Evaluation

Tonight was the night of our two performances. We smashed them!!

Half an hour before the first performance started, Ben left us. This was massive for us since we had no one to relax us or warm up with us apart from each other. I was excited however this excitement soon turned to incredibly nervous!! We were warming up and then I decided to sit in one of the audience's seats so I could see the cast on the stage; this made it all that bit more real for me therefore my heart started beating very fast! Also, wearing costumes made it feel so real as this is one of the first plays I have ever been in where we have had someone else make the costume for the purpose of the show. I went around to my other cast members for assurance but everyone was panicking!

Once we heard that we had five minutes, we all began to get into place in our maggot pile. I was lying in a good position however I had Katie's helmet right next to my side therefore I feared it would get in the way of me getting down from breathing up and sinking. As soon as I could hear the audience coming in, my heart rate began to slow and I began feeling a bit more relaxed. Since Ben had told us to randomly sit up and then sink down but we had not rehearsed it, we were all unsure about how long to wait between each one, which left us doing it one after another at a quick pace. I didn't like how fast this was however we had to keep it consistent so it looked intentional.

The lights then lowered and I could hear the buzzing sound effect, indicating that the play was starting. I was ready. When we went into the Hacca, there was an incredible amount of energy in the room that it was as if we were transferring it to one another, which was really helpful since our play was different to the other two in the way that it was a highly physical play, which used our own style as it was experimental and non-naturalistic. It was clear that the audience were intimidated by it as they didn't laugh like Ben warned us; also, by looking at the expressions on their faces, there was clear shock that an all-female cast would be behaving in this way.

Everyone's projection was amazing (so much that audience members after the show were even coming up to us to tell us). When I was speaking my lines, I felt so confident in them as I now knew them really well (no more slip ups) and I felt like I delivered them in a well-projected manor. Also, as an ensemble, I found that we were all really good at getting around the difficult Shakespearean words. A really good thing about our line delivery was that each of our lines said something and was often also said with physicality therefore everyone understood the play so there was no one unsure about what was going on. Moreover, I think it was also a lot easier for the audience to understand because we all wanted the play to go well so we went even further with our efforts and pushed ourselves to stay committed and have high levels of stamina. There was a clear pull from everyone with high energy levels, working hard, while we were also having fun.

When it got to the 7:30 showing, I was a lot more relaxed and I had little to no worries. Unfortunately, I missed out on the warm-up before the performance, which I really thought would affect my performance, as I had to redo my French braids as they were all covered in blood and they were coming out. When I entered the room, we were all getting into position, which did worry me slightly however I knew that we were going to be fine. Because I knew that my dad and my sister were in the audience, it pushed me even more to want to do my best as I didn't want to disappoint them (or the rest of the audience). Our sitting up and sinking was slightly better this time as they were paced out more evenly. While the audience was coming in, I could hear so many phrases coming out of their mouths like 'Wow!' 'Look at that!', therefore showing their excitement.

Although both of our shows were really good, there was a moment that really stood out for me for a bad reason and that was the second Hacca. I think this really stood out for me as the first Hacca was so energy-filled, with the whole cast giving 110%, but the second Hacca had less people in it, which made it harder to make it more exciting. If I could add more direction into this second Hacca, I would definitely add more exciting moments into it to make it slightly different from the first Hacca and also add moments that the cast can work with more although you could still feel the passion in the room.

My death as Nurse went so well! According to Ben and other audience members, it looked really cool, which makes me wish I could have seen it. The only bad thing about this part was that the blood would go into my eyes so if I tried to open them, it would sting and burn; this made it hard to get up and walk over the mound when I exited as I couldn't see. The rest of the cast were so supportive as Sybil would be in the wings with tissue to wipe my eyes and, while I was offstage, they would each try to help me get the blood off. This really showed me that this cast is a really good cast who care for each other, which I do think is one of the reasons why we worked so well onstage (boys are hard to work with).

In conclusion, I am so proud of how our performances went tonight and I can't wait to perform it again in Brighton next week. We used practitioners, such as Peter Brook and Yoshi Oida, as inspiration, which really helped us to ensure that it was a bold play there were no dead moments. Since we had a balance between lines and physical moments, it made it easier to understand and take in (which is a real achievement since Shakespeare is usually really hard to understand for a lot of people) as well as bringing the play to life. Since we were all so grounded and so good at sharing with the audience, you could feel the passion in the room. Continuing with sharing with the audience, I think it was so good that we made it so clear when multiroling was occurring, with clear and distinct costume pieces, as audience members usually get confused when it happens. Not only was I happy with tonight's performances and the rest of the cast but I am very proud of myself as I would never have thought I would have been able to do that performance when we first recieved our scripts.

Thank you Ben.