Awkward Stage Productions

August 24th, 2011

Week four is off! And we have managed to dance our way through the first three days! With both casts in every day this week, choreo has been sped through quickly, meaning that almost all the numbers have been finished, and now can become polished and clean. Not only has script work been happening this week, but the pageant girls gowns have been found, and are in the process of being fitted. The musical number, “Until Tomorrow Night” was one of the only numbers that hadn’t been looked at before, but was finished in only one day, and it is looking really good so far! The rest of the week is going to be spent with both casts tying up loose ends, and running the show!

August 19th, 2011

Week three went by like a blur! But more and more got accomplished each day! Much of the week was spent adding people into scenes that had already been blocked, and learning choreo! This week “Young and American” was tackled, this routine involves flags, which the girls had a lot of fun with! Thankfully we found out now that the sticks we had been using for the flags broke very easily, after many dramatic poses ended in giggles because the flag had broken at that very second. Not only where flags introduced, but hot pink umbrellas! They are used in the song “Smile”, and they most definitely add a flair to an already great song. As week three winds down, the fact that the show opens in just over two weeks gets the excitement going! So now the weekend of getting off book, practicing those dance moves, and singing begins!

Quotes of the day:
“When you guys walk from the clumpydoo… thats a technical term.” -Cara

“Lets you and me have a talk”- Katie
“In the shower??” -Jonathan

August 14, 2011

The last two days of rehearsal that ended off the week, flew by very quickly! However much was accomplished. A great deal of blocking was gone through by our senior cast on Thursday, while later in the day “Typical High School Senior” was finished off. On Friday, the morning was devoted to music, where both casts were able to learn the rest of the group numbers, and then to follow was a sing through of the whole show! After lunch was when the real test started, the choreo for “Shine” begun to take shape. This musical number is a seven minute dance routine, that involves more cardio then these poor pageant girls want to think about! However, they will all get lots of practice in, as all the girls are encouraged to run around the park while singing “Shine” to build up stamina. A good end to week two!

In other news, on Saturday, Captain Corwin, and Nautical Noah headed down to Windsor Plywood to start the process of building our soon to be wonderful set! Have a look at the tip of our ramp coming to life!

For the past two days, the rehearsal space has been a beehive of activity! With choreographing songs and blocking out more and more scenes each day, even with two casts to teach it to! The boys even learned that jeans where not appropriate work out gear, as Devon, in the senior cast, ripped a very large hole in his jeans trying to stretch. He then tried to repair the rip by sewing it up, but between his broken arm and the proximity of the rip, it was just too risky and he reverted to gaffer tape. The fact that the show goes up in less then a month, has definitely started to hit people, and that there is more then enough to keep us all occupied until then! But that being said, as lines are being memorized, character shoes are being broken in, and sets are being finalized; Smiles are kept on peoples faces, pardon the pun

Ever ready rootin’ tootin’ Ruth’s rehearsal blog…

Today was spent tackling the the opening number and scene, with our very lovely junior cast! Everyone started out the day warming up, and discussing what kind of progression had been made with their character work, many replied with stories of how their character was brought up, or how they got themselves in to pageantry, while Jonathan claimed that his character “Wants to be horny”. From there, the endless task of blocking out the show started. It was very neat to see the puppets in character, while working with the script. All the puppeteers hard work is definitely showing through, as well as all the interactions with non-puppet characters. After a quick spike tape session during lunch, to map out one of our larger set pieces, we all moved on to the opening number, “Typical High School Senior”. This number has a little mix of everything from the perfect pageant girl, to her rougher side, and after casting the rest of the cast as the girls family members, we where off! And by the end of the day, the seventeen characters, who were all moving simultaneously had indeed been written down in blocking notes.

Quotes of the day:
- “He wants to be horny” Jonathan Hers [about his character Freddy]
- “It’s hard to bounce and talk at the same time” Kaitlyn Yott

Smile rehearsal blog episode 1, August 6, 2011

From the effervescent and ever ready Stage Management stylin’s of our very own Ruth, we bring you our first rehearsal blog entry.

Excitement and anticipation is high, as “Smile” the Musical kicked off its first week of rehearsals. Each morning would start off with hand and arm exercises to loosen the puppeteers arms up, and then it was as if everyone was thrown back into preschool, learning how to walk, how to say the alphabet, even how to look people in the eyes. By the end of the week, it was amazing to see the progress that had been made! Previously in June, puppet workshops had been held, where the puppeteers where introduced to their fabric companions, therefore much of the week was used to reacquaint themselves with their puppets. As the day wore on, the pageant girls and ensemble where thrown into the mix, this was when the actors got to get a feeling of what it was like to interact with a puppet on stage, and for most it was their first time doing so! After a nice lunch in the nearby park, the actors spent the rest of the afternoon learning some of the musical numbers in the show, and they are sounding amazing! The past four days have been consumed with puppets, music and a very lively read through of the script. People seemed to leave for the weekend feeling good, and excited for the next week of rehearsals!

- Ruth