Evaluation of the performances

So we have finally completed both shows. It was a long hard process but it all payed off in the end as they both couldn't have gone any better, although there were a few minor incidents, we don't think the audience picked up on them once we recovered ourselves, and I am so proud of my group.

Once the show began, it just exploded, everyone was so much more enthusiastic with their characters, and their gestures. All the props and costume were all in the exact same place and everybody knew where everything was which really helped us all a lot. Although in our second performance I did have to play the guard without a moustache in the matinee performance, which oddly felt weird, as I had rehearsed so many times in a moustache, but it had fallen on the floor backstage and I was unable to find it.

I loved the fact we all stuck together in the play and their was a lot of teamwork:

- We all helped each other backstage by helping each other get our costumes on, and there was always someone prompting backstage just in case. At one point Beth forgot her line "put out your hand Miss Green" and kind of froze, but recovered and said he line just in time. The stage combat that followed Beth's line was excellent, the timing was perfect, the drop was perfect and it was went really well. Come to think of it, all the stage combat went really well as it was the timing that we were worried about but it all went brilliant.

We were all also very light on our feet, whether it was a stage entrance, a dance routine, there was no heavy stomping about. It is especially important to be light footed when walking back stage because the audience can hear you, and also when you have to be on stage somewhere else but you're not supposed to be seen yet it's important to remain quiet, and we all did well at that.

And of course we used Brecht's placards idea, and extended the idea to use projection on to the cards, using images that are pertinent to the piece. And because I was behind the card all the time, I had never seen the full effect of the cards until I saw photographs later posted, and I thought they looked excellent.



Also, although the routine kept changing because different people were struggling with certain moves, the dance routine worked out really well and gladly there were no mistakes made. There were a couple of minor technical errors in the first performance such as the music playing late and repeating itself, along with a few lighting issues, but it had no impact on the performance so it was okay.

In previous rehearsals, there some issues with some of our voice projection and diction, as people were letting their accent slip, but as soon as we got to the show, the accents were there, the diction was there, the pronunciation was there, and everyone did really well.

Although I loved the play itself, I did have my favourite parts:

- The fire - In the scene where Miss Slighcarp and Mr Grimshaw burn the letter, we had Zoe, Dan and Chloe keeling down clicking and clapping their fingers. I loved this idea. It was unique and something I had never seen before, I loved the way it looked, it sounded and I got a lot of good feedback from some audience about this specific part.

- Costume - I thought everyone did really well with the responsibility of picking/buying their costumes to suit their character/s, and having all sat down and discussed who we think should wear what and what type of clothing we think characters should wear. I especially loved Beth's costume (left), because we imagined her as such a theatrical, evil dark character, the costume and make-up Beth had suited her character perfectly. I also loved Sian's hair  (right) as it was evident she had done her research on orphans in the 19th century and the hair was spot on.

 



- I also loved the gun that Ryan used to play Mr Grimshaw. It was a fake gun but sounded just like a real gun. In rehearsals, we had a lot of trouble and it didn't seem to be working, until we found out that Daniel had been loading the gun the wrong way around! So on the day of the show it went perfectly and the gun fired three times, and got such a huge gasp from the audience which we were thrilled about!

- I loved the chorus. At first it was hard to read the chorus and act it out, so it took a lot of time to sit together and discuss what we wanted to do. We wanted to act the chorus out, and not just read it aloud. We wanted a narrational style - not like Greek theatre where you stand still and read, and as an actor we want to make it sound interesting, and on the night of the show it was just so much more exaggerated and here was so much energy which made it look and sound a lot better.

- Physicality I think was a huge element of the play. You have to think about physicality when playing a character, a wolves, even the chorus. For example, the wolves showed gestus which is a technique by Bertolt Brecht.

Wikipedia describes gestus "Gestus is an acting technique developed by the German theatre practitioner Bertolt Brecht. It carries the sense of a combination of physical gestures and "gist" or attitude. It is a means by which "an attitude or single aspect of an attitude" is revealed, insofar as it is "expressible in words or actions."

They used gestus by doing the intense wolf stares and the slow panting of the wolves, which adds a huge effect and layer to what is being said. The physicality of all the characters is very expressionistic and brechtian, resembling the verfrendums effect.

There weren't necessarily parts that I didn't like, but I think there is always room for improvement. I think if I were to suggest/make any improvements I think we should have most definitely incorporated more sound effects and music, as in the parts we had music I think It created such a spooky and dark ambience and worked really well, and I think if we added more in the wolf scenes it would have made the scenes a lot more creepy. Although, I think if we had more music some of the characters would have had to speak a lot clearer and louder for the audience to understand them.

I thought the audience reacted really well, but I do think the audience in the second show reacted a lot more to the comedy parts of the play, but I think it's because most of them were drama students themselves and they got the pay more than others. But I cannot complain about the audience from both shows what so ever, we were all thrilled with our efforts and the reaction and excellent feedback from the audience and our tutors.