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Overall I was satisfied with the ending results. A positive from the piece is that we were able to perform it through with little mistakes to a standard where I was happy with it. One thing that I was happy with is that we were able to get across each of the songs themes to a high standard where they were clearly communicated to the audience. This was due to first, our choreography. I felt like each of the choreographed dances fit each of the songs style and era whether it was a song like Grease or You Can't Stop the Beat. Another factor that was used that helped communicate the songs and their storyline was through the use of props. In my opinion, the props were a very effective tool that we used that helped us with being able to act the song for the audience.

Even though there were lots of things I was happy about with our performance, there are many critiques I would give myself and the group if we had more time on it or we were able to do it again. One main thing was the lack of energy that was in the final performance. I think a main reason for this is the fact that we all were quite tired out already and the whole performance performed fully is a really hard task to set ourselves especially since we had no time to rest in between each song. Because of this we got out of breath extremely quickly and weren't able to keep up with the whole piece. A critique I would give myself is that I hardly acted throughout the entire performance therefore I felt that the story from my end did not communicate that well with the audience. A main reason for this however is that because I was so out of energy I was unable to act as well as sing and dance. If I were to do this again, I would ensure that I practiced acting alongside all of the dancing and singing to bump up the performance to a higher level.

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As a task in lesson we were able to perform to our teacher Oly to receive some feedback for our put together piece. In my opinion, I felt that it went well considering we hadn't been through the piece fully by that point as many times as we hoped. The piece felt rushed and breathy and not as energetic as we hoped it would be. To improve on this we want to just carry on rehearsing the whole piece over and over again since then we will be able to perform it to a higher standard because in theory we would get use to the amount of energy required to do it. We also decided soon we need to be able to try and perform this all with props and get use to being able to run back and forth and getting the props in the right wings.

The feedback we got given is below:

Feedback for Performers:

1. Work in Progress:

- With only one session left, it's crucial to finalize your piece. When do you plan to complete it? Set clear goals and deadlines to ensure timely completion and avoid last-minute rushes.

2. Costume Coordination:

- Discuss costume choices with Mya and finalize your outfit for the performance. Ensure that your costume aligns with the theme or mood of your piece and enhances the overall presentation.

3. Consider Props:

- Explore the use of props to add depth and dynamics to your performance. Thoughtfully select props that complement your piece and contribute to its storytelling or visual appeal.

4. Vocal and Choreography Evaluation:

- While some vocal performances were commendable, there's room for improvement in choreography and familiarity with the piece. Practice diligently to refine choreographed movements and fully understand the material you're performing.

5. Eye Contact and Engagement:

- Lift your eyeline off the ground and actively engage with the audience during your performance. Establishing eye contact creates a connection and makes your performance more compelling and interactive.

6. Finishing Touch:

- Plan how you intend to conclude your piece effectively. Consider the desired impact on the audience and devise a suitable ending that wraps up the performance cohesively.

Specific Piece Feedback:

- "Food Glorious Food":

- The performance was satisfactory. Consider incorporating props for the bowls, which can enhance visual interest and be discarded at the end of the performance.

- "Into the Woods":

- Maintain stillness or purposeful movement during the performance. Decide on the performance approach and consider rotating to ensure the lead vocalist is prominently positioned.

- "Grease":

- Maintain professionalism by refraining from laughing at mistakes. Evaluate the language suitability, especially concerning words like "shit" and "tit."

- "Annie":

- Explore the use of small hand props to enhance the performance and further immerse the audience in the storytelling.

1. Work in progress

To help us with this piece of feedback we decided to make some specific goals for the last session with the use of the feedback we got from our teacher. This was effective since we were able to succeed with most of the feedback given and improve massively on our piece.

2. Costume Coordination

With this piece of feedback we had already thought about this nearer the start of our creative process. Therefore this was more of a simpler task with refining our props (since we were supplying black clothes for our costume ourselves) and communicating these ideas with Mya. During our last session we were able to talk to her to get our props together and switch around props that weren't at our disposal with more reasonable ones. This was a relief since this was a quick and easy task that we had been putting off to focus on our practical performance.

3. Consider Props

Talked about this in the point above and was a case of communicating the ideas we already had with Mya.

4. Vocal and Choreography evaluation

Since we hadn't practiced our piece through that many times fully, we expected this feedback. To improve on this point, we decided to just run through our whole piece as many times we could before the deadline to make sure we knew the piece back to front. This was effective since we slowly built up our tolerance to perform this fully without getting too out of breath.

5. Eye Contact and Engagement

This was a piece of feedback that we hadn't put into consideration quite yet therefore it was incredibly useful. At the moment the piece lacked the right energy needed to be able to make it a high standard and we felt this is what was missing. To improve on this we decided the best thing to do was to heighten our eyeline to create more engagement with the audience whilst in rehearsals for it to become habit for the real performance. This is effective since it becomes second nature to be able to do it in rehearsals therefore we are not constantly thinking about it when we should be thinking about keeping up the energy.

6. Finishing Touch

To take this into considerations we wanted to make a concluding end to our piece to be able to finish it off. To do this we thought the best way would be to all come forward and bow together.

From the individual feedback for some of the specific songs, we decided on a couple bigger notes to work on since the other pieces of feedback was about props which had already thought about. One of these was to make sure we focus more on the lead vocalist for the song "Into the Woods". This was because since there are a lot of vocals in this song it is hard to pick up who is singing what when. To solve this issue we made sure that the people singing were more central was possible. The next main piece of specific song feedback that we focussed on was the song Grease Lightnin'. The suggestion here was that we change the song lyrics that were inappropriate for the audience that we were performing in front of. As a group, we decided to just not sing the word "shit" and change the word "tit" to chicks. This therefore meant it would be more appropriate for the audience type we had.

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Following on from our session on coming up with ideas and choosing songs, we thought the best course of action would be to make a rough timetable to be able to make our piece within good time for the rehearsals. We decided on using the first hour of each week focusing on the singing and the other two on choreography. We thought this would be the best way to do it since the singing would not take as much time as the dancing. We also thought it would be beneficial for if we didn't finish the choreography that day then we would do independent rehearsals during lunchtimes just so we could finish anything off from the lesson. We also thought closer to the show date we would be able to have an increased amount of independent rehearsals to be able to run through what we already had and to be able to change things if necessary or finetune certain vocals or dances.

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Immediately, we knew that this performance we wanted to do would require lots of props. Therefore we thought it would be a good idea to think about the props very early into the process. As soon as we knew what songs we were going to do we sectioned them off and came up with costumes and props we would need so we could inform the Technical Director so she was prepared. Since we were going to be constantly multi-rolling, the best thing we could do was to wear black clothing for the real performance since this allowed more freedom to be able to add and take off bits of costume when necessary. For our first song (Singing in the Rain), we felt it would be beneficial if we used umbrellas since we had the idea of two of our group tap dancing. The reason we wanted to add umbrellas in is because we wanted to take some inspiration from the actual movie (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swloMVFALXw) so that you can see the resemblance. For the song Food, Glorious Food, we wanted to incorporate the use of flat caps since they were popular in this era and also paper plates. The next song we looked at is Any Dream Will Do. We felt the only thing we would need for this is a white cloak alike the one Joseph wears in the musical. We felt this would have been a crucial part for our piece since it is the main focal point of the musical. For It's a Hard Knock Life, we thought about using different props to clean with. For example cloths, brooms and buckets. The next song we looked into was Grease Lightnin' for which our original idea was to have leather jackets we could wear that the actors wear in this number in the movie. Our last ideas were to were colourful neckties for You Can't Stop the Beat since this accessory was very popular during this era.

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Singin' in the Rain (Full Song/Dance - '52) - Gene Kelly - Musical Romantic Comedies - 1950s Movies

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As we decided to rehearse and perform our songs in chronological order, the first song that we decided to sort out was Singing in the Rain. First we researched into the musical in general finding out the plotline, main characters and style of dance/music. The plot of Singing in the Rain consists of a silent film star falling for a chorus girl but his jealous screen partner makes it difficult from transitioning from silent movies to musicals. This musical was brought out during the Golden Age Era which consisted of musicals that were released during the height of musical popularity. This meant that this musical in general would have been incredibly well known of the target audience. The musical also was a jukebox musical therefore all of the songs present in the soundtrack were already released songs. The main style of dance within this musical is tap dance. The main example of when they do this in the movie is during this song where the main character is featured doing on of the most iconic dances in musical history.

To start off this rehearsal practically, we thought it would be best to divide us up into two since two of our group (Celeste and Iz) could tap dance whereas the others (Ell and I) could practice our singing for this. This was an very effective way to work since we could focus on two aspects of this number at the same time. In mine and Ell's practicing of the song we started off by struggling with the key it was in. When we started singing it first, we found it difficult since it was quite a low song since it is traditionally sung by a man. Because of this, it sounded a low quality since we struggled to sing this low. Since this was not working we decided the best thing to do was sing the octave higher from the original song. This was more of an effective way to sing this song since it was easier for us to hit the right notes however the volume lacked. We made the decision to keep this octave since in general we felt more comfortable to sing it like this. After a couple sing throughs of this song, we met up with the other two members of our group to run through this section fully. After figuring out where to stand, we ran through this section quite seamlessly. Overall, I think this was a successful rehearsal since I felt we effectively worked well because each of us worked on what we were most comfortable with and the section worked well.

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Our idea is making a mashup of musical songs inspired by "12 musicals in 1 minute by James Corden" including the song "Food, Glorious Food" from Oliver! since one of the requested songs from last time was that one. To start off, I wrote down as many musicals I could find that were from that era as the rest of the group found songs from these musicals that we could use that we would be able to incorporate acting and dancing in as well. From these we chose a selection of songs that we thought would go well together from the 1950s to 1980s. The musicals we ended up choosing were Singing in the Rain, Oliver!, Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat, Annie, Grease and Hairspray. We thought of these ones since as a group we were already confident on the plotline of each of these musicals therefore we already knew all the characters to be able to portray them to a high standard. In addition to this we thought that the songs we chose were entertaining and lively which is what we wanted to bring to the Care Home. Due to figuring out different types of musicals throughout the eras, we were able to make our songs in chronological order. As a task, we presented our ideas to the rest of the class to receive feedback. Within this feedback we got told that our idea had a lot of potential however we did have clashing ideas with another group. To avoid this becoming a problem we decided to communicate with this group to not have any songs that are the same therefore it wouldn't be repetitive for the audience. This was a good decision since we double checked with each other about our song choices and luckily none of our songs were the same.

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Since we were just repeating the schedule from the first rehearsal, we started researching what our musical and song was about. This song was arguably one of the most important songs in our set since this is the one that the audience suggested for us to bring back this time. This musical Oliver! is about a young orphan (called Oliver) who escapes a workhouse to find himself in group of thieves and pickpockets in the hopes of finding a new family. This musical again we found was part of the Golden Age Era for musicals which explains its high popularity. The song "Food, Glorious Food" is one of the most popular songs within this musical therefore bound to be known by the audience that were going to perform to especially since this was a recommendation. This song is sung from the point of view of the children in the workhouse and how they are forced to work to earn their keep. Throughout the song they fantasize about foods such as sausage and mustard but instead receive tasteless gruel.

As a group, we decided we wanted to keep the choreography simple so we could focus more on the acting and keeping the energy high which we felt would be the most effective way to perform this. We started to practically work on this with a sing through since we weren't as familiar with the words or tune for this song than singing in the rain. Because of this we focussed on getting key words in the correct order since we kept on getting them muddled when we would sing the song. The lyrics we struggled on the most were "food, once again food, fabulous food, glorious food". So to help us get this into our heads we would repeatedly say these words out loud with each other. This method was useful since we were able to learn the line in quite a quick amount of time.

With this done we were able to focus on the dancing that we wanted to incorporate into this number. We tried to keep this dance as simple as possible (as seen in the video above). For inspiration for this choreography we started with searching up examples of this song on Broadway. The main video we found was one performed in 2022 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sh5VK3iL3jc) where they also used simplistic but effective movements but had plates to add to the number. One way they used the bowls int he video were holding them up high therefore we thought it would be a good idea to do the same. We did this at the timestamp 0:30 where were held these "plates" high for the final line from left to right. We felt this was effective since it was a big move to contrast from the rest of the song since we incorporated higher levels therefore it was a big ending for this song.

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Our next song we wanted to use and learn was Any Dream will Do from the musical Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat. In this musical, it follows the bible story of Jacobs favourite son Joseph and his brothers. Joseph is sold into slavery and ends up imprisoned by an Egyptian noble. This musical was brought out in the 1960s and was a great hit. The soundtrack contains a wide range of genres from country-western and calypso to bubble-gum pop and rock 'n' roll with the most popular song from the soundtrack being Any Dream will Do. This is the beginning number (excluding the Prologue) of the musical therefore the song is just introducing Joseph and his coat.

Since we wanted this to be a very simple section we decided that we were only going to spend one hour on this section because we felt anymore would be a waste of rehearsal time. We mainly wanted to focus on vocals in this piece. The first course of action was to decided who would take the role of Joseph which I did since we felt I had the lowest vocal range in our group which fits the male vocalist. To start, we decided to sort out our positions inspired by a video we saw of this live performance where Joseph is singing to children who were singing the backing vocals (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wAs3sTAFJ4). After doing this practically, we realised this was not an effective way to do this since it felt weird to do and we did not think it would be entertaining for the audience. We also felt there were plenty of other songs that were a better fit for our set of songs. The song that we have chosen instead is a section of the Into the Woods Prologue.

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Into the Woods follows the story of two main protagonists (a childless baker and his wife) who go on a quest to start a family. They are met with many fairy tale characters including Cinderella (from Cinderella), Jack (from Jack and the Beanstalk), Rapunzel (from Tangled) and many more. This movie was brought out in 1987 which still fit with our time periods. In my opinion, I feel this might not have been the best choice of song since this musical was not nearly as popular as Any Dream Will Do or any of our other songs however decided to stick with it anyway since it is more energetic and lively than the other song and we also thought it would be an interesting song vocally. This song is the Prologue of the whole show and is where we start to be introduced to the different characters which we find are Cinderella, Jack then the Baker and his wife.

Considering the size of our group we decided to use the starting section of the song and have no one play the narrator since we felt it wasn't necessary in our piece. Because of this we were left with the four characters. We gave out the roles so that I was Cinderella, Celeste was Jack, Elle was the Baker and Iz was the Bakers wife. Since this song had difficult vocals, we spent more time of figuring out the singing first and keep simplistic actions to try and let the vocals carry the number. The way we did this was to learn the song by singing along with the backing track then splitting the song section by section to be able to learn the song since there were lots of overlapping. This was a very effective way to learn this song since we felt like it was a daunting task at the start but it felt easier to practice/learn this way therefore we were more confident. But even though we were still confident we still struggled when it came to the timing since most the time when we were learning it we wouldn't all be in time. To solve this issue however we sang with the backing vocals to be able to see when we got things mixed up. This was effective since then we were able to figure out what parts we needed to improve on. For my character specifically, I struggled with the key it was in since it is quite high for my vocal range. To be able to help myself out, I allowed myself to sing using head voice therefore it would be easier to sing this but I just had to sacrifice volume. In the video above, it shows the song put together with basic movement that we made up on the spot.

To put the movements to the song, like I said we wanted it to remain simplistic so we could focus (and so the audience can focus) more on the vocals. Our first idea for this was to walk around in a circle and whoever sings step forward to do so. This was not effective though since it looked very messy and not put together. Instead we decided to walk on when we start singing and mainly just sing to ourselves until the very end where we end up in a line and sing to each other for our last lines. This was much more effective than the other idea since it was more organised and less messy than the other option so we decided to keep this one.

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Our next song choice was "It's a Hard Knock Life" from Annie which is an extremely popular musical not just from the Care Home's era but also for anybody. This musical was released in 1982 and is about an orphan called Annie who lives in poor conditions in an orphanage. She goes on a journey to find new parents and finds a temporary owner who is a rich worker that takes her on to promote his image. Like the rest of the musicals, Annie is extremely popular and is the 13th longest running Broadway musical. This song specifically is one of the most popular songs featured int he soundtrack. The song takes place in the orphanage where all of the children are complaining about the work they are out through to be able to "earn their stay". The reason we chose this song is we thought it would be a fun song to perform since I already did this song when I was younger so I already had some ideas for the choreography and just because we all knew and liked this song therefore we could make it very energetic and entertaining.

For this rehearsal we worked differently in which whilst everyone started working on the choreography, I went in a different room to start focussing on the links and timestamps for the song we were using for the Technical Director (Mya). This was a simple task therefore the idea was if I did this whilst the others were choreographing, they could teach that to me. The notes for the sounds that I made are above.

When I went back to my group, they taught me the choreography which consisted of sweeping the floor and singing to each other keeping these moves simplistic. I think the way we worked was very effective since we were able to do two things at once. I also think the choreography was also very effective since the moves weren't hard to pick up and they were powerful when rehearsing them if we kept them sharp.

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Our next song choice was Grease Lightnin' from the movie Grease. This musical was made in the 1970s but set in the 1950s so was perfect for our set of songs. Again, this musical was extremely popular when it was released and still is one of the most popular musicals still in the modern era. This musical begins with two teenagers who are ending their summer love and have to part ways but see each other on the first day of school. Their love grows for each other despite their different ways and inevitably end up together. The song Grease Lightnin' is a song sung by the group of boys in the musical about their luck with getting with ladies. We felt this song would be good for us to do since it is a fun song and we felt had a simple well-known dance that we could take inspiration from to use within our piece.

To start with we worked on the vocals with Grease Lightnin' where we worked on the song section by section since we struggled with the different words that were said throughout the song. So not all of us had to do every bit, we decided to divide us up so me and Iz would do the main vocals and Celeste and Ell would do the backing vocals. This was effective because then me and Iz would be the ones focusing on getting the words right. Some bits we struggled with were the lines "overhead lifters, and four barrel rods" since they were a bit of a mouthful to say. To try and learn these we just repeated these lines over and over again to each other until they stuck. Putting moves to what we were saying also helped us make sure we were saying the right bit and the right time. However, what we found difficult was the fact that the song was quite low and again didn't fit with our vocal range therefore we started to lack volume. What we should have done is try to find the song in a higher key so it would be easier for us to sing to a high standard.

To start with the choreography, we decided to make up the verse of the song but remake the original dance for the chorus since we felt it was very iconic. This task was quite a smooth one since we didn't really tend to struggle with coming up with ideas for the choreography. The end product in my opinion was quite effective because we were able to come up with more interesting moves for our own dance.

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We wanted our final song to be "You can't stop the beat" since we felt it would be the most liveliest and energetic one to end off on. This song is from the musical Hairspray which is again another extremely popular musical from this era where they explore themes of race, body image and much more. This musical follows the plot of the protagonist Tracy becomes a celebrity over night and her story of trying to overtake Corny's reigning dance queen title. This musical was made in 2002 so didn't really fit the theme that we were trying to achieve with the eras however, it was set in the 1960s therefore fits the stylistic theme with the type of music and dance. We also thought it was a common enough song therefore the audience were bound to know it.

First of all we started with singing the song with the original soundtrack therefore we would be able to get a feel for the words and the melody. This was effective since we were able to learn the song in an efficient amount of time. However, we had some back and forth about how high/ low we should sing the song since it was an extremely difficult key. To solve this we all decided to sing the lower octave. In my opinion, this wasn't a good choice since I felt when we sung it, it lacked the bright sound that the original song had and it felt lazy. To try and help bring the energy up, I tried to just sing louder and more clearer but I still think it lacked overall vocally. In general, I feel like the vocals lacked even less when we put the dance to it since we all were so out of breath especially since it was the final song to our piece and it required such energy throughout the entire thing.

In my opinion, this dance was probably one of the most interesting choreography to make and the most exciting one in general since we all had so many ideas for this dance anyway. To start off we wanted to look at the original Broadway choreography to take some inspiration from. Some dance moves we took from the original dance were moves such as clicking our fingers above us (at the timestamp 0.04) and shimmying (at the timestamp 0.16). This dance was successfully effective since it perfectly captures the Hairspray style and was very entertaining but because it required us to be high energy we were sacrificing our volume when singing. We did think though that with the adrenaline when it would be the performance it would make us sing louder whilst dancing so we weren't too worried about it.

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We thought it would be a perfect idea to base our performance off of this piece that James Corden did where we fit lots of different musicals all in the space of a short amount of time. We were inspired by this piece in particular since it was quite quick and interesting to watch. We also though the high energy that was kept throughout the whole performance would provide a good challenge for our group. We decided we would choose musicals from the eras that our audience grew up in and choose hit musical numbers from those eras to put some choreography to. This in my opinion was a very effective idea since it was able to incorporate singing, dancing and acting within our performance whilst still keeping in mind the feedback we got from our last performance there with what songs they wanted to hear such as "Food, Glorious Food" from Oliver!.

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PART 1: James Corden 22 musicals in 1 take

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On this day we had a workshop that consisted of learning about the Crdl. This provides a therapeutic sensorial experience mainly for elders that struggle with conditions such as dementia or any trouble with remembering. By pressing down on this object it creates sounds such as rain falling. By using different physical touches it stimulated different sounds to connect people in the home to the outside world. Some examples of this was tapping it and stroking it. In one of the exercises, we all held hands and two people were touching either side of the crdl and then on person would tap the other in the circle. This in my opinion was a very thought-provoking and eye-opening experience. This made us think of how we wanted the people we perform to to feel a connection with us. This made us think more about how we wanted to use songs or dances that were most popular in the era that they would be able to listen to. Hopefully this would be able to bring back some memories for the audience since hopefully it would remind them of their childhood.

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In general, I think as a group we performed to a high standard due to our cooperation and teamwork. For example, during the rehearsal process we made sure to practice at any given moment including outside of lesson time. This meant that we were able to be prepared and ready for the performance. However, considering this I felt as if we still had moments where we weren't as confident as we would have liked to be. An example of this is how we didn't prepare an introduction for our piece since we were more concentrated on our material but I think doing this next time will make our piece seem more professional and put together. If we were to do it again, I would keep in mind preparation time. This is because we spent a while setting up, especially me. I feel like this was because I had a lot more equipment including my amp, guitar and lead which took a while to put together which was boring for the audience. A way we could have fixed this, is either prepare our equipment beforehand or set up whilst someone was doing an introduction. This would mean that the performance would have been more slick. On the other hand, I believe our idea was very interesting since we ended up making original lyrics and we were the only group that used live instruments. I believe that would have made our performance more memorable for the audience. Personally, I feel like something I could improve on is my enthusiasm towards the performance. I think I would seem more excited and also it would be more entertaining for the audience since it would show I have confidence and overall would be more enjoyable. To do this, next time I would smile and make sure to project when singing, look up to the audience and dance along. However, I do feel like I am most proud of playing guitar in front of an audience since considering it was my first time in my opinion, I did a decent job. This is because I was confident in my guitar part since this was the most practiced part. The only time that it wasn't polished was when me and Harry went out of sync but this was quickly resolved by listening to each others playing. In our entire group I feel like the whole project was under-rehearsed. For example people didn't know their lines, were giggling and laughing on stage and there was a lot of silence between each performance. To solve this i believe next time we should have practiced all together with all of the pieces multiple times before performing it to an audience. This would make the entire project seem more professional and more rehearsed.
In conclusion, I think our project was at a good standard however we could have improved it in many ways including practicing more and knowing our material.

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We started by researching different styles of dance within this time period. We found that the style that was created by Bob Fosse was one of the most famous in that time period and that was the beginning of musicals such as Chicago and All That Jazz. This led us down the path of researching different musicals during that time period including musicals such as Singing in the Rain, Sound of Music, Oliver!, Funny Girl, Mary Poppins and Grease. Using this information we took inspiration from James Cordens "22 Musicals in 1 Take" and decided to do a mash up of musical songs throughout this time period. The songs we chose are singing in the rain, food glorious food, any dream will do, grease lightning, it's a hard knock life and you can't stop the beat. We decided on these songs since we feel we could contribute acting, singing and dance to all of them.