The Recognition of Learning Module: Activity Number One

Reflection of Learning and Analysis

 

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat - A Youth Production

The question I want to use for my reflection is "what have I learnt about directing and how have I used my acting skills and professional practice to enhance the children's performance?"

 Forms of Reflection

Gibbs' reflection cycle (1998) and The 'What' format cycle (Borton, 1970.)
 

Gibbs' reflection and analysis model is incredibly useful when it comes to structuring a reflection and enables you to not only reflect on what has happened and what you have learned throughout the process, but it also allows you to assess how you may potentially improve for next time if you were to complete the entire process again. I want to look at Gibbs' (1998) Reflective Cycle and use this method in order to create my own reflection of my professional practice as a teacher and director and have a closer look at my process throughout Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.

The 'What' format cycle is a great way of exploring every single aspect of the performance with the contant questioning of 'what?' in much more specific detail. You can reflect on the past, the present and the future and therefore you can cover all time periods of learning and what you discovered.

 

Description

Had just under three months to direct this musical performed at the Oasis Academy, Sheerness on the 23rd and 24th of July. The performance was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, a youth production which included several different songs over two acts. This included 9 songs in Act One and 23 songs in Act Two, so Kayleigh and I were going to have to work together in order to complete the entire show. The show was incredibly ambitious, particularly when we only had less than three months to put it together!

Feelings

At the start

I felt so, so nervous when I was told we would only have three months in order to create and block the full thing. It was the first musical we had put together as the Kayleigh Carina team I was feeling panicked, trying to block numbers whenever I could and using class time in other lessons in order to do this.

Throughout the Rehearsals

Rehearsals felt fast paced but also felt like we were getting things done. Sometimes it felt like we were going at 100 miles per hour but what helped was the fact that we brought rehearsals of numbers into the other classes. For example, Joseph's Dream was choreographed in my acting class with children inputting their own ideas in order to create an entire blocked scene.  

At the End

I felt a sense of relief and achievement as parents congratualted us on a very well choreographed show. I was incredibly proud of all of the children for making such massive leaps in terms of their performance skills and confidence and was glad that we could all celebrate with an award ceremony. I did feel slightly disappointed with the fact that the first perfoamnce wasn't as smooth as the second but luckily a good amount of parents were able to see Joseph again on the second night.

From Audience Members
Audience members has so many wonderful things to say about the performance and couldn't believe how confident all of the children were. They loved the fact that you could clearly see that everyone was having fun and thought that much of the show was very well choreographed. One of our audience members wrote me a card and had this to say...

 

Feedback from an audience member
 

Evaluation

What Was Good?

• The ensemble as a whole was incredibly strong and everyone had bonded throughout the rehearsals.
• The acts were choreographed well so that everybody knew exactly what they were doing when they were on the stage.
• The amount of fun that the students were having whilst on the stage was seen by the audience members.
• The choreography and blocking was prepared well enough so that the children could perform comfortably and confidently.
• The space was wide so all of the students could use the space well and could all fit on the stage as an ensemble when performing each song.

What Was Bad?

• Not having a dress or technical rehearsal due to a lack of time really showed in the first performance, because certain things weren't where they should have been and the children told me that they felt a bit panicked because they didn't know where everything was.
• Not having a props table and not having costumes always organised meant that staff as well as children were scrambling around searching for things.
• Not having microphones prepared so that solo performers could be heard meant that there were times that the audience struggled to hear what they were singing.
• When Joseph's coat didn't come on the children showed that something was wrong to the audience due to them panicking.

Analysis

What Does It Mean?

The overall experience throughout Joseph showed me that the children still need more guidance in terms of performance knowledge and technique and that if something goes wrong to not let it show, but instead simply continue with the rest of the performance. The group had obviously bonded throughout the rehearsal period and this was due to the heavily ensemble based nature of mine and Kayleigh's teaching. The organised choreography proved to the parents that the children we developing their perfomance skills and were picking up steps well as a result of good tuition. It meant that the work we were doing was enabling them to present a much slicker and polished performance.

Award Ceremony: Recognising Achievements

It also meant that the children had come such a long way in terms of so many performing skills. They had developed confience and we had so, so many breakthroughs. We had an autistic girl who had overcome her fear of performing to an audience and was now out narrator! We had a fantastic celebration of the students that had truly shined and improved throughout rehearsals and one particular quote I take away with me is one which Ralph Fiennes expressed when being interviewed on the Actor Studio. He said:

"It's not about the destination, it's about the journey."

Conclusion

What else could we have done? What should we maybe not have done?

We could have had a dress rehearsal in order to help every one know exactly what the children were wearing and when and also had the chaperones and dressers in the rehearsal so that they could see an order. We should have had a props table from the very start so that students could locate their props and costumes easily throughout the performance and we could have enabled more time to correct some of the issues we had. The overall technical side of things could have been prepared a lot more in advance, including dress and tech rehearsals to sort those minor details and as a result make them flow alot better.

Action Plan

What would I do differently? How will I adapt my practice in the light of this new understanding?

I would make sure that scheduled rehearsal dates were made so that we were able to fit in a proper tech and dress rehearsal, incorporating the props and costumes area from the beginning and get the children used to having a props and costume area. I think it's important to always make sure you have a good amount of time in the performance space so you are used to all around you. I would definitely work more with the narrators in the cast next time and try to get them more confident with what they were doing, which may have been achieved if I had done some work with them earlier and showed them how they could project their voices successfully. I would also like to teach the children not to show the audience that something is wrong but to teach them to act as if those particular things were meant to happen and continue with their performing conviction, due to the well known fact that if the performers aren't relaxed, then the audience won't be. This is something I had to learn as a performer myself and plan to work on this with the children at some point throughout my future acting classes, which I hope to complete this term when I study improvisation with them and teaching them to take whatever happens and work with it. I also would like to cover stagecraft in Theatre School classes so that the children no entrances and exits and make sure they understand ecactly where there are at every single moment. Kayleigh and I have already discussed in a recent meeting and she has just recently booked a date in advance for Sunday the 18th of September, where we will perform our Christmas Variety Show which has enabled us to think about the space as well as give parents the time to keep the improtant date in their diaries and fully commit to the show.

What will we do differently for the new term? Where do we go from here?

Staff Meeting - Tuesday 30th August - A Reflection of the Term
Points and Minutes Covered

• Get the brand new leaflets out there before kids go back to school in the Leisure Complex and at the uniform shop.
• Potential Slogan: Heighten, Enlighten and Inspire.
• Booking dates and venues in advance - Sunday 18th December at a Village Hall.
• Must have a teach and dress rehearsal for the next show so that things run smoothly.
• Teach them about props table and costume changes so chaperones also know what is happening.
• For the next show we can have someone to do the teas and coffees.
• Let's book the videographer in advance so that they are booked and there are no issues or confusion with dates.
• I will create a programme template so that we can keep the Kayleigh Carina presentation consistent.
• Change overs of classes need to be slicker and smoother so we can run effortlessly from one to the other. eg. Street Class finished 5 minutes before Acting.
• Need Thierry as a helper for the wednesday classes so that she can do toilet duty, take the money and deal with the registers.
• Star of the week will be put in place so that we have a mascot and spread the kayleigh Carina word with our hashtag #KCPAstar
• Star. This will be done by putting names into a hat of people who have reallt stood out during the week.
• Star cards will now have smiley faces for attendance and stars for extra rewards and effort during classes.

 The lasting quote that I have been left mulling over and taking with me is:

"Fail to prepare and prepare to fail."