Leah Noble Assignment 6

Overall, I think my group did a nice job performing this scene from the play, given that we only had two days to prepare for it. We all did a pretty good job developing our characters, but we could have used our hands more to express ourselves in a way that fits our character. Along with this, I think we did a great job staying in character throughout the entire scene. We memorized our lines and did not leave moments of "dead air" while we waited for someone to say their line or for a costume change. One thing we could have done better, however is projecting our voices. There were times when it was hard to understand or hear what someone said. Though audible, the loudness of our voices was not optimal. We also could have been more expressive, changing the pitch and volume of our voices would have helped the scene seem more realistic and interesting.  In addition to improving our voices, we also could have improved the staging. The table that Algernon and Jack were sitting at was too far from where Cecily and Gwendolyn were standing which led to an awkwardly long walk across  the stage. The stage being set up for the school play also made this somewhat difficult, but if we had tried harder, we probably could have come up with a better solution. We didn't need to use many props, but the muffins we did use were a nice touch.

Doing this performance made me more aware of how expressive you have to be in a comedy in order to make the audience laugh. It's not just the lines themselves that are funny, but the way the actor presents them. I also realized how different reading a play is from performing a play is character wise. Until the play is performed, it is hard to grasp the true identity of a character; there is so much more about people that simply cannot be understood in text.