21st November (Tuesday)
ROMEO AND JULIET IN SHAW THEATRE
8.45 in the morning, we were asked to gather at the foyer of Shaw Theatre to get ready for a technical rehearsal. Performers from another school will do their technical rehearse first while we will be in the dressing room and get dressed. After they've done with that, they will be doing the full rehearsal with dress and we will watch.
Then will be our turn to do the technical rehearse, we ran through this very quickly by reading the last of our lines in each scene so that the technical person will know when to blackout and light up. After that we ran through a dress rehearsal and the students from another school watch us.
After the preparation in Shaw Theatre, we went back to college and Sharon was going to talk to us of things that we need to change during performance and telling some people about their mistakes.
What we need to be considered during performance?...
- Speak out to the audience, as the audience area was really big. We shouldn't be thinking of ourselves at the theatre in college as we need to project our voice much more bigger than usual in order to let the audience at the back hear us.
- This was what I did during the dress rehearsal, when i was leaving the stage after my scene, i immediately lost my character and have forgotten that i was still on stage. Sharon used this as an example for other member that we should still be in character until we walk in to the curtain beside the stage. The way we leave the stage needs to be fully in character.
- Always know when you're next. During the dress rehearsal, some of us were not ready to get on stage so has been wasted some time of the play. We should not go to other places or talking with others while the performance are still going on. Even though we are in the back of stage, we still need to be concentrate on what's happening in front.
- As we only got 30mins of performing time for this two hours long play, we need to do everything quick. Not saying our lines quick but we need to use the time wisely, when it's our character's turn to be on stage we need to quickly move on, and not waiting for the previous character to reach backstage first, we doesn't want any pauses in between scene changing for too long.
After 20mins of talking, we were dismissed from college and need to be back at Shaw Theatre by 6pm to warm up and get ready before the audiences come.
At 6pm evening, all four schools gathered on stage to start with warm ups. We did some stretches and voice projection exercises. We were told that our school will be performing last, we get to watch the first two schools perform in the audience seat, and when the audience are getting some break after two performances we will then move to the dressing room and wait for our turn to perform.
First performance will be 'Macbeth'. All feedback are given by myself on what i really think about them.
Feedback for "Macbeth" play:
- Lady Macbeth spoke her lines in a very clear voice and all words can be heard by everyone, we were watching their play siting at the end of the audience seat and still be able to hear her.
- The changes between scene to scene were really nice. There was one when they were doing something in a soft background music then when a hot music came off, they started running in a circle with very fast speed. They caught audience's full attention by this.
- I love their fighting scene too, they were doing it with slow motion, this will able the audience to see through all details and movements they put in this scene. And they used the level really well, as some of them were lying down on the floor struggling and some were kicking or punching with higher body level.
Second performance will be 'The Tempest'.
Feedback for "The Tempest" play:
- They do not have any exit or entrance part as all cast members were sitting on stage showing their backs to audience in a semi circle, only characters that need to speak stand up and turn around then act their scene.
- This is a long play, but when the students were acting this out, they were able to fit all important scenes in the play with only 30mins and didn't miss out anything.
Third one will be 'A Mid Summer Night's Dream'.
Feedback for "A Mid Summer Night's Dream" play:
- Their background music were on before they getting up on stage, and so it brings up audience's mood and they started to come into scene group by group. Their steps and actions were all so energetic.
- Some of them forgot their lines a little but they covered it up fast, they knew how to add some facial expression when the pausing is too long while waiting for on actor to speak.
- There was one character that impressed me, she was 'Helena' in the play. I like all her facial expressions and actions as she was really into her character. I have not watched this play before and i think when i see her acting i can tell what the character Helena is like in the play.
- They did not waste any of the cast member in this play, for the forest scene, there were trees all around casting by few members. I love how they use this as an idea for getting more people on stage.
After three schools done with their play, it's our turn to be on stage. We were all quite nervous while standing at the back waiting to be on stage, I think Jaychelle must be the most nervous one as she needs to stand in the middle of the stage before everything began.
What Went Well during the performance?...(feedback from others and myself)
- We used up the space on stage as Sharon and Rob always mention that to us, all play will look better if actors/actresses have their own equal space between each other, not only for the audience to see all of us, also it would be easy for us to do any movements on stage and not hitting other character.
- Everyone of us projected our voice beautifully, audience in their seats were able to hear us clearly.
- We avoided our 'KISS OR KILL' position, we took what we learned from the workshop in to our performance.
- For characters that have long monologue, they spoke their lines out to the audience by looking at the highest space so that all audience can see them.
- We did not show our back to the audience, when we did it accidentally, we will slowly turn ourselves around without letting the audience notice.
Even Better If we could....
- We could make more props ourselves, like the actors in Macbeth, they made themselves tree branches as weapon to fight. Instead of fighting with an invisible weapon on hand, if there's something we could really hold on, I think it will be more realistic for the audience to watch.
- We could have planned more on our costumes, for example, same colour theme on each side (Montagues or Capulets). So audience get to know who we are without any confusion.
Overall: I think we did really really great as everyone else was giving us positive feedbacks, this performance really helped with my confidence. I'm looking forward for more performances in the future. And I enjoyed planning everything together in a group, it was fun having your own team together doing something productive.
