Best of Musical Theatre: Evaluation

Unit 50: Movement in Performance

As my stimulus I used a prop which was (glasses) to convey the character of Lavender, who is a geek and is one of the students who learnt how to read a write from an early age. The glasses empathises that she loves the read books and without her glasses she is powerless as she wouldn’t be able to see clearly. I am the only girl who wears the full correct uniform, which connotes I am a well-educated child who is ready to learn and follows the rules that is been set. My chair is a prop which is used to point out what character I am, as I am seated at the front giving you the idea that I am a teacher’s pet and tries my hardest to not be distracted by anyone or anything. I tied up a ribbon upon my hair to help you identify that I am a playful type of person who does care about the way I look and present myself at a school environment. This helps the audience to get an understanding that I am a trendy character who is always up to date with fashion.

My character is one of the smartest students in the class, which in my opinion might be the class’s shining star, however since Matilda is in the class, Lavender isn’t the smartest no more. Although the two do become really good friends I do believe Lavender is quite jealous of Matilda and wishes she was just like her. As Lavender would like some glory on her own terms but hasn’t got that strength of being rebellious she’s tends to follow Matilda while she carries out her naughty tricks. At the start while Ms Trunchbull begins the lesson by telling us off, my character showed a sense of being shy and frightened at the start of the piece, however suddenly my character changes and start to rebel against myself first of all because I am frustrated of being quiet and not sticking up for myself. So this led to my anger being boiled up, until I exploded and couldn’t take it anymore. This was shown by my movement during the start of the dance as it was sharp and strong.

My character used the material to communicate the ideas through the performance and through the audience by lifting up my glasses when it was my bit to say my line, this shows that I was getting ready for to come out of my shell and have my time to shine as I am always shadowed behind Matilda. My line was “Never again will we be ignored” this phrase exactly describes the way I feel during my time in the school as I don’t want to be ignored no more and be paid attention upon more. This allowed me to become a lot more confident as I finally got my say in the class. So this can lead to me becoming one of the brave, naughty, bad minded children. 

My physical skills was using contact with Cagla during the last section of the dance  which we had to use spatial awareness as we done a spinning piece together which emphasised how childlike we are. This was probably the only time I got in contact with anyone else in my class besides Matilda, which shows how I’m willing to open up to other people. During the section where we all get on the chair and spell out words in the song. I got on the chair with authority, a lot of energy, projecting the lyrics towards my class mate Marta which was a participation of the whole body, this helps the audience identify how much we want to get our voices heard and also how we are all in this together, as we clapped our hands in unison this also was difficult as we had to be in co-ordination, this can also be a way of showing rhythmic control as we have to spell out words at the exact same time. My facial expressions were totally firm, showing how passionate I am as well as showing how much the words meant to me.

The interpretive skills that I used was focus, which is the most important thing to include in your performance, as it disciplines you to perform to your best ability. I used this skill during the start of the performance when Ms Trunchbull says her line, I was completely still and in focus to not try slip out of character. My facial expression in was in fear as my eyebrows were raised, drawn together and appeared straight. The upper and lower eyelids are raised. The mouth is opened and pulls outwards. Likewise I was self-thinking my eyes also froze in a diverging relaxed position, without any concentration.

My weaknesses was projection as my voice didn't sound loud enough for the audiences at the back to listen. Which took away focus from the whole piece which definitely caused distraction within the show. During the last section of the piece after pulling the chair towards the back there was not a enough space for me to perform to the best of my ability as I am was quite cramped up. This prevented me from not extending my arms and legs to its full length, which led to me restricting my movements as I cared about others. My strengths would have been my energy throughout the whole performance, as I found it quit easy to keep up with everything around me. My stamina was sustained as well as prolonged physically and in a mental effort. I was good at communicating ideas creatively, when it came to my character which can be shown throughout my performance, by me wearing glasses, full uniform, and a ribbon on my head to emphasises my character as being a nerd.

I would have projected my voice loud enough so not only the people around also the people in the audience at the back could also hear me, I felt like I was being selfish as I only cared about the people on stage and what they could hear. In the future I would rehearse more in my vocal lessons when not wearing a microphone. Which would enable me to have my voice loud enough for the audience to hear!