Black and White (Performance Evaluation)

Our performance of 'Black and White' turned out to go exceptionally well, at least it definitely did to me. I found that all of our hard work that was put into this play payed off and we all got lovely comments that left us all glowing by the end.

Delivery of the Lines:
For my character 'Slave' I would personally rate the delivery of my lines a fair 8/10. I think I did really well to put across my lines considering I had to deliver them with what I tried to portray a polish accent that I have never really had a lot of practice or experience with. I believe I held the accent together well and I even got good feedback from members of the audience on this particular subject. I think I would rate my chorus line delivery a bit higher as it was less pressure to deliver them and felt they were easier to get across to the audience as I didn't have the accent. Though I think I have set myself a goal, as to which if I ever get the opportunity to play a part with an accent again, to focus on this aspect more. Overall for everyone I think this subject was very well held together.

Entrances and exits and scene transitions:
For my character in act 2 'Slave', I was given the responsibility to move on and off the mirror a number of times during the act. This was ideal as it fitted with the characters responsibilities and therefore made the transitions look smoother and more together. The mirror was such a pain to move off, only because out of the whole performance this was the part that made me anxious because I was so afraid of something going terribly wrong. For example one of the few perfumes on the dressing table which was attached to the mirror could have fallen and smashed or I could if messed up the transitions completely by easily stubbing my toe on the mirror which thankfully only happened back stage or in rehearsals not seen on stage. Act two was the busiest act for myself, because not only was I in charge of most of the set moving, I was assigned the drummer in a particularly choreographed scene. This luckily all went well on the night, though it was a bit of a challenge when the actors on stage were improvising lines as I had a set script to follow for when to beat the drum. I didn't mind this at all as I was very aware of how much some people had to learn and I was also very proud of everyone for performing so incredibly. So as I was in charge of the drumming this meant drumming in between scene transactions for act 1 'The chair scene' or 'the last chorus scene' and in act 2 'the debate between Electra and Tynadarious' which included the lines 'because you are beyond the law, you put yourself beyond the law'. I also had to be on cue for one of many times i had to sing, one being back stage and so this meant listening very carefully to the cues. All in all the transitions for the whole performance went very well and I was relieved when I didn't have to take the mirror off anymore and that it went so well.

The pace of the performance went very well, especially on Wednesday nights performance as I think this was the best performance out of all 3. All of them were good but I think this night seemed to flow the best. The only thing that didn't go to plan was during my scene with Electra my costume got caught on the box and someone in the audience laughed. Though luckily it wasn't all that bad as it only lasted for a second or two and we both covered it quite well.

As a chorus, all of us did brilliantly to deliver lines, a individual and quirky character as well as enhancing the performance with engaging movement. My aim was deliver my chorus character as a bit naughty and greedy, and my biggest aim was to put across a cheeky side of me to amuse the audience, which by the feedback I did achieve. Not only did I think the chorus worked well at their individual characters but I also think we worked nicely as a team and as a whole to create just the right timing in the scenes where we relied on each other to present a smoothly running scene. For example in what I would call 'the snake scene' where some of the chorus do movements to the lines 'clawing the walls of the bedchambers' we had to trust each other to then go on to do the next movement.

The acting style was achieved by everyone, as the modern concept of the journalists lightened the dark and sinister style of the Greek tragedy. Everyone presented their individual characters to their full potential and created a great atmosphere. I also think the performance of the actors was enhanced and worked extremely well with the music and sound effects.

I am quite pleased with how I have come along from the first rehearsal to the show as when I first started with my lines I was not projecting as much as I could have been, and during the show I projected, and this makes a huge difference to the quality of skill you are trying to present, and just gives the audience what they are expecting. Everyone projected well and delivered with a nice pace and I could tell that a few individuals worked really hard to try and improve their diction and pronunciation when they needed to.