Macbeth performance.

Final rehearsals 

our final rehearsals where one of the biggest highlights of the whole rehearsal process, we pushed and pushed and succeeded! During rehearsals we spoke about our costumes,focus,staying in role etc. When speaking about staying in role, we spoke about how " the show must go on" and how breaking out of character ruins the flow and momentum of the performance. I was tested on this in the murderer scene. While fighting, my wig fell to the ground and this had never happened to me before. At this point so many thoughts were going through my head, i knew that if i came out of character now and lost the flow, it would not only effect me but my group members as well. So being an actor i acted like nothing happened and used the anger that i had messed up into the anger that Duncan's son had fled.

we gave roles to each person to make the process easier and faster. This made everything run smoothly even though we were all very nervous for our first dress rehearsal which was also our first run through, not stopping from top to bottom. i believed rehearsals went very well and really boosted our fading confidence, that we then regained. Building my character was fun as i could make my 3 different characters contrasting to each other.

 Technical rehearsals 

These rehearsals were the hardest as you can't control the tech from upstairs, sometimes lighting does not come on Que, honestly all sorts happen but i think as a group we made it work well and we were definitely in sync with the tech group. On a personal level i know i worked very well when it came to building my character and using the lighting and sound to my favour. When in the apparition scene i had to use a voice over which i mimed too and it looked like i was actually possessed. i honestly enjoyed working with the tech teams,we got to tell them all our ideas which they just made into reality, which really brought the performance together.

Eyes of the audience 

When sitting in the audience and watching other groups perform there were highlighted moments to me. Everyone actually looked like they were having fun while acting and owning the stage. Lighting also made key moments even better as it reflected the mood or atmosphere of the scene. you could also tell when someone was thinking of their line which made some parts of the play to waver, but eventually they would become one with their character. Some people also looked down quite a lot or moved around, showing that they nervous or thinking. Being part of the audience also means that everyone else could see it. One thing that really stood out is how all groups broke the 4th wall and got the audience involved, making them anxious for whats to come next. Most times when i would act or have a big line i would look mostly at the audience so they never got bored and felt like they were as well in the performance.

Skills i have learnt

Being an actor means there are endless skills to use in performances and rehearsals. During Macbeth i gained more skills because i was also in a big group. i also realised that i gain quite a lot of skills from other class members in and out my group. for example, the first group that performed because i was also in there group filling in for a sick group member, i learnt that i should think out the box and not always stick to the same old things. This is a skill because if you can bring ideas to the table it will be very hard for you to work with other people. I have also learnt to be very resilient, as because even when my group felt low and no one had faith we pushed through by trying to keep our heads up and not loosing our characters and using them in our day to day life to work on them. or staying at college till late hours to make sure a scene is how it should be.

Contributions i made

The Macbeth performance was one where us student had to help ourselves, and stop relying on teachers to give us answers and tips. One thing i did was bring in my own costume for the murder and doctor. While being the murderer i wore a long coat that reached my ankles and had my hair tied up to show we were clearly up to no good. Then being being the Doctor, i wore a white school shirt and white jeans and no shoes, to show that i was a homely doctor and clearly professional . When being the witch i messed up my hair and put on black makeup and stained it with water to look like i had been crying and to show that i was clearly not alright. This helped a lot to convey my characters point the audience as they would know i was a witch. I also filled in for the first group as one team member was sick and i knew there lines, this was hard as i didn't feel prepared as they had taught me a fight scene in 5 mins and we never went over it again, When it came down to show time, it all came naturally and i believed i had tried my best to fill in. I also helped with each groups makeup and provided my own makeup to help toward each play. I helped people in other groups who had the same lines as me but didn't quite know all there lines, we went through it over until they felt they were ready to proceed. I believe i tried my best to make performances better for everyone as lots of things happened in the process of rehearsing and losing props or costume.

One thing i learnt overall is that confidence changes a performance completely and i believed each person had that even when we were all nervous everyone was confident that nothing bad would happened and the show would go on and that;s one thing i will take forward into the next production as well as my articulation which i improved on when told.