Final Evaluation
I feel that the final performances of "East End Tales" were both to a high level of quality.However I believe that the first performance was better than the second for a number of various reasons. The first being that the first performance felt to me that it was performed more suited to the style of the stage setting, which is thrust stage. This style of staging automatically renders the performance far more intimate with its audience and therefore requires a certain method in performance in order to ensure the piece's level of intimacy and connection with its audience is maintained. During the first performance, the actors consistently made occasional eye contact with the audience in order to maintain the level of connection. This was also beneficial to the performance as the piece itself was created in a style that had the characters telling a story to the audience as without "breaking the fourth wall" or losing the atmosphere of the audience "watching" a story as well as it being directly told to them. However despite this the second performance felt more focused on the performing elements and aspects of the characters and not maintain a high level of intimacy and the connection of a story being told to the audience.
The play script enabled us as an ensemble to have gain a feeling and connection to the play, which in turn helped us to not only individually, but also as an ensemble to decide and then further develop the message we wanted to convey to the audience. The play script also helped to greatly influence our decided physical theater which I personally believe was one of the most powerful elements of our performance as I feel it aided us in suiting our performance to its thrust stage setting which called upon a high level of intimacy with the audience. Improvising in small and large groups with the play script was one of the most interesting elements of the rehearsal and piece development time as it offered the most exploration and theoretical theatrical elements.
My favorite moment, or rather moments is the beginning of the piece and its ending. These were my two favorite moments because I love the that the piece opens with the taxi drivers, opening the setting and world of the east end tales to the audience as well as the message the ensemble would be conveying to the audience, and then finally closes with the taxi drivers concluding the story and leaving the audience with feeling and message that the ensemble intended to communicate with them. I wanted the audience to feel a sense of opening and wonder during the first moment and then a sense of closure and satisfaction with the piece during the second moment.
I thoroughly enjoyed the moment that Harmony created on stage. Her line was the last line to be said during the scene and I felt that it closed the scene perfectly and it communicated the message of the scene completely summarized to the audience. As Harmony delivered her line every other actor on-stage, besides me, exited. Once again I believe this left the audience with a satisfactory feeling of closure and the message of the scene being well-received.
During the performance I maintained a quality level of intimacy and connection with the audience throughout the piece through various methods. The first and foremost was that I focused on and derived much of my energy and physical theater from the stage setting, which was thrust. The setting of the stage inevitably compelled me to desire to maintain some intimacy with the audience despite my concerns on my actual performing. Another factor in this was me constantly reminding myself of the style of this piece being ensemble but still telling the audience a story and wanting to convey a message to them behind it.
I feel that my rehearsals were of a high enough quality, however I believe there is always room for improvement. My line learning was an issue for the beginning of our rehearsals. I feel this is due to the fact that I did not connect and draw focus from this particular piece as quickly as I had with the previous piece "noughts & crosses". The issue of my lines unfortunately also slightly affected my knowledge of queues, but this issue was quickly resolved with assistance from the director.
To conclude, I believe I have developed various skills from participation in this piece mainly in the area of ensemble work. I believe ensemble work (from experience and research) is a different style of acting all-together. I feel that ensemble looks to develop and strengthen a piece as a company rather than strengthening individual characters. Another advantage to ensemble work is that I feel that it helps to eliminate the "piece is only as strong as its weakest character" philosophy.
