Performance Evaluation

I think our contemporary performance of Shakespeare's The Tempest, was very successful. I could definitely feel the energy all the way through  it felt completely different from doing it in rehearsals, because we had an audience to play off. I think we played the modern context and we definitely told a story through performance.

As a group right from the beginning we had created this energy, and it was sustained through out, I felt the energy through a result of physical fatigue, because everyone around me was so pumped and enveloped in the zone, it lead me to work even harder. I think the lost as a group within the play worked well together, through all the physical hard work everyone sustained this high level of energy. I think the ensemble moments were great, from the perspective of being on stage, I could see no one slipped out of character or fell neutral, and it helped me to stay in role all the time, especially the ending scene, where everyone was on the stage. I think the proxemics, of the Europeans and the island natives, gave a clear story and the relationship between the two groups were so clear, and the energy was kept strong right until everyone had left the stage.

In terms of my physicality throughout the performance, I always attempted to push through the physical exhaustion; if I had let my energy drop, I would have instantly felt the effects and I wouldn't have been able to pick it back up.If I had let myself slip out of character that could cause the whole performance to fall flat, because as actors we bounce off each other and if the other actors thought I was slipping out of character it may have sub-consciously lead them to do the same. A lot of this play was about physical gestures, giving and receiving so I had to make sure my energy was kept up, so the other actors could feed of me, even if, I didn't have any personal interactions with any of them, I made sure to play my objective, because everyone played a key role within the development of the play. What I learnt from rehearsals that I brought to the stage was playing your character right until you come off, I think you should be in character right until you enter a backstage area. I made sure to play my relationships with some of the other characters like Prospero and some of the Europeans, so the audience could read the tension and feel the mistrust that ran right throughout the performance. I think the transitions were good, because they overlapped, and even through the transitions, I made sure to play my character, with the minor things I did, like bringing the logs off stage, my character wouldn't have just picked it up and walked off; my character was a former slave, so I made a distinct choice in the way I carried them. If I could make any improvements to my performance I would say that in some of the scenes where the lost attack the Europeans, It should be quick but in that quick moment I need to make sure I play the objective, because personally I felt like I was running from one exit to another, so I just need to make sure even in a quick moment like that, I need to make a distinct decision on what I'm doing rather than just moving on and off stage.

In terms of our Brighton performance, as a company we need to be thinking about the environment we're in and how we can adapt and give an as strong performance as we did in the theatre. What we need to consider is:

• The outside space, and playing the setting of the play even though we won't have the aid of the lighting, we need to play our objectives regardless of where we're performing. If we believe it, then the audience will believe. 
• Our voices, we need to all make sure we're practicing our diaphragmatic breathing, so we're keeping our voices safe, because in a open space your voice can just get lost.
• The energy is what will make this performance a success in Brighton as well as the character work, because we won't have all the things we did in our theatre performance, we need to make sure that then energy is sustained throughout, and that our character relationships are fully developed so the audience in Brighton can get a full understanding of the story and the audience in the theatre did.
• The audience can leave at any time, so we need to make sure we keep them interested throughout, by keeping the pace up, so people don't lose interest in what's going on.

Overall I think the performance was a success, and I think the modern context of the play worked so well, interweaving these two worlds worked as one performance. I think our performance informed, and we had all taken on the roles with a level of maturity that made our performance enjoyable as well as informative. If there was anything I would improve, it would have been the costumes, I think it could have been more visually interesting in terms of fusing both the British and African fabrics and patterns, but I  don't think the costumes took anything away from the performance. My costume helped me to get into character, I just think from an outside perspective the vision behind the costume wasn't very clear.