And the hard work begins...now!

Its the week back after the Christmas holidays and rehearsals are once again in full swing. The pressure is starting to build for everyone knowing that the opening night is only six weeks away. Rehearsals  for dancing have been on during the week at lunch, chorus rehearsals began again on Thursday and there was a big rehearsal yesterday for all of the cast involved in act one, scene one. Everyone is working really hard to perfect things and get things done.
Yesterday, Saturday the 11th of January, the director, production team, main cast and every other cast member involved in Act one, scene one arrived in the school bright and early for rehearsals. We started off with warm-ups- which included the hokey poky. Then everyone got straight to work. Whether it was practising in a scene, learning a dance, practising a song or running lines, everyone was working hard. The production team was there to help with any jobs that needed doing, Even if that did mean manning the door to let people in and running lines with cast members. Katie even found our first prop!! An arrow!
Major practise was going underway for the scene with the show where Francis fryer dances onstage in Deadwood city. Conor, who plays Francis, looked like he was having a lot of fun learning the dance and lets just say he got really into character. 
In the end they managed to get through the whole of act one, scene one and everyone was out of the school by half one. Well, everyone apart from the orchestra who had arrived for practise at one O' clock who were staying until three.

Chorus Rehearsals

Chorus rehearsals are on every Tuesday from 4 O'clock until 6 O'clock. It is run by the music stage managers Emma, Aoife and Shannon, and also Ms M. The rehearsal begins with voice warm ups and then they get straight to business learning songs. They started with 'deadwood stage', then moved onto 'the windy city'. Next they learned 'keep it under your hat' and then onto 'careless with the truth'.
The main cast involved in these songs also attend rehearsals to sing along to their parts with the rest of the chorus.

The official launch was a great success!

Yesterday, the 6th of December was the official launch of our school musical, Calamity Jane. In my opinion it was a great success. The whole cast and crew showed up early for some last minute run throughs of their performances before people started arriving. The first form of entertainment was the choir, singing Christmas songs to get everyone in the mood as they walked through the door. Next was a performance by a group of fifth year music students-Fiona, Kate, Emma, Leah and Jenny who performed a medley of Christmas songs that they had been working on in class. 
Mrs L then came on to talk about the musical and the work that was involved behind the scenes. She then introduced the first performance of the night which was 'The deadwood stage'. It was great. You could see that everyone both on stage and in the audience were enjoying themselves.
Next to be introduced was Lauren singing 'secret love'. She was accompanied by the ballet dancers. Everyone was so quiet and still during this performance that you could have heard a pin drop. It was a beautiful performance by both Lauren and the ballet dancers.
Last but by no means least was 'A woman's touch' performed by Lauren and Róisín. It was a great performance and everyone enjoyed it.
After the performances were complete, the teachers involved were called to the stage to take a bow and then the tickets went on sale.
Over all it was a fantastic night and was a great success 

Upcoming launch- Everybody's busy!

On the 6th of December there will be a launch for the upcoming school musical, Calamity Jane. It is a chance for people to get a taster of what has been going on in rehearsals and of what the finished product will contain. It also gives the students an opportunity to perform some songs for an audience for the first time. Tickets for the four performances will also go on sale and will be available for purchase on the night.
The event will take place in a local hotel and families of those involved in the musical have all been invited. Others from the area are also encouraged to attend to see what work has been done so far.
There will be three musical numbers performed on the night. The first being 'the deadwood stage' scene, which showcases the talent of the wonderful chorus through singing and dancing. Next will be Lauren ,'calamity', who will perform 'Secret love', accompanied by the lovely ballet dancers and finally Lauren and Róisín, Calamity and Katie, will sing 'A womans touch'. The choir will also be there to keep the music going with christmas songs, as well as some performances from some fifth year students.
A lot of preparation is going into the night. There was a full rehearsal for the full cast today and everyone was in the school bright and early. There were run throughs of all of the numbers and last minute changes. There will also be rehearsal during lunch times for the next week to put the final touches on the performances.
Over all everyone is just a bit stressed and hopefully everything will go down well on the night.

lunchtime dancing

Twice a week, every week at lunch time, all of the dancers taking part in the production get together with the Mrs W, student choreographers and dancing stage managers to learn routines for the musical. the styles on dance vary from ballet to Irish dancing to hip hop and there are a lot of dancers involved in the production. So far a lot of dances have been choreographed. There is a ballet dance to ' Secret love' and Irish dancing to 'Deadwood stage'. It is all coming together really well and all of the dancers are working really hard to learn new dances.
A lot of work went into both of these dances and will be performed in the upcoming musical launch.

Rehearsals for minor roles

On Wednesday the 20th of November, there was a rehearsal for people who had signed up to play minor roles in the production. They started off with and spent a lot of time on acting exercises. This involved everyone walking around in circles pretending to be some sort of animal. They then began looking at the different characters that were needed- cowboys, saloon girls, prospectors and towns people. We set up a stage areas and everyone was given one of the four characters. They then practised different situations in character from the first scene of the musical.

After spending time on this, Mrs C asked everyone to sit in a circle to discuss the different roles and pick which role everyone wanted to be. She left the room so that they would decide themselves, saying that they wouldn't decide anything

with her there.

Saturday morning rehersals

On November 16th, all of the main cast and some of the production team arrived in the school hall at 10 O' clock to start main acting rehearsals. They began with some warm ups and then started practicing a scene between Calamity, Adelaide and Katie, played by Lauren, Rachael and Róisín. The scene starts with the Famous actress, Adelaide Adams. Adelaide gives some of  her costumes to her maid, Katie Brown who dreams of becoming a singer. She tries on one of the dresses and starts singing. Calamity, who is looking for Adelaide to come back to deadwood to perform, mistakes Katie for Adelaide.
After a well deserved break, Calamity and Bill, played by Lauren and Kyle, started practising a song called 'I can do without you'. The orchestra were also in the school practising. Lauren, Kyle, Roisín and Rachael went in to the orchestra to sing along with them.

Ready, Steady...GO!!!!

And finally rehersals are up and running. On Saturday the 9th of November, all of the main cast came together in a classroom in the St Wolstans for the first official read through of the script. This involved the script was read from cover to cover with everyone reading as their lines for the first time. This gave everyone a sense of the character that they are to portray in this production. It was the first time that the cast got together so it gave them the chance to get to know each other.
During the week beginning the 11th of november, singing rehersals took place for both the main cast, who had one on one rehersals, and the chorus who have started learning the opening song 'Deadwood stage'.
The dancing rehersals have also started, which take place at lunchtimes. There are a lot of different styles of dances being performed;from line dancing to ballet, irish dancing to hip hop. We had a great turn out for dancers so the dances are coming together well.

Auditions finished...Now the hard work begins!

For the past few weeks, auditions have been taking place to decide who would be playing the lead roles in the school musical, Calamity Jane. The first step was to recruit people who wanted to sign up and be involved in the musical. The acting and music stage managers took this job by the reigns and organised list of who wanted to do which audition.Then came auditions, with separate auditions for acting and singing. Students from both St Wolstan's Community school and Salesian college took part in these auditions. 
After the first round of auditions had been completed, a number of students were handpicked for a call back. These callbacks would determine who would play which role. Once the decision had been made, the list of the main cast was posted. Separate auditions also took place for supporting roles and also for dancing.
Well done to everyone who auditioned and congratulations to everyone who were cast as main roles.
Saturday is the first official rehearsal where the entire cast will read through the script together for the first time. It is definitely something to look forward to as the cast can really get a feel for their role.