Evaluation

My performance of ‘Blood Brothers’ could not have gone any better! On the day of the performance, I had worked myself up with some nerves and worries running through my head. I had been building up to this and looking forward to it for so long and I didn’t want to mess up or for it to be terrible. However, I knew deep down that I had put enough hard work and that it wouldn’t be terrible. All I needed to do was focus and work to make sure that I helped to put on the amazing show I knew it could be.
The day began with a run through at 10AM. I felt that it was a good run through, I knew where I was coming on and exactly what I was meant to be doing. Nevertheless, I did feel that some parts of my performance fell flat and that I could do much better. In particular with the ‘Our Sammy’ monologue, I wanted to make it more comedic and in general the first half of the play to be fun and full of laughter, to create a real contrast with the second half of the play and I just felt that at that moment it was lacking. After our first run through I had a chat with Kane to address this and if he had any advice. Kane’s key piece of advice was to talk to the audience, little did I know then that piece of advice would be a game changer.
Further on in the day we performed our show in front of an GCSE Drama Class, they had been studying the play and knew all about it. The show went well, and it was a good starting point, but me and my ‘Eddie’, Geoffrey, knew we could do so much better. We wanted to do better and be happy with our performances if we were to leave that theatre tonight and be proud of ourselves and what we had put on that stage in front of our friends and family. A few things happened in this initial performance that we knew couldn’t be allowed to happen again. For one in a scene where I was on stage waiting for my ‘Eddie’ to come and surprise me while I am tying my shoelaces, he did not arrive on cue and was changing costumes. This moment felt like it lasted forever, and I actually had to come back off stage and then go back on again. That was a steep learning curve for the night’s performance.
My friend’s and I could see in each other’s eyes how badly we wanted this production to be amazing, better than anything in the world, better than anything we had done before. We had worked too hard for it to just be good, we wanted it to be amazing. Me and my friend, Geoffrey, had talked about tonight and said that tonight needed to be brilliant not just for ourselves but we didn’t want to disappoint our friends and families.
We were still practicing a few of our scenes before our 7PM showing. Nevertheless, we made sure we did relax before the show, so we could be calm and focused. We made sure we were ready to bring that excitable kid like energy for our final show.
The time for our final production was upon us. Our cast was ready and excited to go, hyping each other up and eager to start. Our starting point is our ending point in a very cyclical way. I lay there, on the floor, with my eyes shut as the audience walked in and sat down in what felt like an eternity. After the opening scenes with Mrs Lyons and Johnstone it was time for me to go on stage. As soon as I stepped on that stage something just changed. I managed to completely let go of everything, I wasn’t thinking about what to do next I was there in the moment. Everything just happened so effortlessly, in the moment, feeding off every audience reaction I got. It felt indescribable to hear everyone laugh and watching you as you go along. All eyes on you. All my worries disappeared, I was that child, and I was making these scenes come to life. The time had come for my big ‘Our Sammy’ monologue, which had been worrying Kelly and I for a long time now. But from that first moment on stage and seeing the audience, I had felt infinitely more confident. I just had to do it, I had taken the advice I had gotten from Kane earlier in the day and just talked to the audience themselves. This really managed to get them laughing, interacting with the material, and watching my every move. This was by far the best performance of my monologue, I got loads of laughs and all my lines right. I was so proud of myself, and it was an amazing feeling. Now it was time for Geoffrey to come on stage and for us to work together as brothers and as a team to make this audience laugh. We started off strong, we were bouncing off each other (almost making each other laugh at some points), the audience was enjoying it and that made us keep on going. Somethings we had never actually done before, but they felt right, and they worked in our favour. We didn’t for a second forget anything or doubt ourselves. We both let go, trusted each other, and pulled off an amazing performance. During the interval we both ran to each other in utter shock. We had surprised ourselves with how we had done. We were both just so happy and we couldn’t stop looking at one another saying ‘What just happened? How did we do that’. This was honestly the best feeling in the world, all of our other cast members were telling us how brilliant and funny it was, that it was the best first half we could have done. We were ecstatic!
Nonetheless, we now needed to change our mood from the childish half of our characters, being happy and silly, to adults. The goal had stayed the same, but the emotion had changed. Instead of inspiring laughs from the audience we now needed to make them cry. For our second half I thought it went really well. I wouldn’t say as well as our first half. I was definitely angrier and more frustrated with myself, I had dropped a couple of lines, it wasn’t many, but I felt that those lines make the scene and to just drop them felt like it took something away from the scene. This did make my quite angry and annoyed at myself, however my family said that they didn’t even notice and that the scenes felt seamless. Overall, I think acting wise I did well, I just wish I had got those couple of lines in. Apart from that it was a fantastic show and the whole cast was so proud of what we had accomplished. I have been at the college for longer than the rest of my fellow cast members, whilst they are in their first years, I am in my second and I have never been happier to collaborate with such amazing people and produce such an outstanding show.
I made many close friends this year and I am so thankful that we were able to do our final show of the year together. I believe I have grown so much throughout the year, not just because of all the new experiences of creating productions, but because of meeting these amazing people. They have brought me out of my shell in order to achieve what I have. I will never forget this production as one of the proudest moment in my life. It was a wonderful challenge to bring this play to life. To play a seven-year-old is never easy, especially when you aren’t one, but I did it. I put the work in. I proved to myself that I had what it takes to be a good actor and hopefully proved that to Kelly, Kane, my friends, and my family as well. I know that I did that for my family, they haven’t stopped telling me how amazing my performance was and how proud they were of me. Also, I will happily say that I think I have shown everyone that I can play more than just a ‘bully’ character. I loved getting to show off my more versatile range and that I can show many different emotions in any future project I do. ‘Blood Brothers’ as a runs through a lot of emotions and feelings and I was happy to be able to portray it in the way that I did. Yes, I do think that if I had the chance to do it again, I could be even better, although for the journey I am on right now, I am immensely proud of myself and what I have accomplished. I need to thank Kelly for helping me to decide to do a level two qualification last year and to redo the year to start my level three as it made a world of difference. Another year of experience and maturity was a game changer in terms of my work and acting. I can’t wait for next year, to be in further productions, develop my skills and deepen my love for acting.

This past year has been one of the most important years ever for me. Most notably being able to perform in ‘Blood Brothers’. Whilst I have enjoyed the other plays, we have performed this year, I have never previously known them, or at least not known the stage version of them. ‘Blood Brothers’ was a play I already knew really and loved, and I was excited by the prospect of doing it. When it came time to read the script and practice for auditions, I was excited to get the chance to play the character of ‘Mickey’. This was the first time I had really felt like there was a role I could get my teeth stuck into and work hard on getting the role to bring it to life. I have learnt so much from the course of this year, which I was able to put into practice for my final audition of they year. I have learnt how you have to really work to make an audition yours and how much time and effort it takes to play such a big character. Moreover, I have learned a lot about myself as an actor and upon what I can improve. Before this year I never really knew about my full capabilities as an actor, I had never truly challenged myself. Playing ‘Mickey’ opened my eyes. To bring to life a small child and then form that into a depressed and angry adult on stage is extremely difficult. Yet I pulled it off and it was phenomenal. It was thanks to the advice and hard work of my college tutors, who guided me on how to achieve this character was this possible. Everyone I knew who came to see my performance, loved it! They said my acting was amazing and that in the case of my aunt and sister they had actually cried. This was all I wanted to hear; I want to believe I have what it takes to make it in the world of acting.