What did you want your audience to get out of viewing your piece and did you acheive that?

The final recording of A Peculiar Type of Love was filmed this past Wednesday. The performance had been been anticipated for weeks and a lot of revising was put into obtaining the “final”. Though this was the final filming for the project, there still could have been a lot of alterations in order to make the performance even better. With less regards to the acting from the actors, the scene changes, filming of the performance, and lighting/music cues could have been better in many ways.

The acting itself was something I was fairly impressed with amongst my peers. Thankfully, the level at which our acting is at is fairly equal and leveled in regards to how we take up the stage with our voice, body, and overall expression of character. Though the lines that had been written specifically in the play were not recited word for word, it allowed each actor to have a general understanding of where the performance was going or needed to go (meaning the scenes were able to still flow smoothly). It is interesting how comfortable some of the actors are at improvising lines. Because of this skill I witnessed amongst my peers, I believe that it allowed for the reciprocation of said skill amongst me and the rest of the actors. It might have also been beneficial that last Springs theater performance was improve. These two experiences have allowed for more comfortability on stage, something that I am very grateful for.

As stated before, the ability to flow through the script without reciting word for word was very successful in this devising group project. That being said, the lighting and music cues should have had more structure and preciseness. Next time, an exact run-through of when lights come on and off and when music turns up and down should be given to the light “manager”. This way, there is no confusion of when these timings are supposed to happen, less of a guess and check.

The performance was filmed by a peer from a different devising group. Gratefully, she filmed very willingly with a passionate energy to do so. The devising group for A Peculiar Type of Love should have decided to have filmed at a further back location. As nice as it would be and was to see close up facial expression, it costed the group to lose the lighting that signified scene changes. An example is in scene 2 when Sara and Marcus are on the phone with each other in two operate locations. The lighting would have been important to have to show the different locations, but it was less recognizable because of the constant panning to opposite sides of the stage.

The last aspect of this devising project that should be fixed if to do this or another performance again, is the stage furniture. Next time, there should be a list of what is needed for each scene. It was almost a last minute struggle on the day of filming to find and figure out what was to be used for each scene. Being a black box, as talked about in class, it is hard to fit the furniture in the room that is used for furniture. Personally, I tend to prefer a black box over a proscenium stage so this problem in particular is less of a drastic downside in my eyes.

The final filming of A Peculiar Type of Love had its ups and downs. Even though the technical cues and furniture transitions could have been practiced and more precise, the acting and chemistry amongst the actors made the performance run smoothly. This devising project has been a great experience and opened my eyes to accepting ideas of others more openly and freely as well as helped with accepting the reality of time crunch in “showbiz” and really just everyday life. I think the message of the play came through strongly. This being that love is complicated. Sometimes things don't change in love even when painful, sometimes things don't make sense, and sometimes people may come to their senses about certain things. That's life and that's love.