Evaluation of the performance and the potential of the work in professional terms:

We treated our production of Cinderella much the same as any professional piece of theatre would be treated. As we were performing to schools and the general public as well as family and friends we wanted to give ourselves a good reputation and show we were just as professional as any professional theatre company.

As we wished to work in professional terms in meant that we had no talking off stage or in the wings and we were overall quite good at remaining silent.  

We remained in character throughout, never breaking character when something happened. Such as the Thursday matinee when the children were shouting out remarks. It would have been unprofessional to have broken character despite the loud and distracting comments being shouted. This rule of remaining in character also meant staying in character until you are out of sight of the audience, not just when you are off the stage because if someone has broken character before they are out of the audience’s sight it would’ve broken the illusion of the world of Merrivale we had worked to create.

In any professional stage show it is necessary to work through any issues that you may face on stage. This applied to us on our evening performance on Friday 13^th when Act 2 opened and only four girls were on stage, due to a mistake of not getting our call during the interval. It would have been simple for no one to have joined the four girls on stage to avoid the awkwardness of walking on stage during the song, but it would not have been fair to the girls. More importantly we were treating our show as professional and so that meant we needed to fix it in any way we could. I took the initiative and walked onto stage while singing along to take my position and join in with the dance. All the girls got onto the stage and we did our best to make up for the slight mishap at the start. The decision to walk on rather than run on in a panic allowed us to keep it looking professional despite the fact that it was clear that something was missing at the start. The boys didn’t come on for the dance as they hadn’t been able to make the decision of whether to take the initiative to come on regardless of our late entrance. Unfortunately in a situation like this I found that you don’t put much thought into what you’re going to do, I didn’t. Having been in a similar situation in rehearsals meant that I was able to remain level-headed and come onto the stage to help the four girls who had been left to open Act 2 on their own.

Elements within our show that were particularly strong were our dance numbers. A great deal of time had been spent on perfecting the choreography so that everyone knew the dances inside and out. As we had spent so much time rehearsing the dances it meant that we were able to tighten up the moves and so that when performed all moves were solid and strong and the audience would clap along in support. I think the finale dance was the most successful as it was very upbeat and energetic and got the audience clapping along and dancing in their seats. Despite starting off quite weakly in rehearsals the chorus had come together to make a strong unit. All reactions were large and over-exaggerated and we had no difficulty in giving the show energy. The comedy moments worked effectively and the audience were always responsive in offering a laugh at the jokes. The dance Cinderella teaches Buttons in Act 1, Scene 2 was received really well by both the child and adult audiences as they laughed at the faces being made by Buttons. The Fairy Godfather’s dog was also loved by all audiences, as people love it when a live animal makes an appearance and will spend ages cooing over it.

Despite always bringing energy to each show there were still moments where the pace would slow or the energy would falter slightly and so we would have to work to fix this. This was generally a result of having a quiet audience but if we were doing this professionally and not with college we would be expected to put the same energy into all shows. Despite not doing a professional show we always worked to bring up the energy and pace if it had been noted that we’d become complacent. The further into the run we got the quicker it would take for the energy to drop as we had done the show so many times, but it got easier to notice if we were losing energy and so we could correct it swiftly.

As our finale was one of the final things to be learnt it meant that there were a few people who were still struggling with lyrics and choreography during our performances. On our first show on Wednesday 11^th the finale was lacking as it was obvious that people didn’t know the lyrics or choreography. Half way through the song it would get quiet as half of the cast didn’t know lyrics and so you’d here murmuring and slurring on the lyrics not known. As we got further into the run there was improvement as people were getting more comfortable with the number. This shouldn’t have been an issue as it should have been on point by our final rehearsals. Although it wasn’t we had made a vast improvement as a company from our first performance of “You Can’t Stop the Beat” compared to our final one on the Saturday evening. The slurring of lyrics had gone and so we were able to all sing out loud and clear and the feeling of knowing we pulled it off for the final show was brilliant. 

 

I found that ad-libbing didn’t always achieve its intended response. In the Fairy Godfather scenes Tom would ad-lib lines to help create his wacky, “camp” character, it was quite effective in getting positive audience responses. This wasn’t necessarily the case amongst some of the cast. In Act 1, Scene 3 when the Fairy Godfather visits Buttons we attempted some ad-libbing between the Fairy Godfather and fairies but this only distracted Connor, and so was having a negative effect on his performance. The ad-libbing was a chance to create some business between the fairies but I found that it distracted from Buttons. What I learnt from this was that we needed to be more conscious of what we ad-libbed. We decided to keep ad-libbing to the scenes when the fairies are pretending to be trees and just make large gestures when Buttons is speaking to the Fairy Godfather.

On the whole I think the show was a success. As with any show we were still re-working things during the run to make the show as good as it could possibly be. We didn’t want to settle for average, we wanted it to exceed people’s expectations. Feedback we received suggested that we did. By our final performance on the Saturday evening we had put our all into every aspect of the show and improvements could be seen just between two shows. There is always room for improvement and so if we were to do it again we could take it up a notch and make everything even bigger, add tricks to the choreography or add harmonies to the songs. However we would still do it with the same enthusiasm and enjoyment as we did during our nine shows between the 11^th and 14^th, and this enthusiasm and enjoyment could be seen in the way in which we entered the stage and in every action we made.  

Evaluation of the process:

The rehearsal process definitely had its high and low moments. The initial blocking process was simple and meant that we were able to block out the full script quickly, which meant we would have more time to run-through scenes. However once everyone was off-script we had to re-block the majority of the script because people were forgetting where they had been placed in scenes and so it made it difficult to run through complete scenes. This issue was made worse by mains not knowing their lines. I was not a main and so didn’t have to worry about learning lines and those of us who were in the chorus would spend a fair bit of time sitting in the wings while the mains would run over a series of lines several times because they had made a mistake. These issues put us behind slightly and so we had to fit a lot of rehearsals into a small amount of time.

Timing and organisation wasn’t our only issue. As a company we spent our first month of rehearsals doing everything with very little or no energy. There was little reaction from the chorus and everything was flat. Very early on I began to make my reactions and movements bigger and would receive positive feedback for it, however there were others in the chorus who it took longer to get themselves into it. Being over-the-top is not a naturalistic form of acting and so some people felt self-conscious about over emphasising everything. However despite the late start we did reach a point where everyone had found the right amount of over-exaggeration needed for pantomime.

The process of creating and learning the dances was a much more straightforward process. My previous dance experience meant that I was quite capable in learning the various dance numbers for the pantomime and I was then able to help those who were less confident as dancers. The dances were an area where everyone put 100% into it and this could be seen in the performances. Extra dance rehearsals were constantly being organised amongst the chorus members to practise to ensure that everyone knew the dances and could get any extra help. I think the only weakness we came across in the dances was sustaining our energy throughout the choreography, as it would look awkward if our movement became less tonic the closer we got to the end of the song, but our extensive rehearsals allowed us to work on building up our stamina, which was useful as we had a nine show run to prepare for.

The singing rehearsals were where I felt least confident. Having song changes so close to the show was quite daunting at first and it added pressure to rehearsals. However I felt fully supported when dealing with any issues I had about the singing. As our final song changed to “You Can’t Stop the Beat” two weeks before the show it meant that there was a rush for people to learn lyrics and to learn the music as it is a tough song to sing, especially when doing an energetic dance routine at the same time. We worked through all the songs to help us become more confident with them and we were helped in finding the correct pitch as some songs were at an uncomfortable key to sing. I always found myself struggling with the key change at the end of “You Can’t Stop the Beat” and could feel the strain I was putting on my voice but we were given a rehearsal to practise a more comfortable way to sing the song without harming our voices. On the whole I felt comfortable with the songs and this was because there was a lot of support from those we were working with. I also found it helpful to run through songs with my peers whenever I was uncertain about something.

The weaknesses that appeared during the rehearsal process was the little effort that would get put in by people, but when we were all working to the best of our abilities and were giving it our all our rehearsals were always promising. We started off slowly but once we found our rhythm we were able to work consistently at a high level of performance.    

The Opening Dance

The Finale

Evaluation of my character and role development:

Within Cinderella I had two characters which I had to create and develop: the villager Fran and the fairy Dancer.

To develop my role as Fran I answered questions about her in character to allow me to get into the mind set of Fran Blake. By answering these questions Fran became more than a 2D character, and was more than someone placed in the background to add depth to the stage. My answers helped me develop the reactions that I would have to events within the play, such as my happiness at the Baron’s return and my sadness for Cinderella having a dreadful stepmother. The answers I wrote for these questions were something that I could then refer to constantly when reacting in character. I found that writing in character was most helpful in developing my character as it helped me completely remove myself from Fran and so my own opinions did not reflect in her answers. My role development went into more detail when I started working closely with Becky to create a small bit of business between our characters. Both Veronica and Fran work in the village selling fruit and vegetables and so Becky and I worked together to develop topics of conversation that our characters would share, such as how ripe our fruit was that day. By building a friendship with Veronica it allowed me to see the type of character Fran is when around others. I was able to further develop her cheerfulness to make her extremely likeable and friendly with anyone she meets.

I found developing the role of Fran quite simple and a lot of fun to do. By using the technique of writing in character I found myself well informed about my character from even our early rehearsals, this meant that I had plenty of time to continue making changes. As I had a good idea of who Fran was it meant that when Becky and I began to work together closely we had a variety of things to work from. I think my strength laid in how I was able to place Fran in any of the scenes and know instantly how she would be reacting because of my extensive knowledge of her. If I was given another chance to play Fran I would go a step further and look at changing my voice and physicality to help separate her from me playing her.

The role of Dancer the fairy was not quite as straight forward. The work I put into developing this character started much later than my work on developing Fran, and this meant that I then had to work much quicker to develop my fairy. This is definitely a weakness I had during role development as I was slow to find and develop my character meaning that the scenes that involved the fairies were often flat in earlier rehearsals. However once I had found a character, I threw myself into it and I was often told that my character was very noticeable in the fairy scenes. This informed me that I was on the right track in developing the character and because of my knowledge of dance I was quickly able to make up for the time I’d lost in earlier rehearsals. However despite my ability to work quickly in developing my role it was rushed and so I didn’t achieve creating a fully-rounded character. I was less prepared with this character and this meant that I was still developing my role in our very final rehearsals, this meant that the fairy scenes were still becoming flat at times. If I was to play the role again I would look at creating more dance mannerisms. I would change the way that I skipped on stage and perhaps would have choreographed a series of steps that would have been more dance-like rather than skipping, which may have come across as quite childish. From this show I have found that I need to give both characters the equal amount of attention otherwise I will have to work that much harder in the final days before the show and I found that I did not benefit from that extra stress

Overall I think both of my characters worked well within Cinderella as they were both suited to the themes and tone of the pantomime. Fran, like all chorus characters was happy and friendly and helped create the bright atmosphere of Merrivale. Dancer was quite an odd character that was quick to be laughed at by the children during the matinees. However I think that I could have gone further in developing both characters, such as experimenting with voice and exploring different types of physicality. This would have made both of the characters stand out more as individuals and then perhaps they could have been used more within the pantomime.

 

 

Show Day: Thursday 12th - Saturday 14th, Evening and Saturday 14th, Matinee

The evening performances between Thursday 12^th and Saturday 14^th and the Saturday matinee were all very similar in terms of performances, a part from the slight mishap of only four girls coming on stage for the opening of Act 2 on Friday evening. This resulted in the rest of the girls joining them gradually. This was slightly stressful but I felt we handled it quite well. Having dealt with a similar situation in our dress rehearsal I made the executive decision to go on regardless of the dance having already begun. I walked on singing before taking my place to join in. The rest of the girls followed on and we managed to cover the mistake reasonably well. This showed me that regardless of mistakes you must continue in a professional manner and help bring the performance back together.
 

The opening of Act 2.

"Let Me Entertain You"

 

An issue that was found in a few of the shows was that the energy would fall flat at moments or we would get complacent. I found that all evening performances after Wednesday were slightly flatter as they weren’t as easy to get a reaction from the audience. We would get small chuckles from individuals but there were few occasions when there would be loud, uncontrollable laughter. At times we were also dragging reactions out of the audience. I think that because the reactions from the audience weren’t quite as large as in our matinees we lost some of the energy resulting in scenes feeling flat. Each audience deserves the same amount of energy given at their show and we were successful in picking things up to ensure the energy or pace didn’t falter. This isn’t to say that the audiences weren’t brilliant, just slightly more reserved than others, further emphasising that no two audiences are the same.

Show Day: Friday 13th, Matinee

The matinee performance on Friday 13^th was made up of a large group of students from an all girl’s school. On this performance we had to add another two rows of seats to accommodate for the large number of students, this then reduced our performance space which was already limited at specific moments. This meant that during the performance we had to automatically accommodate to our smaller performance space. I felt that this was done effectively as we ensured that our placing in dances was kept tight and that we went slightly further when exiting off stage via the audience. Much like the Wednesday matinee the girls were not afraid to interact with us and were always willing to give a boo or cheer when needed, which always gives us an extra boost of energy when on stage.

As with any show you have to pay close attention to the audience in moments when they react, examples of this was when shouting “Hello” to Buttons or booing the Baroness. The dialogue cannot continue until they’ve finished shouting out or the dialogue will be lost. With this matinee we had to play close attention to this as the girls would cheer and boo slightly longer than our previous matinee audiences. In Act 1, Scene 3 when the Fairy Godfather comes on with his dog “Hotdog” there was a loud reaction from the girls as they cooed at the dog, this meant that we had to wait that little bit longer before the dialogue started to allow the girls to react completely. With each show you have to adapt to the audience and how they’re going to react to the show to ensure they get the fullest experience.  

The Fairy Godfather's entrance with Hot Dog and the fairies.

Show Day: Thursday 12th, Matinee

No two shows are the same as shown by the three performances on Wednesday but Thursday 12^th really drove into me that point. Our Thursday matinee was to year 7s from Fearnhill and students between year 7 and 10 from a learning skills centre in Stevenage. The Fearnhill students were reactive but slightly more reserved that the Learning Skills students, who took us all by surprise. They were not afraid to react to us and were confident enough to shout comments during the performance.  It got to a point in the performance when the children became almost rowdy and comments became quite inappropriate. As with any professional show we performed with the same enthusiasm and energy as any show despite the slight distraction of their comments. The reactions of the Learning Skills students was quite beneficial for Jodie as she was able to play up her role as the villain much more than she did with the younger children as they were more than happy to boo and hiss whenever she entered.

Thursday morning Anya was sent home not feeling well and this meant that we had to alter the dances slightly to accommodate for the fact that Anya would be missing for these two shows. Changes had to be made in the positioning of dances to fill in any odd gaps that were created by Anya’s absence. It was a shame that Anya was unable to perform but our ability to deal with the situation efficiently meant that we could retain our professionalism for the audiences on both Thursday performances.

Show Day: Wednesday 11th

Wednesday 11^th consisted of three shows, all were different from one another. Our first performance was to children between five and eleven and I found that they were quiet and needed encouragement to be able to pry reactions from them. As they were all of a younger age the more adult jokes and innuendos fell flat and so it was decided that the emphasis during our matinee performances was the slapstick humour, such as the sisters chasing Ammer and Tongs as it received a stronger reaction than the adult humour.

The chase.

Act 1, Scene1



In both the eleven and half past one performance the children were most interactive during the scenes with Ammer and Tongs as they enjoyed the physical humour and slapstick as well as the scenes with Buttons, as he would speak directly to them. They were not shy to shout a “Hello” to him whenever he appeared on stage. During our matinee performance we were faced with both of the visiting schools leaving during Act 2 due to time constraints, leaving us to continue on with the performance for only one audience member. Although we were successful in continuing without the action falling flat I found myself feeling slightly deflated once they had left. However after discussion we agreed that whether there was a room full of audience or just one individual we had to put on a show and that is what we did. The girl thoroughly enjoyed herself and was cheering and gasping along.

Wednesday evening was my favourite performance as I felt that the audience were incredibly involved throughout. I was thrilled at the response to the Fairy entrance in Act 1, Scene 2 as in the earlier shows the children were more reserved. The Dames were enjoyed by all as the audience was predominantly made up of adults and all jokes were received with laughter. It was definitely a boost of confidence for the performances to follow. I think I enjoyed the evening performance so much because the audience were always on point with their reactions and so I found I was able to enjoy myself more whenever I was on stage.

During the "Jump on it" dance.

Act 1, Scene 2