'ROAD' - Evaluation

Contemporary Theatre Performance Evaluation:

‘ROAD’

Interpreting the Text

     After our first read through of ‘ROAD’, I managed to deduce very little of its story, its messages, and its purpose.  Story wise; my initial thoughts was that it was series of monologues dedicated to looking at life in the 1980s through various characters eyes (it wasn’t until my second read through that I realised that there was a relation between the characters).  Message wise; in later session we analysed the text to see if we could find any themes within its context.  The themes we managed to deduce were:

·         The Theme of Change

·         The Theme of Sex

·         and The Theme of Responsibility

     As I later researched and discovered, in the assignment’s process, that these themes in particular summarised the characters, their objectives/obstacles, and their story arcs.  My final initial response to the text was, questioning its purpose.  In our first read through, I knew that the play was set in the 1980s, I knew this was going to be a dark depiction of life, and I knew there was going to be many characters involved.  Therefore my first response was that ‘ROAD’ was in fact a dark depiction of life on this road told through various perspectives.  But it wasn’t until later read through that I discovered that the majority of the characters are related, therefore enhancing the depiction of the road, as all the perspectives were now a community perspective of the dark, dull, and horrific road life.

     Once I had received a decent understanding of the text itself, I didn’t hesitate to go straight into my personal research of the play.  Firstly, I needed a little more help in understanding the play itself.  So my first piece of research was based around professional stage reviewers summaries of the plot, this helped me receive a better idea of the plays plot and purpose.  Plus it helped me to receive a critical response, knowing whether it was a good or bad play.

     All in all I did struggle at first with my research, but once I had received my performing role I dived straight into my character study research.  This helped me vastly with my extended research for ‘ROAD’ as well.  While my character was rather strict and elderly in his mannerisms, there was a lot to base my research around, such as the Generation X period within the 1980s and the change of politics.  All of which backed up my characters research and my understanding of the true purpose with ‘ROAD’s text.        

Rehearsal Techniques

     With the research process complete we instantly began the rehearsal process.  Now throughout this process I learnt and discovered many things about myself as an actor and about my character.  These are the key rehearsal techniques that I feel I achieved a positive overall response in:

·         Personal Management – I feel I succeeded well with my personal management within this assignment.  I ensured I had everything I needed for rehearsals, I kept a positive attitude to ensure a good process, and I worked/interacted well with the rest of the class.  All to ensure myself and the others a good rehearsal and production process.

·         Line Learning – I see this one as another positive, as I feel I succeeded in mastering my lines earlier on in the process.  I used similar line learning techniques from the past (in speaking the text out loud in a monotone repetition) so I could focus new techniques needed for this particular performance.  Such as learning the northern accent and my own characters vocal, even, physical traits.  All of which I think allowed me to succeed in bringing my character to life.

·         Response to Directing – Linking back to my first two points I feel that my response to directing supported my personal management and my line learning development.  Not only did I receive directing feedback from my performance/assignment director, but from my fellow peers as well.  This led me to receive various feedback and directing ideas/suggestions for my character, in order to develop.  I think I responded well, as I took in all that I thought would help me progress, and I rejected any feedback that I thought didn’t suit my character.

·         Time Management – Another extreme positive in my rehearsals techniques.  I ensured I was on time for each rehearsal and performance session and never aimed to be late of miss a session.

·         Working Relationships – I think of this as another positive as well.  I feel I did work well with other members of the class/cast.  As we I offered feedback to their performances as well and we all ensured a good, positive, and active rehearsal process.  While there were some disagreements with directing suggestions we all gave a positive attitude and made this process a success.

·         Peer Feedback – As I mentioned in earlier points I did receive a lot of feedback notes, but I also gave a lot of feedback notes as well.  I felt this was another extreme positive in the rehearsal process.  Because it allowed us to develop individually as actors in this piece and as actors in general.  We all developed in a speedy rate with our characters and we developed in understanding more and more of the rehearsal and production process actors go through.  All the while upholding a positive attitude.

Process

     I feel another extreme positive was my personal development as a performer in this piece.  Firstly, my character development I feel was thanks to my peer’s feedback.  The feedback I received developed my own understanding of my character to a standard that gave my character layers of info and detail that supported the plot and this character’s perspective of the road life.  Plus developing my character understanding to a new and improved factor allowed me to develop my own performance techniques.  Vocally and physically I adapted to this character, who has a specific walking posture and vocal (in accent) tone, all to reflect his origins and his current state.

Performance

     When watching our main performance back I did notice some negatives within my own performance, but negative notes aside I feel I succeeded in certain areas within my performance:

·         Engagement with the Audience – I feel I succeeded in engaging the audience with my character.  As my main goal was to show the audience the tragedy the character had been through and was going through.  But I felt I succeeded in grabbing the audience’s attention and showing them this perspective of the road.   

·         Focus – From the start of my monologue to the end, I held my focus high to really stay in character both physically and vocally.  Thankfully I didn’t focus too hard to an extent where I gave a boring performance.  But I gave enough energy and focus to present an intriguing character on stage.

·         Confidence – Backing up my focus on stage I feel I gave a decent amount of confidence on stage to ensure that it wasn’t a boring performance.  But I do feel that in rehearsals when performing in the northern accent it did decrease my confidence.  But thanks to more rehearsals and peer feedback I felt I gave the precise amount of confidence to ensure it was well projected in character performance.

·         Execution of Vocal and Physical Skills – As I mentioned earlier I did struggle at first with my physical and vocal presentation of my character, but over rehearsal time developed to an improved standard.  I feel that my main execution of vocalisation and physicality was an extreme positive as well.  I am particularly proud of my portrayal of the physicality of my character.  As I upheld the elderly mannerisms of the character and showed enough aggression within his personality.  Vocally, while I feel I lacked in projection and inflection, I am pleased with the fact I mastered the northern accent, and I feel this was something to improve upon for future performances.  But all the while I am pleased with my execution in character.

·         Consistency and Coherence of My Role & My Commitment – Linking back to the previous points, I felt extremely positive about my execution in character and confidence on stage, leading me to uphold a constant coherence in character.  This allowed me to develop my role in the play and develop my understanding of the characters purpose and the context.  Therefore I feel I gave a positive attitude towards the consistency in my role as I wanted to give one hundred percent commitment to this role and truly bring the character to life.  My commitment to this role wasn’t limited as I explored a wide range with my character study and gave various performance elements to really bring my character to life physically and vocally.  It was an extraordinary process that brought exceptional results.

Strengths

     Now onto the essential evaluative notes; what do I think were my strengths within this assignment?

1.      Learning my lines – Learning my script wasn’t a difficulty and I pursued an early understanding of my character thanks to this strength.

2.      Understanding the Themes and History behind the Text – Throughout this assignment’s process I feel extremely positive with my contribution towards the research, and understanding the themes and history was the perfect strength within my research process.

3.      Developing my Performance Skills – When beginning this assignment I intended to use my previous performance skills, used in other performance roles, but it wasn’t later in the process that I realised that I could use and develop new performance skills.  This proved to be an extreme positive as I felt I gave a performance to my full potential and I received new skills which will come in handy in future performances.  It developed my performance and me as a performer.  

Weaknesses

     What do I think were my weaknesses within this assignment?

1.      Some of my Vocalisation Traits - While I really enjoyed learning the northern accent, for this performance, I do feel that I could have improved a little more in my presentation of the accent.  Once I had learnt my lines I went straight into learning the accent and how to use inflection to bring my character’s vocal traits to life.  While the feedback from my peers was helpful and supportive, I feel that in the main performance I needed more rehearsal in my inflection and accent development, just so I could bring an accurate and realistic interpretation of this character to life on stage.

2.      Needed more Articulation – Supporting my lack of inflection, I feel I had a lack of articulation as well within my vocalisation.  While at first I felt I wouldn’t be an issue because the northern accent allows the loss of certain words within spoken sentences.  But it turned out to be an issue within my performance as some words weren’t as clear as they needed to be.  For example; I had say the word “sex” out loud, unfortunately it apparently sounded like I said “six”.  While my performance did receive good feedback from my peers and the audience, I do feel this is a weakness and I could improve upon it for future reference.  

Target Setting

     Now that this assignment piece is complete I have set myself some targets which I would strongly like to concur for future assignment performance pieces.  My three key targets are:

1.      Land more or bigger Performance Roles – While the performance role I received was good and essential to the plot, and I really enjoyed researching and creating his character, I was rather disappointed with the lack of stage time he had.  Therefore I will make it a goal of mine to land a bigger performance role.  One that perhaps has dialogue with other characters.

2.      Give more Feedback to other Performers – While I did take feedback notes and gave them to other performers, to help them as best as I could.  I did feel as though I could have given them up close directing suggestions of my own to help them with their performance.

3.      Research into more than one Character to receive a Bigger Picture of the entire Storyline – I am very pleased with my research within this assignment, but I couldn’t help but feel that it was restricted with my research.  In particular looking around my character and his story arcs helped me to learn about the rest of the story.  Therefore I feel the need to perhaps research other characters to help me receive a bigger picture of the fiction depiction of life.  

'ROAD' - Post 08

‘ROAD’ – Performance Week

Monday 11^th, Wednesday 13^th and Thursday 14^th May 2015

Final rehearsals

     As the performance week began, we instantly proceeded into the rehearsals of ‘ROAD’.  Both the tech runs and start to finish rehearsals, I found, were extremely successful.  I personally found that it embraced our final understanding and visual elements of the production.  The tech run helped me to get a better theatrical vision of ‘ROAD’.  Plus the start to finish rehearsals helped me to conclude how this production is more intriguing than its script.

Final observational feedback

     My performance role (‘Jerry’) had layers of detail and character information stored into a monologue therefore I felt a slight desperate need to bring the character to life with good and accurate intention.  Therefore I took every observational feedback note as an opportunity to improve.  Key feedback notes I received were:

·         Visualise, reminisce, and act out his past – that way there is a sense of likability within his characteristics and show that this elderly character isn’t meaningless in this production.

·         Remember to change vocal pitch variations – I found this a really essential performance feedback note, because it would allow me to vocally bring the character to life and have no similarities to my own vocal variations.  Only then will the audience see ‘Jerry’ not an actor.

·         Great delivery, physically and vocally, of the character’s traits – A positive feedback note that really helped my confidence with this performance.

The main performance

     I was extremely pleased with the end result of our performance of ‘ROAD’.  I was pleased with our ensemble presentation of ‘ROAD’ and its characters.  Plus I was very pleased with my presentation of ‘Jerry’. 

 

     Full performance evaluation to be posted soon.   

'ROAD' - Post 07

What makes this play an intriguing story?

Wednesday 6^th and Thursday 7^th May 2015

The supporting characters

     With our final rehearsal week pre-performance week, I wanted to spend this time wisely and really explore the anatomy of ‘ROAD’.  I took it upon myself to explore the characters and storyline in detail to answer the question, what makes this play an intriguing story?

     My initial response to the script was sceptical.  I couldn’t initially see a storyline, or plot structure.  Although once we proceeded with the blocking and rehearsal process it became apparent to all us cast members that there is a beginning and an end and a journey from A to Z.  But what confused us was the majority of characters and no particular stand out protagonist.  It was only half way through the blocking process that it became clear to me that this play was ‘Scullery’s’ story, vision, and shared journey (he breaks the forth wall and interacts with the audience) of the road.  But with that clarity set in my mind, why was I still sceptical about the play?  This is because of the supporting characters.

     Now that we’re at an essential point in the assignment’s process I beginning to recollect a quote and another famous storyline that I feel strongly reflect the characters of ‘ROAD’.  The quote reads: “These characters have no particular pattern.” – by Steven Berkoff, from ‘Shakespeare’s Villains’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py9CMN3TYyM&spfreload=10).  This quote in particular fascinates me.  When I pictured these characters one this that constantly ran through my mind is that they all share a tragic origins.  Although in this rehearsal week I recollected on that particular thought.  Yes, all these characters share, either an obvious or mysterious, origins story but their motivations and objectives are all varied in twisted pattern that makes each character standout and bring a different sense of entertainment. 

     For example, my character ‘Jerry’ brings a tragedy entertainment, as his monologue is extremely tragic, especially when his reminisces his past, but its told in a way that the audience do not feel complete sorrow for the character and are more concerned for his current actions.  Another character that has the opposite response would be ‘Bisto’, this “foul mouthed DJ” brings so much energy and comic relief entertainment that it makes me strongly ponder, is his comical actions an act?  Which is why the performer who will be bringing ‘Bisto’ to life in our interpretation of ‘ROAD’ doesn’t disappoint by bringing the pitch perfect amount of energy into the character, but at select moments he either brings a pause or lowers his vocalisation and in my eyes there is a potential hint that this character had a tragedy in his past as well.  His all the more makes ‘ROAD’ a compelling, intriguing and entertaining story. 

     With all these intriguing characters and origin stories, this recollects me with another famous storyline which brings many compelling, intriguing and entertaining characters and story arcs.  George R. R. Martins hit novel and television series ‘Games of Thrones’ explores a fictional world filled with hundreds of characters all set in the same basis with one another.  Unlike the Steven Berkoff quote concerning characters with no pattern, the characters in ‘Game of Thrones’ all have unique character traits and objectives, but I see a pattern in all of them, because each character has a purpose in the storyline.  This also has an impact on the storyline because the novels and the TV show series’, because each character action can have a positive or negative effect on the future of the story.  While in ‘ROAD’ not ever character interacts with one another, therefore each character actions can’t have that much of a devastating effect on the future of the story.  But with ‘Scullery’ being the eyes and ears for the audience, the characters actions give something for interpretation.  This gives multiple possibilities for an unknown/incomplete future for Jim Cartwright’s ‘ROAD’.       

My character

     Continuing with the rehearsals into my character, is there anything in particular that I’ve altered to make the character a step further in the intriguing factor?  While I have learnt all there is to know about my character, I still feel there is a select few performance elements that I need to improve upon before the main performance.  When receiving observational feedback I did see a few similarities:

·         Improve upon the accent.

·         Focus particularly on these words: “though”, “there”, and “girls”.

·         Use the stage space more wisely.

·         Really act out the moments when ‘Jerry’ recollects his past.

·         and Give meaningful gestures particularly on lines like: “I don’t know”.

     So with these near final observational feedback bullet points taken into account I have continued to strongly focus on two key performance areas. 

     Firstly my vocal work.  I have taken this Northern Accent sheet which extracts selected words and teaches how to project them in the Northern Accent.  My plan of action is to repetitively say these words aloud, until I embrace the Northern projection.  Then my next vocal task would be to add a deeper vocal tone to bring ‘Jerry’s’ speech pattern to life.  Finally I would simply re-track my monologue, using these vocal techniques and bring ‘Jerry’ to life how I intended.

     Secondly I personally found a negative in my physicality of the character.  Recently when moving in time with the speech, and mentally exploring what ‘Jerry’ would be thinking in this scene I began my movements but I instantly felt “this is not how ‘Jerry’ would move”.  Therefore I feel it particularly essential for me to develop my physicality of ‘Jerry’.  Thereby giving more meaning to the speech and physically bring him to life, making myself happy with the performance, and entertain the audience.  One particular performance inspiration I found was with ‘Grand Meister Pycelle’ from HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’.  I said in my character study that I would strongly reference this performance with sharing his slow and weary vocal delivery, but I now feel that I can also reference him through his equally slow and weary physical actions and movements.  All in all to bring ‘Jerry’s’ elderly and damaged to life physically.  (Here is an video clip extracted from ‘Game of Thrones’ showing an example of ‘Pycelle’s’ vocalisation and physicality: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m89_YU5v6XU).

The main performance to come

     With all these observational feedback notes taken in and with a clear goal with my improvement plan, I believe this performance will be a success.  Not only that but I also believe we will bring Shakespeare’s famous quote to life: “the whole world’s a stage”.  In that we won’t bring ‘ROAD’ to life physically and vocally as performers.  We would have transported the audience to the road, and shown them a dark depiction of life.  All the while providing entertainment and intriguing to the characters and story development.

'ROAD' - Post 06 (Blog No. 100)

Rehearsals and Areas of Development

Monday 27^th, Wednesday 29^th and Thursday 30^th April 2015

Early Observational Feedback

     Beginning this week of rehearsals, the early plan was to continue our focus of the pre-show structure and construct a non-repetitive feeling to our performance.  Two areas of focus that I drew to particularly were:

1)      ‘Scullery’ and ‘the Professor’s’ interactions with the characters.

2)      and ‘Eddie’s’ dads entrance calls.

     Our director wanted specific stage movements and styles that did give off a repeating theatrical pattern.  In other words, she wanted it to be less obvious to the audience what was going to happen next.  I personally liked this idea.  This could give our performance of ‘ROAD’ a unique twist on its theatre elements.

     Firstly we looked to the pre-show scene where ‘the Professor’ wonders around amongst the characters on stage and the entering audience.  This was supported with ‘Scullery’, whom welcomes the audience as well, but interacts with the characters on stage to show off his own character traits.  But how was the scene directed?  While it does sound as if the pre-show is going to be repetitive, the idea of introducing each character makes each interaction unique and begins the play.  Plus with both ‘Scullery’ and ‘the Professor’ interacting with each other, it would enthral the audience as to where this play is set, why are the characters like this, and where is this play going to take them?

     Secondly we looked to the theatrical style of ‘Eddie’s’ introduction.  For my second performance role (of ‘Eddie’s Dad’), my part in this scene in nothing more than an extra in the background.  Therefore I didn’t feel the need to create a character profile/study for this character.  But it was the entrance call that I found interesting, when it came to inserting a new theatrical element.  The plan was to have both me and the performer of ‘Eddie’, enter half way through the scene before.  Thereby indicating to the audience this play is forever flowing in pace, and showing them how large this road is in population.  All highlighted through the various interrelating characters.

     Another theatrical element that we developed was the dance segment involving ‘Eddie’, ‘Carol’, ‘Louise’, and ‘Brink’.  As the play draws to an end, the last (long) scene shows these four characters interacting.  The scene is to show the stereotypical youth generation of their time (sexually and alcoholically energised).  The scene also brings mixed emotions and thoughts, from an audience member’s perspective, as it brings a hint of romance, awkwardness, tension, and drama.  But mid-way through the scene, the characters lose their mind to the alcohol and take the time to dance.  While we’re in the early stages of the rehearsals, the dancing naturally came of across as awkward and meaningless.  Therefore we initiated that the whole class should join in a really “let ourselves go”.  Through this it made the dancing vibe really come alive on stage, and make it seem that the characters were having the time of their lives in this brief, but thought provoking moment.

Vocal Feedback

     Taking a quick break from physical stage rehearsals, it was now our chance to see how we have improved with our Northern Accents.  I personally noticed a huge improvement amongst the entire class.  The Accent has become a more recognisable vocal trait to our ears, and most of us had active gold in physically mastering the Accent.  But what was my personal feedback like?

     In full swing the Accent came across clearly and I succeeded in my articulation.  However my feedback did constantly refer back to my articulation being of a Southern Accent.  Picking apart many words within my monologue, I set goals to achieve these vocal traits and master the Northern Accent. 

     Here is the list of letters and words that I need focus on, in order to achieve accurate pronunciation:

·         Aye – Need to be projected as: Ay/ee

·         Can’t – Caan’t

·         Stand – Staaand

·         Past – Pah/st (remember that the is no “r” sound in “Past” and “Bath”)

·         Remember to drop the “h” in How (“‘ow it was”)

·         Remember to drop the “o” sound sharply, particularly on words like “love” and “lay”.

·         One may be projected as Won

·         and Remember to keep a deeper vocal tone and forget nasal breathing to perfect the mouthy Northern Accent.

2 Stars, 1 Wish

     Going back to another observational feedback session, we had each monologue performer present their monologue and character study to the rest of the class, while we took down notes (two positive points and one point of improvement).  We came to this final session of the week presented our monologues again to see how far we have improved. 

     I was the first to perform as this was the best feedback I received:

Star 1 – Good physicality of the character (while some movements were unintentionally seen as slapstick, the movements did project an aggressive state of the character).  

Star 2 – Good understanding of the characters state and mind of certain subjects (this was strongly shown in my vocal delivery and facial expressions on ‘Jerry’s’ spoken subjects of “girls” and “sex”).

Wish 1 – I did lose the accent half way through the monologue (this was due to my experiment to taking my vocal projection to a deeper and darker tone, hence losing the accent, therefore take in the vocal actions plans to make every word appear Northern not Southern).

     All in all this entire rehearsal week was extremely efficient and helpful.  Efficient because we took to taking a new and unique turn on our performance of ‘ROAD’.  Helpful because I have received great feedback stating that what I’ve got so far is good, the only improvement I need to do is my vocal projection in the Northern Accent.  So with these actions points taken into account, I feel I can succeed in bring ‘Jerry’ to life physically and vocally, and make ‘ROAD’ a unique and one of a kind performance.