Stage Design and Old Gumbie Cat Blocking Workshop

In Todays lesson we got assigned a lesson where we would teach the class our chosen songs choreography. Today's lesson it was Beth's turn and her song was ' Old Gumbie Cat', this dances style is tap dance. We jumped straight in and began learning the dance she had choreographed at the beginning of the piece Beth (Jennyanydot) was standing on the catwalk and either side was an evenly divided class. We walked forward tap are feet 4 steps stops and the with our right foot tapped in front then to the the right, then with our left foot we tapped in front and then to our left; We did this in unison with our hands on our hips. We then dances 360 degrees anticlockwise whilst tapping alternate feet. After with opposite arms and legs we tapped in opposite directions i loved this move and think it was really affective from an audiences perspective. Another stand out movement for me was when people standing stage left move with there right leg pointing at a 45 degree angle and then tapping the floor with our toes whilst their arms diagonally downwards from left to right they do this 4 times whilst moving to the right. Whilst this is repeated on stage right but all the movements are retrogrades to the right. This looks really jolly and captures the motif and emotion in the song.

My penultimate stand out dance move Beth also choreographed in the song was when we get into a line of 5 facing the cat walk on stage left whilst the same happens stage right. Every other  person is facing away from the cat walk we then turn with our arms linked and move clockwise whilst tapping our feet forward. This move looks really professionally well fully polished and i believe its a challenge we can master and as a class make this look really effective.

At the end of the song we all sing 'Oh She's a Jolly Good Fellow' and we all gather round her people at the front kneel then it gradually gets taller. The music suddenly changes and we all turn around anticlockwise on the spot and get back to the original pose around her with are arms out in a diagonal fashion. I thought this was good as she established a motif and a clear ending point for the song, this was assisted by a well established memorable pose.

In this lesson we also designed how the staging would be. As you can see from the diagram we have a cat walk to tie in with our fashion idea. This cat walk links on to the steps leading out to the audience, we wanted to actually connect the two so we felt as personal to the audience as possible. One of our aims when creating cats was to make the audience feel like they were a part of the story. The cat walk then connects to the staging on the left (view from diagram) this will be the office area in the designer house. We felt that it should be on that side as there is not much wing area behind it, and the main entrance to the stage we wanted to have an impact so made it tall (stage right staging). This leads me to the thought process behind the staging on the right. We wanted to create a few things from it, the stair case down to the designer house, which is what the stages theme is. We felt it was necessary for it to be a stair case as we wanted characters to enter with impact for example in Rum Tum Tugger he enters from the stair case and walks down in a dramatic fashion. 'Like he is god' a connotation of arriving from higher ground.

On the floor of the stage there will be clothing rails either side of the stage and also mirrors on stage left, this is to add to the theme of the fashion house. They are also used as props throughout the dances we have choreographed. The sides of the staging will be covered with sheets of wood which will be be painted to make the walls of the fashion house.

David Blaine Character Analysis

When we portray cats the musical we are changing the motif of it instead of it being set traditionally as cats we are putting on the show in the world of fashion. The task we were set involved finding a celebrity, fashion icon or model, we did this so we could link our cats character to a person in this industry. I based my character Quaxo on the American magician David Blaine. I did this because Quaxo takes to the stage and changes character into Mr Mistoffelees who is portrayed in cats as a magician.


David Blaine was born on April 4th 1973, he is a magician, illusionist and endurance artist. He is best known for his high impact tricks and has made his name by becoming a street performer and does close-up magic. He has performed all over the world breaking record and setting several world record.


Some of the tricks he has done includes, buried alive where on April 5th 1999 he emerged himself 9 foot underground with a water tank placed on-top so he could be seen in the public eye. When he did this trick he survived a week with no food and only 2-3 tablespoons a day. He was restricted in a coffin where he only had 6 inches to move his head. This is an example of David Blaine pushing the boundaries of magic and performing stunts that have never been seen before.


Another performance that David Blaine did which really captured my attention was a task he did called 'Frozen in Time'. In this trick he emerged himself in a transparent block of ice and remained there for 66 hours. He had to be cut free after this time using chainsaws. As soon as he came out of the block of ice, he was quickly wrapped in warm blankets and taken straight to hospital. He came out of the ice confused and disorientated and couldn't walk for a month after. This trick broke all world record, but said he would never attempt such a dangerous stunt again.


David Blaine does a lot for charity and helped hugely in the Haiti Appeal, this suggests that David Blaine. He also recently did a stunt where he wanted to give back to the people. This involved him standing in London and asking people for 5 pounds, most people ignored his request. A business man who Blaine asked gave him the 5 pounds it took almost 3 hours just to get 5 pounds off of the public. He spoke to his man and said finally some one has lent me a hand now I have something to pay you back by. He lifted his arms to the sky and money started raining from the clouds, thousands of pounds were falling and the people below scurried to pick them all up.


David Blaine usually wears practical and plain clothing, its almost a necessity for what he wears to be practical as his stunt involve being in these clothes for either long periods of time or involve a lot of movement. Quaxo my cats character is also quite plain until he transforms into Mr Mistoffelees where he then becomes a more flashy character in a light up jacket. When Mr Mistoffelees is on stage and all flashy, this is not like David Blaine he isn't a flashy person but he likes to draw peoples attention onto himself through his stage performances. The boldness of Mr Mistoffelees is portrayed with David Blaine's stunts.


Here is a picture of David Blaine, I got this image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Blaine . As you can see he is in a plain grey t-shirt, and black trousers. David Blaine is usually put in outfits like this which are one block colour and usually in colours grey, white, black and brown. This is similar to Quaxo's costume in Broadway where he is in black and white. David Blaine and Quaxo wear similar colours, when David performs his tricks he usually decides to wear something smarter so matches his outfit with a smart black or brown jacket. This is similar to Quaxo who puts on his light up crystal jacket when performing, they still keep within the same guidelines of wearing a jacket when performing.


My researched was influenced by Wikipedia, David Blaine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Blaine [Last Accessed 2nd February] and Bing images, David Blaine http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=david+blaine&FORM=HDRSC2 [Last Accessed 2nd February] this allowed me to look at David Blaine's different outfits and understand more about him and his personality. This allowed me to gather information so I could make my own informative opinion about David Blaine.

Introduction To Cats The Musical

Small Synopsis
On just one special night of the year, all Jellicle cats meet at the Jellicle Ball where Old Deuteronomy, their wise and benevolent leader, makes the Jellicle choice and announces which of them will go up to The Heaviside Layer and be reborn into a whole new Jellicle life.

Directors

Cats is directed by Trevor Nunn, with Gillian Lynne as Associate Director and Choreographer and designs by John Napier. Book is by T. S. Eliot with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Cats, one of the longest-running shows in West End and on Broadway, received its world premiere at the New London Theatre in 1981 where it played for 21 record-breaking years and almost 9,000 performances. The production was the winner of the Olivier and Evening Standard Awards for Best Musical. In 1983 the Broadway production became the recipient of seven Tony awards including Best Musical, and ran for eighteen years. Since its world premiere, Cats has been presented in over 26 countries, has been translated into 10 languages and has been seen by over 50 million people world-wide. Both the original London and Broadway cast recordings won Grammy Awards for Best Cast Album. The classic Lloyd Webber score includes Memory which has been recorded by over 150 artists from Barbra Streisand and Johnny Mathis to Liberace and Barry Manilow.Cats is one of the most successful musicals of all time and has been performed throughout the world. I found out a few interesting facts about the show:

Since its opening, CATS has been presented in over thirty countries and over three hundred cities, including such diverse destinations as Buenos Aires, Seoul, Helsinki and Singapore.

Within two and half years of the London opening there were productions in New York, Tokyo, Budapest and Vienna, and the first of tour US touring productions had hit the road.To date the show has been seen by over 73 million people worldwide.

CATS was the recipient of two Olivier awards in 1981; Musical of the Year and Outstanding Achievement of the Year in a Musical which went to Gillian Lynne.

In 1983 the Broadway production became the recipient of seven Tony awards including Best Musical and Best Original Score (also Best Book, Best Director (Trevor Nunn), Best Supporting Musical Actress (Betty Buckley), Best Costumes (John Napier) and Best Lighting (David Hersey)).

Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats – on which the musical CATS is based – was written by T S Eliot during the 1930s and first published in October 1939 by Faber and Faber, with illustrations by the author himself on the cover. It cost 3 shillings and sixpence a copy. Although Eliot generally intended his cat poems to be for children, they were appealing and amusing to adults.

Many of the cats were modelled on other literary figures (Macavity is styled on Moriarty, the infamous villain who challenged Sherlock Holmes and Skimbleshanks on a work by Rudyard Kipling – The Long Trail).

Having notched up a staggering 8,950 performances, the original production of CATS played it’s final performance in London in 2002, the same year it celebrated its 21st birthday.

CATS has been translated into at least fifteen languages, including Japanese, German, (three versions for Germany, Austria and Switzerland), Hungarian, Norwegian, Finnish, Dutch, Swedish, French, Spanish (two versions for Mexico and Argentina) and Italian.

The Swiss production required a bilingual cast who performed in German and English on alternate nights!Despite its international appeal, the title of the show has rarely been translated – the Mexican producers did a survey as to whether the Mexican audience would like their production to be called Gatos. The response in favour of keeping the English original was unanimous.

The German Tent Tour of Cats toured 16 cities in four German-speaking countries: Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Austria. Previews started in late December 2010 in Hamburg – the city where Cats had its German premiere in 1986. The official premiere was at 6th January 2011 in Hamburg. The tour closed at 16th June 2013 in Graz, Austria.

It was the first European production that didn’t play at usual theatres but used a tent that was specifically designed for this tour with the set NAP 19.There had been tent tours in Australia and Asia before.

Ever wondered what the number plate on the set is all about? The “NAP” part refers to our fantastic set designer John Napier, and is usually followed by a number. Although it remains generally the same, the set is often updated or rebuilt for different productions and tours. The number tells you which edition of the set it is, for instance the NAP 16 set (above) was built for the 2003 UK Tour. This set was reproduced by Raymond Huessy, so the number plate also reads “HUESSY12″ in smaller text beneath.

In the Cats film, the number plate reads “TSE 1″ in reference to TS Eliot.

‘Memory’ has been aired on radio and television in the United Kingdom 46,875 times and over a million times in the USA (if you listened to the song non-stop 1 million times it would take five years!).

There have been over 150 different versions and recordings of the song.

The touring show requires 8 forty-foot trucks to move it from theatre to theatre, transporting the sets, musical instruments, and sound and lighting systems, together with hundreds of costumes and wigs and over one hundred lamps for the lighting rig.

A team of over 70 people will work around the clock to ensure the show is ready for the opening night.

Since 1981 the crew has replaced over 6,124 seats, added 96,525 new screws, used over 36,625 posters and 356 gallons of varnish to cover the floor, replaced the wood for the star trap 6 times a week and used 3 litres of cleaner a week (2,316 litres).

The sound department has used 30 new microphones a year (450 in total), 50 new aerials a year (750 in total) and 50 batteries a week (39,000 in total).

Stage Management has used 1,000 plastic cups a month, 2,000 elastic bands a year, 50 painkillers a week and 449,280 throat lozenges in total. They used a pint of milk a day (not for the cats) and over 200 loo rolls a week – for everything but the loo!

The wardrobe department has replaced 5 pairs of shoes a week (3,900 pairs), sewed on six knee patches per night. In total they sewed 3,450 costumes for 262 different performers, using 11,954 lbs of wool and 2,825 miles of cotton.

The stage electronics department has changed 23,166 bulbs in the London auditorium (there are 1,166 bulbs in total, 30 are changed per week and each has been changed roughly 12 times) and used 22,405 feet of cabling.

The make-up department has used 10,800 sponges and 72 batches of each eyeshadow, pencil, blusher, lipstick and mascara per year. Cast members get through a box of tissues each every week.

The London Box Office has used 1,179,800 envelopes, 772,200 paper cups and 31,875 headache tablets!

I found these facts from:

http://london.catsthemusical.com/cats-facts/

Quaxo/ Mr. Mistoffelees Character Analysis

Mistoffelees is a main character in Andrew Lloyd Webber'sCats. He is featured in the song 'Magical Mister Mistoffelees'.  In the London and some other productions, he is named "Quaxo, also called Mistoffelees", where his identity as The Magical Mister Mistoffelees remains a secret until his song.When Mistoffelees appears as a general chorus cat throughout the show, he is dressed slightly differently and often referred to as "Quaxo." This has lead to some confusion over whether Quaxo is Mistoffelees' alter ego, or the character's name is really Quaxo and he adopts the stage name of Mr. Mistoffelees while doing magic, or whether Quaxo and Mistoffelees are not the same cat at all. In the 1998 film credits, the character is credited as simply "Mistoffelees," and the credit shots include a shot of Quaxo/Mistoffelees in his Quaxo or chorus Mistoffelees costume. This costume differs from Mr. Mistoffelees' special costume in that it is less sparkly and includes white arm- and leg-warmers.In a few productions, Quaxo is a totally separate character from Mistoffelees, played by a different actor

He's quiet and small. I believe he's an adolescent, probably around 18 - 20 human years. He seems to be good friends with The Rum Tum Tugger and some believe that he and Victoria are mates, though I prefer to pair him up with Jemima, or no one at all.

Mr. Mistoffelees traditionally in a black and white tuxedo cat. His poem describes him as all black, however is portrayed as a black and white cat in the musical due to the technical limitations of stage lighting.  He has a fluffy white bib and the suggestion of a bow tie/collar.  For his big number he changes into a black velvet outfit covered in Swarovski crystals, with a jacket wired up with flashing lights.  The tuxedo shape suggests a classic stage costume for a magician or conjuror performing tricks.

In the song "Magical Mister Mistoffelees", he is described as being a rather mysterious, clever and cunning conjuring cat, often found being mischievous or performing amusing antics. In some productions of cats, he is portrayed as a kitten and is young, still exploring his magical powers and not yet confident in himself.

In Cats, Mistoffelees is a principal role and maintains most of the same attributes as Eliot's original character, although he is much flashier. He has his own song and an extended dance solo in the second act of the show and in most productions also sings the "Invitation to the Jellicle Ball" in the first act. In the original London Cast, Mistoffelees also sang "The Old Gumbie Cat"; and in the original Broadway production, he sang "Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer". However, the song was reworked to allow those two characters to sing it themselves. He and Victoria dance to invite us to the Jellicle Ball.

In some versions of the musical, he is given a second name, 'Quaxo'. Often his "chorus" version is known as Quaxo, and his special song costume is known as Mistoffelees. Mistoffelees performs the most difficult choreography in the show, including 24 fouettés en tournant and dancers cast in the role generally have extensive ballet and gymnastic experience. As the role's technical demands necessarily trump the performer's vocal abilities, the show permits multiple vocal tracks for the character—thereby allowing some dancers to sing quite a bit, while others do no singing at all. He was also the second one to touch and smile at Grizabella and showed that he accept her back into the tribe and wave goodbye to her when she enter to the Heavisde Layer to be reborn.


As we are portraying cats in the world of fashion, I tried to think of a fashion icon or celebrity who would relate to my character Quaxo. I felt that there wasn't many fashion icons who could relate to my character so I went for a celebrity who Is a magician I did this because Quaxo takes the character of Mr Mistoffelees of a stage magician. The magician I chose was David Blaine, he is a well known magician who pushes the boundaries of magic and illusion.

First 'Cats' Lesson

In todays lesson we all chose a song that we wanted to explore and choreograph. It didn't have a to your characters main song and it didn't have to be a song which your character is in. I chose Invitation to the Jellicle Ball, my character takes an active role in the beginning of the song and i felt like i could adapt this song so it portrays the world of fashion which is our motif for cats.

This song begins with all the cats on stage and then i begin on the cat walk and then go off into the dressing room area i do this with enthusiasm and excitement as all the cats are about to get an invite. The choreography arranged in the dressing area there will be a lot of movement with the props and clothe rails here. Then Munkustrap comes on and enters on the catwalk with invitations in his hands gives a few out to the cats next to the runway he then walks with purpose to the office block. Invitations are given out to all, well Munkustrap has finished in the office he returns to the top of the runway and the rest of the cats then gather round him facing outwards in a circle; they all should be grounded. Munkustrap continues to sing and then on the line 'who will it be' all the cats whisper the repeat and gesture there arms out towards the audience. At the end all the cats then come up to Munkustrap and thank him for the invitation in an un-orderly fashion.

As we were put into groups for the lesson in our group each one of us had a song to focus on, so that was the song i focused on. We also focused on the song 'Jellicle Songs For Jellicle Cats.' For this we themed the song so that it was like the preparation for the catwalk show so all the models were getting ready it begins and its calm the preparations only just begun. Then as the song continues on it gets more and more hectic and people are rushing around making sure the last minute alterations are complete. When the song opens there are 4 clothing rails 2 on one side of the catwalk and 2 on the other. Everyone is frozen until the first person sings then in canon each person at the clothing rails comes to life. After the canon is finished other people begin to come into the scene. The unordered chaos begins and people rush around the stage in time to the music trying on clothes and adjusting hair.

The third song we looked at was 'Gus The Theatre Cat'. This song is a rather slow song and goes on for 6 minutes plus. At the beginning of the song models are lined up from 3 different entrances but do not enter yet. Gus and Jellyorum enter down the runway and Gus sits or stands at the end of the catwalk whilst Jellyorum sings around him. At this stage the models are just watching as Jellyorum sing to Gus. As Gus starts to sing the models walk on slowly holding masquer masks over there faces the first model walks on and does a slow curtsy the second model comes on and swings her arms and leg around in a circle then the third model comes on and does another movement then all is repeated at the same time. This whole motif is then repeated using 3 different actions. After the motif has been repeated all the cats gather round the sides of the catwalk and listens to Gus

The final song we looked at was 'Growl-tiger's Last Stand' In this song the boat will act as the pirate ship and i believe set should be basic but built up around the sides so it takes shape of a pirate ship. Then the two main characters sing whilst cats in the office, dressing rooms begin a choreographed sword fight dance and this is the main motif for this song. People then gather round the ship and outbreak again into pairs and sword fight.

This lesson was really productive and we managed to establish themes and motifs for each song and managed to block movements and spacing for each song.

Dance For Camera: Rosas Danst Rosas

The second choreographer i looked at for this unit was Rosas Danst Rosas. This piece is very interesting as the theme or stimulus could be interpreted in many different ways. The dance is 8 minutes and a half long unlike the original version of it which lasts 1 hour 40 minutes and consists of 4 parts. In the first movement the dancers lie on the floor. In the second they are seated on a chair. In the third they stand in a line and the final 4th part they move throughout the space. This shows that the dancers are restricted to movements in each parts until the final one which could connotate life and death as you could say life is restricting with little freedom and when you die which could be the 4th part the afterlife opens you to the freedom of anything/moving. In the stage version of Rosas Danst Rosas their are 4 dancers, unlike the film version where their are 18 dancers.

The filmed version of the dance is set in a school in belguim this is a specific site that Rosas really wanted to be a main feature of the dance, as the site effected the natural light that would be used in the dance, as she didnt want any ambient light.

The dance was performed live in 1983 and only filmed in 1997. The style of the dance is post-modern, it has physical elements with pedestrian actions and repetitive, compulsive gestures. The whole piece is energetic and dynamic. This is highlighted further by the camera as the camera becomes both the composer and choreographer by taking us on a journey, panning and zooming, selecting and layering images to create rhythms. So by filming this piece its shown from every angle allowing us to see more of the dance in comparison to if it were filmed with just 1 angle shot.

The music for this dance is similar to Russell Maliphant's piece 'Two' as they consist of unusual clicks whhich again is portrayed in rhythm to the dance. The music was composed by Thierry de Mey and Peter Vermeersch. The music changes when it gets to the end as natural sounds come into play from the dancers in action, these sounds add to the pieces persona, and makes it helps to portray emotions across to the audience by using different tones in your voice. The music is in direct correlation to the dance.

At the beginning of the piece the audience is shown a wide shot of all the dancers, this is also repeated at the end which links to an ABA structure similar to the dance structure. Furthermore, the dancers are restricted to their seats as the camera is panning around them, this could connotate emotions of 'the world is spinning' as the teenage girls could represent mental health issues, which is another story i felt the dance told. I thought this though by the influence that the camera had on me viewing the dance.

The tempo in music for this piece is upbeat but changes throughout the piece keeping the audience interested and aids climax's and highlights.

Camera work is uses extreme close up shots to highlight single parts of the body, this draws attention to small human gestures. By doing this allows different emotions to be portrayed and makes are mind focus on different things in depth.  Other shots used were over the shoulder shots, extreme close up and medium shots. In the middle of the dance there is a panning shot which allows the audience to see 180 degrees of the dancers making it more pleasing to the eye as you get to focus on different parts of the dance. In the 2nd Section of the full dance there is a part where there is a close up on the face you can see the other dancers faces in the background this is effective as it looks like the camera is portraying a canon.

The motif is repeated throughout and this may be missed when watching the stage version in comparison to the filmed version. The filmed version you're forced to look at where the camera is focusing unlike the stage version where your eyes may be distracted to look at other parts of the dance instead of focusing on specific parts which is what the camera allows us to do.

Below is a link to the dance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQCTbCcSxis

Script Writing Introduction

For our first lesson of script writing we were given an inventive task which was a cleaver way of how to come up with a story. We listened to 3 songs and had to write words which we thought connected with the piece for example emotions you feel when you listen to the song, what type of tone it has to it.

The first song we listened to was Ill Manors by Plan B the genre for this song is rap. This song was released just after the london riots which is a running theme in the song as is drug abuse, politics and society (especially in london) for youths who live in poverty. When you listen to this song its hard to detract a different storyline from the film as there is a film called Ill Manors based on this song. However, as certain emotions are meant to be portrayed in the song and as all songs tell basic stories you cant do the opposite of the song, you still need to continue the theme that the song is based around. So for my little story based around Ill Manors, i created a character named Charlie i did this cleverly as the song has a loose theme of drugs and Charlie is a street name for the drug cocaine. I did so you can analyse the piece in depth. Charlie is 17 years old who is white caucasian, he has a shaven head which is a typical style stereotypical for people who cause trouble this came from the 'prisoner' look. I pictured my character Charlie wearing a track suit and silver chained necklace.

His background was rough when he was only young his mum used to bring him to crack houses where she would receive her daily 'medication', she had no job so became a prostitute to fund her drug addiction as soon as her son was old enough (12) she expected him to bring in income to feed to addiction. To do this Charlie would be a runner (drug dealer) to the main supplier she got her drugs from. However, Charlie makes a mistake when collecting the drugs from the supplier, this lead him to serious consequences. He got beaten black and blue which permanently scarred him physically and mentally.

The second song we looked at called 'Sheep May Safely Graze by Bach' was very contrasting to the first song as it is a classical piece. I researched briefly about this song as i didn't know much about it and i couldn't find a true meaning to the song which is sometimes the case with classical musical you are left to your own interpretation of it. So this song for me told a story of a young woman in her early 20s named Susanne. Susanne came from the Elizabethan times and has a wealthy traditional family. She feels depressed as she's in line to marry a gentlemen who she is inclined to marry, but she cant stand up for herself as she is only a woman and she must follow the guidance of her parents.

The third and last song we looked at as a class was 'A Change is Gonna Come' by 'Aretha Franklin originally composed by Sam Cooke.  This song was written about African-Americans especially and how there should be equality in america when regarding to race. In 2007, the song was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress, with the National Recording Registry deeming the song 'culturally, historically and aesthetically important. However, this song meant something different to me when i heard it, even though i thought it was about equality in race i also saw it as a heartbreak song. I pictured a blonde girl who is quirky walking alongside a river crying, reflecting on her past relationship still wishing it was the present. She throws a picture of him and her in the river for it to remain there for eternity just like there relationship.

Doing this exercise just goes to show how your imagination can build up a story even by listening to a simple song.