Review of the performance

. The overall performance of Noughts and Crosses went really well.  Everyone one was really focused and performed really well and it was nice see how everyone had progressed from the beginning of term. I thought every performance was really believable and everyone stayed in role for the whole performance.  Something that stood out for me when I was watching the performance was how professional everyone was, I felt like I was watching a professional cast, not Year 10 theatre strand.  

What were the strengths of your performance? Why?

. I think characterisation was, definitely, a strength  throughout the whole performance, as when I was watching it, I believed that I was watching the character on stage, not my class members. Also I could tell that everyone there had all developed their character from the beginning of the term, and that everyone had put in the effort to connect with their character, and you could tell that all the character warm up and character profiles had helped.

. The staging was also one of our strengths, for instance, how we started the scene, we were all standing in neutral which created  tension, this was a strength as it grabbed the audience’s attention and made them want to find out what was going to happen next.  

. I also think that facial expression was a strength in our performance as everyone not only showed their emotion through their body language and voice but also in their expressions. This made the performance even better as you could tell the emotion of each character without them speaking, which I feel made the play more interesting to watch and add more depth to the scenes.

What did another actor do that was effective?

Something that I found effective from another actor was Tim’s performance. This was because I don’t think he had a very dramatic scene yet when he performed, he still drew the audience in and made it really interesting to watch. I think this was because he had really good energy throughout the scene and he used a nice range of tone and vocal colour. This kept the audience interested as the scene did not just stay at the same level, he showed the emotion Callum was going through in the scene.

My performance

The strengths

In my performance I feel one of my strength’s was staying in role. I think this as in the middle of my scene, some of our lines got muddled up, however nor me or anyone else in my scene came out of role and I feel we covered it well as nobody noticed.

Something else that I feel was a strength in my performance was facial expressions. I think this, because  as an actor I feel one of my strength are my facial expressions, and I feel that in my performance I didn’t under or over play any of my facial expression and I think it helped the audience understand what emotion Meggie was going though.

What would you have changed/developed?

Something that I would have changed/developed if I could perform my scene again would my spacing. This is because I feel that I faced the right of the stage a lot and the centre but never really the left. Therefore this would be something I would change as I didn’t use the space that I had available to me and the left side of the audience might not of heard all of my lines if I was not facing them.

Also I would obviously like to change that fact that two of my lines were missed, I am still not really sure what happened, however I am really annoyed at myself because it was something  that had never happened before, and it was a silly mistake. Everyone in my scene including me still stayed in role and quickly recovered but I would still like to change that, as I feel it was a mistake that should not have happened

Long term target review

At the beginning of the term (lesson 3) we set our self long term targets, mine was to:

‘My long term target is to improve on my body language when performing. For example, become more connected with my character so I have to stand the same way as them and use all their hand gesture they would use. This is my long term target as I want all my characters to be as realistic and believable as possible.’

I have achieved this target as I work hard on my character physicality as I know it was something that needed improving on, therefore I worked on it a lot in the lesson and at home. In the lesson I thought about how my character would stand and walk, then at home I would go over the lines but I would be focusing on my physicality.  This helped me achieve my target as eventually when I performed my scene it just came naturally to me.  Also the more I connected with my character the easier it became to become physically like my character as when I was performing I did generally feel like I was Meggie McGregor.

 Review on Monday's lesson

On Monday’s lesson (13.10.14) we started off with a warm up where we had to pretend to be late for work and we were walking through a busy street. This warm up was beneficial as it involved getting into new character which is a needed skill for an actor. Also it made us gain focus as we need to listen to instruction while trying not to walk into anyone.

Then we split the class into two teams and we had to debate if different races should mix. This was a helpful exercise especially for my class as Noughts and Crosses is based on racial divide. I found it helpful as it gave us a better understanding of the play and made us realise just how serious the play is.

Also I feel it made me understand and connect with my character more, this is because it made me think about the struggle she must have been through as she was degraded because of her race. Also it made me think about the impact the racial segregation would of had on her. It got me thinking about what side she agreed with and I came to the conclusion that she would want all races to mix. I think this as I believe she wants what is best of her family, therefore she would want them to have the best opportunities possible. Knowing this will help me play my character better as it made me realise how much of an impact Ryan and Jude joining the Liberation Militia will have on her as she has always tried to do what is best for her family.  

Unit 3 Acting Skills Audit:                                                   DATE: 09.10.2014

Throughout your blog you will be marked on:

P2 Present an on-going review of acting skills, describing strengths and areas to develop

M2 Present an on-going review of acting skills, describing strengths and areas to develop, setting achievable targets for improvement and reviewing progress

D2 Present an on-going review of acting skills, describing strengths and areas to develop, setting achievable targets for improvement and evaluating progress

Workshop and rehearsal observations:

Which acting strengths have you been able to demonstrate today? How?

An acting skill I have demonstrated in today’s lesson (09.10.14) was listening and responding. I demonstrated this skill, as in my scene I was listening to what the other cast member when they were speaking and I tried to react to what was going on as if it was the first time I have heard it.

 Another acting skill have I used was facial expressions. I feel I demonstrated this skill as when I was playing my character I portrayed a lot of my acting skills using my facial expression. Also I have worked on my facial expression at home as I would practice my lines in the mirror as it would help me with my facial expression.

Tone and vocal colour was also an acting skill I was able to demonstrate in the lesson. I demonstrated this skill as in my scene my character goes though a number of different emotions, such as anger, shock, disappointment and upset. As I said, already, I used facial expression when performing however I still used tone and vocal colour to portray Meggie’s emotions as I want the audience to understand how she is feeling and believe it. 

Some key words: 

articulation      

projection      

breath control      

learning lines   

pitch, inflection and modulation 

tone and vocal colour        

phrasing             

pace                

use of pause              

gesture  

facial expressions     

characterisation         

staying in role             

balance                   

coordination 

movement memory       

spatial awareness       

weight placement        

focus and control 

relaxation                              

pace, energy and dynamics 

Which acting skills do you need to develop based on the workshop today? Why?

An acting skill that I need to develop based on Thursday’s (09.10.14) lesson is projection. This is because when I am trying to use the emotion of my voice to show that my character is upset I lose my projection. Therefore I feel it is a skill that I need to develop as I want to use projection throughout the scene and be able to use projection for all emotions. Also I don’t want any of my lines to be lost as I want the audience to understand what I am saying, otherwise they will lose interest in my scene.

Set yourself three targets:

1.

Improve on my diction

2.

Make sure I am always projecting

3.

My final target is something we were set as a class; it is to be more light on our feet when we are walking in for the mall scene as Suzanna’s lines were not being heard as we were making too much noise.

  Reflection on the targets set:  Have they been achieved? How?            DATE:13.10.14   

1.       I have achieved this target as during the week I practiced the lines in front of a mirror to make sure I was using my mouth to pronounce all of my words properly. Also I did a line run several times with my friend so I know what lines needed more work on.

2.       I feel like I have improved my projection as I did some exercise where I tried to make my voice project to the other side of the room. However I feel like I could still make more improvements as when I am running through the scene I sometimes lose some of my projection when I am not focusing on projection.     

3.       I feel like I achieved my final target as when I was walking in for the scene I made sure I wasn’t too heavy footed. However I am not sure If the scene improved as a whole as I wasn’t focusing on how everyone else entered the scene.

An evaluation of the work for the term.

This term we have done our unit 3 acting skills. This means we have developed and explored our acting skills and evaluated them. Also we had to use those acting skills in our rehearsals and our performance.

I feel this term has been helpful as I am now able to set myself long term and short term targets and I am able to review those targets and see if I have achieved them. Also I can now push myself to find new targets, which will help improve my acting. I feel the reason why I can do these things is because each week we were given the same sheet where we would have to write about acting skills that we demonstrated and skills that we need to develop. Also we have to set ourself three targets and then reflect on them and decide if we have achieved them. Doing this every week helps me as I am now more confident working independently, and I feel I can know evaluate my progress.

Also this term we worked on developing our characters. We did this by doing a number of exercises to help us get in to character.  I feel this was something that was really useful for me this term,  as each time we did character exercises I became more alike my character.  This is because we had to think about what our character was physically like and we had to think a lot about the journey our character had been on. Doing these exercises were really helpful, as when I rehearsed my scene I found it a lot easier to get into character and each time we did an exercise I become more connected with my character. Because the exercises made me think about what my character was physically like and what her personality traits were.  We also did a character profile that we put on our blog. This helped us get in to character as it made me think about my characters emotions and how her life events would affect her personality.

This term we focused a lot on objective, what I am mean by ‘objective’ is what my character wants.  During the beginning of the term, we worked in our scene groups and we had to think about what each of our character wanted in the scene. I did this by studying our script and think about what our character does in the play. This helped me play my character a lot as when I was saying my lines I thought about why I was saying it and what I wanted by saying it, this improved my acting as I feel it made my character be believable and relatable.

This term we also worked on how to apply the acting skills within rehearsal and performance.  We did this as we set our self targets on Thursday’s lesson that were achievable by next week. Then during the lesson we would have to work on the targets and reflect on them before the following Thursday. This helped me use my acting skills in rehearsals as I knew what I needed to work on therefore I am able to focus on them.  It helped me apply them to my performance as I have been working on them all term therefore they came naturally to me when I performed it.  

In conclusion this term has been extremely useful for me as I have learnt how to connect even more with my character. Also it has taught me how to push myself to find ways I could improve my performance and I am now confident in giving myself constructive criticism.