My Musical Experience as a Cowboy
By Laoise
I was a part of Presentation College Headford’s production of Calamity Jane. I am so glad that I got involved in it as I had the most amazing time and would definitely do it again.
We started rehearsing pretty much straight away when we came back to school. All the TYs met with our production team: Ms. Shaughnessy, Ms. Sherry, Ms. Cunningham and our choreographer and director Eleanoir Cazabon-Regan in the Theatre Space on Monday, September 3rd. Here, we were told what the play was and watched a trailer of a version of Calamity Jane, that was performed in the RDS during the summer. Elly gave us a bit of backstory about where Calamity Jane was set. She also told us that we would be starting workshops the following day!
On Tuesday, September 4th, all the TYs and 5th years involved in the musical met in the Gym, where we were split into three groups. Group 1 started off doing freeze frames. Group 2 started learning “Windy City” with Ms. Cunningham. Group 3, which I was a part of, started off by learning some of “Blackhills of Dakota” with Ms. Shaughnessy. After about 15 or 20 minutes, we switched over. The group I was in went to Elly next, where we did freeze frames and because we were done performing our freeze frames with time to spare, we learned some choreography to “Windy City”. After that, we swapped again, learned some of “Windy City” before going back to the Gym, where our group taught the others the dance. It was a great start to what was going to be an amazing show.
Every Monday, period 4, all the TYs would go to the Handball Alley and learn more choreography and every Tuesday, periods 4 & 5, the TYs and 5th years would meet in the Gym to learn choreography and to do some acting. This was all in preparation of the auditions, which took place on Monday October 1st. All the girls who were auditioning were given 2 songs to learn “Secret Love” and “Harry I’m Planning to Marry” and the lads who were auditioning had to sing either “Higher than a Hawk” and “Hive Full Of Honey”. We were given a time slot and were called in in groups of 2 or 3 to sing a verse and a chorus of one of the songs and to act a scene. All the auditions took place on the Monday and we were given the parts by Friday. This is when it all got real that the musical was happening soon.
The following Tuesday, Elly gave a few of us girls the part as cowboys and from that weekend onwards, we were going to Elly’s studio down between Shrule and Kilmaine. The weekend rehearsals were great craic and was definitely a highlight of the musical for me. Because it was all singing and dancing in school, we never got to see any of the acting. So being in the studio, where all the focus was on the acting, you really got to see how the musical come together. We had to practice becoming more manly, and it was funny hearing everyone do the deep voices. It was really good as we got to know a lot of the 5th years better, that I would not have talked to only for the musical. There was so many funny moments that happened at the weekend rehearsals, but some of the funniest moments for me was the 1st time we saw the “Johnnies” do their performance and when Josh fell backwards into the radiator. We had so much fun and Elly and Phil were so helpful when it came to staging and who to react to what was happening.
Things started to come together. We had rehearsals over the mid-term and during the days we had off school. On Tuesday, November 14th, we had a photoshoot with John McMahon. This was great fun as we got to see most people in costume, as some of the rented costumes hadn’t arrived yet. The following day, until the day of the show, we had no classes, just musical rehearsals. This is when we started to feel the pressure as we were running all the acting and all the singing and dancing. But the problem was that all our leads started losing their voices. We stopped making them sing for the rest of the week to rest their voice and we were all hoping that they got well really soon.
From Monday onwards, we were going through the acts, start to finish. Wednesday was our dress rehearsal. This is when it all started to become real. It was a day until our 1st performance!!! The rehearsal went really well. It gave the leads a chance to figure out how long they had for costume changes and the chorus and dancers a chance to figure out how long they had to cross over the stage between the scenes they were in.
It went amazingly.
As the saying goes, “Time flies when you’re having fun” and by God it does. Before we knew it, it was showtime. The matinées went well, they only downside was that the young children didn’t understand a lot of the play and so it was only by Friday night that we actually got a great buzz from the audience. And by the, we only had one show left! It came and it went so fast that everyone was so sad that it was over. But it is something that I will always take with me as I made new friends that I would not have talked to only for the musical. I was a very enjoyable experience and one I will never forget.
We started rehearsing pretty much straight away when we came back to school. All the TYs met with our production team: Ms. Shaughnessy, Ms. Sherry, Ms. Cunningham and our choreographer and director Eleanoir Cazabon-Regan in the Theatre Space on Monday, September 3rd. Here, we were told what the play was and watched a trailer of a version of Calamity Jane, that was performed in the RDS during the summer. Elly gave us a bit of backstory about where Calamity Jane was set. She also told us that we would be starting workshops the following day!
On Tuesday, September 4th, all the TYs and 5th years involved in the musical met in the Gym, where we were split into three groups. Group 1 started off doing freeze frames. Group 2 started learning “Windy City” with Ms. Cunningham. Group 3, which I was a part of, started off by learning some of “Blackhills of Dakota” with Ms. Shaughnessy. After about 15 or 20 minutes, we switched over. The group I was in went to Elly next, where we did freeze frames and because we were done performing our freeze frames with time to spare, we learned some choreography to “Windy City”. After that, we swapped again, learned some of “Windy City” before going back to the Gym, where our group taught the others the dance. It was a great start to what was going to be an amazing show.
Every Monday, period 4, all the TYs would go to the Handball Alley and learn more choreography and every Tuesday, periods 4 & 5, the TYs and 5th years would meet in the Gym to learn choreography and to do some acting. This was all in preparation of the auditions, which took place on Monday October 1st. All the girls who were auditioning were given 2 songs to learn “Secret Love” and “Harry I’m Planning to Marry” and the lads who were auditioning had to sing either “Higher than a Hawk” and “Hive Full Of Honey”. We were given a time slot and were called in in groups of 2 or 3 to sing a verse and a chorus of one of the songs and to act a scene. All the auditions took place on the Monday and we were given the parts by Friday. This is when it all got real that the musical was happening soon.
The following Tuesday, Elly gave a few of us girls the part as cowboys and from that weekend onwards, we were going to Elly’s studio down between Shrule and Kilmaine. The weekend rehearsals were great craic and was definitely a highlight of the musical for me. Because it was all singing and dancing in school, we never got to see any of the acting. So being in the studio, where all the focus was on the acting, you really got to see how the musical come together. We had to practice becoming more manly, and it was funny hearing everyone do the deep voices. It was really good as we got to know a lot of the 5th years better, that I would not have talked to only for the musical. There was so many funny moments that happened at the weekend rehearsals, but some of the funniest moments for me was the 1st time we saw the “Johnnies” do their performance and when Josh fell backwards into the radiator. We had so much fun and Elly and Phil were so helpful when it came to staging and who to react to what was happening.
Things started to come together. We had rehearsals over the mid-term and during the days we had off school. On Tuesday, November 14th, we had a photoshoot with John McMahon. This was great fun as we got to see most people in costume, as some of the rented costumes hadn’t arrived yet. The following day, until the day of the show, we had no classes, just musical rehearsals. This is when we started to feel the pressure as we were running all the acting and all the singing and dancing. But the problem was that all our leads started losing their voices. We stopped making them sing for the rest of the week to rest their voice and we were all hoping that they got well really soon.
From Monday onwards, we were going through the acts, start to finish. Wednesday was our dress rehearsal. This is when it all started to become real. It was a day until our 1st performance!!! The rehearsal went really well. It gave the leads a chance to figure out how long they had for costume changes and the chorus and dancers a chance to figure out how long they had to cross over the stage between the scenes they were in.
It went amazingly.
As the saying goes, “Time flies when you’re having fun” and by God it does. Before we knew it, it was showtime. The matinées went well, they only downside was that the young children didn’t understand a lot of the play and so it was only by Friday night that we actually got a great buzz from the audience. And by the, we only had one show left! It came and it went so fast that everyone was so sad that it was over. But it is something that I will always take with me as I made new friends that I would not have talked to only for the musical. I was a very enjoyable experience and one I will never forget.