What was your intention in this performance? How did you want the audience to view your character and react to your performance?
In the beginning of the performance I wanted to make the audience feel sorry for me and empathize with me because I was being accused of something that I said I did not do, in the end of my monologue I wanted the audience to be scared of me because I was cursing at the king and because they found out that I was a witch so all there was left to do before I died was scare them and thus my intention was to scare the audience. I wanted the audience to view my character as being falsely accused at the start and then being a liar and being scary in the end.
Did you want to make them laugh? Cry? Be angry? Be touched? Did you want the audience to empathize with your character or dislike them? Why?
I did not want to make the audience laugh at all; I wanted them to feel sorry for me (empathize with me) in the beginning, and in the end I wanted the audience to feel scared of me. In the beginning I wanted the audience to empathize with me because I was being accused of being someone that I was not –a witch. And thus, because I did not want to die for being a witch, I tried to act as innocent and victimized as possible, which is why I wanted to make the audience empathize with me, so that they would also be convinced that I am not a witch. In the end I wanted the audience to feel scared of me because I was not able to convince them that I was not a witch, and thus the only thing that I could do before dying was scare them through cursing them and hoping they die (because I could not have convinced them anymore anyways). My intention worked because nobody laughed throughout the performance and they all seemed to understand my play as well as they commented that they liked my change in characters (meaning they understood my intention since they were able to comment on it) and thus I believe that my intention was successfully reflected in my final performance.
What was your level of satisfaction with your own performance – what you felt worked well and what you can improve, what changed did you make in rehearsal and why?
I felt that some parts of my performance went well whilst others could have been a bit stronger; therefore my level of satisfaction with my own performance was not very high but not low either. I felt that I remembered my lines well and made good use of meter as well as making good use of gestures and movements because every movement that I made had a purpose; it would always help describe my character or help the audience understand my character and performance. Also, I feel that I made a few good uses of pause in which I would then have a change of tone such as when I end with being confident and arrogant about who the father of my child is so that they will believe me, into having a pause and then changing to being desperate and not being afraid to show it because I want to live so bad. I think this was good for my performance because it helped understand my character and helped show the audience how desperate I was and that I would do anything to live and convince them I am not a witch.
What I feel that I should improve on is making use of my voice and when I need to get angry and curse them, I should really get angry and curse them because it will be more convincing. Also, I feel that I should have been more confident in myself because at times I was a bit nervous and was pacing around quite a lot and at other times I did not express emotion as much as I should have. Lastly, I feel that I can improve by making use of my voice, as well as space and pretend that I am directly talking to someone and especially make use of my pauses and move within my pauses (listening to what the other people have to say) so that it is clear that I am listening to them and thus it will be more effective if I have to change tone.
I changed my whole monologue in my rehearsal, I was first supposed to do another monologue from La Pucelle but then it was decided that I should change to this one so I changed. Besides the monologue itself, I did not change that much because I went according to the meter and script, I did put all my subtext and feelings and objectives onto my script which helped me shape character which gave me a better performance as well as creating gestures that would all fit with what I am saying and what I am trying to do because it would only strengthen my intentions. Therefore, other than gestures and subtext, I did not change much during rehearsals.
How you integrated your learning form the character development exercises, quoting specific examples Which character development exercise helped you most in preparing your monologue or duologue?
Through annotating the script thoroughly -subtext, feelings, purpose of pause, super objective, and individual objectives- I was able to successfully shape my character through integrating many aspects of my research and knowledge into the annotation which I would then use to shape my character. Also annotating my script through writing down the movements and gestures as a character development exercise helped me in my final performance because it gave me confidence about where to go when and about what to do when I am performing. Through walking in the black box and exaggerating certain features of your character I was able to focus on certain parts of my character and then in the end put them all together which gave me a better understanding of what type of character I am and how I act around others. Therefore, all the exercises we did in class helped me with my final performance because they all contributed to shaping my character.
I found that the subtext and super objective annotation exercise was the most helpful in preparing my monologue because through the subtext and super objective I was starting to fully understand what my character really wanted and what she was trying to do overall but also in certain parts for example where I say; “but issued from the progeny of kings, virtuous and holy from above….” I am trying to convince them/tell them that they cannot kill a holy person; I found this out through annotating the script using subtext and writing down the super objective. Thus, through annotating my script I was able to understand much more of my monologue and thus perform it better since I understood it better and therefore, I found that annotating my script using subtext and super objective(s) were the best exercise for character development.
How you used other techniques to help you with your characterization e.g costume, your prop, use of stage etc.
For this monologue I primarily used my space that I had on stage because I pretended there were the king and his people on one side of the stage to which I looked so every now and then to see what they thought and what their reaction was. I did not make use of props as I thought they would not have made a significant impact on my performance or on how the audience would see my character as well as since it is already Shakespeare, the primary focus was to make sure that the audience understood the monologue so I did not want the focus to be on the prop, but on the monologue. Costume would have been good to have done because it would have only enhanced my character from the moment I walked on stage since it would give the audience a hint about who my character is and where she is (including what time period it is) but unfortunately I was unable to get a costume that fitted for this particular monologue. I believe that my use of stage and the way I held out a particular part of the stage to look at as if there were people made up for not using a prop as well as the way I moved throughout the play giving a lot of character information so that the prop was not necessary in order for the audience to understand my character.
In the beginning of the performance I wanted to make the audience feel sorry for me and empathize with me because I was being accused of something that I said I did not do, in the end of my monologue I wanted the audience to be scared of me because I was cursing at the king and because they found out that I was a witch so all there was left to do before I died was scare them and thus my intention was to scare the audience. I wanted the audience to view my character as being falsely accused at the start and then being a liar and being scary in the end.
Did you want to make them laugh? Cry? Be angry? Be touched? Did you want the audience to empathize with your character or dislike them? Why?
I did not want to make the audience laugh at all; I wanted them to feel sorry for me (empathize with me) in the beginning, and in the end I wanted the audience to feel scared of me. In the beginning I wanted the audience to empathize with me because I was being accused of being someone that I was not –a witch. And thus, because I did not want to die for being a witch, I tried to act as innocent and victimized as possible, which is why I wanted to make the audience empathize with me, so that they would also be convinced that I am not a witch. In the end I wanted the audience to feel scared of me because I was not able to convince them that I was not a witch, and thus the only thing that I could do before dying was scare them through cursing them and hoping they die (because I could not have convinced them anymore anyways). My intention worked because nobody laughed throughout the performance and they all seemed to understand my play as well as they commented that they liked my change in characters (meaning they understood my intention since they were able to comment on it) and thus I believe that my intention was successfully reflected in my final performance.
What was your level of satisfaction with your own performance – what you felt worked well and what you can improve, what changed did you make in rehearsal and why?
I felt that some parts of my performance went well whilst others could have been a bit stronger; therefore my level of satisfaction with my own performance was not very high but not low either. I felt that I remembered my lines well and made good use of meter as well as making good use of gestures and movements because every movement that I made had a purpose; it would always help describe my character or help the audience understand my character and performance. Also, I feel that I made a few good uses of pause in which I would then have a change of tone such as when I end with being confident and arrogant about who the father of my child is so that they will believe me, into having a pause and then changing to being desperate and not being afraid to show it because I want to live so bad. I think this was good for my performance because it helped understand my character and helped show the audience how desperate I was and that I would do anything to live and convince them I am not a witch.
What I feel that I should improve on is making use of my voice and when I need to get angry and curse them, I should really get angry and curse them because it will be more convincing. Also, I feel that I should have been more confident in myself because at times I was a bit nervous and was pacing around quite a lot and at other times I did not express emotion as much as I should have. Lastly, I feel that I can improve by making use of my voice, as well as space and pretend that I am directly talking to someone and especially make use of my pauses and move within my pauses (listening to what the other people have to say) so that it is clear that I am listening to them and thus it will be more effective if I have to change tone.
I changed my whole monologue in my rehearsal, I was first supposed to do another monologue from La Pucelle but then it was decided that I should change to this one so I changed. Besides the monologue itself, I did not change that much because I went according to the meter and script, I did put all my subtext and feelings and objectives onto my script which helped me shape character which gave me a better performance as well as creating gestures that would all fit with what I am saying and what I am trying to do because it would only strengthen my intentions. Therefore, other than gestures and subtext, I did not change much during rehearsals.
How you integrated your learning form the character development exercises, quoting specific examples Which character development exercise helped you most in preparing your monologue or duologue?
Through annotating the script thoroughly -subtext, feelings, purpose of pause, super objective, and individual objectives- I was able to successfully shape my character through integrating many aspects of my research and knowledge into the annotation which I would then use to shape my character. Also annotating my script through writing down the movements and gestures as a character development exercise helped me in my final performance because it gave me confidence about where to go when and about what to do when I am performing. Through walking in the black box and exaggerating certain features of your character I was able to focus on certain parts of my character and then in the end put them all together which gave me a better understanding of what type of character I am and how I act around others. Therefore, all the exercises we did in class helped me with my final performance because they all contributed to shaping my character.
I found that the subtext and super objective annotation exercise was the most helpful in preparing my monologue because through the subtext and super objective I was starting to fully understand what my character really wanted and what she was trying to do overall but also in certain parts for example where I say; “but issued from the progeny of kings, virtuous and holy from above….” I am trying to convince them/tell them that they cannot kill a holy person; I found this out through annotating the script using subtext and writing down the super objective. Thus, through annotating my script I was able to understand much more of my monologue and thus perform it better since I understood it better and therefore, I found that annotating my script using subtext and super objective(s) were the best exercise for character development.
How you used other techniques to help you with your characterization e.g costume, your prop, use of stage etc.
For this monologue I primarily used my space that I had on stage because I pretended there were the king and his people on one side of the stage to which I looked so every now and then to see what they thought and what their reaction was. I did not make use of props as I thought they would not have made a significant impact on my performance or on how the audience would see my character as well as since it is already Shakespeare, the primary focus was to make sure that the audience understood the monologue so I did not want the focus to be on the prop, but on the monologue. Costume would have been good to have done because it would have only enhanced my character from the moment I walked on stage since it would give the audience a hint about who my character is and where she is (including what time period it is) but unfortunately I was unable to get a costume that fitted for this particular monologue. I believe that my use of stage and the way I held out a particular part of the stage to look at as if there were people made up for not using a prop as well as the way I moved throughout the play giving a lot of character information so that the prop was not necessary in order for the audience to understand my character.
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