Evaluation

Firstly I would like to say that I thoroughly enjoyed performing in the new theatre. As a group we fired ourselves up and performed with great energy. Despite a few hiccups we managed to pull it off and I can safely say that we came along way together. I feel that the audience enjoyed out piece as they were enthusiastic over the one hour and forty minute show. In scenes we were spurred on by the audience and this added so much more energy to the pieces and that was really great. Our characters that we created were relatable, believable and without trying very funny. This is down to our rehearsal process which allowed us to connected to the contextualisation in every way. Therefore our piece was watchable and allowed people who dont usually watch shakespeare understand the meaning behind our piece, in my opinion this is very important as we didn't shut our performance of to just one group of society.

I believe that our energetic opening engaged the audience immediately. The use of african tribal song and the rhythm of the stomping excited the audience along with the lighting and sound effects. This allowed us to use that energy through the piece. This proved difficult and in rehearsal there was often worry that after the opening there would be an anti climax, luckily this did not happen. As everyone worked with objectives in the space. A really good example of this is Caliban, He was constantly struggling throught the whole piece. Struggling to serve Prospero, Struggling to hide from Trincula and Stephana and constantly struggling to keep up with the girls. This was down to Gavin chasing his objectives in every scene. His strong characterisation was created through his tortured physicality and his accent which connected him to the environment. However the problem sometimes was laughter. The audience found allot of sections within the play funny and as actors we hadnt actually considered this in rehearsal. Due to this often speeches were interrupted.  Therefore it was a challenge to keep good timing as I had to stop but I think I learnt how to instinctually do this (without sounding pretentious).

The play was far too long. The audience must of had to work to stay concentrated. As i mentioned before it ran over one hour and forty minutes, this is down to the show not being as smooth running in rehearsal and people not picking up on cues and transitions on time. In the last section I completely blanked on my line and Im still unsure why. However this just means that to improve the play for our brighton performance the piece will have to be cut in places and cues and transitions will be tighter. However clear character decisions aloud us to maintain clear journeys which is something that was hard during rehearsals as we were constantly stopping and starting.

The set and lighting added allot to our piece as we were able to move in the space and react instinctivley, however as Gonzalo I could improve my physicality by using the set more as i could have pushed being elderly more. Despite this having a set that linked to well to the contextualisation aloud the audience to see a series of pictures within the play. On the other hand when tlking to some members of the audience the rocks blocked some of the action on the right and left hand sides of the play. Even though this occurred I believe the rocks being portable aloud us to indicate a change of location to the audience which added to the journey. The play was consistant in its theme but occaisionally text was lost due to the dask of playing three sides. Its a huge challenge, however the before the show we were directed to play only the left and right. I think this theory was effective as the procsemix  were improved and clarity was gained.

I believe we created a piece which consisted of good acting, commitment to characterisation and commented on themes that effect every single audience member in there everyday life. Of course it wasn't perfect, but its clear to see now where the challenges lie and how we are going to tackle them in order to create a piece that will work well in an outside theatre.