Week 12&13- Y2: Wizard of Oz show week!

 WIZARD OF OZ SHOW WEEK!!! <3

05/12/22

I cannot believe that it's show day tomorrow, and it's my cast!!! I'm really freaking out. I think I'm really nervous because I haven't had a main role in nearly a year. I think it's also because I want to show everyone that I'm capable of taking on a role this large. I also have anxiety so it all adds up at the end, but I love performing so overcoming it all and doing the best I can is an amazing feeling. Today my cast went through the whole show  due to the fact that we will be performing twice tomorrow. It wasn't a very good run through which really panicked me and probably my teachers too, which I don't blame her at all. The reason it was a bit all over the place was because there were two main casts missing. My Scarecrow(was Ill) and Tin woman(Doing lighting) were missing so we had to borrow another tin-man and scarecrow from another cast. Each casts do things different so We were getting things wrong. Well I wouldn't say wrong as they did what they would normally do, it confused us a little as were not used to doing what they do. After going through the whole show, no one was really happy and we were all a little tense. I was worried that my scarecrow was still going to be ill for tomorrow, and that I would have to get a new scarecrow and do things differently, meaning it wouldn't look all nice and put together.  I was also stressed because I wanted to rehearse with the Tin-woman as she didn't know her lines last time, But I trust them so I know that I shouldn't worry. And they are all so amazing. After we did a full run through we went for lunch and after cast two had a dress rehearsal. It made me feel a lot better because it really looked so put together. With all the costumes and then the set it really looked like the land of oz. I just can't imagine how amazing and live like it's going to look with the makeup on as well!! Since cast two was having a dress run I had to get into my costume for cast two, which was an Ozian. It was good to have a run through as an ozian since we have a little synchronised bit . We finished quite late because we wanted to make sure that all the props were there and that the set was complete. As soon as we finished I went straight home and prepared as much as I could for tomorrow. I had already brought in all my costume today, but i went through and made sure that I didn't forget anything. I made my mum make sure that I know all my lines by making her read out the other characters of the whole show at least two times. After all that I went to bed and waited for tomorrow.

06/12/22

Day 1, Show 1) FIRST SHOW DAY!!!!!! WOW I really can't believe it. It's come so quickly. Like so quick. It feels like I had only just been casted as Dorothy yesterday!! I'm so excited to perform today, but also really nervous, top max nervous. I always get like this but for some reason today it felt worse than usual. I hadn't felt this anxious before. I think it was because I felt like I wasn't prepared. I definitely was. I knew all my lines, I have chemistry with my cast mates, I knew what emotions to portray at every moment. I knew Dorothy inside and out. Our first show was at 1pm I went in and got my makeup and hair done.  Right after I got changed into my costume and waited for the others to be finished with their makeup, as soon as they were done the first thing we did was go through all the chants. We did them a few times but we stopped after because we have them on point and we don’t want to over do them. We didn’t realise how long the makeup would take (it is extremely complex makeup for the lion especially) so we didn’t get much time to rehearse. The Art and Film&TV people came to watch us so my teachers said not to worry as they know that it’s our first show and that they understand. Now let’s talk about the show.

 Lets just say that it didn't go as planned. It went bad. For me it went really bad. Lets take it bit by bit. The first thing that went wrong was that the actress who played the good witch of the South forgot a lot of her lines, one of the being, "Come out, come out and thank her". This means the Munchkins couldn't come out, and they are crucial to this part of the story. I knew most of her lines or the jist of them so I knew that I had to hint to her to bring them out. I think I gave her around 7 hints. I said something along the lines of, "Am I going to get to meet them?", or "Are they going to come and greet me?". I said a few lines like that, and finally she caught on and brought them out. Of course this really stressed me out as it was only the second scene and it had already been messed up. The next thing that had gone wrong was that the Scarecrow was brought onto the stage quite late. I go down the stairs saying "Well this is the yellow brick road, Now which way do we go?", then the scarecrow is meant to reply with, "Excuse me, that way looks like a very nice way to go?". But he wasn't on stage yet so I had to improvise yet again. I began talking to Toto, and asking him which way I should go, and I talked to myself. Then when I could see from the corner of my eye that he was where he was meant to be I repeated the line and he replied back. Another mistake was the Tin-woman's scene. The oil can was missing. So when she asked us to oil her, I had to use an imaginary oil can. This obviously didn't help capture the moment. One other thing was that The Tin-woman forgot to start crying (She stepped on a bug), This means the scarecrow couldn't ask what was wrong, which means a whole chunk was cut out. The last thing that went wrong for act 1 was in the emerald city. Before we enter the throne room, the wizard of Oz asks us to put some green spectacles on, but they were not there. The green spectacles are really important, as later on in the story it reveals that they are what actually makes the land look like its made out of emeralds. The actor who played the wizard of Oz did some great improvisation. He began saying that the Ozians haven't brought them out and that he's going to be firing somebody. I went a long with it and said "We don't really need them tho do we?", this then lead on to him saying that we should just squint our eyes. We made our way through the back of the curtains so that the Ozians change the stage into the throne room. When we came back onto the stage and an ozian brought on the glasses, The actor who played the wizard of Oz went and told him that he was fired. It added a comedic sense to it. After this scene it was the interval. I began panicking because I just felt like it was going so incredibly bad, and I just wasn't happy with the outcome at all. My teacher and loads of other people that I've been saving the show and helped lead everything in the right direction. My teacher also said that my improvisation skills are really pulling through and are what has helped put everything together. Although I was panicking, what they said has helped calm me down. I mean I wasn't going crazy, I just sat down and had a sad face. I was internally panicking. I would say that the second act had gone quite well. I heard that someone had forgotten a few lines in the only part I'm not in, but it wasn't too bad. When we finished my teachers had a talk with us and told us that it went like a good dress run. We were lucky that it was only students that came to watch us. But now I and all the others know what went wrong, and we knew what we needed to do to fix it. I talked to my cast mates and told them the main bits that we need to fix that doesn't include props. As soon as we all talked the first thing that I did was put the oil can in place and the glasses. Now that they were definitely there, the only things we had left to worry about was for the good witch to bring the Munchkins out and to not forget the tin-woman crying.  

Day 1, Show 2) I felt so incredibly happy with the outcome of this show!!!! At the end I felt so proud of everyone and I felt like I had created something special. I felt proud of myself too. The same thing had happened and The good witch of the South had forgotten her line to bring out the Munchkins so I had to do the same thing and improvised to remind her, but she clicked on quicker so it wasn't as bad. The Scarecrow was also brought on late again, but not as late so again it wasn't as bad. I knew what I had to do now, so it felt seamless and it felt like it was meant to happen. I made sure that there were no awkward gaps so I just improvised until it was set on the right path. The last thing that had gone wrong in the story was that the oil can was missing. But not this timeeee. It was definitely there, and I made sure of it! The oil can really helped with the characterisation. The crying scene for the oil-woman was missed again, but luckily it didn't look bad and no one even noticed from behind the curtains. The green glasses were there too!!!! no improvisation needed there anymore. The first act ends with us chanting and running out of the theatre, and let me just say, as soon as the doors shut behind us, we were sooooo HAPPY!!!! The chemistry and energy was off the roof!! The audience was also great! I personally believe that having a reactive audience helps us give out more energy. We feed on it!! My favourite part of performing is when the audience is reacting to it. So after our maybe 10-15 minute interval we went straight back onto the stage. My favourite part of the whole show is the part where Dorothy and the lion have been captured and the Dorothy killing the wicked witch of the east. I just think that it's super fun, it's also something I haven't done before. I've always played characters where they are super sweet and innocent. This might just be me but I personally think that Dorothy is somewhat sassy. She is definitely sweet and innocent but she has a sassy tone to her. I love that she does tho, because it adds more depth to her personality. The second act went really smoothly. A lot of people came to watch the second show. At the end me and the main cast stayed in the foyer, the audience came and congratulated us and a lot of people asked for pictures. I felt so special when they asked to have individual ones with them. But my favourite part was when they hugged me!!! It was so cute. Too cute. I went home really happy, and even though the first show went so bad, I learnt from it, which is what helped me to make the second show so much better!

These pictures that you are seeing were taken by a talented person called Freya from Film&TV, they are from the second show! I love them so much <3

07/12/22

Day 2, Show 1) I'm going to be an Ozian today!!! I have a tiny little bit of lines today which are, "Yes Sir", and i say that a few times, or so I thought. I went through the script making sure that those were my only lines as an Ozian, and I remembered that there was a small chant. Only 4 people have to say it. The one time that this chant was rehearsed was with my cast (Cast3). This means that we had never picked 4 people from This cast( Cast 2) to learn it and do it. I quickly gathered up the Ozians and asked who would like to do it. I only needed to find three other people who were willing to do it as I said that I'd do it. The chant was:

 "We're terribly happy that your'e here!

Come through the emerald gates my dear, 

Scarecrow, Tin-man, Lordly-beast,

You'll be served a festive feast,

And we should be much surprised,

If you ever get delivered,

To the throne room of the Wizard!"

After Three people said that they would do it we all learnt it in about 5 minutes, It wasn't too hard. We did a few rehearsals and it went great. Since I'm only in the show a little bit today it was hard to tell what went well and what didn't, so on the days where I'm not Dorothy I'll only talk about my parts of the show, or the parts I know needed improving or that went super well. When the Ozians come on we do a little synchronised bit where we walk towards each other but end up going in between each other. It's hard to explain but it looks great! I'd say that we did that part pretty well. We all stayed in line with each other. The part that didn't go as planned was the chant. We spent a good amount of time on it, two people didn't even do it. The other person that said it with me said the third line in the wrong order so it muddled both of us up. We still said it so it could have been worse, but it was pretty bad. I think you could probably tell that something had gone wrong. But now we know that we need to go through it again and make sure that everyone knows their que line and what the lines actually are. Apart from that I think that it was a really good first show! I know that some of the main characters were told that they needed to be louder and to make sure they think about stagecraft as they threw their lines to the back of the stage from facing away from the audience. This is one thing I think we did really well in my cast. We thought a lot about stagecraft and made sure to project our voices towards the audience. I did ask if everyone could hear me in the audience and they said that I am the loudest which I was happy about. 

Day 2, Show 2) The chant went so much better on tonight's show! Everyone had joined in at the right time. One person said the order wrong but we didn't get distracted so we just kept on going and it still sounded good. Next time can be better however so we will keep rehearsing until the next show, which is on Friday. All the main cast were really proud of how it turned out, meaning it went well, they said that the energy was really good.

08/12/22

Day 3, Show 1)

Munchkin dayyyy. I am going to be a Munchkin today. I feel like this is the easiest role out of the two small ones. There is another chant which I have talked about before. Some people were chosen to say a line by themselves, and I was one of them. My line is, "You will come to the wizards pagoda". The chant went perfect, the whole Munchkin piece went perfect. We all acted as if we where real Munchkins. We didn't let ourselves get embarrassed, which allowed us to act to our full potential. We even got a little message on our teams chat saying that the Munchkins smashed it. Although the Munchkins are in the show for only a small amount of time they add a lot. People don't realise how important the role of an ensemble really is. If they are flat, then the whole scene will become flat, which then makes it boring for the audience. No matter how silly you may feel, you need to give it your all so that the scene always turns out lively. 

Day 3, Show 2) We smashed it again! We gave it our all and the Munchkins had Munchkined! Since I'm hardly on stage it's hard to identify what went well etc. But I know that they were proud yet again :)

09/12/22

Day 4, Show 1&2) Cast 2 is performing again today! This means I am performing as an Ozian again. I believe that both shows went really well today. Our Ozian scenes went soooooo so so much better. We got the chant perfect both times. I think one person decided not to do it as they couldn't get it, but it turned out great still! Our first show had started at 10am today as elderly people from a care home came to watch. It was so cute and we made sure to make it a brilliant show so that they can have an amazing time! Since it was so early we had to wait for around 7h until the last one. It was a good time to do some work. It was quite sad for the main cast, as it was their final show as their main characters. I'm dreading my final show to come because I don't want it to go away. I also forgot to mention that it was quite stressful this morning! Especially for the main cast, my teachers and the makeup artists. There were a few people sick, The loin had hurt his hand so everyone thought that he wasn't coming in. Luckily we have three casts. BUT One lion wasn't here yet (late) and the only one that was here had nearly lost his voice completely, he ended up saving the day and performed amazingly!! Aunt Em was also sick, so my Aunt Em covered for the whole day. The Lion came in for the last show and luckily was able to perform for his family. 

13/12/22

Day 5, Show 1&2) My final day of being Dorothy! I find it so crazy. It has gone by so fast! I was so nervous today, worse than my last show. It made me feel so incredibly sick! What I like to do before I go on stage is to sit in a little squat and think to myself. I don't like talking to people before I go on stage. I like to get in the 'zone'. I want to turn into my character before i'm on the stage, or be in the mindset of my character. It was quite hard because I have really good friends who tried to talk to me to calm me down, because they knew that I felt sick, but they didn't know that what I needed was space haha, bless them they tried, I couldn't tell them that tho so I just let them. Everything went right today! and I'm going to be talking about both shows here, after both the shows I felt a little down and people were confused to why. It was hard to explain to them that I felt like I did a dry performance. Of course when I said that, they were surprised and said that I couldn't have done any better! I believe them too! because I tried my absolute best. And now thinking about it, there wasn't anything that I could have done better. I think it was because it was my last day being Dorothy and I really wanted to make it the moist outstanding performance, I also had special people coming to watch me in both of the shows, so I wanted them to see the best of me, and all the hard work I put into it! I don't really tell people how I feel at the end of my performances because they always reply with the same thing, but I never feel satisfied with my outcome. I always feel like I could have done more. I never know what I could have done, but I just have this feeling. My teacher saw that I kind of had a pouty face, and asked me what was wrong. I told he and she said that she was thinking the opposite! Of course this made me feel better. A message that I got from my teacher on Teams after my first day as Dorothy was probably the best compliment I had ever gotten. She said: "I think you were better than Judy Garland herself!" & "You are the best Dorothy I could have wished for". I'm editing this in a whole month after because I thought that I should include it. I still think about it till this day. Whenever I feel like I'm not great at acting I think about this message, and that my hard work and effort is worth it.

14/12/22

Day 6, Show 1&2) Last and final shows today. It was cast 3 today so I'm back to being a Munchkin. I'd say that the Munchkins weren't the best today :( It didn't have as much energy as the last time, which is sad because we did so well. After we acknowledged the fact that we didn't do a very good job, we had a little talk to ensure the same thing doesn't happen again. 

However the last show went AMAZING!!!! It was such a great way to end the Wizard of Oz! The energy was immaculate, Chemistry was there! etc. I am so grateful for the opportunity of playing the character Dorothy, and to be able to perform with such amazing actors/ actresses. I'm also so very grateful for my teachers who are the ones that made it possible. I have grown so much because of them <3  

15/12/22

As our last day we took everything down, including the stairs thing (I don't know what it's called, like the structure thing). It was so sad seeing the word of Oz disappear. We had to get it all taken down as the Higher Education acting is performing in the theatre as soon as they go back to college.

Goodbye Wizard of Oz❤