1. Showcase Final Evaluation (Year 13)
On February the 15th I took part in a BTEC performance showcase named ‘A Night At The
Musicals’ which consisted of multiple numbers from various musicals including Grease,
Chicago and Hamilton. After reflection I feel that my peers and I performed to the highest
degree using everything we had and had learnt to make sure it was as great as we wanted it
to be. Particularly for our assessed piece Grease we worked extremely hard as a
professional company, constantly receiving feedback and making alterations to perfect it.
The process of learning and improving ‘Grease’ has been a huge learning curve with many
aspects grasped and I learnt particularly the power the performer obtains. For the showcase
we knew we needed to create a 20 minute repertoire segment of a musical, we immediately
decided Grease as it was a nice opening for the showcase as audiences would be familiar
with it and it worked perfectly alongside the unfamiliar finale Hamilton. It also fit our cast
with myself playing Danny and the girls playing each member of the pink ladies. We also
knew we could use non examined students to fill in the remaining T-Birds. The style of
Grease was very intriguing for myself as it I knew it was really over the top, so I was a big
advocate of choosing it.
After having settled on Grease we instantly started narrowing down the key moments story
boarding particular numbers making sure each one of us had a moment to shine and chose
which pieces of rep we wanted to perform. So many rehearsals and workshops took place to
make Grease as great as we wanted it to be which meant my peers and I were able to work
with various teachers to get help in their expertise and gather a greater range of constant
feedback. Before even beginning the choreography of the numbers we struggled with
various other performing elements, I particular struggled with body language when playing
Danny so our director Mr Sluman asked me to create a tableaux image with my peers with
me holding myself like Danny Zuko immediately I placed my shoulders back, chin up and had
a loose ‘cool’ stance, this was only the beginning of my interpretation knowing full well I
would have to conduct research into how to move and talk like Danny. Firstly nothing could
have started without Mrs Parkin who lifted us on to our feet, we started with ‘Summer
Nights’ as we all agreed it was a great number to start on and instantly helped us apply
character and get a feel for the natural cheesy over the top style of Grease. Starting with
this number was great as I was playing Danny Zuko, it immediately communicated how
important my characterisation was, as if I didn’t embody Danny then a massive aspect of the
performance would have been compromised.
This is where I began to turn to Mr Sluman who is an expert at drama and he helped me a
lot with characterisation. He tasked me with going home and doing research on Danny and
watching Grease as I had never actually seen the musical this nicely linked my target so I
immediately set this to be completed straight away. So I watched the musical and also
watched many interpretations of Danny including the ‘Grease Live’ version which I
particularly liked, as the way the actor portraying Danny (Aaron Tveit) held himself
screamed Danny to me I liked the attitude he had the reactions he played on between his
boys (T-Birds) and Sandy. When I came back the following week and explained this Mrs
2. Parkin and Mr Sluman showed me a previous student’s version of Danny Zuko which he had
performed in the school show as they stated he oozed the character of Danny. He did this
through his over the top nature yet laid back attitude all projected through his body
language. I noticed similarities between the student’s portrayal and Aaron Tveit’s portrayal
in the ‘Grease Live’ version so I knew that’s what I needed to strive towards and that I
needed to add their particular characteristics and idiosyncrasies to my interpretation to
retain the over the top style the musical should have. I explored various techniques outside
of the rehearsal space to get into character one I found that particularly worked was having
a repeated gesture, so what I decided was to often flick my collar up, I noticed when I did
this instantly my attitude, body language and facial expression changed. So that’s what I
applied to a future rehearsal to which Mrs Parkin and Mr Sluman stated worked. I also knew
that audiences had a familiarity to what Grease sounded like which added pressure to the
aural aspect of my performance for my numbers ‘Summer Nights’ and ‘You’re The One That
I Want’. So I got the help from Miss Wilkinson who is an expert in music, I would constantly
ask her to how I sounded, what she got me to do was to record myself and playback
listening to myself and seeing how it sounded, this did help as I could see which particular
notes really didn’t sound pleasing. I noticed when listening back that I was struggling with
breathing, I was running out of breath not able to belt notes in key. So I would practice this
whenever I had free time to which Miss commented that it was sounding better, yet she still
got me to record my voice saying there is always room for improvement which was great as
I never got comfortable instead always striving for more. I also saw Mrs Guy our
singing/vocal specialist as I knew she could apply techniques that we’ve previously learnt
together to these numbers. I was particularly struggling with my harmony with Ellie playing
Sandy at the end of ‘Summer Nights’ but after going through it slowly multiple times I
picked up I was singing at the wrong pace not considering what pitch I needed to be at.
Once this was fixed, I could mainly focus on clear projection and then I felt a lot more
comfortable with this number.
Finally I also gained the help from Miss Sweeney and Mrs Turner our dance specialists, Mrs
Turner helped me figure out the hand jive as I couldn’t match my peers at the speed of the
sequence so Mrs Turner spent 10 minutes with me starting it really slow to begin with then
getting faster and faster to which by the end it became muscle memory.
Here I am with Mrs Turner as she
teaches me the Hand Jive, shebegan
slowthen builtup the speed to match
the backing,once we matched backing
we faced off againstone and other as I
tried to match her speed this brief
session utilised my musclememory as it
helped me remember the hand jive
more than I had before. She then left
suggestingto do the hand sequence of
gestures at random times of the day to
help even more.
3. Miss Sweeney helped us with more of the chorography particularly for the T-Birds in
‘Summer Nights’ and myself and Betsy-Jo (Playing Sandy) in ‘You’re The One That I Want’.
Miss Sweeney kindly spent a whole rehearsal helping the four T-Birds polishing the dancing
in Summer Nights as we wanted it to be in synchronisation and it have a professional feel
when audiences see it. After an hour and Mr Sluman recording the rehearsal we learnt a lot
and made we went over it over and over again until it became second nature whenever the
song began.
Also Miss Sweeney helped myself and Betsy-Jo have more of a provocative attitude
between one and other making it less awkward and sexier. We also had help from her fixing
the formation as when we started applying it in the theatre we realised it didn’t look right so
Miss placed us in a zig zag position each having a window (small amount of stage space) to
dance with our partners. A great strength of mine throughout all of this was maintaining a
care for the piece constantly reflecting over decisions made and trying new techniques
learnt figuring which were the best for each scenario whether it be for a scene consisting of
dancing, acting, singing or mainly all three. A weakness was overthinking how I sounded in
my numbers in the moment as it made me freeze and mess up a note and forget a
movement, I couldn’t afford to do this on the night or anymore rehearsals. But once
applying these singing, movement and characterisation skills to my performance I felt a lot
more confident with Danny Zuko.
When looking back on the showcase I am confident in my portrayal of Danny Zuko, the week
of the showcase I was showing some flu symptoms and the day of the showcase was told by
the doctors I have the ‘Aussie Flu’, first reaction to this was devastation as I truly didn’t feel
myself and worried it would affect my performance but despite completely depleting me of
energy and effecting my body and voice I talked myself out this negative mind set as soon as
I entered the theatre hours before the showcase, I told myself something I’d heard a lot
when researching into ‘the life of a performer’ and that is ‘the show must go on’ and it did
and I put on the best performance I possibly could. After the performance I received
compliments that filled me with pride, audience members stated they couldn’t even tell I
was ill, this meant a lot as I knew I had achieved my intention, I didn’t want anything
effecting all the hard work my company and myself had put into this showcase.
This is a huge achievement for as I’ve truly enjoyed every second of performing representing
Ashfield School. Within this BTEC course I have learnt so many skills that I know can be
applied to future performances I wish to take apart of. I feel proud when reflecting on my
attitude and level of professionalismI maintained throughout every rehearsal and workshop
committing myself and getting the best performer out of me. Comparing this to how I
looked at performance in year 11 is a reward, it’s been a real eye opener to how much effort
and contribution there is placed into performances all across the world, including our
company when creating this showcase. For myself to become a musical theatre performer I
must still focus on dancing and get even more comfortable with different forms and styles
of dance but also challenge myself with new characters and songs that portray different
genres and messages. I’ll never forget all the lessons I’ve learnt in this course I truly feel I am
leaving it with a professional mind set having entered it with an amateur mind set. The next
4. steps from this is to gather more experience and apply to drama schools, I am not expecting
to walk into the industry and I’m prepared that the next decade could be filled with more
failures than achievements, I say decade as I know this is going to be a tedious process, but
as long as I’m on stage performing doing what I love then all is well. This course has taught
me so much specifically that the fails are worth it for the rewards the satisfaction I gain from
audiences saying they enjoyed my performance is unmeasurable, I’m ready for all the hard
work and ready to show the world what I’m made of, thanks to this BTEC I’m not walking
into the industry blind, I’m walking in ready for whatever it decides to throw at me.
