Evaluation 30/04/2015

Overall evaluation of performance evaluation

List of all the multimedia used in the performance

·         Music

·         Projectors

·         Lights

·         Videos

Multimedia enhanced the overall performance as it enabled us to give the audience to view theatre in a different perspective literally. The idea that a performer was able to communicate with another performer that might not even be speaking from that present moment but from something that was recorded a couple weeks earlier is what makes it so excited and different.

I think that the impact the multimedia had on the audience was that it helped them feel more a part of what was going on. By having all these different uses of multimedia such as visual effects and lighting as well as live performance, it gave them an opportunity to feel as if they were there themselves.  The multimedia also helped to engage the audience to the performance as for a lot of members watching, hadn’t seen theatre performed with multimedia before so it meant that they wanted to know more about  the ways we chose to use multimedia in the performance,  as well as what was going to happen next.

I believe that it’s hard to say whether or not the final performance would’ve still been as effective without multimedia as such a big chunk of our performance did involve it. If multimedia wasn’t involved in the performance, we would’ve had to think of other ways of presenting the play to the audience and as I don’t know how that would’ve been presented I cannot really say. However I do believe that without the use of multimedia, the final performance wouldn’t have had that touch of uniqueness in the way that we chose to use our multimedia. The multimedia unlocked a perspective that gave the audience a different eye to view things with.

I believe that the most effective moment of multimedia, was when the first chorus was performed from outside whilst the audience viewed it from upstairs in the theatre room and music was being played through the speakers. I say this because viewing this chorus from upstairs made it seem as if the performers were at quite a distance (which they were) however having the music played from the room they were viewing it made it seem far but extremely close at the same time. Along with this the music (the speech/verse)  being played at the same time was also our voices prerecord so this so this factor also plays along with us being far and close at the same time. The multimedia used in the chorus was effective because all the voices put together were very strong and powerful and we ourselves represented that with the movement in our physicality.

 

Overall the performance was a success and I believe that as a performer, I was able to develop my understanding in terms of performing my first promenade piece. Along with that, I had never before thought of ways in which I could incorporate multimedia in theatre. This also gave me an opportunity to widen my knowledge in ways that I could understand how to use multimedia to enhance theatre performances. Most importantly I have been able to truly realise how important it is to keep our history in theatrical aspects and use past theatre plays from as early on as Greek theatre to show modern audiences today how they presented emotions and their stories. The way in which I found myself relating to so many of the problems characters had faced surprised me as I never thought about how closely related the problems that we sometimes face can be to each other. All of the historical context behind this clearly and strongly shows that no matter how new or old a piece of theatre is, history always repeats itself.

How did multimedia in each scene, enhace the performance?

Scenes from Antigone:	Multimedia used and locations	How did the multimedia in each scene enhance the performance?
1. Creon announces that Eteocles will be honoured and Polynices will be shamed and left un-buried.	Video to be shown on screen in reception.	Video kept the audience on their feet as they had to switch their mind between live performance and pre-recorded speech
2. Antigone goes to Ismene to persuade her to assist the burial of their brother. Ismene refuses.	By the tree - video shown of the thoughts of the characters.	Gave an insight of the characters minds to the audience
3. Antigone goes to bury her brother.	Round of wooden stumps.	Game music played to help create comedic atmosphere
4. Creon looks for the support of the chorus of Theban Elders in his decision to leave Polynices unburied.	Creon announces from fire escape door of 415 - chorus round the tree looking up. Audience looking up also.	Helped make speech more intense and create a dramatic atmosphere within the audience
5. A Sentry reports the burial of Polynices. Creon insists that the Sentry finds out who or face death.	Filmed footage of event is shown on screen top of stairs. Sentry talking to Creon.	A mysterious atmosphere created also making the burial of Polynices seem as realistic as possible
6. Chorus sing about honouring gods.	From the yard up to windows of 413   Recorded chorus played.	Not performed -
7. Sentry returns with the Culprit: Antigone. Creon confronts her.	Burst into 413 - audience turn to see. Lighting used.	Lighting helped build the tension between Creon and Antigone
8. Creon confronts Ismene. Ismene tries to confess but Antigone won't allow it. And in the end, the two sisters are imprisoned.	Still in 413 but Creon live speaks to a projected Ismene. Antigone is walked out the room and joins the real Ismene - escorted off. Lighting used	Gives the sense that even though Antigone is with her sister Ismene (projected screen) in reality she is on her own (live).
9. Haemon both pledges allegiance to his father, Creon, and asks that Antigone be spared. After the discussion deteriorate, Haemon storms out vowing never to speak to him again.	Traverse in 413 - iphone lights as the two talk. Throughout confrontation, lights go out, one by one.	Lighting used to build the tension slowly (as the lights turn off) that something big is going to happen.
10. Creon choses to spare Ismene, and to bury Antigone alive. As she is dragged out, the chorus express their Sorrow.	One light left on Creon's face. Sound of s body being dragged...etc.   Projection and video used	Sounds and lighting used to create atmosphere and slightly scare the audience as they cannot see, but only hear what’s happening
11. Tiresias attempts to advise Creon that what he is doing is wrong and that the Gods are angry. The prophecy of a dead son is mentioned.	Tiresias never moves his mouth but what he says coupled with weird underscore is played through speakers of 415. Projected video played	Video used to help audience and Creon understand the seriousness of his actions
12. The chorus, terrified, begs him to take Tiresias' advice. Shaken, Creon agrees to release Antigone and bury Polynices.	As many chorus as possible fill cavities of 415 and urge Creon. Three doors and side grated window thing.	Not performed-
13. Chorus deliver a choral ode to the god Dionysus.		Not Performed-
14. Messenger informs Eurydice of Haemon and Antigone's death.	Filmed footage on repeat of Haemon stabbing himself and Antigone hanging, swinging from a branch.	Enables the audience to see a flashback of what had happened in the near past.
15. Carrying the body of his dead son Haemon, Creon is then met by a 2nd messenger informing him of Eurydice's death.	Audience back outside looking at tree. Creon walking through the courtyard, holding Creon, confronted by messenger at the tree. Chorus look down from 415.	No multimedia used in order to give the audience a live, realistic and present moment, of the tragic ending to the play.

Thursday 28th April – Day of performance

During this lesson we were told that we would be performing our play to the year 11’s at 11:30 so we were given about an hour or so to make sure everything in our scenes was straightened up (this time with the use of all our multimedia). By having the year 11’s watch our play, it meant that we were able to have a rough idea of what our actual audience would be like later on in the day and how we would have to make our movement around them during the performance.

Once it hit 11:30 we were sent to our performance spaces and after the year 11’s arrived, we began our first run through with an audience. Overlooking our first run through, I believe that the movement of the promenade moved very swiftly. In terms of any difficulties within the play, in some scenes e.g. (for the second chorus) some of us found it hard to make our way through the audience as they didn’t understand where they themselves were supposed to stand. At the moment, we weren’t sure on how to indicate that to the audience while still staying in character and not verbally telling them to move.  We eventually managed to guide them to the corners of the room with our hands guiding them back and also by standing in our places so that they knew that was where the chorus was being performed. 

Overall the performance was performed quite smoothly in the run through and these misunderstandings enabled us to keep in mind and improve for the actual live performance later on in the day. I believe it was really valuable to be able to perform to the older year first so that later on, we would know what to improve as well as what to expect.

Monday 25th April

Multimedia log

During this lesson we started by getting straight on with a run through so that we roughly knew how long the performance would be on the night and to tighten any movements that wasn’t as swift. Overall the run through went swiftly but as some groups including mine were not able to access their multimedia, it made it hard for us to see how swiftly the multimedia aspect of the performance would run.

However parts of multimedia that we were able to access as a whole included our second chorus when about 7 of us light up our torches from our mobile phones, to create atmosphere. In the run through, this was very effective as it dragged the audience’s attention at an instant on the line “The mother city of the Bacchantes”

Another way in which we incorporated our phones during the chorus included during the line “Next to the flowing city of the Bacchantes”. During this, another 4/5 of us played the sounds of water flowing which helped to also create atmosphere in terms of sounds and surroundings around the audience.

Monday 20th April

Multimedia log
 

During this lesson we started with our normal warm up and then went straight into rehearsing our scenes in the spaces we are going to perform them on the day. We spent about half an hour rehearsing in our spaces and this helped as we were able to clean up any small details that weren’t moving swiftly in our scene such as entrances and exits. Even though we weren’t able to properly rehearse it yet as some areas such as mine in reception the TV’s weren’t yet available for the performance of multimedia, we were still able to rehearse all the live action that will be performed on the day.

We then went back to rehearse the two choruses’s with our whole class and this enabled us to strengthen any physical theatre that wasn’t quite as yet as strong. This also gave us an opportunity to clarify that everyone saying line on the chorus knew who and when they were saying them.

After rehearsing through our scenes and the chorus’s we had a rough run through of the performance in which we would all move around the whole school building (starting at reception) to where each scene was being performed. At each scene one member of the group would roughly explaining to the whole class what movement and dialogue would be occurring. This was extremely useful as it meant that our whole class was able to really have a true understanding of the movement of the play. Also it helped us understand what places we need to be at before a scene to make sure the play moves swiftly.

Thursday 16th April

Historical Content

Today we started off the lesson by recording a moment of choral breathing. We did this in order to have one of the scenes with everyone silent while the breathing sounds are being played through the speakers. This will build more tension around the audience and build curiosity within the audiences’ minds.

My piece of multimedia is relevant for an audience because most speeches that are made from very important people such as presidents who are usually seen on the TV by the majority of the audience. The multimedia we are using of the video of Creon being shown on the news is relevant because the audience is use to watching speeches on TV meaning the interview will seem more the norm to the audience.

My scene is relevant to a modern audience as it has cooperated multimedia such as music to create atmosphere and a video showing the speech of Creon on the news. The multimedia helps make the Greek theatre relevant to a modern audience as it is involving everyday subjects that we today use (e.g. TV’s).

 

The multimedia used in my group is relevant to our scene because it enables the interview to be presented in a way that makes sense to the audience. If the speech wasn’t presented in an interview shown on TV, the speech wouldn’t be as believable as most people today watch important speeches made by people on TV.

 

When filming Creon’s speech the filming went quite smoothly. We recorded the whole speech in one take and while the person playing Creon performed his speech, we decided to have people in our group flashing lights towards his face so that it came across as if members of the press where taking pictures of Creon during his speech. This helped make the video more realistic and believable for when the audience is watching the speech.

 

Before recording the video of the speech we advised the member of our group playing  Creon to use some parts of the script but to analyse the script so that the speech is modernised for a current audience. We decided to keep key parts of the speech still the same, in order to still really portray the true character of Creon.

We then shared our scenes to the class...

Roseby’s group

·         Used herself and Robyn to modernise piece with narrating

·         Effective because they still kept the script similar while using characterisation to modernised piece

·         Could be developed by having all characters know they’re lines

·         Related to modern audiences because by using narrators that spoke with the humour that many TV presenters today, it gave a sensation to the audience that we were watching a typical TV show

Antonia’s group

·         Presented piece as a documentary being reported of Polyneice’s body

·         Effective as it was a good way of presenting Creons body while it still made sense to the audience

·          Could be improved if unnecessary dialogue was cut, some dialogue in the scene was unnecessary and extended the scene to a moment were it sometimes lost its flow

·         Related to modern audiences by using phrases such as “ahh the wifi’s gone” which many of us also have problems with depends on what area we are in and it also added a sense of humour

Michelle’s group

·         Creon announcing speech

·         Physical theatre being done while creon made his speech made it effective as the people performing physical theatre were demonstrating their feelings towards the speech

·         Could be improved by having the people doing the physical theatre, expressing more emotion on their faces rather than just in their physicality

·         Related to modern audiences as it used multimedia video  showing the speech which is where the majority of us watch important speeches

Eric’s group

·         Video shown on the board

·         On either side of the video the two guards wearing black shades made it very obvious and clear for the audience to understand them as guards

·         The seriousness of Antigone being caught trying to bury Polyneices was very realistic and their expressions clearly showed how fearful she was at that moment

·         Related to modern audiences by using contemporary costumes such as black shades to represent certain characters

Thiago’s group

·         Used torches effectively to build tension within the audience

·         Slamming doors also helped to build tension

·         Improved by having all characters strongly know what they are saying and who is saying it

·         Related to modern audiences by using contemporary multimedia (torches) to create atmosphere and tension

Harmony

·         Used music to create atmosphere and had two characters representing Creon’s conscience coming from either side of him through doors

·         Having the two characters playing the conscience of Creon and having them lurking around the floor to him really created this mysterious atmosphere

·         Could be improved by making sure Creon knew his objectives as in showing how confused he really is and lost about what decision he is to make next

·         Relates to modern audiences by changing use of language from script to more modern language for modern audiences to understand clearer

Monday 13th April

Multimedia log

During this lesson we started off with a warm up as usual including breathing exercises. One of the exercises we participated in was when our teachers told us to picture one of the characters in our minds from the play Antigone (this could be Creon, a guard, Ismene or others). We then got given 5 seconds to become that character in which we would have to think about what that character’s posture would look like out of the text and into action. After becoming that character we then got another 5 seconds to really over exaggerate that character with posture and see what the difference would result in. I personally chose to use Creon as my character and in the last five seconds I chose to present him and a strong man with his head high up while his face was screwed up. I chose to present Creon in this way because I believe that the play has chosen to present this character as a cold blooded heart that only really cared for power and not necessarily the people of his city, even if they are his real blood. This exercise helped develop my characterisation and understanding of the character as it made me think twice as a person playing the character of Antigone even though she has a very strong mind, would she be so strongly willing to stand up against such a powerful man?

We then moved on into looking into the chorus’s in the play and what we had in mind in order to present these as a class. For the first chorus we chose to do the movements listed below in the chorus...

 

We decided to use pre-recorded audio for this chorus so that when the audience is watching we rein act the chorus with physical theatre while the audio plays on top. We did this by getting the whole class to read the chorus at the same time. This is effective because it allows us to vary our range of the use of multimedia and I believe this will be effective because we have chosen to have the audience looking out of the windows and down into the playground while the audio plays in the room meaning that the chorus is able to be performed at a distance while still being clear. However a problem that could arise from performing this chorus could be that fact that the audience won’t be able to clearly understand our physical work as they are watching from a distance but this problem could be prevented as long as we in this particular physical theatre movement, choose to slightly over exaggerate our movements in order to make sure the audience isn’t left confused.

For our second chorus, we decided to split the lines between the classes into three groups and have each group saying certain lines. Halfway throughout the chorus roughly 7 of us shine troches towards to the audience on the line

“Burning pitch lights your way”

Another group of people also play a trickling effect of rain dropping on the line

“Next to the flowing stream of Ismenus”

I believe that this chorus was more concentrated on creating the atmosphere of sounds and light in order to give the audience that sensation of being present right in the moment the actors are performing. This piece of multimedia relates to modern audiences because it is describing a piece of theatre that was performed 2500 years ago to a modern audience by using multimedia that we use today which back then they wouldn’t have access to. The audience are able to understand the piece more because of the use of sound and what’s being physically analysed.