Evaluation

The rehearsal process of this piece was challenging. Not only were there issues with health and safety hazards we also had to find a new space. We brain stormed many ideas however we really struggled in finding an interesting site responsive piece. Once we were in the new found site the rehearsal process became slightly easier. Exercises such as looking at what's in the space and wondering why its there helped us find a story line. 

Both spaces we had chosen offered a similar quality. This was secrets. The first site was in a hidden area looking as if it shouldnt be used and the second site was behind a primary school. The fact the site was behind a primary school gave us the idea of using an age restricted theme. This lead us to the idea of drugs. 

In our scratch performance we outlined too many issues such as sex, drugs, abuse etc. This made the space and the piece its self cluttered and confusing for an audience. We lacked an element of surprise. Overall the scratch really wasn't in a good place and was actually quite boring for audience members.

After the scratch we realised a lot of work had to be done and it was too late to change the space and its themes. Therefore we found our best way to work with it was to adapt the space. We used found objects to resemble to shanti house/shooting gallery type theme. Although this meant it wasnt organic to the space we still used it to create elements of surprise and themes that go on within these environments such as weather conditions being cold. 

The day of the site specific performance came and we efficiently set up the space using our found objects. We tuned into specific details, even as far down to language. As shanti houses are usually set in counties abroad we thought we would hone in on Brazil, where the largest shanti town is that attract drugs. Therefore we had portuguese writing up on the wall saying do not pass to direct the audience on their journey through the space. The use of cardboard on the floor also gave the audience a path to follow. Our element of surprise was a drug deal going on behind the gate. 

The feedback from our scratch performance made us want to change the space, although at this time in the process it was too late we found ways to over come this problem. As our space was quite large we decided to narrow it into a corridor size space to give us less to work with so we were able to create detail. I enjoyed how we were able to build within our space and reflect as closely as we can to a shanti house. I thought it was interesting how the audience got different views from inside and out of the space we created. We used holes in sheets to look through and pass things through. 

I think our piece still needed a lot of improvement and our idea perhaps could have been more experimental, however i still believe our demanding piece worked well. There is always room for improvement but i do believe we reflected on a space closely and made it imaginative by creating shelter within the space to reflect our theme.