The Cherry Orchard Evaluation

The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov was a difficult play to perform and I played the part of Charlotta Ivonana. The themes were about loss, memory, old Russia and how had changed. My character in each performance really showed the way I saw than the way Chekhov saw her. I feel I didn't capture her in the same way he did. Through my evaluation, I will also talk about the strengths and weaknesses to how each performance developed.

Basics

One of the weaknesses in the basic skills of the performances a few of us were unsure of our lines.  This was due to being under rehearsed which effected the pace, timing and confidence of our performances. It was lacing pace and at times made the play less interesting e.g. in our first performance in Act 4.  However, we did pull together in the other performances and would the play to life with high energy.

In a short space of time the play proved to be more difficult. Not knowing our lines also led to awkward silences. We were under rehearsed because we had short allotted amount of time to properly rehearse and punctuality was an issue.  


Characterization

I found it difficult to keep my character because I felt like I was acting like myself at times, letting the characterization slipped away. Most of the characters managed to keep completely in character. Personally, I think my character on the first was too soft and I didn't reveal the outer shell of this character but, revealed what was hidden underneath her. A character like Charlotta you need to be a strong woman, someone who has lived but, experiences things that the other characters haven't. She could be a different woman if she wasn't a governess but, the character needed to be a strong individual.

Someone who really had great characterization was Jack's character, Simeon. He kept the clumsiness and really changed the character. It was nothing like himself. In a way, he helped me out to get back on track after I performed my monologue at sat down. Also the emotional memory helped to think of past experiences where you'd have to be the stronger woman. It raised the energy and helped me continue my character.

Also I improved in my next two performance, developing gestures that were obvious for my character and remember my physicality of what I did last time. The confidence grew with my character, especially when the ideas this time was not to reveal my soft side. The difficulty was I felt like I revealed myself a lot rather than character.


Stylistically

The style of the piece showed that all the time it may have been realistic but, I felt the costume for my character was unclear to show what status I was. I would of thought the Victorian type of lace top and trousers was an idea. In a way, I felt like I was a servant from the outfit and it didn't show my class.

However, from the (picture to the right) I was basing it Kathy Wholley's idea look as I didn't want to make it the clothing choice to feminine as it would not suit the character. Relating it to the idea about the way she presented herself and the way I presented the way my character looked way good because even if I looked lower class it showed that it didn't seem like something a governess would wear in my eyes.

Was it a naturalistic performance?

I believe we did perform and give a naturalistic performance. The set setted the scene with the type of chairs and furniture at the time. We did three simple gestures that would show that the character did these things normally.

Conclusion

I still have a lot of developments I can make to those weakness and strengths. It has depicted on each performance that my vocal tone and they way it was mostly a middle range a lot of the time. I could of experimented and explored the character creatively but, I didn't use much imagination as I focused to much on the information that I was given than exploring. Professionally I need to know the things I need to improve on which are my vocal tone, physicality and creative which are key things that I lack in my performances. To be professional to reach my career aims, I need to break barriers and be more creative and in depth of the character that was a weakness to me.