IB THEATRE GROUP PROJECT LITTLE RED RIDDING HOOD SELF EVALUATION 1

February 22, 2012

Today, me and my group had our first time performance of our interpretation of the play “little red riding hood”.
Watching back on the link, I realized that we had some notes we has to work on:

Note	What we did	Improvement	Justification/Effect
Flash light at the start (entrance) needs to be more purposeful and stronger.	When Natalia came down the stage, the audience didn’t realize until they where able to see her, as she didn’t make use of the light that was given with her touch. Because she just illuminated her face, the audience didn’t know she was coming down and therefore they just thought it was a late start, slowing down the tension of the beginning. As her walk was slow, this defeated the tense, daring and scary atmosphere we were trying to create since the very beginning.	I suggested to Natalia, that she should use the spotlight as a tool to attract the eyes of the audience, by pointing around the stage with it, and even at them. Also, I told her that it might be helf ful for her to decide what kind of character she wanted to be, whether a challenging, aggressive and daring girl or a scared one, and that she should try walking down the aisle trying each personality out, to decide how she wants to interpret her character.	By moving the spotlight around, It already sets the scene as being a dark place, with no light and therefore it makes the audience feel unconfortable. It also allows them to enter into her world, as they are now part of the setting and this makes the audience feel more engaged and drawn in. By adding purpose to her walk, helps the audience identify her character quicker and therefore knowing what impulse or force is driving her e.g. if she runs, its as if she is running away from something, however if she takes sharp, strong and grounded steps, she seems superior and confident.
Projection of voice	I was told that I needed to project to the audience better, as when I talked to Natalia sideways about the “starving beasts”, my voice was evaded from the audience and they could no longer hear and missed parts of the script.	Instead, the next time we performed I kept my face facing the audience and stood slightly back from Natalia’s shoulder, whispering to her ear almost.	By this, not only the voice was clearer and the positioning made it creepier by the use of a stage whisper when talking about my dread towards the “starving beasts”, but also we managed to establish the relationship between mother and daughter as being very cold, from the quote “cold weather, cold hearts”. We manage to establish that their relationship was obscure, untrustworthy and not loving.
The realization of the connection between the grandma’s hand and the wolf’s paw.	This was a very crucial moment of our play and probably the point of highest climax, and I felt as if we were mistreating its value as me and Natalia didn’t pay as much attention to the hand and we didn’t make eye contact.	For this, we changed the music of the background to that of a faster beat and lower note, to help create tension. Also, we created a stronger eye contact at the moment when Natalia picked up the, and held it for longer until the lights cut. I also thought it could be effective to add a scream of a prolonged “No!”.	I as the grandmother exaggerated my facial expressions of fright and whispers of “No, no” as I clumsily moved back from her to help add to the intensity of the moment, as well as to help foreshadow my death. Natalia also did  by staring at the audience with a very focused and aggressive stare, and after looked at me. By prolonging the stare, the audience feels anxious and panicky about what will happen next, and my scream at the end assures the audience that she will not let her live, and that a brutal and demonic end awaits her.
Transitions in the forest scene	In the video, the transition into the forest seemed too preset and unreal, as mike would walk on stage, kneel down and wait there until the lights came on him, and the audience could see this obviously	Talking to Ali, we found out that out of the lights could be improved, and there fore he wouldn’t be seen when standing up, and that is what we did. Also, to add to that surprise feature of Mike appearing suddenly in the forest, Natalia, choreographed her walk, distracting the audience from the skrim guiding them with her eye contact and change of direction	By the end, this effect looked beautifully crafted and the  back lower spotlight form behind the skrim was dimmed in very slowly, contrasting with the fast walk of Natalia and therefore seeming as if he just appeared from behind the trees. Also, the shade or orange/red helped create an sick, impure mood.
The grandma’s beating	As we can see in the video, the last scene of the Grandma’s beating wasn’t as effective as we thought as the limited amount of people we had crushed the strength and power of the beating, making it comical, as my exaggerated screams went overpowered the force created by the people beating me.	For this, we had more people join the scene, (all males to match the phobia recognized at the beginning of the play for men by the women). Authority, and we choreographed the beating, so that with the help of the skrim which enlarged their figures, the movements would become tougher and fiercer, signifying an uncontrollable need to hurt and kill. To stylize this scene even further and improve our narratives, we incorporated a line in the text which said “down with the witch, lets beat the witch!”	The scene had much more dominance and aggressive. This I felt was crucial to leave the audience very affected by the cruelty of the people we created. The line we added to our script was said by Natalia. This was a curious choice we decided to do, as we thought that if the villagers yelled it it would make Natalia’s part less important, as it would take away from the fact that she was the one telling everyone that her grandmother was a witch. This sign of evilness  and mistrust was important for us as we wanted to tell the audience that there was no sort of compassion between the characters, as they had grown cold.
The ending		Our objective was to think about how a disturbing visual could be created as the lights fade with Natalia on stage. We improved this by using a voice over to connect with her actions on stage, which was her smiling and the audience with satisfaction.	This helped with that idea of viciousness, lack of love and thrust for damage. The lights fading instead of a sharp black out gave a sense of continuation, as though it would never prosper, and the town would stay the same. This created a great irony and a nice juxtapose of appearance versus reality as the voice over we chose to use said “She lived in her grandmothers house, she prospered”.