RENT - opening (Tune up #1 and #2, plus Rent) and santa fe

In today's lesson we worked on first, Tune up #1 and Tune up #2, which is Mark, Roger, Collins, Benny and Mark's mum - I found this one quite hard because there is a very infrequent beat to the music so it's hard to keep in time; I also need to work out what movements and where I'm going to move during the Tune ups, because I kind of just did it on the spot and I didn't really know what I was doing nor why, and I felt quite awkward doing it - this is something I will do at home or in frees. The tune ups are basically there for Mark to set the scene for the audience, but the actual reason as to why they sing it is to start Mark's documentary; it also gives an insight into a few of the characters and a bit of a back story to them and their relationships with each other. We then began vocal work on the title song, Rent. Everyone knew this song so when we sung through it, it wasn't that bad. We then started to structure it a bit more, so people know what parts they're singing. We began to stage it briefly too, but I need to do a bit more research and decide what I'm going to be doing in this song because sometimes I feel quite awkward at points because I'm kind of standing there waiting for my singing part. We were also taught a small dance to the guitar solo part in the song; I have always struggled with dance, I find it hard to remember all the steps and it always looks very awkward when I dance because I'm just simply a bad dancer. However I think I actually did quite well this (probably because it was really short and simple).
We then sang through Collins' song Santa Fe, this is one of my favourite songs in the show. Singing wise, I didn't have much trouble apart from I just need to learn the lyrics properly. We decide to keep the staging simple, but effective - and it was/is. We just need to really feel the music and the rhythm and just act. I'm really happy with how we have done this song, I think the simple staging really works because it helps the audience just focus on the story being told and we can focus more on our acting rather than remembering lots of sometimes complicated movements/choreography.