When reading about each character, we thought about what kind of status they had in the play. We considered that the voice quality was a certified signification, therefore brain storming the different tones sufficient for our individuality. As I was Pauline, the main character, I decided a fairly posh and knowledgeable accent would be befitting towards my characteristics.
When we had concluded what to do we began first by reading through the script. This gave us a chance to learn the words gradually, and to give us an idea of the order. Additionally, we used chairs for when we started to piece the performance together and a small amount of stage directions. We didn’t use our voices expressively within the practicing hours, but when we reached the dress rehearsals and smaller performances we did.
We showed our work to the group and they said we needed to improve on our melodrama and face the audience. I found it fairly helpful to have other’s commenting on our strengths and weaknesses, because it assisted our confidence. They also commented on our use of space, as we particularly used one area of the stage, which was very wasteful of the zone provided. In addition, it benefited our performance conclusively to have our faults determined, as it gave us room to improve and grow.
Development
Our teacher inquired us to think about development into varied scenes and use of exiting the stage to detect scene endings. It was moderately simple to do as the dialogue also established when a new scene was about to begin. Furthermore, we needed to create better stage directions if we wished to conceive a performance that was of a high standard and flowed well. I found that the more time we spent on getting the stage directions correct, the better it became.
In our group we discussed focus, and then decided that if we wished to keep the characters personality well, we needed full concentration. Moreover, this would keep us from laughing out of term and ruining the play. We also found that in one scene, split-stage was in need of careful dialogue placement, so that when one person was talking, the companions on stage didn’t disturb the focus with wild movement or sound. This boosted the interest within the audience, as it kept their focal point where we wanted it.
The more troublesome aspect of the assignment was when we disagreed on who should act who. This caused arguments because there were certain characters two people wanted to be. In addition, the hardest part of the drama was staging the crash, as there were many different ways it could be done and we liked most of them.
The good thing about the work was being able to go over the top; I enjoyed this because it is one of my stronger assets, and an area I enjoy. On the contrary, I wasn’t sure if other people in my group found it an interesting advantage. Another thing that worked well was talking to the audience; It integrated them into the performance, almost including them as part of the act.
I chose to show my role by using an acutely posh manner and a high posture; It seemed to fit Pauline’s characteristics well and bring the playwrights imagination to the stage . Also, it was a challenge to my acting skills, which was good for a personal evaluation. The high posture helped by making me appear accurate to the true age and also, an attitude which displayed how Pauline thought she was from an upper class of people. The other acts included the villains, which were made mysteriously suspicious, and have a slight edge of danger. Making them the obvious baddie of the plot.
My group set out the space by having higher levels, such as stairs and chairs. In my opinion the stairs where a good resource to the play, as they added effect when Pauline was backing away up them. Adding on, the chairs were used for both transportation and places for the Villains and Pauline to hide, which made them essential.
This is an example of my work in the form of a script extract…
“I’m afraid I cant [walk from centre stage to the left, steady pace, hand over head, louder than normal dialogue] , We’ve not been introduced! “[face Algy, put hand on hip whilst tapping foot, expectant expression].
Evaluation
Our teacher asked us to show our work to the group and it went badly because our focus wasn’t satisfactory which caused laughing out of term and forgetting dialogue timing. On the other hand, we had good staging and melodrama skills.
Our audience said things like good use of melodrama, but face the audience and speak clearer. This helped the performance exceed further than we anticipated because we concentrated on those aspects and kept ourselves focused. I found feedback was the biggest aid to our performance because we had other peoples evaluation from a different perspective.
I felt that overall our play was reasonably good.
My own performance was fairly satisfactory to the requirements.
If we performed our play, we would want our audience to understand that it was a melodrama and that we weren’t serious characters. I think that maybe some people didn’t get at first that we were supposed to be over the top, but they realised quickly.
We decided to use our stimulus by the basis of melodrama. We thought that this would be a pleasurable way to perform it for both the audience and actors.