Did your performance communicate the intentions of your characters and styles with absolute confidence and flair?
On reflection I thought that as chorus member I performed well in relation to the concept we had decided on. Because we were very venerable people who had nothing, we all had to put our faith in Creon, at the same time as we fear him. I think I showed this well as in the first scene we are all bowing down to him, in this section I made sure that all of my movements and positions were very low to the ground. This is because I think that it was more beneficial for the audience to see us physically lower than the royal family to reflect our status. On the other hand during chorus one (war and victory) I changed my character as we are telling a story. In this scene there is no royal family and therefore we can be a bit more comfortable as we are just around each other, they are telling the story of the battle from their point of view and not just what Creon has said. However when he comes back we return to being in fear. In my opinion I successfully showed the audience the different between the two sides of my chorus character and how they change when the are in or out of Creon's presence. However on reflection I think that I could have added in more reactions to what the guards were saying, this is because the purpose of the chorus in Greek theatre is to help the audience understand what they should be feeling. The guards are bringing news that could have impacted "the displaced" chorus members and therefore I think I could have made it more obvious that I was worried and scared of Creon's reaction.
When watching back I thought that I played Ismene well, this is because in rehearsals me and Holly had been working on the relationship that there is between the two sisters, Ismene wants to save Antigone and share her guilt whereas Antigone wants to accept her fate by herself. I had been working on trying to plead with her more to let her help, and having more frantic movements around her, I also experimented with reaching out to her and holding her hand to show the support I am trying to give her. I think although I had worked on using different tones in my voice in this scene, especially when she stops being so panicky and starts to be more solemn and calm to try and get hers and Creon's attention in a different way, I could have projected out to the audience more. This was a struggle for me as we were outside and some of the audience were sitting quite far up, some of the sound of my voice was being taken away by the breeze and other natural sounds. I do think that this experience of performing In an open air theatre has allowed to think about the development of my projection in terms of voice and movement. This was similar in my performance of my monologue as I was only this character for one scene, and at the Shakespeare festival I was only playing Ophelia for a short time, this meant that I had to get in and out of character very quickly as there was not much change over time. Similarly to this when celebrating Shakespeare's 400th birthday I wish that I had projected out more, this is because we were in a fairly busy market place and the sound of my voice, like many others was just being carried away other background sounds, such as traders shouting, children running around and screaming etc. When performing outside it is important to project further as your voice has more spce to travel in compared to being a home where you know and love. When we perform in the theatre, we have the option of using a radio microphone, however sometimes they do not work and I am not dure I missed something.
I think that my performance could have been better in the chorus when Livvie is speaking the chorus leader line and we are performing contemporary movements around her, this is partly due to when I was backstage I couldn't hear my cue line and therefore walked on late. This could have been avoided if I had taken more note of the other lines in scene before so that i could have come on stage at the right time. Because i was in the first group i missed doing the majority of my groups choreography, however when I walked on stage i used the same pace and rhythm of the other movement, this is so it didn't stand out to much to audience members. In our next chorus we used masks, this is a challenge as they have such small eye holes that you are unable to see through them, this makes the proxemics with other actors and the stage and set hard to work out. We had to speak a chorus verse to the back of the stage which meant some of the sound just travelled to the stone instead of out to the audience. There were problems within this chorus as a few people were unsure on some of their chorus lines, and we had already decided that if you don't know it, it is better to not speak it as it interrupts the right lines. Because of this there was only a few people speaking this chorus, i tried to speak as loudly as i could but it was hard as we were facing the back wearing masks and only a few people were talking. In my monologue performance I was less restricted compared to chorus 4 in Antigone as I was not wearing a mask and had full vision. This allowed me to feel more confident within the space and allow me to move around more without fear of falling, slipping or bumping into a potential audience member.
In the final scene we stepped out to the audience to say our last few lines, this is " don't wait for pain to give you wisdom, don't wait for age to make you wise." We decided to step out because in this scene the choruses job is to tell the audience the problems and subject matter within the story. These words were supposed to be said more calmly and subtly, this is because it is the moral of the play and a kind warning to the audience members. In previous rehearsals we had tried to say this in a more powerful way however we thought that it made more if an effect the way we finally decided to perform it. When performing my monologue I had to make sure that I used different tones of voice, as it is a long speech and I didn't want the audience to get bored and walk away. For example when I said "he took me by the wrist..." I wanted this to come across a bit more calm, this is because she has just run into the room in a panic and once she has explained the first part of her story, I felt as thought it would be more natural to slow down a bit more and catch her breath. I thought I did this well, however I do think that If I had more time to prepare this monologue I would have been able to experiment further by using a variation of tone of voice. I think that I could have had more rapid moments, followed by a short pause and then remaining calm for a while before talking in a panicky manor once again.
Comparing the two performances I felt more confident with Antigone, this is because there was a set audience who come prepared to see a performance and although we were outside we were still in an appropriate performance environment. However before I did my monologue I felt extremely nervous about walking into the audience and performing, i was worried about audiences walking away, however once I had started I believe I performed with confidence as I found that audience members were interested. Because of this the next time I performed this monologue I felt more confident and went into it with more ease.
Overall i am happy with my performance in Antigone, as i was able to fulfil my role as a chorus member who tells the audience about the thoughts and feelings within the play, as well as being a "displaced person" who is living in fear of their king. As well as this i think that my scene where i played Antigone's sister - Ismene well as i suggested to the audience about our relationship as i do not want to live without her. Also there is a change in charcter between my chorus member and my Ismene characterisoins, howver in the wiz they canf rehearse in college. However overall, there were things that I wasn't happy with as it needed to have some dynamic variation, this helps me get more into and jus enjoy it and work hard, I am happy with my performance as I think that I have used an adequate about of movement /actions and the tone and projection out to the auncince.
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