Behind the scenes

Whilst everybody has been working hard in their lessons this week, Miss McGeary, Miss Poole and some children have been working very hard to make some of the costumes and props for the show.

Can you guess which characters these costumes will belong to?

This character is very brightly coloured and has feathers.

This character has a very large stick.

Do you recognise these striped animals?

Can you work out what this papier mâché sculpture will become when it's painted?

Session three

The children were all given their scripts for The Lion King on Monday. They have been working very hard at home to learn their words.

First we familiarised ourselves with our groups and had a quick practise of our scripts.

Next we had a chat with Miss McGeary and thought about the costumes that we are going to wear.  (Please remember to look at home and see what you have!)

We had another quick practise in our groups and then it was time to act out the play on the stage.      

 We all waited patiently for each group to rehearse. VERY SENSIBLE!         

            Year 3,4 and 5 worked so well together. 

Well done everybody. Keep practising your lines.we look forward to seeing the play coming together next week.

Session two

In today's Musical Theatre session we began to focus on the acting of The Lion King play. First of all the scripts for each scene were given out and we got into groups to practise.

Ellejah and Jaion practising their script.

Libby, Subhaan, Jessica and Joe really got into their script with some great actions.

These girls were concentrating very hard to learn their words.

After only a short time of practising, each group then performed their scene to the rest of the group. This gave us a good idea of how the finished show will look.

Kye, Bronson and Taye did a great job of performing Act 1.

Act 2 was performed by Libby, Subhaan, Jessica and Joe.

Macie and Fydel were excellent as Simba and Scar in Act 3.

There was some excellent acting in the next scene by Tianna, Ellejah and Jaion.

Kye, Taye and Bronson were very busy today as they joined Ronnie to perform Act 6.

The next act was performed by Kadence, Asam, Zain and Ellejah. They were very dramatic!

A very busy Tianna and Libby  became Timon and Pumba when they joined Faye and Thomas to perform the next act.

Izzie, Martyna and Sophie worked hard together to perform Act 10.

Last but not least, Chloe, Zunaira, Gracie and Aleesha performed the final scene.

Well done to everyone today. You all worked very hard. When you get your scripts next week, don't forget to keep practising!

Session one

Today, the 30 final children came along for their first musical theatre session. Miss Bowkett and Miss McGeary explained that over the next few weeks they would need to work very hard as, at the end of term, they are going to put on a performance of The Lion King.

The session started with a musical warm-up led by Miss McGeary on her keyboard. Some of the children managed to reach some very high notes!

Next, the children were told that the first song they were going to learn was 'The Circle of Life' as this is the song that opens The Lion King. The group watched two versions of this song- the animated and stage version. We had a discussion to compare each.

The children then tried to sing along to the stage version of 'The Circle of Life'.

After that, Miss McGeary taught the children the word to the song. This was very tricky as the start of the song is not even in English! We were particularly impressed with the children who volunteered to sing on their own.

Once we were more familiar with the words to the song, we split into two groups. This is where we learned a very difficult skill -harmonising. Harmonising is where each group has to sing different words but still stay in time with everyone else.

The final part of the session involved us beginning to think about what 'The Circle of Life' would look like when performed in the show. All of the characters are animals so the children practised moving around as an animal whilst still singing the song. 

Miss Bowkett and Miss McGeary would like to say well done to everyone who took part in today's session. The song is not easy but is coming along nicely. Please remember to keep practising at home.

Next week we will spend more time thinking about acting out the show.

Second Auditions

This afternoon Miss Bowkett and Miss McGeary had a lovely time listening to some beautiful singing voices. It was a very difficult decision but these are the names of the children who we have chosen to take part in our final Musical Theatre group.

3.1

Dylan, Subhaan, Bronson

3.2

Leo, Fydel, Macie

3.3

April

4.1

Corey

4.3

Jessica, Faye, Thomas, Kadence, Libby, Sophie, Zunaira

5.1

Ben, Aleesha, McKenzie, Zain, Ronnie, Taye, 

5.2

Ellejah, Asam, Chloe, Kye, Martyna

5.3

Gracie, Tianna, Jaion

Congratulations to these children who are been selected to take part. The musical that we will be working on over the next six weeks is The Lion King.

Well done to all of the children who took part this afternoon, it was very difficult to filter through the talent that The Oval's children have.

First Auditions

Miss Bowkett and Miss McGeary have just launched a new Musical Theatre project which will run in school every Friday afternoon until the end of term. The project is aimed at children in years 3,4 and 5 and is going to be lots of fun! Each week we will work on singing, dancing and acting and, at the end of the project, we will put on a fantastic show for parents and friends.

Last Friday saw 93 children audition for just 30 places in the project. The first round of auditions involved children being put into mixed groups and set a challenge. Each group was given the line "we can't leave until we've found it" and were asked to decide upon a scenario and act it out together. In this part of the audition, Miss Bowkett and Miss McGeary were looking for a number of skills, including:

-confidence

-imagination

-acting skills

-ability to work with others

Here are some pictures of some of the fantastic acts that were performed.

These children were imagining that they were looking for a lost animal.

These girls decided to base their scenario around the dentists.

This group decided that the lost item was a jumper and they acted out how they would find it.

These children showed some great expression when they unexpectedly found a missing body!

Miss Bowkett and Miss McGeary were overwhelmed by the amount of talent and enthusiasm shown by everyone and would like to thank everybody who took part. Narrowing so many talented children down to just 30 places is not proving to be an easy task so we have decided to hold a second audition for some children this Friday.

Well done to these children who got through to the second audition. Please remember to come on Friday and be prepared to sing to us.

3.1

Joseph, Bronson, Dylan, Subhaan, Darnell

3.2

Tegan, Olivia, Macie, Leo, Fydel, Kashish

3.3

April, Keeley, Alfie, Shona

4.1

Izzie, Vincent, Corey, Lavell, Paige, Courtney

4.2

Phoenix

4.3

Tegan, Jessica, Faye, Lily, Thomas, Kadence, Libby, Shenae, Sophie, Zunaira

5.1 

Aleesha, McKenzie, Zain, Ronnie, Ben

5.2

Jack, Chloe, Abdullahi, Asam, Kye, Ellejah

5.3

Gracie, Tianna, Jaion, Ayesha

Once again, a big thank you and well done to everyone who took part in the first auditions. We look forward to hearing some of your beautiful singing voices on Friday. Keep watching this blog to find out who will be the chosen 30 children!