The Musicians Evaluation.

 Friday 11th June 2021

Today was the final day we have all been preparing for! After last night's performances we were all very excited about performing in front of an audience for the second night in a row so the energy was very high during rehearsals.  

We did a quick rehearsal to make sure everything was perfect and make any changes that were needed- we decided that entering from the back didn't make sense as to make it believable each entrance/ exit had to lead the same way every time.  Plus we weren't able to keep the curtain closed at the back so it would distract the audience from the story and remind them that it is actually a play. We also changed the scene where we are getting ready to go on stage as it looked out of place. We decided to have everyone cross over the stage getting ready whilst me and Sadie(2nd Flute) enter from the back and are the last 2 on stage. After this we were confident enough to move onto a dress rehearsal with lighting and props. This took a bit of getting used to as we haven't really used props up until this point but it was definitely easier than pretending to have something.  Having the stage lights on made it more realistic that we were performing a play in a few hours, it also made us very warm. Before we knew it the time for our final performance together, we were all feeling really emotional but we didn't want that to ruin the performance so we decided to use it to our advantage to make the play even better. 

The atmosphere was very intense as the audience arrived and waited for the play to begin. We were all very nervous backstage so we had to calm each other down then we got told the play could begin whenever we were ready. Kate was the first on stage to sing The Pinball Wizard and I took a deep breathe and walked onto the stage or in other words the concert hall. The first scene between us went really well, I could feel our connection and we bounced off each other really well. My nerves faded throughout the scene with the company of Kate and the fact the audience seemed to be enjoying the play. 

Next it was time for my first monologue which was about the meaning behind Pinball Wizard. Before this I had got really angry with Alex which results in me shouting (something I would never normally do) but it felt natural because I managed to build the anger up throughout the scene as Rosie would in that position. The monologue flowed smoothly and I think I left a decent amount of time for Alex's reactions but if I was to do it again I would slow certain parts down to give Alex more reaction time and to give myself more to respond to. After this the stage was silent which felt really weird but soon the rest of the orchestra came in and filled the space up moaning about the cold. 

During this piece I have to move around a lot to talk to the audience but make it look natural which was difficult as there was audience almost all around us, if I could do the performance again I would try to think about the audience a bit more and remember to include them in the action a bit more but I think I did a good job with it being my first experience with this style of staging. Everyone was fully in character making it feel like it was the first time we have actually been here and the first time saying our lines. This scene needs to be very fast paced and I think we showed how serious the situation is when we find out we have no instruments. This is another scene where I get really angry and I'm glad I had everyone around me because I could feed off their reactions and be as angry as Rosie would be if she found out the concert is basically ruined. We have a slight glimmer of hope when Alex says she can try and get us the instruments back and when she tells us her dad can't do anything you could actually feel the disappointment from the cast making my emotions come to life.

My job in the next scene is to show the audience how gutted I am that we have to cancel. In this scene it seems as if I'm about to give up on my dream of being a conductor until Alex comes to the rescue. The build up of this could have been better if we left more of a break between the lines so the audience could feed on the atmosphere. However, I felt ready to deliver my final monologue of the show! This monologue sums up the orchestra perfectly and needs to be delivered with high emotions as I'm describing something I am supposed to love. To deliver this monologue I decided to use method acting to really make it come to life. I made what I was saying more realistic by thinking about how I feel about acting and how I would describe my love to someone. Mine and Rosie's passions are different yet our love for them are the same so it only made sense for me to feed off something I know and love. 

Next was the scene where the orchestra pretend to be playing their instruments but I have to speak to the audience and introduce the orchestra. I was nervous about saying 'Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen' in Russian because it is a different language that I had to learn just for this part of the play- if I was going to mess any of my lines up it would have to be this one but luckily I didn't so all the practice had finally paid off. It was really hard not to laugh as Kate translates what I'm saying into 'Russian' as she has to act out what happened and it is meant to make the audience laugh but it even makes me want to laugh but I somehow managed to stay in character. 

The concert part actually made me emotional watching everyone freely move around the space, they all actually looked professional as they played their fake instruments. It was nice to see how much everyone had grown and developed since the first time we did this scene. It was definitely the best it has ever been performed. After the audience applaud us for our performance Kate comes running over to give me a hug and a bunch of flowers. This was really emotional as Kate was actually crying and I knew it was our last time performing together plus it was our first time remembering the flowers out of all 4 performances! The emotions of this scene were soon cut short when I passed a flower to Sadie and she fainted- we were very glad the audience laughed because we were slightly worried they would think she actually fainted. 

The final part of the play is all of us dancing to The Pinball Wizard and filly letting loose. This scene is an overall favorite and was a great way to end the play and our time together as a group. The audience cheered as we all ran off ready for the bows. Me and Kate came on last and the whole cast joined us for a group hug which we had secretly planned prior to the performance. The energy was high from the performance but there was a lot of tears between us as the reality kicked in that we were done and that was our last performance. 

Overall, I think we did an extremely good job with the play after so long of not performing. We over came a lot of obstacles during rehearsals and during the shows as The Ridley Road School orchestra would. We all worked as a team and our lines bounced off each other and everything felt really natural and everything we were worried about went right on the night. There are a few things I think we would all do differently but I think we finished with a 'bang' and are all happy with our progress from the very beginning of the course to now. I am very grateful for the experience of having an audience to perform to again and for getting the chance to show what I can do one last time before we leave.