HOT SEATING:

Hot seating Evaluation – Rebeca Wallis

 

On the 14^th January 2013 group we had to be hot seated regarding our Shakespeare monologue and our characterization of our chosen character in the play. My play was ‘Love Labours Lost’ and my character was the Princess of France.

Before I had to be hot seated, I felt that I had not prepared enough for it. I had read the play previously and had watched clips of the movie version and had researched about the history of royalty within the play. Although I had done preparation for it, I would panic and hesitate on questions as I hate being ‘put on the spot’. Despite my nerves, I had gotten up and had done my best.

What went well?

I felt that my hot seating went well and I had answered with reasonable responses. I personally think that I had done well with not hesitating as much as I would normally because of the preparation that I had done. I know the play well and I hope that was displayed in my answers and how I reacted to the questions, despite knowing what question was coming after. I felt really comfortable being hot seated and after a small amount of questions passed I felt the nerves disperse.

 

What could be improved/What didn’t go well?

Some things that I felt could of gone better with my hot seating is to give more detailed responses regarding my character and her life. I believe that I could have created more of a world and life for her instead of giving somewhat basic answers for my character. I think regarding my voice, I could have been slightly louder despite the fact that I was ill on that day and could of tried harder to play the role of my character while sitting in the hot seat.

 

Evaluating others:

There were many people in the class that did very well during the hot seating process. Some looked more confident than others and some gave more detailed answers than the rest. A few that had given a good performance on the hot seating was Ayo, Darren, Prince and Sintesha. I felt that they were very relaxed and comfortable during their performances and seemed very confident with their play. Sintesha gave detailed answers and elaborated on them when more questions were fired at her as did Prince.

Tracey and Stella seemed to lack knowledge about their play but, had given their best to answer questions. Tracey and her play ‘The Tempest’ seemed to fill in the responses with ‘erm, I think’ and ‘I Don’t knows’ showing that she hadn’t read the play and gave minimal effort into researching her character and monologue. Stella on the other hand has missed various lessons but gave somewhat fairly knowledgeable answers. She too didn’t seem to understand or know much about her play but attempted to answer the questions with things that she did know.

Mauricia was in the middle between doing really well and somewhat lacking detailed answers. She gave various answers that showed that she had researched her character and play well but there was times when she hesitated quite long on answering questions whether that was to give a thought process or she did not know the answer, I’m not too sure. She didn’t give off a very confident and relaxed vibe as she sat very rigid and ran her answers out of her mouth at a rapid speed. I had trouble understand some things that she had said as she was speaking very quickly.

Bradley had a different approach to some of the questions. He was very confident and relaxed. Unlike some people who had been hot seated and like myself, gave detailed answers but kept them brief. He didn’t need to use a long-winded explanation to get his point across and his answers were relevant everytime.

Edward on the other hand somewhat side-tracked from his answers. He was confident but was slightly edging towards arrogant which is not always a good thing. He gave somewhat detailed answers but would go off into irrelevant substitutions to answers for example Lord of the rings. I know this was in comparison to his character but was not needed to get his point across and towards the end of his hot-seating he had made a ridiculous noise in which partly ruined his hot-seating because it was unprofessional.

 

Shakespeare Mock Audition:

 

On the 29^th of January 2013 we performed our first Shakespeare monologue to an ex-student, named David from Arts Ed Drama School. He was very surprised at my play and agreed that it was a different and difficult play to portray.

WHAT WENT WELL.

What I think went well was the fact that I remembered my monologue well, and the fact that I understood the redirection and hopefully took the instructions well. I think that I performed my monologue to the best of my ability considering the fact that it was hard to create an atmosphere and feelings in the monologue. I was happy at the comments that David had given me; that I was confident performing the monologue despite my nervousness. I felt that the reason why it went so well is because of the thorough preparation I had done for it. I asked questions on how my character should be portrayed and done secondary and primary research regarding my character e.g on the internet, watching video clips on my play.

 

What didn’t go as well/needs improvement.

What I personally feel that could be worked on and improved is my nervousness and stage fright. When I get frustrated and nervous I forget my lines and what I’m meant to be doing. At one point during my redirection I forgot what part of my monologue I was doing and what line came next.

Also something else I need to work on  is communication. I felt that I didn’t talk or respond enough when questions were asked which could prove dangerous in real auditions as I let my shyness and nerves get the better of me.