I felt that in our piece, I moved very confidently as my character would across the stage in an independent fashion. I showed this through my straight posture, strutting walk, and casual attitude towards conversation to show how independent I was from Kate and Andrea, and also to show how dependant Kate was on me. To show my independence, I used gestures such as holding my head high, and checking my nails to show this mannerism of my character. I would often hold a pout on my face, as well as a look of disgust by using my eyebrows raised. When on stage, I always moved in an independent way to the other girls. For example, if the two other girls stood in a certain part of the stage discussing or arguing a matter, I would separate myself (to show my importance over there’s) and stand on the opposite side of the stage. This was shown especially in the scene where the girls have an argument. I thought that my use of space on stage was good here, as again I demonstrated my sovereign character. In the classroom scene Sarah and I (or Kate) together displayed how dependant she was on my character, Louise. At one stage I would cross my legs, only to be followed by Kate a few seconds later. I would then cross my legs over on the other side, and Kate would also change legs. These little details showed our characters very well. In the witch scene, I used many different levels, and used big movements to show hat I was casting a spell. Overall, I think that my large, confident movements in this scene as well as my distinct facial expressions displayed my character’s true evil spirit, and how deadly serious she was taking it.
The mood and atmosphere in the piece were created in a number of different ways. The lighting was a huge help here, and through this, we could adapt our characters more easily to suit the scene. In the witch scene, by speaking in a low but harsh tone, the mood was created because the audience could tell by the definition that the scene was enchanting and evil. By working together, using different levels, and using our props, which we had gathered, we made this scene very distinctive and effective. We did the same in other scenes too. By acting mellow, and down, an atmosphere of suspicious and supernatural was created, giving an eerie effect.
We tried to interact with the audience by relating our storyline to possible everyday life. By making the situation at the beginning realistic, I think the audience could possibly link the two extremes of witchcraft and revenge together without the story seeming completely surreal. We also played with the feelings of the audience through the basic bullying, which my character was inflicting on Tiffany, Kate and Andrea. A member of the audience remarked afterwards that she found character “horrible”, and also that she “felt sorry for other girls because of what I was making them do”.
Our quality of work we did in our group worked quite successfully in the witch scene in particular. By working together ranging from our raging levels to our low and high-pitched sounds and facial expressions, we created a terrific atmosphere. I felt that this was not only one of our best scenes in the end, but also the most fun and exhausting to act out. These features all made this scene in particular, worthwhile to act.
One of our rehearsal techniques was to rehearse certain parts of scenes until they were perfected. For example, the slap that I use on Andrea. In order to build up enough anger and tension between the both of us, we had to rehearse that section a number of times. But, because we rehearsed it so well, in the performance the slap worked flawlessly.
As was said before, I think that my most successful elements of our piece were the witch scene as a group. However, I think that my personal best scene was the betrayal scene where I say my ‘pointy reckoning speech’. I think that of all the scenes, I show my character’s true colors in this. I found this one of the most satisfying also, because the amount of anger and tension, which had to be built up, was enormous.
However, although I thought that our piece was good, there are many improvements that could be made. I think that although I felt the witch scene was our best, it could be made even better with more rehearsals. By rehearsing this scene more in front of people we would have been more comfortable acting it out on the performance day. I think that before our performance (especially for the witch scene) in future we should warm up our bodies so that we can move more relaxed around the stage.
