- The first performance went relatively well however there were some mishaps with props which impeded the flow of the performance. Thus for the second performance we decided that as opposed to putting each person in charge of knowing where their own props are, I would have to be in charge of them to avoid these problems.
- From the audience reactions and comments I found that the symbolism of my costumes was very effective and added to the mood of the performance.
- The blocking of the scenes also seemed to go well except at times the audience commented that Jack was not in his spotlight and that the guests in the banquet scene were saying that they wanted to leave but were sitting still in their chairs which didn’t look very good. Another audience member also commented that it was obvious the actors which did not have much theatre experience as they were really just reciting lines and thinking about the blocking as opposed to really acting and I realised that they may have needed some more workshops in this area if we had had more time. Another audience member also said that possibly as the stage was so bare and stark, the actors may have felt more awkward as the audience was totally focused on them. We also had an uneven performance as we were all acting in different styles due to different theatre experience.
- Another informed audience member also commented that they thought I played my character with a Brechtian approach – playing her almost with the title of ‘rape victim’ as opposed to an intensely emotional approach which Meg took to her character. I also found it more difficult than I anticipated to get to the right state for the emotional scene with hardly any time between the scenes. However, it was relatively easy to concentrate as long as I did not look straight at the audience. I also found that I decided to act using Brechtian technique as an approach to my acting as while Artaud encouraged the performance to disturb the actors as well as the audience, I would not have been able to complete the project if I had used Stanislavski’s magic if due to the nature of the content of the performance.
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