Ella Brown performed in a musical theatre showcase. She had roles in Chicago, My Fair Lady, Little Shop of Horrors, and Rent. For Chicago, she focused on improving her dance skills, specifically the challenging choreography for "Cell Block Tango." For her solo in My Fair Lady, she worked on characterizing Eliza Doolittle through posture, accent, and costume. In Little Shop of Horrors, she enhanced her singing and developed a character. Ella believes her strengths were memorizing lines and adapting different characterizations. Her weaknesses included dance timing and maintaining accents consistently. Overall, the showcase helped Ella improve her musical theatre skills across acting, dancing, and singing.

1. Ella Brown
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END OF UNIT 2 No
understanding/
no skill
Some
understanding/
some skill
Good
understanding/
good skill
Excellent
understanding/
excellent skill
MOVEMENT SKILLS
Coordination /
Balance /
Weight placement /
Focus and control /
Spatial awareness /
relaxation /
Movement memory /
Gesture /
Facial Expression /
Characterisation /
Pace, energy, dynamics /
trust /
VOCAL SKILLS
articulation /
inflection /
modulation /
projection /
register /
pitch /
timing /
breath control /
use of pause /
use of pace /
dialect and accent /
characterisation /
MUSICAL THEATRE INTERPRETIVE SKILLS
analysis of score, dialogue, lyrics
and choreography to build an
understanding
/
character and relationships to other
roles/characters
/
social and historical background of
the musical
/
author’s/composer’s/choreographer’s
intention
/
CHARACTER INTERPRETATION
Analysing physical characteristics /
Proxemics/relationships /
Semiotics /
Sub-text /
PHYSICAL SKILLS
characterisation /
facial expression /
gesture /
mannerism /
posture /
rhythm and tempo /
weight placement /
timing and pace /
relationship /
reaction and interaction with other
characters/roles
/
audience /
proxemics /
use of space /
use and manipulation of props and
equipment.
/
Final Evaluation

2. Ella Brown
Skills required for the performance:
Dance Skills
• physical skills appropriate to the dance style- Fosse style
• Timing
• Space
• Projection
• Facial expression
• Reaction and interaction with other performers
Acting Skills
• Characterisation
• Facial expression
• Body language
• Accent
Music skills
• Memorize lyrics
• Focusing on the tune
• Projection
• Ensuring timing is correct
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3. Ella Brown
• Characterised songs
• Work on breathing
• Articulation
• Diction
• Pitch and rhythm accurate
Musical Theatre Showcase
On Thursday 23rd February 2017 I was involved in a musical theatre showcase for
my exam and I performed this to a full audience which included musicals such as
Little shop of horrors, Chicago, Rent, Cabaret, We Will Rock You Oklahoma, My Fair
Lady and many more. Also, this included many solo and ensemble pieces which
some were accompanied by a live band. For this showcase I had to attend to many
rehearsals for the musicals I were in which were Little Shop of Horrors, Chicago,
Rent and My Fair Lady. Whilst we were doing rehearsals we had to film what we had
done and watch it back. This was so that we all knew what needed improving and so
that I knew what my weaknesses were.
Chicago ( Ensemble)
The musical we all though was challenging was Chicago as there were many difficult
movements in Cell Block Tango which we changed as we had to sing as well as.
Therefore, my main focus was to improve All That Jazz and Cell Block Tango as
dance isn’t my strongest art form. Firstly, I had to focus on my individual part and I
decided I wanted to be Mona (Lipshitz) so for this I had to learn the monologue and
work on characterisation for this character. Then I had to learn the choreography to
Chicago Cell Block Tango using physical skills which are appropriate to the style we
are dancing to which is Fosse style. Bob Fosse was born on June 23rd 1927 in
Chicago and he grew up surrounded by dance and
theatre. Fosse has a very unique jazz dance style
which was quite stylish and sexy. After growing up in
cabaret nightclubs the nature of Fosse's signature
style was known to be quite sexual. Fosse preferred
angled movements and three of his dance
trademarks included turned-in knees, sideways
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4. Ella Brown
shuffling, and rolled shoulders. Typical costumes in a Fosse number included bowler
hats often tilted seens as some of his movements are quite angled, vests, white
gloves and black trousers for the men. I had to learn the end section of the dance
first as it was the most difficult bit in the choreography which meant that we had to
change some movements as we had to sing as well. For example, instead of having
high kicks and splits we changed it to hip thrusts to make it easier. Once we knew
what we was doing for the ending of the dance we added our own individual parts
where we have to dance with a man (Jack) for this I have to do simple movements
which represent my character. Also, this meant that Jack had to do rehearsals with
us every Monday lunch so that he knew the choreography and what he had to do for
the monologues, timing and characterisation, I had to learn the lyrics to cell block
tango as I have to sing and dance as well as saying my monologue which I thought
this was quite challenging. Once we had a rough Idea what we were doing for the
whole dance we filmed what we had done so far. However, some movements still
didn’t work which we had noticed when we watched the video back. To help with the
choreography we got Mrs Turner in our lessons when she was free and to improve
on our singing we had multiple rehearsals every Wednesday lunch with Mrs Guy.
Once the set was built we were able to do our lessons and rehearsals in the theatre
to practise the choreography and the timings for when Jack brings the bar down the
stairs to the stage.
My Fair Lady (solo piece)
For my solo piece I decided to do the Eliza
Doolittle monologue from My Fair Lady. For this
I had to develop many skills such as posture,
accent and characterisation. This is because my
character I’m playing is attempting to be posh
which meant that I had to focus on getting the
correct posture such as sitting straight and head
lifted. Also, I had to practise the cockney accent
by watching the monologue on youtube as I find keeping an accent throughout a
scene quite challenging. Once I had learnt the monologue practised saying it on
voice recorder on my phone so I knew what I needed to improve on in able for my
solo piece to be successful. After I had focused on my characerisation and learnt the
monologue I had to look for costume which Mrs Bolton helped me with by sorting me
a post hat, skirt, the black jacket, the parasol and I found myself a lace top to go with
it. Costume was important as I had to make sure I looked exactly like the person I
was playing in able to make the performance look even more realistic.
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5. Ella Brown
Little Shop Of Horrors (ensemble)
We decided to perform little shop of horrors for the showcase where we had to sing
to Little shop of horrors and Skid row then perform a short extract from the script. It
was important that I performed this with energy as it was the opening to the show so
I ensured that I projected my voice. Mrs Guy helped us with the singing for Little
Shop of Horrors and Skid
row whereas Mr Sluman
was our main acting co-
ordinator for this but Paige
did help with directing too.
For our first singing lesson
for Little Shop of Horrors we
needed to work on energy
as we came into the song
too slow and it didn’t sound
as good as it could be. After this I focused on learning the lyrcis for the song so then
I can focus on the movements. Then we began to focus on Skid row which took a lot
longer as there were many things to add into the song such as solos, harmonies and
movement. I had couple solo pieces in Skid row which meant that I had to focus on
projection as I am singing by myself. This was my main weakness as I could be
louder on the solo. My other weakness was that I kept going onto the wrong part
during the ‘uptown you cater to a million jerks’ bit as I go onto Paige’s high note.
Therefore, I decided to record this to see where I was going wrong because I needed
to be on the tune. We did a few rehearsals singing Little Shop of Horrors and Skid
row on themselves then we decided to add the songs together to make it flow. Once
we had learnt both songs we worked on this in the theatre to work on
characterisation which we did with Mr Sluman. Not only did we need to work on our
characterisation for the singing section we needed to develop our characterisation
skills for when performing our short extract. We worked on characterisation for many
weeks as it was the most important skill for this section. Firstly, I had to read the
extract and memorise the lines which my character says (Ronnet) which took me
about 1 week to learn. After this I had to focus on the way she speaks (accent) and
her facial expressions and body language which she comes across as a “street
urchin” which Mr Muchnik describes the girls as. During the process for Little Shop of
Horrors I found that the accent was my main weakness as I struggled to keep the
accent throughout the dialogue. Therefore, I practised this in front of Mr Sluman and
recorded this on my phone multiple times as I found it very useful to improve this
way. Also, we decided that we thought it would be best to bring some other students
into Little Shop of Horrors and Skid row song as it would make it look more realistic.
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6. Ella Brown
We improved each week by adding more things into the scene then once we knew
what we were doing we added costume and props.
Rent- Seasons of Love (Ensemble)
We also studied the musical “Rent” in
able to perform the song “seasons of
love” for our showcase. To begin with
we started to do research on the
musical by watching videos on
YouTube of the song being performed
and then I watched the musical on a
DVD. This is because I haven’t studied
the musical before so I needed to know
what it was about and who the
characters are. Once I did this I
continued to watch videos on YouTube
to focus on the tune as I am only singing the tune for the showcase. We worked on
seasons of love with Mrs Wilkinson in lesson and Mrs Guy during some lessons,
lunch time and after school rehearsals in able to improve our singing skills for this
performance. We began by putting in solos for Rebecca, Paige, Ellie and Betsy and
then adding harmonies to the song. For our first singing rehearsal with Mrs Guy our
weakness was projection on the tune which me, Betsy and Rebecca do so we
needed to be much louder for the audience to hear when we are performing on
stage. Therefore I began to focus on this at home by recording myself singing the
tune on my phone in able to improve. By the 3rd
rehearsal with Mrs Guy we were
confident with the tune and harmonies we just needed to work on the facial
expression and movements during the song. Therefore, we worked on this in the
theatre so we could position ourselves. We decided that we wanted to start the song
from the stairs and walk down them then stand centre stage. We added a few clicks
and steps into the song to give more energy. Also, we looked at the person singing
when they come forward to sing a solo to connect with the characters. Finally, once
we knew what we were doing we continued to rehears at lunch and after school in
able to improve to make the performance enjoyable especially because this is our
last ensemble song for BTEC.
Strengths
Personally, I believe that my strengths during the process for this showcase is being
able to read script and memorising lines for little shop as I learnt my lines within a
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7. Ella Brown
week for a the dialogue section and the lyrics for Skidrow and Little shop of horrors.
However, learning my lines for my monologue for My Fair Lady took a little longer as
I had to focus on a lot more skills to perform this. Therefore, this meant I had to do
some lunch time and after school rehearsals with Mr Sluman in able for me to
progress. Also, I thought that my characterisation was a strength because I was able
to use characterisation differently for different scenes. For example, facial
expressions and body language were different for My Fair Lady and Little Shop of
Horrors as in My Fair Lady I had to come across as posh whereas in Little Shop of
Horrors I had to play a character who comes across as a “street urchin” which
Mushnik describes the girls in a scene. I learnt many skills within this such as
posture, gestures and accent for my solo piece. When it came to the night of the
showcase I thought that I was professional as I had the correct costume for each of
the sections I was in and I was backstage on time ready for the bit I was in so I did
not rush to get my hair and make-up done and costume on. Also, I remained silent
back stage which is important so the audience do not hear you talking whilst they are
trying to watch the show.
Weaknesses
I think that my weakness during the rehearsal process and the show is timing during
the end section in cell block tango. This is because it is a very large section and I
wasn’t confident with this part of the choreography. I found that the movements were
very challenging but we decided to change some of them to something easy. I came
to many after school rehearsals to focus on this section in able to improve this. I
thought that it was very useful to film the rehearsals so I can watch it back so I know
where I am going wrong and I can watch the others to see what I need to do. For
acting I thought that my main weakness was accents as I find keeping the accent
throughout the dialogue difficult. In able to improve on this for the show I watched
YouTube videos on how to do the certain accent and recorded myself doing it to
practise at home. Singing isn’t my strongest art form so there were a few things that I
found challenging. One of my weaknesses was projection especially during a short
solo piece as I’m not a confident singer which meant that I needed to be louder.
However, multiple singing rehearsals with Mrs Guy worked on this with me in able to
improve my singing skills. Also, I found that in Skid Row there’s a certain section
where I sing the wrong part. I noticed this when we recorded the rehearsal and I
could hear me singing Paige’s part which is quite high. We recorded me, Betsy and
Rebecca singing this section in the tune so I knew what I needed to sing. In able to
continue to improve I think that I need to do more rehearsals by myself with the
teachers instead of just coming to rehearsals with the other girls. Even if it is an
ensemble piece I could still see the teachers to work on my part.
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8. Ella Brown
Conclusion
In conclusion, I have developed many skills from the start of the year to the end of
unit 2 in able to improve as a musical theatre performer. This is from my Learning
Aim A presentation and booklet, Rehearsals for the show (Learning aim B) and the
showcase (Learning Aim C). For learning aim A I developed my research skills as I
needed to find out more about a musical theatre performers life. I found out a lot of
information which gave me more understanding about a professional musical theatre
performer and what I need to do to become a musical theatre performer. Also, I
gained presentation skills as I had to put together a presentation which meant that I
had to be professional. For this I dressed smart and made sure that I was prepared
for the presentation by bringing bullet pointed notes. Although, I found presenting it
quite difficult as I had never done a presentation before I think that now I have done
it I will be more successful next time. For learning Aim B which was the whole
rehearsal process for the showcase I learnt many skills for all three art forms. I think
that I have become more confident in singing. Even though singing isn’t my strongest
art form I was willing to try things out by having a short solo piece in Skid Row (Little
Shop of Horrors). For this I had to develop on my projection skills in able for the
audience to hear me. In dance I have learnt new styles, at the start of the year we
focused on the Horton technique and Fosse style. This is something that I hadn’t
heard of before so I had to do a lot of research in able to learn choreography for
these particular styles. In acting we have focused a lot on characterisation which is
an important skill when performing. This is to make the audience believe I am
playing a certain character. For example, for my solo piece (My fair Lady) I played
Eliza Doolittle which meant that I had to come across as posh. For this I wore formal
clothes and put on a posh accent and I also had to focus on posture. By looking at
my skills audit from the start of unit 2 to the end of unit 2 I think I have learnt a lot.
However, I think my next step is that I need to learn a range of different musicals in
able to develop as a musical theatre performer.
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