Evaluation of Performances

The first performance at Broadwater CofE primary school was very successful. The staging was smaller than we anticipated however we adapted to it well and pulled through. With the children there we found that it was easier to have a lot of energy and make everything bigger and bolder because it drew a reaction, we also felt better whilst performing because they would actually laugh at the majority of our jokes showing that we had done our research well and that our performance did appeal to the target audience.

I felt that a lot of the movement sections in which we went in to the audience worked well as it was quite a large hall, this also meant it was a challenge, as we were used to smaller spaces. Therefore, I think that we did well with this, as the kids seemed to love it, so it showed that our last minute ideas to add in sections, where we went into the audience, was a good decision.

Overall this performance went extremely well, my personal strengths for this performance were my energy and my enthusiasm, my weaknesses would be speaking too fast and balance. To improve these for future purposes practice my dialogue slowly going through where to add pauses and inflection and to improve the other make sure all freeze frame positions are sensible, to be standing in for a while.

Our second performance at college was also very successful, but in a completely different way. Within this performance, a lot more of the comedy was noticed due to our audience being older, therefore they understood the adult humour within our piece.

To add to this, we were used to this staging more, so I think that we felt more confident in our own theatre, because of this I feel that we all felt we could be bigger with our movements to make it more over the top. Also we could include the wheel barrow within it as there was more room, this meant that the gnome scene was more visual and effective, which would appeal to our target audience.

Overall this performance was good, I think that the added use of lighting, smoke effects and music really helped everyone get more into the performance and made the overall performance more fun and interesting, which appeals to our target audience. My personal strengths for this performance was use of space, energy and focus, my weaknesses would be even though my focus was good I could still improve on my corpsing as well as my stamina. To improve these I could practice the particular scenes that get me laughing, so that I get used to the things that make me laugh and improve my stamina by doing more exercises.

I think that it was really effective doing these two performances as they contrasted nicely in different ways. I think that with the children the performance was louder and silly in a comical way, whereas the college performance was still funny and upbeat, but in a more mature tone. To add to this the contrast in performance spaces really made you think as a performer, what I mean by this, is when we on the smaller stage you had to think about how to make your performance big and lively, even in the small space so by making your gestures bigger or your voice louder. Also with the change of space, we had to change how we did the sections in which we went into the audience, as we had different styles of seating, which meant we had to perform more up and out at the college performance, but more down and out with the children.

Overall I think that both performances went really well and that our research had shown that our performance did appeal to our young target audience and did work well as a performance on its own.