Unit 8 - Little Women Collaborative Performance Project Task 3 + Task 4 Evaluation

Candidate Declaration - I confirm that the attached portfolio is all my own work and does not include any work completed by anyone other than myself

Task 3.1 - Take part in both the rehearsals and final performance working at a professional level and demonstrating your understanding of the script, the characters and the importance of working as an ensemble. Work to bring your character to life, to explore who they are and bring this world to the stage, consider all of the different skills you have learnt and incorporate them into your final work – produce a professional show that meets the audience's expectations throughout and demonstrates your ability to collaborate with others.

This is evident in my work in both lesson time, throughout rehearsals and even down to the performance for both Last Resort and Little Woman.

Task 3.2 - Carry out your production role fully ensuring you communicate at all times with other team members and ensure everything works smoothly together. Ensure you evidence your role fully throughout your blog.

I believe I have put a lot of effort into my production role and have communicated and collaborated well with the rest of my teammates.

Task 4.1 - Write a detailed evaluation on your personal journey throughout this project demonstrate your ability to communicate with their peers and professional staff to bring a professional level project to life.

The last show of Little Women took place a few days ago and it's given me time to reflect fully on the journey both the story and my character has taken me on. Little Women is a story about driven individuals who have a passion for something in life. Jo has a deep interest in writing and isn't afraid to let her voice be heard. Amy desires to be rich in both money and love, whilst Meg just wants to be loved and have her own family. For the character of Marmee, she only hopes that those dreams come true for her daughters, for her own ambition is that of someone else. I've found that every single cast I was able to work and collaborate with, shared the passion and commitment with each other in making this show amazing and full of emotion. From the first line said to the very last, all 3 casts had kept that passion and delivered 3 spectacular shows, by working with one another and working as a team. Being a part of them all allowed me to see the difference in each one, and they all share a uniqueness that makes them their own. Connecting and rehearsing with the casts further highlighted the special bond each cast has to one another, and I always saw how committed everyone was to the end goal. 

Personally, I enjoyed the rehearsal process as it was a chance to work on new scenes and make scenes, we had already visited stronger, which allowed them to be easily remembered. In all of the casts I was able to rehearse with, we made sure that our time was used effectively. This meant prioritising scenes that we collectively felt needed extra work and allocating time to line learning. Everyone at the beginning of the rehearsal process acted through scenes with their scripts in their hands, myself being one of them. Due to this, we all lacked the true potential of our characterization, and our movement was limited. However, by going through lines with our fellow peers during scenes that we weren't involved in, it slowly amounted, and scripts weren't being used at all by the last few weeks before show week. Rehearsal time sometimes was spent going through the entire script from start to end, and if we ended the day on scene 7, we would pick it up the following day from that same scene. This allowed for us as a cast, when it came to the end, to decide where we needed to focus on and allowed individuals to think about their own personal choices for their own character. For me, by going through the scenes in order, it allowed me to picture myself performing the real show without stops, and what my cues would be and when I would walk on stage and leave with what props etc. It gave me a chance to work on my character of Marmee, and really give thought into some lines that I felt needed more purpose. During rehearsals, I wanted to contribute ideas surrounding blocking, and the way I acted with other characters. For me, I really wanted the audience to see visually the relationship I had with my ‘daughters’ as Marmee, and when there were no lines spoken, body language was key. Due to this, I would wrap my arm around one of the March girls, to show a sign of comfort and love, and sometimes I would gently touch their hair, and lightly rub their arms, to further highlight the motherly protectiveness I have for my girls. I also contributed when it came to blocking a few times, as scenes that felt off where we were all stood in a line without any real purpose, it was important to make characters stood around without any lines in that scene, acting as a presence, to be as natural as possible. Myself and a few other people did this multiple times, where we considered where our character would be stood, who would they be close to, would they be close to anyone or would they be sat down. Once we took our own characters reasons into mind, blocking became much simpler and it wasn’t a worry in scenes. Before rehearsals, I made sure I was prepared, and thanks to Kelly's rehearsal timetable, I always felt like I knew what to expect, and what I needed to prepare myself for in case we rushed through timetabled scenes and were lucky enough to move onto new ones. Most of the time, the casts I rehearsed with wanted to revisit scenes so that they were more polished and everyone knew what they were doing. I thoroughly appreciated doing this, as I was able to cross off in my mind which scenes I need to look over on my own and which scenes I felt 100% confident on. From the beginning of our Little Women journey, I always made sure I was on time to rehearsals, as I understand how important punctuality is and I didn't want my cast to be waiting on me. I made sure I knew my lines to the best of my knowledge if they were new scenes that hadn't been acted out yet, and made sure that I was very confident on older lines so that I could really become Marmee without a script in my hand the next time we would visit the scene. 

In all 3 casts I was fortunate to be a part of, it was obvious how included everyone was. Everyone took feedback, negative and positive, and channeled it into their next rehearsal, and used it to make their performance further in depth. I always wanted feedback on my performance during rehearsal time because to me, it's so important what someone else sees. As the actor, I can only believe that everything I had researched and decided about my character was being seen in my performance and my fellow peers could see visually all of the emotions that I wanted to portray, like love, respect and kindness. However, from another persons perspective, they might see how to make my performance better, and how to tweak it or change it massively to really encapsulate the character of Marmee. Fortunately, I had feedback from my course leader Kelly on how to further enhance my emotions, like using my body language more which I took on board and made sure to really push it in future rehearsals. I had some feedback from my cast members when it came to connecting with them on stage, like how I'd look when I'm listening to them speak, in which I made sure to hold their hands lightly, and look up at them with adoring eyes, to highlight how proud Marmee is. Everyone listened to one another and sometimes if Kelly or an adult wasn't around, we allocated a 'leader' who would say what scene we would do next if there was a discussion concerning it. However, in rehearsals, it was so important to listen to people's ideas and other casts gave respect to those that would be rehearsing in front of Kelly, as everyone understood how much they appreciated it back. 

Collaboration came through in not only our rehearsals, but in our work in our production role. My production role was marketing, which is key in getting the word out about our show to interest and invite audience members to come and watch. The production role began right at the start of the Little Women process, as we sat in a group and decided where our priorities were, and what ideas we had for both online marketing and in person. Lots of ideas were being put forward, and everyone supported and added onto them instead of dismissing them. Due to this, our marketing team became really strong in terms of our bond, and we set times and dates for when we would film and post about our shows. When it came to our short videos to promote Little Women, everyone on the course wanted to be involved. This showed the level of teamwork and dedication everyone contributed to helping other production groups out, and it was so nice to work on it as a whole. I was really pleased with the marketing team's progress and how much we had spread the word and promoted our show, and the entire process from ideas on a page to filming on our phones in real life, it all amounted and our main goal of ticket sales and getting people to come and watch had been achieved. 

When I began the Little Women journey as Marmee, I didn't originally know how to tackle it. As a daughter and a sister myself, I, in a way, knew how I would act to portray a close family bond between myself and the March daughters. I used my lessons as an older sister, to be protective and loving to the girls and knew that it would help me out when acting as a mother. However, I knew the only person that could help me out in real life, was my own mother. I understand how supportive, caring and uplifting my mum is, and she captures the true essence of Marmee. The March girls all have dreams and they have a circle around them, that nurtures and protects their ambitions and future aspirations. Because of this, they have the confidence and belief that they will succeed and be happy with their lives, as they know they have their mother behind them, like the wind beneath their wings. My mother has been so supportive of me throughout my life, and throughout Little Women she has been my biggest inspiration. There's only so much I can do with research, and my own ideas to turn it into my own, but having my own influence and seeing all the feelings and emotions Marmee emits coming from a person, really allowed me to push my performance even further. I obviously used different adaptations, mostly Susan Sarandons from the 1994 Little Women movie since she portrays her as how I'd imagine her to act and look from reading the script. I had lots of influences around me which I was so grateful to have. Without it, my performance of Marmee could have been very different. 

It's such a blessing to work with people who have the same passion as you, that encourage others when they aren't feeling 100%, and with it being the one of the last shows for the Year 2's, it was all obvious how much we wanted them to leave on a high note. Thanks to this, communication was simple and collaboration was enjoyable and always productive. 

Task 4.2 - Write a detailed evaluation on your final performance and the journey you have been on to meet the requirements of the play. Comment on both your work and also the work of the ensemble

I was incredibly fortunate to be involved in all 3 shows as the character of Marmee. This allowed me to tweak moments that I felt weren't strong or lacked emotion, and when it came to the end show, it meant my last show, was the best I had performed it. I'm so grateful for the countless opportunities I am given at Acting for Stage and Screen, and Marmee being my last performance of year 1 ended the year nicely. 

On opening night, like always I was very nervous as I was listening out for my cue line to enter on stage. I was very much prepared but forgot for a moment what the feeling of waiting felt like for a while and knew once I had done, I would feel a lot calmer and in control of my nerves. The entire show went amazing, and once we had finished it, everyone was on such a high due to the lack of errors and mistakes. In addition to this, the while show was a collaborative experience and the amount of teamwork that had went into it was the reason for the tight knit bond we could all portray on stage, since we didn't really need to act to do so. Personally, during my scenes when I would be interacting with the March girls as Marmee, I pushed the motherly instincts by hugging my daughters more, holding their hands, gesturing to them if they were okay to highlight the warmth and love that all the March girls share with one another. Cast 1's cast was spectacular, and the chemistry we all shared felt very natural and most importantly real. The emotions felt so loving, and all of our blocking and movements were purposeful which further helped the flow of the show, due to there being no awkward standing alones. Performing as Marmee felt natural weirdly, since I love working with everyone I did scenes with, so I wanted to be the supportive, caring figure that Marmee is seen as to help them in their role, in order for scenes to be full of emotion and bouncing off each other.

The same applied for the second show/ cast in terms of energy and how the cast reacted to one another, however I felt a lot different at the start of the show. There were less nerves, as I understood how it felt that first walk onto stage under the lights, and I was prepared with cues and leaving scenes. I was also quite nervous as most of my family were watching this show, so I wanted to show them all of the hard work that we as a team had put into it. Throughout the entire shows, I carried with me a prompt sheet that highlighted the scenes, their main theme, what prop I would need to bring on or leave and when I would enter in on. This helped me out massively as by the last show, I was more understanding of it and knew exactly what to do. The second cast for me was the best cast chemistry wise. They picked up on slight mistakes from cast one and knew how to improve when it came to their night, and in doing so, it resulted in a perfect show. My favourite scene in Cast 2, was my duologue with Kadie Bradley as Jo March. In the scene, I am persuading her to move away for her future not to run away from her mistakes and nerves. It was full of emotions and it allowed me to fully become Marmee, as her whole reasoning concerning stopping Jo from moving, is through motherly love and protectiveness. I kept holding her hands and moving her hair behind her ear, to highlight the concern and care I hold so strongly for Jo. All of the dedication and hard work we had pit in during rehearsals, shone so bright during our real performance and I am so lucky I was able to share that scene with her.

Our last show came long very quickly, and my nerves had just dissipated. I was only full of excitement instead and couldn’t wait to be the best version of Marmee yet and do her justice one last time. The whole show was such a success, with a few mistakes there and then which were quickly saved thanks to improvisation from my fellow peers, I believe we did the March family and the entire story of Little Women justice. The emotions from everyone was clear, and the connection each character had was special. 

I felt quite emotional performing as Marmee for a final time because I had grown quite close to her character. I had the pleasure of wearing a black ball gown dress, and every time I put it on, it made me really feel like Marmee, knowing she was exactly how I envisioned her, through her mannerisms and outfit choice. She was such a different character to play in contrast to the range of characters I have played before Little Women, and I’ve loved getting into her mind and figuring out her intentions and ambitions in life. Sharing the stage with lots of incredible actors, sometimes having duologues with them, allowed me to work with some people I hadn’t before which I’m so thankful for. It allowed me to see differences in my own acting during times I’d act with a Jo March, for example, after I’d acted with one the previous night. 

Throughout my time as Marmee from the beginning right towards performance night, I knew my main aim was to highlight the importance of Marmee. She’s the real reason for the March sisters ambitions in life, and what drives them towards their future goals. I also wanted to show the real them of the story; family. I believe all 3 casts did this, by working with each other a lot of time, and building up the bond to portray a real loving family. Again, like I’ve said, it wasn’t too difficult as we are close as a group always supporting one another. Another aim was to produce a professional piece of theatre which we most definitely succeeded in. We were all professional during our production role, and when performance night rolled around, we made sure to keep quiet behind the wings, remember our cues, set out props before the beginning of the show and being on any necessary during the show. We had responsibly over our own props and outfit so that was part of the professionalism we had to take onboard. 

If I had to change anything about my journey throughout this entire process, and my performance on all 3 nights, it would be to be more confident in myself. I kept doubting at times if it was obvious I was an older figure, knowing as myself I am the same age as everyone else around me. I had to show the authority and older age through my acting, as I didn't have visible wrinkles drawn on from makeup to prove it. In a weird way, I was glad I didn't have ageing makeup on as it allowed me to explore my abilities and further my understanding in acting. To highlight my older authority, I would raise my voice slightly in heated moments, like during Jo and Amy's fighting scene as it showed how once I intervened and shouted, they stopped immediately. For me, this scene cemented the respect all of the March girls have for their mother, since they knew fighting would make their own mother disappointed in them. This allowed me to act more older easily when it came to more scenes. I thoroughly enjoyed every scene I was in, and I couldn't possibly pick my favourite moment overall. I do feel however, the bows at the end of each show showed to the audience how relieved everyone was that it went better than we could have dreamed of, and the smiles on our faces really clarified the teamwork and time we have spent together creating our show. 

From door keeper Polly to Marmee in Little Women. My first year on the Acting for Stage and Screen has been such a dream. I have grown in confidence and pushed myself to take on new things. I remember, on my last assignment, I said how my goal was to belief in myself and my acting more, and to also be in more screen productions if possible. I have accomplished both hopes, and I am so glad I can end my first year knowing so. Working with the Year 2's has been the best experience ever and growing closer to my Year 1's is always a delight. I'm so so lucky to be in a position where I can understand what my passion feels like and I can't wait to continue it on through into my second year.