The Performance

The Performance

Reflecting back on our performance, I was actually very happy with what we ended up with, however nothing went quite how we had planned. For example, our costumes proved to create many obstructions. When we had rehearsed we obviously hadn’t done so in a lift with people in it, so didn’t take into account that the public may not actually allow us into the lift. We were waiting for about 15 minutes until the security guard let us use the private lift. Seeing other groups use the lift so easily, with just as large costumes and props, we didn’t think that it would be a problem for us.

As we hadn’t rehearsed in the town before, we didn’t realise that children would be coming up to us whilst we were making our journey to the Cathedral Grounds. We didn’t take into account how long it would take us from the brooks centre to the Cathedral Grounds, so were unable to get to the performance space at the time which the posters said we would be.

Once in the Cathedral grounds, obviously the performance we had planned completely changed the two times we got to do it. This was because it heavily depended on the audience members and their reaction. With one group I was talking to shy children, and in another, and adult, who wanted to argue every point I made. This worked though, and I was shocked as I thought that I wouldn’t be able to improvise so much, however the performance ended up heavily relying on the improvisation. Obviously we still, used what we had rehearsed, like Leaf and Moulds Dance, as they were great ways to fill in any moments which went silent.

Looking back, I feel that we definitely should have rehearsed our piece in town, and taken the exact route which we were going to take, just so we were prepared for anything that could happen, like the lift incident. We would like to have performed for a lot longer as we didn’t actually get to do as many intimate performances as were hoping to achieve. We would also make sure that if flyers and posters were given out for another performance, we would leave ourselves enough time to get to the performance space listed on the posters, so audience members would not feel let down due to us being late. However I don’t think I would chose a time or a place for our performance in future, as it completely depended on the public, where they were, how they reacted.

The part of the performance where we all came together, for me, couldn’t have gone any better. We had a huge audience surrounding us, whom many had followed our separate groups on our separate journeys. Although finding an audience member to join in with our procession proved to be quite difficult, I feel that it was a good thing as it showed to me, that what we had created was something so crazy, strange and different, that it felt like another world, and welcoming people into it can take a lot longer than you originally think. Looking at the audience you would have thought that most of them would have liked to join in. I think we tried to bring them in too early, and if we would have left it, people would have been more willing. However I think it worked perfectly.