Evaluation

Evaluation

I believe that our performance went well we did have a lot of different ideas but eventually nearer to the performance we managed to cut some of the ideas as it didn't really express the questions we were trying to ask the audience.

One of our ideas that we developed for the good was the chair and circle idea, so originally, we were going to sit in a circle around Angel and when we were saying lines we would move position whether that's moving off the chair or changing positions we liked the concept of this, but we thought it would be hard for the audience to see what’s happening. So, we developed it into a line and just moving with the amount of power your line holds, we thought that this would be clearer because its facing the audience, while also breaking the fourth wall because even though our lines were to each other we would say it to the audience, so it looks like we are questioning the audience.

Another movement we developed was when Angel would come up to us with her 'help me' sign we would completely ignore and push her away, however we thought that it looked a bit messy when we done that, so we tried using different ways of physical theatre to move her, and eventually we found out that to grab her neck and twist her away was the most effective. On the other hand, during rehearsals we were not sure if it would work well because we were rehearsing in little space but when we performed it in the space I believe that it really worked well and displayed that we were ignoring the signs that Angel was being abused.

Personally, I feel like our group worked well even though there were times when we would have disagreements or people wouldn't work as hard as others, but in the end, we really came together and put on a really good performance which did what we exactly what we wanted it to do: question why we ignore abuse going on in families or try ignoring them?

Some of the research I did was to why family members cover abuse or ignore its going on, this really helped me understand what we trying to say as a group: why we do things like that? Even though we know that it’s not okay. With the research I did it allowed me to fully portray someone in that position (covering up abuse) and by doing this it strengthened my role and acting of every person who hides abuse. 

The Brechtian techniques we used were multiple people playing one character, so two people from our group were playing Steve I believe that by doing this it also allowed the audience not to get emotionally connected to the characters but instead focus on the issues and questions we are trying to raise. Another technique we used was breaking the forth wall, we done this mainly by talking to the audience without expecting a reply so everything we did and said was to the audience even though it was meant to be aimed at each other. One other technique we used was the use of a sign so Angels "help me" I though that this was effective because it showed that even though it was blatantly right under our noise we kept ignoring it, therefore making the audience question why are we neglecting her and the abuse, resulting in them asking themselves if they've ever ignored something going on.

Another group really enjoyed watching Luke's, I feel like the way they used the space and props around the was very effective for example in one part when Lucie was running up to the different characters while being Angel, Luke who was portraying Steve grabs her and throws her into the box and shuts the lid. I thought that this scene was very effective because the rest of the family were literally seeing it all happen, but they did nothing about it, which made me question why, and if I've ever ignored signs that someone is getting hurt whether that's physically or mentally. But I think the main criticism I have got is that I did get emotionally connected with Lucie's display of Angel but that might just be because when she was acting she had so much pain in her face that I automatically felt so sorry for her and upset.

In conclusion I do feel like my group was very effective in trying to get our point and questions across to the audience even if it did take a while to come up with effective ways of doing it. I also felt like none of us got connected to our characters we always thought of them as people who are in the same situation, so it was a representation of them. However, if were to do it again I think we should put some more focus onto the actual scene from the play and add a variety of movement into that scene instead of just moving in our chairs. Other than that, I think that everything went well.