Evaluation

During the lead up to the big finale of performing our piece I had set myself goals that I wanted to achieve with my various partners. From the first week, having first impressions of our parts, to the week of performance I feel that we had grown as actors and made our characters have a more in-depth meaning, background and managed to convey the message we were trying to say. 

In the first week, me and my partners sat down and having read the parts we were in, decided it was best to explain our initial thoughts on who the characters were and what exactly were we going to do with them. For example; In grass, there are clearly two characters with one angry with the other, that was as clear as day. We then decided perhaps what relation should they have in connection to one another. Other members from our group suggested we should be a couple, however we chose against the idea only because it would seem to obvious, especially in the line, "And to me and the kids- did you think about that one", It would be blatant to people we were a couple and I wanted to show a deeper  relationship.We came up with the idea that that they were gangsters, the likes of  the kray twins had inspired us, so we decided that our characters would be brothers. The kids would be mine from a broken down relation whom my wife would have walked out on me knowing my criminal affiliations and would want no more to do with me. Our so called friend, which my partner's character had grassed on, would have committed a murder to someone close of my brother's, so to get back at him he snitched. We then carried out the same analysis of our characters for the rest of our parts. After the second and third week, We decided on where we would set each of our scenes to help with characterisation. If we knew where we would be situated it would help with getting the backstory accurate and more meaningful. In my scene with Kadie in Earthquake, we set it in a working class area of London. I wanted this because I come from North Kensington area and I live in a council home, It may be a grade two listed building but its still council based so I can identify myself with my character's origins. Also, Kadie was playing the part of the single mother of my character and was pregnant with my younger sibling; this adds to the typical lower class family trying to make ends meat of what they have got. 

Onto week 5, I decided to spruce up some of my characters because I sensed some of my piece began to grow stale. I thought of the idea that perhaps me and my partner in Grass should be playing cards. I thought it was a great idea at the time, as it would add to the bad boy look, playing poker looking like we were gambling. But I decided to revert back to the old idea of us confronting each other it would add to the tension. I decided that we would smoke, I know that from most smokers, they smoke to relieve stress so I thought it fit the scene really well. I made fake cigarettes and a fake old fashioned flip-lid lighter. But the majority of my pieces, I had kept the same because worked already. 

On week 6 and the lead up to the performance I preferred to have not tweaked anything because it was then fresh, and slick so why meddle with that otherwise the new idea may not have worked well. 

The performance - 29th/05/2019

I feel that, having done my piece, it went to plan. I performed it with truth and I kept it refined. I feel that what I had worked for in the weeks leading up to the big day, it had payed off. 

what went well in Grass was the use of levels. Phil sat on the chair , while I stood up with a cigarette. It showed how he was in the wrong and I was giving him a telling off for what will happen in the near future. I felt that if I stayed standing for the majority of it then I would show that I was angry with my brother in the piece. Some of the lines wasn't to the book because one of us had mucked up down the line but that doesn't matter now retrospectively, what matters is the recovery. Now having started college and performed my first piece with Greek theatre, I have come to know that if you muck up, if the play isn't that well known, then the audience won't know and whatever you do...DON'T FREEZE. It will look more bad than you just forgetting your lines. So I'd say that my Improvisation and being able to pick things up, skills have improved. 

In Terminal, I believe it went very well. Having watched other people's reactions of being terminally ill like in the clip from cold feet, I feel that inspired me to do well in my own performance. I wanted to play it with truth because, I haven't myself experienced anyone with a terminal illness, if I did I may have been too young to remember. I feel that I came across with how, if I was in that situation, would have reacted and it did feel naturally. However I do feel I could have waited a bit longer to exit. With star, it wasn't supposed to be brilliant. Because the gimmick was that it was meant to be a news report gone wrong, so if it was entirely set out then it would have looked staged. I felt it did go to plan, but it was nice and spontaneously improvised. What I mean is that, yes I did have the rough idea of what I wanted but if I over rehearsed then it would look clear it was staged so I saved most of the magic till the day.  I made use of the space this time around. Evident in Recluse, I wanted to show I was on edge so I paced around scratched my head and rubbed my face a few times to express that I was stressed. I feel that me and Tia worked well with each-other and we did come across like we were a couple which was the idea. However with the lighting we had chose I sometimes slipped into darkness, so maybe I should've stayed primarily centre stage. 

Savant was a complete success. I came across cocky and took advantage of it which didn't seem to strained, it worked to a T. This was the first piece that actually came together quickly. Me and Michael played off each-other really well and it looked like an interrogation scene which was the plan in hand. It felt natural and it looked it as-well, it wasn't just line, line, line. It seemed conversational which I will admit at the beginning of the academic year I used to just wait till my partner finished their line and begin mine. But as the weeks have progressed, and learned my lines quickly, it adds to the naturalism of it all. I feel that a skill I have learned is that to truly show believable acting , you have to be able yo bounce off each other rather than rely on one and other. My listening ear has improved a little and that I listen to my partner, but with my lines already learned I hardly need to concentrate on my own lines as much its my reaction to what my partner has just said that I now focus on. Moving on to earth quake, my final piece in the whole production of Love and Information. It went well. I feel it worked well because I took my time. Not rushing really does have an impact because something that you say which is upsetting, in a slowed down pace can change the atmosphere so much, than speeding up your lines it sounds like you're trying to force the situation. I took my time also because it then seemed like I really felt for what I was trying to explain- I was moved by what I had seen on the news in the scene and it showed. I did remember hearing of a Tsunami/earthquake in Japan 8 years ago, it was heart-breaking even when I was so young; I drove the past emotion into my piece to help me figure what my character would be going through. My partner wasn't meant to be paying attention tome at all because she was busy taking care of the house; and it worked well because I generally felt angry when I say the lines," you don't care". It felt natural and not out of place. 

I have learnt so much over the last few months that in hindsight, I have grown a lot since first starting college with GSCE knowledge and GCSE mentality on drama. Shenagh and Rob taught us a lot about improvisation. It is a key skill because it allows you to be in the moment and really go along with the spontaneous scene. It helps you with recover skills because as soon as the level begins to drop, with the focus you and your partner have on each-other will allow the energy to rise to normal again. They also taught us Naturalism alongside Stanislavsky techniques. The who what where am I is drama 101. It allows you to delve deep into the realms of your character. That character isn't real; you have the capacity to bring it into existence with knowledge of your character that you come up with yourself. 

I feel that what we have been practising over the past few months have paid off and put into in fruition when I did my performance on Wednesday the 29th.