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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anon, (2017). [image] Available at: www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.theodysseyonline.com/5-reasons-to-not-give-donald-trump-your-vote.amp">https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.theodysseyonline.com/5-reasons-to-not-give-donald-trump-your-vote [Accessed 20 Oct. 2017]. Bahadur, N. (2017). 22 Sexist Things President Donald Trump Has Said About Women. [online] SELF. Available at: https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.self.com/story/sexist-president-donald-trump-comments/amp [Accessed 20 Oct 2017].  Bankhead, D. (2014). Understanding Harmony: Part 1. [online] Music & Audio Envato Tuts+. Available at: https://music.tutsplus.com/tutorials/understanding-harmony-part-1--audio-23066 [Accessed 17 Dec. 2017].  IMDb. (2017). Colin Higgins. [online] Available at: http://m.imdb.com/name/nm0383359/ [Accessed 20 Nov. 2017].  Music Theatre International. (2017).9 to 5 The Musical. [online] Available at: https://www.mtishows.com/9-to-5-the-musical [Accessed 20 Nov. 2017]. Oxford Dictionaries | English. (2017). audience participation | Definition of audience participation in English by Oxford Dictionaries. [online] Available at: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/audience_participation [Accessed 21 Dec. 2017].  Oxford Dictionaries | English. (2017). craft | Definition of craft in English by Oxford Dictionaries. [online] Available at: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/craft [Accessed 14 Dec. 2017].  Pouska, A. (2017). About Musical Harmony | Harmony | StudyBass. [online] StudyBass. Available at: https://www.studybass.com/lessons/harmony/about-musical-harmony [Accessed 17 Dec. 2017].  Raymond, P. Streeton, J. (2014). Singing on Stage: Acting Through Song | Actors & Performers. [online] Available at: https://actorsandperformers.com/actors/advice/138/training-and-skills/drama-schools [Accessed 16 Nov. 2017].   Simon, D (2015). 5 Things Casting Directors Look for in Young Performers. [online] Available at: https://www.backstage.com/advice-for-actors/backstage-experts/5-things-casting-directors-look-young-performers/ [Accessed 14 Dec. 2017].    S., S. (2014). Proper Singing Posture – What You Need to Know. [online] TakeLessons Blog. Available at: https://takelessons.com/blog/singing-posture [Accessed 10 Dec. 2017]. StageAgent. (2017). Roz Keith from 9 to 5 Summary & Breakdown | StageAgent. [online] Available at: http://stageagent.com/characters/19653/9-to-5/roz-keith [Accessed 19 Nov. 2017]. the Guardian. (2001). Selina Cadell on teaching comedy. [online] Available at: https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/stage/2009/may/09/selina-cadell-teaching-comedy [Accessed 21 Dec. 2017]. ThoughtCo. (2017). How Proper Posture Improves Singing Technique and Sound. [online] Available at: https://www.thoughtco.com/how-proper-posture-improves-singing-2994124 [Accessed 10 Dec. 2017]. Voza, L. (2017). Definition of Physical Stamina. [online] LIVESTRONG.COM. Available at: https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.livestrong.com/amp/article/273200-definition-physical-stamina/ [Accessed 21 Dec. 2017].

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9 to 5 Evaluation

I believe our performance of 9 to 5 The Musical went well. I recieved a lot of positive feedback from audience members and it seemed as though they really enjoyed it. Something I think I did well was audience interaction. Audience interaction is 'involvment of an audience in some aspects of a performance' (oxforddictionaries.com, 2017). For example, I had one scene in act 2 which was choreographed on the floor to make our show innovative. This allowed me to interact with the audience in some of my lines and drew there attention to me. Another thing I am proud of is most definately my solo 'Heart to Hart'. I am not a confident singer, however I feel like I performed the best I had ever done it due to the adrenalin. Something that helped me with my song was humanistic theory, and on the night this payed off. Using a range of fighting and indulging efforts made the song more interesting for the audience, and I recieved a lot of feedback for this. Personally, I think without humanistic theory, I would of been a bag of nerves, however this wasn't the case as I wasn't thinking about how I was singing it but what effort I was doing. For example when I sung "and if i ever get my hands on you, I garentee you'll be screaming my" I used a fighting effort which was bound, and then for the next lyric which was "name" I then used free and sustained from the indulging effort. This gave my character a lot of cheers at this point as the song went from one extreme to another. Something I need to improve on for next time we perform is definately my stamina. Physical stamina can not only be described as physical but also as a mental trait (Voza, 2017). Even though I managed to hold on my sustained notes in my song, I was completely out of breath. Also, throughout ensomble songs I found I was having to breathe between phrases. By doing this, I am going to work on my fitness outside of university such as running, going to the gym and also eating healthy, as it is important for me to be physically fit as a professional show is usually 2 hours long of singing and dancing. Another thing I think we need to work on as a cast is comedy timing and slowing lines down. This is because our audience weren't laughing at the sarcastic jokes in the first few scenes because we were rushing lines. Getting comedy right depends on a balance of both craft and instinct (Cadell, 2001). Next time, if we slow our scenes down and trust our instincts for the comedy, I personally feel like we will get more laughs and the audience will be able to indulge in the show more as they will understand what we are saying and will get the sarcastic punch lines. For example when Violet (played by Hannah Carney) says she made 24/7 up, this was a comedic bit as everybody in this day and age uses the phrase 24/7. Overall, I think the show went well and I really enjoyed this production.

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HARMONIES AND ENSOMBLE SONGS.

As I am playing a supporting role in 9 to 5 The Musical, I am also in ensomble songs and backing vocals.

It is important that I know my harmonies, because in some songs I am a soprano and in others I am an alto, so it is majorly important that I know which song is which for my harmonies.

I used to struggle a lot with pitching harmonies, and didnt used to be confident with them. However, our tutor Lucy always says ‘strong and wrong’ so she could hear who was flat or out of key. This helped us all a lot as she was able to correct anyone who was struggling.

The word 'harmony comes from the Greek word 'harmonia’ which means agreement’ (Pouska, 2017). Harmonies are multiple notes that sound well together to give a song effect and to give the audience chills. “Melody is the most important part of the music. It is the tune of the song. But harmony can add so much depth and meaning! It is the interplay of tones or chords that accompany the melody” (Bankhead, 2014).

To make sure I am confident with my harmonies, I am going to listen to each voice note and then sing along with our show backing track. It is important to know them as on show day, if my mic is on and I am wrong or off key it can mess up our ensomble songs or even Lyndsey’s solo of 'Backwards Barbie’.

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Craft, Artistry, Perform

Craft

Craft is 'an activity involving skill in making things by hand' (oxforddictionaries.com, 2017), however relating it to musical theatre would be making up movements/choreography. For my song 'Heart to Hart' our director/choreographer Lucy Gill gave me some direction of movement for me to impliment throughout.

Artistry

Once Lucy had given me my choreography, I then put my own twist on it and added in facial expression and intention in each movement. This made my song a lot better as it had meaning behind it and each movement I done had a purpose. Once I'd worked on my song, Lucy was then able to see what moves worked and what didn't for my character.

Perform

The final step for my performance is now putting craft and artistry together. Taking the choreography given, and the work I did on my song and the characterisation of Roz has made the song flow and tells a story to the audience of how she feels about Mr Hart which is what I wanted to achieve before/by show day.

Craft and artistry is important as using skills and being creative will help employment as the director will be able to see how much time and work you have put in yourself instead of just in rehearsals. It shows hard work and professionalism which is something that casting directors look for (Simon, 2015).

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PROBLEM SOLVING

Having good posture is important in so many ways, especially in singing. It enhances your breathing and makes it easier to sing without straining. Small changes in posture can automatically improve your singing voice (Suzy, 2014).

Underneath is a video of a singing tutor explaining what proper singing posture is and why its important.

Proper posture in singing can help with a number of things, such as:

Increases breath capacity

Helps you breathe low

Allows air to flow freely through vocal cords (Schmidt, 2017).

I have really bad posture in general so focusing on this has helped me with my singing a lot. I used to always think vocal cords and your diaphram was the most important thing, but thats not the case. In my song there are a few higher and sustained notes, and I found I was really struggling to get them out with enough breath. Changing my posture helped this.

For example, having my pelvis in a neutral position and relaxing my body allows me to have more room to breathe into my diaphram, which then allows me to breathe in more air to hold longer notes. Also, keeping my neck long helps create space for the larynx to move when lifting the soft pallet to create a higher and lower sound, instead of pushing my chin forward and straining my vocal cords. Chest open with relaxed shoulders will help also with breathing as I am not closing myself off, which then also helps with the belting notes in my song 'Heart to Hart' because I have enough air to get the notes out.

I now need to impliment this in my song every time I peform it to help make my notes better by the time it gets to show day. Thinking about this will help change my posture in every day life and will hopefully change my body shape.

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COLIN HIGGINS

Colin Higgins directed the movie of Nine to Five in 1980, which the musical is based on. He was an Australian-American screenwriter and director.

Colin Higgins directed 2 films which Dolly Parton was in, the first being 'Nine to Five' and the second one 'The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas'. (imdb.com, 2017)

PATRICIA RESNICK

Patricia Resnick was the original screenwriter for the 1980 film of Nine to Five.(IMBd, 2017) She was then the playwright of the musical along with Dolly Parton as lyricist and composer. (Mtishows.com, 2010).

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Using humanistic theory for my solo song ‘Heart to Hart’ has helped me a lot to become a more confident singer.

Humanistic theory is made up of 2 efforts which are indulging effort and fighting effort. When doing my song, I have split each line up into a different effort to make my song more realistic and to help me with my A.T.S (acting through song). This theory helps me a lot as I am not really a confident singer, but when I use this, im not thinking about how I sing or anything other than my efforts.

There are a few things to think about that can help with A.T.S throughout a song, such as: 1. ‘What makes your character sing the piece 2. Speak the words of the song as a monologue in an appropriate accent 3. What level of energy or agitation does your song begin and end with’ (Raymond, Streeton, 2014). By implimenting this, it will help me get into character and having a clear understanding of the intentions of the song.

Even though this has helped me a lot with my song, to improve I now need to focus on adding in my vocal skills such as keeping my neck long, shoulders back, tongue forward and chest open which is the correct singing posture. This will hopefully make me a stronger singer and will help out with my confidence a lot combining them together by the time we do our performance in December.

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Above is a picture of one of my scene in our show.

To make this scene better I have decided to work on it using what we have been working on in our acting classes which I can relate back to 9 to 5.

Breaking each scene down has helped me a lot to get into character more and also made me understand my intention in each line I say. I think getting into character is important as you need to make your audience believe it is real, therefore you need to become the character.

Also, using humanistic theory throughout my scenes as well as my songs has helped me a lot, and I believe this has made me a stronger and more confident actress.

To improve on this, I need to make sure I work on every scene like this, to make them more realistic instead of over dramatized compared to other scenes.

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The video above is footage of rehearsals for our show 9 to 5 The Musical.

In this scene, Roz (played by me) is snitching on one of the women (Maria, played by Rachel Lamb) in the office for gossiping about men being on a higher salary then women. Mr Hart (originally played by Connor McDermott) just finishes as the end of his scene with Doralee (played by Lyndsey McMullin) crawling on the floor as Roz enters.

To improve on this scene I am going to keep watching it back, and seeing were I can make it better and not over think my movements, keeping them more natural. I am also going to work on my diction throughout my lines so I become clear to the audience on show night. To do this I am going to do a vocal exercise with vowel sounds, and also slow down my lines so I can get each word in properly.

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The picture above shows snide quotes what Donald Trump has said about women.

We have decided to base the role of Mr Hart around Donald Trump, as they are both similar. They both think that man are more powerful than women, and both think highly of themselves. Donald Trump once said “You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful—I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy" (Bahadur, 2017). We can relate this back to 9 to 5 The Musical, as Mr Hart thinks in the same way. For example, in act 1 there is a scene with Doralee (a women he’s madly inlove with) were he tries it on with her, and tells everybody in the office hes been sleeping with her. This then makes everyone think shes a floosy, and leaves Mr Hart feeling like hes in control of the situation which is like Donald Trump.

As we need to make 9 to 5 innovative, we have decided to freeze frame some of the scenes throughout and add in a Trump quote said by either a drunk woman or a news reporter. This will accur during mostly Mr Hart’s scenes and will give the show a more modern twist instead of it being set in the late 1970’s.

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AUDITION PREP

I decided to audition for the part of Rozlind Keith, Mr Hart's admin assistant. She is 'fiercly in love with him.' (StageAgent, 2017)

For my singing audition, I learnt Roz's main song 'Heart to Hart'. To do this, I looked at a few versions on Youtube to see how other's acted out the part throughout the song, before I could put my own spin and thought on how it should be acted.

Roz was mainly the only part I wanted to go for. However, I learnt a lot of the other lead roles lines for my acting audition, which made it easier for our tutor Lucy to pick a scene she wanted to see. Of course, I also learnt Roz's scenes and performed these in my audition and also call backs. I find picking up lines really easy, so learning all the scenes wasn't a problem for me and I was pretty confident in the audition.

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The picture above is showing how we will be setting our stage out in our performance, 9 to 5 the musical.

We need to make our performance innovative so we have decided to play around with how we are going to perform it in our location, St Georges Hall.

The main stage is going to be mainly Mr Hart’s office, one of the main parts in the show. Whenever anyone is on the stage, this will mean they are in power and in control. This is because Mr Hart is a very powerful man throughout most of the show.

We will also split the seats to follow round in an oval shape. This will allow us to use the floor as another stage to show the people who are being controlled and not in power at all throughout the show.

We have also decided to use the balconies as Mr Harts house for a few scenes, one being were he gets tied up.