Assignment 2: Task 2/5 - Wizard of Oz Show/Backstage Job

 

Task 2

Going into the show I struggled a lot with the stiff like movement, I made the decision to stay back and practice with some classmates. I stayed back an hour and made a little bit of progress. Another main problem I had going into the show was my pronunciation heart. 

On the very first show cast 3 were leading so I was an Ozian to begin with. My costume was green joggers with a green sports shirt that I had to wear inside out because it had a black logo on both sides, you weren't able to tell that I had it inside out because I also had a green apron over the top that held 3 green paintbrushes which me and Henry used to pretend we were painting the emerald city so it looked like we were immersed in the wizards lies and did everything he told us to do. There was a problem with the very first show with Ozians since the side I was on missed the queue to go on stage so we were out of beat and out of time with one another so it looked sloppy when we were inter crossing in the middle. Then when it got to the part where we had to pick up the sign only Morgan on the other side went to lift it up Taron forgot to move and go get it. So when Dorothy and the rest enter the emerald gates me and Henry grabbed the sign for the entire time so we didn't get to do the part we had spoken about doing together. After we had finished the first show we made sure that we worked on that part before the second show started so that we could polish and not have the same mistake happening again. When the second show came along everything went smooth enough, we made sure we were on time, Taron went to pick up the sign this time giving me and Henry the chance to meet up as he brings the paint bucket and I hand him a paintbrush and then we both went off and started painting in the background till we got the queue to act surprised that they were fast tracked to see the wizard. There was also another Ozian scene where were celebrating the Wizard were we missed the queue for part of it so it was silent for about 30 seconds till a couple of us realised we had to do the chant which we got some of the words muddled up with. 

With the rest of the cast three shows we kept improving more and more till the very last show where I had forgotten the paint brushes because I had left them on the prop table so we had to just pretend that we had them but weren't noticeable since we were in the background behind the main cast 

For the second day it was time for me to shine as Tinman, I was very nervous and panicky behind stage because this was my first ever show that I had done and now I had a big role. I kept panicking if I was going to forget lines or if I was going to lose the accent. When it got to me being pushed on stage by our wizard (Callum) my heart was pounding and I was a little shaky. But I managed to calm myself down looking at the audience because I just reminded myself i'm in a cardboard box suit so if they're going to laugh at me it would be about that and not my performance. So when it got to my first line where I had to eek and awk it calmed a lot of my nerves because I done the hardest thing, saying my first line. After that I sort of just got into the swing of things and I didn't forget any of my lines. When it came to the lion scene I staggered backwards and almost fell over which the audience gasped at as I had tripped over the wizards basket that was behind me so I nearly broke the box and the basket, I managed to not fall over and keep it flowing without any more hiccups. The only bit of feedback I had at the end of the first act for the first show was to try and be a bit louder because there's parts where I would quiet down and would stay quiet for a good while so the people at the back couldn't hear me, there was also my pronunciation of heart which I worked on when it came to show day 2 for Tinman for show 3 and 4. Mid way through act 2 when I come back on stage I made sure I was going to be a lot louder and clearer which I was. When it came to show 2 I had my family in the audience this time so I was even more nervous then show 1 but I had the mindset of I had done this before so I can do this again. So when it came to me being pushed on stage I was positioned right in front of my family eyesight level. When I looked at them my little sister kept waving and pointing while pulling funny faces so I nearly broke character but I averted my eyes to just above the audience where Kane and Kelly were sat so I wouldn't lose focus or concentration. For the lion scene when I stagger backwards because my hair was slicked back the funnel hat fell off so I had to just leave it on the floor as I didn't want to break character and pick it up and lose all the stiff motion I had worked hard to understand and portray correctly. There was also a line I had forgotten this time which was about how a heart was manufactured but thanks to the scarecrow (Emie) she jumped in and improvised a line about how a brain is manufactured so that I would remember. There was also a chant we missed out towards the end which was the one we hadn't learnt because we spent more time learning the bigger chants and there was a lot of words we were mispronouncing when rehearsing that chant. We also added our own improvisation towards the end when we added in us shouting quick to Dorothy or Toto is behind you because it kept the flow going since we were just stood on the top not saying anything. For our 3rd show we had a dilemma, we had to use a completely different lion, since our lion was running late due to a hand injury and the other lion was ill. So we had to use cast 1 lion for the first show on the 2nd day, meaning we had to get rid of all the chants since he hadn't learnt them with us and we did it a different way then his cast did. We had a school in that morning as well so the atmosphere from the audience was very lively. Luckily for our final show we had our line back and the show went smoothly and it was a nice way to end off our cast and I didn't enjoy it as I wanted to keep performing it over and over since I got right into my element and loved every minute of performing with my cast. 

For cast 1 I was a munchkin, for the first show It was very poor we weren't energetic at all and I had to fill in for one of the munchkins lines since they were running late. I knew the line I just didn't know when to say the line. For the 2nd show I stuck with Harvey and Aiden since we had a little piece we made together and it was the best we had done we just had to keep improving from little bits afterwards. 

Task 5

 For the show I had two backstage roles, one was stage manager and the other was front of house. For front of house I only did the last two nights since the higher education students were doing them the first week. When it came to doing my job I had the table set and I set out the tuck shop. I felt like Ash was sort of taking over my job a bit when it wasn't her job allowing me not to sort of get involved as she was running back and fourth to some customers. When it came to break for both days I was straight back out there with the table and everything set up ready for if anyone would like to buy anything else, I worked with Emily H for this job. For my other job as stage manager, all the casts sort of got into the rhythm of getting themselves together to rehearse. I helped and stood in where I could for example if someone was missing, or I would prompt someone with lines or I would get my cast all together so that we would all be ready and rehearse through it. When it came to show days where I was munchkin or Ozian I would make sure everyone was downstairs ready or behind the stage if they were about to get on just so that we weren't missing anyone.