Performing Arts evaluation

Performing Arts

As a company called ‘Pink Pants Productions’ we were all working towards an event for Nuneaton Christmas Celebrations and we were contributing to an event with a piece of Street Theatre performance which had to be completed by a specific date. The deadline for it to be completed by was the 30th November 2005. The event was an opportunity for families and people to get together and enjoy the festive season and take pleasure in the lights being turned on and watch other Street Theatre acts which were being performed. Our performance piece had to be based on the stimulus of ‘Victorian Era.’ This stimulus had many areas some were significant people, which were important to that particular time period. Other things were the food, exaggerated dress sense and transport.

In order to have a final polished performance piece different key roles were allocated within the production team. These were as follows:

Creative roles

Every member in the company contributed towards the process, whether it being in creating scenes or making props. At times we also did some directing of the scenes so that we could improve them and have a final outcome, which was at its best. We all worked together and independently depending on what stage we were at so that we could always perfect our performance. All of our initial creative ideas and research contributed to the final performance on Sunday 30th November 2005.

Publicity

They were to guarantee that people outside of the performance were notified and made aware of the event so that they could come and watch it. Publicity had to promote the company’s performance. They had to work together and make a poster saying the time/date/location of the performance. They had to create templates and show the production team to give full involvement and agree on the best one for the performance.

Health and Safety

They had to certify that the rest of the team and the audience were always safe throughout the performance and the whole process running up towards the actual night of the event. In order to keep members of the company motivated every lesson Health and Safety would do warm-ups so that everyone was full of energy and would perform to the best of their ability. At some stages Health and Safety would work alongside Costumes and Props to ensure that costumes were warm enough and weather conditions were discussed so that everyone would be prepared when performing on the night.

Costumes and Props

To ensure all members of the company are dressed and equipped with the necessary properties. To be creative and spend as less as possible on props so make do with what was available and ask other for any materials which they had got. To make sure that everyone had an exaggerated costume, which represented his or her character.

I will now evaluate these roles, their responsibilities and the process as a whole. Starting with the creative process identifying the strengths and weaknesses.

To get from our original ideas to the performance were all determined ...

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Costumes and Props

I will now evaluate these roles, their responsibilities and the process as a whole. Starting with the creative process identifying the strengths and weaknesses.

To get from our original ideas to the performance were all determined by the strengths for the creative process. All the good teamwork between everyone gave a welcoming feeling to the lesson which entitled members to express there feelings and give input which overall speeded up the process.

Creative Process: Strengths

We did research from the very beginning of our project so we all got ideas of which characters could get involved, and everyone was willing to change something if it didn’t look right.
I did extra research at home on my character and others characters, which helped speed up the process as I had a deeper insight and understanding into how to become that character.

Nearly every lesson we would evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the day, this meant that we could take all criticisms and points on board which I feel helped a lot as it could improve our performance and make it stronger.

We worked together this speeded up the process as we managed to work as a team and at times we broke off into sub groups so we could get more done.
Throughout each scene we identified strengths and weakness, which helped improve our performance. So to identify strengths and weaknesses at such an early stage I felt it was really good.
We were willing to incorporate everyone’s ideas this meant we had a lot of material to work from and we could try out different ways to see which ones worked best.
We planned out each lesson meaning we could stay on task and use out time wisely, we also made deadlines which we tried to achieve this helped to speed up the process because we had something to work towards.
We made decisions fairly therefore there was no hostility in the group and we could all get on together. For example when we put peoples names into a hat to choose who would play that character.
We were able to take criticism well from both Lorraine and other members of the company. We were able to receive and respond to the feedback that was given and improve from it.
We did schedules, which gave us an aim to achieve, and allowed us to rehearse it already. So we automatically know what to do which meant that confidence levels grew and we became a closer team.
The performance before the Street Theatre was ‘The Catwalk of Life’ this enabled everyone to get to know each other better and become more confident and comfortable.
We had sessions when people acted as directors and observed the performance so that they could watch it from the audiences perspective and alter any weak parts of the performance. Which could improve the whole performance.
When it came towards the end of the process everyone started to realise that 110% focus and concentration was needed if we were to polish our overall performance piece.
On the performance night we were all organised and all of our team was there on time that meant there was enough time to get ready physically and mentally.

Creative Process: Weaknesses and Areas of Improvement

I will evaluate the weaknesses and areas of improvement in the creative process, which may have slowed us down:

Too much talking, being late, phones going offal slowed down the process down. So for future reference all this will be taken into account and time will be used appropriately and everyone must be more disciplined.

In some of the lessons we were too energised, which meant we didn’t stay on task and didn’t get on with what we were supposed to do. If we did get it all done then the process could have been speeded up and we might have had more time at the end to perfect the performance. To overcome this problem calmer warm-ups are needed. Maybe if people are motivated physically at the start then mental exercises should be done for example, mind games which get us thinking this would helped with the creative process as more ideas would erupt.
However, at times the group wasn’t motivated and therefore felt there was no need to be on task. So again we had to rely on warm –ups which was the Health and Safety teams’ responsibility. This meant that more physical exercises which involved moving your whole body was needed.
I feel that each person including myself should have done a little more research on their individual character, as some roles were difficult to grasp onto. By doing more research it would have allowed us to get the actual feel and understanding emotionally how that character feels. For example the Oliver scene characters could have had more demanding involvement as they are well known and our performance may have been more exciting and realistic.
At times people were being rushed into learning material and bringing things in so for future reference people should be allowed to work at their own pace however this should not be taken advantage of. A prime example was Cherry who had joined the group at a later start and therefore missed the beginning of our performance and was underprivileged over this as everybody had a character and she didn’t. So each member of the company was rushing Cherry into finding a character for herself which wasn’t very thoughtful and we should have worked as a team and got Cherry a character which had more involvement rather than just giving and make doing with a police officer, nevertheless we did welcome her and made her feel part of the team.
Time was also a problem as we didn’t use it wisely as running up to the performance we went over things we didn’t need to go over this just wasted time and could have been of more convenience to the scenes and characters we didn’t know so well. Next time we need to be more subjective when deciding to polish certain scenes and characters.
In the process part we didn’t do a full run through the performance so therefore didn’t get a better feel of how it would be on the night. However, we did many do full run throughs, but there was still unnecessary moving and twitching throughout.
Even though we were very focussed we weren’t like this throughout, we would sometimes come into lesson off task and be chatting amongst ourselves. If we had more focussed we might have got more done and be able to spent more time polishing at the end.

My individual strengths were as follows:

I would contribute ideas to the group and suggest what could have been done to improve certain scenes. I feel this helped to a successful performance because without ideas from others and myself we wouldn’t have an exciting scenes and characters.
To help the initial ideas I would do extra research in my own time so I could understand how to play my character. This helped to contribute to a successful performance extra research means less time is wasted and therefore speeds up the process.
When people were led astray and became off task I would try my best to get their attention back to the performance. This was an important aspect, as it would determine how much creating and work would have been done for the initial process. I’m sure that every member of the company did this at one point, which was an overall strength for everyone as it contributed to a flourishing performance as concentration and focus was all down to teamwork.

My individual weaknesses were the following:

At the start I felt I didn’t give my all in the process because when I was focusing on my character I didn’t feel comfortable and didn’t express it as much as I could have and wanted to. This may have been because I didn’t want to do anything wrong which would disrupt or annoy others. However, my confidence levels have grown a lot more from then and I feel more confident and comfortable. So therefore this could be seen as both strength and a weakness.
For a couple of the lessons I was absent and therefore missed out on the process of out Street Theatre work. This did slow down the process, as others had to go out of their way and explain what had been done and the written work also had to be done. I would ensure that appointments are made during my free lessons, as it is hard to catch up especially when you miss a lesson.
At times when the group went off task and went loud, instead of pushing them into focusing I gave up and sat down because nobody was listening. So next time I wouldn’t give up quickly, I would inform other members at the end about how I felt at the time so they are aware and we could all make sure it doesn’t happen again.

I will now evaluate the strengths of the production team roles:

We all picked our production team name fairly as we came together and did a vote on the best title and company name. This was all good teamwork as we were making decisions fairly together.
The publicity group got all the posters out on time and we had an audience who were entertained by our performance. This had a major contribution to a successful performance because if the posters were not completed on time then we wouldn’t of had an audience to watch us and we wouldn’t have completed our task.
Many deadlines were set and they were all completed however there was the odd one or two which were postponed to a later date we all felt they could have longer to be finished by. Deadlines contributed to the overall event as it brought links together and helped us get everything done on time.
In some of the lessons we did warm ups these were both physical and mental they helped to energise members and motivate them. The Health and Safety group came up with particular warm-ups these were involving singing catchy songs and using your body to show and express the words. This helped us to get into the right frame of mind so we could think and exaggerate the skills used in the warm-ups into our actual performance piece.