As we have come to the end of our performance, we have had time to reflect on our , as I do I am very proud of our overall performance and process. I don’t think a performance can ever truly be perfect, Sleepdogs in a seminar at the University of Lincoln stated that we should leave work and come back to it, it should never be discarded, even the best performances can be improved upon. (Sleepdogs, 2015).
As a part of this, I want to take a moment to analyse our performance, from the feedback we received from our audience, both positive and constructive, to the reflections I have made as a member of the company, as a stage manager, set designer, lighting designer, producer and props and costume design, as well as joint sound designer. I myself have some reflections that are important to state.
The overall performance of the script went well, the script was delivered well and with energy and dynamic. The technical elements ran smoothly with no faults, I can only put this down to my endless preparation. Including making sure that the Q-lab files were placed in good time, making sure that Emily was able to sit in on our rehearsals and get to know the show, and producing a clear and concise book. All of these elements helped to make a great show.
The feedback we received from our audience explained issues in clarity throughout the performance, Issues of not understanding what was happening under the platform with the string and cotton wool, not understanding what was happening with the map and live feed camera. These are all small problems, which however justified by us, were not transferred to the audience during our performance. It is with this in hindsight that I provide some solutions. By explaining to our audience during the performance, whether this be small one line sentences or monologues, the necessity for the string and cotton wool in our performance, I believe we would have made sense of these to our audience. The map could be replaced with a piece of paper and pen, in which we write down the name of each country we visit throughout the performance, this would be projected onto the larger projector screen instead of the small t.v screen to provide more clarity to our performance.
Overall I am happy with our final performance, and received many compliments for my set and lighting design. If we were to perform WOMENSwear again, I would make many changes, and I believe that without showing a piece of work to an audience in it’s full, it is difficult for the us to truly comprehend how an audience can understand it.
Works Cited:
Sleepdogs (2015) Talk by Sleepdogs [Seminar] Theatre Company, University of Lincoln, 19 February.