Evaluation
Overall I
am very much satisfied with our experimental piece. I believe we all showed
commitment to our characters, maintained a strong actor- audience relationship
and had enough freedom within our characters and the choices that we made as
actors during the performance.
The three most effective moments of our piece was a moment in which we managed to encourage audience members to sing and dance with us during the Tom Waites song (a song they most probably didn’t know), when we had a moment when we simultaneously improvised a conversation solely based on an actor forgetting to do something and lastly when we as a cast got involved in a characters storytelling and this created enough of an atmosphere that you could feel the tension in the room.
The first moment was effective because we were able to, in such a short time, build an actor- audience relationship so much that a few audience members got up from their seats and decided to join in singing. I feel that this happened because the audience members had felt a connection or a relationship being built in the bar environment between the characters and themselves because we had often spoken to or made some form of contact with them as characters. I find this interesting because I certainly didn’t expect that involving the audience throughout the piece would make them feel comfortable enough to join in. I think building a strong audience-actor relationship was definitely very important to our piece because our interaction with the audience helped them to both understand and acknowledge the environment our piece was set in and also create a more comfortable and realistic setting. I feel that the audience although they were probably quite confused about what they were seeing probably went away feeling as though they had made some form of a connection with us through our character which, to me, is quite pleasing to know. I think the rest of the audience who were not joining in singing and dancing with us were just happy to watch other audience members joining in as it was moment of unison in which we sort of broke down a barrier by literally reaching out and pulling an audience member in instead of telling them to remain as mere witnesses. This kind of breaking down of barriers is something that isn’t very usual to see in theatre when an actor physically touches an audience member. Personally, I feel it is a very beautiful moment as the audience crosses over fully into our world and we get to share with them our happy vibes from the song. This moment fitted in well with the teachings of Grotowski because we worked to make a deeper and fuller connection with the audience creating an audience-actor relationship so much so that some of them were fully involved in the piece both physically and I think mentally.
The second effective moment of our piece was when an actor who was supposed to get out his guitar and start playing the Tom Waites song completely forgot to. In this moment a member of the cast remained in character and drunkenly said something along the lines of ‘Hey, why don’t you play us a song?’ The actor picked up his guitar and in character said ‘Sure, yeah I’ll play something’ as if he had no intention of doing it in the first place. I believe this was an effective moment because it was a moment in which two actors were able to improvise with one another without even knowing they would need to for the benefit of the entire cast because without the actor beginning to play the character the end of our piece would not have been able to happen. I believe that it took a very high level of professionalism to know how to remind an actor to do something whilst completely remaining in character. This was also effective because the audience stayed completely oblivious to the fact that a mistake was made because we all worked so well at covering it up. This was a great example of teamwork in that we are all able to support one another. As an actor, it’s quite relieving to know that if you do make a mistake or you need reminding or any sort of help whilst in a performance that other cast members will have your back. I think this cover up only really effected the audience in that it further displayed the way in which characters in our Tom Waites world interacted with each other and also the way in which they’re relationships work. To the audience, they may have seen it as just a rehearsed part of the script or an interesting improvisation in which one character decided to show interest in another’s property.
The last effective moment was when a character played by Adjei began to tell a story stimulated by an object which happened to be a remote control. I feel that in that moment Adjei had great confidence and trust in him that whatever he was going to say would be good enough for the story. I could tell that through his improvisation he had found the freedom to allow the story to take him wherever it needed to go. From the look in his face I could see that he wasn't worrying about how successful the story was going to be he was just going along with whatever came out of his mouth. This freedom meant that he wasn't panicking or stuttering and instead seemed as though he was telling us a story he had come up with weeks ago. I believe that because his story was told with such confidence the rest of us were able to create a soundscape in which we were all independently taking on the role of different sounds and not having to worry about whether or not we were making a suitable soundscape for the story. I think the combination of the intense story told with such confidence and the varying soundscape we had created produced a piece that gave the room a tense atmosphere in which everyone in the room actors and audience were experiencing the story surrounding them. The lighting at this point served to make this moment even more effective because as the tension built up in the room the more noticeable the red lighting was becoming. In rehearsals I had not noticed this, maybe because as actors in the rehearsals we were not all in sync with each other and weren't really able to respond to or acknowledge our environment, but I feel that the use of red lighting in the actual performance helped to intensify and heighten the suspense at the climax of the story. I feel that these factors combined created an environment that meant that the audience became so engrossed in the story as we all made a huge deal of heightening it. The audience’s entire attention was drawn into this scene as we created a piece that stimulated sound through noises and storytelling, feeling through the intensity of the moment and sight through presenting the actions of the story. I believe that this also an example of Peter Brookes teachings where the actor works as a sort of medium channelling emotion and telling a vivid story that engulfs the audience into it.
I believe that one of the least effective moments of the story was at the beginning of the piece when the majority of the characters were seated and only one or two were standing. I found this to be ineffective because it meant that not a lot of us were being brave enough to take initiative and stand. I feel that it was quite hard to stand up because I felt that if I did so I would draw to much attention to myself but I did anyway because I felt that too many of us were sitting down. I feel this affected the audience because they would not have been able to experience a variety of characters. For example, because the majority of characters were sat down all of the characters came across to the audience as if though they were sociable whereas if we had had more characters standing it would have meant that there were a variety of characters some that wanted to socialise and others that didn't. I believe that this could have been improved more if we had worked harder to develop our own characters so that as actors we would know our characters thoroughly and be able to tell whether they would actually want to socialise with the audience or not. Also, I believe that this could have been further improved if we all had more confidence and felt as though we were freer within ourselves. This way we wouldn't have felt inhibited and restricted to sitting down instead of being bold and standing up for a while.
Another moment that could have been improved because it was less effective was when we all began to huddle together to fall asleep on one another at the end of our performance. I felt that this was a great way to end the piece because it added to the whole madness of our piece however because we hadn't rehearsed this part very much we were not able to work out how long it would take the audience to walk out of the room therefore we had to stand in very awkward positions but none of us knew how long for. Because of this many of us began to talk and come out of character before it was time to seeing as the audience had not yet walked out yet. This was quite unprofessional to do because it meant that the audience were not able to experience our piece fully because the characters that were fundamental to maintaining the piece were coming out of character. For me, it wasn't fair on the audience to give them so much of an experience and then take from it by coming out of character. To improve this I would have made sure that one person is responsible for letting everyone else in the cast know that the audience have left and only then would we all be able to come out of character. This would have meant that our piece would have had a higher level of professionalism and the piece may have been more highly thought of.
The strengths of my individual piece were that I was able to find enough freedom within my character to really tap into what my character would and wouldn’t do. I feel that this meant I was able to use my character more effectively and that her characteristics were more prominent as I was not inhibited within myself. I believe a strength was that I was brave enough to interact with the audience whilst staying in character and also maintaining my character throughout the whole piece. Another strength was that I was able to stay on top of everything and so I knew exactly what was going to happen next so I could always move swiftly and efficiently to where I needed to be. This was definitely a positive thing because my confidence in what I was doing lead to the confidence in other people to know what they were doing because they were able to follow by my example. This meant that as a whole we were all really depending on one another and using each other’s characters to get to where we needed to be. I think my weakness was that I sometimes deliberately didn’t make bolder character choices because I felt that too many eyes were on me at that time. Although throughout the piece I felt I didn’t become totally free because there were far more audience members than I expected there to be. In rehearsals I hadn’t though too much about audience size and so I hadn’t prepared myself for the large number of people watching.
The three most effective moments of our piece was a moment in which we managed to encourage audience members to sing and dance with us during the Tom Waites song (a song they most probably didn’t know), when we had a moment when we simultaneously improvised a conversation solely based on an actor forgetting to do something and lastly when we as a cast got involved in a characters storytelling and this created enough of an atmosphere that you could feel the tension in the room.
The first moment was effective because we were able to, in such a short time, build an actor- audience relationship so much that a few audience members got up from their seats and decided to join in singing. I feel that this happened because the audience members had felt a connection or a relationship being built in the bar environment between the characters and themselves because we had often spoken to or made some form of contact with them as characters. I find this interesting because I certainly didn’t expect that involving the audience throughout the piece would make them feel comfortable enough to join in. I think building a strong audience-actor relationship was definitely very important to our piece because our interaction with the audience helped them to both understand and acknowledge the environment our piece was set in and also create a more comfortable and realistic setting. I feel that the audience although they were probably quite confused about what they were seeing probably went away feeling as though they had made some form of a connection with us through our character which, to me, is quite pleasing to know. I think the rest of the audience who were not joining in singing and dancing with us were just happy to watch other audience members joining in as it was moment of unison in which we sort of broke down a barrier by literally reaching out and pulling an audience member in instead of telling them to remain as mere witnesses. This kind of breaking down of barriers is something that isn’t very usual to see in theatre when an actor physically touches an audience member. Personally, I feel it is a very beautiful moment as the audience crosses over fully into our world and we get to share with them our happy vibes from the song. This moment fitted in well with the teachings of Grotowski because we worked to make a deeper and fuller connection with the audience creating an audience-actor relationship so much so that some of them were fully involved in the piece both physically and I think mentally.
The second effective moment of our piece was when an actor who was supposed to get out his guitar and start playing the Tom Waites song completely forgot to. In this moment a member of the cast remained in character and drunkenly said something along the lines of ‘Hey, why don’t you play us a song?’ The actor picked up his guitar and in character said ‘Sure, yeah I’ll play something’ as if he had no intention of doing it in the first place. I believe this was an effective moment because it was a moment in which two actors were able to improvise with one another without even knowing they would need to for the benefit of the entire cast because without the actor beginning to play the character the end of our piece would not have been able to happen. I believe that it took a very high level of professionalism to know how to remind an actor to do something whilst completely remaining in character. This was also effective because the audience stayed completely oblivious to the fact that a mistake was made because we all worked so well at covering it up. This was a great example of teamwork in that we are all able to support one another. As an actor, it’s quite relieving to know that if you do make a mistake or you need reminding or any sort of help whilst in a performance that other cast members will have your back. I think this cover up only really effected the audience in that it further displayed the way in which characters in our Tom Waites world interacted with each other and also the way in which they’re relationships work. To the audience, they may have seen it as just a rehearsed part of the script or an interesting improvisation in which one character decided to show interest in another’s property.
The last effective moment was when a character played by Adjei began to tell a story stimulated by an object which happened to be a remote control. I feel that in that moment Adjei had great confidence and trust in him that whatever he was going to say would be good enough for the story. I could tell that through his improvisation he had found the freedom to allow the story to take him wherever it needed to go. From the look in his face I could see that he wasn't worrying about how successful the story was going to be he was just going along with whatever came out of his mouth. This freedom meant that he wasn't panicking or stuttering and instead seemed as though he was telling us a story he had come up with weeks ago. I believe that because his story was told with such confidence the rest of us were able to create a soundscape in which we were all independently taking on the role of different sounds and not having to worry about whether or not we were making a suitable soundscape for the story. I think the combination of the intense story told with such confidence and the varying soundscape we had created produced a piece that gave the room a tense atmosphere in which everyone in the room actors and audience were experiencing the story surrounding them. The lighting at this point served to make this moment even more effective because as the tension built up in the room the more noticeable the red lighting was becoming. In rehearsals I had not noticed this, maybe because as actors in the rehearsals we were not all in sync with each other and weren't really able to respond to or acknowledge our environment, but I feel that the use of red lighting in the actual performance helped to intensify and heighten the suspense at the climax of the story. I feel that these factors combined created an environment that meant that the audience became so engrossed in the story as we all made a huge deal of heightening it. The audience’s entire attention was drawn into this scene as we created a piece that stimulated sound through noises and storytelling, feeling through the intensity of the moment and sight through presenting the actions of the story. I believe that this also an example of Peter Brookes teachings where the actor works as a sort of medium channelling emotion and telling a vivid story that engulfs the audience into it.
I believe that one of the least effective moments of the story was at the beginning of the piece when the majority of the characters were seated and only one or two were standing. I found this to be ineffective because it meant that not a lot of us were being brave enough to take initiative and stand. I feel that it was quite hard to stand up because I felt that if I did so I would draw to much attention to myself but I did anyway because I felt that too many of us were sitting down. I feel this affected the audience because they would not have been able to experience a variety of characters. For example, because the majority of characters were sat down all of the characters came across to the audience as if though they were sociable whereas if we had had more characters standing it would have meant that there were a variety of characters some that wanted to socialise and others that didn't. I believe that this could have been improved more if we had worked harder to develop our own characters so that as actors we would know our characters thoroughly and be able to tell whether they would actually want to socialise with the audience or not. Also, I believe that this could have been further improved if we all had more confidence and felt as though we were freer within ourselves. This way we wouldn't have felt inhibited and restricted to sitting down instead of being bold and standing up for a while.
Another moment that could have been improved because it was less effective was when we all began to huddle together to fall asleep on one another at the end of our performance. I felt that this was a great way to end the piece because it added to the whole madness of our piece however because we hadn't rehearsed this part very much we were not able to work out how long it would take the audience to walk out of the room therefore we had to stand in very awkward positions but none of us knew how long for. Because of this many of us began to talk and come out of character before it was time to seeing as the audience had not yet walked out yet. This was quite unprofessional to do because it meant that the audience were not able to experience our piece fully because the characters that were fundamental to maintaining the piece were coming out of character. For me, it wasn't fair on the audience to give them so much of an experience and then take from it by coming out of character. To improve this I would have made sure that one person is responsible for letting everyone else in the cast know that the audience have left and only then would we all be able to come out of character. This would have meant that our piece would have had a higher level of professionalism and the piece may have been more highly thought of.
The strengths of my individual piece were that I was able to find enough freedom within my character to really tap into what my character would and wouldn’t do. I feel that this meant I was able to use my character more effectively and that her characteristics were more prominent as I was not inhibited within myself. I believe a strength was that I was brave enough to interact with the audience whilst staying in character and also maintaining my character throughout the whole piece. Another strength was that I was able to stay on top of everything and so I knew exactly what was going to happen next so I could always move swiftly and efficiently to where I needed to be. This was definitely a positive thing because my confidence in what I was doing lead to the confidence in other people to know what they were doing because they were able to follow by my example. This meant that as a whole we were all really depending on one another and using each other’s characters to get to where we needed to be. I think my weakness was that I sometimes deliberately didn’t make bolder character choices because I felt that too many eyes were on me at that time. Although throughout the piece I felt I didn’t become totally free because there were far more audience members than I expected there to be. In rehearsals I hadn’t though too much about audience size and so I hadn’t prepared myself for the large number of people watching.
One strength of
our group piece was that we were all there to rely on each other and were able
to make sure that when one actor fell behind or forget something we were able
to depend on each other meaning there was a good relationship kept between
actors. One weakness would be that we were a little bit unprofessional towards
the end and spent too long on rehearsing the entire performance and not enough on
the last bit so we were all unsure on how long we should have to wait for the
audience to leave this may have changed the audiences view on our professionalism.
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