Producing Ideas to Move the Project Forward

Costume- When designing my costume, I was asked to make it link to Prospera's through the use of leaves. I also think that by using leaves it connected Miranda to nature, and allowed the audience to understand that she has been raised on the island. I thought that because leaves are green, this could be a theme colour, and I could use different colours of greens to make it look more naturalistic. When cutting the leaves, instead of using plain green colours, I used old T-shirts with patterns to make the costume fit in with our adaptations with the script to suit a modern audience, as it also made the costume look more abstract and interesting. I learnt that Prospera had a cloak in her costume, and to link Miranda and Prospera's costumes further I added a blue transparent chiffon cloak to create elegance and innocence towards the character of Miranda, but to also make a link to the fact that Miranda and Prospera are related.

I think that it was also effective during the performance, when the cloak flowed in the wind to represent the idea of nature and to allow the audience to understand where the play is set, which is outside and on an island. 

Set- When we were told that we were using 3 blocks at the front of the stage for our set, I immediately linked them to status and thought about how I could use proxemics to create status for Miranda at different points in the play. During the Performance, I improvised and stepped onto the front block when Miranda subtly proposes to Ferdinand, as it would have been seen as 'wrong' for a woman to propose to a man in the 1500's as there was inequality towards woman and nothing was done about it in those times. Whilst I used the block I felt that it worked effectively because it raised my character's status towards the audience and made it more clear what I was doing, as the sound of the wind and cars in the background could distract the audience from my dialogue, therefore this would have allowed them to understand what was happening within the narrative at the point in the script.

Example of the Improvisation in which I interpreted the stage blocks, and Myself and Max used exaggerated facial expressions to add humour.

Throughout rehearsals I ensured that I was constantly contributing ideas towards my scenes. Due to the fact that my character requires little interaction with the majority of the cast, I felt that it was appropriate to make the decision to create a dazed characteristic for Miranda, which also added comedy. I decided to use comedy in my performance because it is one of my strengths and would therefore naturally bring the pace and energy up throughout my scenes, and I also feel that it is important when working as a duo act that you bounce of what the other character is doing and saying using improvisation, to prevent the scene loosing energy, and since Max had made the decision prior to me to make his character a comedy character, I made the decision also based on this to create a contrast between my character and Max's character, and my character and Izzys' character.

Miranda's relationship with Prospera is mother and daughter, therefore I made my first scene in the show with Izzy portray this by adding levels in my voice to show frustration that the stereotypical character has with their parents in the beginning of the scene, but when Prospera begins to tell Miranda a story whilst manipulating her, I decided to show a weaker side to Miranda by talking slowly and quieter, and changing the dynamics of my movements. I think that this worked well for our performance because when I spoke to a member of the audience, they were able to see the effects of manipulation from Prospera towards Miranda in this scene and it helped them understand the narrative more.

I changed the 'cover' character I used when Miranda interacts with Prospera, for when Miranda and Ferdinand had their own scene, where they met and talked behind Prospera's back without her approval, from the moody teenager that I have previously spoken about, to the awkward and confused character which creates comedy. This was to represent the fact that Miranda begun to realise who Prospera really was, and started to focus on who she could trust. This worked well because in the performance at BOAT, the audience were laughing during the scene to confirm the humour, and this impacted the energy and pace in a positive way.

During the performance, I realised how I wasn't interacting with them as much as I have in previous classical productions. I think that the reason for this is because usually it is easy to interact and get the audience involved in classical theatre because that is how they were performed during Shakespeare's era, and a lot of characters had the opportunity to do this during the performance, but for Miranda, her own storyline involved trying to find someone she trusts and to not interact with the audience clearly shows that she is looking for something. I did however, interact with the audience when Prospera begun questioning Ferdinand when he and Miranda were trying to flirt and impress each other. This was an impulse decision during the performance which was a result of the high energy created, and I feel that it worked well because I was speaking aside, and letting the audience know that my character was embarrassed, but I wanted to portray the idea that she didn't want Ferdinand to see that she was embarrassed. This also created humour  and therefore made it successful because it linked to the atmosphere of the scene and characters.

By adding comedy to my character, Miranda, specifically in the scenes with Ferdinand, I feel would have made the performance more appealing and interesting to a modern day audience. This is because usually classical language is hard for a present day audience to keep track of because it represents a whole different language almost from the different time periods, therefore makes the audiences loose interest quickly, and I feel that the comedy and manic energy between the characters brought the energy up, which would have made it more interesting for the large audience. I think that due to the fact that the stage was so large, as were the audience seating, it was difficult to maintain the energy of the scenes because they were blocked with smaller movements to fit the theatre at college, therefore during the show myself and Max used improvisation to create movements and gestures to create comedy, and used exaggerated facial expressions to make the gestures more clear to the audience. For example, during the scene where Miranda and Ferdinand meet for the first time, Max held my back, and I leaned backwards in a slight back bend, whilst showing a tense and awkward facial expression, whilst Max begun grimacing facial expression to represent his character attempting to kiss Miranda, but wasn't sure how. This worked well as it emphasised both of our characters, mine as being awkward and unsure around other people, as she has never met a human other than herself and Prospera, and it emphasised Max's exaggerated 'dumb' character. This was effective because the audience laughed. To improve this I would have liked to have made it more clear for the whole audience, as the stage is a thrust stage, therefore the audience are at the majority of angles. To achieve this I would have faced the back to make Max's facial expressions more clear, or face sideways to the front section of the audience to make two sides of the audience, and the front see at least one character.

Examples of our improvisation, in which we tried to emphasise our awkward characters through the use of comedy and facial expressions.