On February 12, my ensemble and I delivered two performances of 'East End Tales' which we have been working on for about two terms now. It was performed with physical theatre, lack of props and scenery, and no conversational dialogue. I think our performance was a great success and everyone should be proud of what we achieved, I know I am!
We developed ideas for the performance by using the play-script itself, doing deep research and also class discussions. In the early stages of research, we discussed altogether that because there isn't a specific role to give out, we should have to think of a creative and imaginative way to perform 'East End Tales' The script was structured out as a monologue, also like a poem, and so we decided that physical theatre would be a good option. I had never done any form of physical theatre in drama before so this was exciting to me. This term wasn't just working on physical theatre, but also improvisation. I don't particularly like improvisation, but in these past two terms, I've grown a bit more comfortable with it. During the rehearsal process, I could see that we made progress every lesson. We made progress in our improvisation, team work, listening and leadership. We let everyone have their own individual moment. Before the actual rehearsals, we did mini improvisations of our own so we could interpret the texts ourselves with our own views and opinions.
There were a lot of strengths in the final piece and there were a lot of moments that worked really well. One moment that really stood out was in tale 5 where Taffy is being carried away by other actors. This was to symbolize her body being taken away after her death. My favourite moment was in tale 6 when the lady puts her hand on the man's shoulder and his anger melts away. I think this moment affected the audience because the whole scene was very suspenseful because his anger was building up and then it suddenly vanishes. We wanted the audience to feel a connection with the characters as the man was letting his guard down and we wanted the tense feeling to have an impact on the audience, we wanted them to feel emotion for the two people. I think the scene was perceived well by the audience because it was a very still, quiet moment for the play, with nobody moving. An effective moment created by another actor was Harmony's line 'You are the weakest link, goodbye.' This line was effective because it created a small atmosphere of humour because in a way, it took the idea of domestic violence and sort of made it surreal, as if it was just a game, or a TV show.
The two main weaknesses of the piece were pace and the storytelling. Especially in tale 2, the pace was quite slow, I wanted people to be interrupting each-other, in which I tried to do but the pace of the scene kept me back from doing it. If the pace was faster then it could have been 10x more exciting. What made up for the lack of speed was the way in which each line was delivered, everything was spoken differently to give the tale levels. The storytelling itself could have used a bit more commitment from everybody. It's a story, so it should be thrilling when you tell it to someone who hasn't heard it. We should be accounting each story as if it's the first time we're telling it.
The main acting skill I have developed is trusting someone else and working in a team who all have different ideas. I don't particularly like working in groups, but this project has let me put trust in my classmates and not have to be the only one doing any work for once. I have learnt that acting isn't all about dialogue, you can show a great lot of emotion and messages through your physicality and just overall using your body.
Reflecting on my personal management skills, there isn't a lot to say to be honest. I learnt my lines during the Christmas holidays, I always made sure to stay focused in the classroom and I gave 100% effort every rehearsal.
In conclusion the performance went very smoothly both times (even if I was pretty ill) and I think I have definitely developed my skills as an actor by participating in this project. I feel more confident with improvisation, team work and physical theatre. I can't wait for the next project!
- Matilda ^_^
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