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The aim of this week, to start my Breath Control development, I wanted to see at what level my Breath Control currently sits at. Therefore, I sung "I'll be There" from the Pirate Queen. In the past, I have struggled with this song as there's a verse after the 2nd Chorus which is fast and requires me to take short, sharp breaths between words.

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Development Plan 1| Breath Control: Week 1 (I'll be There)

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This week I looked at the start of "Big Bright Beautiful World" and take notes on Shrek's characteristics

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Do i want to create my own piece to tell my story (bit like jamie)

Get the audience involved. Make them feel though getting them to feel theyre there.

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Something deep, mens mental health (Norwich City mental health video: https://youtu.be/tX8TgVR33KM?si=ajM5B9wRSNWqlMvg)

Careless "banter"

Is it banter, or is it abuse?

Not being able to get out of bed, other people not understanding and thinking you're lazy.

How one knockback makes you feel the worlds against you.

Look at how you feel and what made you feel like you couldnt ask for help.

Self belief, realising people do care and are willing to listen.

People would rather have the conversation than attend your funeral.

Dont feel like you need to aline yourself with societys expectations.

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Check in on those around you | #WorldMentalHealthDay 💛💚 #youarenotalone

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West Side Story Suite: https://youtu.be/eh9UX1uS-38?si=5yuVMh8G1TJt3U5t

West Side Story Prologue: (3:20) https://youtu.be/bxoC5Oyf_ss?si=imU6Z1j4NJbe_WLC

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West Side Story - Prologue - Official Full Number - 50th Anniversary (HD)

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How did the style relate to the narrative of the performance?

-West Side Story is about 2 gangs who fight for territory in New Yorks Manhatten. But a Shark falls in love with a Jet and vise-versa. This is a modern adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. So you wouldnt expect Ballet to be a part of a show with this storyline.

Why did the choreograpger chose ballet in this performance?

-this happens at the beginning of the musical when tention is building between the Sharks and the Jets. The Choreographer may have chosen Ballet for this crucial scene to show rising emotions. Ballet was also put into West Side Story by Choreographer Jerome Robbins. However, in 1994 (33 Years after the Musical was first performed) Lincoln Kirstein wrote to Robbins and suggested he make a West Side Story as "a choral ballet".

Did the performers require additional training to enable them to perform the routine?

-Depending on the existing skills the dancers/performers have, it would only take a certain amount of time to learn the choreography and perform it, despite the dance not being soley ballet. Jazz was also common in this show.

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DANCE This 2015 “Seize the Day” from Disney’s Newsies

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How did the style relate to the narrative of the performance?

-Newsies is a Broadway Musical about young men who work as paper boys in New York. This means that the storyline suits the style well because of Jazz's upbeat nature. Paper boys tend to be youthful and energetic, the same vibes thats given out by jazz.

Why did the choreograpger choose Jazz in this performance?

-Because the song shown above is for the most part upbeat, then due to the nature of Jazz, it fits better. Ballet is also incorparated lnto the musical, but Jazz is the main style.

Did the performers require additional training to enable them to perform the routine?

-Its unlikely that the actors had to re-train, but with the section of the dance where they stood on newspapers and moved their legs, then they wouldve had to spend quite a bit of time on it as it probably different from anything else theyve done before.

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https://youtu.be/A04CHpcqfaEThis week, i wanted to see where my accent skill level currently sits. So to achieve this, I sung some songs I already have in my repertoire which require different accents. This week I performed Flash Bang Wallop from "Half a Six-pence" which is performed in a Cockney accent.

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Development Plan 1| Accents: Week 1 (Flash Bang Wallop)

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This week, I sang through my current list to find gaps in my song and Monologue/Duologue repertoire. My current singing repertoire list will be posted below. I realised that I'm short on Disney Songs, Pop songs and Jukebox songs. As for an acting repertoire, I don't currently have any monologues/performance material. So i now have ideas of what genre I need more depth in.

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Developement Plan 1| Repertoire: Week 1 (Empty Chairs at Empty Tables)

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-Flash Bang Wallop (Half a Six-pence)

-Younger Than Springtime (South Pacific)

-It's Hard to Speak my Heart (Parade)

-Anthem (Chess)

-Empty Chairs at Empty Tables (Les Mis)

-I'll Be There (Pirate Queen)

-Stars (Les Mis)

-This is the Moment (Jekyll and Hyde)

-Santa Fe (Newsies)

-Freeze Your Brain (Heathers)

-You’ll be Back (Hamilton)

-Waving Through a Window (Evan Hansen)

-Michael in the Bathroom (Be More Chill)

-I Want to Break Free (We Will Rock You)

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The aim of this week was to begin working on my Breath Control Development. Therefor, I sung a song which i have struggled with in the past and has a long sustained note at the end

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Development Plan 1| Breath Control: Week 2 (Corner of the Sky)

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This week, i started off by singing songs already in my Repertoire such as "This is the Moment" and "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" (Pinned above). I do this because not only does it act as a second vocal warm up but it also keeps it ticking over in my head so if the time comes where i need it, it's ready to go.

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Development Plan 1| Repertoire: Week 2 (Empty Chairs at Empty Tables)

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To further develop my accents this week, I learnt the song "Never Getting Rid of Me" from Waitress. Because Waitress was set in the Southern US, this required me to speak in the corresponding accent. After listening to the song with the Singer, i realised the words/sounds that are pronounced differently. Like "Dawn" is pronounced more like "Down". And the "g" at the end of a word is kept silent. I will perform this again next week and see how its developed

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Development Plan 1| Accents: Week 2 (Never Gettin' Rid of Me)

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In a production a performer will need to dance/run around stage while singing, so I sung a song with sustained notes and a song that requires breath control constantly. So i did some exercise while/just prior to singing to get me used to singing and doing physical activity. This will especially come useful during Pantomime.

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Development Plan 1| Breath Control: Week 2 (Waving through a Window)

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This week, I began to look into the Scottish accent. to achieve this, I began to look "Who I'd Be" from Shrek. In this video, I am singing along to the song with the actor so I can begin to pick up the basic sounds of the accent. And with it being a relatively new song, I still need to fully learn the melody.

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Development Plan 1| Accents: Week 3 (Who I'd Be; Learn/Sing along then karaoke)

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In this video, I began to research the French Accent. To achieve this, I listened to and then sung along to Be our Guest. This song requires a French accent. I also did a little research into the French dialect. For example: A French speaker would naturally use a rising inflection. The "R" is also pronounced differently in a French accent

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Development Plan 1| Accents: Week 4 (Be our guest; Sing along)

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Sign in to your Wix account to access the website editor and complete business solutions.

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Login to access and create your next design.

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In this video, I once again went over the new song I started last week. the video bellow is also carrying on from previous weeks and continuing to learn and develop the accent

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Development Plan 1| Accents: Who I'd Be (Week 4)

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Development Plan 1| Accents: FlashBangWallop (Week 4)

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Development Plan 1| Accents: Never ever getting rid of me (Week 4)

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Development Plan 1| Accents: FlashBangWallop (Week 4)

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In this video, I begin to explore the French accent by singing Be our Guest. I chose this song because I already know this number so I wouldn't be spending as much time on learning the song as i would if i had chosen differently

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Development Plan 1| Accents: Be Our Guest (Week 6)

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This is me continuing to develop my Posh English accent

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Development Plan 1| Accents: You'll Be Back (Week 5)

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I then went on to singing a new song i prepared from the Golden Age of Musical Theatre. I Sung "Younger Than Springtime" from South Pacific. When practiced and perfected, It will fill a gap in my Repertoire which will help if I need to present a Golden Age Musical Song. Next week I will re-perform and see the progress.

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Development Plan 1| Repertoire: Week 2 (Younger than Springtime- Pre)

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2025-03-31 - L3 - G18 Solo Performance - Oliver Alt

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For this performance, I went through multiple different concepts for the lighting to portray the piece. In the end, I decided to go for a warm white light for the entirety of the performance

One reason for this choice, was I didn't want my performance to feel like a show, I wanted it to feel personal to the audience, Like they were on the stage with me. And so I didn't want the lights to detract from my piece and its meanings.

Despite the lights remaining the same throughout the entirety of the performance, towards the end of the show, I asked for the stage to fade out into darkness. At this moment of the storyline, we skip forward 4 months into a therapists office. The blackout was to signalise a change in setting and also a change in time. I felt this was the most effective way to show this other than changing other features (Clothes, Set, etc)

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Because my production was set in a school environment, I wanted to be dressed like a secondary school student. being in a suit also helped me to show the determent of my characters mental health, with my uniform gradually becoming more and more decrepit.

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For my set and scenery, I didn't want to have the stage packed. This was because I moved around quite frequently. That and I didn't want peoples attention taken off me by anything irrelevant to that moment in the performance.

Initially, I wanted to have a door or a door frame in the middle of the stage to signalise when I was going into a different room. However I opted to instead use stage depth to differentiate from my bedroom, to kitchen, to school. I also had a table downstage which I used in the kitchen scenes as a kitchen table and In the school scenes as a desk.

Set wise, I used 18 blocks of rostra which I had at the back of the stage which I used for my bed and also used to place other props which I needed throughout the performance.

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I started off by brainstorming what I wanted my performance to be like, and what I wanted it to achieve. I then went on to think about what my audience should be age wise. Eventually I came to the conclusion that my audience should be people of my age (young adults/older children) and adults. This is because with my piece being there to raise awareness, I want people older than what I was when I was going through what I was going through because I want the audience to learn to recognise the signs such as eating disorders, acting out etc.

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Then I began to look at songs I could potentially put into my piece to help drive the plot. I played with the idea of a Musical Theatre mash up, but I decided against it as I wasn't able to find enough musical theatre songs that fit into my performance and strike the right notes. I then looked towards darker songs, however I didn't want too many of these as I feel it would water down the meaning of the piece. Thus I came to the conclusion of having just one song, and that being one at the end. "You'll never walk alone" Acting one final statement to the performance

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Here is my first draft of a story line.

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Today I focused on the beginning of the performance. For my Mock piece, I did a kind of time lapse of my first 3 days of school. So I began with alarm going off and myself rolling out of bed. Then I followed the same routine that I had when I was younger before school. I decided the effect of doing this 3 times and slowly deteriorating more and more each time will give across the message of my mental health being damaged

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I wanted my piece to be based around what I went through when I was younger. So I began to draw up events that happened from attempted suicide to Student-Teacher conflicts. I decided on a few events I could reference and which ones relate directly to the story I want to tell

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In my piece, I want to foreshadow the end of the play (where I try to kill myself) as a way of showing that signs are there to be spotted before the person gets to that stage. I wanted it to not seem out of place so I wanted to find a place to put it not jumping out from the story line. This meant I either put it in the toilet scene, school scene or home scene. After a while of playing with different options, I decided to go with having a razor in the bathroom. This will be effective because it isn't clunky to the story line but also draws peoples attention and hopefully sends shock

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As previously mentioned, I want to have songs in my piece, so yet again I sat down to think about what songs I could have. And I came to the conclusion, that instead of having many songs, I'd just have the one, as it'd mean the audience are more captivated by it. Also, because I am reaching out to all kinds of people, I don't want to solely make a show out of what I enjoy. This show isn't made for me. I decided to stick with the end song of "You'll never walk alone"

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This week I wrote the script and began to set it out how I wanted it to go. I went over the bit I did for my mock (the repetition of the school day) and then I began to add to the 3rd one by adding a crashout between leaving school and going home

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Then I began to write/redraft the suicide letter. I took inspiration from the one I wrote many years ago. And re worded a few things to make it a little less personal to myself. I also extended it a bit so I could add a few more things for effect. Above is my stimuli

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I then continued to block the rest of the production. When I realized that it was a bit blant towards the end where it should be building. I wanted to find something to bridge between the suicide note and trying to kill myself. I thought about it and opted to add more dialogue. However, I then thought it'd be a bit dry still. So I decided adding music would make it more captivating for the audience. Looking at the list I had already drawn up, I thought the instrumental in "wake me up when september ends" by Greenday fits the tone perfectly. As well as the way it fades out, which would be perfect for when the lights dim after the suicide attempt

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Thoughout the entirety of this process, I've always wanted to either reach out to the audience. I initially wanted them to come on stage and look things like my suicide note and hurtful messages sent to me. But i felt that I'd lose attention that way. So i started to think about what I could do to reach out and break the 4th wall. So taking inspiration from a performance I was in last year with a therapist scene, I opted to sit on the floor and speak to a voice at the top of the auditorium (pre recorded). And half way through speaking to the recording, I redirect to talk to the audience. Where I can get out what the meaning of this performance was and to connect with those in the audience to achieve my goals

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Then I went and recorded the audio for the tracks which I'll be speaking to and interacting with in the performance. I spent a while trying to figure out how to record audio, when I just opted to use my camera and put all the footage together just for the audio.

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This week, I sung "Who I'd Be" from Shrek to start the process and mark where I currently am

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This week, I watched the 3rd scene where Shrek met Donkey and analysed Shrek's tone and how the actor portrayed him in this scene

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This week I went to the next scene in the script and began to read through and read aloud also starting to add characterisation

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This week I researched more into Shrek. Upon reading the script and watching the pro shot, I discovered that Shrek is a sarcastic character. When angry, his face is like a crumpled paper bag, full frown and in pointed eyebrows.

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This week I sat down with the first verse of "When Words Fail" and annotated it into Scottish so that its already in my head come when I actually sing it

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This week I continued to work my way through the script by watching the pro shot and moving along my script.

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This Week I listened to other Scottish actor Richard Madden to further pick up their dialect and then went over the prologue to try and insert the accent into it

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This week I looked at the scene with Shrek, Fiona and Donkey. I watched the pro shot and then worked on the scene

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Today I looked at the song between Fiona and Shrek, I annotated the song for me to comprehend better in Scottish

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I used this week as a benchmark to see how far my characterisation has came on since the beginning of the process. I went back and did the scene after "Time to say goodbye"

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This week I listened to and then sung Who I'd Be and other songs just to keep it ticking over and to develop and grow my Scottish/Shrek accent

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Development Plan 1: (Accents) Week 6 (Who I'd be)

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This week I looked at the opening song of Big Bright Beautiful World again, but this time not singing and just walking through and getting used to the props I need and knowing where I need to be

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This week I continued to go over scenes I already set and also looked at When Words Fail again, starting to add characterisation

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In connection to the other skill, this week I watched the pro shot of when words fail to see what Shrek does with his posture, and what gestures he makes

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This week, I looked at the scene with Shrek and Fiona around the bonfire during donkeys song "gotta make a move"

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This week, I went back over a scene we covered in class. this was because I wasn't as comfortable on this scene as others. This was the final Wedding scene

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This week, I went back to do the scene I first did at the very start of the process because I wanted to see how far I've came since first picking up the role

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This week, I sung the song I sung at the beginning of the process to see how far I've came since the process began

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In this video, To help with my breath control, I did some breathing exercises to warm up my diaphragm which helps me control my breath as it is the muscle under my lungs, controlling when I breath in and out and how quickly or slowly i want to

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Development Plan 1| Breath Control: Week 3

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This week I looked at a new song to further add to and extent my repertoire. I looked at a Les Mis song, Empty Chairs at Empty Tables which gives me a unique song I can use in auditions.

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Development Plan 1| Repertoire: Week 4 (Empty Chairs at Empty Tables)

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This week i performed this is the moment in character. This song requires belt for a lot of the song as well as a few sustained notes. Going over this song will help me overall with belting and not running out of air halfway through a note

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Development Plan 1| Breath Control: Week 4 (This is the moment; In character)

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This week I sang FlashBangWallop from Half a six-pence. This song is very quick so I needed to use breath control and time my breathing otherwise id run out of oxygen

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Development Plan 1| Accents: FlashBangWallop (Week 4)

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Here I sang Bui Doi from Miss Saigon properly for the first time. This will also allow me to learn a new language, tying this into another skill

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Development Plan 1| Repertoire: Bui Doi (Week 5)

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This week, I started work on an American accent. To do this, I chose to work on "Santa Fe" from Newsies which is set in New York. This means I must sing this in a Brooklyn/New York accent.

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Development Plan 1| Accents/Repertoire: Week 6 (Santa Fe)

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This week I looked at a Cockney accented song. For this, I sang "FlashBangWallop" from Half a Six-Pence. This also uses a lot of breath control, so I use other skills I'm working towards here too

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Development Plan 1| Accents: FlashBangWallop (Week 4)

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This week I sung Boi Doi from Miss Saigon as a final song so I can benchmark to see how far I've came since the start of this process and from when I first started learning this song

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This is a song I've sang for a while, but because it's important to have things ticking over. I keep doing this.

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Development Plan 1| Waving through a window (Week 6)

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This week, I sang This is the moment after running around for 30 seconds and doing 10 start jumps. The I did more running around in the instrumental to ensure I was always out of breath. Training to sing while out of breath will help me conserve the air i do have.

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This week I took it a step up from the last, i did this by doing exercise while singing the song. This will prepare me for the industry when ill need to dance on stage while singing in the majority of shows.

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Today is my final session on breath control. so i sang the song i sang at the beginning of the process. this was ..., I can see the progress i have made since then. I can not only hear the difference, but i can now also feel the difference, it is a lot easier to hit high notes and sustain notes when you know how to control you breath effectively

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After my performance, I received plenty of feedback from peers and friends who watched my production. This feedback helped me understand how the performance was received and how it hit the audience.

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This week I sat down and looked at the opening lines of the show during the prologue:

"Once Upon A Time

There was a little ogre named Shrek

Who Lived with his parents in a bog by a Tree"