Evaluation!

Little People’s Day was AMAZING!!!  All the strands managed to create a section of the performance that sent out sparks of imagination which left astonished expressions on the children’s faces.  The children themselves were awesome and great to have as an audience. The day was packed full of fun and no one was left disappointed or feeling left out. It was a day of dreams and sheer love that filled the school and echoed in the theatre.

The overall performance was divine. It went exactly how we had all envisioned it to and possibly even beyond what we envisioned. The piece was performed smoothly and glistened with sparkles before it took off in an awesome BLAST OFF!!! I may have had a little wobble on the stall as I stood on it however I think I got away with it because it was only a slight wobble and I didn’t react to the incident. In other moments of our piece, such as the pirate song, the children were buzzing and took part in the song. However when we tried to involve the audience in the final song, our luck seemed to have run dry. Although we tried to gain the audiences participation by picking out one child and trying to get them to respond, silence began to take place. The silence was soon replaced with more silence which then returned to our lively song. We took it upon ourselves to make the decision not to try again with the youngsters but to instead keep the song within the cast. The small slip up wasn’t really a slip up at all as it was simply forgotten about and handled well. At the end of the performance I spoke to some of the little children (I also did this as they were walking in) and when doing so also talked to some of the teachers and parents of the children. Everyone I spoke to was thrilled with the piece and enjoyed it despite their age.  This in turn left me being thrilled and astonished when I realized what we had just done. I loved the feedback and joy that we were all surrounded in on that day (even the weather was on our side).

The piece was suitable for our target audience of 3-4 year olds although saying that, there were many babies and adults who had also come along to enjoy the piece and I’d say that it suited them just as much. I suppose you could say that our piece was like a Disney film; it was loved by everyone and kept everyone entertained despite their age or gender. It was a great experience for the family.

I would say that the pirate song was the best part of the performance. It was the part that the children looked happiest and were all surrounded by excitement meanwhile they were engaged as they responded and took part in the song. I don’t think there was a better part of the play that captured the audience’s attention or left them gobsmacked with anticipation.

The biggest skill was improvisation. Although we were given a script in a way (being the book), all of the physical work that we created and the songs were done by ourselves. This meant that a positive mind and inspiration was needed at all times. We needed to have an open mind that reflected that of 4 year olds at times, we needed to reminisce with our childhood dreams and bring them back. We also used a lot of rhymes both because it is a technique used in a lot of children’s theatre because it keeps a child focused but also because it sticks to the classic Dallas Clayton style of writing in his books. Audience interaction was riddled throughout the play both through rhetorical questions and physical interaction.

I was a toy. My character was a 7 year old fairy whose wings had been broken through rough play a few months ago. Care was obviously lost over the years and I had been forgotten about however always had a spot in my owner’s heart. I and the rest of the toys had taken it upon ourselves to seize the opportunity to return the memories to our owner however our owner had now seized the opportunity to develop his ideas, turning us all into astronauts etc. In my opinion, it is basically the life cycle of one person however it is all in a mental state and so just like the ‘An Awesome book’, the dream reminds the owner to dream big always, and so I end up as a happy toy once again.

The process of development was quite easy for me because I love descriptive writing and so made up different scenarios with my character and constantly built on her cons and pros, weaknesses and powers etc. I was able to discover my character in depth by using my imagination and letting it flow freely.

I have learnt that the process can seem long but is in actual fact rather quick and actually quite fun.  When devising with a lot of people as we did, the process becomes longer and slightly harder as everyone wants their ideas to be heard and star in the piece, however when so many people have such similar ideas with only slight differences, those similar parts cannot be in the same piece otherwise it would become boring and repetitive. At the same time, ‘more people = more ideas’ and so the piece could be the beginning to an amazing and idea packed product, just like ours was.

I would say that interaction could have been worked upon, as of course it could’ve been, however, since one of the interactional parts didn’t work, I’m glad that no more were added in case they shared the same fate. So on that note, possibly voice and glitter could have been improved upon. I say this because many people were using their children voices instead of their stage voices which left many people sounding quiet and soft instead of excited and loud. As far as the glitter goes, a performance can never have enough glitter and so of course the glitter could have been improved upon. But despite the possible improvements, I am more than happy with the performance that we delivered and wouldn’t want to change it for the world.