Devising Evaluation

Evaluation

I think the main thing that went well in our piece of drama was the movement. This is because we used the fact Meg and Dom are dancers to our advantage and we were able to use them to create synchronized as well as cannon pieces of movement and dance. This was a success because it shows how we were able to utilize people’s strength and in this case it was the skilfulness of our dancers. The movement piece was also a strength because it created an interesting sequence that allowed the audience to learn a lot about characters and it also allowed the audience to see the progression of the story.

Another strength of the performance was the way we all were able to work together successfully and were able to discuss and create ideas together. Our teamwork helped us brainstorm and plan all our ideas before we started to elaborate and create pieces of drama. This was a strength because this meant we had written down all our ideas and didn't have to focus on ideas as soon as we thought of them. This allowed us to take ideas from previous brainstorms where we knew they didn’t work and use them in new places because we didn't forget them. Another way our team work helped us was it allowed us all to talk freely within the group and no personal issues prevented people pushing ideas forward as we all felt comfortable and there was no arguments.

Another strength was the way we experimented with ideas. We tied lots of ideas in lots of scenes and experimented with how things played out during the performance. This was a strength because it allowed us to think about how the audience would view the performance and whether particular techniques and events would work together well or not. This allowed us to evolve and begin to think more creatively as a group and helped us work together closely as we began to use each other’s ideas and use them to adapt an elaborate on our own ideas.  

One weakness was our date scenes lacked the story and emotion they needed to be as effective as we wanted them to be. Feedback from other people was that they didn't feel as if they knew enough about the characters and their relationships to feel sympathy or understand fully the emotions shared between the two characters. To change this into a strength we should have added more to the scenes that allowed the audience to see the progression, such as discussions about their feelings, the change in behavior when these characters are together alone and ect. This would have maybe added the extra information and explanation the audience needed to feel emotions towards the characters and understand them more. I also feel as if the relationships had been more realistic and didn't seem so fabricated they would have made more sense and portrayed the emotions we wanted to, better.

Another weakness was because of how comfortable we were around each other, we got distracted a lot and this led to a mass of our time being wasted on pointless and off topic conversations. This affected us because it meant we lost a lot of time we could have used on planning or rehearsing to talking off topic. To make turn this into a strength we should have created a rehearsal schedule that would have given us clear and concise information on what we had to do and give us the structure we needed to break off any off topic conversations and begin to focus more on what we needed to get done. This rehearsal schedule also would have helped us track and create things for people to do when they weren't in a scene most people were working on and let us be more conservative of our time and not waste any time or resources.

Another weakness was we didn't use the performance space as much as we should have. We spent a lot of time in another rehearsal space rather than where we were really going to perform the piece. This meant we didn't feel fully comfortable in the space and didn't use the facilities in there as much as we could have. We also didn't use the space to plan entrances and exits so when it came to the performance scene transitions weren't as smooth as they should have been. To turn this into a weakness we should have planned a rota for the performance space so it was planned who used what rehearsal space and when so both groups had equal or similar times in the room and could plan the use of the space more successfully.

In conclusion I feel as if the performance was a success however it could have been smoother and much more successful if as a group we had improved on the weaknesses that we highlighted and maybe tried to create strengths for each weakness before we performed the piece.

Acting Styles- Physical Theatre notes

Physical Theatre

At its simplest, physical theatre is anything that puts empathsis  on movement and using the body to tell the story.

Often abstract in style leading to performers to use very little or no dialogue at all.

DV8

Dv8 are among the main practitioners of physical theatre and focus on the dramatical potential of movement. Dv8 are well know for exploring complicated aspects of relationships and social issues, things that can appear 'cheesy' in dialogue.

Frantic Assembly

Frantic assembly are a contrast to Dv8 as they use lots of dialogue to create an obvious play and structure rather than a just a dance.

Stylised Movement

Stylised movement can take a normal standard play for example Macbeth and make it cater to a new audience for people who may not like the extended dialogue of a Shakespeare

Physical theatre can also be used in the way people like Steven Berkoff use like creating the setting with bodies like furniture and ect!

Combining Art Forms

Physical theatre has a focus' on movement as well as creating interesting dialogue. Physical theatre almost breaks the fourth wall like Brecht as it is never majorly realistic and shows the audience that they are in a performance and not real life like Brecht's style.

Commedia

Commedia dell'arte began in Italy in 16th century and is very physical as the characters usually use masks so that facial expressions are hidden from the audience. This requires movement to express emotions and actions.

Techniques:

Mime

Gesture

Status

Proximity

Stance

Harshness and tenderness

Movement

Not moving

Dance work

Motif's

Contact improvisation

Contact improvisation is usually between two people where there is a point of contact and a reaction, example

Our Brecht inspired piece

 We used many different styles and aspects of Brecht to create our piece from the complete unnaturalistic approach to the light hearted comedy spin we added.
We used Placards to name items and people because simplicity was one of Brechts favourite rules to have, he believed that simplicity sometimes added more to a production rather than over the top ornate sets and props.

 We wrote down a list of props and who would need/source/create them.

The dance at the beginning of the piece added to the light hearted comedy style of the piece creating from the 'get go' a light sense of amusement allowing the meaning of the piece to be transferred to the audience without having to be such a heavy emotional piece.

Another thing I think that went well was the way Tom had four characters and a placard with them on so when he changed he could point at the character he was playing to inform the audience. This was effective because it combined two of Brechts techniques, Multi-rolling and the use of placards and labels.

Acting Styles- Brecht Notes

Brecht:

 Born in 1898 in Germany. he was a medic in the war (world war one)
 He left in 1933 as the Nazis had taken over-
He had no citizenship and only took residence in the USA in 1941, however he was a communist and the USA looked down upon this this in 1947 he moved to Berlin and formed the Berliner ensemble.

Epic theatre: uses lots of techniques to remind the audience that the piece is a representation of life not really life.

Verfremdungseffekt is also known as the alienation effect but Brecht didn't want to alienate the audience just distance them to defect any serious emotional connections with characters!

Techniques:

Narration

Coming out of character

Speaking stage directions

Directly addressing the audience

Using placards

Multi-rolling

Song and dance

Montages

Gestus

Tableau.