The Report

Alright, let's see...

Right now I'm in my third term at Randolph and I'm loving it. It's what's called a triple threat (technically quadruple, but I'll get to that...) school, because they teach singing, acting and dancing, putting an equal emphasis on all three disciplines. The main focus is musical theatre, but we study plays too, as well as Shakespeare (3rd term is all about the Bard).

Let me try and describe the classes...
Each student has two 1 hour 20 minute dance classes each in ballet and jazz every week, and in 3rd through 6th term, a 1 and a half hour tap dance class each week. There are around 7 levels of difficulty of ballet and jazz, and around 5 in tap, so the likelihood of being placed in a class that's too easy or too hard because it's the one that suits best is small, so that students can have fun but still be challenged.

In the vocal department, each student gets a half-hour vocal tutorial with a coach they're assigned in term one and who they stick with until they graduate after 6th term. Depending on the student's level of training and skill, their coach will work with them on proper technique as well as helping them work any songs they need to have for class or an audition. Also, there's an hour-long Chorus, divided into three Women's Choruses based on skill level, and one Men's Chorus (the ratio of women to men is at least 4-1, so there aren't enough guys to make more than one chorus) each week. In Chorus, the students learn songs as a chorus and rehearse them, presenting them to the rest of the school at the end of term. In addition, there's an hour-long class each week called Randolph Choral, in which the entire student body (roughly 100-150 people) get together and sing choral pieces. (Don't get the wrong impression by the use of the word 'choral'- it's really fun stuff. For instance, this term we're doing 'Come Sail Away' as one of our songs.) At the end of the term, the Choral presents their rehearsed songs at the same presentation with the Choruses, showing the faculty what talented students they have the honour of teaching (hehe..).

Also in the vocal department, but mixing acting and singing, is a class called Musical Theatre Presentation, or MTP. MTP is a class which basically teaches students how to prepare and present a song for audition. A lot of people simply assume that if they sing the notes properly and with a nice voice, they'll get the part. However, directors are looking for someone who has a story behind their song, who plays some sort of intention and storyline rather than standing and belting out notes. So MTP shows students how to stand out in an audition as a great person to cast who would be able to both sing well AND play a role with skill. With MTP, you get a 15 minute coaching every second week to work on the song you're presenting next class. MTP starts in 2nd term (with a few introductory classes at the end of 1st term) and goes straight through 6th term.

The course load at Randolph also includes lessons in musical theory. You see, to be a successful singing performer in "the biz", you need to be able to read music fairly well, and sight read with a certain amount of skill. You might have a terrific voice and incredible acting skills, but if you're handed a song you've never even heard of at an audition and given 5 minutes to learn it before singing it before the audition panel, your voice means nothing unless you can read the music. So Theory class comes in handy. It's divided into 4 difficulty levels, starting with the very basics in Thoery 1 (the first day of Theory 1 my teacher drew 5 parallel horizontal lines on the board and said 'this is a staff'...).

In the acting department... there's Improv{isation} (working on your ability to create believable, honest scenes on the spot and to be present and interesting on stage), Scene Study (working monologues and two- and three-person scenes), Voice & Text (focusing on the way you hold your body and how you speak your text, rather than how you act it), and Shakespeare (two 4 hour classes each week in 3rd term). There's also Film class, which is what makes the school technically Quadruple Threat (singing, dancing, stage acting and film acting), in 3rd and 4th term.

There's also Movement class, which is designed to "aide the student in expanding his/her range of emotional expression through physical techniques". In first term, Movement is stage combat; you learn how to convincingly appear to punch and kick fellow actors, as well as drag them across the floor by the hair and many other audience-gasp-enducing moves, all without leaving a mark or causing any pain. It's a blast! In later terms, you do assorted movement courses, like Somatic explorations and Laban Movement.

In the academic department, as well as Musical Theory, there's Theatre History in 1st term, and Dance History in 2nd term.

As far as presentations go at the end of term, the 1st terms do a Theatre History presentation of scenes from classic historical plays (Brecht, Waiting for Godot, Ubu Roi, Medea, etc), the 2nd terms do a Dance History showcase of dance types through the ages as well as a Cabaret performance of various songs and dances, the 3rd terms do a performance of scenes from different Shakespeare plays, the 4th terms do a bigger, bolder Cabaret, the 5th terms do a play, and the 6th terms do a musical. The presentations in 1st-4th term are in-house only, meaning only students and faculty can watch, and the 5th and 6th term shows are open to the public.

That's all I can think of to say on the courses...


As far as my life goes right now, school takes up a HUGE portion of it. You probably understand better why now that you've seen how much they try to cram into your brain doing a 3 year course in 2 years.

This morning I had ballet class, which was really good. I've moved up to Intermediate ballet, which is the second most advanced class. It's fun but quite challenging, and I'm really enjoying the concentration and effort required. Then, after some lunch, I joined some other 3rd term ladies for a game of soccer in the field across the street from our school. It was really fun, and I scored a goal but I obviously have a lot to learn about soccer. (I also let two goals in in quick succession, within a minute of going on goal. Whoops. :P) I'm glad we're planning on making this a weekly Monday activity, cause it's good cardio, and extremely fun! Although hopefully next time we have more than 6 people playing...

Then after returning to school, I finished up a bit of homework for Film class and went to Movement. We played around with the different Laban efforts today, doing Light and Strong Weight, Indirect and Direct Space, Quick and Sustained/Slow Time, and Free Flow, running out of time before we could do Bound Flow. After each Effort, we had to draw a picture of how it felt to move in the different effort. It was really energising.

Then on to Film. I was expecting to do the exercise that Peter, our teacher, had assigned for homework but instead we watched a couple peoples' tapes of last week's exercise and talked about how we did. We watched mine (last week's exercise was to wait, on camera, for something for 2 minutes) and I found it boring but I'm just being critical of myself as everyone tends to be, and was told that it was really interesting. I think the camera does add ten pounds, and I definitely wasn't wearing a good shirt to have ten pounds added in. But all vanity aside, I look really different on film. I mean, when you look at yourself in a mirror you don't see yourself as others see you. You're selective in what you see and already have a set picture of yourself that alters what you actually see in front of you. but on film, there's no way to alter that because the image is there in front of you, moving around exactly like you do but not quite you, the way you feel you are. It's weird.