Performance Evaluation

Yesterday, we finished the performance of  'The Most Horrific' from our classes interpretation. I think the performance was a success for the most part & I learnt a lot throughout this term about Brecht & his techniques. We utilized music throughout to indicate transitions on stage & cause movement 'behind the scenes' during performance. This worked effectively, in my opinion, as it gave the real sense of environment that was being carried throughout the piece & how it was fixed together through this one device. I think it showed to me how with Brechtian work, all elements must somehow be cohesive in order for the piece to stay together. I also thought the labelling of character & then their creation on stage by just the labelling gave a real sense of abject action to the audience. Showing that the actors within the space only became the characters once the letter had been assigned to them. This always worked best when actors went more extreme with their characterisation &I tried to push myself in that respect to emphasise the language to be effective inside the character. This forced me to make definitive choices for how the representative group would act in my opinion (C & D) & what movements and vocal quality suited the character. There was a need for surface performance though, with no added depth or clarity throughout the course of the play as they remained consistent representations without any sort of transformation or objective change. I also found the reading of the stage directions from a stage hand very impressive as another form of removing the audience from the environment & having them evaluate the situation from an exterior point of view. The addition of having the audience reading out the final section of D as the rest of the performers were inside of the space was a gorgeous piece of direction. Making the audience consciously consider the issues one another were saying with the performers in a state of gestus culminated the piece perfectly. Showing that the issues raised are completely outside of the performance reality created & are relevant to every single person in the audience made the message as clear as it could be. Then the final dispersal of all D's from the space with A & B rounding the piece together sent the message we wanted to portray. The audience are the one's in control of the reality that we presented & change starts with them.

I thought that the something that could have been improved through performance would have been actors understanding & comprehending the issues they raise in line with their characters objectives. this would have raised the performance of the piece even higher than already set & made the message more definite. Overall, however, I was very pleased with the piece & can use everything learnt in this term to future effect in performance. The ensemble energy & passion throughout performance was fantastic, I was privileged to work with them & thankful I could perform with them in this Brechtian term.

2nd December

In today's lesson we talked about what the characters inside of 'The Most Horrific' represent;

A & B: the modern age of misinformation, consumerism, vanity & gossip in its broadest sense. Talking about subjects in their broadest sense, clinging onto specific details without the whole of the information, while still seemingly having enough to draw a judgement from, in whatever topic is the highlighted by the media. They are then played with a very self serving attitude throughout the piece, in our groups interpretation. Only being engaged by D when something grabs their attention & then switch off as soon as their attention wonders from the topic. C responds to this group as they represent the largest group of adult consumers inside British society today and must be tended to, for the simple cause of making money & keeping British society in this cycle of perpetual 'stability'.

C: The suit & tie industry of capitalist lead media, responding to the calling of the prior group while reinterpreting the information provided by D within the piece. C represents the modern age of how entertainment is organised & lead in order to tend to the requirements of A & B within the performance. The point of the board with two columns clearly defines for the audience how C reinterprets the world into a key of buzz words & topics that draw attention but may not necessarily be relevant to furthering the cause of human nature. C should then be played, in my opinion, with this openness to receive & listen but then at the first second of individual idea or thought of what's being said should be shifted into the 'marketable'. What I mean by this is that there should be a visible reaction of C listening to D but always watching to see how he can convert it into something that A & B will then enjoy. This is shown through the comments but can be furthered through the physicality & vocal attributions given throughout the performance.

D: The representation of the creative, independent & free minded industries separated from that of C, B & A in way of ideology as well as perception of the world. The characters focus is more on the unfiltered representation of events within the world, stating the events honestly & with as little bias as physically possible from a human being relaying a source. This is presented as a form of comedy, however, as they try & achieve the approval of C as well as A & B with whatever subject they are exploring at that moment in time. This means, for me, that D is always played with a degree of desperation for approval & seeking acknowledgement of the issues they explore while performing.

The message throughout the piece, in our classes interpretation, is the dilution of information by suited sources in order to appeal to the brain-dead class of consumers that dominate British society. I think that it will be very interesting to push the aspects of performance to emphasise these characters to the audience in a very Brechtian way, separating the actor from the character they begin to play to display how these people exist & how easily they can be bought down to a collection of characteristic traits. It's different for me however to completely not focus on characterisation but rather on the larger message that the piece hopes to communicate. This means that the choices for the characters I play must be precise & instinctual without further thought or development as I only exist in them for a brief time. I will work to make sure that these characteristic traits that I add to each character are interesting & help to communicate the overall theme of the piece to a larger degree through my collaborative action inside of an ensemble