Brighton

Evaluation

First thoughts. I didn’t realise how incredibly huge the space was and that it was outside a cafe. This caused me to overthink the possibilities of sounds, playfulness and general hullabaloo that a park brings, not including a cafe also. 

Speaking to the teachers I learned that the importance of this is to project, as the wind and the space is so large and heavy it really takes out of your voice and bestirs what you’re hearing. So the warm up initially really helped to toast up the vocal chords and ready them for how intense and loud you had to be. 

Warming up in the park was a really nice experience because although we werent able to prepare and reherse on the stage we were able to get used to and feel the space. It allowed ups to get rid of neerves and enjoy the glorious weather we were lucky to recieve on the day.

Another thing that threw me, was the fact that performing to 3 sides wasn’t necessary anymore and the thing that had been engrained into my characters decisions about physical openness were crushed as I was able to do the thing most actors are inclined to do, however I was not. I found  myself directing slightly sideways unnecessarily and if i could improve upon something I would like to improve my flexibility with how efficiently I can adjust my proaction and physical direction to cater for the audience. 

Moreover the non existence of wings added extra difficulty as you had to hide behind the set but still be able to see or hear what was occurring without making yourself overly distracting for the audience watching. I think that made it intensely hard when performing as well as that as soon as you stepped out of the scene there was a sea of happy busy smiling park goers that through you as I personally felt I couldn’t fully enter into the character after seeing such contrasting images to the main themes of play and how we had built and rehearsed as a collective.

The loss of a character hindered the ability for exploration as although it went smoothly we were all aware that the script had been changed and this challenged us physically and verbally even more. But the show must go on. 

I loved the challenge of it all and think its so important to experiment with blending theatre with real life so as to bring life and art into one.