Unit 8: My Evaluation

My Evaluation for Love and Information:

This evaluation is going to focus on analysing and presenting the development for my working process on creating the production of Love and Information. Throughout this essay, I'm going to include relevant examples of my growth and contribution to this production from giving a couple of ideas for scenes to creating props; with the exception of recording my weekly progress in time of my day to day practical sessions.

This was my last performance of the course and everyone did their absolute best from the beginning  until the very end of the year. Our production for the Love and Information performance took place on the 29th May 2019 holding two performances. Personally, for my perspectives, the play did go well because everyone performed to their best of abilities and gave it their all, despite there being few mistakes during the performances and rehearsal time considering our short time for creating our final show. For my production role I couldn’t get as much done since I had limited time to complete my tasks such as learning lines and creating posters(which I eventually managed to do so). I felt that it would've been a lot better if everyone had a production role that they could've obliged to. Since, I took the responsibility to make props for my group and create posters, I wish others could've chosen something else to do as it would've made the production run smoothly but almost everything was left to last minute which was really frustrating. At times, I couldn't communicate with others due to being absent for  a number of days for personal reasons leading to lack of discussion with others. For that reason, I would text few of my classmates individually to ask if they needed anything for their scene such as props or any excessive clothing for their costume.

When it comes to rehearsal people would attend their normal lessons but if it was to spend extra time  after lesson, most of them weren’t willing to do so. This was quite disappointing to experience because at times I felt as if I wasn't engaging enough with my scene and my acting would be out of place because I couldn't exactly run through  them with my partners to build up on our chemistry on stage etc. But I would've preferred if they took a few minutes of their time to practice as well as putting  their attention and effort on their progress of the show.

From observing today’s performance, I noticed that there were a lot of things that went well and some that didn’t go so well. In my opinion, I would agree that the second performance went a lot better than the first one. This is because I forgot most of my lines and it  was very noticeable; also, I adlibbed a lot in one of my scenes due to forgetting my lines as I got very nervous but Tia did greatly by covering up the awkward tensions. Another mistake which I had done was by accidently kicking the chair of stage and at this moment I didn't know what to do so I walked off. 

For my first performance, Sheengah gave me feedback that I shouldn't have my back to the audience  and I should use more energy through my voice, stage presence and gestures, so she advised me that in order for me to realise that I should prepare myself mentally for my character backstage so that when I enter on stage I wouldn't be Kadie anymore. These skills are vital in a professional environment because its indicates that you can put everything you’ve got into any role no matter how big or small. Characterization is essential  in any performance because by attaching yourself with the role you're playing, you learn how to stay in character even when there are distractions around you. Besides, staying in role and embracing your characters personality makes your performance and stage presence look great, also it highlights your acting abilities. Another feedback of Sheengah was that when I drop my props onto the floor I shouldn’t leave it onto the floor when I exit I should pick it up along with me, for instance, I should pick it up and sigh before storming off. When it came to the second performance of the show I managed to do some of these and it made the performance look more neater.

- Another improvement of mine was to change my prop for the lab scene. This is because Tia bought in few of her props and they were more of beauty cosmetics and they had labels on them. Sheengah advised me to take the labels off them so they can actually look like scientific equipment. After the rehearsal before the actual performance, I went outside and bought food colourings and inserted a few props into the water bottle to make a solution. This also made our scene look more realistic.

Now moving onto the strengths of our performance. There were hardly any technical difficulties as everything ran smoothly such as the stage directions were clear and precise, and this was one of the factor that contributed to the success of the play. Also, throughout the performance everyone stayed in character, one scene that I remember vividly which provided a good amount of energy throughout was the ending scene with Ben-Taylor and Mya. The remaining cast were behind the curtain and the scene was set in a game show similarly to wheel of fortune. So each time Taylor answered a question correctly, the cast would cheer loudly for him. In addition, the character that Taylor portrayed was a very witty and ambitious man who slightly has a competitive nature. He showed this through his tone when answering the questions as he would cut of Mya ( the tv host) continuously by eagerly shouting his answers. 

For the second time round, before our last performance as a group we gathered back-stage and done a vocal warm up, this was breathing in-and-out through our diaphragms. From doing this, it helps you get enough air to project your voice. By breathing properly helps you sustain your nervousness. Finally we would end our warm up by saying tongue twisters as a group. An example of this would be " Red leather, Yellow leather, Yellow red leather, leather red yellow" and "she sells seashells by the seashore". Tongue twisters are useful as it  help with your pronunciations. Articulation is important in a performance because it allows your audience to understand what you are saying. By doing these vocal exercises it protects and prevents my voice from straining my vocal chords or injuring my voice. 

Overall, the production could be improved by organizing the team work, as well communication better with others and voicing out opinions. few individuals  were self involved to hear other people ideas. The expectations were too high to an extent that we had to cancel few of our great ideas and convert them to basic ideas as the director of my group wanted to stay true to Caryl Churchill's interpretation, we did not realize how little time to complete. On the positive note, most members are well and made effective contribution to the success of the programmed; however, better communication and time management should've been improved.

In conclusion performing arts consist of involvement, participation, communication and decision making. The work was interesting and enjoyable and the final piece wasn't as successful as I had thought it would be. This has now become a turning point because in the future if I ever come across such things I would know how to approach it better. I am satisfied with my contribution to the final acting and few of my expectations were met, as I knew it was not going to be easy. I believe that my skills and knowledge have developed vastly by doing this performance. I hope that all the notes that were given to me will be improved and turned into something better in order for me to do exceptionally well in my performance for  future references.