“Sally Forth the Way We’re Steering; Obstacles Start Disappearing”: Finally to the Finish
Hello for one last time, faithful audience members!
This week title is my favorite lyric from the show Mary Poppins (which I referenced in the title for my project) from the song “Anything Can Happen.” Mary Poppins is a story of finding ways to face challenges, relive your youth, and create magic and fun, and that’s certainly what happened for me throughout this process.
First things first, I reformatted the script. I decided to make the spoken lines, song lyrics, stage directions, and sound cues in different fonts, so that they won’t get confused! Then came cleaning up anything that looked messy. “Actor’s Choice” sections were then thrown into the script as tips that actors can use to personalize the show! If you remember, it was one of my original goals to have actors make choices in the script, so I was very happy to add these in. I took after Breona’s fun-themed lyric sheets from Spookytown camp, and I added a themed picture to the top of each scene too!
Now came adding the stuff in the script that is not the show itself. I added a title cover and a small summary of the show in the front! I also added a section to help actors read the script. I broke down each term I marked on a page, and I even made the definitions for each term the same font as they are in the script. I then included a summary of the personality and/or story for every character, so that any actor who uses the script can imagine their personality. I then added that vocab section I mentioned right before the script starts.
I read through the whole show by myself one time which was quite exhausting to get a final time check, and the show came out to be around 30 minutes! It may be faster or slower depending on the actors reading it, but that is the time I hoped to achieve! It’s short, so it doesn’t drag on for the actors or audience, but it still packs a great story!
After this, I printed the script, and I bound the pages. I have to say, I love how professional these look now that they are put into the folders!
I also made a playlist with all the karaoke tracks and sound effects that I will be using in the show! For the karaoke tracks, I tried my best to find ones with guide melodies as they are easier to sing along to. I searched through several versions of sound effects and set change instrumental music to find the perfect sounds. Eventually, the playlist was finished, and this is what I will use in the readthrough! Here is the link to that playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4AseswvK5MtrEcP8rDKP_sSidWW1i42z&si=SkOmzpmIskpJq1Jv.
Now here comes what I’ll be doing post-this blog. First, I will finalize my director’s section which will give tips and tricks on how to direct this show or any show with kids. In doing this, I am reading some articles and sections of books on child development! I’m an iffy reader, so I was hesitant about having to read anything at first, but it really helps me put being a director and an educator into perspective. I will provide some examples here:
I’ve also read some other articles on children’s theater and the impact of theater to put more into perspective again. I found this one on how theater can impact one’s social skills (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17533015.2022.2130947), and it brought back Erving Goffman who created the dramaturgical model we read in AP Language and Sociology! Goffman’s theory always intrigued me as a theater kid, so this was great to see brought back. Another was an excerpt from an article on how children’s theater should be included while studying children’s literature as theater is important in developing analytical and literacy skills (https://muse.jhu.edu/article/482344/summary ). While my show will never and should not be considered a great, classic children’s literature work, the article brought me back to some messages I discuss in Back to the Theater!
Starting tomorrow are rehearsals for the big readthrough! I threw out a wide net for recruits, and I got WAY more than expected. There will be about 22 kids participating in this readthrough, and we only have 5 days to block it! Thankfully, the show is pretty short, and I know these kids are very dependable. I’ve worked with all of them before! I’m very excited to be a director for these people one last time, and I know that they are going to rock performing my creation! The readthrough will be performed on Friday, May 16 at 7 PM at the BASIS Mesa theater. It would be great to have everybody check it out! My final product is officially the script, but the readthrough is just going to bring extra life to this project!
If you want to see me talk more about the director’s section and the readthrough, you have to attend the Senior Project Presentations from 10 AM-2 PM two Saturday’s from now on May 17! I along with all the other senior project makers will be doing a final presentation on our journeys from the past few months. Please come out to see what this has all culminated to; it’s going to be awesome.
Thank you to everyone for supporting and staying for the creation of my show! There were many fun quests along the way, and there were also many times I felt very down. I am very excited to start these final steps in the readthrough, and I hope you come see me talk about the final product in a few Saturdays. After all these weeks of crafting, I hope my musical can bring a smile upon young actors’ faces and achieve my goal of introducing theater as a friend early on. I hope it brings a smile upon your guys’ faces too!
“Go on chase your dreams, you won’t regret it. Anything can happen if you let it.”
Take two weeks until final presentations.
