Musical Theatre Reflection

1.
Legally Blonde has been one of my favourite musicals for many years, I have always enjoyed the
music in this show. I first watched this show when Launceston Musical Society performed it and I fell
in love with all of the big characters. Ever since then I would watch bootlegs on YouTube and I learnt
many of the big ballads from the show. When I found out that Newstead was going to be doing
Legally Blonde I was ecstatic. I knew the show backwards and forwards and I was ready for anything.

2.
During the rehearsal process, I feel we, as a team work well the majority of the time. We all had a set
goal and that was to put on an incredible show for an audience. I feel that at times the class would
get distracted quite easily and go off on tangents, which is something I’m not used to working within
past shows I’ve been in but I do have to admit that at times it was fun to witness.

3.
A challenging aspect of the process for me was learning all the different harmonies, usually, I’m one
of the weakest soprano singers in a group so I could hear other stronger singers and sort my pitch
out with them, so it was a learning experience to try and be a strong voice for people to hear and
learn from.

4. 5. 6.
During this production, I played many different roles. This lead to me needing to expand my acting
abilities so that each character I played had different character traits. I tried to change my posture
when I played Elle’s mum as I wanted to portray her as a prim and proper person, with a small
drinking problem. The character that I tried to base off of myself was when I played the bookish
client, as she only has one line I didn’t have much of a character description to build off but what I
did have was “…I’m tired of living alone with my cat” which I decided would mean that I would make
my character a crazy cat lady. My most substantial character would have been Elle’s mum as she had
more than one scene.

Whilst I was Elle’s mum I planned my outfits to look motherly and expensive as Elle’s family is made
out to look like they are rich, her parents can just pay for Elle to go to law school just cause she
wants to follow her true love, so this idea of being a rich trophy wife came to my mind. My
costume’s included a denim top, black skirt, poncho and a big sun hat as she lives in California.

7.
Our final rehearsals were quite stressful as the cast and crew hadn’t done full runs with all the
technical elements before this time. Our first show was very nerve-wracking for me, as I felt like I
was under a lot of pressure to do well. Many issues were not yet resolved for the first show, but
even with that challenge the cast and crew worked hard to put on the best show that we possibly
could. Our Thursday matinee show was the best, in my opinion, the cast and crew worked extremely
hard for that show, which showed.

8.
At times during this show, I felt like I wasn’t included or excepted for who I am. This feeling wasn’t
helped when I received feedback from other students that weren’t welcome or worded kindly. I
tried my hardest to push these feelings aside but I was still struggling. There were a few students
with who I was starting to become close with and they were noticing some differences in my
behaviour. These students become some of my closest friends and helped me to feel like I was part
of the team again.
9.
If I had another opportunity to do the show again I might try to make my character bigger, with
more energy.

10.
I am proud of how much I grew as a person during this show. I experienced a few difficult periods
during this show with some people being rude and unsupportive towards me and my friends. I was
resilient and I learnt more about how to have grit. At times I felt like I should just quit the show, but I
kept going and now I can reflect on that and I am extremely proud of myself for this quality that I
have grown.

11.
For me, the most outstanding performance belonged to Ella, who played Brook Wyndham, wrongly
convicted exercise queen. Brook’s character only appears in act two, but she is a vital element in the
story. Not only does the actor who plays Brook need to be a very talented actor and singer but they
also have to be physically fit as the opening number of Act two involves Brook singing whilst skipping
for a long period. Watching Ella learn this skill was very impressive as at the start of the rehearsal
process she was struggling to do both things at once but by the last show, she was singing and
skipping extremely confidently.

12.
I feel that rating my performance out of ten is hard as I couldn’t watch my performance to evaluate
it. I feel I did the best job that I could each night, I tried my hardest and that’s all that I can ask for.

13.
Similarly, with question 12, I am very proud of my fellow performers’ efforts for this show. A lot of
the cast had never performed in a musical before and they all worked so hard and learnt so much.

14.
As I have previously stated I have learnt a lot about how strong I am during this process. I have also
improved in acting skills, in particular my accents. This is something that I have struggled with before
but by working hard on this skill I have improved.

15.
The best part of this experience for me was the lifelong friends that I have made.