StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Theatre Performance - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
This essay discusses how monologue helped me to recognize my performance weaknesses and overcome them.Preparing a monologue is difficult for both students and professionals actors. Alongside with verbal part, there is a performance that needs to be accurate, emotional but not exaggerated…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER96.2% of users find it useful
Theatre Performance
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Theatre Performance"

 Theatre Performance Preparing a monologue is difficult for both students and professionals actors. Monologues require an effort, a full understanding of the role, meaning of every word and emotions that should be produced. Alongside with verbal part, there is a performance that needs to be accurate, persuasive, emotional but not exaggerated. Preparing the monologue from “Our Country's Good” I experienced a number of issues that I needed to overcome to achieve my goals and meet performance characteristics mentioned above. In this essay I will discuss how this monologue helped me to recognise my performance weaknesses and overcome them. The first difficulty I faced preparing the monologue was to learn the words by heart. In order to perform well, I needed to know it perfectly not to forget it even when I would be nervous or lost. I had to force myself to learn the text and it took some time to make sure that I would not fail. There were some lines that were the most difficult for me. I missed them many times when I practised alone and with a friend and it made me frustrated because my performance was awful when I stopped and tried to recollect everything. I turned out that learning the text was not the most difficult part of my preparations. I had to perform; accordingly, I needed to focus on emotions, mimics and actions related to my role. Staging was hard because I had to keep everything natural but persuasive. It was complicated to find the right balance between these two options. I did not want to look indifferent on the stage; at the same time, I was afraid that I would exaggerate everything and spoil my role. Moreover, I had to do everything is a set time frame. Performance contained a sequence of actions that had to happen in the right time and place. I could not improvise or change anything. It was stressful at first, but it added a better organisation to my performance. Staging was particularly hard because I performed the role of a man and I had to control my voice all the time not to sound feminine. This required the control of every word I said. Even all exclamations had to be more male. The switch from Harry to Handy Baker was not easy and I spent much time training it. I had a hoarse voice because my vocal cords were not used to such a pressure. Due to this fact I had to make pauses and relax to minimise the effect of my role on my ordinary voice. The issue of confidence came next. I was very nervous when I though about public performance of the monologue. I experienced the fear of failure in public and I could not focus on my role because of it. Even when I practised alone, I could not get rid of the thought that it would be all different when someone would look at me. I had to practice with a mirror to make sure that my face looked good when I performed the monologue. I was also afraid of looking too comic because someone could laugh and I would lose control over everything. I had to learn to calm down in order to cope with my fears. I had never though that public performance would be so hard for me. All issues mentioned above helped me to develop a number of useful skills. Learning the monologue by heart was a great memory training. I was worth training because it was the first time when I was sure that nothing would make me forget the text. This experience helped to understand learning techniques that made it easier to memorise and reproduce the text. For instance, reading out-loud was very helpful to practice and learn separate lines of the text and text as a whole. My performance training helped me to learn how to make spectators believe in my character. I though a lot about my role and tried to keep it persuasive. I had to read a couple of psychology articles to have a greater understanding of gestures and poses that were related to certain feelings. I also worked on my intonation a lot because every tone mattered for my final success. One more necessary skill I learned was how to calm down before the performance. I tried to slow my breathing and it had a calming effect on me. It was quite difficult to control my nervous gestures because I always wanted to keep something in my hands or touched my hair a lot. Hours of trainings helped me to identify those problematic gestures so I could get rid of them. I learned to deal with public and managed my internal fear to fail. Finally, I understood that there was nothing bad in being funny. That though gave me more confidence and I could feel more relaxed when I trained with someone else. I trained to keep calm no matter what was going on around me. I found my inner point of balance and thought about places and people I loved to get comfortable in stressful situations. Generally, these skills are useful for dealing with stress in my life and I happy that I have found what works for me. This monologue was also useful in terms of training my vocal cords. Playing with timbre was challenging but rewarding because I learned to concentrate on the role even when my voice sounded strange. Also I learned to speak without too much pressure on the vocal cords to avoid hoarseness after the performance. It is a useful skill for all public performances when one has to speak loudly. In summary, preparing the monologue turned out to be more difficult than I expected. Learning the text, keeping everything in control and time management were the hardest for me. At the same time, I had to deal with my personal concerns and fears related to public performances and my image. It was a great journey where I could learn myself better and understand how to work on my weaknesses to turn them into my strengths. Also, it was a necessary training before learning bigger and more difficult roles. Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Theatre Performance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/visual-arts-film-studies/1686181-theatre-performance-essay
(Theatre Performance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words)
https://studentshare.org/visual-arts-film-studies/1686181-theatre-performance-essay.
“Theatre Performance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/visual-arts-film-studies/1686181-theatre-performance-essay.
  • Cited: 3 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Theatre Performance

Analysis of the Play Creditors

The main aspect of production that most plays lack is linkage between Theatre Performance and reality.... However, in most productions, there is lack of connection between the play performance and reality.... However, in most productions, there is lack of connection between the play performance and reality.... The experience at Ensemble theatre was an unforgettable one.... The experience at Ensemble theatre was an unforgettable one....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

August: Osage County:

(Letts)Part II: “Wintertime” and “August: Osage County”Wintertime is an American play and Theatre Performance that depicts love and romance, accusation and cross-purposes within a play context.... In a rich drama and comedy, these plays confound a rich and realistic balance that lives beyond the performance of the play.... Steppenwolf theatre, Chicago.... McCarter theatre Production , New Jersey....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

LITR201-1402B-04 : Literature: A Reflection of Life

Greek Theatre Performance: an introduction.... They, therefore, qualify as plays both in written word and during theatrical performance.... Most importantly, dramas are plays because actors Literature: A Reflection of Life Literature: A reflection of life Drama as Plays Dramas are known as plays because they are intended for theatrical performance.... They, therefore, qualify as plays both in written word and during theatrical performance....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Pollock, Gottlieb and Newman

Discuss how some of the presented Conceptual Artists AND composer John Cage experimented with theater, performance, or concept-driven works/compositions in the 1940s-1970s.... This quote embodied how John cage regarded theatre, performance or concept-driven works/compositions.... This is reflected in his various works in theatre, performance and concept driven works as well as the number of devices he used to emphasize randomness in music....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

20th Century Theatre History: Augusto Boal

The adoption of techniques that engage the audience and the public in Theatre Performance is vital in full communication of the theme in the performance.... Such techniques aimed at assuring the spectators that their contributions towards the success of any Theatre Performance are invaluable are traceable from the contribution of great artists as Augusto Boal.... Key among the reforms that he introduced in theatre is the transition that promoted the use of dialogue in performance as compared to monologue, in the 1950s and 1960s....
7 Pages (1750 words) Term Paper

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

The present paper would define the role of reproduction in the contemporary art world as discussed by Walter Benjamin.... The paper "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" also argues about the differences between acting on an audience and acting on a camera.... hellip; Benjamin defines mechanical reproduction as the process of reproducing something new from an original work by way of imitation....
6 Pages (1500 words) Book Report/Review

Performance Analysis of Rituals by Using Schechners Ideas on Performance

Theatre Performance has some gainful abilities, it fills a theatre house and profits, and game recreations are to a great degree lucrative.... "performance Analysis of Rituals by Using Schechner's Ideas on performance" paper uses the web and fan concepts to evaluate various aspects of ritual performance.... The behavior of ritual performance has various characteristics.... The concept of ritual performance is a repetitive, stereotyped pattern....
5 Pages (1250 words) Coursework

Play Review: Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman

Although this was not my first time to attend a Theatre Performance, I was impressed by the director's ability to re-image some of the tales.... The version by the URI theatre department was produced between 21/02/2013 and 3/03/2013 under the directorship of Steven Raider-Ginsburg.... The production of this narration demonstrates students taking their acting skills a notch higher in the theatre.... However, after watching this play, I was able to notice important differences between what I saw in the theatre and the original story....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us