Performance Workshop 29/08/14

At the beginning of our performance workshop, we begun looking at 'The Cherry Orchard', analysing the themes such as; social change and memory.
We discussed how memory effects us and how certain things can trigger memories such as places or songs. Analysing memory was enjoyable for me because its something that I can relate too as we all have memories of somebody or somewhere, which is personal to us. We were given a line each to remember which related to the theme of memory. My line was 'Memory can take in vast amounts of information'. I particularly enjoyed this exercise because I learnt a lot more about how memory works. We got into groups and were given an act to analyse. We decided as a group that we would contrast ageing to symbolise the play. As a group, we wanted to make our act emotional and also symbolise the key themes of the play.

We focussed on the idea of a tree in the centre stage whilst each person in the group waters it at different times in life, showing how the characters grew up with "The Cherry Orchard". We used the idea of the Orchard's trees. We thought it would be effective if we were to show the tree showing growth through time. The next morning, we had slightly more time to rehearse before performing to a solid audience. After practice, our piece finally came together and we were able to run it smoothly. Our play consisted of no speech, only music, which I think was effective it was almost like the audience were able to watch memories and visualise them rather than hear about them. At the end of the performance, we involved the audience by picking someone out, asking them to close their eyes and draw what we would describe as the most beautiful place on earth. In my opinion, involving the audience at the end added something special to the performance and made it enjoyable for me to involve somebody else.

 

Watching other forms do their performances gave me a better understanding of other themes in the play such as Freedom. Without realising, Freedom is actually a huge theme in the play. Social change effected freedom very much so, as well as the freedom to express ourselves and our ability to learn.

Another form looked at the theme of social change. They portrayed social change through music and dancing which I and the rest of the audience enjoyed watching. The freedom in which they had was that they were able to enjoy themselves and dance together, however the social change occurred due to having a dictatorship who was played by Haydn who stood on a high level stage to represent his power and authority over Russia, therefore it was easy to interpret the change. At the end of their play, every actor started to work, which symbolised the falling economy in Russia.

 

Ending on a negative note helped me to understand and think about how people used to survive. I feel that my understanding of "The Cherry Orchard" developed massively because my knowledge of the play increased. I was able to understand characters, themes, history of Russia, and how the social change effected so many. Having this as my first performance workshop, it really inspired and motivated me into what was going to come in the following lessons. I felt good leaving the lesson knowing how much I had learnt about "The Cherry Orchard" and how I had a clear understanding of each theme.