Being the first official rehearsal of Legally Blonde, as well as one involving various different activities for different cast members, an introduction was involved, to ensure everyone in was familiar with one another.
Simply enough, this consisted of all cast members (although we do not have a chorus involved as of yet) sitting in a circle of chairs. One by one, we said our name, year group, and our role in the show (character, stage crew, director etc...)
Warm Up
Physical
More thorough physical warm ups will occur in later rehearsals, when more than a select few people will be dancing or engaging in more physical activity. However, as many people broke off to focus on more vocal work that mostly involved being seated, it was not necessary on this day.
I will go into further detail when a full physical task is carried out, but the beginning of this warm up did contain a small bodily exercise. It was executed very similarly to that in my first Vocal Session blog, including the Wake Up and Mobility Drawing exercises (see the aforementioned post for details.)
Vocal
We began to warm up our voices with various staccato (short and sharp) and legato (longer and sustained) SOVTs (Semi-Occluded Vocal Tract). These are sounds such as 'shh', 'zzz', and 'vvv', that are excellent for improving both the alignment and stamina of the vocal folds, and as such reduce strain and fatigue.
We also used a melodic call-and-response riff exercise on the word 'yeah', experimenting with varying tones and dynamics as we ascended chromatically with each repetition.
Finally, we added a few sirens to ensure every aspect of our range had been suitably accessed and warmed up in a smooth scale.
Main Rehearsal - Breakaway
For the main part of the session, each group broke off into various places to learn and practise different content. Personally, I went to learn the chorus elements for two new songs: The Harvard Variations and Blood in the Water.
These songs are played almost back to back in the show, and are in a similar style of theatre mixed with the instrumentation of Classical music. Therefore, the tonality and timbre required must emulate the same high-end elegance that this form of music implies.
Both songs have challenging passages that I will now have time to work on independently. The Harvard Variations contains certain higher passages that tap into my operatic whistle range (as far as I am aware, I am the only person on this line). Therefore, I will need to spend some time working with and warming up in this passage so that i can effectively switch into it fr the small amount of time that it is used. Blood in the Water, although mostly call-and-response, houses the more difficult technical details of the changing tempo and heavy chromatic notations. I will need to ensure I take time to exercise these notes, as the are very close together and can easily sound dissonant if misinterpreted.
Evidence of Rehearsal
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