Devising Assignment Week 7 - Part 3

One Day To Go

Wednesday 25^th February 2015

Q:           What happened in today’s rehearsal session?

A:                 With tomorrow being the assignment’s performance day, today began at a low.  Concerned with the rehearsal time, and the possibility of losing team members, we were pushing and wishing for a resolution.  Thankfully we received one.

                     Keeping the performance structure, and all that we had rehearsed from yesterday’s session, we set a plan to present our performance today and have it assessed.  Performing with all team members and the entire structure devised, we performed to a small audience and to our assessors. 

The performance, I found was a success.  I felt we succeeded in presenting the character’s and stories to an understandable rate, from the audience’s perspective, and made our physical theatre styles, of inspiration, clear and affective.  As we concluded our performance, we asked, and received, feedback from the audience and our assessors.

Q:           What was our feedback like?

A:            Audience Feedback:

·         Good stage structure.

·         Good presentation of the characters.

·         Brilliant overall outcome.

Assessors Feedback:

(These feedback bullet points concerned areas for improvement, whether in our own performances or the staging of the performance.  All points towards improving our performance in time for tomorrow’s main show times.)

·         Removing the story of ‘Doctor Joe’s’ affair with one of his patients.

·         Set chairs to correct positions before the performance begins.

·         Become very precise with our movements throughout the performance.

·         Pick up our vocal projection.

·         Add a vocal ‘cannon’ effect.

·         Give more purpose to my prop, the Dictaphone.

·         Alter the final act to show more of ‘Doctor Joe’s’ negative thoughts.

·         and Enhance on all elements to make the entire performance truly theatrical.

Q:           What is the goal for tomorrow’s performance?

A:                 Due to one member of our team being absent for tomorrow’s performance, we will give the performance tomorrow, excluding that particular team member from our entire performance.  Because they were with us today, we gave the performance with the full ensemble.  But tomorrow, we aim to give the entire performance again, just re-devising it to a four member ensemble.  Plus with these feedback bullet points from our assessors, I feel we can succeed in alter the performance, slightly, and enhance our performance elements, to make it possibly better.

Q:           How can we achieve these feedback bullet points?

A:            (This afternoon we did begin to include and develop these performance feedback notes.  But in tomorrow’s performance we to have devised the performance to…)

·         By removing the affair with ‘Doctor Joe’ and one of his patients, it will enhance of the fact that the patient is purely obsessed with him.  Plus the scene involving her fantasising her own marriage with ‘Doctor Joe’, it makes the fact that the affair never happened increasing affective, and dramatic in a way.

·         By setting the chairs on stage, it will be less of a struggle for our organisation back stage.

·         By making our movement’s very precise and detailed, it will give more meaning to our character’s actions.  Plus, in my perspective, it reflects the clockwork movement that can be found in ‘Berkovian’ productions.

·         A development point aimed at all of us, we did need to pick up our vocal projection, in order for our audience to understand all information given vocally.

·         Returning to the scene involving the patient character fantasising about herself marrying ‘Doctor Joe’, it was recommended that we should all join in a vocal cannon.  Simply all humming in time to the theme of “here comes the bride”.  Giving an eerie sense and feel to the dream like scene.

·         My prop, the Dictaphone, will now keep the vocal recordings of myself introducing the patients symptoms (OCD, Relationship Problems, and Secrets), but I would playback the recording once the act concludes.  The idea behind this was to emphasis ‘Doctor Joe’s’ descending in to depression.  Plus, for the final scene (‘Doctor Joe’s’ suicide) we would playback a recording saying: “your next patient is ready Doctor Joe”.  I thought this was a brilliant suggestion from our lecturers/assessors, because the idea was that the recording could be a ‘mind-blowing’ reference to the possibility that none of the performance’s events ever happened, and it was all ‘Doctor Joe’s’ dream.  A possibility that we wouldn’t answer and leave it for our audience to deduce/interpret.

·         By altering the final act, changing it from its original structure of being patients suffering from 'keeping secrets', to a new structure that had the supporting character's representing the repetitive negative thoughts, going through ‘Doctor Joe’s’ mind.  Through this it would enhance that fact that the patients/negative thoughts are ultimately responsible for his death/suicide, as they draw him to depression.  We therefore decided to show this though the character's repeating ‘Doctor Joe’s’ questions and his movements.  Plus by us adding the physical theatre performance element of a ‘Greek Chorus’, it visually help us show his descending into depression, his journey to the bridge, and the ending of the performance.

·         The final bullet point, of improvement, focused on all of us, as we set a goal to “up our game” and make the whole performance seem theatrical.  Only this way could we intrigue the audience a step further and bring professionalism to life in our performance.

Q:           Am I ready for tomorrow’s performance?

A:                 Yes!  I now feel extremely confident in what we’ve presented (in a full ensemble), and what we’ve achieved in preparation for our official performance tomorrow.  The plan tomorrow is to rehearse this slightly altered structure and include these points for improvement, and only then, I feel, we would have completed our Devising Physical Theatre Assignment.