We have just completed
our Epic Theatre unit with out final performance. I picked script writing,
Noshin picked directing and Shubham picked Montage and all three of us were
actors in the play. The biggest challenge while doing Epic theatre is to make
sure there is the least amount of emotion in our sketch and to make sure it is
as factual as possible. The idea is make sure that we don't make the audience
feel the emotions we are feeling but we are letting them about the situation
and they can have their own judgements.
This was
different from any other performance that I have participated in since it was a
completely new genre that I needed to focus on. I have never done a scene with
a montage running at the background, the script was quite different since it
needed to be factual and precise. The stage directions were straightforward
including minimum amount of props. Throughout this unit I felt I was quite
engaged with the work. In the performance, I wrote the script for the
performance and I also decided what type of religious segment we would use for
the performance. I would give myself a 7 on 8 on personal
engagement. I would give Noshin a 7 on 8 since she memorized her lines and she
gathered the pictures for the montage. I would give Shubham a 7 on 8 as well
since he memorized his lines and he created the montage video. After the first
draft we all had a few major problems regarding the script. Shubham had a
tendency to ramble on during his chorus segments and Noshin was being too
stiff. Due to this I had to change the script a little bit and we practiced on
it the next few classes. I feel that all three of us worked well and understood
the problems. This helped us succeed during our final performance.
Our group's final
performance was quite good. We took feedback from our rough draft performance
and we used it to improve upon our final performance. During the performance I
forgot my lines in a segment and I interrupted Shubham. I remembered my lines
afterwards but i felt that it was pretty evident in an audience perspective. I
feel that the audience did understand the big issue since all the information
we portrayed was very straightforward. Mina (Noshin) mentioned she was raped
and her parents (Shubham and I) did not want her anymore since she was impure
due to their "religion". The audience gave us feedback during our
rough drafts that they enjoyed our performance and it was well
portrayed. There were definitely flaws in our performance, the biggest of
which would be the fact that we had too much emotion. In terms of Epic
Theatre elements, we had montage, script writing and gestus. All these 3
elements molded our performance and created an effective Epic Theatre piece.
The group I'm
evaluating is Ryan, Umar and Vanessa. They used scriptwriting and montage as
their epic theatre elements. Their staging improved massively from their rough
draft performance since they were facing the audience. Even though at one part
of the scene, Umar turned around to talk to Ryan and he was facing completely
away from the audience. This could have improved their performance. Their
performance was based on communism and capitalism where a rickshaw puller and a
maid were quarrelling over how much money the maid would pay. The rickshaw
puller wanted 50 tk but the maid would give 20. Ryan was the policeman who came
to fix the quarrel. Instead of saying," Pay 30 tk, I know it's not enough
(for the rickshaw-puller) but if you get a few customers it would help you
get a meal..." He said, " Pay 30 taka more.." which
basically meant pay 50 taka since 30+20 is 50. This was a little confusing but
it was a mistake on his part. Overall I understood how it related to "The
Caucasian Chalk Circle". During the beginning of the, the goat herders and
fruit farmers were fighting over the land and their fight was fixed after
coming to a mutual decision. They had a good performance and improving these
details could make it even better.
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