Performance Evaluation

Our performance did not go as it was planned. Firstly, we could not do it on the day it was scheduled to happen due to the site being in use, even though we had booked it in advance. Therefore we had to reschedule it, but we did not have the amount of audience members we had planned for, only our assessor. To make matters worse, one of our group members did not turn up at all and on the day I was informed that another person from my class would be joining our group. It was very frustrating that our group member did not turn up because she had agreed to bring lots of vital props to assist our piece. We had to devise different movements the morning before our assessment which left us feeling unprepared and slightly negative about what our piece would be like.

Considering all the factors that didn't go as planned i think it was a reasonable performance. I thought we still used the properties, meanings and qualities of the site but the narrative/story was very weak and let us down. I believe my personal performance was average, as I was in a bad mood and was negative before beginning the piece because everything had gone wrong. In hindsight I should have approached the performance slightly more professionally and should have improvised better as the circumstances were not going to change. It was a shame that we could not demonstrate everything that we had planned and rehearsed but the experience has taught me vital lessons about how I cope with last-minute changes.

Lesson 5

Today's lesson was difficult to make the most out of, because two of our group members did not turn up. This was incredibly annoying because we wanted to run the piece again and again and iron out any rough patches in the performance. Obviously, we could not do this with two people missing. However, both of them have slightly less complex roles than the three of us that were in, so we were the best three people to be in. I suggested that we work on our character development so brainstormed some facts, idiosyncrasies and important things about each of our characters.

We had a discussion about last week's dress rehearsal and all agreed that it was not very good. I was the scribe and we tried to brainstorm things that were missing/went wrong and things that could be added in to improve the piece. We then shared this with the others in the group via our Facebook group and waited for a reply from them.

After doing this, we decided to work on the things that were bland, and I suggested that our use of the space was not as good as it could be. I became particularly interested in the big black table in the middle of the room that is in three different sections and is on wheels so can be manoeuvred. As a starting point for inspiration, I moved the two semi-circle parts of the table away from the rectangular part and spun them across the room. From this, George suggested that it would be good if the two semi-circles made a full circle, to represent the never-ending cycle of despair that the artist is in. I built on this idea, saying as the exhibits we could move the tables around quite quickly to show the swirling state of the artist's mind. Brett liked the sound that the wheels made on the floor, a kind of squeak, and was thinking about different sounds. He said we could use the radiators to make sounds with, and George and I supported this idea. With these new aspects to our piece, we began to improvise a piece based around sound and our bodies interacting with the environment. We came up with some very innovative sounds and then had a discussion about our favourite areas and sounds that each other made. We then collaboratively said that the exhibits should be making a sound-scape to represent their moods as the piece develops and the artist could respond to these noises. We will obviously have to talk about these ideas with the other two when they get back and will hold at least one other session out of class time before the performance.

Therefore, although the session did not go as we expected it to, I think it was very useful because there were so many properties of the site that we had been ignoring that will now make our piece much better in terms of it being site specific. I was pleased with my contribution this lesson and felt like we really gelled as a group, creating a very good dynamic to work in.

Lesson 4

This was our penultimate rehearsal time inside of lesson time. The main part of our rehearsal was a dress rehearsal. We began by entering the space in costume and noticed that we had to share the space again. We talked for a while about how we were going to begin the piece and how it would work out, whilst some members of the group still had things that they had said they were going to bring to the session to print off. This was a waste of time, and caused some friction in the group as I wanted to progress with the piece practically. However, it could not be altered so we waited until they came back and dressed our site.

I made some 'missing' posters for each of us that linked in to the narrative of the artist stealing us from society and keeping us for himself. The document is the link below:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-I_26NEDXjny3HY62uXkmk_jBYdPEVKeCRlILM217-4/edit?usp=sharing

After discussing, I was keen to get the group up and working practically, seeing as this was something we had not done in full costume before. We asked the girl who was working in the room and a few of her friends to be our audience, and very helpfully they agreed. We performed our piece to them and it was clear that we needed to do a lot more work. It was not bad for a first rehearsal but it became clear that we needed to work on timing - the piece was very short and did not progress the way we had expected. Upon speaking to the girls who were in the audience, they found it very 'strange' which I saw as a negative because they did not get the clear message about what the piece was, just found it 'strange' to be a part of'. This is something we need to address in future run-throughs: how can we portray the artist's idea of depression and his views of the world even more clearly to the audience. 

Our idea

The idea we have come up with collaboratively so far, and to which I have contributed greatly is that the site is the artist's studio, hence how we are using the properties, qualities and meanings.

The audience (which at the moment we think could be around 5 people) will be picked up from the reception area by the artist and will be told they have come for a tour around his studio. 

The main crux of the idea is that the artist is using his studio as a space in which he can express himself and his views on life. His views are that everything leads to depression and sadness, a theme that is replicated throughout his work - any good/positive in life is surpassed by sadness. I thought that the audience should not know whether they are in reality or not, as this will create an interesting experience for them and will allow us to be as creative as we like.

I suggested showing this through a completely emotionless character who will just monotonously read statistics about all the horrific things that have happened in the world recently and in the past. The character will not respond to the audience at all, nor will they move from their position meaning that the audience are never quite sure whether the character only exists within the artist's mind or is actually there in reality. 

The audience are then either guided around the studio or are free to explore (I am unsure yet, we will have to trial both and see which works the best). The living exhibits will be prompted to display certain emotions by the artist to create something that the audience can either watch or not; it is up to them. We want to portray the idea that the artist is out of control, so could add to this by having the projector flashing light and heavy metal and erratic music playing.

I have been contemplating ideas about how to end the piece for a long time; someone in the group suggested we have the artist kill the exhibits, but I think that this is slightly niche and would prefer to have a more subtle ending, showing that the artist's life keeps on going. Perhaps he becomes upset with what he has shown the audience, and ushers them out of the room quickly. An alternative idea I had was that he could just act like his studio exhibition is extremely normal and say goodbye to the audience.

Personally, I don't want the piece to be scary for the audience, I want them to be interested by what they have seen and become enthralled in the narrative of what is going on with the artist. I think everything that we do as actors must have a purpose, and will work hard to ensure that this happens for our piece. I think that if we let the audience roam around freely, attention to detail will be crucial which is fine - this is what will make the piece spectacular.