Aladdin:Final Preparations

With just days until our first show of Aladdin, we as a cast have been making major preparations to make it bigger and better than what it was. We now have a set which looks great and we now have our costumes. I am really looking forward to the shows as it will be so much fun and we can all show off how much work we have all put into this.

At the beginning of the week we had to do tech runs and sound runs to ensure all cues are in the right places. It did take a long time but was still interesting to see what other people have to do behind the scenes when we are on stage. We have been running and running our pantomime all week to ensure it is at its best and to ensure all scenes, songs and dances are tightened up. We also got given some feedback sheets to show what grade we are working at. It was interesting to see where I was in the marking criteria and now that I know what I need to do, I need to try and apply this. Some of the feedback that I got back was to smile during chorus numbers, to bring more to the table as my characters and that I am out of time during the dances. I have spent some time independently going through the dances that I am in as well as going through them with peers. I have also spoke to my peers about how I can develop my roles in the pantomime.


We have also made some changes to our entrances and exits, now that we have an actual set on stage with us. This meant we had to block the whole of the show again. We also added in some major things such as having a chase scene which I am part of https://www.youtube.com/feature=player_embedded.
 I did really enjoy being part of the chase scene as it was a lot of fun and rather comical. It was also one of my favourite scenes in the entire show. As it included us all to go from really fast-paced into slow motion, it allowed us to improvise a little with some of the reactions we had from myself being distracted by the Princess and her handmaidens to realising I had been tricked to look the other way in order for Aladdin to escape. I tried to make it look really obvious that I got tricked by Wishee Washee and I did this by changing my facial expressions throughout.

Pantomime Run-Throughs

All this week we have been running our pantomime non-stop. We've had some good run-throughs and some bad. At the moment I'm really looking forward to the shows. I feel that things have improved and we have all got a lot better but sometimes we treat some of our rehearsals as if it is a warm-up and then it lacks energy. We haven't done this so much this week but we need to get into the habit of going full force into all run-throughs we do because that way our shows would be the same, and not one good and one bad. We need to make sure we don't go under the barrier which we are at now. I do feel that every time we perform a run, it does get better every time.


Earlier this week we went through some of the scenes individually and worked on them to make them more tidier and better. For the scene which the Emperor arrives in with his entourage in Act 1, myself and the other guard at the time plays a game of Rock-paper-scissors to determine who gets the job of being the Emperor's 'human chair'. We now say '1,2,3' while we are playing it, and when I beat the other guard I give a smug look to him. I got feedback that it was a good smug look. We also improved our guard scene in Act 2 when we arrive with the Vizier to see the Princess. Previously we walk in and when the Vizier goes 'Princess' we cover our own eyes but now we made it more comical to walk in and when the Vizier says her line, we clock each other by gasping at each other at the sight of the Princess showing her face and then gasping at the Princess and then attempting to cover our own eyes as well as the Vizier's. Then when the Vizier moves our hands from her eyes we then quickly cover each other's eyes. I did struggle with this at first as I couldn't master the timing of when we're meant to cover each other's eyes and knowing the cue to gasp at one another. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YU7ufWwlL64


At the end of the week we all got given the task of making videos in the style of our characters for panto. It was a really task to do and I deeply enjoyed. The first video in which I was in was with the other actor playing one of the Emperor's guards. What we did was go to the nearest car park and got someone to film whilst we were arguing over who should drive the car. We then came to the conclusion of playing Rock-paper-scissors to determine who should drive, just like our guard scene from Act 1 https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152839648443955. I was also in another video in which some of us danced to Boogie Wonderland outside Morrison's https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=734529213290709. We was also allowed to make Facebook statuses in the style of our panto characters. I made one: