Performance Workshop Rehearsal Evaluation 07/02/17

Performance Workshop Rehearsal Evaluation 07/02/17

The Tester Performance

In today's rehearsal we had to perform to a year 10 drama GCSE class. This was weird idealism to begin with as they are not a full  class of theatre students so they  would not get the full concept of experimental theatre like a regular theatre student would. However, it would be a great opportunity to have an opinion of someone that doesn’t have any experience or understands the concept.   

Honestly from looking back at the performance, there were moments in the piece that were very beautiful and I could tell that the audience and the performers did enjoy it. A particular moment that was highlighted in this was when everyone was discussing what they remembered and what they truly wished for in life. Even though it seemed that the year 10s didn’t know what to  say or do they enjoyed hearing the positivity and matureness that came out of us. I believe my true feelings and thoughts came out thanks to the shut off of my amygdala and the sense of having no shame and a lot of freedom.

On the contrary, there were many moments were audience participation was needed and they were really against the idea of letting go their insecurities and joining us in front of their peers. This happened when they were meditating and some of them would open their eyes to check if everyone was doing the same. They wouldn’t want to come near us when we were riffing. They wouldn’t speak in the I remember and I wish section either. Theses negatives that occurred during the performance made me question if theses things should actually happen in the performance because if year 10s felt too intimidated to take part in this then other audience members might feel the same. But then I realised that even though theses things are the opposite to immersive theatre it’s still a good thing because we are targeting the parts of their brains that give the sense of alert and danger. The amygdala. The uncomfortableness made them more cautious of what’s going on and triggered them to feel something and do things to protect themselves, which is the result of an instinctual impulse.

From discussing what they felt after the performance it was clear that the year 10s felt extremely intimidated and scared. They had no clue what to do when they saw us do something which made them feel really out of place and not much of a regular audience member. Some said that they experienced things during the meditation that were not actually occurring to them at that  point, which is quite similar to what we experienced when we conducted the experiment before. Some felt very uncomfortable because during the pain and pleasure they had their eyes shut and were lying down so they didn’t know what was going on around them and all they could rely on was the sound of heavy breathing. At that moment we had to explain them that they were not supposed to be lying down with their eyes at that point, but realised it was our wrong doing by not telling them to sit up and watch. This small mistake made it difficult to do physical theatre around them and they didn’t know what was going on. So we came up with the solution to gesture them into sitting up and watching. On the whole the year 10s said that they understood some aspects of the show and that they really liked it, but from going through that experience they felt really vulnerable and weird so they wouldn’t want to experience it again.

In my opinion I think that’s a fair enough judgement because personally I feel like if I wasn’t used to immersive theatre or experiential theatre I would be quite scared to experience it more than one time. But I do truly believe that once you experience it and analyse what went on in your head you will begin to understand what it’s about and feel a bit more comfortable with it.

On the whole the tester performance wasn’t much of a failure. There are just some moments that need a bit of adjusting and solidifying other things to make it the best possible version this show could be.