The shows in which I played Mr Grey and a Homeless character when very well, I think I managed to help show the audiences what kind of contrasting lives these different characters have. The Homeless character as a fed up, grumpy hungry persona, giving the impression of a tough life, his ruined clothes, odd movement and exaggerated gestures all contributed to the success of this character's intensions; ensuring the audience understood and could interpret the life of the character and atmosphere of the current song.
Mr Grey on the other hand, having few lines contributed in the performance as I played him as a slow, exaggerated snobby character, he was more of a symbol for all wealthy people in New York's Upper East side, giving him this persona meant in songs such as La Vie Boheme other members of the cast could direct actions towards him and the audience could understand the relationship further into the rich and the poor.
We performed two public shows where I performed my main character Benny on the second day (Thursday).
Mr Grey on the other hand, having few lines contributed in the performance as I played him as a slow, exaggerated snobby character, he was more of a symbol for all wealthy people in New York's Upper East side, giving him this persona meant in songs such as La Vie Boheme other members of the cast could direct actions towards him and the audience could understand the relationship further into the rich and the poor.
We performed two public shows where I performed my main character Benny on the second day (Thursday).
Thursday 4:30 (School):
Thursday 7:30 (Public):
Evaluation of the Shows
The first showing to the schools was successful and I could see everyone was more in tune with their characters compared to the rehearsal runs. Personally I support this, becoming a character whilst having full attention of the audience allowed myself to further express and perform my intentions, something that my character Benny is all about; intending to build a Cyber Studio; collecting rent; causing havoc; making money etc.
My main intension as an actor though was the allow audiences to understand the ambitions of Benny, due to the success of the first run on Thursday I think this came across very effectively. One area of improvement for myself for the school performances was to allow further diction placement so younger/older audience members who would have trouble understanding or hearing the lines would be able to clearly engage into the dialogue.
The evening show was smoother and sung more confidently than the afternoon showing overall as a cast. Although for myself I felt this performance lacked characterisation; personally I didn't think I managed to indicate what Benny's intentions were through his movement as effectively as I could have done. An example of this is in the first appearance of Benny in Mark and Rogers flat, my movement around the space seemed to wonder and still I'm not 100% sure whether than was due to being too confident with the piece and trying to own the space as my character a little too much or the focus on lyrics in the show and catching my breathe distracted me away from the choreographic blocking I devised.
Overall my confidence and presence in the rest of the show I thought was believable and I approached the second act with a professional calm manner. Act two was powerful, as a cast and independently as I felt we all understood that this would be the last showing of Rent as a cast at Worthing College, we gave it our all.
In the second act I struggled with Benny as the shows before began to take it's toll on my voice, unfortunately something which happens often around shows, even after excessive vocal warm ups and drinking water.
In conclusion the as a cast both performances went incredible and it was a pleasure performing with such talented actors, although for myself in comparison to the show before (4:30) the later showing suffered but was still a huge success.
This show has allowed me to further develop my confidence and understanding of musical theatre, not to mention of course learning massive amounts of information into the era Rent was set, AIDS and HIV and characters around the time which I could relate visually through costume as well as helping develop the character of Benny.
The performances were overall a well casted, well balanced and well directed collection, the double cast helped, from an audience perspective if they saw both nights show the interpretations of the characters by the actors and the contrasting intentions of the relationships between characters throughout the scenes.
The performances were overall a well casted, well balanced and well directed collection, the double cast helped, from an audience perspective if they saw both nights show the interpretations of the characters by the actors and the contrasting intentions of the relationships between characters throughout the scenes.
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