"The Cherry Orchard" Performance Evaluation

"The Cherry Orchard" Performance Evaluation by Jack Collins.

This is an evaluation that aims to explain if/how the performers of "The Cherry Orchard" gave the intended naturalistic performances that were required of them to an audience and if they were of a good standard.

Lines: The majority of the cast remembered there lines very well however there were one or too slip ups for example in part 4 there were two points in which Sam interrupted me meaning he forgot his cue and said his line to early. Chloe as Varya even messed up on one line but she still remembered it she just got a word out of place and it sounded a little silly. I myself didn't mess up on any of my lines and I remembered all of my cue lines which set me up quite well. All of the extra rehearsal work I did with remembering and practicing with other students over the phone really paid off and for only having  weeks to do it I'm impressed I did my lines properly. Although I did use a script for part 4 because I was not being assessed on that and put focus on parts 1 and 2 but I still remembered a fair few of my lines. I even covered up one unplanned change in a line. Max was supposed to say Can I have a glass of water" but instead of "Water" he said "Brandy" and I just simply had to go along with that. It may not seem much but it's a detail that if i didn't change would've stuck out like a saw thumb and I just feel like I need to mention

Entrances and exits: Everyone including myself came onto stage with the right amount of energy for the appropriate scene or mood. We all acted as if it was cold if it was supposed to be and we all came on looking how we were supposed to feel such as when I come on in part 4 I'm in  a rush and I made it look like I was due to my speed and energy. There was not a single stage entrance on my part that went wrong and no one else as far as I'm aware. The only exception I can think of was that Rhys allegedly tripped up when going on stage and while I never saw or heard this everyone else did.

Pace: The pacing throughout parts 1 and  were excellent, everyone including myself said our lines at the correct time and there were no long pauses between anyone's lines due to them remembering their cues well and this kept the pace fast and means that it didn't drag so the pacing for parts  and 2 was very well done and paid off brilliantly. However the pacing for part 4 was still quite good it was definitely slower. This was partially due to me reading a script and having a few small pauses between lines although I did get much better as I went along. Another reason was because some people such as Sam and Jack t had clearly not rehearsed there lines as much as everyone else. They did remember them it's just they were sometimes delivered slowly or at least slower than they should've been. These few reasons made part 4 a bit slower than it should've been although it was much better than when we rehearsed it so that's something.

Timing: It was obvious that everyone in parts 1 and 2 had rehearsed enough in order to learn there cue lines because there were no unnecessary pauses and the ones that were there were intentional and for dramatic effect. However in part four there were a few pauses that were a little too long some of them even from me due to I was allowed to use a script and even though they weren't long they were still a second or 2 too long for it to seem completely natural.

Aim: Our aim was to give naturalistic performances and I think that most of the cast did this brilliantly. I believe mine was very natural and believable due to the idiosyncrasies that I gave my character and  how I was consistent with them which kept it engaging and alive. Most of the other actors did this very well too with the exceptions being Sam/Alexander and Mike/Boris. Sam was completely wooden with almost no energy throughout his performance and mike was excellent when he had to deliver lines but when he did not, he was completely still and when he started moving it stuck out and was a little jarring so he needed to practice his idiosyncrasies more and keep them consistent. or at least just use them a little because he didn't at all as far as I'm aware. so while some were a little off, most of the cast were very good at acting in a believable and natural way.

Characterisation: I think I got Leo's objective of wanting to help his sister across quite well or at least I gave off the feeling that he cares for her deeply. Such as when she hallucinates her mother I go up next to her and try to make sure she's OK and I was visibly worried. Me wanting to hide my sadness came across well too in part 2 and it gave off the impression that I didn't want it to be seen by anyone and especially not Lyuba. So getting across my objectives, motives and movements was natural and seemed to work very well.

Vocal delivery: For the most part the cast delivered there lines very well. They were articulate, had very good projection and there delivery was emotionally diverse when it had to be. I think I had all those qualities and have improved quite a bit during the rehearsals. I was worried that playing an old man and adding frailty to him meant that my projection level may be lowered but from what I experienced and the feedback afterwards that was not the case. I was surprisingly loud and very articulate and even managed to get the sad about to cry tone right which was another thing I was worried about. Exceptions in the cast would be Rhys for his projection because he was actually quite quiet and hard to hear sometimes where as Mike was excellent in terms of projection because he was the loudest of us all and somehow kept a natural tone in his voice which was quite impressive.

Gesture and movement: I already mentioned about Mike and his idiosyncrasies and how he needed to use them to appear more natural and while I think that about him and Sam, everyone else as far as I'm aware did use them and no one was ever motionless unless they had to be for a specific purpose such as a dramatic stare/look. I used my 3 movements/idiosyncrasies consistently and made my performance seem more alive and realistic. I'm proud of the way it turned out and it actually was useful to me as well as engaging. It made me more focused while on stage and ready for my next cue line or cue for movement.

Focus: Everyone was extremely well focused throughout the production with just a couple of exceptions that I can think of. One was me when I smiled on stage when I wasn't supposed to. It was the moment when Charlotta/Becca goes "Waaa" because I just think it sticks out too much and sounds ridiculous. I covered it up by acting as if I was finding what she was doing endearing but I admit there was the one moment where I lost focus and I covered it up well in my opinion but the flaw was that it shouldn't of happened so that is something I would need to improve. Another example was that Anya/Yasmin was allegedly laughing on stage when she was in her scene with Peter/Logan and even though I didn't see it I heard she did it from a few people. The final example of lack of focus was that there was a fair bit of whispering backstage and I'm guilty of this too and while I didn't do it much I still did it and this may have been distracting to anyone who heard it.

In conclusion I feel that the performance as a whole went extremely well despite a few minor flaws. I think my performance was very natural, utilising the idiosyncrasies and body language while projecting my voice and keeping the natural tone. I showed varied natural tones and a range of emotions in a subtle and believable way. The only fault with my performance as far as I can tell going by opinion and feedback is that I used a script for part 4 however I'm not being assessed on part 4 so that isn't a fault in my eyes although I'll admit that it did affect pacing and maybe my tone of voice occasionally. Everyone else I can say did the same with the few exceptions I mentioned to do with Mike, Sam and Rhys. There are a few things to improve with those 3 such as projection, energy and idiosyncrasies. I'm proud of the way this performance went and the feedback afterwards seemed quite positive especially for the performances.