Self Evaluation of Lesson 16/01/14

Overall this lesson, I think I made good progress with being able to contribute positively to the rehearsal. At short notice, I was added to Sam J, Sam M, D'Nai and Chloe's group to help construct scene 3. I believe this went amazingly well considering the circumstances of me being added in at short notice. I was able to pick up things quite quickly, remember what lines I had to say and different things we were required to do in the scene. One of the techniques I used today was a technique displayed in the exercise 'Fishers'. 

As a class, it took us quite a long time to construct scene 3 as we all had ideas of our own. In order to work in theatre, you have to be very vocal and that really did shine in all of us as we usually tried to get our voices heard all at the same time. There are 20 scenes altogether and so far we have only done 3 - we have 17 more to go! Am I nervous? Definitely - who wouldn't be!? However, I'm sure by working as a team like we do in our exercises, we'll be more than just fine when it comes to Thursday February 13th (the day of our final performance)!

To improve, I think we should allocate specific times for us to work on specific things. For example, we have theatre with Mr Rennison for 3 hours and 15mins on Thursdays. We could practice scene one for 15 mins as that should be up to scratch by now, scene 2 for 25 mins as we have already done this before, scene 3 for 30 mins and give other scenes half an hour each. Altogether, we should be able to do enough scenes in a day if we work efficiently! We should allocate less time for scenes we have already done as it should be stuck in our minds. Also, we should practice outside of our theatre classes to be more familiar with the play.

Nonetheless, we have demonstrated great directorial skills e.g. Sam J was amazing when directing us as he was precise, clear with his speech and was very assertive in the right way when directing scene 3. Also, we were able to try and incorporate everyone's ideas if they were practical by working together to make it happen. If as a class we can take on Sam's exquisite directorial skills and focus on working together, finishing off the play should come at ease to us all!

Although we have only a few lessons left to finish off the play, I'm definite we'll be great if we all remember these 3 words that I always repeat in my head whenever in doubt in any situation I'm in: confidence, determination and faith.

Confidence: Without confidence, how would we be able to perform? This is a significant quality needed for us to do well in the play.

Determination: We can't give up if we don't get things right the firs time. If someone messes up in the rehearsal, forget about it and move on! We need to remember to carry on striving and aim to achieve the best we can!

Faith: We need to believe in ourselves. Without this, we'll knock our confidence down bringing down the element once determination with it. We must believe we can each hat ever we set our minds to and that we WILL complete the play and it WILL be a success when we perform it!

We are all so talented! We just need to remember those 3 words and pick up from where we left off. Those 3 words can apply to any situation, not just for the play. They're great examples of words to repeat in your head whenever you need a boost.

Evaluation of Scene 1 & 2

Yesterday in class, we finally completed scene 1 & 2. At first, it was quite difficult as we all had to try work together and listen to everyone's ideas. For example, Holly's group had to teach us their beginning of the scene they created for scene 1. It involved synchronisation which was quite hard to do at first but we managed to do it in the end. Some exercises that we did in class came to great use when rehearsing e.g. the milling exercise and the fisher's game. The milling exercise involves us using peripheral vision to fill the space collectively by starting off at level 1 (walking around the room at a very slow pace). We do this at the very beginning of scene 1. In the fisher's game, it involves us mastering synchronisation by doing our first action with our arms being the main focus in the opening of scene 1. 

Altogether, I think we rehearsed scene 1 & 2 very well once we knew what we was doing. However, there is still room for improvement. I think as a class we should all watch the videos of us rehearsing and see what areas we're weak at. Working in a big group was quite a challenge for me as it was hard for me to try get my point across. Nonetheless, just putting your hand up high for everyone to see that you want to contribute definitely does help! If we all work together maturely as a team, I'm sure our performance will increase massively. As demonstrated in the game 'Kaos', if someone makes a mistake, we should learn from it and move on! Overall, I believe we have made a great start and can't wait to see what else will be added on to the play.