A Double dose of rehearsal notes

To make up for one missed day, this post contains two days work of rehearsal notes

6/7/11

Today was going to be the last day of simply singing rehearsals.  Since we only have one piano to work with currently, we felt it best to continue perfecting the 2 big numbers (both opening and closing numbers).

The students are starting to really nail the notes.  A majority of them came in with a good knowledge of the songs (which is possibly the only reason we have done so well without chorus books for so long) and now we merely need to work on timing.  Since we are not using a live orchestra, but instead an accompaniment CD, which means that the timing cannot be altered.  However, they have shown remarkable progress so far, and I am very confident in thier abilities.

The students continue to surprise me every day.  Every day, each one of them either really nails thier one line solo, or shows me a bit more advanced acting than I would have ever expected.  It's definitely a rewarding experience, and its those little moments that remind me why I love doing this every day!

It is an interesting experience watching another person handle the directing aspects alongside me.  It reminds me of having to do the group microteachings in my education classes at Monmouth.  Each person has their own methods of directing and managing the youth that vary in thier effectiveness.  It is also hard to determine which methods work the best.  Each of the (now) 68 cast members reacts differently to each director.  For the most part, the younger ones respond well to praise and encouragement, while the older ones didn't seem to take me or the other directors seriously until we backed up our encouragement with a little warning and a more direct tone.

6/8

Today marked the first rehearsal with the choreographers!  The students had been warned all week about the coming "guests" to rehearsal, and were excited to get started.  We did, however, use about 45 minutes of rehearsal to work on the song that they would be dancing to, so that they could begin to connect their singing parts to their dancing parts. 

I am not entirely sure if I should have worked both the dancing and the singing at the same time, or if I should have worked a little bit more with them on the singing before we introduced the dancing.  Since many of the dance movements were simple steps that they did in large groups, all of them seemed to catch on very quickly, and I could see many of them singing along as they learned the dance.  Although I do worry about overloading any of the students, I think that in the end it will work out alright.

Today was also the day that I officially had all of the "every day" helpers come into rehearsal.  This included myself, the musical director, 2 volunteer stage managers, and my production assistant.  With all of the help, managing all 68 cast members was definitely easier today.

I've noticed more and more that my teacher education has come in quite handy.  All of the students, regardless of their age, respond very well to being kept busy, a clear expectation, and a reminder every now and then of the fact that All of the "teachers" in the room are watching them.  More often than not, rather than having to constantly ask them to "be quiet and pay attention" I often only have to walk over to thier area and my presence is enough to remind them of what they are to be doing.