EVALUATION & REFLECTION – Cabaret

PART 1

On your BLOGS you need to evaluate and reflect on: ‘How am I doing at this stage of the production’s progress?’

Ideally you should evaluate and reflect after every Season rehearsal but you MUST do at least one per week (in year 2 you will have to do one for EVERY rehearsal). Please use the format below.

Description

Keep it brief, like a title – tell us what you are going to write about in this reflective blog e.g. Blocking act 1 scene 1 of ‘Hamlet’ following read through of play

Initial Thoughts

• Write in full sentences but separate out each of your thoughts into different bullet points

• Lots of bullet points

• How do you feel about this, how is it going?
• Don’t make any judgements at this stage

 

Breaking This Down (Bear in mind that some points will naturally fit into both sections.)

Good

• Look at your initial thoughts and identify if each one is a good thing, what is good about this? You don’t need a big explanation as this will come in your analysis.

Bad

• Look at your initial thoughts and identify if each one a bad thing, what is bad about this? You don’t need a big explanation as this will come in your analysis.

 

Evaluative Analysis (What sense can I make of this? How can I make sense of this?)

• Go back to each of the points you have made in your initial thoughts but reflect them on them in the light of how you have classified them as good or bad
• Write in full sentences
• Examine each point
• Why do you think this? Why do you think you feel this way?
• Make sure you have justified or backed up every statement you make
• You can ask yourself questions here and try and answer them

 

Action Plan

• Specific and direct action points for what you are now going to do, based on what you have discovered or suggested in your analysis
• Avoid saying ‘I need to’ or ‘Try to’, instead use more direct language such as ‘I will’ and give yourself a time frame to get them done by – they should be things you can tick off as being completed and you can then reflect on how this is helping you progress

 

PART 2 (at least 1,000 words)

On this page you need to evaluate and reflect on the total production from beginning to end based on YOUR experience and engagement with it. Use your blogs to help you consider each stage of the production process and be constructively critical. Pay particular attention to your own roles, contributions and responsibilities throughout this whole process and how you have worked with others (collaboration):

• Production stage 1: Research, Blocking or Choreographing / learning chorography and Rehearsing the show / film content
• Production stage 2: Rehearsing and Refining the show / film content
• Production stage 3: Polishing the show (including production elements – costume, props, set, lighting, sound & visuals etc.) / film content
• Production stage 4: Actual performance
• (Production stage 5 if involved with Filming): Finished film

Provide an overall summary of the learning you have taken from doing this production and an identification of the areas you will need to develop going forwards.

 

Evaluation and Reflection

UAL definition: the application of intellectual curiosity and rigor in making judgements and establishing meaning and values, and the level of contemplation and deliberation necessary to progress and achieve identified goals

Fail Insufficient evidence of ongoing evaluation, lack of or only basic analysis and little or no justification for ideas.

Pass Clearly communicated evidence of valid evaluation and realistic analysis independently used to inform and develop ideas.

Merit Effective communication of analysis and interpretation, independent synthesis of information and application of reasoned decision making to inform development of ideas.

Distinction Accomplished and professional communication of perceptive analysis and interpretation, demonstrating clarity and sophistication in thinking and maturity in decision making to progress ideas.

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Evaluation 
When we was cast we found out that we would have two sessions with Rob a week (Monday and Friday); two sessions with Claire a week (Wednesday and Thursday); and there would be a session with Han on a Tuesday to block the scenes as went along. At the very beginning of the rehearsal period, the cast got together to watch the film of cabaret this was to help us understand the story and to learn about the characters, However, it was different to show production if still was useful and gave me a good understanding of the show.

We then worked primarily on choreography for the dance numbers in the show, and because I was a Kit Kat Klub dancer, this meant these wear my main parts. We worked our way through the numbers one by one starting with “Kick Line”, “Don’t Tell Mama “and “Mine Herr”. These dance routines were the only ones finished before we our Easter break, there was only some polishing and re-spacing to finish. Luckily, there were not too many dance routines that needed to be choreographed within the show there were only 8 overall. The part that took the longest was the cleaning and refining of the dances to make sure we wear all in time and together and kicking the same height. Whilst I was doing this the main characters were working on blocking their scenes, this meant it was quite a few weeks before we saw what the other half of the cast were doing with the dialogue.

As I said the first dance we learnt was the opening of act 2 (Kick Line), I believe this was because we used this dance as an audition Although, this dance had the most problems over all. Rob our choreographer, used the music from the film version of Cabaret, and because the film is not the same sounds track as the musical (witch Han wanted the music to be) this meant the music was considerably different. Later on in the proses when we got the actual soundtrack that the band will be playing in the performance it took a lot of time out of our rehearsal to change timing especially for Emcee as he had some jokes in there. After this we set the rest of the dances in this order ‘Don’t Tell Mama’, ‘Mein Herr’, ‘Willkommen’ and ‘Cabaret’, the last one we choreographed was “money” this was only a few weeks before the show so everyone had to pick it up quickly. In my opinion this was quite a stressful to do because it created one more thing to think about on production week.

Overall I feel before the Easter holidays the dance rehearsal did go a bit slow and some time was wasted as we was just running the same dances, instead of doing them all evenly. I think the main problem that caused this was the change of sound tracks as is just affected everyone’s different peace.

We started preparing our costumes from an early stage as everyone want to find something that suited there character, also everyone was very excited, this meant that the costumes would be organised from an early stage. The first part of the costume that everyone had to me in throughout the rehearsal period was high heels, this was so we could get used to dancing and moving in then as some girls may not have worn them before.

On the week commencing 7th of May we spent a lot of time getting our costume, hair and makeup approved. My costume was straight away approved of witch was really good as it meant it was one less think to worry about and I knew everything was okay. We then started to think about props and what we had already and what we needed to get, how we work round this was by creating a survey about what we needed and if we could borrow it from other cast members. This idea worked really well as most of the props wear arranged by the start of show week. The teaching process took a long time, but this is because everything has to be right and I understand that it must be difficult for the team to get just what Han wants the cues, the colours, the brightness, and all the black outs to scene changes. This is very important as the lighting and sound could affect the show rapidly if anything was to happen. I feel I was very happy with the set it looked amazing in the end and once the lights and sound was on it pulled all our hard work together at last.

Wednesday night 

Wednesday was the big opening night the first time we performed the show in front of an audience. Every night was a sell for the show witch meant it was always pretty much a full house. For the start of the show all the Kit Kat Klub dancers wear pre-set and immediately in character. I was very excited for this night as the adrenalin was running we could all show off what we had spent so much time on, and then hear we wear the show began. After the opening number ‘Willkommen,’ I felt a lot more at ease with myself as the audience was cheering and clapping us all on, this I feel made us all much more comfortable.

Throughout the show, I felt that the level of focus was very strong infect the best we’ve had. The focus on the sides was strong throughout and everyone held up there posture the entirety of the show. Considering it was our second time with the band I feel it was very good and the whole cast took on board the notes that had been said in the previous dress rehearsals. All of the dances were in time and look amazing apart form the hip bumps in ‘Don’t Tell Mama.’ This was something that I got wrong along with many others as some was doing different timings; however, this was fixed the next day by Han and was taken on bared by everyone. Another note that we got was that our diction in ‘Willkommen’ in the whispered section we said “to cabaret” instead of “un cabaret”. To ensure I was getting this correct I ran over that section with a friend certify that it was correct. The final note for that night was that, in the first Train scene the chairs me and one other girl set wear too far back and needed to come further forward. I feel I did this happened because it was harder to see in the black out wear the “invisible line was”. To fix this problem Han thought it would be a good idea to make with tape so we could see the exact place in the dark, this ended up working a lot better. Overall, I think these are very minor mistakes, our energy levels were really good and we gave a very strong performance for an opening night. We now just need to keep up the good work as we have a reputation.

Thursday night 

The second night was very as well for me. Lots of people say that the second night is always the worst because people get Over confident and think they know what they are doing, however, for me this was not the case. I did everything I was meant to, remembered to place the chairs in the right place. I was really pleased with this performance from my point of view but maybe some people didn’t think this was the case. Although I was unaware of anything major going wrong at any point in the show. Also I had a family member come as last notice witch mad me nervous right before I went on however I feel this didn’t really effect me and I was really happy with that.

Friday night

The Friday night performance i feel was still very strong however I think it wasn’t as powerful as the Thursday night. This was because the first half of the show wasn’t as powerful as the second; this may have been because people wear nervous I know many people had family in today. However it did pick up vigorously on the second half. Also today there was come slight mic problems mainly with Sally’s mic witch sadly made some of the scenes lose the effect, it also meant some parts of the songs you couldn’t hear over the music. There was sadly another issue the hole company had to deal with tonight and it happened to fall of the most emotional part of the performance.

Some of the members of the audience were laughing loudly at an inappropriate comment made out loud about the slap during the most emotive scene in the show. This spread vigorously across a big group in the audience; this was very off putting for the entire company especially for the two actors in the middle who amazing carried on like personals with the same emotion. We all handled this situation with complete professionalism and everyone managed to maintain their focus and keep in character throughout the rest of the show. I believe as a company this highlighted how professional we were and showed that we could handle a situation like this very well. Overall, I believe this show wasn’t as strong as Thursday night, but I think we should be very proud of our maturity of the issue tonight.

Saturday night

I was the most nervous for the Saturday night performance as I feel everyone was getting will including myself and this was bringing the energy down before the show. The was also lots of ex-Con EAST pupils in the audience and we all wanted to impress them. In my opinion there weren’t many (if any) mistakes made and as it was the last show, I was into the routine of everything and could perform it all with confidence. however if there was going to be one improvement there was a lot of mic problems today in the second half, this was because of people learning there phones on and the signal interrupting it. At the beginning of the show Han tried to tell people to politely switch them off and this worked well, however, after the interval this problem re-accrued. Overall, I believe I put on a very strong performance, matching those of the other nights.

In conclusion, I think this show was a big learning experience as it was different to anything I have been involved in before. I believe I gained a lot of confidence dueing this show as well, this is from the style of dance and really having to be sexy witch isn’t very easy for me, these skills are something I could take to use in future shows. Overall, I am thoroughly pleased with my performance in Cabaret and very proud of my self. I also felt a huge sense of unity amongst the company and I believe that there was a collective enthusiasm to make the performances significantly better than any of the shows that I been in before; Because Cabaret presents such an important message and the show in general is appreciated within the cast, I think that we wanted to give it justice, also being the last show at Conservatoire EAST for many people this meant they wanted to leave on a high.