Before our first afternoon performance. I was really worried about my parts because we had the pig just one week before today and I can't make myself to believe that this is happening so fast. Even though we had enough rehearsals, I still don't think it's enough because of the attendance of our group before. during the final week of our rehearsals, we basically rehearse on bits to bits to fix up every detail, especially focussing on Chloe's (the pig) role. She's been missing until one week before our show, it is the reason that makes us nervous.
We did a full run with finalised technical, dress and props from cues to cues, also from the beginning until the end. The overall result was unexpectedly amazing, voices were projected loud and clear enough. Chloe did a great job carrying those props, I was really nervous before because of the amount of props she needs to carry were quite a lot, it is possible to mess everything up during the performance if she did a mistake.
Here comes our first performance:
I used the space around my stool effectively, as I can't walk too far away from my stool, that would be too purposely for the audience. In order to use that space, I stand and sit in the middle while I'm speaking as if I'm trying to seek for the attention of Estragon and Vladimir. One tricky part throughout the whole performance was when I asked Lucky for the basket, it was a Fortnum and Mason basket, if I'm to take things out, the audience will not be able to see because of the lid. I exaggerated my actions when I took out the food by putting them high for Estragon and Vladimir (subtle: audience) to see.
feedback from the audience and my group
- My movements can be bigger, it shows how big a man I am and to add more funny sources into the play.
- Enlarge the contrast while I'm ordering Lucky and while being overly narcissistic to the guys.
- When I'm done eating, I can try putting the bone into my pocket unwittingly, so the moment I take out my pipe, I will find the bone in there instead, it's a good idea of entertaining the audience with my clumsiness.
- Facial expressions were on point to the characters on stage but not the audience, I should find a way to show more of myself to the audience.
In between shows
I was suffering from my cold for the past few days and had tried to eat clean and stay healthy for as long as it can last. But because of the constant speaking during rehearsals and some shouting during the first performance, my voice started to crack a little, it became more serious. The tone of my voice was much deeper than how I usually speak. I was panic and really nervous with that husky voice I am going to perform with.
We did another full run with ourselves, everything during the final rehearsal was in control. One hour before our second performance, we played some games to get ourselves relaxed, we also communicate like we're already in the world of Waiting for Godot. This is to help us get into character more quickly. What I decided to do with my voice is since I couldn't get rid of it, I decided to just play with it, because it sounded just like an old man. Somehow it might help with my performance.
Here comes our second performance:
In this performance, I focused more on the feedback I received earlier. I even took some long pauses to add some tension in the atmosphere before I say something silly, I was able to overhear some laughter from the audience. There was one mistake I did throughout the show, when I was trying to put my bone into my pocket I did not realize that putting stuff into my pocket can be so difficult when I'm sitting down. I dropped the bone on the floor instead, it even slid to the middle of the stage, when things I can't fix happened, I just get along with it, I wiped my hands with my handkerchief and make some stretches at the back while Estragon and Vladimir were still talking. In this case, the audience will not notice that unplanned bone throwing.
What Went Well
My character was definitely more believable to watch other than my deep voice, I even walked like I had a fat tummy under my shirt. Even though I am the shortest in my group, I speak like I am the biggest and tallest. whenever I need to speak to the guys, I speak to them from quite a distance away so I do not need to raise my head up to them. Sometimes I even try to not look at them like I'm speaking to myself enjoying myself in my own story or smoking pipe or look into the sky. This time, I took my time speaking and walking further from my stool before I sit back down, this could let the audience to see who and where they need to be focussing, also a chance for Estragon and Vladimir to walk away from me showing how much they fear from getting too close to me.
Even better if
I never thought of involving the audience by having some interactions or breaking the fourth wall, Waiting for Godot can be a really funny and meaningless play if we play it well, but I think if we can play this without the fourth wall, it would've been more interesting for the audience. This is what I think we should've thought of while we were discussing about the play.
Overall:
I can't say this show was the best one I've ever performed throughout the course, but this is definitely a challenge for me. I've learned to adapt from the original show of Waiting for Godot and play it in my own style, to explore another side of the story. Everything I've been through working on this play was new, we don't get a teacher or director to help us all the time, so most of the work was done in how much we want them to be done. This was the most meaningful show that I've never expected we could do so well without much of the help from others. Other than putting in all skills we learned since the beginning of this course, those efforts we put into it were worth to talk about. We are our own leader in the group, whenever we're not feeling comfortable enough to the people or rules, we speak up and discuss to solve it. This is how our group manage to perform our show. It's a little society of Waiting for Godot.
Even though my mind is still changing whether or not to continue in the acting industry, the skills I've learned, for examples, the magic if: it helps me from easily understanding others' difficulties or happiness, voice projection: I'm able to control my voice at the suitable volume but still keep its energy in the same level at different places, etc. I think acting is an industry that is closest to our usual life, even though some story might be unbelievable, or overly dramatic but aren't those come out from a real human. Being dramatic is not an easy task, by understanding the story behind it makes you who you are. The base of acting is human life, without human, that life won't work.
We did a full run with finalised technical, dress and props from cues to cues, also from the beginning until the end. The overall result was unexpectedly amazing, voices were projected loud and clear enough. Chloe did a great job carrying those props, I was really nervous before because of the amount of props she needs to carry were quite a lot, it is possible to mess everything up during the performance if she did a mistake.
Here comes our first performance:
I used the space around my stool effectively, as I can't walk too far away from my stool, that would be too purposely for the audience. In order to use that space, I stand and sit in the middle while I'm speaking as if I'm trying to seek for the attention of Estragon and Vladimir. One tricky part throughout the whole performance was when I asked Lucky for the basket, it was a Fortnum and Mason basket, if I'm to take things out, the audience will not be able to see because of the lid. I exaggerated my actions when I took out the food by putting them high for Estragon and Vladimir (subtle: audience) to see.
feedback from the audience and my group
- My movements can be bigger, it shows how big a man I am and to add more funny sources into the play.
- Enlarge the contrast while I'm ordering Lucky and while being overly narcissistic to the guys.
- When I'm done eating, I can try putting the bone into my pocket unwittingly, so the moment I take out my pipe, I will find the bone in there instead, it's a good idea of entertaining the audience with my clumsiness.
- Facial expressions were on point to the characters on stage but not the audience, I should find a way to show more of myself to the audience.
In between shows
I was suffering from my cold for the past few days and had tried to eat clean and stay healthy for as long as it can last. But because of the constant speaking during rehearsals and some shouting during the first performance, my voice started to crack a little, it became more serious. The tone of my voice was much deeper than how I usually speak. I was panic and really nervous with that husky voice I am going to perform with.
We did another full run with ourselves, everything during the final rehearsal was in control. One hour before our second performance, we played some games to get ourselves relaxed, we also communicate like we're already in the world of Waiting for Godot. This is to help us get into character more quickly. What I decided to do with my voice is since I couldn't get rid of it, I decided to just play with it, because it sounded just like an old man. Somehow it might help with my performance.
Here comes our second performance:
In this performance, I focused more on the feedback I received earlier. I even took some long pauses to add some tension in the atmosphere before I say something silly, I was able to overhear some laughter from the audience. There was one mistake I did throughout the show, when I was trying to put my bone into my pocket I did not realize that putting stuff into my pocket can be so difficult when I'm sitting down. I dropped the bone on the floor instead, it even slid to the middle of the stage, when things I can't fix happened, I just get along with it, I wiped my hands with my handkerchief and make some stretches at the back while Estragon and Vladimir were still talking. In this case, the audience will not notice that unplanned bone throwing.
What Went Well
My character was definitely more believable to watch other than my deep voice, I even walked like I had a fat tummy under my shirt. Even though I am the shortest in my group, I speak like I am the biggest and tallest. whenever I need to speak to the guys, I speak to them from quite a distance away so I do not need to raise my head up to them. Sometimes I even try to not look at them like I'm speaking to myself enjoying myself in my own story or smoking pipe or look into the sky. This time, I took my time speaking and walking further from my stool before I sit back down, this could let the audience to see who and where they need to be focussing, also a chance for Estragon and Vladimir to walk away from me showing how much they fear from getting too close to me.
Even better if
I never thought of involving the audience by having some interactions or breaking the fourth wall, Waiting for Godot can be a really funny and meaningless play if we play it well, but I think if we can play this without the fourth wall, it would've been more interesting for the audience. This is what I think we should've thought of while we were discussing about the play.
Overall:
I can't say this show was the best one I've ever performed throughout the course, but this is definitely a challenge for me. I've learned to adapt from the original show of Waiting for Godot and play it in my own style, to explore another side of the story. Everything I've been through working on this play was new, we don't get a teacher or director to help us all the time, so most of the work was done in how much we want them to be done. This was the most meaningful show that I've never expected we could do so well without much of the help from others. Other than putting in all skills we learned since the beginning of this course, those efforts we put into it were worth to talk about. We are our own leader in the group, whenever we're not feeling comfortable enough to the people or rules, we speak up and discuss to solve it. This is how our group manage to perform our show. It's a little society of Waiting for Godot.
Even though my mind is still changing whether or not to continue in the acting industry, the skills I've learned, for examples, the magic if: it helps me from easily understanding others' difficulties or happiness, voice projection: I'm able to control my voice at the suitable volume but still keep its energy in the same level at different places, etc. I think acting is an industry that is closest to our usual life, even though some story might be unbelievable, or overly dramatic but aren't those come out from a real human. Being dramatic is not an easy task, by understanding the story behind it makes you who you are. The base of acting is human life, without human, that life won't work.
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