Diploma in Perfor

Performing &
Production Arts
Unit 12 Project Proposal

Candidate Thomas Pegler

Name
Candidate 358338
Number
Pathway Acting

Project Title FMP – Little Shop of Horrors

Section 1: Review
Since I've began this course, I have learnt many things such as, ensemble work and stage combat work
and even improving on my physical warmups and approach to Shakespeare texts. This has helped me
by building my confidence in certain areas that I wasn’t so confident in before.

From watching lots of different plays, with the course I have gained a large amount of knowledge in
different types of theatre, it has also helped me decide what I do and don’t like. This leads me onto my
next point when joining this course, I wanted to do only film acting but after having these opportunities
workshops and working with practitioners, my chosen career path has been expanded, I look forward to
doing work in theatre productions as well as screen.

Section 2: Project Concept

Our FMP this year will be the musical Little Shop of Horrors directed by Lydia Cook.

The general themes of this play are empowerment and consumerism.

My initial thoughts of the script when we did our first read through made me excited to stage the play is
it was very movement based and I was excited to find out how we could incorporate this into the
set/staging. The scene that interested me the most was Mushnik's death, I was excited to see how we
could visually create it with the ensemble. The song I was excited for was call back in the morning as i
had a vision for the scene including several telephones held by ensemble members slowly tangling up
the main cast.

Section 3: Evaluation
To make sure I am evaluating my work well, I have been taking videos and photos throughout the
rehearsal process to help me remember what we achieved during the sessions. I am excited to do my
weekly reflections as it will help me remember what I have done as well as evaluate my own work.

I will also do a final reflection where I will reflect on everything, I have learnt during the FMP process.
This will be helpful because it will remind me what I have done and help clarify all the progress I have
made.

Proposed Research Sources and Bibliography (Harvard Format)

1. Greek Chorus in Modern Theatre:
- The Guardian. (2014). Greek Chorus: Weaving the Human Experience into Modern Theatre.
Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/sep/05/greek-chorus-weaving-
human-experience-modern-theatre

2. Little Shop of Horrors Stage Version:

- Broadway World. (n.d.). Little Shop of Horrors. Retrieved from
http://www.broadwayworld.com/shows/Little-Shop-of-Horrors-311127.html
- The New York Times. (2003). The Dark Roots of a Camp Classic. Retrieved from
https://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/14/theater/theater-the-dark-roots-of-a-camp-
classic.html

3. Political Events in the Years 1960-2000:

- History.com Editors. (2009). 1960s: A Decade of Change. Retrieved from
https://www.history.com/topics/1960s/1960s-history
- BBC News. (n.d.). Timeline: The 1980s. Retrieved from
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/289037.stm

4. Social Events in the Years 1960-2000:

- ThoughtCo. (2021). 20th Century Timeline: The 1970s. Retrieved from
https://www.thoughtco.com/20th-century-timeline-the-1970s-1779890
- History.com Editors. (2009). The 1990s. Retrieved from
https://www.history.com/topics/1990s/1990s

5. Social Events in 1960-2000:

- Britannica. (n.d.). The 1960s. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/event/1960s-
decade
- Britannica. (n.d.). The 2000s. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/event/2000s-
decade

Project Action Plan and Timetable

Week Date Week Activity / What you are intending to do - Resources / What you will need to do it -
Beginning including independent study including access to workshops

1 We did singing auditions with Lydia & Notepad, pen

26th Feb Ash and workshopped Audrey and
 Seymour's scene to figure out wider
casting of the show. We also did a
puppetry session with Tess Agus.
2 Having received casting a few days prior. Notepad, pen
4th Mar We had a read through of the whole
script and started working on the first big
song of LSoH, Skid Row! I am going to
keep practicing the song we learnt so it
is in my head for when we add movement
to it.
3 We had our first movement session with Notepad, pen
11th Mar our movement director Sophie Cottle,
workshopping movement ideas for two
songs: Don’t Feed The Plants and Skid
Row as well as looking at Audrey II
movements with material to gain a better
understanding of the physical world of
the piece. We also had a singing session
with Lauren Davies. I am going to watch
the videos of our dance and rehearse the
movement, same goes for the singing
part of the session.
4 We had two sessions this week where we Notepad, pen
18th Mar covered The Meek Shall Inherit with us
the Ronnette's and the Main characters
of the song. We also had the costume
designer Ethan Cheek in the room with
us to give us his ideas for costumes. I
am going to rehearse the songs at home
and look over my notes from that
session to help me remember all of the
things we did.
5 We had a session with Lydia, Ash, and Notepad, pen, script
25th Mar Sophie where we did a variety of
movement pieces to various songs &
covered all of the solo, duo and trio
songs of LSoH as well as look at the rest
of the songs before the intensives. I am
going to rehearse my harmony parts and
my movement parts from those songs
and i am also going to learn my lines.
6 15th Apr This was week 1 of intensive rehearsals. Notepad, pen, script and water
We came into the session every day and
did a physical and vocal warm up with
Molly, Sophie and Ash. We started to
block Act 1 and started to do movement
for Little Shop of Horrors and Skid Row
with Sophie. We were able to
successfully do a full stagger through
Act 1 having blocked the scenes as well
as work on the vocals and movement for
Act 1 with Ash and Sophie. In the next
week I hope to be able to work on
character development and making
strong character choices.
7 22nd Apr This was week 2 of intensive rehearsals. Notepad, pen, script and water
We came into the session every day and
did a physical and vocal warm up with
Molly, Sophie and Ash. During this week
we recapped singing for the first 2
numbers of LSoH and started to
workshop movement for the bigger
numbers in the show and we had a day
based on Audrey II’s movements this
included Suppertime and Don’t Feed the
Plants. We then blocked Act 2 We also
had our first costume fitting with Anna
and Ethan. In the second week of
intensive rehearsals, I aim to learn my
lines and work on character
development.
8 29th Apr This was week 3 of intensive rehearsals. Notepad, pen, script and water
We came into the session every day and
did a physical and vocal warm up with
Molly, Sophie and Ash. During this week
we worked on making sure transitions
were smooth and refined as well as
working on choreography for Call Back
in The Morning. We also had a character
development session with James Moore
to help us develop our character’s
movements and how they walk to be able
to help us further our character
development. We did a run of the full
show for our stage manager to be able to
pick up any tech notes. I want to use
what we worked on with James to help
my character development.
9 6th May This was week 4 of intensive rehearsals. Notepad, pen, script and water
We came into the session every day and
did a physical and vocal warm up with
Molly, Sophie and Ash. We did the
biggest vocal numbers with Ash. We also
continued to refine and polish the work
this included any scene work and to be
able pick up any things that could
possibly come up in tech rehearsals. We
did a full run to help us to do this
successfully. Over the weekend I feel
that it is very important to rest so that I
can be ready and give my full motivation
for the production week.
10 13th May Technical rehearsal Notepad, pen, script and water

We did two days of tech rehearsals with

the full tech team. On the section day we
did a Sitz probe where we had full band,
we did all the numbers of LSoH. We also
did our first dress rehearsal, and it went
well, and we received notes from the
director and the movement director to
help enhance the show even further.
Before opening night, we did a second
dress rehearsal without the band, and
this was challenging due to the energy
being dropped.

Shows

We had 4 sold-out shows that went well,

and we received very little notes from all
the directors as the energy was high
from everyone and we had 4 great
audiences. We were able to enjoy the
show that we created, and the hard work
and dedication was clear as everyone
gave 100% to all 4 of the shows.