Perfomance Evaluation

My performance

My performance went very well and I am pleased with my performance. Because I wasn’t there on the day of the original performance because I was in hospital I had to perform mine at The BRIT School’s opening evening for Year 9’s, which turned out to be more fun than I thought. I was really excited to perform my piece for my audience. My group and I performed 5 times to five different audiences.

In my performances I made sure I included key emphasis on keywords in my lines. I was given this advice for my character by my teacher. Ms Lee told me to emphasis the keyword my character thought was important. I made sure I included tone of voice and body language in my performances to make my piece as good as possible. And I feel like these areas I succeeded in. Another area I was proud of was my projection and facial expressions, I didn’t break out of character once and I made sure my voice could be heard throughout the whole of the room so everyone could hear me clearly.

The way I communicated my character to my audience was the way I spoke as well as body language and facial expressions. The way I spoke was common which gave away to the audience that I was not high class and I was from a lower class because I did not speak posh. My tone of voice was full of anger so my audience could understand that I was not happy in my scene and that my character was very upset, annoyed and disappointed because she had just found out that her son and husband had just committed many murders.

I also communicated my characters objective by my body language. I used my body as a shield for my sons from my husband. My character Meggie, wanted to protect her sons from her husband’s terrible behaviour because she didn’t want her sons to follow in his behaviour. She wanted to protect them from him, so I showed this by standing in between my “sons” and “husband”. I wanted them apart from each other. I also held my “children” a lot as well as if I wanted them to be mine and not Ryan’s (the name of my husband). This helped me show the audience my objective of protection and guarding my children from my criminal husband.

I also communicated my characters emotion and objectives by my movement in the scene I done a lot of moving. I moved closer toward my “husband” to show that I wasn’t my point across and perhaps try and show some strength and bravery because I was standing up for myself and my “sons”. I also showed my emotion of confusion, disappointment and sadness by moving away from my “husband”. This showed the audience I was full of anger towards my husband because I wanted him as far away from me as possible. This portrays me and him were in an argument because usually husbands and wives usually are loving towards each other, but having my character far away from her husband shows she is angry at him.

Thursday 9th October 2014

Thursday 9^th October 2014

In class today, we practised our usual voice and body warm ups. We exercised our voices which is very important for an actor as it helps our voices get prepared for our acting. We also warmed up our body so we become more awake and ready for our active lesson. When we exercise our voice it is a great way to help us be aware of other voices in the room and doing body warm ups helps us to use spatial awareness when you move around the room, so you  don’t bump into each other. From being at BRIT, I have learned that in a theatre class you have to be extremely disciplined to be able to work smoothly and for the lesson to be enjoyable. You have to work as a team. When I was studying drama at my old school they never taught us to think like that, and doing these warm ups in our theatre class reminds me of how this is another way of helping our acting.

In the play, I have to communicate my characters objectives through my body language, voice and movements. My characters objective in the play is to create peace, trust and love within her family. In my scene, Meggie is disappointed and angry, she feels betrayed and her objective in this scene is to disown her husband and chuck him out of the house and live with her two children (Calum and Jude) however this backfires on her as Jude decides he wants to go with his dad, so Meggie’s objective is ruined. She does want to be able to trust her husband and son however she has had enough with their lies and comes to the conclusion that they should both leave.

Body language:

·         I turned my back on my husband on the line “I was protecting you Meggie and our sons”- this is to inform the audience I am fuming with my husband that I can’t bear to look at him. Turning your back on someone can also indicate that you want to disown them, which is Meggie’s objective.

·         Another point, in the scene, I keep my children close to me and I make sure Ryan (my husband) is far away. I do this throughout the scene, but especially on the line “I want you out of this house. I want you out by morning.” On this line I grab my son Jude by the arm and pull him closer to me almost as if to protect him which proves that my character wants to protect her children from her husband’s violence ways. This shows Meggie’s objective of wanting Ryan gone.

·         A third point on how my character portrays her objective through body language is where she is hitting Ryan, her husband. On the lines “Ryan, you promised me nothing like this would ever happen”, is where I start my attack. This physical fight my role displays towards her husband shows her frustration, anger and betrayed emotions. Physically hitting someone shows you are angry at them.

Voice:

·         My voice is a key way to reveal my emotions to the audience. Towards beginning of the play I make sure my tone of voice is full of hurt, it is raised however mainly during my first paragraph of lines is where I start to include a more hurt and betrayed tone in my voice. The lines “Ryan you promised me nothing like this would ever happen. You said you’d only be involved in the background. You promised.” In this line I make sure my voice sounds like I’m almost crying. This informs the audience I am hurt by Ryan.

·         Toward the middle of the play my voice changes to anger and my voice raises. Raising your voice is a key indicator for audience to understand Meggie’s feelings. The line “I am not going to let you drag a noose around Jude’s neck!” These lines demonstrate her anger towards Ryan.  Meggie is incredibly annoyed at him for including Jude in this situation and making him do things that are bad for him and the community. She doesn’t want Jude involved in violence, like her husband. This shows the audience Meggie is very angry at Ryan.

·         A third way I present my emotions through my voice is by lowering my dynamics. When I say the line “Well then you can both leave.” In this line my voice goes quiet; it’s almost as if I do not want to say it. My son has just betrayed me as well and has decided to join the world of violence along with my husband. This line shows how I am sad and disappointed in them both. My emotion in this part of the scene is disappointment.

Movement:

·         I reveal my emotions as well through movement. In the scene my character moves a lot. At the beginning where I am hitting Ryan, shows I am hurt by him and I want to hurt him back, that is why I am physically hitting him because he has hurt me so bad it feels like I am scared with the pain he has caused. So therefore me getting close toward Ryan and hitting him is a way to indicate to the audience that I am hurt and want to hurt the other person back. In a way to get revenge, but more betrayed.

·         I keep myself distant from my husband in the scene as well. This shows I want to be as far away from him as possible. I am disgusted by his behaviour and I don’t want to be near him. It is to shows the audience I do not want to be involved or be close to my husband again. Usually people who are married or who are together or in love are usually close and intimate together, this gesture of me staying far away from my husband shows a strong hatred and distance.

·         One more way I demonstrated my emotion through my movement, was how I moved around on the stage. One moment I was close to my husband, the next minute I wanted to be as far away as possible from him. These movements make my emotion visible to the audience, to show I don’t know how I feel and that I am confused but also I have so many different feelings going on inside my head that my character keeps on changing her thoughts and emotion every now and then. In the scene, I include about 5 different emotions in my character. This is to show her confusion, anger and sadness.

Thursday 2nd October 2014

My Peer Assessment- Assessed by Daniel Pinto 

Thursday 2nd October 2014

Monday 29^th September 2014

On Monday we worked on a new and interesting way to end our performance. We also decided on a very effective way to perform one of our scenes. The scene we decided to make the most effective (where everyone is involved) is where the explosion in the shopping centre is about to happen and Calum goes to the shopping centre to save Sephy and get her out of the mall. We decided to use repetition to enhance this scene. The words repeated are “Sephy, you’ve got to get out of here- right now!” In this scene we decided to have everyone run onstage one-by-one and say this to Sephy. After everyone has done this and is on stage in their own freeze frame. Then boy who plays Calum in this scene runs on and says this line once more. Everyone crouches down and watches while Sephy and Calum perform their scene and when the explosion happens, slow motion- of everyone being hit by the power of the bomb- is added into the piece to give off more effect. I find this way of perform really captivating and I can’t wait to perform it to our audience.

One other thing we decided to do to end our play was to not have a scene between two people but to have the scene performed by everyone. When you need to say your line you walk on stage and hold a position. Everyone has got at least one line, some people two. This way of performing is extremely interesting and is a new and creative way of performing. I am excited to perform this show on the 15^th of October because I feel that this performance is going to be very creative and captivating for the audience.

Thursday 2^nd October 2014

Today, in class we focused on our usual warm-ups; breath control, characterisation, articulation and projection. It helped us to warm our bodies up before we started to act. This is important for all actors to do, so they don’t pull a muscle and so their voice doesn’t crack whilst saying their lines.

Once we finished our voice, physical characteristics and body warm-ups we joined with another group. In these two groups we watched each other perform our scenes and afterwards gave feedback to them. We marked them a pass, merit or distinction and commented on why we thought they deserved this mark. We also gave them some targets on how to improve their acting. This was a good exercise to do because it really helped us realise what skills we needed to work on because we got to see what the audience thought from their view. By being given this feedback helps me as an actor to get a better understanding of my strengths and weaknesses. Another reason why this activity was good to do was because it also helped us improve and practise on our evaluating skills. I evaluated Daniel’s acting and it was a good time for me to practise using key theatre language. It also gave me a better understanding of the marking criteria.

The feedback I was given from Daniel, was really important to me, after I received it I studied it and thought to myself how I can improve on these areas. The areas I need to improve on are; relaxation and reactions. When I perform on stage Daniel noticed that I needed to react more to what other people were saying. This linked to my relaxation. I need to relax more on stage to be able to react to what others’ are saying. Because sometimes in the scene I am thinking about what my next line is I lose concentration and stop reacting. So instead, to improve, I need to relax my body and not concentrate as much on my lines so that I can fully get into my character.

Today has taught me many things; areas I need to improve in, new pieces of key theatre language, the marking scheme for my course and skills that I have. For next week I am going to focus on relaxation when acting and reactions when acting. I am looking forward to next week where I can work with my group to help improve our scene even further.

 

Traverse Theatre

Background information

Traverse theatre was is located in Edinburgh, Scotland. The theatre develops new plays or adaptations from contemporary playwrights. It also presents a lot of performances from companies across the UK. These include new plays, adaptations, dance, physical theatre,
puppetry and contemporary music.

It’s not only in Edinburgh do they have a
traverse theatre; also The Barbican Theatre in
London has a traverse stage as well.

The layout of a traverse theatre

Traverse theatre’s layouts are different from usual theatres. Usually theatres have the stage of one side and the audience opposite from the stage. However with a traverse theatre, the audience is on the two sides of the theatre stage.

			AUDIENCE --------
	O F F S T A G E				O F F S T A G E
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What is “direct address”?

Direct theatre is when the actor directs their lines to the audience. As if they were talking
to them. This technique is used to involve the audience in the show. Plays usually involve some direct address because it is more interesting for the people in the audience. They feel as if they are included and not just watching a play. It is used so people are still interested and not bored. Direct address can be used to explain the audience what is going on in the play or in that characters head so they can get a better understanding of how the character feels emotionally.

 

 

Character Profile

Character Profile

Name: Meggie McGregor
Age: 45
Date Of Birth: 2^nd May
Height: 5”3
Favourite colour: White
Previous Job: Nanny for the Hadley family
Current Job: Cleaner
Aim in life:

• To make sure Calum gets the best education and lives a long, intelligent and independent life.
• To create peace between the Noughts and Crosses

Hates: Liars
Loves: Her children
Brothers & Sisters: 3 brothers and 1 sister
Mum & Dad: Ann Samuels and Derek Samuels
Children:

• Jude McGregor
• Lynette McGregor
• Calum McGregor

Hobbies: Cleaning, cooking, baking and reading

 

Thursday 25th September 2014

Monday 22^nd September 2014

In class on Monday we focused on our scripts and we studied on traverse theatre. This is where the stage is set up differently. This is where the audience is on two parallel sides from each other. Our performance is going to be performed traverse. We also practised a new, exciting and interesting way to perform the end of the play; it’s very different and unique. I am excited to perform this show. Performing theatre traverse is a good way to perform spatial awareness and can help me develop skills in this new way of performing.

Thursday 25^th September 2014

How you use your voice to get across your emotion?

When acting, people use their voices to get across many different emotions. Sometimes to show sadness they are quiet or sometimes even silent. To show anger, sometimes their voice gets louder. To show happiness, sometimes their voice can get higher. Using your voice is a key way to inform your emotion towards your audience.

Technical terms: Voice –

1. Sound and Silence (an example of silence in my script):
“Meggie: And what if they told you there wasn’t? Would you have refused to be involved then?

Silence.

I can’t bear to look at you.

Pause.”

• The silence in the script is the longest pause in my script. This silence shows that Ryan and Jude didn’t know how to answer the question
• The pause in the script is the shortest pause in my script. A pause is different from silence, silence is longer than a pause.

2. Pitch (an example of pitch in my script):
“All those people killed and maimed and that’s what you have to offer?”

• In this sentence, my character pitch varies a lot. This is to show that that Meggie is so disgusted and shocked by her husband and son’s behaviour. When someone is shocked their voice usually gets higher at the end to show this emotion.

3. Pace (an example of pace in my script):
“Ryan, you promised me there’d never be anything like this. You promised you’d only be involved in the background. You promised.”

• In this sentence the pace is very fast; this is rushed because Meggie is upset and angry. And generally when somebody is very upset and angry at someone they generally rush their words.

(Another example)
“I know exactly who you’re doing it for. But she’s dead, Ryan. And murdering innocent people won’t bring her back.”

• This sentence is very different from the above one. This sentence is slowed down, more emotion is put into this line. Meggie is talking about her daughter who committed suicide, it’s a sensitive subject therefore her emotion would change to sadness.

4. Intonation (an example of intonation in my script)
“And what about all the Noughts you just killed?”

• In this sentence, intonation is demonstrated. At the end of the sentence, there is a rise in pitch.

(Another example)
“I want you out of this house.”

• In this sentence, my characters voice changes its intonation by making the sentence all the same pitch, this is an example of a demand in the script.

5. Volume (an example of volume in my script)
“You promised”

• These two words demonstrate volume. The volume is soft, this point in the script is where Meggie is disappointed and feeling betrayed, and therefore her volume in her voice will lower.

6. Tone colour (an example of tone colour in my script)
“you killed- you murdered all those people.”

• This is one example of tone colour in my script. Every line that is performed had tone colour. It depends on what mood your character is in, for example; at this moment in the play my character is upset, disappointed, disgraced and blue.

7. Emphasis (an example of emphasis in my script)
“This isn’t happening”

• The way I say this line is full of a lot of stress. Meggie is worried about what she is going to hear next. This is a key part in my script where it shows a lot of stress piled on top of Meggie.

(Another example)
“You should’ve said no”

• In this line, I emphasis the word ‘should’ve’.

 

By: Robyn-Mae Harriott 10CRE

Thursday 18th September 2014

Thursday 18^th September 2014

Today in theatre we worked on articulation, voice projection and staying in role. Practising voice projection helped us to make sure our voices were heard. This lesson had helped me learn to develop my character even more to reach its strongest ability. After we finished our warm-ups and stretches, we rehearsed our scenes we were given. My character is Meggie (Calum’s mum). After my group performed our short piece, we were given feedback. I understand that being given feedback is to help get a better understanding of how to develop your character further. One way I learnt how to enhance my role was to think of how my character talks, my character is lower class, so she wouldn’t talk very posh, she might talk with a more common voice. Also I realised a way to improve my acting was to control my movements, I noticed that when I act sometimes a shift on my feet. So for next lesson I’m going to work on improving my movement, because I now know that it is quite distracting and unnecessary if I don’t need to move.

However I did receive good feedback, this was that my voice projection was clear and I didn’t rush my sentences so everyone understood what I was saying. I was also told that my body language and tone of voice was very good at representing my characters emotions. One more thing that I was told was good about my acting was that using pauses really helped enhance the tension and emotion in the scene. Pauses also give actors a chance to show their emotions through their facial expressions and body language. I also understand that staying in role has a huge impact on the audience. If somebody breaks their character for a split second the whole of the scene is ruined for the audience because the character has been broke and the actor has stopped acting.

It is incredibly important that an actor always warms up their body and voice. Stretches for an actor’s body is important so that they don’t pull a muscle when acting. Theatre is supposed to be exaggerated so that all the audience can see what is being acted. It is very different from TV and film. So if an actor is on stage acting it’s possible that they could pull a muscle with their over exaggerated movements. Voice warm-ups are just as important as body warm-ups, if not more! This is because an actor is most likely going to use their voice sometime in a play, therefore voice warm-ups are very important to stretch all the muscles in your mouth and focus on projecting your voice. This helps for when you go onto stage to perform your voice is fully warmed up to be able to project your voice to the back of the theatre so everybody can hear loud and clear.

For next lesson I am going to focus on developing my characters tone of voice to show even more my characters class. I am also going to work on my unnecessary movements to try and relax my body when I act so that the whole of my body is acting as my character.

Thursday 11th Spetember 2014

Thursday 11th September 2014


Today in Theatre class (11/09/2014) we focused on breath control, voice projection, improvisation, freeze frames and transitions. I thought that the way the voice and breath control exercises were performed, was an excellent way to teach us how important projecting and breathing is as an actor. I also enjoyed the improvisation activity we did in theatre. The way we had to walk around the room -and when told to stop- turn to the nearest person and start a random conversation was challenging for me, at first because I had to think of something to say on the spot without directed lines. And when I tried this at first, I couldn't think of anything, my mind blanked out, because I was thinking too much. However as we practiced improvisation for a while I found it more easier to relax and let my mind think of anything that entered. Doing this helped me build more confidence as an actor in improvisation.


Later on in the lesson, we focused on certain lines from the play "Noughts and Crosses". We were given three short lines from the play. And from each line, we had to pick the most two important words to say. After our group decided on what words we were taking from each line, we had to create a freeze frame based on what that line meant, and within the freeze frame we could use the two words we picked. We had to do this for all three lines. I liked the way we didn't use the whole line but we used the most meaningful words from the text. I liked this because it was more effective to use one word than say the whole line, it was more interesting and captivating to the audience and at the same time, it easy to understand what was being portrayed through the drama piece by just using one word.


After we performed our short freeze frames we were sent away to work more on our pieces to make them more effective and practise how to add transitions. Our group developed our performance a lot, we added repetition to create tension and suspense. We also added slow motion within our transitions from one place to another because we thought it would show time passing and this would keep the audience engaged in our slow actions.


I think the activities we focused on today have really helped and improved my knowledge on my acting. I was reminded that not all drama has to have speaking in it and that you can use a few words from the text and it will still be clear on what emotions and feelings are being performed. I realised that you also didn't even need any words at all, with silence in a piece of drama can be really effective and full of suspense and tension because nobody is saying anything, its all being performed by using you body language and facial expressions. One more thing I learnt from my lesson today was that when you use transitions in a piece of theatre, everyone has to do the same movements during the transitions. Before this lesson, I was not told that everyone had to do the same thing, I thought everyone's transitions can be different. However after being told this, today I realised that if everyone's movements are the same, it makes the piece of drama look more organised and professional.


For next lesson I am looking forward to finding out our parts and start to rehearse.
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Shakespeare pack

How do the character's body postures help to inform you of their statuses? – The characters body postures help inform the audience what status they are, sometimes by levels. For example; within the first 10 seconds the use of levels has already demonstrated. Calum (lower class as a white person) is on the floor with his head in his hands, showing that he’s worried because he doesn’t know what to do about a situation. This confusion and distress he is showing, shows the audience that he is in the lower class because he is worrying. If you are upper class you wouldn’t be worried because you are in charge.

Also to show status, during the end of the clip where the shooting is taking place, Sephy is standing up straight, showing she is not afraid and that she is the higher class. She does not want to back down, however with Calum he wants to back down so he gets to the floor because he is afraid. This sacredness shows that he is lower class and is afraid of what is happening.