Final Performance and Evaluation

Our final performance went very well and not much comes to mind when I think of places for improvement apart from energy. There could have been a little bit more of this but we had enough to make our last show go off with a bang. The only significant thing that went wrong was Harry Brewer's bed breaking in the middle of the scene where he and Duckling are about to have sex. Audience members did notice that but TTA took the defective bed out during a blackout.

Overall, I really enjoyed working on Our Country's Good and it has been an honour working with such a company of actors. At first I think we were all a bit apprehensive towards the play as we were comparing it to the other common ground plays too much. The other plays were more relevant to today's audience and were more understandable and aesthetically pleasing whilst just from reading the script we instantly found it boring.
I think Our Country's Good is one of those kinds of plays where you need to give it time to grow and get on it's feet before you can begin to enjoy it. It's complex to understand but you need to listen to the words. Listening to the words is one of the most important things any audience must do and as our set was quite simplistic, the acting and speech had to make up for it/keep the audience entertained.

I think we made up for it because the actors cast were all very strong, worked hard and gave this play everything they could and things the audience said to us showed this. When we weren't doing the show we were all communicating with each other, planning rehearsals outside lesson, helping each other with lines, etc. Like every other piece of theatre there were things that were stronger and weaker in each show, but if you take note of these things you can apply them to your next performance and that is what we all did.

Things I've learned from this experience is that a cooperative company of actors is essential and you all need to listen and support each other. Especially the director. No matter how much you may dislike the play at first, you need to put these thoughts and feelings aside or this will reflect in your acting and if you don't believe in the play, nobody will. One person affects everything.
Also, it isn't just the actors who make the show, TTA have a lot to do with it as well. In fact without them, we wouldn't be able to put on the shows that we do and it's important to respect them as well as your fellow actors because they too, are part of the company. They put in a lot of work and they were in after we had left taking the set down. Though they can't be seen during the performance, they play such a large part in it, so thank them at the end of each show.

Costume and set design post

Costume
The officers costumes are all period and as accurate as possible to what they would have been at the time. We all had wigs (which were very itchy and generally unpleasant to wear) and very similar costumes apart from Major Robbie Ross and Captain Philip who wore hats and had one more gold stripe on their jackets to show higher positions. We all had cravates, waistcoats, boot covers (pinned to our trousers), shirts but had to supply our own black shoes. I've always likes my costume though the design changed quite a bit considering I don't wear white socks or brown shoes anymore. When we got dressed for each show the burden for me was putting the wig on. I have a mass of curls on my head and getting the wig on presented some challenges. I did need to adjust it occasionally through the show but it stayed put. In the future, I will probably straighten my hair before I ever wear a wig.

The Set

A few things have changed since this picture. The set was different than the other shows in common ground because our set wasn't as detailed as theirs. Our play uses less props. It is quite a traditional play in the way that it's more technical and depends more or proxemics and words as opposed to anything else. There are two different parts of the stage; raised and lowered. The part that is raised is the shape of the Australian coast and the part that is lowered is at a normal height. There is the compass which is another raised platform and mainly used for the aborigine's monologues and occasionally during other scenes. Otherwise it isn't used as when the aborigine stands on it there is a spotlight specifically positioned to light him. Ralph's tent is on the raised platform and opens and closes when it needs to be. Mainly when it is and isn't in use. In act 2, Ralph doesn't use his tent any more so the tech team change his desk to a bed for Harry Brewer and Duckling scenes. When Harry dies, a blanket is pulled over him and the tent is closed. The set is painted a sandy colour and represents the dry climate of Australia.

Second Show

For the second show, we didn't have any time to run over scenes that Sarah thought needed looking at and we went straight into the warm up and performance.

We had a bit of a larger audience than our first show and these were mainly made of of KS4 students so levels of maturity and lack of understanding was something we had to prepare for. They reacted quite differently to our first because they laughed at different moments and some moments where we had laughs at before, they didn't laugh at this time around. This worried some members of us and raised some questions on whether we were performing as well, but we needed to bare in mind that their focus shifts at different moments and parts where our last audience may have laughed are parts our current audience are concentrating on.
Our first audience were mainly made of family and friends so we might have been a bit spoilt with things such as laughs but it doesn't necessarily mean that we were any worse this time. We got positive audience feedback for this performance as well, but we had an error with Ralph's tent where it wasn't untied and didn't stay put for the first half but apparently it wasn't noticeable. Also the first audience was small enough to fit in one bank so we performed to that side for the most part but this time with a bigger audience everyone had to remember to include the side banks and project to them as well as the front so that they didn't feel left out.

I hope our next performance - and last performance - we take the experiences from our last two shows and learn from them to make our last show the best it can be. I think most importantly we need to remember not to be put off by however the audience may react and keep the energy going as much as we possibly can.

First Show

The run we had on the day before our show was worrying as people missed lines, cues, and left the stage at the wrong time, but we all put this down to a mutual case of pre-show nerves. After our break, we got into our costumes and had a half hour long vocal and physical warm-up so that we could deliver the best performance possible to our audience. I find that these really helped everyone before the show because we relaxed, released all physical tension, opened up our throats and warmed up our vocal chords and overall we began to focus.

I am very proud of how the performance went. We all remembered our cues and lines, there was so much energy and focus and the audience seemed to love it. I think this was what surprised me the most because When I first read the play I found it quite boring because I didn't know the subtext behind it but as our rehearsal process went on, I and everyone else gained understanding and knowledge for the play and could begin to enjoy it. Most of the audience however had no knowledge of the colonisation of Australia and I worried that they would get bored because of this but I was proved wrong. They laughed and sometimes applauded at the parts they enjoyed and were in silence and shock at the parts  that were supposed to shock them, especially the parts where Major Ross mistreated the convicts. The audience tended to have a general idea of how the colonisation of some countries had worked and so they were able to connect to the storyline.

Things I think should be improved for the next performance is volume. This was our first performance so it will take some getting used to projecting to the further audience but some feedback we received higlighted that this should be a focal point for us all. Another thing is the audience size. We only had one side filled with a little bit of another side but it felt so empty with such a small audience. If we had more audience we would be able to experiment with having more sides to perform to but that felt more like we were performing in an end on set. Hopefully for the next few shows - especially the final show - we will have a larger audience.