The Cherry Orchard- Evaluation

EVALUATION

The aim of the task was to perform a piece of Chekhov in a naturalistic way. I think this was at a good standard in most senses as I feel everybody contributed and had a great part to play in the performances and the fact that everyone pulled together in a professional way. I feel that I did my up most in the shows however, when shown the Wednesday performance after show week, I realised that I could do with being louder and therefore using my higher resignators instead of my dominant lower resignators- made obvious by my deeper voice. This will be an obvious pointer to work on as from most audience comments/ feedback forms, my only obvious weakness on stage was the fact that at some parts (including the servant scene where my character pushes Dunyasha onto the piano further upstage) you could not hear me or what I was saying. However I was given great feedback otherwise as most said my portrayal of the character was subliminal, some read "Rhys was great, but a bit quiet at times", "Very consistent and a funny character" and "Scarily sarcastic". This I felt was a great insight on how others see my performance on stage and what I can thrive on and yet improve on all at the same time.

The play was hard to adapt at times with obvious limitations such as characters such as Firs being portrayed by Brad and the obvious age gap between actor and character. However, I felt Brad did very well despite this and was, in my opinion, one of the better actors during performance. In addition, I thought I was able to express my character's immaturity through his age as he would only be in his twenties, therefore an easier age gap to break down. I had tried to express this immaturity through his attitude towards Firs and others by facial expression and body movements around them. For example, in Scene 2 during the party, Firs and Dunyasha are seen to have a conversation about who Dunyasha has danced with and what "the boy from the post office" said to her, I acted curious towards them as I stood over by the piano on the other side of the stage, looking slowly from the floor over to