The Love of Three Oranges!!!!!!

Hello!
On the 27th and the 28th of March, I took part in the MS production of 'The Love of Three Oranges'. I played Celio, the good Wizard, and nemesis to Fata Morgana. This is my reflection:

My first impression of the play when I had read the script was, this is going to be an awesome play. We had been doing Commedia in class so I thought that it would be a great experience for me and that it would help me in my learning. As I read the script, I could tell that  it was a teenage version of the original play because it was full of lazzi and it was just hilarious! During rehearsals, I made contributions like ideas for blocking and small pieces of lazzi that we could incorporate to make the play even funnier. Some early concerns that I had were that not everyone would remember their lines on stage or suffer from stage fright because that would have been a disaster. At the beginning of the term, my skill level was okay because we were studying Commedia in class but there were things I needed to improve on like articulation and projection.

During the rehearsals leading up to the play, I tried my best to go off script and speak as loud as I possibly could to fill the auditorium. To help me with this, I practiced a lot at home with my mum because she studied drama at school. To help with my articulation, I did a lot of tongue twisters because they actually help a lot! I made progress because I was able to fill the auditorium with my voice and still have articulation in all of my sentences. In rehearsals, I learnt how to be a part of a BIG team and get along with everyone! I also learnt so much about live stage performance.

On the 26th (Wednesday) we had a dress rehearsal in which we had an audience of about seven or eight. I think that it went quit well but there were a few errors with sound effects which was okay because it was our first time performing with them. The feeling of performing was really good because the audience laughed at everything. If I were to grade myself using Criterion B, I would give myself a 9/10 because developed many skills and applied them to my performance. My performance also included my personal interpretation because I thought about what I found funny and played the scene that way to make it funnier. I would give everyone a score ranging from 3-9 out of ten too because I think that we all tried very hard in the rehearsal. My score for the ensemble averages out at around 7. Something that was really good was that no one forgot any lines on stage which helped the play to run smoothly and quickly, otherwise the play would have been extremely long. Something that was bad was that we hadn't done a proper full run before so the scene changes took quite a while which prolonged our performance slightly.

On the first night if the real performance, we had over 150 people watching us. I honestly think that it went really, really well. We had gotten feedback from the dress rehearsal and it was applied to our performance. The buzz that we got from the audience laughing was amazing! I would again give myself a 10/10 for this performance for the same reasons though I did improve from the dress rehearsal. I would give everyone a grade ranging from 4-10 because we put 100% effort in. As an ensemble I would give us an 8/10. One thing that didn't work out well was the sound effects because we hadn't rehearsed them enough. This did turn out to make a good thing though which was the improvisation we used when things didn't go to plan. Apparently, it all looked like it was part of the plan to mess up the sound effects which was a good thing too! It made the audience laugh even more.

On our last night performing, we had around the same amount of people watching us. This performance also went really well but I think that the first night was better because the audience laughed more. The buzz was still immense though! I think that I would give myself a 9/10 this time because I forgot one of my lines but it still ran smooth because was in one of my big paragraphs so I just skipped to the next sentence. I would give everyone a score ranging from 4-10 because some people still put loads of effort into the performance and tried their best! This averages out to about 8 again. One thing that went really well was that the sound effects were on time and the scene changes happened really quickly. This meant that the play wasn't 2 and a half hours long! One bad thing though was that people didn't remember their lines as much and were making small silly mistakes but it didn't have a big effect on how good the show looked!

I will take away so many things from this amazing experience. One of the major things is that I now have a connection with people from the lower grades and have so many new friends that I have become really close to. I learnt so much about making your voice heard and about friendship and happiness (the message in the play!). The thing I enjoyed most was performing live on stage for everyone to see and enjoy. Another thing that I liked was hearing the audience laugh because it made me feel really good. Things that I want to work on for next time is my evilness because I would like to play an evil role someday. Another thing is my improvisation on stage.

I can't believe that it is really over! All those weeks of rehearsing and it's finished :(.

It was so much fun. This is and experience that I will never forget!

And they all lived happily ever....in laughter.