Today's session was led by Vicky. Since Vicky had not visited St Giles, it was very different to working with Siobhan since we had experienced the school together.
We started off by playing games to warm up. The games we played were: walking around and getting into pairs to complete an instruction said by her (eg. walk a dog), get unto groups of a certain number, sharks, and human knot. These games included getting into random groups with people we may not know therefore I think we played these games in order to become more familiar with working with one another. It did work when I kept pairing up with Ben, who I had only met on Tuesday, so we got to know each other better when we were trying to win.
We then split off into two groups and brainstormed what we could do for our short performance for St Giles. My group thought a lot about adding comedy and song, while also using emotions to show that we all experience ups and downs and they are not alone. We fed back to each other and the other group thought a lot similar to ours!
We all decided that we should include some of the songs they have altered from Les Miserables for their performance of 'Our Time'. We all decided on: At The End Of The Day, Do You Hear St Giles Sing?, and I Dreamed A Dream. We split into three small groups and took charge of a song each. My group was in charge of 'Do You Hear St Giles Sing?'
We were brainstoming ideas for a while until we thought that we could sign some of the song so that it could include children who rely more on sign language. We also had the idea to hand out items to the audience (such as, small sponge footballs, football scarves, etc) since some children like to feel soft items as it relaxes them. Also, it will include them in the performance and it will make them feel comfortable enough to join in with the song. Carys looked at the sign language and she decided that we should only sign certain words so it won't overwhelm us or the audience.
The next step was to teach everyone our routine and the signs. Everyone was a bit confused at the start however, with practice, I can see all of us getting the hang of it soon. We developed our piece as we were running it as I had the idea for Carys to start singing before all of us however we then added Hannah into the beginning so that they won't get drowned out and also to show unity. After they sing the first verse, the rest of us then come from the audience and begin singing together, and eventually begin to sign the last two verses. I think our piece works really well to show unity while adding fun and music.
We then learnt the 'At The End Of The Day' group's routine. Again, this got developed at we were rehearsing it. The idea was that we all come on, clumping together, expressing opinions of school (mostly negative) and then when the song drops, we all drop to the floor and rise in groups to begin singing. We added movement to the lines 'At the end of the day, you're another day colder, and the shirt on your back doesn't keep off the chill' and we then huddle with another person and show we are cold. We then turn to the side in a sort of sailor pose for the line that they changed 'And the teachers hurry past' and then we do the mocking nose sign for 'they don't hear the little ones crying'. Lastly, Dom dramatically faints for 'And detentions coming on fast, ready to kill' where we all dramatically react. I love this piece as it adds so much comedy in while also changing some of the lyrics to relate to school life.
The last group didn't include the rest of us as it was just a dance piece. It was amazing to watch as it was so different to the rest of our pieces but it was so good!! There was an idea to have someone singing 'I Dreamed a Dream' however I think it would be just find if we used a track on top and just had the dancers.
I think we've come up with such a strong idea that, hopefully, it will go down really well with the children after we have refined it!
No comments:
Post a Comment