"The Wardrobe" Evaluation

"The Wardrobe" performance evaluation by Jack Collins

I'm going to go over each aspect and give an opinion on how each of them went:

Remembering lines: Overall I remembered more or less all of my lines consistently throughout the performances. I never skipped any lines of my own and when people did such as Sam in scene 12 I skipped to the line right after it so there was no confusion. Speaking of Sam I even completely made up a line of dialogue because I knew he'd forgotten it and the pause was going on a bit long. While I never missed a line during the show there was one point in scene 9 where in missed a cue, it took me a second to realise and then after 3 or 4 seconds I said it which broke the pace of the scene a little.

Entering and exiting stage: This was something that I had no problems with at all. I went in at the right times and with the appropriate costumes and props. They kept the pace of the play going and I never had to correct something when going in or out of the wardrobe.

Pace and timing: I feel that my pacing throughout my scenes was pretty well done. I used my dramatic pauses only when needed such as in scene 12 when my character is struggling for words and and scene 5 when I realise there is no point in struggling and that I have to stop. The pause mixed with the emotion on my face portrayed this very well I believe and kept the play scene moving yet letting pure emotion be shown. One down side is that In scene 9 as I mentioned I missed one of my cues and delayed the scene by a few seconds when I wasn't supposed to but other than that there were no pacing issues I attribute to me.

Vocal delivery: I feel that may vocal delivery was overall pretty good but could do with some improvements. I my lines were articulated very well for more or less all the play and I do not recall any stuttering at any time during the play. I feel that I portrayed emotion quite well in my voice too so I wasn't wooden or one note throughout the play. For example when in scene 12 when I hear what my friends has been through I showed regret, sorrow and sympathy in my voice and in scene 9 I showed a mixture of intrigue and anger depending what was going on and I transitioned between emotion quite smoothly so they weren't over the top or too comical. One downside to my vocal delivery was that I don't think I projected my voice loud enough or at least not to what I know I'm capable of.

Style of the piece: I believe that my performance was quite natural. I was trying to keep my face from over expressing on stage because that's something that I'm somewhat known for doing and initially I was worried I'd do it but I showed restraint and was subtle enough to keep it realistic but just expressive enough so that my emotions could be seen by the audience since it is a play and not a film where you can focus on whatever emotion is being portrayed. One example of that that I'm quite proud of was in scene 5 when I have to show that I can't do anything and have to surrender. I showed in my face pretty well and at a realistic pace, looking her in the eye and showing realisation before giving up.

Focus and consistency: I think that I was very consistent throughout the show, keeping my voice at mostly the same volume and giving it the right amount of energy required for the line.There were occasional moments where I accidentally lowered my volume when I was supposed to like at the beginning of scene 9 when I say "Get on with it Tom" and some other lines in scene 12 like "Oh." and "I didn't know." were a bit too quite. I feel that I was very focused throughout the entire play with the exception of one part during scene 9. Max had to sing and he got his lyrics wrong. It was supposed to be "The once was farmer who took a young miss" but he said "There once was miss who took a young farmer and I'm pretty sure he still got some of his other lyrics wrong which made me lose focus and smile because it sounded ridiculous but I tried and focused as as hard as I could but still had trouble so I quickly decided to work around it by acting as if I thought it was playfully funny at first but got annoying as it went on which still worked for the character so i was quite lucky that I thought of doing that. The rest of the cast seemed to be extremely focused as well, delivering there lines well, generally not forgetting those lines and always being ready for the next scene or cue. However there were a few exceptions such as after the show I looked at my phone and realised that Sam had taken a picture and put it on snapchat while we were performing to the audience which when I found out did slightly annoy me and there was a fair bit of whispering backstage but other than those two examples the cast were very well focused and professional.

Conclusion: Overall I think that the performance went very very well. Everyone gave great performances and kept with in the boundaries of a naturalistic performance. While they certainly had a few issues with volume/projection, mixing up or forgetting lines and the occasion mess up such as when the pole from the top of the wardrobe fell on Becca's head and she reacted so well that i didn't even know it had happened until after the play had finished I can safely say that the cast showed commitment and were very professional and did well with portraying there characters in a natural way. As for myself, I still think the same for me even though I did have a few little mistakes but apart from the ones I mentioned I feel that I gave 3 well executed performances that were at a good standard of being naturalistic.