Practice Makes Perfect

I found our final performance, despite the relatively little time and limited staging and costumes that we had, was quite well done. The probably biggest overall issue was that we had not been practicing the scene long enough to become a hundred percent comfortable with our characters. Nevertheless I found that our group worked together well and in the end put together a short yet funny skit.

Here are some things that came into my mind when I saw the final Video:

Lines  

The probable main problem of every actor is that one speaks to fast, especially when one is nervous. In out skit this could particularly be seen in the first scene, where actors were talking too fast, yet projecting little. As a result it was often difficult to understand them. This was worsened with the video as the camera did not pick up on the sound very well. In addition the actors tended to swallow the ends of their lines often making it hard to understand their full meaning.

    In the third scene of our scipt there was a part at which two groups of actors were meant to say their lines alternately. This was a good idea, however it turned out to be difficult to pull off. The problem was that the actors who weren’t speaking had to continues to act just muted, while still paying attention to the other group to make sure not to miss their cues. This often resulted in brief yet awkward pauses. Thought we bettered this problem in our rehearsal prior to the final performance, it was still an issue at hand that we could have bettered had we had more time.

Improvisation

In the first scene there is a lot of room for improvisation, the lines that the actors said were seldom what it said in our original script. Thought this allows a certain freedom to play with one's role this caused the actors to talk over each other. This happened when both of them started

improvising at the same time while not clearly listening to the other person, or when they did not wait on the other person to react, afraid of the silence that may occur. This is yet another example of how nervousness can influence an actor on stage. Had the actors been more relaxed they would have taken more time to truly react and act with each other and the awkward parts were two people spoke would not have happened.

Camera

    The camera had a limited angle as well as limited quality. This meant that we could never fit all of the setting in the camera angle at the same time. Luckily that was only an issue at one of the scenes: during the call with the police. As Mary Maloney and the policeman were standing Stage right and stage left, far away from each other, the person filming could not fit both of them in the camera angle. This resulted in some rather strange and hectic movements that were produced when the person

operating the camera moved it back and forth between the two speaking groups. Though this was one of the smaller flaws, it could have been avoided had we moved the staging so that the two groups were closer together.

    Another issue was the camera's limited quality. Not only was it struggling to pick up the sound from the distance, it also did not function as well under the lighting. People wearing white, tended to be overexposed in the final recording. This made it hard to see the actors faces and recognize facial expressions. Thought this would not be a problem at a live performance it took away form the quality and the clarity of the video.

Staging

    As we haven’t been practicing the sketch for much longer than two weeks, most actors were yet to become more comfortable with their parts. This made the scene look a bit stiff and unrealistic at parts.

    There were a couple blocking and acting choices that stood out to me. First of all I noticed that the actress playing Mary Maloney forgot to pay in the scene in the grocery store. This is only a minor flay, yet it may seem strange to an attentive audience member. Another thing that I noticed was that I- when playing Bob- and the actress playing my partner Allan used our canes less like gentlemen. Instead we used them as walking canes like to old men. This was a bit awkward to look at and would once again have caught the attention of an active and critical audience member. Last but not least I could not help notice that the actress playing Mary Maloney fixed the tie of her dead husband while waiting for the police. This quick acting choice was outstanding for several reasons. First of all it was funny and helped portray the slightly creepy and crazy character of Mrs Maloney well. Even though she just killed her husband, she cares enough to fix his tie for him. Another reason why this was a good ating choice was because it helped bypass the pause at which two actors (me being one of them) had to quickly yet quietly pass from stage right to stage left backstage.

These are just some points that I felt we good have improved on, however there was much that we already did a good job on. The stage turned out simple yet it was clear and the armchair with the table among other things nicely portrayed the ambience of a living room. Our group worked hard and our final result was in my opinion quite satisfactory. The biggest difference we could have made was getting more comfortable with our characters which only more time and practice could have given us.

Link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbKU528x4FE&feature=youtu.be