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Welcome to my padlet wall, created for my Introduction to Performing Arts assessment. Over the course of the next couple of months, I will be researching the practitioner that myself and my group have chosen to base our Presentation Performance on for this module. The practitioner we have chosen is Andrew Lloyd Webber, as his productions are more accessible to performers who don’t necessarily excel at singing or dancing than other practitioners, such as Bertolt Brecht, or Antonin Artaud, who expected the absolute best out of their performers.

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The show we have decided to base our performance presentation around is Andrew Lloyd Webber’s famous ‘School of Rock’, as there is nothing involved in School of Rock that none of us in the group can do. The dancing is simple, the acting is straightforward, and the singing is very lenient with its performers, as most of the songs are written for children to be able to perform regardless of ability. If you can’t sing, then that’s not a problem. We have already decided the roles with me playing the role of Dewey Finn, who is at the time under the disguise of his roommate Ned Schnebly, Helen playing the role of Summer, Shelly playing the role of Freddy, who we have renamed to Freda, Jodie playing the role of Tamika, and finally Jessica playing the role of Sophie. We have decided this because each character from the selection has an entirely different personality, with Summer being the brains of the group, Tamika being the shy one of the group, Freda having all of the group’s charisma and cockiness, and Sophie just not entirely caring what is going on at any time. With the performance presentation having a minimum limit of 15 minutes and a maximum of 20 minutes, we have decided to include one song, a dance, a sequence where the dance is being taught and finally, the acting scene itself.  The scene has the audience witness Dewey attempting to teach Summer, Freda, Tamika and Sophie all about Andrew Lloyd Webber. With Summer being the know it all that she is, she speaks up whenever she deems necessary, even if it isn’t necessary at all. Freda constantly challenges Summer and it is clear that there is a little heat between the two. Tamika, while being completely silent, does give some excellent answers to Dewey’s questions, whereas Sophie keeps her answers short and to the point. We know Sophie doesn’t care for the lesson as she, at one point, exclaims 'I don’t know. You’re the teacher’. Dewey initially planned on teaching the kids the song Pharaoh’s Story from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s play ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicoloured Dreamcoat’, to which Summer, ofcourse, already knows the words and completely takes control of the activity. Summer proceeds to perform the entire song with Tamika, Freda and Sophie as her backup singers. Dewey can do nothing but watch. After the song, Dewey has the children speak about Andrew Lloyd Webber’s work with the writer Tim Rice, which I will speak more about during the research portion of this assignment. Afterwards, on Sophie’s request, Dewey poses the children the challenge of performing a song that Andrew Lloyd Webber did not have written, and perform it in his style of flashy, loud and dramatic. He leaves the room to secretly play on his guitar and the children get to work on their piece. Dewey returns and watches what the children have come up with. He enjoys it so much that he even joins in near the end. The bell rings and Dewey congratulates the children, informing them that the next lesson will be covering Shakespeare. Summer pipes up about how much she knows about Shakespeare, to which Dewey promptly replies with an “I QUIT!”, leaving the school and children forever to pursue his dreams of being a famous rockstar. We have since had to add a song for me to make up a little time from the 20th of November 2018. The song is called When I climb To the Top of Mount Rock and is to be performed as an intro to the performance presentation.

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As Andrew Lloyd Webber is the subject of this performance presentation, it is important that we know exactly who he is. I will be doing research over the next few weeks and displaying what I have learnt here on this padlet wall.  In the year of 1948, on the 22nd of March, Andrew Lloyd Webber was born to William Webber and Jean Lloyd Webber. By the age of just 9, Andrew had already composed and published his first piece. In the year 1965, when he was just 17, Andrew Lloyd Webber met Tim Rice, who he would later collaborate with on multiple shows. The very first show that both Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice worked on side by side was named The Likes of Us, which Andrew created when he was 57 years old. In 1967, Andrew had produced the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicoloured Dreamcoat when he was the age of 19, which is more than I can say I did by 19. The show premiered in 1968.

By the year of 1977, Andrew had created his own company, named the Really Useful Company when he was 28 years old. This company would go on to manage and produce every single one of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s shows from then on. At the time of writing up this piece of work, Andrew Lloyd Webber has a net worth of $1.2 billion, making him one of the wealthiest composers of all time. Andrew Lloyd Webber is currently married to Madeleine Gurdon, having had 2 wives before her. The couple had met through neighbours. Over his lifetime, Andrew Lloyd Webber has created 13 musicals and 2 separate scores for movies, these being the score to The Odessa File in 1974 and Watership Down in 1999. Andrew Lloyd Webber currently holds the record for most shows touring at a time.

Over the course of his life, Andrew Lloyd Webber has been accused of plagiarism on multiple occasions. The first instance of this was by Louis Andriessan, a Dutch composer, who claimed that the song I Don’t Know How to Love Him from Jesus Christ Superstar possessed too many similarities to his own piece, Mandelhssons Violin Concerto in E Minor. The famous rockstar Pink Floyd has also claimed Andrew Lloyd Webber had plagiarised riffs from his song Echoes to be used in Phantom of the Opera. Pink Floyd has yet to take any legal action against Andrew Lloyd Webber however.

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About School of Rock

School of Rock first began life as a movie in the year 2003, until the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber decided to turn it into a musical in 2013 when he had purchased the rights to the property of School of Rock. The stage adaptation was released to wide critical acclaim by many and remains beloved to this day. The School of Rock follows the story of Dewey Finn, an aspiring Rockstar, who is kicked out of his band for not keeping up to standard. Without a job or any hobbies, Dewey spends all of his time at home, to the displeasure of his roommate’s girlfriend. One day, while he is home alone, he hears the telephone ringing and so answers it. It turns out to be from a school that his roommate Ned had applied for a job in teaching at. Dewey sees the opportunity to take up the job offer for his roommate and seize it for himself, having to rationalise with himself while doing so to not feel bad. On his first day, Dewey performs horribly as a teacher and has the initial view of his students being snobby brats. When he learns that he must teach them music, he takes the opportunity to teach them exclusively about rock and try to transform them into his own personal band to partake in the Battle of the Bands. Dewey is desperate to win against his old band purely as revenge. This can easily be seen as a selfish move, and once again, Dewey has to rationalise with himself.

Eventually Dewey has taught the kids all about the art of Rock, but to his new boss’s disapproval. There had been tension between both him and the headmaster since day 1, and Dewey attempts to earn her friendship by taking her out for drinks at a Rock bar, which surprisingly works. Dewey is able to sneak his main band members out of school for an audition at the Battle of the Bands without the headmaster’s knowledge and has the rest of the class remain behind as a cover for them.  They are rejected at the auditions initially, but somehow make it in by having the kids pose as being made up of terminally ill children. The name School of Rock is given to the band. Soon after however, Dewey is informed that there is a parent’s evening the day before the Battle of the Bands. With no time to prepare, he begins to worry. Eventually, Ned finds out that Dewey has been pretending to be him when he receives a check from a job that he hasn’t been working at. At the parent’s evening, Dewey is confronted by Ned, where Dewey is forced to admit who he is and flees home. The next morning, the kids had stolen the school bus and arrived at Dewey’s apartment to pick him up. He doesn’t respond until after a few inspiring words from the children however. The Battle of the Bands takes place, and the band perform a song that had been written earlier but dismissed by Dewey. They unfortunately lose to Dewey’s old band but are cheered back on by the audience who want an encore. Dewey’s old boss and the children’s parents witness what is going on and are impressed by what they see. With their hearts won over, Dewey is allowed to coach the children while Ned teaches them.

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Strengths

Before the performance:

For this performance, I believe that 2 of my main strengths as a performer will come forward quickly: My ability to add characterisation very quickly and my ability to quickly learn lines or songs. There are no songs as of writing this for me to learn, though that may change. As of the 20th of November this has indeed changed.

After the performance:

Over the course of this performance, I believe my main strengths have been my chemistry with the rest of my group, as chemistry is always important when putting together a performance. Any chemistry will be felt by the audience and this will possibly enhance an audience member’s viewing experience. Another strength of mine has been my ability to learn and adapt quickly, as we had to add small bits and pieces to the performance presentation on multiple occasions.

Weaknesses

Before the performance: The one weakness that I believe will be a hinderance in this performance presentation is the fact that, despite being a fast learner, this is only the case when nearing the date of what I need to know. For example, a month before the performance, nothing will be retained no matter how hard I try. This is never a good thing for a performer and will be something I must work on

After the performance: My performance in this presentation was most certainly hindered by my song in the beginning of the piece. I had to improvise as I had forgotten a verse of it, and just couldn’t hit the required notes for the song. This will be something to improve on for any future performances

Overall:

This performance, while certainly not being my best, is far from my worse. I believe I achieved what I needed to during this performance, showing that I am capable both offstage and onstage. I will be taking this performance into account when thinking about past performances, as it has shown that I can’t always be confident that I’ll know exactly what I’m doing what I need to.