Health and Safety in Theatre and Our Piece

Evaluation Redraft

1.    How did you feel before the performance and why?

Frankie and I were particularly worried about the performance as on the run through we recorded on Thursday, there were lots of lines missed, lines said wrong, set being moved at the wrong time or not at all when it should have been and skipping to the wrong piece of dialogue at the wrong time.  We requested that if we rehearsed in the morning and it there were still lines not being said, then we could postpone the performance again but Miss Woffinden said that we were able to cover up and mistakes and missed cues, especially as it was in a style where we could be comical about it for example, if Olly jumped to the wrong line a bit early, I could chip in with ‘Oh Olly, you forgot that the wolf comes on first!  The story is just right there!’ and it wouldn’t look too out of place.

Still slightly anxious, we rehearsed for an hour but due to rooming issues, we couldn’t use our set as all 3 groups were sharing 1 room and another group had already brought their set in and claimed the space.  This was a small issue as we were the first to perform and out of the 3 groups, the most worried and least confident.  As we had very little space, we decided that we would just sit down and run through the lines but with the music (the backing track of our song) playing in the background to see how it sounded.  I think it just gave the play a little more life and filled and silences there were during scene changes.  For the second hour, we got moved into the room we would be performing in, we requested that we have our set at as during the rehearsal process, when all 3 groups were in 1 room, we had been the group with the least space.  We managed to claim a corner and could only have 1 of 3 pieces of set we use.  There were the GCSE drama group in with us as well which made everything even more cramped up.  Miss Woffinden said that because their next topic was TiE, they could watch us rehearse and/or we could perform for them to give them a taste of what it was like.  Seb was practicing with his guitar which made it very hard for us to hear each other and our track so Frankie and I went into the ICT room to print off the posters and programme.

During break time, we set up all the set and got into costume.  We had 1 final run through and waited for the audience.  Olly and I went up to the classroom which they were in and asked them to make their way to the drama studio in character.  We escorted them down to the performance area and got them sat down. (blog entry: pre-performance)

By this time, I was slightly excited underneath all of the nerves as I enjoy performing and I was also quite eager to get the topic finished as even though it has been enjoyable, I think it’s about time it ended as we’ve been working on it for so long and it’s been very time consuming, it will come as a bit of a relief.

2.    How did your group support each other during the performance?  Consider the team work and effective participators PLTS’s.

We supported each other really well as the set was in the correct place at the right time as everyone remembered their lines and cues.  Frankie covered up for Olly when he forgot his line and Jack and Frankie covered for me when I forgot a line.  We didn’t communicate on stage out of character which is good as it would have made the quality of the performance go down but we did make eye contact which helped us all and made us stronger as a team.  It made me feel less nervous and exposed knowing that my team had my back and reassured me as I was not alone.  Here’s a breakdown of the team worker and effective participator PLTS’s and how my group and I used them:

Collaborate with others towards common goals:

Frankie and I collaboratively designed the set and the costumes.  I drew out the designs on a board whilst we discussed and designed them together.  Although we designed the set together, I made the moving set and stayed after school to put the material over it as Frankie couldn’t stay behind.  We also collaborated to produce and record our song.  Olly and Frankie wrote it together and then we assigned ourselves and each other roles and instruments to play.  Olly helped me with playing the drums as it is something I’ve never done before, he taught me how to play a basic beat which we used in the song.

Reach agreements, managing discussions to achieve results:

We had to discuss when we could rehearse after school and had to collaborate and take note as to when everybody was available.  We all contributed to discussions and everybody had input in turn.  To show respect, we collaboratively sure that nobody was interrupted or left out.

Adapt behaviour to suit different roles and situations, including leadership roles:

I got really annoyed and upset when Olly didn’t know his lines towards the deadline and found that shouting at him did nothing and neither did begging him so I had to try and find a way to motivate him and get him to learn his lines as it is a really important thing and can make a professional look amateur.  We knew that we could cover for him if he did say a line wrong or miss one out, but Frankie and I especially didn’t want it to come to that as he should know them in the first place and it hardly seems fair on us to take responsibility off of him and give it to us.  We all adapted our behaviour when we went to go help the year 7’s with their questionnaires after the performance.  We had to behave more appropriately and adjust our language and tone of voice as we were with a much younger set of people.

Show fairness and consideration to others:

I let people have their input and express their opinions and ideas and then we chose the best one, according to the quality of the idea and the practicality, not who proposed it.  Everybody let each other present their ideas and suggestions; I think this is because we all respect each other enough to choose the options best for the group as a whole, and not the individual.

Take responsibility:

I took responsibility for the set and costume design in collaboration with Frankie.  I also took leadership over the construction of the set and made the designs as well as putting on the material as we had discussed.  I took little bits of responsibility such as learning my lines, bringing in any equipment our handouts we needed, being on time to rehearsals.  Everybody took responsibility over getting their costumes together and bringing them in (although Olly did forget his for a rehearsal we had discussed that we needed them for) and keeping their own personal hand props.  Olly also brought in his iPad which we needed to record the song on and also in the performance because he hadn’t burnt the song onto a disc.

Provide constructive support and feedback to others:

I have written reviews for the other two group’s performances and given the others on my group feedback and we have continually been reviewing and evaluating our own and each other’s performances throughout the whole process.  Everybody in the group has helped each other throughout for example; Olly supported us all during the recording of the song as this is his strongest area and preference.  Also, the entire diploma group have produced reviews of their own and some of each other’s performances.

Discuss and resolve concerns:

I’ve argued a bit when Olly didn’t pull his weight or learn his lines.  We were also worried we wouldn’t meet the deadline and wished we could just have had a block of rehearsals.  We tried to rectify this by arranging after school rehearsals and staying in at lunch and break times.  Also, when discussing when we could rehearse after school, Frankie, Jack and Olly all gave the days they were available and the days they were busy so that we could come up with a date suitable for everybody.

Present a persuasive case for action:

We had to persuade each other on the topics to do in the first place.  Frankie wanted to gender equality but I wanted to do political correctness with a fairy tale theme so we combined the ideas and did gender equality with a fairy tale theme.  When trying to talk us into doing her idea, Frankie pointed out that it was a unique idea, totally different to the other groups and we could make it different and our own.

Propose practical ways forward, breaking these down into manageable steps:

We broke down the process of creating the song.  We wrote it, came up with the chord pattern, identified which instruments we were going to play, learnt our parts and rehearsed them individually then we rehearsed as a group and identified where things didn’t work and changed and adjusted when we were playing, when we weren’t and made sure we had all our cues down.  We then practiced the final piece until we were ready to record it.  We also planned ahead as to what we were going to do in the after school rehearsals and gave time slots for each task or activity we were going to do.  We were going to run through the scene changes and lines, have a draft run through and allow for pauses and corrections to be made then get into costume and have a full uninterrupted run through with no stopping, even if something went wrong.

Identify Improvements:

We improved our piece towards the end of the process by adding a scene which included audience participation.  We wanted to do a proper workshop and have a hot seating session and maybe a forum theatre activity but we were struggling to get the drama finished, never mind a workshop so the additional scene acted as our workshop kind of as it included audience participation.  After watching the video of our after school rehearsal on 9^th June, Frankie and I discussed our concerns and all the things that could have gone better and what we should improve on.  We then presented these concerns to the boys who worked with us to improve the piece.

Influence others, balancing diverse views:

We didn’t really have much of a problem with diverse views but when there was a disagreement, which happened rarely, we discussed as a group the more practical option as we were on quite a tight schedule and racing against time to get the piece done.  If we had longer, then I think that some of the ideas we dismissed would have been considered more.  Olly expressed his opinion of the additional scene when we first set it and convinced us to go ahead with it as I was a bit dubious about adding another scene when the rest of it still needed to be worked on however, he convinced us to make it a permanent part of the performance and I’m glad we did as it served as our workshop and was the most successful part of the performance in my opinion as we got the audience thinking.

Act as an advocate for views and beliefs that may differ from their own:

My character’s views were pretty similar to my own thought maybe at little bit stronger than mine as he was fussier than I am about Olly’s characters comments, views and actions.  Olly’s character however, was very different to himself as was Jack’s as they both made really obvious, deliberate sexist comments which they wouldn’t normally do. (Blog entries: team worker and effective participator)

3.    What was the strongest moment in the piece with regards to the intention of the work and why?

When a boy in the audience said he had learnt something from our performance.  This was during the ‘Emily Bile’ scene so that was probably the strongest part of the performance as it made the audience think and participate.  On the DVD recording, when the camera shows the audience, you can see on their faces that they’re thinking when you ask them a question which is the point and the aim of the production all together.  Also, as it was the last thing we practiced, it was fresh in our minds which made us more confident with it and we knew what we were doing in it more that the rest of the play, perhaps because it contained some improvisational skills as we had to adapt our answers and what came next depending on what the audience said and how they responded.  I think the audience respond better to this kind of drama as its not scripted and brings out either the best or worst of you being on the spot.  However, it is easier to come out of character than in a scripted piece as the opinions you state, may be your own and not your characters but luckily, we all managed to stay in character and the audience reacted well to it as it was personal to them and their views which I think makes it more successful than a general view.

4.    What skills did you display as an actor?

I projected my voice throughout the performance and stayed in character.  I also worked as a joker quite well and got the audience to speak when they were asked to.  I also had to use improvisational skills during the ‘workshop’ scene whilst still in character and try to get opinions out of a quite reluctant audience.  This was quite hard as when none of them were willing to speak, I started to panic a bit but tried to cover it up and get them to talk, but not to bully them into it, to make them feel comfortable enough to be able to.  Also, I displayed good team work during the performance (see question 2) whilst on stage and believe I was an effective participator (again, see question 2).

5.    How did you feel at the end of the performance and why?

I was quite glad for it to be over, however, I knew that I had a lot of hard work ahead evaluating everything and gathering all my previous blogs together to come up with an end product so I was a bit reluctant to leave it behind in that respect. As with any project, there are good parts and not so good parts about it but in general, I have enjoyed working with my team on this project but it has been a long, hard process and will be glad to get some independent work done.

6.    How did your audience respond to the performance, use examples from your questionnaires?

They did as we instructed at the start and ‘booed’ in all the right places.  They laughed in all the right places also.  We asked for input, they did reluctantly at first but did move on as I encouraged them.  We went through the questionnaires and highlighted all the feedback that would be of use to us.  I then typed up all the bits we highlighted.  These are the extracts from the questionnaires we gave out.

·       The wolf was funny

·       The story teller had a clear voice, good facial expressions and tone of voice

·       Good set

·       Well organised

·       The wolf was funny

·       Red riding hood was very good, had good hand gestures and was against sexist people

·       Red didn’t let the sexist comments go and she fought for what she thought was right

·       I thought the set could have been a bit better

·       Frankie was good at doing any on the spot thinking when on the block.  Frankie played it confidently, had great expressions and projected her voice

·       When red and the wolf were on the stairs, she should tilt to the left so they could see both facial expressions and you shouldn’t talk when the scene is changing

·       Frankie’s voice was confident

·       The male narrator could have made more eye contact but all characters especially Frankie were very confident

·       Red wasn’t afraid of showing how she felt, she wanted to show what she could do

·       Could have been quieter at moving props

·       The wolf was funny and had a loud voice

·       I now think that girls can do a man’s job

·       I think overall there was nothing bad about it, it was great

·       The wolf was funny

·       Red’s character was very clear about sexism

·       I’ve never thought about it but now it’s made me think about gender equality

·       The performance was good

·       Abi had a loud clear voice and told the story very well

·       I’ve never thought about gender equality but now it’s made me think

·       The set was shiny and well made

·       The male narrator was very funny and spoke clearly

·       I already know about gender equality

·       The stage was nice and shiny and the play was creative

·       Red riding hood was confident and used gestures

·       I will think about what I say to people because it could upset them

·       The costumes helped show what characters they were

·       Red riding hood was confident but Abi did have a really good audience awareness

·       I will think about what I say

·       They had great costumes

·       Shown more about the girl and boy being sexist

·       I think it was good and I heard a lot of information

·       I thought it take them forever to make because it was so good

·       I thought it was really good and can make people think about what they say.  Try not to get your words mixed up and make sure you put the right cure cards up

·       Yes I think you need to treat women the same as men

·       I thought the show was very good and easy to learn something of

I thought some of their comments were very mature considering their age.  This suggests that I perhaps underestimated our target audience and should have expected more from them.  This would have affected our piece had we known the extent of their understanding previously as we could have used more sophisticated language and more mature storylines to explore and harder questions to think about.  If we were to explore gender equality again as a piece of TiE, I think it would be interesting to try an older target audience as it would be more challenging for us to gather all the research.  We found that our audience, although they knew basic manners and a couple of them had a basic understanding about equality and sexism, they hadn’t been introduced to this topic either in school or at home and I think that influenced our work and made us underestimate them even more than just the age of them.  (Blog entry: feedback)

7.    How well did you work as a team during the workshop, what could have been improved?

I think as we worked well as a team during the workshop as when we got ideas from the audience, we had to improvise and adapt to what they said.  I think that whilst receiving ideas from the audience, we could have stayed in character better.  Also, the pace didn’t stay the same, it seemed to slow down a bit at the workshop which would make it seem boring to the audience.  I think the reason for this is because there was a big scene change before it which slowed us down and also the fact that when we addressed the audience, at first they responded well but as we got to the point of asking them to speak, not just to raise their hand, they became reluctant and I had to spend time trying to coax them into speaking which made the piece fall a bit flat and made us all slip out of character a bit.

8.    If you were to work in this group again what would you do differently and why?

I wouldn’t leave Olly to do his own thing, I would give him explicit on what to do and encourage him to give his opinions and ideas.  I would also make sure that everybody knew exactly what was going on and make sure there were consequences for missing deadlines and rehearsals.  After reading Olly’s review, it seems that he was too afraid at times to give his ideas as he feared they wouldn’t be good enough and seemed to blame all the little mistakes that happened on himself.  If I were to work with Olly again, I would make it known to him that we really want his contributions and he shouldn’t be afraid to give his opinion.  I’m quite surprised at this attitude as he comes across as quite confident so during this process, I have learnt something about my teammates that will help all of us in future projects.  Also, I would give Jack specific tasks to do as a lot of the time, he wasn’t really doing anything independently as Frankie and I worked together quite a lot and sometimes with Olly.  However, I do not think it is mine, or anybody else’s responsibility but his own to get something productive done or even just to ask if there is anything he can do.

9.    What would improve your ‘performance’ as a TiE company?

Give ourselves each other clearly defined roles rather than just doing parts as we go along.  Also, create a rehearsal schedule and a checklist of all tasks, costumes, props and set we need and tick them off as we go along.  I think if we had all had specific roles to do such as ‘director’, ‘costume design’, ‘playwright’, then we would have gotten through the process quicker, giving us more time, confidence, and not made us worry so much when it came to the performance.  It would also have improved our strength as a team because I think through this process; a lot of the time we have worked more as 4 individuals put together rather than as a team.

10.                      What are your thoughts on your TiE project from watching the recording?

The scene changes weren’t as smooth as they could have been even though we rehearsed them a lot.  This was something that was brought up a couple of times by the year 7’s in the feedback we received from them through the questionnaires.  However, some of them did say that they liked the set which was really pleasing for me and Frankie as us two especially worked really hard on the set.  I think that we were really strong at times but made simple, easy mistakes such as when Olly had his back to the audience.  The workshop just about exceeded my expectations as I was a bit dubious about it at first as I was afraid that the audience wouldn’t respond at all and we’d be left there looking foolish however, we did get something out of the audience and we learnt something about them through both the workshop and questionnaires.  I learnt that they hadn’t been introduced to gender equality or sexism anywhere else, either at home nor in school and that we had underestimated them as they came out with some really mature, unexpected comments.  Overall, I think it was a successful piece of TiE as we got the audience thinking which our overall aim was.  Some of the pupils did say that they had learnt nothing as they already knew what we were telling them but I wasn’t expecting to educate every single person in the audience and even if we’d only got through to one person, I’d still be happy as that was one more person that knew about gender equality than before.