TASK 4 - Group Performance Reflection

What were the successes of this unit?

The unit covered the focus theme of naturalistic and realistic drama skills to improve in the course of different plays and performances we practiced and displayed in this term.

We started our term by reflecting on different topics and identities people face, due to circumstances. In the beginning of term 1, we were exposed to realistic drama after the research conducted on low and high standard living in Brazil, this was an interdisciplinary unit for me, as I have chosen geography, which contained a section of a unit researching Brazil. We then went on to issues that people in Brazil face do to poverty and other sub-standard needs. We looked at train surfing, and in this unit I came across the element of 'marking the moment', and we were exposed to trying the effect with back story, which was provided by the teacher as a small command or mini script. 

After developing multiple skills throughout the course I have developed my set design learning, as I have observed the several elements in plays. I have looked at expressionistic, symbolic and minimalistic as well as looked at set design features like representation (color, form, shape, tone, feeling), objects which depict the age or era of when the play is set (timeline, generation). We then moved on to a proper play script which we would carry out as a production at the end of term 2. We first started this unit by analyzing the author of the play (face by Benjamin Zephaniah). We were set to do a task before we started carrying out the play, so that we started with prior knowledge and understanding of the identity and background of the author, to help us relate as well as understand the author's reason and value for the play. While working on scenes from 'face' the play, we were given small tasks to develop skills to improve each scene we in-acted within groups. One of those tasks was to develop and create your own costume for a character, known as the 'street voice' in the play. There were many interpretations and outputs, since we all had abundant various ideas which were completely different and creative compared to one another. The play focuses around the issue of prejudice and facial discrimination. 

I feel that my group made an exceptional amount of effort, even though sometimes it was difficult to get every team member focused and involved, we were still able to contribute quite disparate and agreeable ideas, which made our performance more unique. My group was willing to put in effort and commitment to achieve a substantial degree of involvement in the play in order to have a successful and like-able show. My group made arrangements to meet outside of class, during lunch times and we had also conducted a dress rehearsal after school a couple of days before the final play. I am especially quite pleased and content about the costumes and makeup we had acquired for the play. We had quite professionally applied our set design and other drama skills to produce an august play. 

I feel that conducting this play was a learning experience for each and every individual in the class, as each person not only gains knowledge about crucial aspects and issues in the world, but also learns about gratitude, true meaning of relationships, self expression, identity, love, betrayal, hatred, kindness, understanding but most importantly it gives everyone a push into reality, to help everyone discover what they should be happy for, rather than upset or ungrateful, through the journey of the play. After choosing our groups we could choose a particular scene from the script that we would have liked to in-act and or moderate for a on stage performance. My group tried to focus on individuality and the importance of true identity, which does not come from good looks rather it comes from who you have become after the experiences, events, and challenges you have faced, experienced in life. My group developed on the idea of regaining confidence and strength even after the hardest of times in life, which cause life changing occurrences, and how 'facing' the issue works in your favor. 

I feel that the main success of this unit was reviving the idea of acceptance and appreciation towards everyone, no matter what race, religion, culture, country they come from. This unit has especially helped bring more gratitude and importance to my life, since I get to experience the different scenarios unfortunate people around the world have to face, and more importantly that worst part is many people disrespect those who have been affected, and this causes much more pain and disruption is society and humanity! 

What would you do differently?

If I had the opportunity to redo my performance, there are many improvements and ideas I would have liked to follow. First of all, I realized that even though we spent extra hours out of class and out of school we were still unable to properly recite and learn each and every dialogue that we assigned one another. So, in order to address this issue for next time, we could create a meeting plan, on the days that we all can meet to rehearse the play as well as recite and practice our own lines individually with expression and emotion at home to have maximum practice. In our performance we were quite confused and unclear about the layout and output of our performance on stage, since we had never gotten the opportunity to practice on stage, in order to rehearse in terms of the actual play, to make us more confident and at ease. For next time, in order to avoid confusion and hesitancy we could try and practice on stage after school so that we do not have to worry about the time limit, to share the stage with other performing groups. I feel that because of the minimum time limit given to us, we were under little stress for creating a good play, performance. For a future performance I would like to segregate and section out our time evenly to help build confidence in the actors within the group as well as be more prepared for the on-stage performance. Even though we pre-prepared our ideas as an edited script, we still went on to making several more changes to perfect our play. 

I feel that the technology equipment could have been used in our performance in order to develop our performance further, since the only use of technology was present was there for sound. If I were to perform the performance once again I would have liked to have scenes where characters would have their phones to show a more realistic and naturalistic approach, as well as common man usage. We could have also had more preparation with the sound effects, since my group was a little unclear as to the timing of when each scene needs to be executed with the corresponding sounds. For next time, I would definitely focus on preparation of actual play rather than introducing further ideas to add to the play. Since, it only makes sense to first have a practiced well done play with good ideas, rather than an unprepared play with great ideas.

Top 3 tips for next year's performance?

1. Spend more time analyzing each character: When we were developing each character's scenes we were in a dilemma of choosing the right emotions and attitude for each character. We needed to understand the full backstory of each character before giving them each emotion. Next year, I would like to put more thought and research into deciding each of the character's actions and feelings towards certain situations/circumstances. Next year, I would be more comfortable with first analyzing each and every character in the play before creating my own scenes or play associated with the characters. Having a more in-depth understanding of each character will help me devise the perfect play or scene for a particular character, since I would have more knowledge and understanding of the character and their inner thoughts, in order to make the right judgements. Taking 'face' the play as an example, it is difficult to appropriately judge how the character Martin would feel after the accident, or when he is looking at his burns. since, none of us have experienced such a state we are not the best judge to imply ideas as to the emotions, feelings or thoughts that will occur in the character's mind. Having a clear backstory history and understanding will help me determine correctly what emotion can be said or shown to each scene to co-relate with the circumstance or situation. 
2. Props, costume, and sound rehearsals: Next year I would like to be more prepared for my final performance, and to do so I will have to conduct many practices out of class. However, even though I have done several practice rehearsals with my group, I feel that we did not have enough practice for the actual performance, with sound, costume, makeup, etc. This is because practicing like this would help us gain much more confidence and help in correctly understanding when each scene will be conducted and when exactly. Having a rehearsal with props, costume, sound, and other performance requirements will help me and my group gain more confidence in performing with the same circumstance for the actual performance. 
3. Feedback from other groups and teachers: I feel that in order for me and my group to have perfected our performance further we needed more feedback from people outside our group in order to get a clear idea and vision as to how we can improve further, and what exactly we need to improve in order for us to execute a successful performance. However, even though my group performed well together, I feel that my group was not fully committed and determined to perform and execute a great performance piece. I would like, if possible to choose a different group next year in order to work more effectively and constructively. 

How did your performance vision change?

Our take on the play started out to be fairly basic. We started our brainstorming around the ideas of 
by discussing themes about Martin's life being full of adventure, fun, party. However, we realized that the concept and main focus that we want to dive across is mainly about facial discrimination shown in the play. After looking at the target audience, we started to put more thought as we were trying to approach teenagers as well as adults. We focused our thinking on scenes occurring after the accident of the car crash. Which meant that we would be focused on delivering the message and moral of the play on regaining and rebuilding yourself after life changing experiences. The play reminds everyone that any good or bad event could happen to anyone, but what truly matters is how you cope with it, and the people who are by you in that circumstance. 

Initially our plan was to take the epilogue of the play as our base for the play, and then building on layers (scenes) to bring more depth and creativity to the play. We did use the epilogue however, we decided on removing many dialogues to support the story direction we were following as well as devising new dialogues for the scenes we have extracted from several different parts of the play (script). In the beginning, when we were first given this task, in my group I had provided countless number of ideas and concepts to be used, that supported different drama techniques. However, many were not possible due to the low supply we had for stage space, lighting, costume, makeup, etc. 

Initially there were many ideas that sprung to mind which later on unfortunately we found were a bit difficult to execute, and needed to be dropped for performance improvement. One idea that I had in mind was that for the first scene of the play, we would have present martin on stage sitting on the floor looking down, very upset. No lights, however only one spotlight which focuses on him. Past Martin walks on stage looking enraged and furious, he marches up to present Martin, hurtfully pulling him up to his level and looking at him in disgust, and exclaiming "Look at me! Look at what YOU've done to me! It's all your fault!". Present Martin avoids any contact. Past Martin says, "I remember when I had everything, talent, a beautiful girlfriend, friends, I had the best life!". After this dialogue the stage would fade into a blackout and next scene would be of past Martin, where he is at school, to show his popularity and liking-ness in the past. I thought of continuing on for each flashback with the same format, and forwarding back to the first scene and ending on a resolved, and positive note. However, I found that we did not have enough time, and that we were unable to use the spotlight. We were also unable to fully concentrate as a group to create a good piece, so it was initially quite difficult to perform, as group members were not as focused and determined. However, after a few lessons as time became more limited the group started working much harder and more collaboratively, as compared to the start. 

For the plan we developed many ideas as a group which focused on the key parts of the play, so that our play could show to be a small piece which wraps up the whole story however with a slight twist at the end. Initially we were just planning on using the scenes that were provided in the script. However, after rehearsals and opinions from other groups we found that our play was turning out to be rather simplistic and very common, showing lack of creativity and depth in the play, and drama skills. So, we decided on adding an additional scene near the end of our play. We decided that Martin will not go back to Natalie and be happy, rather he will find someone else who shows more care and respect even through his tough times. We played around with each scene to create the flow towards the last scene. We decided that after the crash, while Martin is in the hospital, after a couple of days Natalie decides to visit him. Natalie visits only to tell Martin how suffocated and restless she feels with the position that she is in, in Martin's life. She gives him a reasoning as to how her career will not move forward if she sticks around at the hospital, and that she feels that she's had enough. She breaks Martin's heart, and exits the scene. Leaving Martin on stage to think about the position he is in, and the people he is surrounded by. The next scene follows Martin, practicing for gymnastics and soon he is visited by Marcia, one of his friends. She approaches him in a caring yet flirty way, as we have tried to portray the idea that she's always had a liking for Martin, and through this time she has shown the most support. We end the play on a note that every person is a human being. Whether they are disabled, orphaned, or facially disfigured in this case. We send off the message of the idea of respect to everyone and gratitude and appreciation for all we have, ending at a positive note. 

What skills did you develop through this process that you can apply in another subject area?

This process of the creation of a drama piece, helped me develop many areas while working with a group that I generally do not work with. I further developed my time management skills, since there were times we had to work outside of class in order to practice further for a more rehearsed and proper performance. We needed to perfect our play by setting fixed times outside of class to show further determination and commitment for the play, and to do so, we needed to prepare and play days when we would work outside of class, which helped improving and developing each of our time managing skills to use in the future. Since, at school each student is required to complete many tasks and assessments throughout weeks, and this requires practice upon the skill of time management, in order to create time slots and segregate each subject for more effective and precise use of knowledge in each subject area, equally. I am able to implement this skill learning to my daily life as well as all my school subjects, since I have gained much more knowledge and understanding as well as experience as to how I can manage my time effectively. I am able to conduct and work more efficiently on school projects, assessments and homework. By developing this skill I see the results as being that I am able to work much quicker and productively for all my tasks as I have been exposed to the idea of time management and consumption through this process.

I have also developed the skill of communication amongst a new group of people. Throughout this project I have seen myself and my group members develop the skill of communication, since we all required to showcase and share our knowledge and opinions on the play amongst each other, we needed to portray strong communication skills. Throughout the process of creating/developing the play, each of us communicated several various ideas that could have been implemented for the play. As we started to share more and more thoughts and ideas amongst each other, we started to develop the skill further and become more confident about constructing our ideas to share with one another. In order for us to effectively and easily communicate the ideas and opinions we had in mind, we needed to collaborate with one another in order for each of us to show tolerance and respect for one another's opinions. As we developed these skills we were able to apply these skills to our daily life. I especially was more interested and aware of the drama related industry. After completing the assignment, I started to analyze the TV shows and Movies that I watched, since I become much more aware and knowledgable about the aspect of learning. When I watched any show after the performance, I started to identify each set design, costumes, makeup, etc, used.

After completing the play I am able to appreciate and understand the use of each design, costume, makeup, set, in the play that Benjamin Zephaniah used in 'face' the play. The skills that I have received after completing the play are helping me in my day to day tasks.

In the beginning of the play I was quite nervous and doubtful about the play, since I was still not confident enough to go on stage and perform in front of a group of people or a proper audience (other than our drama class). However, after the practices that my group had conducted, I felt much more confident and ready for the play, since I had practice not only with a new group but also in front of people sometimes as well, which gained my self confidence.