Cherry Orchard Performance Evaluation

Cherry Orchard Performance Evaluation

On the 14th October 2014, Year 12 Theatre Strand performed Chekhov's Cherry Orchard that we had been building up to for the whole term, where we could apply Stanislavsky's system to a text and a specific character that was written in the same time period. The performance went very well for me, leaving me with a BRIT grade of 8 for preparation and an 8 for the performance. I was glad to see that my hard work on the text had translated into a good performance and that I had applied the system well. Having never studied Chekhov or Stanislavsky before, I was excited to explore both practitioners and begin the term as a blank canvas and was keen to find techniques that would improve me as an actress when studying the character, as I felt this was something that I was weaker at. 

The term's focus was Naturalism.

In the performance, one of the main things that I wanted to ensure was that my lines were not an issue for me. This meant that I made a start on learning my lines as soon as I was given my part, so that I would not have to be thinking about the lines, and could focus on characterising my character. I felt that this paid off and I do not recall stumbling on any of my lines during the performance, and the lines seemed to come naturally. This is something I will continue to work on in the next term; being confident on lines, as I felt it enhanced my confidence to play my role.

I was glad how well the performance turned out, considering it was only the first term, and aim to maintain the level of effort that I have set off with. I do not intend to let any part of the written work or practical work decrease in terms of quality, and I need to focus on organisation because I find it heard to learn lines and keep up with blogs all at once so this was almost like a test for me and I've learnt not to leave things to the last minute or ask for help and advice in order to achieve the grades I want.

Key Terms

• Circles of Attention
• Emotion Memory
• Subtext

Bus Stop exercise

Combining imagination, Given Circumstances and What if, 

A narration is given of scene in which you are standing at a bus stop, early in the morning on the way to a job interview.

You are chewing gum – what flavour is it?

You have a bag on your shoulder – how heavy is it?

You see a newspaper by your feet

You see a car on the other side of the road

You see a bus coming in the distance

What was your smallest circle of attention?  What was your largest?  What was in between?

Circles of attention or concentration provides the actor a means of maintaining and regaining focus as necessary and also to help provide the area to give attention when on stage.

“Solitude in public; using different circles of attention on stage to focus the attention on the stage: re-focus up on an object if attention is lost and create circles emanating around that object”

Stanislavski, An Actor Prepares

Key Terms

•                Super Objective

•                Objective

•                Units

Discussion what a Super Objective is: something the whole play is moving towards. What is the Super Objective of Romeo and Juliet?

Super-Objective, Objective exercise

1. Pick a point move towards it
2. Pick a person ‘A’ maintain awareness of them
3. Pick a second person ‘B’ maintain awareness of them, and A and picking a point.
4. Form an equilateral triangle with A, B and yourself.
5. Person A is your enemy – stay away from them.
6. Person B is your shield – keep them between yourself and A
7. Come to a group stop
8. Group stop, group start

What did each of the stages of the exercise help you understand about objectives? 

In every scene a character has an objective – an aim to be achieved.   In working towards their objectives characters will invariably cross other characters who have their own objectives, using different strategies to achieve those objectives.  

Units

Means of dividing a scene into small sections in which a character or characters are interacting on one subject or thought. As the subject or thought changes so does the unit.

These can be as short as a line or word or as long a half a page or more. Each unit then has its own objective – as the units and objectives are linked it begins to create a through-line.

KEY TERMS OF THE SESSION

•                RELAXATION

•                IMAGINATION

•                MAGIC 'IF'

•                GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES

•                TEMPO-RHYTHM

Warm up - Frozen body, Relaxation exercise


Exploring and discussing the difference between tesnison and relaxation by tensing the whole body as if frozen. 

 “Muscular tautness interferes with inner emotional experience.  Muscles must be relaxed in order not to impede your actions”  Stanislavski

Imagination exercise 

The group individually use their imagination to visualise an 'object' they dislike, a creature, vegetable, insect. They are asked to do this with as much detail as possible: colour, texture, weight, size etc.

Without stating what it is individuals describe drawing on the visualisation they have created.

Magic If exercise

Us students had to respond to a number of "What if" questions given to us by our teacher as truthfully as possible and how we would normally would respond. What if...: you saw a lady fall over crossing the road or you found a £50 note on the floor etc.

Given Circumstances exercise

Given Circumstances give the imagination, the 'magic if' a framework within which to work. We explored this by observing others taking part in a scene set in a doctors waiting room. What are the given circumstances that exist in this scene? The scene is discussed in detail - body language, character choices, what might be happening in the scene for each character etc.

Tempo-rhythm was also discussed in relation to the scene as body language, gestures, movements give away the characters emotions, feelings. The tempo is the speed of the movement/action/activity the rhythm is the intensity of the movement.