Show Evaluation

Evaluations of our show

Changes to performance

Today was our first show we had a rehearsal in the afternoon which was helpful as we had sections that were changed.

The changing that were made were the layout of the stage which now has the chairs in two lines on each side, which makes the stage look less empty; this had a mixed reaction, as for me it looks better because it gives more of an atmosphere on stage; for example using the chairs on stage gives the impression that the “heroes” are waiting for their time to tell their story. The other change that was made was that the three dances for our “god of today” movement piece was cut because it didn’t feel right in the piece, I felt this was a good choice to make, as our piece was good, but I didn’t feel the most comfortable about performing it, as I didn’t know it that well and I didn’t feel that as a group we didn’t put the right amount of energy in it as we should, so it wasn’t one our best piece of dance work.

The problem we found that affected all of us was the director was having a hard time with dealing with the class, as well as directing us and the staging, so it affected the class and got all of us worked up and annoyed, so it wasn’t a positive environment for all of us including our director and tech team to work.

Evaluations of our show

The performance went better than expected as we had a very bad rehearsal beforehand because apart from a little problem at the beginning of the piece where we walk on stage and not being in the right line, everything else seemed to have worked fine.

The dance piece went well, I did get a little overwhelmed when we were just about to go into our dance because of the audience, but I quickly recovered and was able to perform that scene well; I was nervous before we started our show, but after the opening I didn’t feel nervous as I was worried about my throat drying up and I am more comfortable and confident signing in a show than speaking after performing our show.  

The teacher’s scene went really well, I remembered and did all my movements right and confidently. The movement part of this piece went well and I use my face over time and really made my signing bigger and felt stronger on what I was signing because I keeping messing up in the rehearsal.

The dances piece that were cut made the piece run smooth and I didn’t feel the pressure of remembering my section and the small movements I do it the other sections of dance. I was worried about this part of our show because I am in a row on my own because two other cast member weren’t there for one of the rehearsals so they decided to not learn it and just not be in it which make the whole formation not look right, but I sorted it out with another member of the cast, who is going behind me so it looks more ordered.

The next scene for me was the narrator story which only involve the girls, I find that in the rehearsal I was struggling to perform it with feeling, I believe this was because we have done it so many times but when it came to performing this section I found that I was really challenged by some deep emotion and at some point I was getting teary eyed because of the emotion. So this has been the best way I have performed this scene.

The next scene was my panorama scene where I’m signing, I felt this scene was really rushed as I felt the speakers were going too fast so when they say one word the lights change and the music started for the “benefits” physical theatre section. This scene in my previous blog I wrote about the staging and not feeling quite right but when we had the chairs on stage, made the scene less empty we have added a section at the beginning that involves all the members in this scene talking and getting ready for the “cameras’ to start rolling; this feels a stronger scene because the signers do not feel like we are just waiting for something to happen. We also have the panorama theme song played for us to come on too, which makes the scene feel a more whole piece.

The song we perform at the end went better than expected because in the rehearsals the song hasn’t been going because of tuning and music but we did it twice before the show and this really helped us focus and get the song in our heads. I feel better performing the song with live music because it feels a more grounded and real song as we were going to perform the song with a backing track that didn’t really work due to the timing because we were all getting confused on what we need to sing.

Feedback

We got feedback from the deaf audience we had in, I felt this was really beneficial for us to know from our first show as we can quickly make changes to the performance for the next show. There were 3 main points that they told us about: the first one was about lighting on the different scenes because part of the deaf audience there was a lady who lip reads so she switches to look at the faces and signs but with some of the lighting choices that were made it was difficult to see the face and some time the sign for example in the narrator’s story the lights are a dark green which meant that it gives a dark and sad atmosphere on stage which makes the narrators who are signing difficult to see. Which I feel was the right decision that was made when doing the tech road because it means that at some point the director stopped thinking about the deaf audience and making it inclusive for the audience.

The second point was staging for the teachers’ scene where the signers are sitting at the front of the stage in a group and they said that we were too close together which we were told about, but we didn’t keep that in mind when we were performing for the first time so maybe I will say to  the two other cast who are teachers to sort out the chairs while they are waiting for me to come on. So it looks like they are trying to keep busy waiting for me.

The last point that they talked about was the signer going too quickly because of the speakers as it become difficult to find the right balance of speed for talking and signing. I found that I was struggling to keep up with my speaker teacher as he was speaking quickly and I was missing words, which doesn’t bother me, but because he is missing words means he is going quicker than normal. This also happens in that panorama scene: the speakers are rushing their line so when they walk into the middle of the stage they are nearly finished and the signers are still half way through which means when the light changes it goes into the benefit physical theatre piece I do not get to finish my signing scene, and I have to get in position for my movement section. 

I feel like this show was a great successful performance as we had great feedback from all of the audience members. I am happy to have a chance to perform this amazing piece of theatre.