Here is the full feedback from each of the cast members and myself from the Scratch night performance at Upstairs at the 3 and 10
Scratch Night
Upstairs at three and ten- Many thought Peter was a virgin, needs to be made more clear that he isn’t and that he is just naïve and innocent. Peter appeared younger, like a teenager, he needs to seem older, early 20’s, have moments of maturity.
- It was clear that Thursday just wanted to have sex with Peter, but does she have any other aims?
- Antonio needs to slow down on his lines, it’s not a race.
- The characters were clear.
- In the gym scene, Dan needs to appear more out of breath when lifting the weights to make it more naturalistic.
- There was a good balance of naturalistic and non naturalistic within the scenes and monologue. Would have been good to have a breakup of the naturalistic scenes , having the contrasting non naturalistic scenes slotted in between.
- Need a good, strong lighting plan, and light changes needed to be cleaner and smooth. The red lights worked to change the atmosphere.
- Relationships between the characters, relate to skins characters Tony and Sid from series 1 & 2, for Peter and Dan relationship.
- Trust the script, work with the words and characters.
- Work on reactions to speech between characters, relationships and status. Use subtlety to allow to show what’s happening i.e. gesture, without it being obvious and literal.
- Use all the space. We limited ourselves to a very narrow space on the stage. Try other audience layouts, entrances and exits could be used anywhere in the room. Work harder in terms of projection and diction, if we try other layouts and spaces this will help challenge this and bring it out better.
- The music went well with the scenes instead of creating the contrast you wanted to. Play around with the music and mood of the scenes more.
- Peter has POTENTIAL.
A:- Yes, however make the power more subtle, play with the power that Thursday has, more flirtatious yet play with his mind. When he puts his hand on Thursday’s knee, enjoy it a little, lead him on, and then push him away, a last minute mind change.
A:- Don’t need to, it can be played off Peter with him giving her more status by being scared, nervous and innocent. Giving Thursday the power; ‘A king doesn’t play a king, the servants make him a king’
A:- Play on Thursdays Jekyll and Hyde side more, subtle yet obvious. Make her mood changes stronger and clearer. Make the audience surprised with her mood change, not just the character she is playing against.
Scratch night
lT � T e 7 ��5 ich was added in was not juxtaposing the scene itself, the music seemed to blend in with what was going on. It would need something completely the other way round in order for it to be juxtaposing. The moments which were meant to be funny were either too late or not brought out by the characters enough and at time it wasn’t funny because we were trying to force it out. There needs to be a balance and allow the words to speak for themselves in order to be funny.
Our scratch night took place on 28th February at the venue in which we will be performing at for the Brighton Fringe Festival in May. I think this was a great opportunity to explore the venue in terms of space on the stage, sound system and lighting that was available to us to use. Our get in time was at 1pm which gave us plenty of time to tech our pieces and rehearse in the space. It was also good to check out backstage, such as how much room we had to get on and off the stage, how noisy the floor was, how much room we had to get changed and see what the dressing room was like. The verdict of this was very cramped!
I feel our performance went well, and felt really excited to perform it. I feel we could have practised our quick changes more in the space as it was hard when other people were moving about backstage too. After our performance we sat down in groups to receive feedback from our audience.
OUR FEEDBACK:- From AUDIENCE
- The humour and comedy throughout the piece was good, it was non slapstick and there was a good balance of drama and comedy. Sometimes play against the comedic moments to create contrast.
The questions I put together to be asked at Scratch:-
Q1:- Can you see the status that Peter gives Thursday and how can it be greater?
Q2:- How can I develop my character in terms of a raw, animalistic sex appeal?
Q3:- Thursday has two sides to her, can you notice this, and would you like to see more ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ characteristics, if so, how?
My own feedback on performance:-
I feel the performance went well, but there were moments within where I found certain things should have been tidier and smoother. The entrances and exits on stage need to be worked in so they feel more natural, as I felt I should have had more purpose to enter and leave the stage. However I think this will come easier when we do the full scenes. I personally feel I should slow down my lines more, take time with the pauses. I agree that the gestures, such as the touching motif with Antonio as Peter should be made more subtle, as it would be more natural and noticeable instead of being made obvious the audience may try and ignore it. I feel I need to go deeper into my character to find really strong characteristics that makes my character who she is! I think we all need to pay attention to detail, really focus on making the little things our characters do realistic, so the audience don’t look through it. I think as we go with the scenes we should make a blocking plan and lighting and sound cues for it, as it is important to have the technical side of the play to be prepared and good too, to help whoever will be our techie for the performance. As the music didn’t juxtapose the scenes I think we should experiment with different music and see what it could do to the scenes. I think I need to make my character stronger, and think about her mood changes in her personality, I would love to experiment with this in rehearsals, when doing a scene to just be shouted out different moods or change when director clicks to see how well it could work. I overall feel our scratch night was a success and feel that our feedback is going to help with our development of the piece.
Phone scene: - the relationship between Peter and Dan were very clear, the audience felt that Peter was looking up to Dan. The space between the characters were too close together it needs to be more of a gap maybe one far across the room and one on stage rather than both on stage. The relationship. It felt more like a little brother looking up at the eldest. Dan was seen as a cocky git, his methods were with good intentions but were perceived as bad. One of the audience members referenced a relationship to Dan and Peter in Skins the Characters Tony and Sid were quite similar, If you thought of it as a brother like relationship. How Dan sees peter as a blank canvas which he wants to mould himself on. He sees peter as Potential to become him, which then refer to the ‘Filling in the older brother shoes’.
The Gym scene:- The squatting worked and was very comical. It wasn’t over the top but showed a sense of normality. However we lost the reaction to Dan when peter squats, the Intensity of the scene was consistent and did have a feeling of two guys working out. Rowing scene however lost the intensity which needs to be kept up. The audience started to identify some traces that Dan is coming on to Peter which got the Audience questioning his Sexuality ‘is he Bi or Gay’ many of the audience started to question that which was the initial intention.
The final Scene:- was a strong scene, the audience liked how gradually over time we see Peter start to change in personality and maybe Identity all because of Thursday and Dan desire to mould him in their world. The intensity of the monologues was spot on however the repeating of words started to lack consistency from both Dan and Thursday. The clothes being taken off were a clear image of the old peter through away to a new image created but the two other characters which was effective. The Red lights behind Dan and Thursday worked it gave a dark side to their roles. It created a 50/50 naturalistic and unaturalistic styled performance which the audience quite enjoyed. However some did say the Thursday and Dan monologues were addressing to much to the audience and not to peter.
Overall was a strong performance all three showed clear cut characters, for the two Thursday and Dan having unique intentions for Peter. Whilst Peter was like the lightning bolt for the other two to latch onto, The Status however was to clear cut at times. The audience would of likes to want to find out what their intentions were later on or after the show. One audience member said the two strongest were Peter and Thursday maybe for Dan it was the clearest role in the play. The music which was added in was not juxtaposing the scene itself, the music seemed to blend in with what was going on. It would need something completely the other way round in order for it to be juxtaposing. The moments which were meant to be funny were either too late or not brought out by the characters enough and at time it wasn’t funny because we were trying to force it out. There needs to be a balance and allow the words to speak for themselves in order to be funny.
Feedback from scratch
First year feedback
The humour was finally balanced, parts of the humour was over the top. Peter mayo was naive, young teenage person who is desperate for the loss of his virginity.
Dan- bisexual moments being replayed this shows his sexuality.
Characters were clear didn’t confuse audience members.
Antonio- slow down however could see character development since first show in the studio.
B.A. student feedback
Scene 5- juxepose by using light fluffy music that may bring the dark scene juxeposition will work well.
The different styles worked well together.
The red lighting was great but more of a narrow option.
It was a light/comedic show which later developed into a dark one.
Break up the styles to which it has more abstract and naturalism together.
Very interesting especially the gym scene and the use of gym equipment.
Peter mayo thunderbird story and the language he uses shows his innocents compared to the other characters.
The relationship between peter and Thursday brings out her animalistic characters more.
Dan wants to see peter fail on his quest with his sexual journey.
Dan more selfishness but tries to help Peter Mayo to become a man.
Let the script work rather than doing it for laughs trust in the piece.
Peter and Thursday characters are stronger then Dan.
Work on the relationship and the status allow the status to shift and change, pull back allow the words to work and the proxemics between a characters.
Try to utilises the space more, try different staging try transverse for the phone call for example Peter mayo on one side and Dan on the other.
You have a lot of good feedback here, I passed on some myself as I was in the audience but better to comment here too. The main issue I had was the staging. I had probably the worst seat in the audience, back left. I could hear everything well enough (volume-wise) but could only see from the waist up when they were standing and only their heads when they were sitting. I felt as if I could lose interest in the play because so much was blocked by the audience in front. I could hear the audience laughing during the gym scene but saw nothing.
ReplyDeleteI know you've had suggestions about staging the piece differently to end on, I think this is something you can easily do for your piece and it will give the play different dimensions especially for the juxtaposing scenes.