Unit 27: Deep Analysis of Grease

Unit 27: First Full Run of Grease

Below is the video of our first run through of Grease:

This run through took place in November. It was our first time running through all of the script and songs without stopping, even though not all of the routines were yet choreographed. Our target was to perform the entire piece without stopping. This was a success, the only stops that we had were for people who were reading lines for people who were not present for the rehearsal.

Unit 27: Peer Observation - You're The One That I Want

Unit 27: Workshop - The Jive

Unit 27: Peer Observation - The Jive

Unit 27: Workshop - The Hand Jive

Here is a video of the workshop:

The next week, after lots of intense rehearsal, we practiced the choreography in the space. This is a video of this rehearsal:

Unit 27: Workshop - Learning 'Summer Nights'

The target of this workshop was to learn choreography from 'Summer Nights'.

During the rehearsal, we were shown several YouTube videos of different versions of the song 'Summer Nights'. We liked the choreography from the 2010 West End version the best, and so we chose to attempt this choreography because it contains the most exciting movement and more intricate choreography.

We began with the blocking of the scene, with the girl clique (The Pink Ladies) and the boys' (The T Birds) on opposite sides of the stage. We used this split scene technique in order to show the extreme differences between each of the cliques. The dialogue switches between the two groups throughout the scene, holding whichever group is silent in a frozen image, this helps to build anticipation and excitement to know what will happen for each group next. The scene ends with both Danny and Sandy's separate groups eager to find out what happened at the beach over the summer with their 'mystery' partner, whom their cliques don't yet know is each other.

During the choreography, my character, Rizzo, spends the majority of the track sat down, rolling her eyes at an over-excited, naive Sandy and filing her nails, expressing vanity. However, the other Pink Ladies, Marty and Frenchy, dance alongside Sandy, performing clicks and claps, supporting and accentuating Sandy's movements. The Pink Ladies found it difficult to pick up the choreography from  the video of the rep because they found that the video focused a lot on the male choreography so it was difficult to see their movements in order to pick them up. On sections where their choreography was not visible at all, the girls either repeated a previous section or improvised with 1950's based movements to compensate.

I think this rehearsal was effective and we did meet our initial target by learning the choreography and also exceeded this by completing the blocking of the scene too. Next time, we should focus on cleaning the choreography and ensuring that it is tight and looks effective in order to improve.

Unit 27: Workshop - Initial Grease Workshop

During this workshop, we decided to look at the musical 'Grease'. This came about because many of us like this musical and enjoy both the script and the songs. Therefore, we began to look at the script in detail and the characters and decided the Grease would be a good choice for our musical extract because it features a small cast which we can utilise, only being a small company. There are also a variety of numbers within the musical, including large group numbers with interesting choreography and also solos and duets which can be used to showcase individual singing abilities within the company.

Grease is a larger-than-life, American book musical set in the 1950's. It explores teenage society in the 50's and what it was like to be a teenager in high school during this decade. It features many aspects of popular culture of America in the 1950's, for example, the jive.

After reading briefly through the script, we devised a storyboard, planning a narrative for our section of the musical. It was decided that we would focus mainly on the love story between Danny and Sandy. We decided to begin with Danny and Sandy telling their friends about the summer and their mysterious other halves, then move onto Danny rejecting Sandy and her being upset. They then make up and go to the dance together, where Danny leaves Sandy for another girls, once again leaving Sandy upset and bewildered. Sandy then decides she needs to change in order for Danny to be interested in her and become more like the 'Pink Ladies'. The Pink Ladies then reveal the 'new' Sandy to Danny.

After this discussion, we were given the script and our roles, as we would in the industry. Everyone was very professional and never complained about their character. The characters we were given were:

Danny - Ramy

Sandy - Ellie

Rizzo - Me

Frenchy - Rebecca

Marty - Betsy-Jo

During this workshop, we were also given a track list with songs we were to listen to and begin learning. We decided the best thing to do was to open with 'Summer Nights' and close with 'You're The One That I Want' as these mark the key points in Danny and Sandy's relationship, which is what we want to explore.

Long Term SMART Targets

Skills Audit

Below is a copy of my self evaluation of my strengths and weaknesses, as of September 2017, at the beginning of the year: