Headlong rehearsing

Headlong is a song  featuring Scaramouche, Galileo, Brit and Meat. Brit and Meat have just invited Scaramouche and Galileo to come with them to meet the other fellow bohemians/rebels in the Heartbreak Hotel. A sudden bond is recognised between the four, which is shown in Headlong, their journey to rebellion. 

My cast features Megan (Galileo), Emily (Brit) and Talia (Meat). Working with Kat, we thought of some movements for the scene to resemble driving a car. Using a steering wheel, we developed movement such as a canon wave to depict going over a large bump, flying down to our knees on Meat's line "We're going downhill" and pedestrian gestures to show we're in a car e.g gazing and pointing out to the side as if out a window. 

When practising the song, it was hard in terms of remembering your cues whilst performing erratic movement. The cues in general were hard to learn as it jumps from character to character, from an ensemble line to a solo line and so on. To pick up the pattern in the melody and lyrics, we separated the movement from the vocals and practised them separately for the time being. We then as a group repeatedly sang certain areas we were unsure of, and then as a whole. This process helped to understand everyone in the ensembles' parts, so we could determine where we come in. Our entire focus and patience with each other helped speed along the process of figuring out our cues, into which they then re-introduced the movement into the song. 

When we began our short rehearsals with the band accompaniment, it was a change in dynamic as we had studied the original soundtrack version very carefully, listening out on certain clues in the music. Adapting to the band was hard, but our determination as a group pulled us through and we overall managed to do runs where it was coming along well.