The Witches - Evaluation

 THE WITCHES

EVALUATION

20/21^ST OCTOBER 2021

Us first years only started the level 3 acting course 6 weeks ago and now after only 4 weeks of rehearsals were ready to take three stage. I think that keeping it of only a few weeks rehearsals keeps life pumping through our performances. Sometimes when a play is over rehearsed the actors loose all sense of spontaneous-ness. I think that was a big part of why both performances went so well. The show was exactly what we wanted it to be, it was fun and exciting but also a bit twisted. On the first night the crowd went wild for Harley playing ‘Bruno’. They laughed at him in every scene he was in, it’s the way he flopped about and was in character fully throughout the whole thing. ‘Bea’ is also a very comedic character, I heard people laughing at her as-well. They both made really good Bruno’s and made the play more memorable. I think David Wood did a really good job when writing this comedic characters lines because it really got through to the audience. I think for my performances, that we had just the right amount of rehearsal time because it was the last few weeks of rehearsal that got me connecting with my character ‘Celia’ ( witch) and I was at the peak of playing her when we did the show. For the doorman character I think having the extra time to really personalise the character was nice and helpful. I originally played her quite basically but after doing the character worksheet I gave her life. I made her a bit anxious because she was only meant to be nineteen, I also made her seem kind and sweet to all the guests. However, she was fed up of Bea and I tried to really show that through my facial expressions and body language.. Also, when you’re in rehearsals it’s very beneficial to give it your all so the rest of the team know where you’re at and so you can keep pushing yourself to be better, and sometimes you might think that that is the best you can do but when you feel the adrenaline from show-day and are in your full costume with the dramatic makeup and bald caps and wigs, you feel the character wake up inside of you even more. I’ve never done a theatre performance before or done any acting lesions on theatre acting. I’ve only ever gone to lessons for TV and film where you use miniature facial expressions to show emotion because the camera can close up in your face. However, in theatre everything has to be bigger and much more dramatic. So I started to do a bigger more unrealistic performance and I think that’s a massive thing with all the witches. Kelly said in rehearsals one time that we must always be trying to take the audiences attention even if we have no lines. That was really fun to think about when I was playing Celia because I knew that you could never do too much. It felt really free playing a witch and I soon fell in love with the character. I made personal relationships with my character. Emie’s character Penelope was my aunt and legal guardian, kadie\"s character was my cousin and best friend and La Toyas character was kadie\"s mam and my aunt. We used these to create more chemistry in stage and make the play more believable and I think it worked. I spoke to some of the audience after the show and they were saying how they noticed certain things that the witches did that was funny, or they thought the witches reactions were hilarious. Without each actor taking the time to create a background for the character or make relationships to other characters like the grand high witch I don’t think the scene would have been as lively and full. One person I asked said that you couldn’t hear every word the actors were saying but you heard most of it so it didn’t take away from the story but I do think we could’ve been a little bit louder sometimes. My goal for the next show (Charlie and the chocolate factory) is the try and make my stage presence much bigger and much more entertaining. I need to be louder and more expressive to bring my characters to life as much as I can. Overall I think the show was great for our first show and I think we really rose under the pressure of having a full house and smashed it. I’m proud to have been involved.