EVALUATION - Barbican Theatre

The Musical Theatre’s performance in May 2015 on Physical Theatre generally focuses on women’s rights to which scenes in the performance shows representation.

During rehearsal times for the Barbican Theatre, my best lesson is when we had to rehearse the whole piece of the performance, wherein I had to remember everything in its order to which in a way it is a good way to know what scene we are performing without somewhat forgetting. The approach to class and levels of discipline are exceptional as I will listen to the director where exactly where to go. In addition to this, the domestic abuse performance was my favourite part of the piece. This is because the scene in particular gave me a sense of purpose for which the piece in particular can relate on women’s rights, and the abuse gave a dramatic effect. The only thing I would say that needs improving on is when in the domestic abuse scene I need to keep in time in the piece to the piece and go over the video on my phone to memorise what action to perform, and have more time to rehearse the scene to get it perfected. Other than that, I believe that the piece has no downfall. The memory throughout the piece is exceptional to which I can remember everybody’s action and moves myself.

I absorbed the feedback and mistakes I have made in the rehearsals from peers and my teacher. My timing is sometimes the least of my worries, and I am able to see my individual skills from people in my group although I do not show my potential. There are times that I give myself a target in one particular scene; timing and movement, but throughout the scenes I believe that I am performing well. If I was to find ways to improve, I would have to make effort to give some ideas of my own to the class if we are performing the piece as a whole.

The piece of the domestic abuse scene shows development as the scenes continues. Firstly, the group came on to deliver their ideas for the first intro, when I meet Sonia in the piece. Then, I developed the piece further on by giving ideas such as, when the girls are sitting on their chairs and I tap Sonia on the shoulder and as soon as she looks behind, I duck down and crouch. When me and Sonia are on the chair standing up the idea was we hug, but then it gets hazy when I attempt to touch her inappropriately and start to pull her hair. Furthermore, after I beat her on the ground, I gave more ideas that I grab her off the ground and then I flip her over. We used these ideas to show how women cope with domestic abuse.

However, despite the ideas being used for the piece there were parts of them that were rejected. Although I felt that my ideas were not being appreciated, I learnt that everybody are different human creatures who have views and opinions of their own and will show disapproval. I could see that this was better for the piece because the ideas that the group put together created a formation, although I still have further ideas that could have been put into the piece, but I will have to put up with the piece as it is.

The movements I would say that I found easy is when I had to jump to one chair. What we had to practise is the timing, and I managed to fit into the space just fine. I was aware of what people was doing and were they were going so I had to adapt myself to keep out of their way because that is an issue when it comes to performance. I was able to complete the moves to my ability and I did not needed extra breath. I believe you do need agility to perform well in performances but I believe you cannot perform well on an empty stomach, because you are likely to not perform well to your abilities. I had to be aware on what others were doing so I am more vigilant on which part to come on and the timing is spot on.

Personally, I believe the message to women’s rights was majorly effective, and the moment that had the impact was when we play “man says” and domestic abuse, because those moments show how women are weak in those scenes. The only thing I would say that is not effective is the fact that we do not show those effective moments through our face, via facial expression. We had our moments were we lost character, but nonetheless my confidence remained during the performance. I wanted the audience to think that they know the purpose of the plot.

Before we perform at the Barbican, the improvements that can be made if we can have more rehearsal times, make sure that everybody is on time and present in the rehearsals. We could perform it to secondary school so they would have an understanding of what physical theatre is about as I have done this during secondary school myself. There is still more time for improval in my opinion because I believe we can make this piece work, but the class needs to engage and focus, meaning the beneficial part will be that there is more chance people won’t be making mistakes, and we could perform at National Theatre.