Evaluation of my performance

I am content with my performance. I don't regret doing a solo performance at all and I don't regret the choices I made, however I did mess up a tiny bit in the movement and forgot a large chunk of what I previously rehearsed. To be completely honest, things were going so well in terms of devising and rehearsal but I think, in the end, I did end up thinking about it more than actually doing it physically, so my mind knew what was up but not my body.

I believe however, I did successfully connect to my emotions and objectives within my performance and this gave context to the performance.I hit the ground running with a lot of energy to keep the audience engaged, as I am more than aware of how draining it is to sit in the same spot for 3 hours and watch others perform when you're completely dreading your own. I think that, despite my average grade and person fuck up, I did try my best by being honest and respectful to the subject matter and taking inspiration from true and sources to create a real piece. 


I could improve, next time, on being more prepared. I thought I was until it got to the actual day and the nerves hit me. I think I could have taken my time more and really put meaning into my movements because I did end up rushing them so I could flee from the stage. Overall, I am satisfied with my grade 5 as the marking does come down to what I showed that day in the assessment, not everything I thought about and the process it took me to get there. I am so very proud of myself for ever getting up and performing a SOLO PHYSICAL THEATRE piece in front of the whole strand. Just a couple of months ago, the thought of me getting up and performing a physical theatre GROUP piece made me feel sick, so to do a solo was either brave or stupid.

Rehearsals & 2nd Stimulus

My recent rehearsals have been interesting and I have realised a lot. I have stemmed away from the idea of being a woman dealing with the home duties whilst her husband goes to war; I think this is a very naturalistic ABC idea that will restrict me from being truly free within my body.

. I don't want my performance to be linear with a basic formation so I've decided to focus on the meaning of death... a massive outcome for many who experienced the war. Death happens to everyone and anyone but those in the war experienced it at its worst and I want to highlight this in all of it's forms.

The rehearsals have been better when I focus on them at my own house by myself than at school. I thought it would be the other way around due to my home being my... home, and there are many distractions, however it has been ok.

Because I have decided to have no music in my performance, I'm finding that I am speaking quite a bit more and I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing. I want to highlight how death came cruelly and almost instantly to those fighting in the war and my words combined with my movements will leave an impression - I really
hope.

As well as a short short monologue I have written myself, I think I am also going to use sections of the poem Anthem for Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen-

What passing-bells for those who die like cattle?
     Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
     Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells,
     Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,-
The shrill demented choirs of wailing shells;
     And bugles calling them from sad shires.What candles may be held to speed them all?
     Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
     The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
     And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds

I don't want to read it all out whilst rolling around on the floor so at the moment I am planning on picking out significant words and repeating those, such as "blinds, rattle, monstrous, prayer."

First rehearsal

I'm liking this idea of me doing a solo! I'm rather enjoying being completely dependant on just myself, and not having to schedule and rearrange times to rehearse with others. I came home from work, got into my pyjamas and dedicated a full two hours to devising my solo piece in the comfort of my front room.

I didn't want to sit down and just think or write about ideas because I thought that would take the organic and natural beauty away from it. I decided to be instinctual and think with my heart instead of my brain (oh god, that sounds really cheesy) and just start moving in ways that felt right and fit for the theme.

I'm deciding not to have any music to my piece. I'm hoping this will create an intense mood that enables the audience to focus on my movements instead of a song.

I've noticed that in past physical performances, my group and I have always thought it necessary to use props so I think, at the moment, I'm going to go against that idea and just use myself. I'm hoping my stripped back solo performance - just me, no music, no props, no costume, no make up - will reflect just how open and vulnerable these women and men were during the war.

I'm excited!

Stimulus Idea

The lecture we had on the history of WW1 was very inspiring and I immediately thought of many possible ideas I could take my solo physical theatre performance down. I thought specifically about the women, the children and that family's involvement in the war, not just the soldiers physically involved. During the twentieth century, women of the whole world became indispensable in the war efforts. In many countries the need for female participation in the First World War was seen as almost necessary, as unprecedented numbers of men were wounded and killed.

They were given the opportunity to help as nurses, teachers, textiles makers, coal miners and clothing, but the largest area in which the women worked was in the munitions factories. Munitions factories were there to produce supplies for the men on the front including tailoring, metal trades, chemical and explosives, food trades, hosiery and woollen and worsted industries. Sure they weren't physically at the front line taking down soldiers, but they were left to keep the nation from crumbling. 

I thought the factory working could be a great foundation to build my solo on. Of course my performance doesn't necessarily have to have a naturalistic plot but the actions taken out within a factory - using machines, the repetition, that hand movements - could add to a potential piece of theatre focusing on the women during the war, not just the men. 

Lesson 3

In today's lesson we experimented freely with music and the characters we felt drawn too by listening to the different songs. We listened to 3 completely contrasting songs and as we created our characters, our teacher used the same exercise as lesson 1, by using the scale of 1-10, and increasing or decreasing our character depending.

The first song was slow and I can only describe it as... twinkly. As I lay listening, I thought of this song being used in a movie when the protagonist is at the peak of happiness in their life and skipping merrily down the road. I created a character of the same emotion, having fun at the park with my dog. When the scale increased, my actions were much bigger and my pace quickened. Not necessarily with increased speed though, (I realised from the second song.) At a neural 5, I was happy spending time with my dog with a smile on my face, so by the time we reached 10 I thought my face was going to fall off, having increased the happiness. 

The next piece of music played had a rocking, loud roaring sound to it. I recognised the song but was sure not to make it influence my decisions for a character. As I lay listening, I listened intently to the song as if with new ears. I thought of emotions and intentions with the song,'and adapted quite a moody and frustrated character. As I walked around the space adapting this emotion, I thought closely on who would act openly in such a way. I ended up creating an stroppy toddler in a supermarket, throwing a public tantrum because my mum wouldn't get me my favourite sweet. When having to push him to his limits, I realised that just because the number on the scale increases, I don't necessarily have to speed up like first expected. Because my character was moving slowly and begrudgingly anyway, the more I had to push this, the slower he would become.  When the number on the scale decreased, my character stopped being so stressy and just.. a little bit stressy.

The third song was, in one word: depressing. The pace was slow, melodic and had a dark feel to it. It was sung by a female singer, and the pace was incredibly relaxing, however with more of a downbeat melody. I sort of annoyingly went with my first initial reaction and played a very sad and depressed character. I adapted a slow pace and didn't actually move that much at all, as if the simple action was on the same level of pain was getting stabbed in the throat. The higher the scale, the slower and unhappier I found my self. Looking around and interacting with the other people doing this exercise, I found most of us adopted the same emotion and character with similar intentions.

War in physical theatre

I think this is such a good topic to base our physical theatre solo performances on - full of so much potential. This war was life changing and so many people were effected, whether they were on the front line or just a child. I think there are so many aspects of this subject to explore physically and mentally and I'm excited for the term.

Lesson 2 - Lecture on the Great War

First World War.

28 July 1914 - November 1918

World War 1 was a global war centred in Europe. From the time of its occurrence until the beginning of World War II in 1939, it was called simply the World War or the Great War, as no one could have predicted a second one would follow. More than 9 million soldiers were killed: a scale of death impacted by industrial advancements, geographic stalemate and reliance on human wave attacks. It was the fifth-deadliest conflict in world history, paving the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved.