Btec Level 2 Performing Arts (Acting)
Final Major Project Performance Evaluation - 'Junk'
What I Thought Of My Performance Overall:
For my performance in 'Junk', I feel comfortable saying that I have a lot more strengths than opposed to weaknesses in terms of both physical and vocal performance, I say this because I have done a lot of extended development onto my character, Tar, for this production. I achieved this by watching a different interpretation of the same play on YouTube and I studied the actor that was performing as my character but I still developed the character with my own ideas. I also read the script of 'Junk' to get an idea of my character, more specifically, I looked at the dialogue between Tar and other characters in the play and I could see that there was anger in Tars speech in Act 2 of 'Junk' opposed to Act 1. For a while I wondered what caused this sudden change of attitude, and then I realized it was the Junk that made Tar a different man entirely, because he couldn't live without it and no-one was going to stand in his way if he wants to get it. When I had the opportunity to project this anger inside Tar on stage in either rehearsal or live performance, I thought that my teacher would agree with what I have decided to do with Tar for Act 2 because it makes the whole play that much more interesting in terms of tension and I felt it gave a very grim and realistic way of performing. Having done this, I hope that I get a higher mark overall in terms of performance since I think that I personally upped the ante of 'Junk' as soon as I came on stage at the end of Act 1 and joined other cast members. Another thing I noticed during performance is that I was the most aggressive person on stage, which was different for me since in real life I am a quiet student and I don't get angry a whole lot. Doing this does make me hope again, that I get a higher mark for my performance, since it shows my dedication towards performances and the fact that I was nothing like myself whilst on-stage, I felt that I 'embodied' my character, Tar, and became a Junkie during performance as my character.
Personal Strengths Achieved:
During performance, in terms of both rehearsal and live in front of an audience, I felt that I fully embodied my character, Tar, because I was acting nothing like myself realistically (quiet) and I was the complete opposite (angry and attention grabbing). Noticing this change made me realize how much effort I had put into creating the 'Junkie' variant of Tar in the later scenes of Act 1 continuing onto Act 2. I consider this a Strength in my performance because it shows my dedication to a performance as a character, and it is along the lines the same as what a Professional Actor would do for his/hers character also.
Whilst I was on stage for my scenes I was feeling really stressed and nervous as to what was coming next. I almost would consider this a weakness in my performance, but it actually benefited it in the long run and I felt it made my performance better. I say this because when I have to be angry in a scene I would of shouted at the other character to show my anger and the fact I was stressed helped this. But alongside this, there was a particular scene where I was angry at myself for not getting clean off of the Junk after so many years of rehab trying to escape it and I projected my anger both physically and vocally. Physically, I was kneeling on the floor and slamming my hand on the ground as hard as I can to make the anger inside me much more realistic in terms of an audiences point of view, and Vocally, I was shouting "I'm a Junkie!". When I practiced this combo in my own time at home away from rehearsals, I realized I was showing my anger more physically over vocally, but if I didn't have the physical part with me slamming the floor with my hand as hard as I could, I felt that it would of made my performance much worse overall. I make such a big deal out of the physical part of my anger on stage in this scene because this wasn't included as a stage direction in the script. All that was written is that I would kneel down and I would simply yell at the top of my lungs, "I'm a Junkie!". With me adding in the physical part of me slamming the floor as hard as I can, I felt that it gave an entirely different meaning to the line "I'm a Junkie!" and it made the performance much more realistic. I'm hoping that my teacher realizes I made this decision myself and that she would give me a higher mark as doing this, in my opinion, made the performance 110% better. Also after doing this physical/vocal action on stage, I felt a lot more calm than I did before-hand, it's as though slamming the floor as hard as I could and shouting at the top of my lungs created this 'release' of stress levels in my body and made me much more calm mentally afterwards.
During performance, each time I came on stage, I felt I was performing differently than I was in the scene prior. I say this because in some scenes Tar is angry about something and goes off on a tantrum, and in other scenes, when he's with Gemma (his girlfriend) for example, he's much more calm and controlled. I felt that this gave a more realistic performance and I wouldn't bore the audience since every time I came on stage, I was acting differently. This change of attitude reminds me of 'The Hulk' from Marvel's Comics since 'The Hulk', naturally, is a very angry being, but when he's with his human half's girlfriend, Bettie Ross, he becomes much more calm and self centered than before. I thought it was very interesting when I discovered this and I implemented it into my performance for scenes when I'm with Gemma after I was angry. I felt that this gave my performance a much better meaning and it shows that I have developed my character more alongside each performance.
Other than my Strengths in performance, I acted professionally throughout the whole of the project from start to finish, I was at lessons everyday of the week on time, and I followed each instruction our teacher gave us, like weekly Blog entry's, and I learnt all of my lines the first week I got them and I was the first person in the whole class to start rehearsing without script in hand. After doing all of this, I hope I achieve a much higher mark overall than as previously intended as it shows my dedication as an Actor towards the Performing Arts Industry.
Personal Weaknesses Noticed:
Since this was the final major project for Btec Level 2 Performing Arts, I acted as well as I could professionally throughout the whole process. Saying this, the only weakness I can think of in terms of my own performance is my improvisation skills when the play didn't go as originally planned. What I mean is that when other cast members came to a situation where they forgot their line and skipped forward, I wasn't ready to react to the change since in rehearsals I felt comfortable knowing that they would know what comes next and the fact that they didn't in the live performance made me uncomfortable during performance. I'm not saying it's there fault, since I should of been ready for things like this to happen, and I knew that I wasn't ready when it happened and I wish I could of reacted better to the change of dialogue being spoken.
What Could I have Done Better:
I guess my timing could of been a little bit better for scene changes and when I have to bring props on for these different scenes, and again, my improvisation skills could be improved so I can react to certain situations better, such as cast members skipping their lines, and also myself not saying the lines written on script and saying something entirely different but along the lines the same meaning as what was written.
Could We All Have Done Better Overall:
I feel that our performance couldn’t really get any better than it has been since we all tried our best for the final major project for Btec Level 2 Performing Arts, and also the last performance ever together for some of us, and I felt that we delivered a grand smashing performance to finish off the year. I feel that I and the whole group worked as a great team overall and, in my opinion, we should all be graded equally since we all performed to our best ability and we all had a lot of fun during the process of this production.
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