Describe And Evaluate The Preparation Of Your

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 praise him.??? ???????? In this play we used a narrator to

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

3a7