18th - 22nd October 2010 (Bad Girls Week 1)

We took part in auditions at the end of last week for Bad Girls The Musical. This audition process was an excellent learning curve and gave me my first experience of a real audition which I feel will prove very useful in the future. 

Crystal Gordon played by Camilla Beeput in Bad Girls The Musical

I was successful in my audition and gained the role of Crystal Gordon. 


"CRYSTAL GORDON
Sentence: 12 months – for persistent shoplifting
As a bible-bashing Christian, Crystal often takes a critical view of her fellow
inmates and believes that the prison regime is too soft – especially where drugs are
concerned. She can be self-righteous and totally blind to her own selfcontradictions
and often comical as a result. But at heart she’s a kind and caring
person who does believe in standing up for what’s right."

Crystal is a character who is always acting; she hides behind religion and uses it as an excuse to conduct herself as if she is better than everyone else, when really her sentence is just as justified as the rest of the women in the prison. She is extremely contradictory and deluded and I am really looking forward to playing this humorous side to her. On the contrary, her song Freedom Road shows her sensitive side and really tackles the authors intention in the lyrics, which I am also looking forward to performing. Overall, Crystal is a comedic, sensitive and fun character to play and I am really looking forward to developing her role over the next six weeks.


Our vocal lessons this week concentrated on the song Freedom Road. Everyone else in the class studied the ensemble harmonies that lift the song whilst I worked on the melody. The song is very challenging vocally, which I know I am able of, but I need to work on my confidence in order to perform the song to the best of my ability.


As a group, we are starting to work together a lot better than we did when we first started the course. We seem to be much more comfortable with harmonies than we were previously and the overall unity of the group has improved significantly. As Freedom Road is such a soulful vocal song, it is important that we sing the song perfectly and I believe that we can achieve this together.


We began to practice Freedom Road in a round as this is how it will be performed eventually. This was a challenge, but I believe that this will become much easier with practise.




Our drama lesson was workshop based. We first of all re-capped our work on the variety show and identified a strength, weakness and learning point:

• Strength: Vocal performance
• Weakness & Target: Keep up confidence throughout the day, not just during the audition.
• Learning Point: Always prepare

We then discussed "What is musical theatre?"

Musical theatre is BODY in TIME and SPACE using song as a vehicle.

Musical theatre uses song because it engages and conveys any information in a more accessible way to the audience. It also adds entertainment to the action.


We discussed the different functions of a song in musical theatre (this is what or how the song adds to the performance):

• Character exposition
• Plot
• Setting
• Mood

This gave us a deeper knowledge of musical theatre and how song works throughout a piece.