What did you think about the overall performance? 

I really liked our overall piece. I feel it worked well with our stimulus, and it was fun to perform and hopefully fun to watch.

Was it suitable for the target audience? 

I think it was suitable for our target audience, because visually it was nice to look at, there wasn’t many words therefore it wasn’t too complicated to understand, and we often used physical theatre to communicate with the audience.  Also because our costumes were bright and colourful hopefully that really grabbed the children’s attention and made them want to watch our piece.

Which piece of our show worked the best and why?

The part where the ‘toys’ say “I wanted to be…A robot / A racing car driver / A fairy....”, worked the best because we used  simple language which the children can understand, along with music and images (the cloud). I think this worked because it looked really interesting from a young person’s point of view. I think that the fact that the timing of the triangle and cloud were in time worked really well as I feel it created a sort of magic feeling for the little children.  Also, the movement that we performed after the lines were said were clear and appealing for young children. It also gave us time to interact with the audience.

Which devising skills were used to make the piece?

Devising skills that were used to make this piece were, rhythm, physical theatre, music and audience interaction. I think this skill was well suited to ‘an awesome book’ because throughout the book it used rhyming. It is also a good way to communicate with small children.  

What character(s) did you play and how had these been developed? 

I played a doll and an office worker who couldn’t dream. For the doll, in the beginning of the unit, I developed my character by thinking about typical clear toys the children play with and pick the one most suited to me. I gave myself personality traits, which helped me pick a voice and body language. I also feel that picking a costume helped as it was really bright and colourful, which helped me develop my character into a bubbly, high, energetic character. For my office worker character, I imagined myself to be an overweight character, in a dirty office suit, I got this inspiration from stereo-typical characters from TV. This helped me develop my walk, facial expressions, and actions.

What have you learnt about devising? 

I have  learnt that it is easier and more effective to go away and devise pieces in small groups because then you get a variety of different ideas, and the creativity level doesn’t drop, because there is not just one person giving the ideas.

What could have been developed further and why? 

I feel like more practice of call and response with the audience because during hey world, no one spoke in the audience. I feel this was because we probably came across as intimidating from the children’s point of view.  Therefore,  I feel like this needs  development because it didn’t work when we tried it out, so, I think we need to work on communicating with children through theatre to make them  feel more confident and less intimidated.