Unit 9 - Burn Evaluation 

When we were first handed the script for Burn I was slightly displeased as I thought it was quite easy and would've rather been handed something more difficult. After reading through it I then looked online for a video of it being performed in a theater to see how it was performed live. This then allowed me to gain a better understanding of the characters and how the actors thought they should be portrayed, this would then help me and give me more ideas for when I tried my interpretation of the characters. I was immediately drawn to the character of Birdman as it was clear he was the lead role and I wanted to challenge myself as best as possible and due to the script I was given I knew the best way to do that would be to choose the main character. It would also mean that I would better myself with the ability to perform lead roles effectively and in an interesting way.

Over the weeks of rehearsal it was quite clear that some of the people were not as prepared for a full script and not dedicated enough for their roles. As well as consistently being late or not turning up, people were not able to learn their lines which made it difficult for myself and other actors to pick up on their cues which would then lead to scenes having to be re-run multiple times. This meant a lot of time was wasted on the actors that did not really care as much as others, I think this was quite clear because on the actual day of the performance actors broke character and could not remember lines. Aside from that there were other things that drew the attention of the audience away from the acting such as a baby crying, a phone going off and general chatter from behind the curtains.

The performance could've been much better if the actors in our class were more dedicated to their roles and took the production more seriously, this would've meant that we could've spent more time making the scenes better rather than spending lesson time helping less dedicated people learn their lines which was meant to be done in their own time anyway. It could've also had been better if people played their production roles more effectively, for example the lack of communication with the Costume department meant that people had no idea what to wear and had to end up either bringing in their own clothes or using whatever was left in the costume room after actors chose their outfits. I feel like the hair and make-up was done very effectively as they managed to transform every actor into their roles in such a short amount of time, which was even more impressive as our teacher failed to order most of the products they requested so they had to make do with what they had.

Although this play did not agree with my personal preference it was somewhat decent. The skill  of the dedicated actors meant that the improvisation when lines were lost was better than if people had actually remembered their lines, it was clear that the audience enjoyed it as there was a lot of laughing throughout the performance and everybody clapped at the end and upon exiting the theater audience members kept coming up to myself and other actors to congratulate us on the show.