Activity #3: Singing Time

While listening to the soundtrack I found that I really quite liked pretty much all of the music in this musical. Not much in particular stood out to me, but some songs I like slightly more than others which means those are the ones I will be talking about. I like the group numbers a lot and that's why I was disappointed with the ending. I was sad that they didn't end with a high energy group number or SOMETHING! It is touching that they end with Will singing to his son the same song as the beginning but I feel like they could end with more power.

Anyways, now that I got that out of the way, my favourite song from the soundtrack would have to be "Out there on the road". That might seem like an odd choice, but I love the feel of the song. The banjo at the beginning and slow almost western feel is a great set for the groove of the slightly more up tempo rest of the song. What really makes it good though, is the trumpets that come in at the pick up part witch I absolutely love! It just has a fun feel that escalates throughout the song. There is a bit of speech but that's ok. Then, when the chorus comes in at the end with "I can see America dependable and true" that's the climax of the song and it's just so good. I like the beginning and the end the best, the middle is still good but the beginning and end are the most important parts of the song so it becomes my favourite.

On stage I feel like this number would start in the cave with Carl. Edward would do some dancing around Karl to start it off, and then he would lead him out of the cave and start down the "road" which would be Karl and Edward walking on the spot (would require practice) and the big screen with a video of passing houses in the background. Then you could have people dancing across the stage at the same pace as the video (so it would look like Karl and Edward were passing them). The people would be dressed up as is described in the song like when Edward says "action and adventure" you could have two people doing some martial arts (or something that looks like it) and before that you could have all sorts of different people like a princess or a motorcyclist, or a person with a large fake alligator, sort of like looking at all the options that you could be in an exaggerated way. Then, when the music stops and Edward says the bit about what's your name, they would stop the video and then when he goes up on "there" they start walking again but they come into Ashton, and this time the people crossing the stage are just your townsfolk from Ashton, but when the townsfolk sing "That's him right there" they come out of the wings with fake torches and pitchforks and the video stops. Then when Edward starts singing again they just stay there for a bit, until Jenny Hill comes through the crowd and sings to Edward and when the song picks up Karl and Edward would do a round of dance; then the ensemble would join in with some cool turns and jumps, and maybe there could be a couple in the middle doing some turns and dips too. For the third round everyone would do less difficult unison choreography until the mayor comes out and gives Edward the key to the city. Everyone crouches while Edward sings his bit, and then when the chorus sings "like you" then rise and stand really tall. Then, for "I can see America" there would be a moment of stillness and crisp hand actions on the "I" and "dependable" then they would continue with the actions until "on the road" the final bit where you would do some dosido-ing switching partners and then doing a turn and ending in position.

Other songs that are pretty much tied with this one are: The Witch, Showdown, Time Stops, What's Next, and How it Ends.

Now for my least favourite, it was really hard to choose a least favourite one because all of the songs are very well done, but I decided on Fight the Dragons which isn't actually a bad song at all. The only thing is, I feel like Edward Bloom has too many songs, so that's why I chose this one. It also doesn't really leave a lasting impression (at least to me) either. Edward has so much more time to shine than Will, Sandra and the supporting characters, (which only makes sense) because the story is all about him, but I feel like he could give up a song or two and have the chorus sing a bit more. The audience at this time has already heard Edward sing 5 songs by now so it becomes less interesting. That is the opposite of what you want because it's an important time; when Edward sings this song about how he wants to teach his son to seize life.

I don't really know how to make this song more engaging, because it's not the song in itself that's boring. You can't really make it high caliber because it's just not that kind of song, but I say give him a sword, make the lights blue and dreamy and make sure he is singing to his son then, bam good scene.

Now, context wise, "Out there on the Road" is about Edward going to talk to the Giant that the town wants to slay, but Edward thinks he can convince him to go somewhere new, and he does. Throughout the song, he ends up saving the giant who is actually really smart, and brings him to the Calloway Circus, but that's in the next scene. This is the real beginning of how Edward met Sandra, but this story is told to Josephine when she asks about Edward's history.

The "Fight the Dragons" scene, is a hard transition to the past from the "Red White and True" scene. It is sung by Edward to young Will when he was little.

Now that concludes my posts for this summer see you all back at school!

POST NUMBER ONE

Activity #2 Musical Time

Hello fellow big a-fish-ionados (ya I know that's really bad :p), it seems quite quiet still even though we are only 14 days away from the due date of this project. I guess I will start off the posts then! 

I recently watched the full length high school production of the Big Fish musical on youtube; (as it says to do in the handout), and thought overall it was quite good. In some parts though I thought it lacked a little, but nobody's perfect.  

I did learn a great deal about this musical while watching the youtube version, mostly about the progression from the present world and the past/story world and in which order the scenes come and go. For example the western scene where Edward falls asleep to an old western movie and then incorporates the setting into his dream, a smooth progression from reality to bigger than life story. One other example of this is when Josephine asks Will how his parents met and he (begrudgingly) tells her the story of the Calloway Circus after saying that there were 20 different versions of the story and the set changes to the circus.
 At first when we were doing the read through, it was very hard to keep track of what was really going on, and I think I'm not alone in saying I missed a lot just by reading the script. I missed practically the whole red, white and true scene; I was confused when the stories were being told because of the flipping between the two time lines. The transition has to be very distinct if you want people to understand the story overall, and we couldn't visually show that at a read through. 

In this musical there are aproxomativly one billon scenes, so you have to make each different and clear. Personally, from the youtube version of the musical I felt that the flood ("start over"), circus ("time stops"), Sandra's "I don't need a roof" and the "what's next" scenes/songs  stood out the most to me.

The flood stood out because of the picket signs, the anger of the citizens and mostly the moment where Don Price realizes that nobody really knows that they're protesting (a major flaw in their plan). That moment of comedy just makes it pop slightly more than the other scenes.

What's next is possibly the climax of the play where Will finally accepts the magic of the stories and has to tell his father how he dies. It's very quick and frantic yet touching at the same time. At the end they arrive at the river where Edward sees all the people he ever knew there, almost like his life is flashing before his eyes. The reason this stood out to me is because the story this time is told by Will who has to help his father through death by using imagination and fantasy, and realizes that you need stories to soften the hardships in life and have fun.

The circus is a scene that stands out because of: the unique environment, Mr.Calloway (the werewolf), costumes, but mostly the interruption of the alabama lambs' song into a really cool slow motion "time stops" where Edward shows the moment where he fell in love with Sandra (at first sight, no less). The song itself is pretty and really crescendos near the end which is why it has such a lasting impression on the audience.

Sandra's "I don't need a roof" stands out because of the emotion put into that song. It's quite beautiful in it's message that she loves Edward so much that even if the house falls down she will still be happy as long as she has him. She brings the message that to love and be loved is happiness, you don't need much else, and a roof is an afterthought. Mind you, the singer has to feel the song for it to be powerful. It shows the raw emotions of sadness and love and that makes you remember it well.

THE MORAL OF BIG FISH
At first I was confused about the moral of the story because there was so much going on all the time, but as I was able to think it through more and more, I realized a moral, or what I perceive as the moral of Big Fish. I believe that Edward uses stories to breathe life into the mundane world of facts, science and boredom. Where cold knowledge is anticlimactic and sometimes hurtful, he teaches Will and the audience that imagination is important for people to live happily, to hope, to dream bigger, to love bigger and to light the darkness that is reality.

BIG FISH METAPHOR
The big fish story is one that is used as a sort of expression that originated from fishing where the fishermen would describe the size of their fish using their hands and show that their fish was one of giant size when it was actually smaller. It is now an expression for when people exaggerate their stories much like Edward Bloom's highly imaginative storytelling that is obviously not all completely real. It is a metaphor for living larger than life, (In relation to the musical) simple as that.

So now that I know all that, I can tell you how all that information will help me get into character. For one, all characters have to have a certain whimsy, because they are part fantasy even if they hold truth to them. Every person in the cast has to be completely devoted to their characters because when you use exaggeration, nothing gets left behind. There is no hesitation and all actions have to be big and fully in character (and no I'm not referring specifically to the choreography).

I will mostly be in the past story scenes so I need to exaggerate my character (without being too silly), that includes faces, the way I dance the choreography and my body language on stage. I need to devote myself to the storytelling while I am on stage.

That concludes the first part of my assignment and I hope some of you other students will post something, too, so I can finish the third part.