Double - Performance Workshop (Sweeney Todd) - Blog 19 - 25/04/17

Below are my notes on our production:

Prologue: 
+ Effective at introducing the story and character to the audience
- We should've added more harmonies
- During the messy section after we disperse, we should be messy, but not unorderly. Ollie, Alice and I looked very out of place so we need something to do such as round by through or some other form of interaction

No Place Like London: 
-boat didn’t look as impressive as it has done in rehearsal
+ our representation of getting off the boat was good and intuitive
? we could've added a flashback to enhance storytelling techniques while rob sings about the barber and his wife
? perhaps we could do this by having a sheet up instead of the curtains and have a silhouette dance/scene to represent the flashback
- set transition needed to be more fluid which could've been done by having more people involved and using round by through

Worst Pies In London: 
+ very good movement and was sung brilliantly
- could’ve included more cast members to make our piece more original 
? for example having customers come in and try, and hate, her pies; the opposite to what "God That's Good" would've been if we kept it in

Poor Thing: 
? add another flashback to tell the story more clearly

My Friends: 
? Todd could've interacted with Ollie, James and I as we were representing the knives
- the movement was out of time so we should've worked on this section more
? we could've built on this physical theatre section and made it more complex

Greenfinch And Linnet Bird: 
- we should've used the longer version of this song to fully accentuate character and make the audience familiar with her.
? perhaps we should've added a prop into this number as it would give Alice something to interact with

Johanna: 
- the song was lacking in volume at different points
? perhaps explore more original ideas; the way we performed this song/scene is very typical and identical to the script so we should've shaken it up a bit.

Pirelli’s Miracle Elixir: 
+ James’ audience interaction was superb
- I feel that relevant signage would be very helpful to show the audience that we are Pirelli's caravan
? actors like Ollie M and I, could've been planted in the audience to create ambience and be interacted with by James
? with bigger cast we wouldn’t need to rely on audience interaction and could have a chorus crowd
- our props weren't all the same (the bottles were all different shapes, sizes and materials) so having all the same would keep continuity.

The Contest: 
+ pirelli’s entrance was grand and provided a great deal of comic relief to a very dark musical!
- although it was great as it was, Pirelli's song would've been better with a backing track or live musician
? Pirelli and Toby could've interacted with each other more as they only really interact at the beginning and end of Pirelli's scene.

Wait: 
- with more time behind us we could’ve done something more with the entire song whether that be a movement scene, silhouettes or character interaction
+ Pirelli's death was very effective and sets up the story well with his first kill
? round by through between James and Lorna could've been used to 

Ladies And Their Sensitivities: 
- with more time for rehearsals, we could’ve worked on singing the song
+ however the way it was performed was still very effective and original 
- very static: with a bigger stage or more time for set changes we would’ve used more space to walk.

Pretty Women: 
? bigger budget idea: move the entire stage into the parlour
- there wasn't much tension built up during the song according to audience members

The Epiphany: 
? perhaps ensemble movement could've been more complex
? with a larger cast, this would work much better
? having costumes, if this was a full scale production, would’ve represented the townspeople better.

A Little Priest: 
? a larger cast could have had more townspeople involved (such as the royal marine and politician)
? perhaps an ensemble dance or movement piece would've worked really well for this song, to show the potential success of the pie shop 

Johanna (Reprise): 
+ the noises were effective...
- but should’ve been in time
? during the beggar woman sections, we should've been more organised and, for example, do our beats twice as fast

Anthony and Beadle:
+ very short scene which keeps the audience up to date with Anthony
? perhaps could've used spare actors like James or Ollie M to chase after Anthony as he flees.

By The Sea:
- this scene was very irrelevant without the dialogue prior to the scene which we cut in rehearsal. This is something we only realised
- our swing didn’t work at the end verse

Not While I'm Around : 
+ sang very well 
- well-staged, however not very original
- Mrs Lovett didn't show much maternity so being more motherly would make the scene better

Beadle's Death: 
? more physical contact between the pair
+ staging was great
- make Beadle's death more obvious with brighter/coloured lighting

Searching for Toby and Anthony & Johanna: 
? Lovett and Todd could’ve explored the aisle more by walking through the audience and looking for Toby, eventually going under the stage
+ the short bit between Anthony and Johanna was good and caught the audience up with the pair

Beggar Woman's Death: 
+ although it was ironic that the most important death of all wasn't very dramatic...
- it could’ve and should’ve been so much more
? we could've stuck with our original idea of using red cloth to have blood pouring out of her throat

Pretty Women Reprise: 
+ showed the panic in Judge as he comes close to losing Johanna but recovers her
- Judge's death should've been a lot bigger but this was difficult due to lack of space
? with a bigger budget, we could've had a moving parlour or purely have a bigger performance space

Finale: 
+ very emotive
- bigger dance section was needed for such a significant part of the story
+ the way we did Mrs Lovett's death was very different to the typical burning in the oven and I felt this original approach served us well
+ Todd’s death was extremely effective as he hands the razor to Toby, signifying he has nothing left in this world and that he shall pay for the sins he committed


General: 
In general, I feel our performance was extremely impressive for a workshop performance. If we were to turn this into a proper full scale production, I would make the following major changes:

• We would have full costumes to further represent our characters and make the performance more atmospheric.
• With a dynamically bigger budget, we could've had an extravagant set like a proper barber chair, pie shop furniture and backdrops etc to represent different places. With a big enough budget, we'd want to perform in a bigger space like a theatre.
• Ideally, we'd like to use headset mics to carry our voices further into the audience and be heard over the backing tracks.
• We'd also prefer live musician(s) to enhance the atmosphere of the live performance.

My individual performance:
I feel my portrayal of Judge Turpin was very effective at creating an image of the tormented soul on stage. However, I didn't change the way I played him throughout due to my thought process behind the development of the character. I wanted the character to have his own aura about him when onstage and perhaps make the audience detached from him due to the lack of variation in my emotion. I then went on to later reveal to the audience how soft the Judge can be after learning Johanna is safe and wanting to spend the rest of his life with her, granting her forgiveness. Although this is clearly an irrational way to think - stealing Todd's own daughter from him for self gratification - it has implications about the characters possible mental health issues. These implications are also relevant in the scene where Turpin strips naked and whips himself whilst thinking of his innoncent ward; we were unable to keep this scene in however as we deemed it extremely unneccessary to perform in a school. Support with mental health issues was non-existent in the time of Sweeney Todd so that would've been one fo the very few coping mechanisms Judge Turpin would utilise. Overall, I feel my portrayal of Judge Turpin was very good at portraying not only his clearly evil and sadistic intentions but showed the weaknesses in what he thought was good.

Double - Performance Workshop (Sweeney Todd) - Blog 18 - 31/03/17

Today we finalised our production of Sweeney Todd by completing the final section which includes the deaths of Beadle, Turpin, Lovett and Todd.

We started with Beadle’s scene, which we felt needed to be quick and merely serve the purpose of the plot. We wanted his death to be insignificant as the only kills that matter to Todd are Pirelli’s as it’s the first kill and he recognises him for Barker, Turpin because he wants revenge and Lovett because she used and lied to him. We had the scene prior his death which was very simple and based in the pie shop and then had Beadle walk up the stairs and the death music play as he walks up. He would exit through the door by the chair and by the music alone it was obvious to the audience that Sweeney had killed him.

Afterwards, Sweeney and Lovett search for Toby, taking them from the pie shop down under the stage into the “bakehouse.” Anthony and Johanna rush up the stairs into Todd’s parlour and he hides her, then leaves to return with a carriage to take the pair away. We then have a blackout where the pie shop floor is then turned into the bake house by removing the table and chairs and dimming the lights. We then have Beggar Woman enter searching for Beadle, who’s body is now on the floor in the bakehouse and Todd appears to find her. She queries with him but he restlessly and quickly murders her to get her out of his way; this creates a great deal of irony considering he murdered his own wife he’s obsessed over for 15 years. During this, Johanna is looking over the edge and watches Todd murder the Beggar Woman; little to Johanna’s knowledge the Beggar Woman is her mother but this is made clear to the audience later which all pieces together in the end.

Todd then rushes downstairs to go meet the Judge who he’s invited as he “knows the whereabouts of Johanna”. As he runs downstairs, I rush up to Todd’s parlour and shout for him and he then runs up the stairs from the bakehouse. We perform the song, which has been very good when we’ve rehearsed in through a sing through. We also changed how I get killed as there wasn’t as much room in the parlour to do our original plan so this led Rob to slitting my throat slowly and pulling a Red cloth out of his hand as he sliced his throat. This looked very effective and worked very well for the “big kill” of the musical.

For Lovett’s and Todd’s death we have it all on the bakehouse floor, in front of the audience. The deaths are simple and stay very true to the story however, instead of Todd being killed by Toby slyly and undetected, Todd senses that Toby is behind him and hands him the razor. This not only signifies that Todd feels like he deserves his death in order to pay for the many sins he’s committed, but he it also takes away a lot of the innocence from the character of Toby, one of the only good characters in the play. Toby the drops the razor and runs away through the aisle in the audience and the lights dim.

Double - Performance Workshop (Sweeney Todd) - Blog 17 - 28/03/17

Today we explored which songs needed something more to them and we felt that My Friends certainly needed something added to it.

Despite it being moving, having Todd and Lovett sing alone, we wanted to fully accentuate the meaning behind the razors and how close Todd identifies with them. We decided to have Ollie, James and I enter during the first verse with a razor each, embodying the razors themselves. We slowly walk down to Todd as we interact with the razors. We get closer and then leave the razors on the table and exit. I feel this portrays the razors a lot more and gives this song a lot more purpose in the show.

Next lesson, we will finish blocking everything by finishing the end section where Beadle, Turpin, Lovett and Todd all die.

Double - Performance Workshop (Sweeney Todd) - Blog 16 - 16/03/17

Today, we worked out the Johanna reprise. We were originally going to have Tom and Rob, but we felt this wasn’t a very interesting way to perform this. We decided to create a rhythmic piece based a lot on the musical Stomp. In Stomp, they use everyday objects like trashcans and brooms, as percussive instruments and this is something we wanted to replicate in Johanna Reprise. We wanted to get every character involved with this number to somewhat show the characters going about their daily actions; we felt that this would how that despite life going on as normal for everyone else, Todd and Anthony obsess over Johanna.

The noises we used were Mrs Lovett whacking a rolling pin on her counter, Toby sweeps the floor with his broom, Beadle walks around and stomps his stick down violently, Judge Turpin banging on a stage block representing a gavel, Johanna tapping on a case she’s packed for fleeing with Anthony and Dan and Ollie M as patrons of the pie shop clinking mugs. Upon practising this we felt that it sounded great and worked very for the scene. However, when it came to Beggar Woman sections, continuing at our regular pace would’ve sounded odd so we decided to be sporadic with our noises, speeding up and slowing down. This sounded very effective and worked well with the tempo of the song. I felt this was a good way to make a simple song more complex.

Next lesson, we will review the other numbers we’ve already done and we will workshop them also.

Double - Performance Workshop (Sweeney Todd) - Blog 15 - 13/03/17

Today we experimented with different ways to show the murders within the show and how we can create the illusion of blood.

We recognised that we have 6 deaths within Sweeney Todd that are seen by the audience: Pirelli’s, Ollie Marshall’s (citizen) Turpin’s, Beggar Woman’s/Lucy’s, Mrs Lovett’s and Todd’s. We wanted to be sure that every death would be somewhat different so that the audience are always impressed by each one. This is far more creative way to approach this rather than them all dying the same way.

With Pirelli’s death, we already have him being choked which meant we didn’t need to worry about anything like blood and for Mrs Lovett’s death, we were considering during her dance with Todd prior to her demise, she gets spun which and Todd lowers her down as if he were to kiss her but then Todd snaps her neck instead. Although this isn’t true to the original story, we felt artistically it looks more effective to end her life so suddenly and it’s a lot more realistic as trying to represent her burning in a furnace would look too cheesy.

This left us with 4 deaths left to deal with. We wanted all of them to be different as we felt that it would make them all independent of each other and not just the same thing again and again. Also, we could show the magnitude of the kills with different ways of killing the characters rather than the same thing every time which suggests the deaths are all equal. We thought instead of going obvious with fake liquid blood, we should go for something more outside of the box yet still conventional. This is where the idea of using red material came into play. Not only is it easy to manoeuvre but it also looks impressive as well.

We thought for Ollie M’s death, as it’s not major, it should be quick and simple. We came up with the idea of him sitting in the chair, it being spun around and the white dust sheet around him is lifted and the underside is red. Ollie would then exit and the chair would swivel back round empty. For Lucy’s death, we have Taylor holding the ball of material in her hand and when Todd swipes his knife at her she reaches for her throat and lets the ball unfurl and drape from her hands as if the blood were dripping from her throat; this is very suitable as this death is very quick and in-the-moment.

For Judge Turpin’s death, we need it to be major compared to the other kills as this is the man Todd has wanted to murder for years. We thought about having a physical theatre piece for this part but we felt that it might be too complicated; just because it needs to be a very bold moment, it doesn’t mean we need to go fully abstract with it. However, our final idea we have Todd stab me, followed by 2 other cast members pulling red material from my chest (which they already have balled up in their hands) and then Todd slowly pulling out the last strand of blood out from my neck.

For Todd’s death, we thought we could have a very simple slitting of the throat from Toby but we then thought that any young child wouldn’t be so suave about murder and after all his thoughts of Todd being a demon, he’d surely want to stab him several times to be sure he’s dead. So, with this, we have James stab him in the throat once and then run around him stabbing him more and more. We discussed having fake liquid blood for this scene as this would be effective to show how much blood Todd has inside of him due to his bloodlust on his hunt for Turpin.

To finish, Tom and Rob sang through Johanna (Reprise) which sounded brilliant. The song is lovely and simple so we definitely now won’t add movement to it; we’ll simply have the pair stood singing. 

Double - Performance Workshop (Sweeney Todd) - Blog 14 - 10/03/17

Today, we spent the entire lesson singing through all of the songs in the show (up to “By The Sea” as this was all we had time for). This helped us all with going over tricky parts of different songs which we wouldn’t have time to go over when working on the scene.

For my song with Todd, “Pretty Women,” we did extremely well with only one timing error towards the end of the song. From “Blowing out the candle,” to “How they make a man sing,” we found the timing very difficult as it’s different for both characters.  After a couple more tries, we got the hang of it but we will meet at lunchtimes so rehearse this in order to get it right.

Besides Pretty Women, no other songs had any issues; the opening song during our prologue is the only other song I sing in which went very well too. All the other songs went incredibly well too and I’m confident that we’re making great progress leading up to the final weeks of rehearsals.

Double - Performance Workshop (Sweeney Todd) - Blog 12 - 06/03/17

Today we had an extra hour afterschool so that we could runthrough somethings with Taylor and Alice, so we got a lot done!

Firstly, after setting up the stage, we experimented with our idea of being able to go underneath the stage and go up onto the stage through the trapdoor as opposed to the walking back out through the entrance. We placed a ladder underneath the stage below the open trapdoor, placed warning signs around the trapdoor, and tested it. This worked incredibly well and this allowed us to be a lot more experimental with the way we have characters enter and exit. For example, if someone exits from the stage curtain, they can appear again from underneath the stage by climbing down the ladder which wouldn’t be visible by the audience at all!

We also worked out how Todd would cut throats in his chair and have the bodies exit slyly without the audience noticing. We’d have the victim die, the seat would be swivelled round so that the back is facing the audience, Todd would lift the sheet across his clients front and hold it up as if he were examining it. While the victim isn’t visible, he exits behind the curtain and when Todd lowers the sheet, he swivels the chair back round to show and empty seat ready for the next shave. The sheet works extremely well as before, when the victim left the chair they were seen from nearly all angles and although the audience would obviously know this is what was happening, it still looks unprofessional and we want to create a proficient performance.

We also completely blocked out “God That’s Good,” the opening to Act Two and introduces the recent illegitimate upgrade Mrs Lovett has made to her business. We had plenty of issues after our first idea but below is the finished plan.:

• Dan and Ollie K start sitting at the table and chairs in the centre, Rob by Sweeney’s chair, Lorna by Lovett’s counter, Ollie M (a spare cast member who has volunteered to step in for this scene) is sitting on the stage block staircase and James on the table Ollie and Dan are sitting at. We’d all be in a freeze frame besides James who starts addressing the audience with his opening “Ladies and gentlemen speech.” Once he finishes (“just inside of this door!”) we all unfreeze back into the now busy shop environment. James interacts with Dan and Ollie, taking their pies away from them, taking a bite from one and telling them all about Mrs Lovett’s business.
• On “Toby//Coming!//Ale there!” Alice and I enter from the main stage door into Mrs Lovett’s shop and Toby comes to us giving us pies and ale. On “nice to see you, dearie, how have you been keeping…” Alice and I are sitting on the stage block staircase and converse with Ollie and Lovett. During this Taylor, the beggar woman, will enter from the curtain and come towards us. On, “Toby! Throw the old woman out,” beggar woman gets a bit too close for comfort to me and Alice and James throws the old woman out.
• During, “Eat them slow…” Toby and Lovett serenade Dan and Ollie K, while I suggest to Ollie M that he goes to Todd’s parlour for a good shave. On, “Hold it- Bless my eyes,” everyone freezes excluding Lovett, Todd and Ollie M. Ollie M is midway through climbing the steps to Todd’s parlour and Lovett gets happy as this means more meat, which means more pies, which means more customers. Once Ollie M is greeted by Todd and Lovett starts singing again, everyone unfreezes and continues. Taylor makes her way back into the store and hinders Alice and I again and on “Toby” Throw the old woman out!” Toby removes Taylor once more and thus the end of the scene.

Below are the issues we encountered before:

• We originally had Ollie K, meet Todd for a shave and I and Dan in each other’s places: Dan with Alice, me with Ollie. However, we felt, although we’ll be out of costume, Ollie and I would look far too much like Turpin and Beadle and Ollie’s throat being slit with this misinterpretation in the audience’s mind would cause far too much confusion later when Beadle appears whom the audience would then already believe to be dead.
• Before, James entered from behind the audience but we felt that this didn’t work well for movement and having him up high on the table resembles quite well to his original “Ladies and gentlemen,” from Pirelli’s Miracle Elixir.
• We did have Taylor enter from the main stage door too but she wouldn’t be very noticeable by the audience as the stage block staircase is only 5 feet away from the door so her hindering Alice and I would be completely missed. Up on the stage however, she can be seen by all and James throwing her out is loud and easily seen also.

We also completed The Epiphany too! Before we weren’t sure of what we’d be able to do but as we had Taylor and Alice, we had a much better idea of what we could do. Below is what we have blocked:

• Rob jumps down from the stage on “Finished!” and the entire chorus enters the stage and walk from end to end in varying speeds as if we were on the streets of London; Taylor and Tom from underneath the stage, Alice and I from stage right, and Ollie and James from stage left.
• While walking, we all completely blank Todd out as we’re only visions in his head. Todd sings at us violently, threating us with his razors. On, “I will have vengeance,” we all stop and Todd looks up to the skies and sings in woe.
• On, “Who sir? You sir?” Todd comes up to our frozen bodies and threatens us; we ignore him completely. On, “Not one man…” we all exit in our pairs, James and Ollie stage right, Alice and I stage left, and Taylor and Tom under the stage. Whilst we do this sings to the skies again. On “And I will get him back…” Todd sings threateningly, swiping his knife outwards. On, “And my Lucy lies in ashes,” he falls to the floor and keens one last time.
• To end and transfer into A Little Priest, Lovett is stands at the top of the steps with Dan’s body and says her line.

We only had one real issue with this scene and that was whether we can have Dan in this scene. We originally wanted to have Dan as a chorus member but we realised this wouldn’t work for two reasons. Firstly, there isn’t any way he can be in this song and then be back up on the stage to be a dead body for A Little Priest. Secondly, he would need to be in costume for A Little Priest but in blacks for The Epiphany. So even if he could make it up to stage in time, he would need to quickly throw on his cape which isn’t enough time at all.

Finally, we went through the prologue with Alice and Taylor here to show them what they do and then ran it with them which went very well.

Double - Performance Workshop (Sweeney Todd) - Blog 11 - 03/03/17 ADD VIDEO

Today we blocked everything for the quirky number, “By The Sea”. With this song we wanted to create an illusion, much like in The Epiphany, to show that this clearly isn’t reality. We experimented with ways we could show this but we wanted to do something different compared to cast members walking in and out of the scene which would simply be copying The Epiphany. We thought about using a sheet like the boat in the opening prologue but we felt that it wouldn’t work unless we had plenty of things to do with it. So we used one we already have and experimented with it to see what we could create with just one sheet. From this we came up with:

A swing:

A hammock:

Wedding canopy:

And water (obviously the sheet would have to be blue): 

Below is the outline of how the scene will go:

Lorna and Rob start upstairs in the barber shop and the song starts and Mrs Lovett is all over Todd. On, “Where I’d really like to go,” Ollie and I enter from the side and hold open a blue sheet facing the audience and James is walking behind it but only his upper body is visible and he is pretending to swim. Mrs Lovett and Todd also start walking down into what was once their pie shop.

On “By the sea, Mr Todd, that’s the life I covet”, Ollie and I lay the sheet on the floor and wave it around like it’s a river and James is splashing about it in childlike. Lorna then proceeds to join him and on Rob’s line, “Anything you say,” he steps into the river begrudgingly and has a small splash.

On, “Think how snug it’ll be…” the family step off of the sheet and Ollie and I lift it up and lay it on the stage block behind us which was a table in the pie shop before. By the line, “we’ll have chums over every Friday,” the family and Ollie and I are gathered around the table, which has the sheet as a homely tablecloth.

For the next verse, Ollie and I lift up the sheet and hold it over our shoulders as a swing again and Lorna pushes an unenthusiastic Rob as she sings about seagulls. On, “But a seaside wedding,” Rob hops down and Ollie and I hold the sheet above them as a wedding canopy and they stand as they are ready to be wed.

Below is a video of the final scene:

Double - Performance Workshop (Sweeney Todd) - Blog 10 - 01/03/17 ADD VIDEO

Today, while Lorna, Rob and Dan continued on with A Little Priest, Ollie, Tom and I worked on Johanna.

In this song, Anthony ganders at the Johanna which angers Judge Turpin and he orders Beadle to “dispose of him”. We staged this so that Alice (Johanna) is standing on the right on the stage, locked away in her bedroom and Tom (Anthony is standing on the floor, just in front of her singing up to her. We realised that his back is facing the audience in this part which removes all the emotion so we have him looking upwards facing the audience as it’s still clear that he’s singing to her.

Ollie and I enter from under the stage as if we were just randomly walking and we stumble upon Anthony without him noticing and we walk closer inspecting him. On “I’ll steal you Johanna,” I look at Beadle and look back at Anthony which is a clear order to attack him. When Tom finishes singing, I cough to which he turns into a strike from Beadle’s cane. Fallen to the floor, Anthony is forced to face me by Beadle. After telling him to leave and never come back, I walk back to my home and talk with Johanna closely followed by Beadle after he threatens Anthony once more. We all exit excluding Anthony who sings his last verse and exits.

Below is a video of this scene and finally a finished “A Little Priest.” The only thing that needs to be done with A Little Priest is to rehearse the waltz midway through as this could do with improvement.

Double - Performance Workshop (Sweeney Todd) - Blog 9 - 27/02/17

Today we worked on A Little Priest, the song that closes Act One and kicks off the chaotic murderous rampage of Sweeney Todd and Mrs Lovett. We at first thought that Rob and Lorna would interact with each other a lot and mime the different characters they’d murder but we felt that this would be pretty boring if not pulled off right and we wanted something a bit more extravagant for this song as it’s a huge pivotal moment in the musical. We wanted there to be plenty of movement but keep it imaginative. That’s when we remembered a video we’ve seen before of Kristen Chenoweth performing “If You Haven’t, But You Did,” from the 1951 Broadway show Two On The Aisle. In the performance (which is linked here) she uses another person and interacts with them as a dead body. She moves him around, picks him up but the guy moves around aswell but makes it look like he’s dead still. Not only does this make it very effective and dark but also very funny too.

We thought that we could easily transfer this into our Sweeney Todd by using the body of Pirelli! We could have the body/Dan come in from the passage leading under the stage and Lorna and Rob interact with him putting him into the positions of their “victims to be”.

Next lesson Lorna, Rob and Dan will carry on with this and Ollie, Tom and I will go over “Johanna” as we have Tom.

Double - Performance Workshop (Sweeney Todd) - Blog 8 - 20/02/17

Today we worked a considerable amount on The Epiphany and the short bit before where Anthony storms in upon Judge Turpin's  near fatal shave with Sweeney.

With this we weren't sure whether we should stay naturalistic with The Epiphany and have Rob portray the new psychotic side of Sweeney through his pure facial expressions or do something similar to the 2007 film and have represent Sweeney hallucinating and showing him on the streets of London threatening citizens of London. In order to choose, we tried both.

To start off we went from the end of Pretty Woman which is where Anthony storms into Sweeney's shop, exclaiming that Johanna would elope with her, and Judge Turpin leaves Sweeney, disgusted with the company he keeps. Frustrated, Sweeney sends Anthony away and Mrs Lovett comes to find our what's wrong. This scene proved quite difficult to act out at first as we didn't have Tom as Anthony but James stood in for him so there wasn't many issues.

When it came to singing the first part of The Epiphany before Sweeney goes a bit mental, I felt that Rob was far too static; although he had good facial expressions, I thought there was a lot more we could do with such a complex scene. We wanted Rob to pace a bit more being extremely angry whilst Lorna is trying to ask what's happened. During the "there's a hole in the world," part Rob walks to the front of the stage and flicks open and closed his razor and on "not for long" he raises it up to the sky. He lowers it fiercely on "die" and then turns to Mrs Lovett on "Tell you why Mrs Lovett." Rob then interacts with Lorna creepily pushing her in the chair and threatening her with the razor. When he starts keening, Rob walks away from her and stands at the front of the stage.

We wanted to experiment with the abstract side of this piece and see what it would be like if I we do something similar to the film where Sweeney goes around London. We experimented with Rob jumping down from the stage and then walking between the rest of the case representing the townspeople. We didn't get anything set in stone though so next lesson we will work more on this.

For the remainder of the lesson, we cut down the script removing lines and sections which we didn't like or didn't think were necessary.

Double - Performance Workshop (Sweeney Todd) - Blog 7 - 06/02/17

Today we ran the scene between Todd and Pirelli which results in his death. We had Rob and Dan act out the section minus Pirelli’s death individually with no direction to see how they perform it and we gave them the following feedback:

Dan needs to interact with the space more, at the moment he’s only using the chair when he can be using the walls, the table, the razors he mentions or even Todd himself.

Rob needs to decide how he’s going to react to Pirelli being there, whether he’s going to be scared that he knows the truth about Benjamin Barker or angry; both were reflected in this runthrough multiple times.

After receiving feedback, they performed it again which I felt was a lot better. They interacted with each other more and their movement was a lot more interesting. Next, we worked on Pirelli’s actual death which all had ideas for. We could have Pirelli fiddling around with some fancy ribbon whilst sitting in the chair and then Sweeney could grab the ribbon and choke Pirelli to death with it. We could have Pirelli sat with the ribbon again and Todd slices his throat from behind; however, we felt that this would be difficult to use blood packs without the scene looking bad. We also thought it would look cool if we had Pirelli standing and turn when he says, “Beadle Bamford.” As he turns, Todd slices forwards dynamically to which Pirelli would grab his throat and squeeze a blood pack which could be in his hands the whole time. As he turns, to the audience, his neck and hands are now smothered in (fake) blood. In the end, we went with the following movement:

• Rob strangles Dan with the Ribbon and then once he hits the ground, he gasps for breath and Rob stabs Dan. Rob then picks him up and hides his body underneath the steel decking.

Double - Performance Workshop (Sweeney Todd) - Blog 6 - 03/02/17

Today we worked on the blocking and the singing of “Pretty Woman.” In the scene before, Ollie and I enter the Pie Shop while Sweeney reveals the body of Pirelli to Mrs Lovett. We cross paths on the stairs and then it is only Sweeney and Turpin alone in his shop. From there we perform our dialogue which then leads into the song. Before blocking our movement throughout this song, we sang through it a few times to get used to the timings and to learn the harmonies properly. This was something Rob and I struggled with but after working on this all lesson, we were much more competent with the song.

Next lesson, as we have both Tom and Dan back, we will work on Pirelli’s death and have Tom sing through “Johanna.”

Double - Performance Workshop (Sweeney Todd) - Blog 5 - 01/02/17

Today we worked on Pirelli’s Miracle Elixir scene and The Contest that follows. We started with planning James’ movement; we didn’t want him to be static throughout the piece but we didn’t want him to run around too much as this would make the scene unrealistic. We decided to let James take full reign for a moment and see what he came up with before adding more to it.

After James performed his opening, we felt that it was a bit bland and needed more movement. We planned James’ movement to start from either the stage, entering from the curtains or from beneath the stage (we tried both to see which works better) and then he would walk around the audience and interact with them based on his lines (“Rub it in sir”). After trying both (pictured below) we decided that James appearing from the curtain makes more sense as Pirelli would enter extravagantly from the curtain too and it also looked more impressive too.

We then read through and rehearsed The Contest where we had only one small issue: where we were staging The Contest. We had two options, have it take place up on the stage or down on the floor in front of the audience (Both pictured below).  Although, performing it closer to the audience would make them feel more involved and as if they were actually the townspeople of London, we decided to perform it on the stage as it would make The Contest more a grand performance as well as simply being a shave.

Next lesson, as we don’t have Tom or Dan, we will bock and rehearse “Pretty Women.”

Double - Performance Workshop (Sweeney Todd) - Blog 4 - 30/01/17

Today we spent the lesson workshopping a few scenes which only a few of us are in. Whilst Rob and Lorna worked on the scene between Mrs Lovett’s Meat Pies and My Friends and James worked Pirelli’s Miracle Elixir, Ollie and I worked on the dialogue before Ladies and Their Sensitivities and the song itself. This entails the court scene, Turpin telling Beadle of his intentions on marrying Johanna and Beadle telling Turpin of Todd’s barber shop. Below is the outline for blocking of this scene:

• Ollie and I stand on the stage by the black flats during the court scene, on “Court adjourned,” we start walking down the steps.
• We perform the rest of the section walking around the floor as if we’re walking through the streets of London.

Upon performing this scene for the first time to the group, there was one thing that was made clear to us: we were lacking a lot in characterisation. We were told to think about our characters, and think why they are saying what they’re saying, how they’d say it, and how they would stand while saying it. We agreed that we should both spend some time discussing how we will play our characters.

In terms of voice, I am a big fan of how Alan Rickman played the role, however, this is the same tone of voice that he uses for most of his characters so I felt that I needed something more personal for this character. I began to think of how I wanted my character to sound; Judge Turpin is clearly a very intelligent and rich man to be able to be a judge so this needs to be reflected in his voice with a rich dialect. He’s also very sinister; sentencing a young boy to death by hanging after frequent petty crimes isn’t necessary at all. I feel a deep voice will be very effective at portraying this. After this, I began to envision this character sounding a lot like Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, very deep voice and very self-dignified. This is how I am intending on playing my role as Turpin.

For movement, I feel that Turpin would be very slow as he is so powerful as an individual that he doesn’t need to worry about what speed he walks at. I feel like his movement would be very direct too as he’s very driven towards marrying Johanna which I feel would make him a motivated person in all aspects of life including his movement. He would also walk freely as he is the Judge whom everyone fears; no one’s going to tell him what to do as he has power over most people in London.

After keeping this in mind, we performed our scene again and our feedback was a lot more positive. After thinking about our character more, this allowed us to portray them more believably.
Next lesson, we will work on blocking Pirelli’s Miracle Elixir and The Contest.

Double - Performance Workshop (Sweeney Todd) - Blog 3 - 27/01/17

Today we started blocking the section which follows the prologue right up to "Mrs Lovett's Meat Pies." This involved the creation of Anthony's ship, the travel to the pie shop and the pie shop scene itself as well as the transitions which come with it. We decided, however, to save the travelling through London section for when we had everyone, including Taylor, Dan and Alice, so that we can properly devise rather than say that, for example Taylor would do this and Alice would... etc.

We began workshopping how we'd like to represent the boat which I had prepared an idea for prior to the lesson. I thought that when we scarper during the prologue, some of us would go to the stage block staircase and take it apart it to create the boat. The two large blocks would be turned on their sides so that the tops are facing the audience, this would happen to the smaller block also and then the final two-step block would stand at the end to create the peak of the boat. Tom and Rob would stand behind these blocks as if it were the side of the boat. We also wanted to have the sails as well so we placed the blocks closer to the stage and had James sit with a pole on the stage. Attached to the pole was a sheet of material which Ollie and I both wave either side by holding an end and standing behind the sheet. This is what this version of the ship looked like:

However, we thought this looked very basic and that it could also be mistaken for a train (this was Rob's initial thought when seeing the block layout). We also thought that we could be a lot more creative with this task so we put our heads together and thought of something else.

We next, tried to think of a way that is more fluid in terms of transitioning from the prologue. We wanted to create a way of making it possible for Rob to stay where he is for the entire of the transition so his coffin is almost transformed into the ship. We replicated our idea of using material and used a large sheet of black material to portray the ship. We attached a pole to the centre and had James sit at the foot of the coffin holding it upright, then Ollie and I would grab either end and stand behind the coffin and to the side. When trying this, we felt that Tom and Rob were tiny inside the ship and you could only see them from the collar bone upwards. This is the blocks used for the coffin were too small. We resolved this by using the bigger blocks and having a smaller one at the front for James to sit on during the prologue and the ship scene. This elevated Tom and Rob much more so you can their bodies more but not too much of them. Below is how this looked:

We wanted this ship to look as impressive as possible so having as much of the chorus hidden as possible would be essential in achieving this effect. We hid Ollie and I by having us sit at the head of the coffin/the back of the ship and still holding up the sheet. Lorna, at this point is holding the sail pole up so that Alice, Taylor and Dan can stand behind it and wave the sail. Below is a photo of the final boat:

For the section where Sweeney steps off of the ship with Anthony and they part ways, we wanted to cleverly dismantle the boat as opposed to just taking it offstage. When Rob starts walking down, Ollie and I stand in line with James who also stands and we arrange our sheet as if Rob and Tom are walking down a staired plank to the pier/dock; Ollie would raise his side up higher, I would lower my side down and James would find the midpoint and keep it as one straight line. Once Rob and Tom are down on the docks, Ollie and I let go of the sheet and go under the stage and James follows carrying the sheet. We wanted to have it so that we can use the trapdoor behind the curtain so that we can travel from underneath the stage straight to behind the curtain. However, this involves having a stepladder underneath the trapdoor which may cause health and safety issues. We will have this worked out by next lesson.

We finished the lesson by Lorna and Rob working on Mrs Lovett's Meat Pies with James helping and Ollie and I went off to read through some of the Turpin and Beadle's dialogue to get ourselves more familiar with the characters and their scenarios. Next lesson, we will work on the dialogue before Ladies And Their Sensitivities and the song itself while Lorna and Rob work on their scene.

Double - Performance Workshop (Sweeney Todd) - Blog 2 - 25/01/17

Today we began working on the prologue for Sweeney Todd! We first mind mapped ideas on how we'd want to perform the prologue and below are our ideas:

We decided to try the idea of a funeral as this foreshadows the death of Sweeney. Once we arrive at the coffin, we will turn to the audience and arrange ourselves in a V formation. On the line, "Hold it to..." we all sharply look to the right and slowly drift back to looking forwards. On the line, "Freely flows..." we all raise our arm sharply and lower it back down slowly. We then remain still throughout.

Below is a video of this version of the prologue:

Although we spent quite a lot of time on this prologue, we felt that it was far too simple to the point of it being rather boring. It doesn't do much to represent the story and we feel that we could devise something better. Also, we agreed that lifting the coffin to the stage would be too difficult to do whilst singing.

We began to look at our alternative idea of having us enter from different areas of the stage space. We wanted to make this impactful though, having character entrance points mean something. Although we're not our characters at this point, besides Rob, the audience would relate us as actors to our main characters. This led to us discussing how we'd stage some of our later scenes so that we can place characters entry points in the prologue.

With the ability to use the steel decking we wanted to put Sweeney's barber shop up higher as it not only is above Mrs Lovett's Meat Pies but also to highlight it's importance. We thought it would be effective to have Dan enter from Todd's shop as Pirelli is the first character to die at the hands of Sweeney. We wanted Judge Turpin's house to also be up high so we placed this section on the other side of the stage but without Steel decking; this is where I would enter. We wanted to Taylor and Lorna to enter from below the stage as they are two of the most mysterious characters in the show. We wanted Ollie and Alice to enter from behind the audience as Alice's character would be kept as far away from anything as possible by Judge Turpin and Ollie's character is often told to keep an eye on her. We wanted Tom to enter from the side of the stage space as he enters the story very conveniently so we wanted this to reflect in his initial entrance to the stage. Finally James wouldn't enter at all but start sitting on top of the coffin as he plays Tobias, the murderer of Sweeney, so we thought this would be effective to have him start sitting on the coffin, foreshadowing the events to come.

Below is a diagram of all the entry and exit points:

During this new prologue, we have James sing the first two lines and then Tom and Dan enter and finish the verse with James. Next, Lorna sings the first line of the next verse and I enter and sing the next line. Then everyone else enters and sings the rest of the verse. By this point everyone is by the coffin lying on the floor with the foot facing the audience. We all lower down to crouching and watch the coffin intently. James stands up and faces the audience. On, "swing you razor..." James raises his hand up as if he's holding a razor and the rest of us slowly stand and look at the knife. On, "hold it to..." James mimes throwing the knife to the right and the rest of us sharply turn to face the audience as opposed to the knife. We sing the rest of the chorus to the audience and during this Rob stands. When Rob starts singing Sweeney's solo section, we all scarper to our original places and finish the song.

 Below is a video of this version of the prologue:

I feel that this version of the prologue is a far sight better than our previous version as it not only foreshadows events to come and reference to our characters, but it just looks more interesting and is more fun to watch.

Next lesson, we will work on the next section up to "The Worst Pies in London."

Double - Performance Workshop (Sweeney Todd) - Blog 1 - 23/01/17

Today, we auditioned for roles in Sweeney Todd, our new production for Performance Workshop. The audition was mostly for the guys as opposed as the girls as Lorna is the only girl in our group so she'd need to play the main female (Mrs Lovett). Also taking part in this unit is Taylor and Alice from Year 12, to play the remaining female roles, and Tom and Dan who are ex-students to play the remaining male roles.

To start the audition, we listened to one of Sweeney Todd's main songs: My Friends; a song about his silver shaving razors which he once used to shave the faces of thousands but his intentions turn ill after Judge Turpin essentially ruins his life. After singing a short section of it a few times, we were asked to audition it one by one.

We then did the same for a short section of Pretty Woman as well, the duet between Todd and Turpin whilst Sweeney shaves his enemy.

After the audition, we were given our roles to go research before the next lesson. Below is the cast list:

Rob - Sweeney Todd
Lorna - Mrs Lovett
Lewis (me) - Judge Turpin
James - Tobias Ragg
Ollie - Beadle Bamford

This leaves Tom, Dan, Taylor and Alice as:
Tom - Anthony Hope
Dan - Adolfo Pirelli
Taylor - Beggar Lady/Lucy Barker
Alice - Johanna Barker

I am incredibly happy with this casting and looking forward to the first rehearsal. Next lesson, we will begin devising the opening.