shorten it from an hour to 50 minutes. Due to this a lot of the comedic timing was lost and we as a cast noticed that the audience were not reacting the way we thought they would. This is probably due to the audience missing the jokes because we were rushing. I think we remedied this in the second act by taking a breather and making sure not to peed up throughout the scene. A the venue is a little bit echoy it’ important for us to take our time and to pronounce our words carefully. This could be a contributor to the audiences reaction because they might have simply missed what was being said.

I believe personally this term and the role of Doralee have helped me to grow a lot as a performer. I’ve learned the importance of being focused and I believe I have gained the drive and determination that will help me when I graduate. It will be important for me to carry the mannerisms and techniques that I have learned this term into next term so that my standard of work will improve again.

Vocal Techniques

Doralee is a strong no fuss woman, and therefore while singing her songs I try to steer away from using my ‘head voice’ too much as this creates quite a sweet sound the wouldn’t be true to her character. The only time I use my falsetto is during the end of Backwoods Barbie, I do this to show the audience that she is feeling vulnerable and upset. ‘In order to be successful, we have to make ourselves vulnerable in a way that shows people how we really feel.’ (Taylor, n.d.).

The majority of Doralee’s songs are high in my vocal range, thusly making it difficult to reach the notes without straining or using my ‘head voice’. To combat this I’ve been mainly using the ‘Twang’ quality, this not only allows me to hit the notes with a more resonant sound but it also helps me a lot with doing a southern american accent. 

AES narrowing is a vocal technique used to create more resonance without having to push or strain. ‘The AES is the two bunches of muscle that sit on the top of the folds, connecting them to the epiglottis’ (Vocalzone, 2016). AES narrowing occurs when using the ‘Twang’ quality. The AES muscles tighten, lifting the Epiglottis, creating a brighter sound. Some of the vocal exercises we do in class to practise this technique are ‘Nyeh’ sounds and also holding a note while changing the muscles inside, playing with the different sounds we create. Similarly we also hold a note using twang quality practising it with and without AES Narrowing and hearing the difference.

Posture

The video above shows my posture being adjusted. ‘Sitting and standing with proper postural alignment will allow one to work more efficiently with less fatigue and strain on your body's ligaments and muscles.’ (Lawyer, n.d.).

The first point mentioned is my quad muscles working too hard. I have noticed this issue during class when we do our pilates exercises. The first exercise consists of lying on the floor maintaining a neutral pelvis position and doing a minimum of 10 breaths in and out. On the ‘in’ breath we relax our core and allow the abdomen to rise naturally as we ‘drink the breath’. Then on the ‘out’ breath we engage our core pulling our belly buttons to spine, this is a ‘sucking in’ feeling, and visualise the ribs and surrounding muscles closing like a corset. ‘Your abdominal muscles include several layers. Most of these actually wrap around your sides to the back of your body’ (Danceadvantage.net, 2009). During the second exercise we lift our leg on the ‘out’ breath, this was where I started to notice the problem. I was getting a pain in my quad and my hip, this meant that I was using the wrong muscles to lift my legs. 

To solve this I had to focus on engaging my core completely, pulling my belly button to my spine even more than I was doing before, being careful not to compromise the position of my pelvis. Then while trying the exercise again I made sure to move slowly and to focus on using my core to lift my leg rather than my quad muscle, I found that by doing this it allowed me to lift my leg higher with less discomfort in the my quads and the top of my hips. From the time this video was filmed to now I have noticed a lot of difference between how much my quadriceps bow out at the front. Through practising these exercises daily my muscles have began to flatten at the front showing a more correct muscle shape. I believe that by continuing these exercises I will also notice a change in my core as well and the continued improvement of the shape of my quads.

The next point mentioned is my pelvis not being in a correct neutral position. This is important because when the pelvis is in a neutral position it allows the hamstrings to lengthen allowing more movement and flexibility. I have a large natural curve in my lower back so I need to focus on flattening this out as it can lead to problems in the future. Furthermore by keeping this position it reminds me to keep my core engaged and thusly stops me from locking into my swaybacks as my quads are not working overly hard. 

The last point mentioned in this video is that my weight is too far back, which stops me from rising onto demi-pointe without adjusting myself. Whilst on my feet for long periods of time I tend to get a pain in my heels, this is a clear sign that my weight is too far back even in my everyday life. It is important that I work on this as it causes me issues such as struggling to balance while turning. We have been advised to visualise a hook lifting us from our stomachs and ‘for now’ to place our weight slightly over our toes. In doing this I have noticed a significant change to my turning, it has allowed me to keep my turns contained and more precise.   

Harmony Group

Throughout our innovative production of 9 to 5 the majority of the ensemble songs include three part harmonies. Due to this I created a group chat so that my harmony group and I can have a collection of voice notes we have taken throughout rehearsals and share them easily with each other. 

During ensemble singing it is imperative that the voices blend together and create ‘one sound’ therefore it is important to rehearse what is actually correct rather than what you think might be correct. The group chat erases all reason for uncertainty because every harmony you need is there. ‘A chorus is like a picture painted with sound. In a picture, you want all of the colors to go together nicely, because if one color stood out more than the rest, the whole painting would just look weird.’ (Hagen, n.d.).

Swaybacks

As shown in the first picture I have mild swayback knees (right), in layman's terms this means that the knee joint hyperextends. 

‘When dancers with loose ligaments are told to straighten their legs, they tend to lock the knees in the hyperextended position that causes them to stand in a first position with space between their heels.’ (Thehealthydancer.blogspot.co.uk, 2012). Durning dance classes I have been noticing this issue a lot when it comes to standing in first position, and also when doing tendus that pass through first position. This is because when ‘pulling up’ my legs I’ve mainly been using the muscle behind my knee, over time this has caused these muscles to become larger than they should be, therefore obstructing movement.

To solve the problem of hyperextension I needed to focus on engaging the Quads and the Hamstrings to keep the knee in the correct position. As I have been locking into my swaybacks for a long time I found that I struggled with correcting the issue. This is dangerous because standing with the wrong posture can start to affect other areas of your body. Solving the issue of my swaybacks is going to take a lot of practise and focus because I need to create a kinesthetic pathway from my quads to my brain, as these were the muscles I was struggling to move. To help combat this I have to visualise my knees being slightly bent, this is because to me hyperextension feels straight.

Auditions

Auditions are arguably the most anticipated part of starting a new show. During this post we are going to talk about the audition process for 9 to 5.

Audition process

The first thing you should do when auditioning for a show is to make sure you and warmed up both physically and vocally. Artist Pete Faint offers a good variety of vocal warmups that can be accessed for free on spotify, I use these before I sing to thoroughly warm up my voice. It’s Incredibly important to warm up your voice as it is a muscle that can be easily damaged and strained. As singing at a basic scientific level is vocal cord connection it is important to gradually and safely allow the vocal chords to move and connect. Especially in the early mornings as they may have become dry during sleep. ‘After sleep our voice has not been used for hours. All kind of mucus builds inside our mouths and nasal when we are asleep, and this reduces the quality of our vocal chords considerably.’ (Borntosingmusic.com, 2013).

As an audition panel see a lot of people in a day initial auditions tent to be short and sweet whilst callbacks can be slightly longer. Entering the audition room I informed the panel of my song choices:

Hart to Hart - Roz

Get Out And Stay Out - Judy

Backwoods Barbie - Doralee 

Each audition process is a unique experience that changes with each individual. During my audition I sang Get Out and Stay Out from the second verse to the end, though I was prepared to sing any of the other solo songs. I sung the very beginning verse of Backwoods Barbie and was not required to do any of my prepared scenes.

The part I recieved was Doralee. 

Group Discussion

Donald Trump is a government figure, who caused public uproar with his backwards opinions and sexist remarks. One of his most well known quotes can be seen above where he states that ‘if Ivanka wasn’t me daughter perhaps I’d be dating her’.

9 to 5 is based on the 1980 film of the same name. During our group discussion we talked about how the issues tackled in 9 to 5 such as sexism in the workplace, inequality and feminism and still very relevant in modern society, because of this we came to the conclusion that we could create an innovative performance by setting our production in the modern day. We thought that by having freeze frames and a character breaking the fourth wall to include some quotes and events that have/are happening in our society today could be very relevant and interesting for our audience.

Whilst brainstorming we came to the realisation that Mr Hart’s character bares a striking resemblance to Donald Trump who has just became the USA’s 45th president. Along with his vulgar talk about women and sexist attitude he’s is also a man with a lot of wealth, similar to Mr Hart. Donald Trump has famously said ‘ My whole life, really, has been a no. It has not been easy for me. I started off in Brooklyn. My father gave me a small loan of a million dollars.’ We thought about adding this or other famous Trump quotes into Franklin Hart’s dialogue to make the comparison between the two more evident, since Trump has such a big impact on today’s society.

Feminism is very prevalent in 9 to 5 as in our modern day life, Women still to this day find inequality in the workplace. A recent example of this is a woman who was sent home from work at the finance company PwC for refusing to wear heels. One of the characters in the show complains about the pay difference between the men and the women, Hart’s reply is simply ‘Fire her’. The graph above shows the annual pay for women compared to white men, the data for this graph was taken from the US Census Bureau. (Sheth and Gould, 2017).

Innovative Performance 

The picture above shows the layout of the stage for our show 9 to 5. As 9 to 5 is a production that has been done before finding ways to make it innovative required a group discussion. During our discussion we decided to make use of the floor space where the audience’s chairs would traditionally be situated, we thought that by moving the chairs from the middle to around the sides we could then create a ‘second stage’. 

 Stage One is the raised stage, in our production this signify’s power and will mainly be used as Mr Hart’s office, although it was decided to also put scenes of high importance on there too, as leaving the stage empty for a long period of time will be less entertaining for the audience and would be a waste of a perfectly good performance space.

 Stage Two will hold the everyday office workers and their scenes. As one of the main themes in this musical is of inequality this will be a physical representation of how they are beneath him. Mr Hart’s character is bigoted and egotistical, he does not care about his workers and this is shown by the divide in the staging. By using this staging we are steering away from traditional theatre and creating an innovative performance space.