Brighton performance evaluation

On Friday 20^th may our cast of Titus performed at the Brighton fringe festival, it was a good opportunity to show our piece to those who don’t necessarily see a lot of theatre. The performance was a different experience in many ways and i will talk about that in this evaluation.

This is our set in brighton

When we first arrived we got look at the set in the space, the space was much smaller that i had thought it would be, i knew it would be smaller than the new theatre but not as small as it was as there was a tree which the tta people hadn’t taken into account. The audience was also very close to the front of the stage. The floor was also concrete with small stones in this was alarming as lavinas rape scene involved her being dragged along the floor and we didn’t have time to edit the scene for the floor, furthermore there was a costume error, we were meant to have socks as the floor was hard to stand on bare foot but these forgot to be packed by costume so we had to do the performance bare footed. This was very uncomfortable however we all worked well with the conditions we were given.

Something that was part of the experience that wasn’t so great was having to get changed in public toilets however it was an experience and it all part of being an actor sometimes.

After we had arrived and gotten changed we the warmed up in costume, this was a fun experience s we got to warm up outside with people watching us, for me this made me want to work harder during the warm up. The vocal warm up was very useful as it helped me to understand how i needed to use my voice for the performance.  

Before we started the play i took a moment to walk around the stand get my bearings, we then started our performance.

Obviously we were outside so there was no lighting but we did have some sound cues. We were given our 10 minute call and we sat behind the stage so our audience wouldn’t see us, we had a bigger audience than i had expected.  We then began the play, we spent a shorter amount of time in the maggot positions on the floor as our play needed to be shorter to fit the time slot we had.

We then did the Hakka, for me the Hakka wasn’t as powerful in the outdoor space and there wasn’t as much room to do it so we didn’t go as ‘crazy’ as we could of in my opinion, during lavinas first monologue of lavina i was standing on a rock and couldn’t move off it, this was very uncomfortable however i didn’t break out of character. After getting into the play it was easier to feel the energy, the love dance was also difficult due to the small space however i felt that we achieved the right energy for it. Not having light i think might have put some of the people in the cats off as there wasn’t as much atmosphere and the lights were also used in the final scene using strobe lights and the cast didn’t have this during our Brighton performance which changes the dynamics of the space.

There was a mistake by everybody in the running after bassianus and lavina as instead of going over the platform they went around the back; this was because we never got the opportunity to rehearse in the space before the performance so during the performance we were still discovering things.

The rape scene was difficult to do, after having completed the lines and having to start the physical part I was very nervous, I was more hesitant to push her onto the floor as I didn’t want to injure Sybil so I felt the energy just wasn’t the same, furthermore when I was having to pick her up I had to drag her onto my shoulder however I found this very difficult and I could see she was in discomfort however there was no other way I could do the lift. Due to these technical difficulties i felt that the scene wasn’t as effective as it could have been.

Another thing that went wrong during the performance was during the birth of Tamoras child, there was a cut to this scene and people missed the cut, when fifi turned to scream nobody else did as they were unsure of the cut, then because the nurses cue was changed she missed her cue and didn’t come on, the next scene was with me and Chiron both in, because the nurse missed her cue i decided to go onto my line, this then cued the nurse and we went back, however i dint break character and tried to carry on as best as we could, once the nurse had come on there was no more mistakes in the scene. I made a mistake during the hand ensemble piece; I forgot to gasp however I don’t think I was the only one. 

The show was messy however I feel that we all still pulled our weight and worked as  a team to solve any of the problems we encountered.  Through the performance we were fighting 5to be heard over the noise of the park and also two bands playing not too far off, this meant we had to be even more powerful with our voices. I was worried about this whilst performing however when we spoke to Ben after he told us we could be heard. The audience seemed to enjoy the performance and we had several people ask us where we were from ect. and congratulated us and told us how much they enjoyed it.

our cast in brighton.

Personally I didn’t feel as connected to my character during this performance. I was more thinking about the technical elements as I was in a new space, however I feel that performing in Brighton has given me a  new experience and a better understanding of theatre, I appreciate the privilege of light sound and costume in performance and also worked with my vocal strengths to help me perform to my best. I feel that if we had had a second opportunity to perform in Brighton it would have been much better and compared to the first time we performed in the new theatre (during the tech) it was a performance to be proud of. 

New theatre performance evaluation

On Tuesday 12^th may we performed in front of an audience for the first time at the new theatre in the brit school.

 The day started with our dress run. I think that this went well as we could finally see how the show would come together, we also trailed the makeup for the show which we hadn’t done before, for me the makeup brought out character even more, most people had the same makeup however my character had a black strip also, this shows the aude4ince immediately that i was a bad character.

The dress run went well with only a few small mistakes, this was the first time we were using the masks for the show as the cloaks we were originally meant to have were not made so we used mask instead, the mask was too loose for me during the dress so during my scene with Titus i was struggling to keep my characters physcialisation up so i had this tightened before the 4pm show. The masks also posed the challenge of being heard as it covered my mouth. The dress run gave me the opportunity to find how i needed to use my voice during this scene during the show.

I feel as though the cast were nervous for our first show due to it being quite experimental. However i feel as though we portrayed the story well and i played my character to the best of my ability.

 The Hakka was performed with energy and dedication, as an all female cast i feel like we needed to make our first impression powerful which we achieved during the Hakka, what i found extremely effective was being near the door so i could be very close to the audience and intimidate them, it immediately changed any perception of what the audience thought the play would be about and the messages we were trying to portray.  I feel as though the Hakka was better received at the 4.30 show rather than the 7pm show as the audience reacted more physically, this may of been because our audience for the first show was slightly younger and we also had a lot of adrenaline due to it being our first show and the need to impress the audience was greater.

For y character i was very in role in the 4.30 show and was immediately in character, I was elbowed in the neck by jamila when she was being dragged away however i had to deal with it and I didn’t break my character. Because my character doesn’t have any lines at the start of the play I felt I needed to really make sure my physical actions and the way i was moving fit to my character so people could immediately understand who i was. I feel as though i achieved this and I had several people approach me after the shows telling me they hated my character which was exactly what we were trying to achieve.

During the rape scene of the first show i felt it went very well, it was easier to do in the new theatre as the floor wasn’t carpeted so there was the worry of giving lavina carpet burns, the only thing that went wrong was when i went to get the sleeves out of the cauldron i accidently also picked up ambers so had to pass it back to her however i don’t think this mistake was noticeable. During the second show the rape scene was definitely harder to do due to my energy being lower and being tired but I still feel it went well. I struggled tying on the arms onto the dress in the second show however i still feel as though it went well.

I felt as though bassianus death in both performances wasn’t as good as it could have been due to not knowing how to properly use the blood however it still looked effective but i would definitely practice this if we were continuing  to show the work.

For me i felt like the cast as a whole really shared the story of Titus Andronicus. Sometimes its hard to watch and fully understand Shakespeare but because our cast knew all our intentions and acted through them this really showed. Furthermore the way it was staged and the experimental feel to it also helped the audience to understand as they were drawn in by everything that was happening. When i asked audience members afterwards they had fully understood what was happening through the whole play which I felt was something that was very well done.

 Another thing that was executed well was the transitions between characters. Although I didn’t have a character change I felt like the way character changes were blocked were very effective, after seeing the other two Shakespeare productions I definitely felt that ours had the best transitions and most understandable character changes.

Projecting our voices in the new theatre was quite difficult. It is a three sided theatre so you have to make sure you aren’t blocking out any of the audience when you are talking, however I felt like we all did this well and we could be heard at all moment, this was something I struggled with during the dress performance however during both shows I improved greatly.

We were all very committed to the performance and I feel as though this really showed through our energy, the experimental nature of the show meant we needed to be focused and we all were, as an ensemble this is something to be very proud of there was no moment where someone wasn’t in character and this makes all the difference to the audience as it sets the right atmosphere.

Another thing that set the atmosphere was the set. The set and costumes all brought our acting together. The lights se the right atmosphere for the right moments and the costume brought individual bits of character out, the set being’ everywhere and nowhere’ was good as it meant we were telling the story rather than focusing on set, the costume told more of where we were set in Rome. The set was very dark and under lights it was very intense which matched the atmosphere of the play. The style was animalistic and bold and as a group of females this could have gone very wrong however it worked amazingly.

Between the 4pm show and 7pm show ben gave us some notes, they were that the maggot pile at the start needed to be slowed down. I understood this as we hadn’t rehearsed it properly before the show so it was inevitable we were going to do it slightly worn, however there wasn’t many other notes.

The technical elements and our concentration helped the shows to be amazing, it was two shows i was very proud of and is the favourite thing I’ve done in my time at the brit school. 

Tech run

Today we had our tech run, for me it really highlighted the kind of work we need to put in to make our play work. There was definitely a feeling of panic after today’s rehearsal.

For me personally i felt like i put a good amount of energy into my character however other people were into fully immersed in role, this might just of been because we were in as new space however it was very stressful. However, as a group we put this down to not having a warm up before starting the run and we just jumped straight into it due to time. Due to the nature of the play i don’t think i we can go into a rehearsal without a warm-up, this highlighted the importance of warming up and i will make sure i do a full warm up before each show.

 General note that Ben gave us was that we were performing to each other rather than sharing the world with the audience, i feel as though this was a confidence thing for most people as we had a small number of people watching us so it felt very intimate.

We also need to remember to balance the space during scene such as the love dance, another thing with the love dance is to remember that it is a non contact contact improv so we need to be working hard with our partners to move correctly however our breath worked with the beat which was a positive.  

Another note it to react to9 what is happening in the world of the play and to react accordingly. I feel as though people have been encouraged now to work hard for the actual show and Ben reminded us that every show needs a bad run, and at least it’s not the real thing. We can fix any problems in tomorrow’s rehearsal.

wednesday 11th May notes

 today was the day before the show, by this point we have devised all our peice and have developed all our character work so we did a full run. Personally I found this very helpful as our tech on Monday wasn’t great however today the energy picked up and it has given me the confidence in our show that i needed. The run went well and there was only one mistake near the end. 

In the afternoon we had our final costume session. i was quite disappointed that mine and Chiron’s costumes still looked the same before as we were meant to have black strips on similar to arrons costume, to solve this we suggested acrylic paint on our costumes, we also had our arm bands and sashes tightened. 

Tuesday 10th May rehearsal notes.

We started our rehearsal with our usual warm up side stretch to get into the space.
Yesterday in our tech we had the problem that the blood bags burst weirdly so Ben looked at different ways of using the blood, we decided upon using sponges soaked in blood however this still needs to be run past TTA.
 We then went through a Voice warm up and viva dance which got our energy into the right place. We then moved rooms and began Going over lines in the space to wall and exploring the lines saying them differently, we were then told to intimidate when someone came in the room which pushed our exploration further. Yesterday in the tech our haka wasn't powerful enough so Ben showed us haka videos and we went over haka twice with more energy and more like warriors, I think that watching the videos made us feel inspired so we all committed and it came out very well. I have linked a video below of the haka in rehearsal. We then began a run Acting to audience and outwards as we hadn't done this In the new theatre and adding all small details Making the energy stronger and right.

Ben told us that  You have 3 choices when you move. You can stay move away or move towards. Depending on who you are addressing and the situation this bases your movements, it is important to know how you are moving as all movement is important. This concept that movement it important was then continued as we did an arm excerise to tire our arms out. Once we had done this our arms felt lighter we did this as arm movements are important to making our emotions natural as most people use their arms when they talk.
Going over the love dance we fixed the timing of going up and down and balancing the space. Yesterday in the tech at the end of the love dance the space wasn't balanced. People also didn't go down when Aaron started talking properly. We are meant to go down slowly unless Aaron come near you then you go quickly.  We fixed this in out rehearsal. We also fixed the energy of the dance by playing modern song and playing with the energy within the game of the love dance. For me this added a good energy and helped us to find the right emotions and connect. The emotional connection to the ensemble peices is important as if the energy isn't right then the entire atmosphere will feel wrong.

Friday 6th May

We didn’t have a acting rehearsal today however we were still called to plot the lights for the show, we didn’t have to stay long  but it was good to look at the set  the cauldron has now been changed and fits the space better. We got the opportunity to briefly walk around the set, this was useful as we got to use the ladders to the platform and practice using them

Below is a picture of the set with lighting:

wednesday 4th may notes

Today in rehearsal we started with our usual warm up. Once we had done this and gotten into the space we had a discussion with ben  about the running time of the play, the play is still running at just under 2 hours  and we need to get it down to more like 1 hour 15 mins max, this is mainly to do with transitions being weak at the moment i think.

We did an exercise where we ran the play very sped up, this made me realise how well we all know the play and although we were only given 10 mins to run the whole play we didn’t do this it ran at more like 20 however there is no way we could have ran it any faster. We also added an element of comedy to this run which was interesting as our version is the complete opposite of comedy.

We were rehearsing in one of the smaller rooms so we decided as a group to go outside and run the play. This was interesting as it allowed us to explore using our voices outside and projecting, it also gave us a feel of what our Brighton performance is going to be like. There was a lot more distractions rehearsing outside like people watching us and the sound of the primary school next door however i felt that we combated this well and worked hard even though we had these distractions.

The run we did was quicker outside at around 1.30 which is a lot better but there is still space to improve, the show is in a good place and i feel like we are almost ready to perform now and people are really starting to find their characters , for me I’ve gotten to the point where I feel like I know my character very well. 

Tuesday 3rd May notes

 We started today’s rehearsal with our usual side stretch warm up. I found this useful today as i wasn’t feeling particularly energised but after the warm up I felt much better and in a better place to rehearse.

 We started out the rehearsal  by going  through the physical parts of the play, such as the Hakka and the love dance, the cast also ran the second Hakka however I am not in this so I dint have to worry about this. I feel as though the cast is more committed to the Hakka now than we originally were, as a group we have become quite close so there isn’t really and tension or embarrassment between us that there may have been at the beginning of rehearsals. During the Hakka I know that I do look at people and am not very confident however I am slowly getting more confident, I found it hard to remember the moves for it but after practicing a lot I have finally got the hang of it. We looked at making the love dance more celebratory because at the moment it looks quite dead, we livened up by listening to modern music then kept this in our heads when the actual drum beat was playing . I feel like we’ve defiantly improved and i think it’s now just about  remembering to connect with my partner.

After a break we came back and went straight into a run of the show, the run was quite slow and sloppy and it feels like people still don’t know what they are doing. There as a lot of mistakes made and the running time ended up being over two hours which isn’t good enough as the time we have to run the play in the theatre is only round an hour and a half maximum.

The notes we were given at the end of the run for the ensemble were about Hakka feet, when we are doing the Hakka and stomping our feet people are just doing random stomping, i personally know i am someone who does this as i get too carried away and forget about the way my feet are moving however i am going to try and focus on this next time we do the Hakka.

The only note I was given was about coming up earlier into the scene after the love dance and making sure me and Chiron are squabbling. 

Costume fitting

Today we had our costume fitting where we saw our costumes and tried them on  for the first time. The costumes look good on however it is worrying that only half of them are complete. I was lucky that i had a full costume, the only pieces of my costume left  to do is to make my clothes a bit muddier and the arm band to show I’m a Goth.

The costume is leggings and a leotard, this means it is easy to move around in however my leggings are slightly too big so need to me made slightly tighter around the waist.

In addition to this we have decided to have our hair in French plaits during the performances so we all have the same hairstyle and it is away from our faces.

wearing the costume meant i could better visulise what the performace will look like, i think that the cosumes will really bring the work we have created together. 

Thursday 28th April

Today we were given our timetable for the next two weeks, this gave me an idea of how much rehersal time we have left and where the show needs to be. it was also nice to know we would have some free time to rest and catch up on any blog work.

Ben wanted us to run the entrie second half however we only got through two scene. This was quite dissapointing hwoever we needed to work on the scenes and we added detail so i can look at it in a positive light.

I wasnt particulally involved in the two scenes that we ran however  i tried to stay part of the group by contributing ideas and solutions to problems. the level of focus in the rehersal today wasnt very good and as a group we need to start working harder to bring this peice together.

Wednesday 27th April notes

today we  got to look at our set in the new theatre. Its not omplete yet but it was good to get an idea of the space we will be working in and how much room we have to move. The space we will have is bigger than than our rehersal space which is good because it means we wont be cramped. It wil be intresting to run the show in the theatre and make use of the platform and mounds. Ben mentioned that vocal technique is very important in this space as its quite large  and so it makes it harder to be heard.

TTA took us around the new theatre and showed us all our exits and entrances and showed us where our props table will be.

 We did a run of the show in the space, we encountered some problems, for example the space was too small for the haka, to solve this we have decided there will be some people down the sides by the doors, i will be one of these people, to make the hakka mnore intresnting as well when we are doing the clapping movement we will use the sides of the audiences seating area and intimidate audience members through here.

We kept stopping and starting the run however i feel like e are just doing this because we are problem solving, we still have tim,e left so im not too worried about it, we only ran the first half of the play though and i feel we need to start working harder on the second half of the play. 

Run of show

Today we had a run through of the show, i was quite worried about doing this as we haven’t ran the entire play being blocked so i was worried we would forget things however i think it is important to do a run at this stage in the process so we understand where we are in the process. Before we did the run we did our usual warm up and then went straight into the run.

These are the notes i took during the lesson:

The Hakka dance isn’t as strong as it could be, people are looking around alot and are not a hundred percent sure on the actual moves, and this breaks the atmosphere and means we aren’t as invested in the movement.

Most people are still on script for most of the play, me being one of these people. I need to start learning my lines properly so i can focus on working on character and what i am doing on stage.

There are moments during the play where people are not quite sure of what to do and look around to other people for support, the problem usually gets fixed however we need to start making sure we know where we are when, there are moments during the play where i am not sure where i need to be so need to ask Ben where i should be during these scenes of make a conscious decision and then stick to that.

The transition in the love dance are weak and people aren’t slowing down on the beat, we are also only meant to fall quickly if Aaron passes you which no one seems to be doing at the moment.

The first half of the show is stronger than the second half at them moment but that because we’ve only been focusing on detail in the first half so far, well move onto detail in the second half soon.

Ensemble work needs to be stronger because at the moment we are all a bit lost, the play si very much based on ensemble work so this is a very important note to work on. 

The titus film.

as some reserach i watched this version of titus, i know our play is very diffrent to this however i found to useful to look at my charcter portrayed by someone else, it also helped me to understand whats happening in my scene.

Love Dance

 today we directed an important ensemble piece, on the line ' today shall be a love day' the entire cast will start a physical piece to show celebration, because it’s an ensemble bit of work we all need to work together to make sure the space is balances and we are all doing the same movements. The movement is a non contact contact improv and we are just moving around our partners dancing, once we have made this smooth i think it will look very effective. 

it needs to be dynamic and committed like the Hakka at the start. The piece is directed however it is also improvised so it will be important to read what’s going on in the space and make the dance look good as an ensemble. 

Tuesday 12th April notes

Today we were blocking out more of the play, because of the experimental nature of the play every moment is very detailed to block out so it takes longer to do, this means we are behind the other groups in our process.
We started form page 25 which is the start of the second half. In this scene I am part of the ensemble , we had directed it so that we are all sitting around the outside of the mound of the set looking at a fake hand, we will have these as props for the show, we are looking at the hand because it represents Titus’s loss of his hand, we gasp and lower our heads on the line ‘ here are the heads of thy two noble sons’ we then lift our hand when jamila says the line ‘ and heres thy hand’ when this scene ends and Aaron enters we move around into a new space on  the stage, when we are moving we are moving like dead people and when Aaron comes near us we have to use the laban effort of slash to represent flies flying around us like we are trying to get rid of them. 
Next when lavinas is writing with her arms and the long stick all the ensemble lean in like we are around a camp fire. On the line’ stuprum. Chiron. Demetrius.’ Me and amber get up an d walk around up to the platform hissing.
After this moment i am no longer part of the ensemble and am Chiron again. We directed the scene of tamoras birth by having the ensemble open their legs and scream like they are giving birth.  I go to exit on the line ‘come let us go’ but i don’t exit, i turn around again after the nurses monologue and i realise what has happened and whose child it is. This scene it quite good however i don’t know how to pass the sword to Aaron yet so this is something that needs to be directed.
After break we did a sword fighting exercise as Ben wants this to be part of the piece. I found this quite difficult and as i had a peri half way through i had to leave but i thought it looked very effective, we aren’t all confident at it however so it might be something that can’t be included if we don’t have the time to rehearse it.