Critical Evaluation/Reflection

Theatrical/Production Elements

My show was definitely lacking in this category. Part of this was lack of creativity on my part, and the other part was trying my best to adhere to the guidelines of "site-specific theatre" as set by Kabosh in Northern Ireland.

Although site-specific theatre does not usually have an elaborate set or lighting (for obvious reasons), I think there was some wiggle room to do more with props. In, "Cafeteria Stories" I used very few props, only the cafeteria tables, the space itself, my clipboard, and the lunch trays. I liked how the trays worked, when Laetitia picked it up and went down the line. I think I could have done a lot more with prop work, especially since there was no set, lights or sound for my show.

Another way I could have improved the production element of "Cafeteria Stories" would have been to set up the cafeteria tables as they would be during lunch time. This would have given the audience more of an authentic experience. My goal was to make them feel as though they were little kids again, back in the cafeteria. Perhaps if I had set up little cups, trays, ETC... it would have had this effect.

Performing/Acting

I really appreciate the time and effort my actors spent on this show. Not only were they willing to learn and re-learn lines, but they came to rehearsals several times a week where we not only staged the show but created it ourselves. They were key players in devising the script, the concept and I could always count on their input.

One thing I wish I had worked on more, or finalized earlier was the role of the AIS ambassadors. We only decided the night before the show that they would be standing in the hallway, so there was a lot of last-minute scrambling to prep them. While I appreciated their interactions with the audience, I think there were probably a few too many of them. On one hand, I liked this because it created a mockery of the eagerness of the kids that give AIS tours. On the other hand, it was probably too fake and overwhelming for the audience to hear "Hello. Welcome to AIS!" 500 times as they were walked to the cafeteria. Another thing I could have done to better prepare them would have been to give them more different ideas of things to say. Because I suggested that they could say "Hi. Welcome to AIS!" as I was explaining their roles, they all took that on as the one and only line. That was definitely my bad. I could have clarified their roles much earlier on.

One challenge I had with the actors in "Cafeteria Stories" was delivery of the monologues, and volume. The beginning of the play went well, and everyone was speaking loudly. I feel that as they became more comfortable, however, that they began to speak more and more softly. This goes back to the difficulties of site-specific theatre, because the acoustics in the cafeteria were horrific. As soon as they started to drop their voices, it was over. Part of this had to do with the fact that some of the actors felt more comfortable than others.

Devised Piece

This of the four categories is the one that I think could have used the most improvement. The process of devising I went through was difficult, starting with the space as a stimulus and trying to develop a show within it that would accommodate a large audience. In the process I encountered many obstacles, and thus learned the difficulty of staging site-specific theatre.

Originally the plan was to take the audience on an AIS "tour", but in an in-class discussion it became clear that a tour was not feasible. Were this play not a part of a showcase, it may have been do-able (like Kabosh's play "The West Awakes"), but with the constraints of the audience's size and the other shows, it was simply impossible. At that point we returned to the stimulus, and decided to shrink the cast and work with the cafeteria instead of the classroom.

At this stage I had great difficulty finding content for the show. It developed naturally into a story about our experiences growing up in schools around the world, and going off to college. I wanted it to reflect some of the sentiments of the audience (12th grade students and parents, hello!) as well as the cast. We interviewed our friends and used that as inspiration for monologues and some of the dialogue. The idea I had intended to portray was that the space acted as a meeting place for students that they returned to at different stages of their lives. Translating this idea into a script proved most difficult. Developing the characters, creating realistic dialogue, and creating a story was challenging, and I don't think I developed the story or the content as much as I could have. Mr. Warren called it a "nostalgic ode to the cafeteria", and in truth, it was. But this actually described my intent for the play. I should be thrilled with how it turned out! Instead, I recognize that from the beginning I should have been more willing to push the boundaries with the content of the script. I could have spent more time developing it and working in a better story line. The characters also could have been more interesting, and engaging to the audience. I realize looking back that I spent much less effort on the script than I did on the over-arching devising process with my cast. I tried to be as true to that as possible, and started from the beginning 2 or 3 times. However, without a good script there is no good show.

Audience Awareness

I found it difficult to get much constructive feedback from the audience. I think at the beginning, when they walked into the school, they felt very unaware and confused. That was my intent. I don't mind that they didn't understand what was going on at the beginning. My hope was that by the time they were walking to the LPAC to see the rest of the shows that they would figure it out. From my understanding, they did. Would they have on the night of the dress rehearsal? Probably not.