Show Evaluation

This term, we have been working on the unit of political theatre. Although in this unit we have worked on a verity of topics, the main focus of the term was on creating a piece of political theatre based around a specific chosen political issue and in our case this was to be around the issue of public library's and the fact that recently they are becoming more and more scarce as the government attempts to shut them down. 

The only real bases for our piece was the initial topic and a shot play called 'Spine' by Clara Brennan. Other than that and the general direction and guidance of Ms Niven, we where granted with a lot of the creative direction of the piece, with a large majority of the show consisting of original writing by the cast. I believe this brought a lot of depth to the piece, as it meant that the cast was able to relate and have a better understanding of the, simply because it came from our own opinions or people from our lives who's opinions have a direct connection to us. This relation provided us with a good stimulus and bases for the substance of the show.

While in the creating and rehearsal process of the show, a factor that would effect our work schedule was the limited time we where provided with. Being only a six week term, by the time we had actually begun devising we only had around four weeks left to do so. This defiantly upped the stress as we had so much to do in very little time. However, although at times I did find myself becoming distracted or not paying attention, overall I believe I brought some good contributions to the show and invested quite a lot of myself to it. For example I had one of the first opening monologues of the show, which I feel I delivered rather successfully as I new all my lines and was able to bring some good energy and power to the character with the use of techniques such as gestus. Everyone was able to bring there individual sections together to create one reasonably good piece of theatre.

Brechtian theatre was also big focus of this terms work. We learnt about a lot about his style of working and the techniques he developed through his work. So when making our piece, we where able to involve many of these techniques ourselves. This included things such as gestus, the v effect and spass which enabled the audience to have some interaction with the characters and brought a sense of immersiveness to the show. Also the quick changes and transitions in the direction of the piece and the use of different theatrical medians, such as singing added a fun and comedic edge. This made the piece much easier for the audience to watch as it included many facts and information, that otherwise may have made them loose interest and become board.

Overall I am greatly pleased with how the final performance went. Although at times In the rehearsal process I may have become distracted and lost concentration, in the end everyone put in all there effort to achieve what I believe to be a successful night and great learning experience.