Brighton Performance Evaluation:

At Brighton I feel the other cast members and I made better use of the levels on the climbing frame.  This impacted on everyone’s focus and commitment in their performance.  It was also more engaging for the audience as it helped make the play look more like an ensemble piece.  Because cast members on different levels were focusing their attention on the cast performing at the time, it also served to focus the audience’s attention on the main action taking place. I feel we did this in the New Theatre performance as well but not to the same strong extent.

I was conscious we were performing in an outdoor space.  I appreciate we were lucky to have sun (rather than rain) and no wind, but I was still aware of the need to project my voice in an open outdoor space as there were seagulls, talking, drumming, building sounds and a drunk person attempting to speak to the cast!  Before performing the cast took it in turns to stand in the audience space and give one another feedback on whether or not they were audible saying their lines. I was told i was and feel I kept up a high level of projection throught the performance. However, I feel that, in order to achieve this, I sometimes compromised characterisation for projection. I wanted to be heard clearly but in doing so, I think I was slightly too over the top in my characterisation of Celia. 

I felt that individually and as a cast we made Khai being introduced to our cast work very well and we responded to this accordingly as school girls and as our “As You Like It” characters. Celia and Rosalind were initially slightly awkward about him performing with us at the climbing frame but soon as characters adjusted to this.

I had found it hard initially to portray the scene of Rosalind being banished from the ladder of the frame as it was a bit of an awkward position but had the opportunity to practice this beforehand when we got down to Brighton so did not become an issue. Also, before beginning the performance we were able to test how loud we needed to be in the outdoor space which was very useful as we took it in turns to stand back and reflect on if we could hear our fellow class mates clearly enough. I feel that the ensemble exercises and the group warm up beforehand was a great way to prepare for the show.

As the play ended, our cue of 50’s music to begin bowing started but then stopped. This made our final bows fell a bit messy but feel by remaining focused as a cast we did not make this too much of a bigger deal.

I feel overall very pleased with our whole cast performance in Brighton as we really worked together with the help of pervious trust group exercises and I enjoyed the performance very much and feel we delivered and received a good reaction from our audience. I have found that despite its challenges performing in outdoor spaces is very exciting and I am very glad that we had the opportunity to partake in Brighton Fringe Festival!