Performance To A Targeted Audience Essay, Research Paper
~A
Teenage Play~Introduction We were
asked to create a performance for a teenage audience. We thought and discussed
many options for a subject matter and came up with relevant happenings to
teenagers. The more considered subjects were sex, school and study pressure,
friendship and love. Our final decision was about sex because we felt that sex
is a major part of teenage years and that not enough teenagers are properly educated
about sex. We also decided that we wanted our performance to educate teenagers
so we used T.I.E (Theatre in Education) style of theatre. The target audience
was found because of the way we felt about sex education in PSHE. We felt that
year 9 would benefit from seeing our performance because sexual pressure is
aroused at approximately this age. Our play was asked to be ready in one month
therefore we only had one moth to rehearse. ? Rehearsal
Each of
the different groups rehearsed on their own at first until they mastered their
acts. After plenty of practise the groups came together to rehearse. When
rehearsing, the different groups used improvisation techniques and attempted to
write a simple guide script. Each of the actors gave views on how to improve
our rehearsal skills and helped each other with their acting skills. Given the
time that we had to rehearse most of it was waste and I believe this was
because some of us lacked concentration and enthusiasm. My group had certain
worries about the improvisational scripts that another group used because of
the pretend abuse that we had to take from another group. We overcame that
problem by talking to them about it and they toned down their scripts so that
no more time would be wasted.? The Play The
play is about three different groups of male and female teenagers who all go to
a party. The different groups have views about sex and different ways of
talking about it. The male group brags to each other about their sexual
adventures when really have not any and just lie to impress their friends,
which shows us another common theme of peer pressure. This is where the girls
differ, as they do not talk about sex because of their fear of being labelled.
This also shows us about sexism where girls would be slandered against if they
talked about any sexual confrontations. They all go to a party where a male
character (Eugine) who is labelled as a "geek" and an ordinary girl
(Rachael) who has had secret crush on him, get together and have sex. Rachael’s
friends are disgusted with her for going with a geek and having sex at such an
early age whereas, Eugine’s friends p
tell the audience of the whereabouts and time of the next scene. Our narrator
also interacts with the audience asking them of what they might think will
happen. This would have been useful because it would have kept the audiences
attention. My role in the play was a girl friend of Rachael’s who accompanies
her to the party. A particular scene that I was in that I thought was good was
a scene where the girls talk about what they are going to wear to the party. My
character persuaded the other girls not to dress loosely and to cover
themselves up or else they’d give the boys the wrong impression. I changed the
tone of my voice to get into my character so that I’d show the seriousness of
the character. I could improve my acting skills by being more enthusiastic and
by getting in to it more. The Set In the
play we used 2 different sets. The first set was one made up to look like a
classroom (see diagram 1). We used this set for a scene in which the boys talk
about sex and where they ask the girls to come to the party. The second set was
made up to look like a living room and this is where the "losers"
discussion and the party are set. To improve the living room set we could have
used more detail by putting in little things like a coffee table, this makes
the set look a little bit more realistic. We did not use any special lighting
or change the lighting through the play because we did not have access to
lighting facilities. However we did use music in a few of the scenes. We played
fast music while the boys and girls where dressing and making themselves up and
at the party. This was successful in creating a party feeling for the
characters.Conclusion In my
belief, the idea and intentions of the play was excellent because it would have
educated and entertained an audience in one performance. Mixing education with
entertainment is a good idea especially for restless teenagers because it keeps
their attention focused on the pleasures of learning and enjoying themselves at
the same time. Unfortunately, we did not perform the play. This was because of
the small amount of time we were given to rehearse in and because of the time
that people wasted. Hopefully, next time we are given a task to create and
perform a play my class will understand the importance of time and how it
should not be wasted because I now understand from this experience. I believe
the play would have been successful if we performed it and that we might have
educated the audience about sex and the pressures sex puts on teenagers as we
set out to do. Courtney???????? 3rd Feb 2001
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