TASK SIX: Evaluation of Performance- WOZ

  Throughout these two months, I have evolved so much as an actor- and I believe the challenges this role has posed to me has pushed me to the level which I am at now, and I could not be anymore grateful that I got the opportunity to play this role and bring my own interpretation of The Wicked Witch of The West to the stage. From learning my audition piece, to taking my bow on stage as the role of my dreams- my journey this term could not have been more positive, even as my ensemble roles. I believe this has clearly been shown through my development from start to finish; all the extensive research into past interpretations of the Wicked Witch of The West to craft my own spin on the character- and reflection of this research in my portrayal of this character (which changed subtly yet often throughout the rehearsal process), my confidence which was built from the last unit and beyond solidifying my belief in myself from early on, and as a result causing this term to be a large fraction less stressful on me- even my attitude towards more minor characters, such as the Munchkins and Ozians follow the same pattern. With every form of development, I did have many weaker points, one of which still being my auditioning process; I nearly allowed my fear to get the better of me during the audition, which was a goal set by me last half term to work on and improve. Despite this, I still persevered and managed to get the role which I auditioned for- and while having a range of aspects which I would change if I were to do it again now (including working on my goal of getting out of my head and getting into the character before entering the audition room), I believe it was a great starting point for me to reflect on and build from. This shows a great journey from the beginning of the academic year until now; during the last round of auditions for the 'Ghost Light Tour', I learnt the skill of resilience, and that experience has not only strengthened myself as a person, but also myself as an actor. Even though I did not fully meet my large goal from last half-term, I've made bounds of progress towards it, and I believe it is better to ride that learning curve at my own pace rather than rushing it or not experiencing that learning curve at all.

  During my time in rehearsals up until my actual performance days, I faced many complications along my journey; which, like last half-term, did endure through the entire run of the play; part of my growth is accepting it as as part of being an actor rather than trying to aim for perfection- since I have learnt that there is no way to 'perfect' a character- no matter how 'perfect' you are during rehearsals, there will always be obstacles to dodge at any given moment during the development and even the performance of a character, and most of the time it is out of the actors control. The main obstacle I faced as the Wicked Witch of The West was simply having enough scheduled rehearsal time; since the play was triple cast, I had a lot less time than I expected to have Kelly supervise us rehearsing, which not only sometimes wavered the overall productivity of the independent rehearsal (for example, people within the cast getting occupied with something else and neglecting focus), but also gave me significantly less feedback for my performance, which ultimately caused the growth of my presence as the character to be stunted and slowed until the latter stages of rehearsals. This was an unfamiliar obstacle to tackle, since as Mrs Chadwick during our last performance, there was only two casts- along with far fewer scenes and 'main' characters for my tutor to focus her attention on, and it has been a struggle for me to adjust. In spite of this, me and my cast devised a method in order to still input self-imposed feedback and act upon it within our independent rehearsals- and that was to get one member of the cast to act as a director whilst they weren't required in a scene; most of the time this director being Morgan and Mark. Another great struggle I faced was on the rare occasion my character interacted with another character within the play; I could never naturally create the correct atmosphere when talking to them, such as last half-term, where I found it hard for Mrs Chadwick to naturally to bounce off any of the characters she encounters- although my issue this half-term being that I couldn't oppose anyone, as I have had a considerable amount of time since our first project truly get to know everybody, therefore building natural chemistry with most of the cast- making it harder to create a feeling which I despise and intimidate everyone within the show. This, unfortunately, was harder to combat than this similar obstacle within the'Ghost Light Tour'- however, as I delved further into different interpretations of how my character has been portrayed in the past, I discovered that perhaps seeing my character through the lens of being rooted in evil and malice wasn't the direction my interpretation was meant to do, leading to me adding layers of sub-text into my version of the Wicked Witch- which, coincidentally, worked in my favour in the long-run, as giving my character a softer side once again stretched and strengthened my emotional range, while also giving her a tinge of realism in what is otherwise a highly theatrical villain.

  Despite these challenges during the rehearsals, I managed to resolve all of my main concerns with my performance before our performance to the public; however, this did not mean there wasn't problems within these shows. For example, one notable moment which hindered my performance was the 'poppy' scene- when the Wicked Witch of The West sets out a 'field of poisonous poppies' to knock Dorothy and her companions unconscious permanently, however an issue with the props meant there was only one singular poppy on a stick for me to take out, which ruined the authenticity of the scene, as the single poppy didn't give the illusion of an entire field, which slightly took me out of my character, since the scenery didn't match my words- which gave the impression that instead of being my character, I was simply acting as them. I believe if I were to do this performance again, I would alter my words to swerve around the fact that the poppy set was slightly lacking.

  Overall, I believe this performance acts as a mark of progress from my very first performance to now- in just the four months which I have been on the course- I have been able to tackle a diverse range of characters with varying levels of realism and emotion, bettering my performance and professionalism from every project I have taken part in- and cannot wait to stretch myself further with our next project, and progress beyond what I could ever imagine.