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.