Vsevolod Meyerhold - Biochemical techniques.

The final performance.

At the end of the ten weeks we organised where we were going to perform, we had four shows back to back in our drama studio at college in front of other students from different  department over the course of a day. This was on the 23rd of March 2018. Considering our final performances was a little bit rushed especially in the days before where we had debated on weather or not we needed an extra rehearsal (which we did) it was a successful and memorable show. Although the show was notable I felt as though it could have been more polished, something we improved upon later at the school we went to on the following Monday. A struggle we found performing in college was that the some members of the audience where distracting and as actors this affected the way we performed. It was less confident than we wanted in the first performance as we hadn't had time for walk through before, however as the day progressed we received constructive criticism from our tutor and used her note to improve the next show.


For me personally after the second show she said I could be more exaggerative during the club scene when I'm meant to be completely drunk, in the third show I really tried to improve upon this. I feel although I did improve on this due to another one of our tutor saying how much my characterisation had improved during that particular scene.

On the 26th of March we performed to a drama class of year 10s at Royton and Crompton secondary school. We were very lucky to be able to perform here especially to our preferred target audience, we knew we wanted to perform to drama student because we believed they'd be more respectful and engaging. We where correct.

 Before we performed we had a fast walk through to give us confidence in knowing exactly what we were doing unlike the previous shows. This was defiantly a good idea as this particular performance was the smoothest its gone. After the performance we opened up the room to question from both the student and teachers. They asked a lot of questions about the process of devising the piece, which we explained about the work shops at the beginning to the ten weeks and how the process wasn't easy as we were always waiting 'the moment'. As well as questions about the performance they asked a lot about studying at Oldham college and our particular course. We spoke about our bond as a class and friends over the past two years and all our plans after college like university and drama schools.

My own personal performance was different to the other performances id done, I've never played a character who was outgoing, drunk and at times funny. Most of the work I've done has been darker compared to this particular show; I do like that the show is so huge energy but there is still a dark undertone. It was the feeling of knowing something bad was going to happen but the audience had no idea when. I do wish we had used more Brecht techniques as we'd focused a lot on a naturalistic style and Stanislavski.  Id set my self targets at the beginning of the project and I achieves some of them.

- To become more organised by planning what I want to achieve in each lesson and write down what we did.

At the beginning of each week we write down a time table and plan for each day as well as the goal we wanted to achieve. E.g. Week 3  - Tuesday- Chloe's warm up

                                                               Create a short devised piece using fragile type

                                                                 Watch documentary on homelessness. 

                                              - Friday-  Create a piece of physical theatre on homelessness

                                                                  Write a story outline and create characters

- To take constructive criticism and use it effectively to improve my performance.

I know I defiantly achieved this target as during rehearsals the way I was saying my monologue didn't fir my character however I didn't realise this. After a conversation with Rowan and Chloe we spoke about how I could change the way I say the line to give them a different meaning.

- To take the lead more and put forward my ideas to the group confidently.

This target I didn't achieve, I'm disappointed that I couldn't achieve this goal but its something I will defiantly be focusing on in the future.

Not only am I proud of my own performance and the groups performance overall, I'm particular proud of Elliot who being the only first year in the project tried his best to preform to the best of his ability. I personally believe he's a talented actor with lots a potential.

 

The future of choices.

With five successful performance under our belts at the time of writing this blog we are all enjoying Easter break. When return we will be continuing this project with more shows booked with in college in April and a performance in May. We will be continuing  to improve on the show by working on suggested ideas by our peers and improving ,the weaker scenes. 

In summary this project has had its many ups and down from argument and health issues but this has definitely been one of the biggest learning curves I've had at my time at Oldham college. Theatre in Education has never been something I've tough about doing in the future but the devising and working independently as a company is definitely something I'm interested in learning more about.