8.) Evaluate your performance in your first scene. Were you happy with your performance and the audience reaction? How well do you think you created a physical performance for your character? How well did you and your partner work together? How successful do you think you were about establishing clear tactics for your character? What would you do to improve your performance? What did you learn that you will apply to later assignments?
Overall I feel my performance was done pretty well, but there were some parts that I would change about it if I could. About halfway through our scene, Aaron’s character insults mine, by saying, “Why does everything you say sound like it crept out of your ass covered in cellophane?” Some of the audience found this remark amusing, as I had when we first read the script weeks ago. Hearing other people find it funny though weeks later kind of threw me off, and I sort of laughed at the joke too, before saying my next line. I’m not sure how noticeable it was, as I did try to blend it into my next line. Honestly, I’m still not sure how Marty was supposed to react to that comment in hindsight. The chair we used in our performance was on wheels, while the chairs we rehearsed with did not. This was a miniscule problem, only when I shoot up out of my seat when I see Aaron holding the box of ashes and is about to dump them. The chair kinda rolled out from under me and I may have lost my balance a bit. I think I created a pretty good physical performance of my character. I was experiencing a pretty bad day on the day of our performance, but Marty is also having a pretty bad day, too. I think already being pretty angry ahead of time made it easier to be angry in character, I was already comfortable wearing a frown and screaming when the lines called for it. Aaron and I worked together pretty well, I’d say. I think we got along pretty well, even if our characters didn’t. I feel I was relatively successful displaying tactics for my character. I managed to change my tone throughout the play through sarcastic, angry, and apologetic. To improve the performance, I would probably have spent more time on my last big paragraph I had at the end of our scene. I had spent enough time on it to memorize the lines, but I feel I could have spent more time deciding on how to deliver the lines. I learned to expect audience reactions and to not let them distract you from your performance. I also learned to spend more time on perfecting delivery, even if perfection is a cruel mistress.
I agree on the whole your scene was very successful. The things that you identified as "problems" in your first scene are recoverable, and things to think about for your next scene. For example, be sure that you rehearse as often as you can in the place you plan to perform using the items with which you plan to perform. I didn't think about your chair having wheels in the final performance. If I had, I might have advised against it, or at the very least advising you to use something closer to what you had rehearsed with.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is always hard to be in front of an audience for the first time, and while you masked your laugh well, I want you to think about how to avoid such moments going forward. Think about the exercises we have done on focus, where I ask you to focus on a task, while still taking in the whole--the running in a circle exercise, for example. You have to maintain the focus on your scene while still keeping the audience in a soft focus.