As this was our last show, everyone was really looking to blow the audience out of the water. With all the notes on board from the first and second performances we had a lot on our plate to ensure that we would go out successfully.
One of the biggest notes from both performance's was that the entire cast needed to speak louder - doing the rehearsal exercises for projection definitely helped us improve and I think the majority of the cast were speaking clear and loud enough by the final show. Though there were still a few moments that the actor's on stage could've been ha lightly louder - it wasn't awfully noticeable. This was definitely something that the entire cast had worked hard on improving which, I believe, was evident by the final performance.
The best thing about this performance was probably the amount of energy and drive everyone had. We all wanted to make this a brilliant performance as this was the last time we were ever going to do it. In particular I think that Sonia's "Scrub it clean" moment was extremely strong as she didn't drop the ball once in that scene, which was a huge success. This was also evident in the 'Spider' nun scene as I felt it was snappy and well timed - the comedic elements were presented across and the audience were receptive. The fact that the whole cast were working extra hard at keeping the energy going meant that the play's electric dynamic wasn't lost and the momentum did not falter. This was a major success for us as a whole cast as quite often in rehearsals the energy was low.
One thing that was a challenge for me was a few lines lost by my co-actors, particularly in the first 2013 dinner scene. This threw me off slightly and almost caused me to laugh especially when Will's "spare couscous" line was lost - however, I managed to hold it together until getting into the dressing room. I was able to play my own bewilderedness into Su-Lin's reactions when asking Gideon the different foods so I think it definitely worked out for the best. I feel that the dinner, as a group, we weren't at our best, we all did something slightly wrong - for example, I moved too early before Jack said "take a seat" but hopefully people just saw that as eagerness from Su-Lin. But, I do feel the reactions in the 2013 dinners scenes were more snappy than they had been - Jack was colouring a few of the moments with awkward laughs at Gideon's jokes and I pushed myself to be a bit more experimental with Su-Lin's physicality - especially where it says she's fidgeting. In the first performance, we struggled with exiting all together at the end of Part 2 Scene 4 - something that was evident in the notes we had been given in both rehearsals and verbally after the first show. We definitely improved in our second performance and by the third, our exits and entrances all together were coming naturally.
One of the biggest challenges I've faced throughout the rehearsal period is my clarity when speaking, I've always been worried that I talk too quickly and not clearly enough when nervous so I have worked hard at pushing through my speech to make it as successful as possible. I believe I achieved this in the former two performances but particularly so in the final one as some of the notes from our
second performance was that some of the actors were not heard entirely and I wanted to avoid this.
As a piece of theatre designed to entertain an audience, I feel we definitely achieved this. The reaction from the audience during the curtain call and afterwards proved that members of the audience thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Table consisted of various different aspects of performance - musical song, comedic elements and dramatic moments - and we definitely utilised this effectively and created a brilliant show. We, as a cast, I believe were extremely adept at dealing with the change of pace in emotions from scene to scene, which therefore enable us to develop an impactful piece of performance.
Overall, our final performance was extremely successful. We worked really hard to pull it all off and it definitely paid off that we were confident in our lines and actions on stage. The biggest possible success was that we were definitely not underehearsed - there was no moment in which I was particularly worried something would go wrong - my confidence was consolidated by our successful previous performances.
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