Rehearsal is used to change and improve scenes or sections and to perfect a performance. Every performance began with a warm up. This varied for each discipline, but all the warm ups involved improvisation. In a combined warm up groups of different sizes had to make shapes of particular objects, thus improvising the shape of an object.
Improvisation is used in rehearsal particularly when changing parts, for example, in music one section was not working, so other ideas were improvised and one was found which worked better than the original idea. From how the rehearsal time was used differently for each performance, I learnt that time management and organisation were required to get the full benefits from the time. It was important to use the time judiciously right from the beginning, and although it was important to improvise using different ideas and styles, we had to be careful that we progressed in the development of the piece at the same time. For each discipline the time was used differently, for example in dance a lot of the time was used improvising, whereas in combined, the time was used more on finishing the piece than perfecting it.
The rehearsal time given for performances has to be used carefully and productively. In dance rehearsal time was spent perfecting the beginning rather than advancing on the rest of the piece and this caused us to rush at the end. For the drama performance, most of the rehearsal time was spent brainstorming and planning every detail of the performance, rather than rehearsing what was to be performed. The combined rehearsals were used most productively, because there was the least rehearsal time for this performance. The first rehearsal series was spent improvising ideas, and the second part was then used to perfect and add music and props to the performance. The first rehearsal was also used to block the piece after it had been decided which idea was going to be used. When you are ‘blocking’ a piece you are deciding where everything is going to happen on stage; in our drama piece, we decided to have, at the end, two tableaux, one stage left and one stage right. We then had one person centre stage addressing the audience. By blocking it in this way, the audience focus would be on the person centre stage.
In dance the rehearsal time was particularly needed to practise steps that were more difficult, and also to change steps if they could not be mastered. The rehearsals meant that the timing of the piece could be perfected, especially if there were specific steps, which required everyone involved to be in complete synchronisation. As with in dance, it was useful to change aspects of the pieces if they were not working. The rehearsal time allowed people from the ENO and teachers, all of who specialise in a certain disciplines, to see how the pieces were progressing and also to advise groups if there was something that could be improved upon. This was beneficial to the groups as it meant that we found out what could improve our performances and how we could change parts to make the piece more visually interesting we could have some movements in rounds and some just a few people doing them.
Any form of performance needs to be able to make an impression on the audience. This is so that they remember it and also so that the message of the performance is realised by the audience. The impression a final performance leaves on the audience may also reflect how much rehearsal, time and effort, was put into it throughout, however it is not always the performance that has had the most rehearsal time that is the one that leaves the strongest impression. It is more about how the piece is performed and what is performed.
A performance grows from a stimulus, this could be a picture, something written or just a noise. The starting points for our performances, varied from a word to a few simple dance steps. Each person interpreted each stimulus differently, which is why each group performance was completely different even if the stimulus was the same. For our drama piece, the stimulus was a picture by Bruce Nauman, called ‘Life Death, Knows Doesn’t Know’.
This picture meant different things to everyone in the group. We agreed that there was a theme of opposites running through it and so we decided to use this as a foundation. We also used the title of the stimulus as a basis, to give a running theme of life and death throughout the piece.
The stimulus for music was the word ‘Evolution’. We listened to some different pieces of music that evolve in different ways to help give inspiration. One particular piece of music, by Bjork, started off with a noise in a factory. Then the noise became a beat and slowly more beats and noises were added until there was a piece of music. We used this as a structure idea for our piece, starting off with a simple tune and then adding more and more until it became a full score. This added layers gradually to the piece, and showed the piece ‘evolving’.
The stimulus for dance was two different movement motifs. They were not learnt to any music, we decided that the tempo had to change in the final piece, in order to add a range of dynamics and make the performance more interesting. This was also important so they fitted to the tempo of the piece of music chosen to perform our devised piece to.
The stimulus for the combined piece was a number of linked ideas, and so the scope for improvisation and ideas, was perhaps narrower. Firstly the main influence and stimulus was the end performance of ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ that we went to see. Each group was given a place in which their devised piece was to be set, a quote from ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ that had to be used, and a prop that changed everything. Our place was at one of the Stations of the Cross; the quote was ‘We decided to dress him up as a girl for the day, just for a laugh’, and the prop that changed everything was a jar of olives. For the stimuli we were given it seemed initially particularly hard to think of ideas of how to incorporate all of them, however once we had started the ideas came quickly. As the quote was quite strange and funny we decided to devise a piece that mainly revolved around the quote, so thus it was funny and strange as well.
The final performances had many aspects to consider including sound, movement, lighting, costumes, props and the positioning of the audience. All this things are important for a performance and can be used in different ways to portray different things; in our drama piece we wanted to indicate that there was a man and a prostitute without showing it, so we showed a woman standing in front of a man and then used a blackout. By doing this the audience knew what was happening without the actors having to do anything. One of the most important things for a performance is the positioning of the audience because in some performances they use the audience so it is then important that the actors can move around in the audience. It is also important that they can all see what is going on on the stage.
As for any performance opinions were made and discussions were had. These help a performer improve on their performance, and although some comments may seem rude or unhelpful, they can offer constructive criticism. The comments we got were mainly informal from friends in the audience, but then after the performances the teachers commented on them overall. You can measure how well a performance has gone by the comments made by the audience after. If they are good comments and the audience says specific parts they thought were particularly good, then you can assume that it was a good performance. Another way is if you, as an actor, feel that the performance was successful. For these performances it was the teachers comments that were most important as they were assessing them. They gave each group feedback on their performance in the form of comments on a piece of paper, and used a task objective to grade the performances.
In the drama piece there was a vocal heartbeat, which was effective, however I think it could have been used more. The ending of the piece was unrehearsed and this was noticeable in comparison with the rest of the performance. There was repetition used which was also effective and linked the scenes together. Both naturalistic and abstract forms of drama were used, which added to the pattern of opposites that occurred throughout the performance.
For me the music was my worst performance, based on how I felt the performance went and on the comments made afterwards. This was I think because of a number of reasons. Firstly the ideas being used were too complex to try and compose and arrange in the given time. Secondly, there were problems with people leaving the group and people not turning up for rehearsals. Thirdly some people could not play any instruments and didn’t want to sing so time was spent teaching them how to play simple but effective beats on percussion instruments. The introduction of the piece was good with sound rhythm used, however from then on it became muddled and confused. The timing and speed was confused, as was when different instruments were supposed to come in. The singing was weak, and could not be heard over the instruments, and the harmony was unclear as well. The piece did not really evolve or develop meaning the stimulus of the piece was not used correctly, and so the whole performance did not cover what it was expected to do so.
The stimulus and criteria for the dance piece was understood and used in different ways. There was a range of different steps used as well as the use of a canon and repetition. The whole performance was quite symmetrical and we used different levels, and tempos and thought about dynamics. The piece had to be performed to a piece of music, but that wasn’t well known. It was called ‘Snakeblood’ and was from the soundtrack ‘The Beach’. There was however little solo work, and also that one step could not be done because of lack of space, so spacing should have been thought about more before.
The combined performance was the best. It incorporated all three disciplines successfully and the material given was used thoughtfully, providing humour and symbolism continually throughout. Everything had been thought about, including costumes, props and lighting. The understanding of the objectives of the performance were clear throughout; to include all the stimuli in the performance, and also use all three disciplines. Although the performance was humorous and the audience laughed, the performers kept their concentration and they did not corpse. The least rehearsal time was given for the combined performance, however it went the most smoothly and proved to be the most enjoyable to perform. There was one criticism that being that the links could have been smoother, but apart from that the performance went very well. This is because we were given more fixed boundaries to work within, and so there was not much room to try out different ideas. Also we had limited rehearsal time, so we had to be much more focused and use the time judiciously.
These three stages, improvisation, rehearsal and final performance make up the process of a performance. I think that rehearsal is a particularly important stage as it is used at all parts of the process and is when mistakes can be corrected and the performance perfected. However really all three processes are equally important, and without one, another may not work as well as it would with the other. I have really enjoyed working through the process in all three disciplines and have learnt much throughout the term. I have been particularly fascinated by the links between the stages and ways in which they each interplay slightly differently with which discipline.