Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (1984) - Blog 26 (Evaluation) - 13/07/16

What went well:

My costume for Syme in 1984

• Everyone learned all of their lines and there were very few noticeable mistakes, if any.
• I felt we all maintained our characters throughout. For those of us who had multiple characters like me and James, I felt we all had brilliant characterisation which clearly displayed that we had different characters. I made my characters distinctively different by varying my posture and tone of voice. For Man, I was very slouched and used my regular voice, as we wanted book club to be very modern and casual, whereas, for Syme, I sat up straight, due to being in a work environment and that my character is more mature than Man, and my voice was very nasally and boring as I wanted to make Syme the comic relief of 1984.
• All of our physical theatre sections were on point every time with every lift being safe and impressive, all of actions were expressive and had purpose instead of being used to, "wow," the audience and everyone was where they were meant to be.
• Whenever an issue occurred, we covered each other very well, for example when a chair was left on stage when it wasn't meant to be, someone onstage sat in it as opposed to on the floor so it looked like the chair was left there on purpose.
• One of my favourite scenes was the torture section where in Room 101, Rob has his teeth pulled out and his finger tips torn off. When the blackout occurred for the teeth removal, Charlie opened Rob's mouth and gave him the blood capsule for him to chew on before the lights came up. When the lighting was restored, Rob spits out some of the blood and lets some blood drip around his mouth to show how gruesome his torture is. For his fingertips, I walk over to him in the blackout and Rob puts his hands in his mouth covering his fingers in the red liquid.
• Our set was very impressive with posters of the Big Brother propaganda. Despite being simplistic, it displayed to the audience how controlling the government was of that era.
• I believe that all of our costumes were impressive and matched the 1940's fashion which were going for.
• Our lighting and sound was mostly on time and even when it wasn't, it wasn't a big deal.

What didn't go too well:

• Many transitions didn't go well as some of us were unsure who was moving props/set; however, some mess ups were well covered.
• Not everyone wore a jacket or coat over their 1940's clothes because they either forgot, or felt uncomfortable with the coat on.
• Props like the chocolate which Julia brings Winston were forgotten and not brought on stage due to not ever rehearsing with props.
• After taking full responsibility of taking the table on and off stage, I didn't take it offstage when I was meant to once when we transitioned from book club to a scene between Mrs Parsons/Mother, Child and Winston. However, I believe this wasn't too much of an issue with this scene as this scene would take place in homely environment which would include a table.
• Our posters kept falling down as we only gaffer taped them to the curtains. We then pinned them in also as throughout the course of the day they kept falling down but we should've taken the tape off before pinning them to the curtains as this resulted in the posters sticking to our feet in later scenes.
• Some of our scenes were very scary and gruesome for younger audience members.
• Some of our audience were unsure of the plot until the very end and felt that the change in setting needed to be clearer.

Ways we could improve:

• Run through the entire piece more in rehearsals, focusing on transitions, set, costume and props.
• Pin the posters instead of taping them (or both).
• Warn the audience beforehand that some scenes may not be suggested for younger or squeamish members of the audience.
• To make setting changes more obvious, we should have a sign saying something like, "Book Club: This week's book 1984." This would make the transition into book club more obvious.