In conclusion, the shows were a success nothing when majorly wrong besides some technical sound issues. From show one, we knew that we had hit the bar, for a first performance it was good, but not the best we had put on. The first show allowed us to realise what we were up against, the nerves we will be facing and conquering, the sudden live challenges we will be facing (technologically and performance/character wise) and of course the improvements from show to show to enable us to become better performers.
After the first show I quickly realised my challenges, the biggest one being breathing, once on stage my breathing becomes quick and short, which is terrible when it comes to singing as I would't have enough breathe to finish lines or dance whilst singing. To aimed to fix this by having more control and focusing on my breathing whilst on stage, also using breathing exercises before the show starts.
Another issue was that I didm't think I showed clearly the intentions of my character, Gus wants to go to the Heaviside Layer, but my first performance showed his songs as almost just some filling acts, to fix this I could use more facial expression and make a more emotional impact with the audience.
An improvement we had to work on as a class was out singing in The addressing of cats as we were sloppy and very unprofessional. The only way this could be improved was line learning, our excuse for the matter was that we didn't get the song lyrics until a few weeks before the show.
By the second show, we felt a lot more confident as a class and I think that could be seen if the two performances were compared. Our dancing on stage was much more in time with the music and each other and our singing was louder and clearer. Overall the second performance was definitely a major improvement.
One thing that went wrong with my performance in the second show was my partner Cherkanah had dropped her sword at the end of Growtiger's last stand, so thinking on my feet, after approaching the spotlight for my reprise I picked up the sword and used this as a reflection moment, looking down at the sword and smiling lightly, this was something I then asked to be kept in for the last performances as I felt this helped the issue of having a greater emotional impact with the audience.
The third performance was a morning showing to a group of school students, usually school students are harder to keep their attention but I believe we managed to keep them focused and engaged with the storyline because of their questions at the end of the performance.
This performance I felt went worse for me as my vocals were off and we didn't have enough time as a class to complete a vocal warm up, next time I must always make time for a vocal warm up. As a class though I thought we did well, our dancing was on point and our changes between scenes went very smoothly.
The last performance allowed us to all show what we had in us. As a class the last was most definitely the most successful, everything went perfectly, besides some technical issues but even then our class recovered nicely and such acoustically, even the tap dancing parts without any music was in time.
Personally the last performance went well for certain aspects, such as the few solo lines I have in the first act were sung in tune and confidently, unlike most other nights, the second act was definitely an improvement from all the nights, taking into account the development points and completing the challenges.
Another issue was that I didm't think I showed clearly the intentions of my character, Gus wants to go to the Heaviside Layer, but my first performance showed his songs as almost just some filling acts, to fix this I could use more facial expression and make a more emotional impact with the audience.
An improvement we had to work on as a class was out singing in The addressing of cats as we were sloppy and very unprofessional. The only way this could be improved was line learning, our excuse for the matter was that we didn't get the song lyrics until a few weeks before the show.
By the second show, we felt a lot more confident as a class and I think that could be seen if the two performances were compared. Our dancing on stage was much more in time with the music and each other and our singing was louder and clearer. Overall the second performance was definitely a major improvement.
One thing that went wrong with my performance in the second show was my partner Cherkanah had dropped her sword at the end of Growtiger's last stand, so thinking on my feet, after approaching the spotlight for my reprise I picked up the sword and used this as a reflection moment, looking down at the sword and smiling lightly, this was something I then asked to be kept in for the last performances as I felt this helped the issue of having a greater emotional impact with the audience.
The third performance was a morning showing to a group of school students, usually school students are harder to keep their attention but I believe we managed to keep them focused and engaged with the storyline because of their questions at the end of the performance.
This performance I felt went worse for me as my vocals were off and we didn't have enough time as a class to complete a vocal warm up, next time I must always make time for a vocal warm up. As a class though I thought we did well, our dancing was on point and our changes between scenes went very smoothly.
The last performance allowed us to all show what we had in us. As a class the last was most definitely the most successful, everything went perfectly, besides some technical issues but even then our class recovered nicely and such acoustically, even the tap dancing parts without any music was in time.
Personally the last performance went well for certain aspects, such as the few solo lines I have in the first act were sung in tune and confidently, unlike most other nights, the second act was definitely an improvement from all the nights, taking into account the development points and completing the challenges.
Three strengths of my performance
1) Movement/Character development: My movement through songs and dances was well performed considering wearing a suit. I was impressed by my ability to add character to my movements such as dancing such as an 'elderly' person would dance (reference in show video) and other aspects of being on stage such as walking, I tried to give a gentle representation of my character through this; slow, graceful steps, movements were musical theatre stylised by being big and exaggerated but still managed to uphold old features.
Each show showed me more and more what kind of a character Gus is, someone who is haunted by his past, in the sense that he misses who he used to be, so much so to the point that he believes he still has what it takes to play Growtiger, a character he was most proud of, then hallucinates him performing him again. Every character has a strong reason why they should have won the Heaviside Layer, but when it comes to Gus, being reborn into a new Jellicle life is the only cure, Grizabella winning means he would spiral deeper and deeper into this obsession with his past. That being my opinion anyway of his character in more of a darker path. This being said I think I was able to represent how much Gus actually wanted and 'deserved' to be reborn into a new jellicle life well, my movement, facial expression and all round performance was convincing enough.
2) Improvisation: In the second performance at the end of Growtiger, a sword was dropped on stage so thinking on my feet when walking back down there I picked it up and stared at it to show reflection of my characters past, this I knew had to stay in so we included it in the last shows, I think this 'accident' helped me to develop my improvisation and also was a challenge I successful completed.
3) Show after show my singing became stronger and confidence enabled me to used more of my voice.
Three weaknesses of my performance
1) A weakness would have to be lyric learning, as in two group songs I was only 90% clear on the lyrics, I feel next time studying them more and going over songs with the class would be needed to conquer this.
2) Another weakness would be my costume, although I felt like I fitted the part very well it was very much an understatement of look than the one I originally designed, time, money and creative experience were all the things stopping me from being able to create and wear the costume I originally designed, I felt my character would have been supported a lot more through it and his personality and traits would be easier to understand too.
3) My production role would have been more useful, I tried to construct a props table but due to limitations on props and props already having set locations this idea quickly failed.
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