Closed Topics: West Side Story

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West Side Story

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Topic: West Side Story

Posted By: slicksister
Subject: West Side Story
Date Posted: 11/03/05 at 4:09pm

Anybody done this show? Looking for set and choreography ideas. It will be a high school production running at the end of Feb.

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The Main Thing is to Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing

Replies:

Posted By: Gaafa
Date Posted: 11/04/05 at 1:10am

You can be minimalist with the set, very representative & flexible. Gobo?s can be used with lighting.
You only have to give a hint & leave the rest to the punters imagination.
Again the dancing only has to be colour & movement, with a hint of expressive rock style, nothing really out of the box, as the music will very much dictate the dance.

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Joe
Western Gondawandaland
turn right @ Perth.
Hear the light & see the sound.
Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"}
May you always play
to a full house}

Posted By: castMe
Date Posted: 11/04/05 at 9:35pm

We recently did the show here and we rented scaffolding from a local rental outlet (got a break in the price when we sent "pretty girl" to negotiate) Set looked raw and cold, like the city. Also find, beg, borrow or hire someone to choreograph your fights. The realistic looking fights will make or break the mood.

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Investigate. Imagine. Choose.

Posted By: slicksister
Date Posted: 11/04/05 at 10:13pm

castMe do you have any pics of your set? Sounds cool. Its the dancing I'm most concerned with. The regular choreographer is not able to do this show and her assistent although competant isn't very creative. Keep the ideas coming.

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The Main Thing is to Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing

Posted By: tristanrobin
Date Posted: 11/05/05 at 7:49am

First, cut some of the dance music (from within the piece, not from
the beginning nor the ending) from "Dance at the Gym" - you can
spend your entire rehearsal time working on that one looooooong
dance number. You can also do some cutting in "Cool" and
"Prologue" - these are really long numbers and they can withstand
some cutting.

A few ramdom thoughts: remember that the root of this music is
American jazz - so even though the dance in the film (and the
original broadway production) was ballet based, it doesn't have to
be. Modern and jazz movement will be perfectly adequate- and your
boys won't have to spend six weeks of rehearsal period perfecting
grand jettes.
Try choreographing the opening number backwards. Block it out as
simple blocking and simple fight choreography. After you know who
is going where and when, THEN turn THAT movement into dance
moves. Allow the boys to move suddenly and exposively, rather than
trying to force them to be graceful ballet dancers (which, in most
high schools, is like teaching the pig to sing).
The "Dance at the Gym" is essentially a challenge piece (i.e. each
gang tries to one-up the other. If you don't have a group of students
up to the dancing, try having both groups push forward their BEST
dancers to represent their respective gang ... it works both for the
story and (heh heh) it's not painful watching kids trying to do things
they are simply not equipped to do.
"America" (like "Dance at the Gym") is another challenge piece (this
time between the men and women)...the same solution can be used
and most of the dancing done by Anita and Bernardo.

Geesh. There's so much. LOL I've done this play four times...some
productions more successful than others. It presents a unique set of
challenges to the director and choreographer, which can be fun and
exciting to meet...however, LOL, like all plays, it's not a good idea to
pretend the challenges don't exist. LOL I give groups tons of credit
for attempting this play (which is essentially a dance recital LOL)
without a lot of dancers available to them - it shows the bravery
community theatre folks are filled with!

Good luck!

Posted By: castMe
Date Posted: 11/05/05 at 10:28am

Slicksister. I will check today if theater has any photos of the set. As to choreography, we are fortunate. There is a local ballet school with a couple of well known Russian dance masters. One of them has now choreographed a few shows for this community theater company. No one knows how to invoke a mood thru dance like a ballet master. I don't suppose you have any of those in your pocket? I agree with tristanrobin's response and will take it one step further.....there isn't a single pre-1965 musical that can't have dance numbers cut. Remember those are "Broadway" shows and the audience of the day expected 2-1/2 to 3 hour performances. Don't think of it as cheating your audiences, think of it as sparing your audiences. On the other hand, if you find yourself in the enviable position of having a dream team of dancers and choreographer...Have at it.

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Investigate. Imagine. Choose.