'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.