Tech Rehearsal reflection –
During our rehearsal process we decided that a tech run would be vital for our performance as it became a tech heavy piece with videos, projects and music throughout. Therefore we dedicated a whole day of tech rehearsal to organise the tech within our piece. When we entered the rehearsal space in Tokyo, we decided to organise the videos and projection before operating the music into each scene. We started within the main room and decided to play the videos of our profiles being deleted on the main screen. This is where we came across our main issue; the videos were blurry as the programme we had used was not compatible to the programme on the stage computer. This was a huge issue as we needed the video to represent our movement being performed. Therefore, we needed to make the video compatible. Within our group we had three joint multi-media performances, which we used to our advantage as we knew they would be able to help create our multi-media footage. Sylvia managed to change the video footage, however we moved onto focus on the Spam Room, where music was of high importance.
Within the spam room, our performance became interrupted by ‘dotify’ music advertisements played by Dumi. Our biggest concern was that we would be unable to identify when the next advertisement was going to be performed as audience participation was taking place, thus needing to provide a prompt for each advert. We decided to rehearse with the music advertisement interruption. This helped us to create a system which to help us know when the adverts were going to interrupt our performance. With this in mind, we decided to make Dumi change the lighting within the performance to que the interruption which freeze framed the performance.
This technical rehearsal helped us to overcome problems. Within the tech run, we constantly run through the performances whilst the tech videos were being converted to the correct format. This took longer than expected thus meaning we had to move away from the space as the club night needed to be set up. Therefore we had to carry on converting through the night in order to be ready for our performance. It was vital for us to have the tech rehearsal; otherwise we would have not known our videos were unable to work on the system. This gave our group time to overcome the problems. It also gave us chance to experiment with the lights and sounds as Tokyo have a wide range of electrical equipment which we could use. This meant we could explore the range of equipment and gain the correct atmosphere for our piece. This was especially relevant in the last scene when we are shutting down, as we could focus on the lights to signify our persona demolishing and the administrator controlling us. As the administrator told us our profiles were being deleted, we used spot lights on each character to represent the administrated stripping their profile away, as though we had been singled out. This helped to portray our stimulus to the spectators as they gained the sense of the administrator controlling our characters. Altogether we used the tech rehearsal to our full advantage, as we explore the space and full usage of the technical equipment to our advantage.
Performance reflection –
When reflecting our performance, I believed that our group piece was very successful and achieved the correct performance intentions across the spectators. Our main concern for our performance was the spectator interaction as we were unsure how the spectators were going to react or move across the space. Although we had prepared for different scenarios within the rehearsal process, we knew our performance could easily be changed by spectators. We felt that the audience participation was gained within our performance and each spectator moved fluently throughout the space, which was helped by Jamie who put barriers up to stop spectators entering a different performance area. I felt that the spectators gained interest by exploring the unconventional performance area, but the controlled environment meant us actors still gained control of the spectators to keep our performance coherent.
Another risk that we took was that we didn’t used water to scrub our bodies within the last scene until the performance. Although we had practised the actions, it was different to perform with water as the water changed our performance and movement. However, we felt that the performance was successful exploring the water element only within the final show as it emphasized our shocked characteristics. Within this scene we were being shut down which gained us being shocked as the administrator defeated us, therefore I felt I became more shocked as the water provided unusual movement and I felt my body free flowing. This was relevant as the spectators gained a shocked opinion to us being shut down through the water movement. They also seemed to be drawn in by to the water reflecting of the lights.
If I was to perform this performance again, I would request more time in the performance area. We felt that when performing with spectators in the room our projection of voice became quiet at certain occasions in the performance. This meant it was uneasy for spectators to follow the narrative within the piece. As the building was a big empty space, the acoustics of each room were different; therefore some rooms needed loader projects in order to be heard over low music being played. Although we felt the music may reflect the club atmosphere, we felt it was important for the spectators to hear the voices of our character in order to gain an understanding of the narrative of to which character became in charge. Another element I would change within our performance is the number spectators. Although I enjoyed performing to a big audience I felt that the beginning scene and VIP scene had too many people unable to see the performance properly. This became a problem as people missed the narrative, therefore I would cap the audience to 25 in order to see all the performance.
Altogether I felt that our performance was a great success. I felt that splitting the audience make the spectators gained different experiences in which lead to discussions after the piece. I though spectators gaining different experiences were very successful as it kept them engaged into what was going to happen next. I also felt that each spectator gaining a different interpretation was successful as our intention was for each spectator to take what they want from the performance. Lastly I felt that I gained the correct intentions over my character as I portray a comedic geek character which audience members liked as they felt I was humours but portrayed the ‘geek ’anti -virus software. In conclusion, I felt our performance was a great success especially as each spectator commented on how the enjoyed the performance.
By Christie Asplin.