Evaluation of Performance

The family: 'Behind The Scenes'



My individual performance : On the night I felt I gave it my all and had fun whilst doing. Like my teacher said, I tried not so much to think of what line came next but to think about what I wanted in the scene and what my reactions were to what the other characters said. My scene with Hannah and Katie ( who played Cissy and Lilly) were different in pace to a lot of the other scenes. Because we had a fairly normal conversation ,we were lively and fed of well from what others said. Half way through the scene my character doesn't speak anymore and I found that a good way to focus on reacting. In one line when I list all the things you need to do to stay healthy I think I went a bit too quickly so it seemed very unnatural. As well as that, I emphasised "In Anderson's big car" too much which led to my second line having to be even more emphasised. I think my volume and projection was good and maybe I could of hit those 2-word lines to be as loud as the rest. What made it believable for me was the tone and contrasts of the beginning 'heys' or the smiles and weird looks we gave each other if the other character had said something. One of the actors forgot their lines but I think she covered up well and we moved on better from that.

I didn't end up actually eating anything- I just looked for things in my bag or took out some water and had a sip eventually. Our lines together flowed so quickly that I didn't know when was the right time to take a bit of food- that's why I left it out. But I think fiddling around with the water bottle showed that I was so into the conversation I forgot about eating or drinking.


Other scenes: The first scene when we all take our places in the room and start dancing wasn't as crazy as it was when we practiced. The dancing didn't gradually get bigger- the voices just became more random and louder. When it came to the screaming, we all screamed at the same time and knew when to move into our 'side scenes'.

I think what may have confused the audience or the actors was the long pauses that people took in some scenes. Because it was hard to tell whether they did it for a pause of thought (which should be clearly shown as well on their faces) or if they didn't know what there next line was.

Shooting scene: From the moment it began I though the tension of the room just got a bit higher and it was a totally different mood from the rest of the play.  Because of the short lines a majority of us had I thought it was hard to pace it so that it kept the audience on their feet and it could of been more powerful. Personally, I found it hard to know when to start screaming (although I knew our signal was Hannah's hit to the space) because she was far behind me, so I relied on everyone else.

My experience: For it being my first play I performed in school , i LOVED it and I felt that as a strand our group bonds well like a family. In addition, it was great to have some motivational talk ,before our play, from our teachers.