Moonfish Productions- The Split

Today we showed our children's theatre performances to The Second Years and The Level 2s. During our performance of 'The Something', a lot of things went wrong. Although the first scene went okay, the other scenes were not performed the way that we had rehearsed them yesterday. This was partly due to the fact that we had made some last minute changes and it was our first run with props (which caused multiple problems). We introduced new props (makeup) to Scene 4 just before the performance, as we hadn't yet got our hands on sweat band (which we would have put on in slow motion instead of the make-up). As a result, the scene ended up looking too inappropriate for children's theatre, especially with the song that was chosen for background. I tried not to look sexual by trying to pull a funny face, which ended up making it look even worse.

I felt that although my character had a lot of energy, she was too shouty and screamy, and her accent was likely to he too hard to understand at times. We were given feedback from our tutor and peers, where we were told that the plot was very confusing. They also felt that we were telling 3 different stories.

Most of our group were upset that the idea didn't work. We spent some time considering new ideas/ trying to improve the idea we had. A few hours later we found out that two members of group decided to leave because they felt that our idea wasn't working. It was quite shocking for all of the remaining members, as we never had arguments and got along well, but the 4 of us pulled together in order to figure out what we would do next.

We attempted to develop the idea that we already had, without the double-acts, but we couldn't see it working. We thought about turning to the idea of a well-known fairytale with a twist. After looking at various options, (e.g. I suggested snow white or sleeping beauty), we all decided on Hansel and Gretal. I feel that my naturalistic-acting is under-practised, as I sometimes feel as though it sounds like I'm reading straight from the script. This could be due to the fact that I stress myself out about the delivery of each line and believe that it will sound flat- and then it does. I am a lot more comfortable with naturalistic acting during one-off improvisation tasks. Once I have performed the lines again and again, I struggle to stay as natural as I did the first time. I will try to solve this issues by reading more monologues- specialising in the naturalistic-style of acting. I will also practise more naturalistic improvisation.

Although i do contribute fully in every group meeting, I still need to work on finding the confidence to contribute in larger groups and when discussing ideas with our tutor. Whenever I'm in my 'Children's Theatre' group, I never hold back. I always have multiple ideas in my head and I make sure that I pitch them all to my group. A lot of my ideas have been used in the past (e.g. The Narrator in 'The Hairy Toe' (version one) coming in and out of the story and various other big and small ideas). If I think an idea works or isn't working, I mention it to the group and explain why. I have even wrote down some of our notes for my group. I feel that we all contribute equally in every group meeting. When it comes to putting my opinions forward within a large group or when discussing our groups ideas with our tutor, I become to worried about not being able to voice exactly what it is that I wish to say . I often find that when speaking (not in character), I often get my words jumbled and even I  become confused as to what it is that I've just said Although I struggle with this problem in group meetings, I somehow feel that it doesn't matter so much if  I speak incoherently. In other situations I hold back from what I want to say. This is a confidence issue and I can work to overcome this by adopting the same approach to such situations, as I have in Moonfish Productions' meetings. I also need to think of 'speaking' in the same way that I think of writing words on a page (as I seem to be better at explaining myself in this way). I must understand the importance of voicing my opinions in class, as it is good practise for the future. Holding back, will only make me regret not saying things.