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Vocal warm-ups

Refining song choices/narrative changes

Writing more poetry

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Lighting for songs

Finishing the script

Practise the characterisation for each song

Begin rehearsing the script

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Adjust the aims

Download backing tracks

Trim backing tracks down on Audacity

Recite poems as voice recordings

Memorise songs off by heart

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Setting the stage

Do at least one full run through in the space

Work on moving around the space

Physicality

Timestamps for tech run

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All of These Scripts Are Spotify Playlists

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All of These Scripts Are Spotify Playlists

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Idea: All of These Scripts Are Spotify Playlists - A series of monologues, where every word is based on the titles of existing songs

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Example Script: Fall of the Meteorologists

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Example Script: Fall of the Meteorologists

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And now the weather!  Over to you Daniel! Thank you, Aimee.  So yeah, so, the weather... it's gonna rain. Well uhh... y'know... at least I think it's going to rain today.  Well, actually... I don't know if it's gonna rain or not, I'm not God, I can't control it! I'm not the one making predictions either, I'm not a meteorologist. Don't take it out on me, blame them meteorologists!  But no, blame it on me, blame it on the weatherman. Look at me! I'm not a leader, I'm a mouthpiece for them. You know what? Meteorology - it's a scam! If you are the meteorologist predicting the weather right now, kill yourself.  Do you hear me?  Do this world a favour - kill yourself.  All this time, what you have studied over the years, the atmosphere, guess what? I can see the sky! Can you see the sky? You might be blind or something like that, otherwise, we can see the sky!  Look outside, look out the window. Well, would you look at that, it's raining today! How do you know it's raining?  Because of your eyes!  And ummm... windows! Wow! You and me? We can be meteorologists! But without them, what are we gonna do now? How will we know whether or not it's raining somewhere else?!  Oh no!!  Do you get it now?  Today is the day. On this day, a rainy day in May, this is it!  The fall; fall of the meteorologists! Weathermen, I hate to admit it, but we lost it. It's not our fault, but it is a hard pill to swallow. Aren't you tired? I know I am.  I get yelled at by adults because it's raining when there is no sun. Get real! What do you want me to do? If I say the sun's coming over the hill, but instead it's raining again... firstly - who cares?! This is England, it rains all the time! But also, I'm the dude reading the words off the script! I didn't write this - meteor man wrote this shit for ya! LEAVE ME ALONE! In other news, I've been told I'm fired.

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- Could be clunky and awkwardly worded scrolling down the list, if acting on this idea will need to know it off by heart
- Having to show me saying the script while scrolling down through the playlist, will be hard to get down the exact rhythm of each one
- Permits for a wide variety of different emotions and scenarios to convey
- Would need someone to scroll through it right on time, or I prerecorded myself scrolling down the list

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Spotify Playlists that form funny little stories

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The lyrics to a song

Nearly nothing but onomatopoeia

Nothing but stage directions

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Idea: AI Takeover - A series of comedic bits, all tied around the theme of how AI is taking over the world

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Writing a poem in the style of ChatGPT, then having ChatGPT writing a poem and having the audience differentiate which one is real (but then it wouldn't be a solo project if it's including other people to give the direction of the piece)

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Idea: use the FredShred/Charlie videos again but in an actual full piece

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Allowing poetry to tell a story, involving some comedic and irreverent bits but also some emotional, powerful moments.

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Having me trying to do something that I'm too afraid to do as a running joke (probably jumping over something like a chair) and continually running headlong at it to jump over it but I bail last minute, although at the end I finally do end up doing for real and make it as the payoff

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Finding songs that I want to use for the narrative

Writing poems the story flows cohesively

Prioritise the script first, and get it done quickly so I don't run into time trouble later

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Ain't it funny how some people know

Who they are, what to do, where to go?

Perfect people with purpose pursue

What they were put on this Earth to do.

Deep thinkers who can philosophise,

Artists, scientists, crypto bro guys.

People right now making history,

Lots of people like that... but not me.

Purpose starts playing

The life of boring people like I?

Get a crap job, settle down and die.

So I moved to New York, 'cause why not?

I thought Broadway might give me a shot.

However, there was one small factor:

I've never been trained as an actor.

How does a lying moron make it?

Just like with every lie; fake it!

Razzle Dazzle starts playing

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Today's session was focused on writing the script. I tried my hardest to pump out the script as fast as I can, due to how lengthy I envisioned it being. I hit several moments of writer's block while typing, and although I've finished the storyboard, I've come to realise my piece is far too long for only six sessions. Next week, I think I'll look at condensing the piece, cutting some songs out and shortening them down to a verse and a chorus, and rejigging them so the piece maintains narrative cohesion. I will think about characterisation too. I will think about who the character starts of as: pompous and uptight, and I will take cues from Rik Mayall, an actor and comedian who's known for playing arrogant characters, and I will also think about the transition between who he started off as, to the desperate sad man he ends up as.

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Arrogant man leaves his life behind to go to New York (Purpose - bright and hopeful)

Decides to audition for Broadway with no theatre experience (Razzle Dazzle - pompous)

Auditions for a role in Cats, acts pompous and bombs it horribly (Memory - terribly)

He walks home, and decide's to get himself of a lot of money (Alienation's for the Rich - lamenting about how broke he is)

Cockily, he decides to go the roulette wheels and gamble a lot of money (Money (That's What I Want) - desperate and hopeful)

Now broke, he tries to make it back in the entertainment industry, he tries to make as an Elvis impersonator (Black Velvet - pseudo-Elvis, sounds more like him as he goes)

He actually makes a decent living, and during his time as this act, he meets a girl and falls in love with her (Burning Love)

He speaks about how they fell in love, what they did... and after a while he thought he saw what was her in a bar with another man and he runs off (Take Me Away)

He talks her about it, she swears it's not her, but then she tells him how she thinks he's cheating, so they both split (Suspicious Minds - peak Elvis)

He loses what he gambled (Theme from New York, New York - having a meltdown)

He wants to leave, but he's spent so long here, he struggles to call anywhere else but home (New York, I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down - emotional climax of the piece, one of few where I sing the entire song)

He uses what money he has left to take a flight back home (Leaving on a Jet Plane - emotional about the life he's leaving behind, and he says goodbye to his ex)

Finds himself back in the same room as where he was in the UK (The Old Apartment - passionate and powerful singing of where he once lived)

He starts by getting back in touch with and taking advice from his mother, who was a therapist herself (This Hyper World, singing the entire song)

He's learnt, he's grown from his experience, as he tries to take another stab at life (Road to Nowhere - entire song)

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I wanted to try my sirens again because it's a good way to bridge the gap between chest voice and head voice, and I got good at them, but I did lose my touch a little because it's been a while. I also discovered today that I can do lip trills, which came as a surprise because I've never been able to do them before.

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I have recorded each song to get a sense of how they feel, and have pulled several songs. After rewriting the narrative, I felt that the short scene of the character needing money was overall the most forgettable element, and could be whittled down in the storyline with not much changing narratively. With it being extracted, that meant the song "Money (That's What I Want)" was cut. Another song that was cut was "This Hyper World". The first reason was it was a rather difficult song to try and sing live, as it had very fast-paced segments that most people wouldn't reasonably be able to catch up to. The second reason was how it didn't really fit in narratively, due to the transition of going from such a bouncy number to the most emotional number of whole piece, "New York, I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down", but not even being the final song. The impact of the finale "Road to Nowhere", a bouncy song, lost some of its power with already having a bouncy song between the show's most emotional beat with the climax. "With a Little Help from My Friends" does a great job at being a moment of reflection, both being a natural follow through from the emotional beat, into the energetic conclusion.

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Purpose - green

Razzle Dazzle - yellow

Memory - dark blue, night sky colour

Burning Love - purple

Take Me Away - red

Suspicious Minds - orange

New York, New York - bright showy spotlights, like what you'd see in a cabaret

New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down - dim lights at the start of the piece, that slowly get brighter and brighter towards the climax

With a Little Help from My Friends - light blue

Road to Nowhere - multicoloured lights, very flashy and bright

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Not having very long left to work on this project before the performance, I have had to take some measures to save time and allow me to focus on other aspects that need to be done, such as trimming down the backing tracks, and creating an accurate tech script so that it runs smoothly. The biggest liberty that I took was turning the poems into audio files, instead of reciting them live. I wrote quite a lot of poetry, and it was simply unlearnable with the time I had left, on top of everything else I had to do, and I felt like I wouldn't have been able to deliver it convincingly. One thing I might do is try to recite the final poem live, so it has more of a profound impact. While each poem is playing, I'm going to explore options of how to act, whether I'll be sat down at a table writing in a journal, or exploring the space.

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Finishing off the poetry

Sort out lighting for the songs

Characterisation in each number

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I'm having trouble visualising myself getting this piece memorised and performed within the time I have left, so next week I will try again to see how I feel, or figure out a compromise.

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Convert poems to .wav files

Cap the performance at 20 minutes due to time constraints

Create backing track in full + poems and music

Use Audacity to fine tune transitions between poetry and music

find a computer that worked :(

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As of last session, I was told that due to time restrictions, I had to cap my performance at 20 minutes, instead of the initial 45 minute estimate I clocked my piece to be at. Thankfully, however, the actual piece as a whole was between the 25-30 minute mark. I shaved as much time as I could off of the other numbers without lessening the impact of the piece by taking out just the right parts out. The final number "Road to Nowhere" however, was included in first at its full length, because I wanted to have the whole song as part of the piece. Slotting it in last, I worked backwards adjusting the length of other pieces to accommodate my wishes. There was also several instances where I had the poetry transition in through the music, which was a fun addition as well as a time saver. One small problem with these transitions was that the music sometimes drowned out the poetry, so I used volume automation to balance it out, so that both could be heard clearly, and created a nice crescendo. I completed the backing track by the end of the session, with all transitions checked and everything to my liking.

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Purpose - 0:27-1:32

Razzle Dazzle - 2:00-2:57

Memory - music fades in at 3:07, crescendos at 3:29, fade out begins at 4:00, ends at 4:27

Burning Love - starts at 4:35, full volume at 4:40, ends at 5:22

Take Me Away - 5:50-6:53

Suspicious Minds - 7:17-8:11

New York, New York - 8:40-9:36

New York, I Love You... - 10:08-13:49

With a Little Help... - 14:02-14:48

Road to Nowhere - 15:38-20:02

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After I finally sorted the backing track, I got up and started to use the space, planning out my piece. I started to stage it, using stage blocks and chairs for the set. As I built the set, things started to really come together for me, as I had ideas on how I wanted to act out scenes that I never would have thought of if I didn't build my set. For example, I used an office chair and had the idea, during one fast-paced intense part of a song, to zip around on the chair, weaving through the set. All of this, while trying to have the set somewhat resemble a bedroom. I had chairs, all of them different (a regular chair, an office chair and a stool), two stage blocks stacked on top of each other to act as a dresser, and two stage blocks side by side to act as a table, and a pile of crash mats to act as a bed. Perhaps the biggest use of this was in the final number, that had me using the set like a jungle gym. The set was something that I neglected to think about, that was actually fairly important. I needed it to act as just a general setting of a bedroom, while also acting as a space that I could move around efficiently in unique and inventive ways. As I continued to act it out, I found what worked and what should be worked on. For example, I found that the opening beat of Razzle Dazzle was a bit too long, and made me come in at the wrong time more than once. I did two full run-throughs of it, edited the backing track down to leave more space when I wanted it because some of the cuts felt abrupt, and wrote the timestamps down in lieu of the tech run.

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I love the fact that in acting, I can do a lot. I can make people laugh, cry, cringe, think, anything. I can be anyone I want, I could be someone who's like me, or someone that I'm not. I enjoy creating comedic bits, usually musical numbers of my own writing, but I have branched out into other types of performance that I found enjoyable, such as more emotional numbers to a creepy Artaud piece.

My skills lie in acting, singing, songwriting, voice acting and impressionism, and comedy. I like making people laugh and have a good time, to the point where I usually end up laughing with them to the detriment of the piece. I want to explore multiple parts of the human condition, and find a template of which I can find numerous ways to make people laugh.

Artists that inspire me include comedic performers such as Frankie Boyle, TomSka and Fern Brady, musicians like Neil Cicierega of Lemon Demon, David Byrne of Talking Heads and They Might Be Giants, and those that combine the two such as Bo Burnham, Weird Al Yankovic and Tom Cardy. I could incorporate a more comedic delivery, as seen with Boyle and Brady, who both have a very similar rhythm in their delivery, and I could include some witty songs with cutting lyrics like with Burnham and Cardy.

The ultimate end goal of what I want to make is to have the comedic highs and emotional lows. Something that's grounded in real life, but is also ridiculous in its delivery and presentation. I want my audience to laugh and be amused, but also leaves them feeling something deeper, be it sadness, shock, intrigue or contemplation. I will achieve this by thinking about what makes me feel profound thought, taking these emotions and then adding in comedic twists to make it more light-hearted, as handling a serious topic with laughter can be done right.

My primary target audience is 16-25, the age bracket who will maybe understand more online terminology and the hardships of people of this age as they're currently going through it, people more into their adulthood will not find it funny as they won't get it.

My piece is live, perhaps some pre-recorded parts. I think this diversity will allow for more creative freedom. Pre-recorded, in the mock I did have some technical hitches. Whereas live, I struggled to stay in character and ad-libbed a lot of it, as well as laughing when I wasn't supposed to.

I could use the projector to show bits of footage, or perhaps a slideshow to add more dimensions to the piece. The multimedia will be there to give more effect and allows for more options and creative wiggle room. I could potentially do a fake Zoom call to make it look like there is more than one person other than me.

Whatever the final piece will be, it will be multiple plots and stories all combining into one, it's going to be comedic. It's going to be at its core, entertaining. But it's still undetermined what the final outcome is yet, as I'm still experimenting with ideas. Potential points of reference for future ideas include Dropout sketch comedy shows, Bo Burnham's Inside and David Byrne's American Utopia.

The style is comedic, and also layers of multimedia. Musical theatre will perhaps be featured in original works, but also perhaps there will be some musical numbers used from pre-existing works on top of it. I may use movement and gesture in some form to convey how the characters feel. I will use both physicality and music to convey emotions, feelings and ideas of the piece. I am exhibiting skills such as physical acting, songwriting and vocals.

By looking and developing what I've already done, and taking inspiration from what I've seen, it will springboard ideas for scripts, lyrics and concepts. Characters and narratives will develop as I flesh out what it's going to be.

Lighting will perhaps be minimal, sound will be important but won't be much outside of backing tracks. Costume will be important as I will be portraying multiple roles.

I need to think about each scene individually, with its own allotted time to be fleshed out equally. Each part of performance must get its own attention, so nothing is left behind and neglected. I will show people my ideas and see which ones land and which ones don't. The feedback will be taken on, considered and processed, to see what works and what doesn't. I'll have Patrick to check over my work and give me criticism, and be open to change. I should never rest on my laurels when a scene I think is good to go. There's always room for improvement. I will liaise with James as far as projection and backing tracks go, staging should be fairly simple for each scene, and resources will be considered as the piece is developed.

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2025-04-01 - L3 - G18 Solo Performance - Keir Alt