Unit 9 - Peter Pan Evaluation

Peter Pan Evaluation 

Character played: Wendy Darling 

Performance day: 13/12/23

For Peter Pan, I had three main objectives. My first aim was when performing, make the audience want to see Wendy succeed and be happy, and to make my performance as professional and developed as possible. I feel like I successfully achieved this. With a well-known story such as Peter Pan, people feel they know the characters really well, and are drawn to certain ones so making sure I played a Wendy that the audience knew and could connect to was important to me. It was a lot like when I played Dorothy, as I felt like I wanted to keep her character like how she is in the movie and the book, but similar to Wendy, I wanted to add my own small interpretation of her to give her even more relatability. 

My second objective was a personal one, and it was to sing on stage confidently. This one was a challenge as at the beginning of the process, the thought of singing in front of my peers stopped me from wanting to audience as Wendy. This was my hardest objective to achieve as it was me going fully out of my comfort zone on my own. I've performed on my own on stage but it's either been with other people, like in an ensemble song or a duet song, or even me singing alone with people on stage silent. With Wendy and singing the solo 'Peter', it felt much different as it was on a bigger stage, and I was singing for a long time going into my higher register. However, due to me singing it over and over in rehearsals with my peers watching, I got slowly used to it, and when performing at the Arc came along, I wasn't so scared anymore. After and before the shows, my peers were coming up to me and saying how they didn't even know I could sing before this, which made me feel even more proud that I pushed myself to do it. 

The final objective I set for myself was to constantly challenge myself whether that was a certain acting decision I made, a duologue where we planned the emotions and movement together or even how I used props to give Wendy a loving attribute. Pushing myself is important and by the end of 'Peter Pan' I felt much more confident, and I learnt lots from my peers which I'll be taking into my next opportunity. With the final objective, I believe I achieved it to my full extent by helping my fellow actors, especially those that would be playing Wendy the following days after myself. Due to me constantly writing notes and acting ideas on my script, it allowed me to come up with acting decisions more easily and collaborate with actors I was in lots of scenes with, like Charlie who played Peter Pan. We could take time in rehearsals to discuss ideas and go full out acting and singing to bring those suggestions to life. I was conscious to be constantly asking myself questions based on Wendy's choices in the script, which gave me the chance to push myself further in this whole experience.  

When it came to my emotional engagement toward Wendy, it came quite naturally, as I had played her 2 years previously before. But with a new script, and new actors alongside me it was going to be completely different. Wendy is a mature, independent girl who despite being a young child, acts a lot older, so playing a character who is meant to be 12 years old but acts maybe 15 years old was something I knew I had to do. It was important that from an audience perspective I didn't look like an 17 year old playing an 17 year old, but instead an 17 year old playing a 12 year old. To do so, using my body language on every line to indicate my youth and using my voice to sound slightly posher and childlike (ever so slightly childlike so I didn't sound babyish) was key in transforming the audience's perspective to make them believe I was a mature 12 year old named Wendy. Wendy is also very caring, and I believe her adoration for the Lost Boys when she meets them is instant, highlighting her motherly nature. It's a key attribute that I feel people recognize Wendy having, and to connect with the audience so that at points in the show they want to see me succeed is vital in building an emotional level between myself and those watching. I tried to build that emotional level during songs I sang, as I can show my emotions in the way I sing like in 'Why' where I'm pleading with Peter to come and be a man and to embrace being a father. I remember during a back and forth part of the duet, I was sat looking into the audience constantly changing my facial expressions to reflect the lyrics I was singing back and the lyrics I was hearing from Peter. Songs connect people to other people, so I used my singing to provide Wendy with an emotional connection with the audience. In my acting, I also tried to deepen the emotional connection during duologues with certain characters like with Mrs. Darling where I'm expressing how I really feel towards Peter. Duologues like that give the audience a deeper insight into how Wendy is feeling, but moments where I can't speak on how I'm feeling, that's when my acting choices like how I use my body when I'm looking around allow me to develop my connection to the audience. I loved playing Wendy and being able to bring her character to life, and I felt like I tried to make her have that connection to those on stage and those in the audience as strong as possible. 

Being the character of Wendy meant also having to sing throughout the show, which I found to be my main challenge of this whole experience. Due to me overthinking the singing and caring about what my peers thought, it held me back upon auditioning. However, throughout the rehearsals and even performing at the Arc, my confidence built up and that allowed me to fully feel like Wendy and focus on the technical sides of singing now I had gotten over actually doing it in the first place. When I first sang 'Peter', I was quite shaky as I was still getting over nerves, but I made sure to make every word clear and loud so that everyone could hear me, and also make sure to have every note as perfect as I could get it. I'd say by the time we got to the Arc, all my nerves had disappeared, and I felt like singing it was natural and I felt really confident within myself. I made sure to constantly focus on my pronunciation and my volume as without those two things I wouldn't sound the best. My aim was to make my performance as professional as possible, and I feel like my singing definitely had to come to play as I didn't want the audience sat there waiting for my song to be over, as that's not how they would feel in a professional performance elsewhere. At the beginning, I remember my pacing with 'Peter' was something I struggled with, as I was singing it too quickly. I do believe that was possibly nerves and getting to grips with the song in the first place but as I went on, I had practiced it that many times, I knew it really well and I didn't find it to be much of an issue anymore. Another moment where I struggled with the songs was in my final verse of 'Wendy's House' before me and Peter go to Marooner's Rock, as there was a key change and I had to quickly find it in my head as I couldn't afford to mess it up as I'd sound flat which is something I didn't want to happen. Even getting to the Arc, I was still trying to nail it and I had found the note in my head but instead of singing up to that note, I sang it straight away which massively helped me out. Throughout my singing, I made sure to still act through the song to give the meaning of the song more emotion and character whilst also keeping my volume and words loud and clear. I'm so grateful I got to showcase my singing in my acting as I believe it was my next step in my acting journey and it's allowed me to step outside of my comfort zone and not be afraid of what others think. 

Wendy is a mature young girl so I believed that she would keep herself to herself and not be as energetic as Peter was. This directed my movement and blocking choices in the first scene mainly as it meant a lot of the time, I was either watching Peter in awe at what he was doing or following him around whilst keeping an eye on my siblings asleep in bed next to me. There were choices I made to enhance the storytelling further with my movement, where if Peter picked up a book or moved John's glasses, my motherly nature would come in and I would move it back to its original position. Little movements like that say a lot about my character and how Wendy is around people who aren't as well-mannered as herself. In my opinion, Wendy isn't a character who is rude or looks down on those less fortunate, and I feel you can see that when she's singing to the Lost Boys about being a mother. With my physicality in the Lost Boy's scenes, I was able to interact with lots of characters even if they didn't have anything to say, and from a light kindhearted stroke on the arm to smiling at someone or even hugging them, it showed how quickly Wendy came to love the Lost Boys and even by the end took them in as her own brothers. When acting alongside Peter - played by Charlie - I was constantly moving around as Peter is a total contrast to what Wendy is like. In addition, I did thoroughly enjoy the cast I got to work with. Each person I worked with had their own work ethic and we listened to each other whether that was on what scenes to focus on or how to maybe perform the scene to give the characters as much story as possible. We all wanted the shows to go amazing, and because that was our collective goal, we supported each other and made sure that no time was wasted in order to make the most out of rehearsals. Working with ensembles such as the Lost Boys and the Pirates was also so much fun, since they gave every scene so much energy and they filled the stage making sure no one was clumped in the middle to make the show even more professional.

I was very grateful for props and costume as I felt like it allowed me to become my character further and using props meant what was once my imagination was now an object. My costume was very similar to how Wendy appears in the animated film, where she wears a blue dress with short, puffed sleeves and a blue ribbon round her waist. All the Wendy's got a white bow as well to provide that innocence and cuteness she still has within her. Wearing the costume meant I could picture myself as Wendy, and with the makeup and hair added too, I fell straight into the character because I could now picture myself as her. Costume really allows you to unlock that final stage in characterization and I really feel like on top of my acting and singing, it elevated my performance and provided that little extra audience connection as they could now recognize me as Wendy. I used five props as Wendy: the acorn necklace, a bow, a medicine bottle, a book and a red cloak. Each one provided context into the scene and they connected themselves into other scenes. For example, the medicine bottle is important as if I don't place it down, Tink ends up drinking poison out of nothing. If I don't come on wearing the red cloak, then Peter isn't really disguised when he's meant to be due to him taking it off me and wearing it himself. Props were crucial and without them, the performance would seem as enhanced and professional as it did. 

Performing as Wendy, I set out to keep the original version alive for the audience and myself, but to also add my own version into her character as well. When researching Wendy, whether that was doing multiple online searches or watching the 1953 film, I realized that you don't see visually her motherly side come out a lot. You hear about how she's their mother, but she doesn't really act like it in the film specifically. Due to most people knowing the story 'Peter Pan' from the film, I knew it was important to keep the traditional Wendy youth within her on stage but I also pushed forward her motherly side as well. With my siblings John and Micheal, I share moments with them throughout the script, so where possible I gave them a supportive hug like when they've just learnt to fly, I looked at John - played by Adam - and stroked his head after I've just sang 'Why' to Peter, showing how I'm trying to be strong for my younger brother but I'm more worried that he has heard our disagreement and will be upset. I added little moments like glancing at one of the Lost Boys and smiling at him after Peter Pan tells them all to go to bed abruptly, and anywhere I could find a subtle moment to showcase her kind nature, I did so. With her also being a child and be wrapped up in the excitement of Neverland, I wanted to highlight that as well, so I wrote down in my script any moments where I believed Wendy would be looking around intrigued or would smile in excitement at something or someone. The entire story lies on growing up and learning to live with a sense of adventure and imagination whilst also being an adult. I feel like Wendy grows up too quickly and we see her more mature despite still having a sense of adventure and exploring new things. Expressing this on stage was key to showing who Wendy is, and by little shows of care and affection alongside intrigue and excitement, the audience is able to see two sides of Wendy that make her who she is. 

I believe I did really well in my acting and the choices I took to further my vision for Wendy, especially in the scenes I had with Charlie where we were using physicality really well whether that was in song or acting. I loved performing those scenes alongside Charlie because we came up with great movements and choices to highlight our relationship as Peter and Wendy, which is so important in this story as in my opinion they have the most dynamic relationship on the stage. We had spent so much time rehearsing and curating ideas on what fits best that it came so easy to make a great scene between us two, so that's why I felt my strength lied in the duologue scenes, specifically between Peter and Wendy. I also believed my singing was really good, and with the support I got from Tom and singing with my fellow Wendy's, I was able to perform to the best of my ability in both shows. 

Personally, I wish I could have spent more time building a relationship with Hook. Wendy and Hook only have three scenes together, so it wasn't the most important thing to worry about, but I felt that to create some sort of hostility between them both, me and George - Hook - should have maybe decided how we were to play those scenes. It's not the biggest deal but when I look at the relationships I built with the rest of the characters, that's where I should have quickly took time to further develop. My goal for the next opportunity I'm apart of would be to push myself further in how I create an emotional connection between me and the audience. I could have gone deeper and maybe between myself and the Lost Boys found a way to showcase the friendship building over time.