Auditions (32) - Performance Evaluation

This lesson was our performance lesson. We all had to perform our monologues and film them. Below is how I think my monologues went.

Contemporary Monologue:

• Voice:   I think that my accent suited my character. Although, in context of the play, she should have had a Yorkshire accent, as my monologue was a stand-alone performance I felt that the accent I chose was appropriate. I managed to maintain this voice throughout as well. I used a slightly higher pitch to how I normally talk to make my character appear younger.  However, on reflection, I think that I could have made my character a bit more ditsy to appear more innocence and therefore younger. 
• Use of prop:   I am glad that I used a cigarette for this performance as it not only made my slow down my dialogue more, but I think it suited my character, as it adds more comedy to the monologue, as the audience would assume that she stole some cigarettes. However, I feel like I should have taken longer with the cigarette when it was in my mouth. It would have been more shocking for a 14 year old to know how to smoke properly, but on the other hand, it could emphasise her naivety by her not knowing how to smoke.
• Movement:   My hand gestures showed my character's common nature and laid back attitude. I changed my body language when I imitated Carl, by leaning forward and pointing. Although I used a lot of hand gestures throughout this monologue, I perhaps could have used the space a bit - however, I did use the space a lot for my classical monologue, so by not using much space for this monologue, I created another contrast between my two pieces.

Classical Monologue:

• Voice:   I think that I had good diction and articulated well throughout this monologue. By using a lower pitch when speaking I presented my character as being older and more mature. I have done this monologue better before in terms of creating contrasts between thoughts. I should have made a larger contrast between my thought patterns by going on more of an emotional roller-coaster by changing my tone. 
• Facial expression:   Although my contrast of thought patterns wasn't as clear as I had hoped, in terms of voice, I did vary my facial expression throughout. 
• Movement:   My use of pacing was appropriate at showing my character's frustration with her father. I felt that my use of hand gestures worked quite well. By keeping my hands very close to me and inwards, it presented my character as being refined - however, the tension I put behind my hand gestures presented Goneril as being unpredictable and unreliable. The only thing I wasn't happy about in terms of movement, was at one point I sat into one of my hips a little bit - this made my character appear a bit common and casual, but she is supposed to be very authoritative and upper-class.