A Big Change

We had a double period today which we used very well, we finalised our entire performance and then performed in front of Mr. Evans. After watching the performance he gave us a lot of feed back, after a group discussion we came to the decision that we would make a very big change. 

Discussing possible changes and improvements

After getting feedback from Mr. Evans we made changes to characters, and we change the base of the play. Now, we all have one role which will hopefully make it easier to get into character. We also finalised and wrote a script so that rehearsal time will go much smoother. 

Feedback from Mr. Evans: 

- We all need to work more on our tone, we need to speak with more confidence and louder

- Changing the layout on stage

-Changing the characters around

- Surrounding everything off the interview 

The feed back our group got today was very helpful, because we know have our own characters it will be easier because we won't need to worry about having all these different personalities in mind. Overall, the think I found most helpful was the feed back Mr. Evans gave us about basing everything off the interview. When Nariel and I were writing the script I noticed how the whole performance seemed more connected and put together. I think the changes we made today will have a huge impact on our final performance. 

We were testing out different ideas that we could try

Making Changes

In todays lesson we spent the most of it writing down and finalising some of our dialogue. We then sat down and discussed things about our play with Mr. Evans and we made a big change, we completely removed one whole scene. However we now have an idea of how our 4th and final scene will be. Another big change is that we changed from illegal drugs to using legal highs. We did this because many people now about common drugs and their effect however, few people know about the dangers and consequences of legal highs. 

Critique of Phantom of the Opera

"The Phantom of the Opera" is a well-known musical written by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Andrew Lloyd Webber is the composer of many of the world best musicals, including Cats the Musical, Sunset Boulevard, and many others. The Phantom of the Opera is about a man disaffirmed from birth, he is known as the Phantom (Ghost) and he lives in the sewers beneath the Paris Opera House. The Phantom falls in love with the chorus singer, throughout he demands that she always be the main role and to make sure this happens he threatens everyone else but they rarely see him thats why he is known as The Phantom of the Opera. The Phantom of the Opera is a very well written play, and well thought through. There is a smooth transition through all scenes. I personally thought it was a good play, and the use of different effects (both sound and stage) worked well with the theme and plot of the story. I am not a fan of Opera singing however in the Phantom of the Opera, Andrew Lloyd Webber included more than just Opera singing, there was also more modern singing a long with dancing for this reason it appealed to me and grabbed my attention. Not only was is written well but it was also excellently directed (by, Harold Prince) which is evident through the amazing musical that was performed on stage. Overall, it is a great, well-written play with excellent actors.

Andrew Lloyd Webber and the well known mask from Phantom of the Opera 

The Phantom of the Opera had very great actors and actresses. There were many great performers however there were 2 characters who stood out to me though their very outstanding performance. Firstly, the one who mainly stood out to me was Madame Giry, played by Tina Walsh. Madame Giry stood out to me because she had a strong personality and showed her emotions and expressions really well. Although she wasn't a big character she had a big personality which grabbed my attention. Tina Walsh did a fantastic good interpreting her character and showing her emotion to the audience. Secondly, I was also intrigued by the Phantom played by Brad little. Throughout the entire play, the Phantom did a great job in staying in character and expressing his emotions. The Phantom came from a bad childhood and had a hard life growing up and although they didn't say this in the play it is evident that he had a bad life.  Brad Little plays the character really well. The reason I say that he stayed in character throughout the entire play is because I felt that some smaller characters didn't act the same they did in the beginning, they weren't as good with emotions in the end as they were at the very beginning of the play. However overall everyone did a great job, because 2 hours is a very long time and although the emotions weren't as strong in the end it was still a great ending. 

In this picture it is evident the amount of emotion Tina Walsh shows in her face. I think this is a great picture to explain my previous thoughts on Tina Walsh's performance. 

Brad Little as the Phantom

One of the reasons the musical was so good was the staging. The staging of the Phantom of the Opera was spectacular, all transitions between sets were smooth and very quick. One of the breath taking scenes was the one in the Phantoms home (sewer underneath Paris Opera House). I think that the scenes that took place in the Phantoms House were the most spectacular. The staging and use of props smoke and lights made it very interesting and it grabbed my attention. The use of the small twinkle lights gave of a very creepy vibe and mixed with the smoke it look very cool. Also, what I thought was quite interesting was the fact that the Phantoms house matched his personality. Another part that was very effective in conveying a message to the audience is how at the end when he sits on the chair and then disappears and his mask is left and then the light followed the mask I thought that was very interesting.   

Developing our performance

Overall I think that todays class was very productive and we did quite a lot with our time. At first we weren't very focused and had a bit of trouble starting from where we left of before the holiday. However after we re-freshed our minds we were on the right track. Personally I think I performed well and was focused throughout the lesson. However, I personally found it hard moving from one scene to the next, and I think its like that for the rest of the group as well. So at the beginning of every scene we ask Mr. Evans to give us a few ideas and based off of that we build it and make it more of our own. 

We were trying out different things we could try in order to get our message across.

 To refresh our memory we started with our first two scenes which were already finished and from there we started our third scene. We had an idea of how we wanted it to be, but as a group we weren't able to get our ideas from our head on to the stage so we kind of explained to Mr. Evans what we wanted and from there he gave us different ideas. I really like how our third scene was more emotional and different to our first and second. After practicing and spending time on our third scene we moved onto the fourth one. In the fourth scene I have to act very angry and I have to show a lot of emotion in order to get the message across. At first it was hard for me but after I broke out of my comfort zone I found it a lot easier for me to do things. 

In this picture Danny and I were practicing the part in which we are arguing this is the part that I had to show a lot of emotion.

We were discussing the topic that we were arguing about.