PROBLEM SOLVING – Spring Shows 2020- Quecuse

This is Problem Solving for your SHOW, not your essay. Part 1

Identify problems / issues that you anticipate may arise during the course of the production (including the performances) you have been cast in and propose possible solutions which may remove or reduce the impact of the problems. These issues may be:

• Technical / Practical
  • rehearsal / performance problems (acting, voice, singing, movement)
  • production problems (costume, sound, lighting, etc)
• Management –
  • time management e.g. learning lines in a timely fashion e.g. having costumes / props in a timely fashion
  • attendance (both yours and others),
  • independent rehearsals
• Rehearsal rooms (having access)
• Personal – This includes illness, personal feelings, barriers to overcome such as confidence, etc.

Please remember that this section is not for naming problems and attributing blame, it is about how problems arise and you solve them.

Part 2

Identify all problems / issues which actually arise throughout the development of this production, how these are solved and reflect on how effective the solutions have been in maintaining the expected production process. These should be dated and recorded on this page. (Any reflective blogs which provide additional supporting evidence can be linked to this page too but the main evidence for problem solving should be located on this page.)

Problem Solving UAL definition: The level of self-direction, personal initiative and commitment necessary to progress ideas and find solutions, and the practical, theoretical and technical comprehension, appreciation, knowledge and proficiency necessary to achieve identified goals

Fail                  Insufficient exploration of alternative ideas and processes. Problems unresolved.

Pass               Sufficient exploration of alternative ideas using established approaches to resolve practical and theoretical problems.

Merit               Decisive demonstration of initiative in effectively solving problems, adapting to unforeseen practical and theoretical challenges to achieve identified goals.

Distinction     Decisive demonstration of initiative in effectively solving problems, autonomously implementing creative solutions and adapting to unforeseen practical and theoretical challenges to achieve identified goals.

The above statements are guides to how evidence for the final unit (12) will be assessed. Tutors will let you know in their feedback how your evidence for this unit compares to these achievement standards so that you are aware of the level you are currently working at.

Part 1

Casting and Auditions 

• There could be some jealousy amongst the cast concerning our roles or what show we are cast in. Hopefully no one dose feel this way and will be happy with any role they get big or small however, this has become a problem in previous productions. In some cases, this tension can be seen on stage even after weeks of rehearsals, possibly making our show look somewhat unprofessional however I think people to get over it in the end. We could solve this problem by not debating, assuming or predicting anything about the casting. This avoids disappointment. Just doing our best, learning the required material, being civil and going along with what is decided for us overall makes us more well-rounded.

• In the past shows, we have often had times where auditions take longer than expected this can sometimes spread across a week. This means that it takes longer for people to be both casted in their company and their roles. This can also take longer as some of the teachers are unavailable on some days for example, Rob is only in on Mondays and Fridays this is why we do the dance auditions on these days. This also applies for auditioning songs with any sort of accompaniment, with Claire as she’s only available Wednesdays and Thursdays. Furthermore, this problem could be solved by people being patient tutors and working cooperatively in order to get the auditions completed as quickly as possible so casting can be done quicker.

Learning material

• I think some issues that will arise will be not remembering the dance routes after we haven’t gone over them in a while. This has happened in all the musicals I’ve been in and I have no doubt it will happen with this one because people will think that once we’ve learnt it, that’s it. I know I’ve been guilty of this in the past. In order to solve this, I think we’ll need to have regular dance sectionals and go over dances in most of our rehearsals. We need to keep the dances fresh in our mind and I think when we sing along through the dances, we’ll remember because we’ll associate the dance moves with the lyrics.

Rehearsal rooms

• may not be enough room to dance, therefore being unable to run a dance rehearsal. This also means that we might not be able to split the cast up in order to be counterproductive. It means that, for example, we may not be able to send half out to run dance numbers whilst the other half go over another part or lifts.

Extra rehearsals

• In the past, we have had issues with people committing to rehearsals organised by cast members. When people do not attend these, they miss out on cleaning and perfecting the dances, therefore not knowing any changes we have made. This then means we have to take more time in showing them again.
• It can also sometimes be difficult to schedule a rehearsal that suits everyone, ensuring that no one misses out. It needs to be highlighted to the cast, especially people with less dance ability, that extra rehearsals are absolutely crucial. one way I think we could fix these problems is, when scheduling rehearsals, we need to look at the timetables put together a list of free time when we are all together.

  Production

1. The biggest production problem that could occur is the fact that the show is set in the round configuration, which could make it very hard to visualise and rehearse when setting dances, and then also whilst performing them as well. I am not sure whether anyone has ever been in a show where this configuration has been set, but I certainly haven’t. however, I have worked I Thust. It could prove to be quite difficult when rehearsing, I might forget about the fact that there are audience members on all sides of the stage, and so we will have to remember to look out and make sure that both sides are involved at all times.

I think that the main way to solve this is purely by practice. I cannot think of any sort of method that will help apart from making the cast sit on either side of the stage to act as the audience and watch and see if there are any moments when they see gaps in the dances. Also due to the size of the dance studio this may work.

 Attendance & illness

• Illness is always an issue during shows. There are always bugs going around and a lot of people getting ill. All people can do to try and avoid illnesses is to try and dress appropriately for the weather, which means no wearing short sleeved tops and skirts if it is -3 degrees.  By doing this, people will be decreasing their chances of a cold. Also, if people only had an illness that wasn’t that major, like a head ache for example, they should still try and come in as even though they might have to take it easy, they could still do stuff or at least try. If company members attend college and they are ill, there is the risk that they will spread whatever illness may have to the rest of the cast. This then results in more people being absent and missing rehearsals, needing to catch up on what they have missed.
• If company members attend college and they are ill, there is the risk that they will spread whatever illness may have to the rest of the cast. This then results in more people being absent and missing rehearsals, needing to catch up on what they have missed.

If someone does miss a rehearsal, then people can make any notes in order to help them catch up on anything they have missed in that rehearsal for example, the choreography.

personal feelings, barriers to overcome such as confidence, etc.

I think I could end up lacking in confidence in my own abilities, mainly when doing a technical dance as I am never impressed with myself. I always get given notes about being more confident and trusting myself more this is something I really try to work on.

• I know that there is no such thing as getting it wrong when it comes to acting, but it hasn’t fully settled in yet and I haven’t fully realised it, which is something I am hoping to overcome during this rehearsal process.
• Reputation is always something crucial to remember; no one wants to work with someone who is rude, jealous or unkind in any aspect of life. The way we choose to act can seriously affect our work/education in the future and choosing to be a decent human being is beneficial to everyone.

I haven’t found an actual solution yet, but all I am doing is trying to remind myself constantly to just make my own decisions and do as best as I can.

Tech

• Tech rehearsals may take longer than expected, meaning that breaks are later in the day and shorter, and we are static on stage for longer. This might result in a lack of patience amongst the cast; this can sometimes resolute in arguments.

Ticket sales

• As this is a dance show it could be notoriously hard to sell out. This could mean that we struggle to sell tickets for every night. This could result in a lack of energy, not being able to feed off of the audience. mainly it just isn’t nice to perform in front of no people.

To avoid this, we need to ensure to promote all of the shows on social media frequently, providing the link and giving the public easy access to purchase. We could post little clips and tricks that may be in the show to promote people to come.

Hair, makeup and costumes

• Some people have less experience doing their own makeup and hair, therefore may not be able to do their own, thus can be solved by simply helping each other out and offering help when needed. We can lend other cast members our makeup (including palettes with particular colours) and hair styling tools (like a curling or straightening wand) to help some people who don’t have them.
• Getting costumes for this show may be difficult or could be ferly easy. I think it will be a mix. As this is a dance show there will be many costume changes and they all need to be dance proof.

PD or new intake days

• We may have a PD day and intake day in the middle of our rehearsing period this means we may end up missing rehearsals. This results in less time to learn and refine choreography and songs. We also have Christmas brake in the middle of our rehearsal weeks this could lead to people forgetting stuff however, this can be fixed by everyone making sure to recap on everything while they are off college.

Injury

• If people become physically injured, it poses a massive issue for our choreographer. Entire routines may have to be altered as they might have to be removed, using up rehearsal time unexpectedly. This may lead to people being absent witch then still affects everyone as we could be partnered up with them.
• As this is an all movement-based show injury are bound to accrue is. This can be very bad as this show is dependent on dance. If people damage muscles, it can mean that they struggle to do any sort of dance. Furthermore, this can be prevented by people making sure they worm up and stretch Thurley.

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Part 2

10th December 2019– We are continuing to do practical research meaning we aren’t going to start choreography until after Christmas. This may create stress for the company as we won’t have long to perfect the show. To avoid this everyone needs to focus ALL the time and after Christmas we need to make sure none of us miss rehearsals. Lunchtime rehearsals should be put into place by mid-January.

6th January 2020 – A lot of the company have forgotten the small choreography from before Christmas so we had to spend time going over it which is kind of annoying. We still have 5 weeks until the show so we do have this luxury at the moment.

15th January 2020 – The focus and respect for the student choreographers is low. This is 1) demoralising for the choreographer and 2) means that the progress of the pieces being created is stunted. We don’t have a lot of time to create the pieces and the talking during rehearsals is really slowing this down. To improve this, I asked our tutor to give a reminder to the whole company about not talking throughout entire rehearsals.

19th January 2020- I feel like before Christmas we spent a lot of time on unnecessary learning of lifts tricks if not even a few of them will be added. This would be different if they wear being added as it would have meant we wear learning practical skills for the show.

24th January 2020– we still have a lot to choreograph and only 9 days to do it in. In order to fix this everyone needs to be working hard and contributing ideas to the process if we could all do this I think we would be okay and still have time to clean.

29th January 2020– At this point in the show is only half an hour long and I think this is because we have spent a lot of time going over choreography we have done and not adding more onto it. I also think that there is a bad relationship between the choreographer/ director and the dancers and there is a lot of tension in a lot of the rehearsal room, which doesn’t lead to a lot being done. The full day rehearsals have helped a lot in terms of getting the show choreographed but we still are not finished and this is worrying considering we have a week until production week. I am not sure how to solve this as we are not responsible for choreographing anymore of the numbers – This is frustrating because we all won’t to move on the numbers that need work instead of just going over everything again and again. I Think we all may need to really sit and talk to our directors.

7th February 2020 – we have only just finalised the choreography for the show meaning we do not have much time for cleaning. This is going to have to be done during tech week which is not ideal. I think I may ask one of the dancer to hold an ensemble rehearsal so we are all really polished on wheats going on.

10th February 2020– Jess had to go into hospital as she is very ill so we have had to replace her with Mya. This has meant we have had to adapt some choreography and as Mya is in my group this has effected most dances I am in. I also think Mya has picked up all the choreography extremely quickly, which has led to this situation being the least stressful it could possibly be. Overall this hasn’t caused a huge issue for the show, which it definitely could have, if Mya hadn’t adapted so well.

10th February 2020– Leah has had to learn the ball dance in Myas place as she is now playing jesses role. We are quite lucky that Leah was able to do this as it could have been much worse of a situation. but I feel we have worked well as a cast to really help all the changes.

11Th February 2020- I feel like in this show we have had a lot of sickness witch is quite sad and annoying but we know its not there fault they can’t help being ill. we Have sadly had to spend a lot of time going over dances for changes, As Maisie has had to come out of the majority of the show due to injury.