assignment #2

1. Do I embody the characteristics of a "good musical theater student"?
I believe that a good musical theater student A) practices their song, lines, dances and so on more than just during rehearsal times they go over their parts on their own time to fully understand their roll and be able to portray it to the best of their abilities. B) they pay attention during rehearsals when directions are directed towards them and listen quietly when others are being directed. lastly C) a good musical theater student doesn't goof around when they aren't being directed because someone could get hurt or they could wreck a stage set or part of the stage itself. I believe that for the most part I do "embody a good musical theater student" because I do the things listed above.     

2.My first goal in this course is to know all of my parts for all the songs that I am part of and be able to sing them accurately without the book. My second goal is to know all the choreography for the dances that I'm in and be able to do them accurately.My third goal is to be confident when showtime comes around and perform as best as I can. I can achieve my goals by practicing my lyrics lots and go over things I need to work on, going over the choreography and working on things that need to be worked on,by doing these I believe that by the time show time rolls around I think I will be ready for show and be able to perform to the best of my abilities.

3. I think that since September I've practiced my lyrics and choreo a lot more and become a little more serious about getting stuff correctly and that's how i think I've grown since September.            

Get Singing

On the Happy Days soundtrack the song that I'd have to say I preferred most above the others would be "Message In The Music". "Message In The Music" was my favourite because it's a great song to listen to and has a nice rhythm and is really lively and just makes me wanna dance. 

How I see this number done on stage is at the dance with everyone having a good time at the dance competition, girls in dresses and guys in cool looking clothes everyone dancing like they did in the 50s. 

My least favourite song out of them all was probably "Dancing On The Moon". This song was my least favourite because it was slower and less like the others. Of course the song fits into the story line well and obviously if all the songs were alike it wouldn't be as exciting but that song just wasn't my favourite. 

As for making "Dancing On The Moon" more engaging for the audience honestly I think the audience will enjoy it very much it's a good song and it's a nice moment between pinky and the fonz. 

Get in the mindset

While researching topics of the 1950s including clothing, music, slang and current events you can find many similarity's between then and culture now. Here are some of the things i found to be similar and different.

Girls clothing from the 1950s isn't found much anymore looking at styles today, girls then wore poodle skirts, pants that came to just below the knee, blouses, cardigans and tennis shoes. Styles in clothing for girls now has changed quite a bit from then. Now girls wear all kinds of clothing: skinny jeans, crop tops, short shorts, baggy sweaters, skirts, and sheer tops (etc). Boys then wore jeans, polo shirts, tee-shirts, leather jackets, sweater vests, long sleeved shirts and thin sweaters. You still see jeans, polo and long sleeved shirts, sweater vests commonly worn by boys now a days and you still see a leather jacket now and then but they aren't as common amongst teens.

Music in the 1950s was mostly classic pop, rock and roll, blues, R&B, jazz, swing, and country music great songs with classic sounds. Rock and roll was newer in that time, songs were slow and meaningful to up beat and making you want to dance. Music now has all of the genres listen above as well as many newer genres such as hip hop, punk rock, alternative, metal, indie (etc) 

Slang words in the 1950s including "cool it" (telling someone to relax),"cut the grass" (be quiet), and "ice it" (telling someone to forget about something) were rather different yet also similar compared to slang now. Now a days you'll find words like "chill" when telling someone to relax, "shut it" when telling them to be quite, and "don't worry about it" when telling someone to forget about something which all three were pretty similar to the three 1950s terms. 

Current events in the 50s included things such as: the first organ transplant, seat belts were introduced (1952), princess Elizabeth became queen, Disneyland opened, lego was introduced and NASA was founded. Now there are advances in medical studies, new on famous peoples lives, conflicts between nations and whatnot. 

Super excited to be part of musical this year and to get to know everyone 
Aerien