I believe I am dying …

Posted on June 4th, 2007 by Jess.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Yes you heard it here first folks, Jess is dying a slow painful death. (Note: being the drama queen that I am, i have a small tendency to over exaggerate, thus my conclusion that i am to be dead in a matter of days) In actual fact I have a bit of a bug and i dont feel too crash hot, but i will soldier on bravely and still be at school tomorrow.

So, last time I wrote, we were preparing to perform at Creative Arts. I am really proud of the girls because I think our energy was HEAPS better when we finally performed and we got some really good reactions from the audience. Everything went smoothy…oh…excpet MY MIC WAS OFF! I know, i know, I said I wolud calm down about it. But i was pretty angry and I apologise to the girls for my reaction. :D

So last lesson we sat down and wrote down all the things that worked and a few things that didn’t work. We are hoping to do some minor tweaking to the end of our ensemble so that it is PERFECT for the showcase on June 18th. Jacqui and I are aslo performing our solos on that day, so we now need to juggle ensemble/solo time. I think we will be okay though. We had the advantage of performing ours at reative rts, which mades us work quicker so we can relax a bit more now. That sentence made no sense, but i AM dying, so you can’t possibly expect me to be understandable.

See you tomorrow in class! Try not to step on me as i lie on the floor, struggling to breath.

Jess xx

0 comments.

Creative Arts in 2 days!!!

Posted on May 28th, 2007 by Jess.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Well Well Well….don’t know why i insist of starting every sentence with that, but i do.

Our group had a 7:30 am rehearsal this morning and I think it was really useful. We ran through our performance a couple of times and improved the timing and now it’s really tight. I’m so proud of our performance and even more proud of the girls and how we have all worked as a group. Everytime an idea failed and we’d have ot go back to the drawing board, we’d always come up with new, clever ideas. Every member of the group has a different, amazing sense of humour and we all bring something different to the ensemble. I love our ensemble and I think the audience will like it too. So thank you Jac, Flick, Laura and Nadia for being such a pleasure to work with and making the entire ensemble experience one of the best.

We’re performing for the class tomorrow, mainly to get some feedback and possibly some pointers. I’m pretty excited, because I know we all know what we’re doing and I have every confidence that the girls in the class will be really supportive. AND THEN we’re performing at creative Arts, which will be such a terrific experience.

Well, I’m off to learn my MC lines.

Have a good one!!

Jess xx

0 comments.

Ensembles!

Posted on May 16th, 2007 by Jess.
Categories: Uncategorized.

First of all, i must apologise for not blogging in ages! SOMEONE (ie me) used up all the internet space we had for the month and then i had to wait til today for it to be full again. oops!

So, we have moved on from Solos (thank god!) and now we’re preparing our ensembles for our showcase night/creative arts. I’m working with Flick, Nadia, Laura and Jacqui and they are the best group to work with! Most of the time we have too many ideas and we need to cut them down or cut them out completely. And we all have very similar senses of humour which makes the comedy aspect of the ensemble easy to fit in. We were developing an ensemble based on a spy agency who were discussing and updating their equipment (technological revolution theme) but it became too complicated and too random, so now we’ve changed it to a grandpa talking about the technology in his day while his grandson listens to his ipod.

We have a lot of work to do, especially now that we changed everything, but we’re full of ideas and motivation, so I’m not worried at all.

See you in class!!

Jess

0 comments.

Solo performances

Posted on April 25th, 2007 by Jess.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Well, Yesterday we saw the second half of the class perform their solos.

Tara- A vegan. Cracked me up! Really good comic timing and a really interesting and challenging character choice, but you tackled the challenge beautifully. Good focus and really clever use of prop. Well done!

Flick - Hippy!! Loved the costume and the guitar! Your script was really well researched and your focus was excellent. You also used the space really well!

Laura - A really really interesting character! I felt really sorry for you and all your friends. Your focus was really good and your plot was really heartwarming! lol sounds a bit mushy doesn’t it!? But honestly, great job!

Adri- Band geek! I must say, you’re quite talented on the recorder, young lady! Why weren’t you on Orchestra Camp last week? haha really good script and really entertaining. Sorry to hear about a piano falling on your dad. :D

Jacqui and Chloe are performing on Tuesday and i wish them the best of luck!!!

Have a good one!

Jess

0 comments.

Solos are over!

Posted on April 22nd, 2007 by Jess.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Half the class performed our solos on Thursday, and personally I was AMAZED at the level of improvement in all the girls performances. Well done to all the girls, you should be really proud of the work that you have done.

I was stupid enough to volunteer to go first. I was pretty happy with my performance and didn’t drop a line, which was my biggest concern. In all honesty, it doesn’t really bother me what mark i get on this solo, because it was a massive personal achievement. I’ve gained heaps of confidence since we performed solos last year and i think that getting up and performing a solo was really big for me. Sounds stupid, but I’m really pleased.

Albert (haha) - you did an awesome job! Although you think you lost focus, i really didn’t notice and i think you did a great job with your portrayal of a nerd. I really like how you started with Albert accepting an award and then went into his childhood. That was a really cool way to start and i think it was really effective.

Boxy- great dancing! I’d like to think you dance like that at all your dancing concerts! My favourite part in your solo was when you were talking about how fake your friends are. I felt like saying to your character “have you looked in a mirror!!?!?!” Great work man. and nice ending!

Nadia - Awesome character and really nice character transitions! Your focus was B-E-A-utiful! And the use of the scarf = genius!! I have no idea why you were so anxious, because you did a great job and should be really proud of your performance. And i loved you ending! I know you couldn’t see us because your eyes were covered, but we were all looking at each other and nodding, because it was so effective.

Leah - Save the cheerleader, Save the world. You did a really good job, little buddy! You had awesome focus! And nice work improvising with the cupboard! lol. Oh, and the part where you were pushing people out of the way to get the the news reporters = really well done!! A really intelligent and talented person must have told you to make that longer. :D

Jess M - Im pretty sure you were a bogan in another life! You were soooo funny and your character transitions were really smooth and impressive. I loved the old lady and the footy commentary. And your focus was really good too! I was scared of you when you were the angry wife! Great work mate!

Heather - DON’T WORRY! I UNDERSTOOD IT! You did a really good job and had great focus. Nice dancing too, by the way. Hope to see you do that more often hahaha. Really interesting and different character choice and you pulled it off really nicely! Well done!!

And good luck to the girls who are performing on Tuesday. Don’t stress too much. It is the best feeling ever!!

We also went to see Top Class on Friday and Saturday. (I know! An excursion on a weekend! Madness!) Cashy warned us that we would be inspired and freaked out. I wasn’t freaked out at all, I’m just even more determined than i was before! Some of the performances were amazing and did things that made me think “woah, I never would have thought to do that!” Their use of prop was awesome and really clever. I was really inspired by their focus and skills. They were all so talented!! Genelle did the most amazing job!! People were applauding her in the middle of her performance, so she just had to stand there and stay in character! She was so funny and so clever, it makes me proud to know her.

I can’t wait to see what Top Arts has in store for us!!

Have a good one!!

Jess

0 comments.

Holiday Solo Work

Posted on April 8th, 2007 by Jess.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Happy Easter!!

Last week was so packed that i didn’t get to do as much work on my solo as i would have liked. I got some scenes done and did some scripting, but it looks like I’m going to have to depend on this week to get the majority of my solo written and perfected. Unfortunately this week is really busy and full on as well, so I’ll have to use my time really effectively.

I’ve worked mainly on my transition between primary and secondary characters last week and I’ve been trying really hard to use really smooth transitions like morphing my actions into the first action of the secondary character. It’s pretty tough, but I’ll soldier on!

I dont really have too much to say today, but I’ll get cracking and let you know about my progress.

Have a good one!

Jess

0 comments.

Hooray!

Posted on March 27th, 2007 by Jess.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Today was a really good lesson!! After having a major mind block and not being able to write anything or act anything and not having any ideas, today i got a lot of work done and i was impro-ing as i went (and then I’d laugh at my own lame joke and write it down, just to make sure i didn’t forget the comic genius when it came time to rehearse later) Tara and I were lucky enough to score a room to ourselves (thank you Year 9’s for being on camp!) so it was awesome coz if i needed any ideas or someone to listen to part of my script, tara was there. :D
We also watched a couple of solos from top acts a few years ago, to give us a sense of what a solo actually looks like. I always find it really helpful to see examples of what I’m supposed to be doing because it helps me understand what all the dramatic elements and non-naturalistic elements look like on stage. I think I’m a visual learner, because if you show me what to do i can copy you, but of you just tell me then it takes me longer to understand. (maybe that’s not visual learning. Maybe that’s just me not being the brightest crayon in the box…)

It’s funny reading over my blog because it changes so quickly. One post will be about how stressed, worried and unmotivate I am, and the very next post will be all about how many ideas i have. Strange child. Goes to show that solos are stressful and resmeble rollercoasters.

Have a good one!!

Jess xx

0 comments.

Posted on March 24th, 2007 by Jess.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Well, where to begin! On thursdays lesson, Cashy got us to do a character based activity where we closed our eyes and focus on our characters. We stood like them, we walked, sat and talked like them and them we introduced oursleves to the other characters in the class. I found it really really helpful and i felt better about my character. Then we spent the lesson scripting and getting our solo together. I had a couple of brainwaves (which aren’t a regular occurance for me, so it was amazing that more than one happened in drama) so i got some good ideas down on paper and started to feel more relaxed about the solos. Unfortunatly, that didn’t last long. At all.

On fridays lesson, we started by playing ball up, which is always fun, but cashy will most likely never play it with us again becuase the ball kept mysteriously hitting him through no fault of the class. (cough) Then we went into our corners of the room and worked on our solos. I had so much trouble i wanted to cry! I was looking at the page going “this is crap.” It had no plot, no point, symbol, contrast no ANYTHING. It was really frustrating so i tried brainstorming, which usually works for me, but i got nothing. Jacqui came over and helped me and gave me some good ideas and helped a lot (thanks Jac! :D) And then Cashy talked to me as well and gave me some more good ideas, so thanks Cashy!
Last night i watched “Take Awway” and “Wog Boy” to get some ideas and they were SO HELPFUL! I’m not going to rip off lines or plot at all, thats not the kind of inspiration i got from them. But I got some ideas for movements, how to speak and how to act. I think I’ll watch them again today.

So now I’ll have some serious work to do in class.

Have a good weekend!

Jess xx

0 comments.

Finally! Some progress at last!!

Posted on March 16th, 2007 by Jess.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Well thank the lord, I’ve finally got the ball rolling with my solo. Although the lesson started slowly yesterday (understatement of the century) , once we finally settled down and got some work done, I had a couple of brain waves and couldn’t stop writing. A couple of times I cracked up laughing coz i could imagine what the scene would look like. (Unfortunately Cashy just thought i was being a distraction) Im getting pretty excited about this solo because i think it will be fun. Im going to make it funny, because i find it easier and more fun. But i don’t want to make it a parody. I’m not bagging anyone and I’d hate to offend, so Cashy warned me to make sure i wasn’t taking the mickey too much.

Even though the work we were doing on fridays was solo so we were workind individually , Nadia and Adri were giving me some Italian phrases i can use when i’m playing the old italian nonna. (Thanks guys! that was really helpful!)

Now I’m just trying to work on my scenes and putting it all together!

Cya!

Jess

0 comments.

Solo progress

Posted on March 14th, 2007 by Jess.
Categories: Uncategorized.

In my last post, I didn’t really say much about our solos, so i’ll go into some detail now. A couple of weeks ago we were given a criteria sheet outlining what we were to do for our solo performances. We have to base our characters on a particular subculture of our choice. Some people knew straight away who they were going to be and i envied them SO much. I could not decide on a subculture. I honestly can’t stress this enough, I could not figure out what to do. I was stressing and freaking out and thinking “well clearly there’s something wrong with me! May as well give up now!” (Slight exaggeration) And then i was sitting at the dinner table talking ot my family and we started mucking around (imagine that, Jess’ family having a sense of humour) and my brother and I were pretending to be old italian fish and chip shop owners and we had our parents in stitches. And my mum said “Jess, you should do that for your solo!”

SO I AM! At the moment I’m thinking of loosly basing it on ym local fish and chip shop owner, who’s really friendly and happy with costomers but a real perfectionist with his staff. I might also bring in elements of my own boss as well. Also, On the way to my holiday house over he long weekend, we stopped at a fish and chip place for some food and the man who ran it was exactly what i wanted to do for my solo! So i sat there staring at him (much to his concern) the whole time we were there.

Plus, now that Cashy has said that we can have secondary characters in our performance, Im really excited about what i can possibly add into my performance. I’m really excited about these solos now and i can’t wait to work on them in fridays lesson. Never thought I’d say i was excited about solos, but there you go.

Have a good one!

Jess xx

0 comments.

Older »