Connors Acting Journey

Going into Peter Pan knowing it was a musical was something I was excited for but very nervous about as I hadn't done anything to this level before. I have sang on stage before but that was infront of people I knew where it was less nerve-racking. This was for a show so it felt like there was a bit more added pressure on that front for me. I still wanted to give it my all and go for a character I felt like I could portray well which when auditioning was Hook. Through out my journey on this course I have played a few mature characters and stereotypes on different characters. So when Kelly had spoke to me about the role I had been given because of how mature of a character Hook was I was upset at first but took on the character of John very happily with an open mind to play on how psychical I could be with him being more loose and energetic. I also still had a few fair songs to learn on top of that so I could still challenge myself by singing in front of an audience I don't know ...

Wednesday 13th Cast 1 was on the first day and we had a different type of audience with it being a relaxed performance. The day before the show we had a talk about to what to expect from the audience and we were given the chance to put our name forward if we wanted to meet the audience before they came to sit in.I asked George if I would be allowed to put my name due to my experiences and so it was nice to meet and greet them in and see how excited they all were for Peter Pan. I was a lost boy in this cast so I was in my lost boy costume ready for our part. I  first com on sage to help with the flying, I made sure to not look at the audience but instead look at the floor so I didn't trip over something when lifting someone. After the flying it was then scene change for lost boys. I made sure to skip onto stage as character with Alan and then we both grabbed the front bed and moved it to the back, I also had to move the door frames at the back that we used for the windows since some...

 In Peter Pan the part I had been given was the role of John Darling. I was also a given the choice if I wanted to be a pirate or lost boy as part of ensemble I chose to take on the role of a lost boy for ensemble. John Darling For John this was an added challenge from last year as Tinman because it was less of a mature character. I have played more mature characters than child like characters that are very expressive, and bouncy. To show this I just made sure I was always smiling and always showing that my character was having fun when it was needed by doing big facial expressions. It was also an added challenge due to the singing aspect I never thought I would have to sing when joining this course. So when I heard that we were doing a musical I was little excited on top of being very nervous as singing on stage was something that scared me but I took the challenge head on.  Movement was something I struggled with last year but with John this character was more free and loose...

So we had got the cast for Peter Pan on Monday 13th November, I ended up getting cast as John and a lost boy, since Kelly wants to see me play less mature roles and wants to see more physicality from me.  Tuesday 14th November Today was the first rehearsal day and we started off with voice warm-ups as were going to go through all the songs in our groups. So Tom would go in order of songs and have us come up with our other classmates who would be playing for example the other John or the rest of the darling family. The songs I need to learn for John and the lost boys are:  The Darlings Come Away, Come Away (Reprise) Wendy's Song We Believe in Fairies / Believe  We're going home The Darlings (reprise) I also went through my script and started going through and highlighting my lines so that I can be prepared with my cast.  Wednesday 15th November We worked on lost boys and pirates stuff today. A group of us would go with Abbey and she would teach us movement to a song t...

Over the week we had off I was learning Hook's monologue as the character I wanted to go for was him. During the week off, I kept going over Hook's song as it was easier for me to get the voice from it and when I felt comfortable that I had my interpretation of Hook, taking inspiration from Dustin Hoffman's Hook from the 1991 film "Hook", I then moved onto to tackle his monologue. First look at I was scared for myself, I was struggling to understand it as he goes Shakespearean  so I started researching what some words or lines that he would say meant back then and what they would mean today so that I could be prepared and show that I know the character. I also struggled with his emotion with it being such a big chunky piece of text (since it was a monologue) and because he changes emotions threw out it a couple of times and you also need to remember on top of him being serious there's a bit of comedy involved in it as well.  At first I was struggling for it to...

For this years Christmas show were doing Peter Pan: The British Musical. This was going to be an added challenge for me as I didn't think I would be coming here to sing on stage. I know we did some singing last year but that was a 15 minute performance, whereas this is a full musical and learning the songs aren't going to be easy and its going to be a lot to learn with lines and songs, an also added challenges is that some of the songs have the characters just speaking through it as well then it breaks back into the song.  Tuesday 12th September For preparation getting ready for the show the 2nd years have the option to come in early to practice the songs with Tom. We started off with voice warm-ups, to help stretch our vocals to reduce the risk of tension, damage and voice loss. We use it for singing to help smooth out our vocal breaks and improve our range.  Tom started off by going through the songs and telling us which characters would sing them songs, also showed us which...