Annie Audition

Last weekend I auditioned for Annie at the Watford palace theatre. Annie is a musical about a Young orphan who wants to meet her parents. this Saturday at the watford palace theatre they were holding open auditions for  Annie. they were getting a whole new cast so there was a good possibility you could get in.

me and my friend went.my friend didn't audition she was just there for some support. by accident me and my friend arrived one hour and a half earlie! we thought it started at two so we arrived at 1.30. turned out it started about 3!! so we decided to walk around the theatre and be nosey. after about ten minuets we realised that all interesting rooms were locked!

we came back and I got changed into my dance shoes and sat down. after a very long wait people started to arrive. then the people running the audition arrived. we had to go up get our number and fill in a form. I was number three!

after about a ten minuet wait the first twelve people to audition went up stairs into a rehearsal room. this man introduced his self and told us how the audition was going to work. he was really friendly so I didn't feel nervous. we started of with singing.

this is my strongest area so I'm glad I got to start with it! the twelve of us had to stand around the piano. he played us the first two verses of 'the sun will come out tommorrow' we sung the verses over again a few times as a whole group. then we split into two groups and sung it through ones and then as a solo!! we only had to sing it once. I thought it went well.

then it was time for dancing. this is my weakest area because I get nerves when I dance but the lady teaching us was really nice. first we learnt it all together. it wasn't a complex routine but it was a routine to show of your strenghts and weaknesses so they could mark you. we only danced it through twice before having to show it and we got marked on it. we danced it in groups of for to the examiner.

finally drama. we went down stairs in to a smaller room. we got given a piece of paper with three characters on and what they said. there was Annie, Miss Hannigan and Mollie. we had two minuets to choose a character learn the lines and act it. we had to do it i a American accent and put emotion into it. I choose Annie and this went really well  for me. after reading and acting it they took a picture of us and told us that we would get a letter even if we didn't get it. I left confident the I had done well.

there were over two hundred people who attended the audition and only a limited amount of people got it. the audition was nothing like I expected it to be. I had a song and drama piece prepared that I didn't use! the competition was really tough it was filled with people with tones of experience and I had none.

this Saturday the letter arrived. I was really nervous! I opened it and.... i got in!!! i was soo happy. its said on the letter ' you will be in at least 5 choruses and in many other scenes also I got in for dance, drama and singing! I have rehearsals Tuesday nights for one hour and a half starting in march. there are only two shows which are in July.

this is going to be a great experience! it cost £120 to take part but i get professional dancers, singers and actors to teach me! it also includes props and costumes. all i need to get are jazz shoes and a Annie top for rehearsal's. I am defiantly going to take up the part!!

i am looking forward to everything ahead of me!

costume design

in costume design we are making the costumes for titania's faries, Titania, Peasblossom, Musterdseed and Cobweb. we were all given a tutu, leotard and tights with a colour scheme. my tutu is pink so am using pinks and yellow on the skirt. this mathches my tutu and tights as they are green.

on are tutu we had to add strips of fabric. we did this by ripping a strip of fabric out of a bigger sheet of fabric. we the sewed them on to the waist band of the skirt.after there were strips all round the skirt I added decoration. I added some roses and leaves which I had previousley made.  

the skirt is compltley secure. I am now going to add decoration on the leotard. I am going to add roses, leaves and strips of shimmery fabric along the top.

my skirt and leotard

my skirt

i am proud of what I have done so far and looking foward to fitting it on a dancer and seeing it on stage all completed.

musical theatre exam

before Christmas I sat my first musical theatre exam. I went straight in to grade three because my voice was strong enough. I spent many months papering myself for it. I had to learn three songs 2 of my choice an one before a certain date. they are different dates for each exam. I had to choose songs which I could act and sing. the three song I choose were 'the wizard and I' from 'Wicked', ' I'm gonna wash that man right of my hair' from 'south pacific'  and 'there are worse things I could do' from 'grease'. We had to learn the background  and the story lines of the song also who wrote the music and lyrics.

my exam was in essendon which is near Barnett. my exam was earlie I had to be at the exam hall at 9.30am. when I arrived I was aloud half a hour to practise and I had ten minuets with the pianist to practise. then I got called in.

I was told that the examiner was really nice, she wasn't! when I walked in she was completely silent! I gave my exam sheet and got ready for my first song. as it was a musical theatre exam I had to were a costume for my first song , the wizard and I, I had to wear a withces hat! this song went well. all the drama went really good too. the only concern I had with it was when I was running around the hall my hat fell of and she took notes which worried me but I still kept a smile on my face. then the second song, 'im gonna wash that  man right out of my hair' went well. this was my worse song I just hated singing it because if the tune but it did suit my voice. my costume for this was more of a prop and it was a towel. I had to use this a lo in this song. and finally my last song was my favourite one, 'there are worse things i could do' my costume for this was a cute skirt. this was my favourite song to sing and act. the reason being is I loved the pitch of it and the drama was good as it was emotional.

it was then time for questions. his is the first time I had heard the examiner speak trough out the whole exam! I sat down and she asked me the story lines of the songs and to tell her about the characters. all the questions went well apart from one and it was 'name some other songs from grease'! I know loads of songs from grease but my mind went blank but then I remembered one! I left the exam feeling happy with the results and went home!

this week I finally got the results. in total I got 92 out 100! this is a distinction!! I was so happy with this! nearly full marks. I now know that my voice is strong enough for musical theatre as my teacher and examiner said. Because my result was so positive I have skipped two grades again and gone up to Grade 6!

In grade 6 you have to have four songs. as I only stared two weeks ago I have only chosen two songs. they ' Somebody to love' from 'we will rock you' and 'down by the sea' from ' Sweeney Todd'! I am very excited about doing this exam. I am hoping to take this exam around April/summer time before I leave year 11!

I am proud of my result and hope to continue the high marks in my next grade!

end of year peformance

this term we started working on our end of year performance. we first sat down as a group and talked about different themes for the show. we first wanted the theme of the Oscar awards but then Alice came up with the idea of Annie the musical. we aren't doing to exactly the same we are making it our own. so far we have decided that we are going to open the show with the song 'Mayby'! this will make the audience fill sorry for us as we are playing orphans. then we are going to straight in to 'it's a hard knock life'. we have started choreographing this. this is really good fun. we have nearly finished this dance only a few more lessons on it now then it will look really good. the choreography is simple but effected. we have also sorted out what every one is singing.

all of us are singing and dancing. we want to make the show amazing. we need to put a lot of effort and time into making it really good but we are all happy to do that.

this is just me singing turning tables. i know its the same song as the last video but i really like it. the sound quality isn't very and I have sung better but its not to bad

hope you like it!

This is a video of me and my friend singing turning tables by adele we have made up harmony to it too. we both have the same ambitions to be singer song writers. Both of us write our own songs.

in april I am recording my own CD I am going to a recording studio and I am very excited!! I have wrote many songs.

this video isn't too good because we were in our pijamas at 3 in the morning but i like the harmony!!
hope you enjoy!!
(i am going to post all my songs from now!)

jazz workshops

over the past two weeks we have been working on our choreography and learning are jazz workshops. we learnt street jazz, lyrical jazz and rock 'n' roll jazz. I helped choreographer the rock 'n' roll routine. In my group there is Chloe, Shauna, Louise, Elle and me. We had to make up a dance that lasted one minute.Chloe, Louise and I do rock 'n' roll dance so we new what to do more then the others. Louise only new a little bit so me and Chloe took charge.

we started of by thinking of some rock 'n' roll moves and what music they ll go to. The music we choose was 'candy man'  by Christine Agulera. we didn't want to make the moves to hard because the people that haven't done it before wouldn't of picked it up. the dance started simple. all thought it was very hard it looked good if you did it with good technique. gradually we added more and more to our dance. we spent a lot of time practising it because we new we had to teach it to the class. our dance was exactly one minuet.

all of us new our dance well. when we were teaching we split it into five section.i tought the fourth section. i was nervouse because i have never tought a dance a group of people. i think i did ok! i thougt it the best I could. i did step b step most of the time and i was proud of my work.

if I was to teach agian I would slow it son slightly and make sure i did step by step through the whole section.