Rehearsal Blog

Week Five

Thursday 27 March 2008

This is our final rehearsal session before we perform Bridge of Dreams next Thursday. It has been a fantastic experience working with the students from the Bridge School. They are so full of life and excitement; they really want to be there and they want to learn and have fun.
 
This week we were joined by some older students from a local college affiliated to the Bridge School and also a number of new teaching assistants. This made for a large group and added to the atmosphere of excitement.
 
We began the session with our now obligatory vocal warm up – “Hello to…to…to…” (The students never seem to get bored of this!) before doing a quick shake out and recapping the Island call-and-response that we worked on last week.
 
After rehearsing the final dance to Supergrass’s Alright we moved outside the drama studio to our starting position in the school foyer and began a run through of the whole play. Once inside the drama studio we formed our 'boat' and performed our dance routine to Beyond the Sea. This went really well with everyone remembering the moves. We came slightly unstuck after this, rehearsing the shipwrecking of the boat. We had the sound effects this week for the first time so had to stop and start until we were in time with the soundtrack of storms and sea swells.

Once we had mastered our shipwreck and underwater swimming, we returned to the Island call-and-response which we practiced earlier in the session. Most of the students remembered the words quite well and everyone was great at the final dance.

It was another busy session this week and everyone worked hard. Only the final morning of rehearsals next Thursday before we perform to the rest of the school. I can’t wait! 

Highlights of the Week 

• Adam remembered he was at drama and was in a play.
• MJ, for the third time in a row, remembered that the sea is cold!
• Chantelle stayed for almost the whole session.
• Nitesh really threw himself into the dancing.