EVALUATION OF THE THREE CLASSES (INCLUDING PHOTOS BY DAVID DOUST AND CAITLIN PLIMMER)

Evaluation of all three classes.

Volpone – Personally, I did not enjoy reading the play Volpone at all, it wasn’t a play that I could read and think ‘I could imagine playing this character’. I found it pretty difficult to understand and even harder to work with. However, despite my dislike towards the text, the lessons we did with Evi were helpful, we explored things that you wouldn’t normally with classical texts like animalistic motion capture movement and different voices for different characters etc. Some lessons that Evi set us I personally found a bit challenging but that’s purely based on my own confidence and my own personal issues. I felt that I did try with things that usually would make me uncomfortable and although I LOVE comedy trying to BE funny in such an unfunny text is so difficult for me. It was like trying to get blood out of a stone for me, it wasn’t happening and that knocked my confidence slightly because I couldn’t seem to make this text funny. I am glad me and Ted did not work together as I don’t feel I would have been able to show my true spectrum of abilities within the scene we originally picked. I’m glad I also proved myself right that I could do it and work hard to show my ability to pick up a monologue in such little time.  Also breaking boundaries for me was important like making eye contact with an audience member is something I never would normally do but within my monologue I did it, and for me that was a massive accomplishment. Overall, I enjoyed doing Volpone but at the same time I really did not. I had a brilliant class and was pleased with my final performance.

Jedd’s Voice Lesson – I found these lessons really enjoyable as it was mostly focused on breathing and getting your mind focused and ready for the tasks. I did however, find it very difficult to try and get my articulation correct as obviously I have a very different accent and approach to reading Shakespeare compared to the rest of my class and this is noticeable in my speech and attempts at reading my Sonnet. I did feel like I sort of adjusted this and I did try really hard to get it to be perfect, but It was something I struggled with. Jedd was a really understanding teacher who accepted difference and did not force a person to do anything, it was very reassuring and relaxing, especially for a person like me because I am very anxious and under confident. He was interested in the difference of bodies and everyone’s different reactions to pressure and nerves. I liked these lessons although I did find them challenging and I was a little disappointed with my final performance, but I am just proud of myself for trying my best and working to my best ability.

Derren’s Stage Combat – Learning about all the different moves, weapons and positions in Derren’s class was really interesting. Although, I did miss a few of his lessons I felt my final performance reflects how hard working I am to catch up and not fall behind in these situations as I know how important they are. My favourite thing was definitely working with Harry and Grace to create the performance and taking the risk of using comedy to enhance our performance. It allowed all three of us as comedy actors to show our best ability in something that you usually wouldn’t be able to. I felt such a rush performing this piece and once it had done I was so happy with myself and my group. I was also proud as I wasn’t particularly great at the movements, but I made it work to my best ability and tried to show off my best skills. I really enjoyed this assessment the most out of all three.