The final performances went very well and though the audience number was smaller than the other common ground shows but I feel the smaller audience was better for this kind of performance because the intimacy and individual attention we could give to our audience was something we couldn't do in our other shows.
I think we could have spent more time rehearsing and devising this piece to have made it stronger and bring more to it. Though it evoked emotion and told the story we intended to, I feel that it wasn't as physical as I had hoped. I thought, at the beginning of devising it, we would have more ensemble pieces and dynamic movement sections that would really work your bodies and make you sweat but I felt that we could have worked harder on it. The rehearsals themselves could have been so much more productive if we had all focused but unfortunately, focus wasn't there. In the end, not much was affected and we were all confident in the performance but we could have done more had we just been cooperative in the first place.
On the whole, I think we did justice to those who went through world war one and we explored the different kinds of people and showed not only the soldier's views but showed the audience other sides as well. The typical images that came into my head when somewone says World War 1 are soldiers and battlefronts. But after this piece, I also think of what happened to those left behind and the countries that had to pick up the pieces of a broken society.
Monday, 10 February 2014
Sunday, 2 February 2014
Putting it Together
When it came to putting all three pieces together in our last few rehearsals, it required a lot of patience and self-composure. Focus was not there at the beginning and it would take a very long time to finish going over just one section and some of us worried about how the performance would go because if we couldn't get through one rehearsal without having to wait for silence and focus, we can't rehearse the whole piece and be confident in what we were doing.
Watching the other two sections was interesting because they represented how differently everyone was affected by the war, Soldiers went through the journey of bravery and thinking war was going to be a breeze, to doubting themselves to breaking down, dying or going back home and being scarred for life.
The couples represented the bond between husband and wife/boyfriend and girlfriend with a lot of movement. It was just intimacy and watching the individual couples together was sweet because they'd put aside personal lives and worked on making their duets/group piece believable.
When it came to doing dress and tech runs, the focus had started to show it's face again as it was taken slightly more serious by some but there was joking around backstage, a loss of focus by those on the rostra and some parts were forgotten on confused with others. But as the performance came closer, the piece naturally came together and some faith was restored.
Watching the other two sections was interesting because they represented how differently everyone was affected by the war, Soldiers went through the journey of bravery and thinking war was going to be a breeze, to doubting themselves to breaking down, dying or going back home and being scarred for life.
The couples represented the bond between husband and wife/boyfriend and girlfriend with a lot of movement. It was just intimacy and watching the individual couples together was sweet because they'd put aside personal lives and worked on making their duets/group piece believable.
When it came to doing dress and tech runs, the focus had started to show it's face again as it was taken slightly more serious by some but there was joking around backstage, a loss of focus by those on the rostra and some parts were forgotten on confused with others. But as the performance came closer, the piece naturally came together and some faith was restored.
Thursday, 30 January 2014
First Performance
We had a very small audience for our first performance but I suppose it wasn't too much of a bad thing because we were more comfortable with this and in a way we were more able to connect with the audience.
The performance went well because everyone did everything on cue and we were all focused. We also managed to avoid the problem with running and being obvious backstage.
The set was simple but beautiful with canvases of pictures of the war hanging from the ceiling and the rostra at the back. Compared to our other shows it was quite bare but it's essential for a physical theatre show because we need al the space we can get to be able to move around properly.
From watching the audience react, I could see that they were engaged in what was happening on stage and they understood each part. Some of them got a bit emotional at the parts we expected them to and even some of us got emotional at parts too. For example, in the women's section when we drop the jackets and look at Catherine waltzing, I genuinelyt felt sad because her husband was alive and all the rest of our's were dead. I understand that in real life, none of us have partners who have died in the war, but understanding that this happened to real women and feeling it made it realistic.
During the rehearsal process, I worried that the quality of the performance wouldn't be very good due to the concentration from some people but the performance proved to me that there was nothing to worry about. They knew what they were doing and were on it for the whole thing. I think for everyone rehearsing it was just rehearsing but when we put it in front of an audience, we began to feel as well. We emoted with the characters we were playing too which made our performance even better.
For our next two (final) performances, I hope that we have a bigger audience and give more energy.
The performance went well because everyone did everything on cue and we were all focused. We also managed to avoid the problem with running and being obvious backstage.
The set was simple but beautiful with canvases of pictures of the war hanging from the ceiling and the rostra at the back. Compared to our other shows it was quite bare but it's essential for a physical theatre show because we need al the space we can get to be able to move around properly.
From watching the audience react, I could see that they were engaged in what was happening on stage and they understood each part. Some of them got a bit emotional at the parts we expected them to and even some of us got emotional at parts too. For example, in the women's section when we drop the jackets and look at Catherine waltzing, I genuinelyt felt sad because her husband was alive and all the rest of our's were dead. I understand that in real life, none of us have partners who have died in the war, but understanding that this happened to real women and feeling it made it realistic.
During the rehearsal process, I worried that the quality of the performance wouldn't be very good due to the concentration from some people but the performance proved to me that there was nothing to worry about. They knew what they were doing and were on it for the whole thing. I think for everyone rehearsing it was just rehearsing but when we put it in front of an audience, we began to feel as well. We emoted with the characters we were playing too which made our performance even better.
For our next two (final) performances, I hope that we have a bigger audience and give more energy.
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