Drama self-evaluation - Andre

Ask yourself question:

Did you effectively use class time to rehearse?

Since in a lot of classes there was always people missing, our group did not have the
best time rehearsing, but even without the missing people, the ones that were in school
were able to still rehearse with each other. This had a very great impact on our play as
we were able to memorize our lines and even get a little bit of practice for our final
performance. I have to admit that sometimes during our time, our group got a little
distracted affecting also our rehearsal time in a negative way, this is something my
group and I are not proud of, and looking at the time we wasted, that we could have use
to practice, I know realize that it was very childish of us.

Did you rehearse out of class time? Why or why not?

Our group did rehearse once out of class time, since we thought it would be necessary
just to add a little more perfection and help each one of us memorize better our lines
and even the structure of the play. At home I also practice my lines in order to
memorize them better and even to say them well, in terms of voice projection and how I
could express my emotions while saying the phrases and in general to make the
performance more entertaining.

Was the rehearsal time sufficient to prepare your scene? Why or why not?
I would say the rehearsal time was sufficient to prepare my scene and even the whole
play, as the final product was well performed, and we did not need any papers as we
had already memorized our lines. Although our final performance went pretty well,
most of the classes there was always 1 or 2 people missing, affecting greatly our
performance, and working pace but I am very proud that even so, our group was able to
overcome this challenge. If everyone was in the class for every lesson our performance
would be much better so that is something to take into consideration next time.

Describe what it was like to work with your group. Did you get along with them?
Why or why not?
Working with my group was excellent as we all were able to distribute the work
throughout our group and each one of us had a balanced amount of work put towards
the script. I would say our group was efficient and that we got along with each other, as
we rarely had any arguments or disagreements. One example of how well we got along
was in the first lesson, when we got together and started brainstorming ideas of what
our play could be about, during that time each one of us had our moment to share
ideas and communicate with each other, at the end we ended up mixing ideas from
everyone to make our play, so I believe our group was very sociable and friendly.
How prepared were you for each rehearsal? Give examples. (Eg: I learned my
lines before rehearsal; I arrived at class on time.)
For every class of which we had rehearsal I arrived on time, and for the first time we
rehearsed I did not memorize my lines, so I had to practice and even look at the paper,
but the more classes we had to rehearse the more prepared I started to get, until the
point where I had memorized all my lines and even the structure of our play. My
colleagues helped me a lot in my journey since they did not get mad every time I forgot
what to say and they were really supportive.

In what ways did you participate during rehearsals? Give examples. (Eg: I was
enthusiastic during rehearsals; I stayed on task.)
During every rehearsal I was very excited to practice my acting to get better on it. Most
of the times I stayed on task and tried to be focussed on the work, but I have to admit
that sometimes I got a little distracted and started fooling around and doing other
things, this is something that I am not proud of and will not do again, because if I stayed
on task all the time, our final performance might have been much better.

Describe how you took any criticism during rehearsals.

During the rehearsals my colleagues analysed how I was acting, and sometimes they
gave me a little criticism but in a good way, since it helped me develop better my
character and help with my acting, the advice they gave me on how to improve my lines
and even make me feel less nervous and even more confident, since they also
complimented me. In conclusion all the criticism they gave me helped me learn much
more abut acting and how to really say something with emotion.

Describe how you gave criticism during rehearsals.

In the times of rehearsing, I gave some advice which I would not consider “criticism” as I
do not believe that’s the word to use. One example of a time where I gave some advice,
would be when I told my colleague to try his best to make a French English accent, as
the character he represented (Jean-Pierre) was French, this advice was given by me
because I believed it would add some comedy into the play making his role seem
funnier, and even entertain better the audience, also since the character was French,
making that accent would be crucial and even match the role. Another advice I gave was
more general and for everyone in the group, I noticed some of my colleagues were a
little shy and did not give their best in terms of emotion and projecting their voice, so I
recommended them to speak their lines with more emotion to really make the play
more interesting, real and even more professional.

Performance Experience:

Describe what it was like to perform your scene. Did you feel prepared? Did you
feel nervous?
Our group were risk-takers and decided to be the first ones to perform the play, I have
to be honest and say that throughout the performance I was feeling very nervous, with
all the people looking at us, btu over time I started to get more comfortable and act like
there was no one looking at me and that I was freely expressing myself the best way
that I could. Since I had practice before our final performance, I was very prepared and
was able to memorize all my lines and what to do in each scene, but the fear of
performing in a crowd was still a problem, but as I said overtime it became less scarier.

Describe the audience response to your acting. Were you surprised? Did the
responses happen as expected?
After our group finished the play. The audience did not specifically comment on a single
person but talked in a “all of you” way. Meaning that they responded and gave
comments towards the whole group and not one singular person. The comments which
they gave related to the fact our group was able to perform without any papers,
resulting in us memorizing well the script, this was possible since our group had
practiced and rehearsed before. Another comment was the fact our performance was
clear, and the storyline was very easily understandable, so they knew what was going on
throughout our performance.

Describe what worked well for you during the performance.

During the performance something that went well for me was being able to use voice
projection to show the audience what emotions I was feeling at the moment. One
example would be when Noah refused to smoke, and I raised my voice to show the
audience that I was very mad at Noah for her being a very boring person as she did not
want to do anything fun (smoke, drink, etc). This way I feel like the audience was able to
understand the scene better and know exactly what was going on and what exactly
what Xavier was feeling towards Noah.

Describe what you wish went differently during the performance.

During my performance something which I wish I could have done differently would be,
having more lines so I could develop even further my character and have a bigger
impact on the play, as I only appeared during 2 scenes, being that in one of them I only
had 2 lines. With more lines I would be able to perform better and even challenge
myself even more to memorize the lines and for me to become a bigger risk-taker. I feel
like the character I was, did not have that much of a big impact on the play and that is
something I wish was different. Our group had a second try to perform, and during that
time, I did not act as well as the first try, since I messed up one of the lines and felt like I
had disappointed my group, I think my nervousness took over at that moment which is
why I messed it up, with this I can conclude that although I did practice a lot of the
times, a little more practice would have made it better or even that I should have fought
harder and stopped feeling that nervous and more relaxed.