Performance Week: Junk
Monday 19th May –
Thursday 22nd May 2014
As the last week of the rehearsal process
came to an end, it was now the time to begin performance week. Our rehearsal sessions continued, only this
time we began in the college theatre. We
started the day with preparations of props and staging. Whilst the theatre was beginning to take shape
of how we planned to stage ‘Junk’. I
mentioned in previous blogs of our plan to stage the play with the audience
seated around the stage in a rectangular setting, with entrances and exits set in
between the audiences seating positions.
This way we would be able to present the whole drama towards the
audience and they would be able to see every little detail, in the setting of
the play and in our individual performances.
It would also include a slight visual of the stage representing a street
and it would deliver the moral message of the play being a journey for the lead
characters, “Tar and Gemma”, a journey of how their lives go from bad to worse.
While the theatre was being prepared by
staff members, we had the props at hand ready to set the stage, but in the mean
time we continued rehearsals to ensure full concentration and confidence for
the performing side of the process. With
a many scenes blocked in previous rehearsal sessions, our main focus was to
look at how we could improve our performances.
In my case it was more about my verbal presentation. Having learnt my characters lines, using a
new learnt technique, of speaking my lines out loud in a slightly robotic tone,
this would give me more of a chance to rely on my muscle memories instead of
relying on my own memory to deliver the lines.
Therefore when it came to the actual rehearsals I didn’t look at how I
could present my lines. So in today’s
session I looked as to how I could add more characterisation in my verbal
presentation as well as my physical presentation. All of which was supposed to back up my style
of acting in presenting the dramatic effects of certain scenes, as well as
creating a detailed and interesting characters amongst many others in this
play. Personally I feel this
introduction to the performance week was helpful as it may have been a
continuation of the rehearsals, but it was all very helpful in preparing us for
the main performance, only two days away.
Finishing our last minute rehearsals of
blogging and improving scenes, we had a short break and returned to begin
setting the stage for the main performance.
The audience’s seats were set and we began to lay out all props and
staging equipment to make our visual ideas of what the stage would look like
and make it real. With so many props,
listing from a pay telephone, an old television, graphite decorated boxes,
empty bottles, many more our plan to set them on the stage was to present it in
the style of a squatters house. From our
background research, into what the play looks like in reality, we discovered
what squatters are really like in the houses and our plan was to reflect that on
the stage. The style was to be extremely
messy, so we place all props and equipment randomly on the stage, in a way so
there would be enough room for us actors to move around on stage, and for us to
have enough space to enter and exit when called on or off stage. The end result of the stage, I thought, was
pretty impressive as it really presented the life style of these characters as
well as showing how bad life can get, which gave a strong and slight positive
in making this play as real as possible.
Monday’s session came to an end with many
of us feeling a positive attitude for our upcoming session as we came closer
and closer to our first performance of the play. We had also received some notes from our
teacher, in which explored certain areas in which we needed to improve, whether
it was performing strategies or certain changes needed to be made before the
main performance.
Tuesday’s session began at an earlier
time, than originally planned, as our main goal was to do a successful fun
through of the entire play. Having the
stage already set, props already placed, we all got ourselves into our costumes
and prepared ourselves for a fun through of act one.
We decided to take the rehearsal at a mild
speed giving the technician time to make any changes to sound or lighting cues. The majority of the cues had already been
set, but it was now our chance to get to know the cues so we would know what to
expect for future rehearsals and of course the main performance. As we began rehearsing act one there were a
few obvious errors, concerning cue times for actors to be on stage, or sound
cues. But all in all they were areas in
which could be improved, although one area that was a positive overall was the
improvement of the majority of the casts performances of their characters. It was a really interesting to see how much the
other cast member had improved in presenting their characters, in which was a
vast improvement to show how the true realism of the plot within the play as
well as showing the actors commitment to their role.
As the day’s session went on we completed
our run through of the play, however after receiving more notes from our
teacher, it became apparent to us, while we may know all of our lines and all
of our stage movements and timings, we still hadn’t achieved the approximate run
time of the play, which was to be one hour and thirty minutes. Therefore after our break, we aimed to do
another run through, hoping to achieve faster timing, making it overall ninety
minutes long. In our second attempt
there were less errors concerning timing, however there was a slight problem
concerning lines, as unfortunately many of us, including me, lost track of our
lines. But all in all a second run
through, as in a way it reminded me of the line learning technique. In the sense of us relying on our muscle
memories instead, therefore making it seem more natural from the audiences perspective
and to ourselves. This was proven when
our second run through ended, as our teacher made the decision to end the day’s
session earlier than planned because this would allow everything we had learnt
and rehearsed to sink in so we would feel very confident and prepared for the
next day’s performance.
First Performance Day
Just as we did in our two previous
rehearsal days we arrived earlier. Once
every member of the cast arrived we simply started with another run through of
the play, now that all the lighting and sound cues were confirmed and ready for
the main show. It was also extremely
helpful as well because we would also have the chance to see if we were truly
comfortable and confident enough to present the play to our first audience,
only a few hours away. We managed to run
through the play twice before hand, and at the end of the very last minute rehearsal
I felt extremely confident in present this play to our first audience.
It was at three o’clock in the afternoon
when the first performance was on.
As the audience arrived and took their
seats, all of us, cast members, were either seated behind the central seated
audience, or at our at our first entrance door way, but in the case of the
actors who played Tar and Gemma were seated back stage centre to open the play.
Overall I feel this first performance was
good, slightly imperfect, as I felt I could have given a little more detail in
my characterisation on stage. But all in
all it was a good performance, receiving a positive outcome from both the
audience and our teacher. Resulting in
us taking a break and then we would return to give our second performance.
The second performance was performed at
seven o’clock in the evening.
Personally I felt the second performance
was the best to date. Out of all our full
run through rehearsals, this performance topped all of them. I personally felt very confident on stage,
and though I managed to present a decent portrayal of the character ‘Vonny’. Plus every cast member gave an outstanding
performance as well, backing up my confidence, and truly making all the
characters and the plot as convincing as possible for the audience.
Second Performance Day
Wednesday’s two performances were very successful
in the eyes of our teacher, the audience, and ourselves, but now it was time to
give the final performance of our final major project. Starting the day a little later in the
morning as, again, it would give us time to process and remember our staging
and acting in the last two performances.
Once again every cast member had arrived and we started the day by playing
some drama games to get our brains in gear for the performance. Then as the performing hour approached nearer
and nearer he set our props and got dresses into our costumes ready for the
final show.
It was at one o’clock in the afternoon
when our final performance began.
Throughout this week I see it as a grand
achievement in another lesson. We
achieved our final major project in our Level 2 course of Performing Arts (Acting),
and we also achieved the best outcome of our performances. In the way of seeing the response of our best
abilities in acting, testing our abilities to see if we are capable of portraying
these characters on stage and act in this intense and dramatic production. I personally feel that this play was an
amazing chance to see what we as actors can achieve as well setting goals, from
any negatives from the outcome of our individual performances, and see if we
can improve for future reference.
This project was a privilege to take part
in and I look forward to see what we can achieve in future projects.
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