ACTING:
•Were the actors believable?
How, or why not?
•What was the performer trying to accomplish?
To entertain you, convince you, scare you, comfort you, etc? Did it work?
•How do you imagine another actor would have handled the role? Why?
•Did you always understand the actor’s objective, obstacle, and tactics?
When did they do a particularly good job, or was it sometimes unclear?
•Did the actors stay true to the given circumstances, or did they sometimes play something you did not expect based on the play?
•Were the actors different when they were working alone compared to when they were interacting with other performers? In what ways?
•How well did the actors navigate the technical elements –working on a set, handling props, and dealing with costumes or lights?
Did the technical elements help their performance?
•Did the performer include physical choices in their work?
What did you think of them?
•After you had seen the show, and you thought back, which moments of the performance really stood out to you –which do you remember the most clearly, or were affected by? Why?
DESIGN:
•What was your first impression of the designs?
How did they make you feel, and why?
•Do you think the design elements solved problems for the production?
•Did one design aspect –costumes, lights, or set –dominate the others?
•How well did the performers interact with the design elements?
Did they look like the costumes were clothes, or something the actors were working against?
Did the performers use the set, or did it feel like a backdrop they never interacted with?
•Were the design elements unified in any way?
Did they work together for some effect or to help tell the story, or did you feel they were separate and distinct?
•Everything you saw on the stage or in the performance was designed by someone. Did any of the design choices amaze, help, or confuse you?
Would you have made different choices in specific cases?
•Do you think the design elements were specific to the show?
If you took a still photograph would you be able to tell this show apart from any other, or were the designs generic?
Was that a choice?
•After you had seen the show, and you thought back, which aspects of the design really stood out to you –which do you remember the most clearly, or were affected by? Why?
SCRIPT:
•How well did the actors portray the written characters?
This is not a question about whether they were good actors or not –do you believe they played the characters as written?
•How did the script fit into the styles we have studied in class? Was it Aristotelian in structure?
Naturalistic in style? Did it employ Epic devices, or evoke moods in you?
Use the language and terminology we’ve discussed in class to try to identify the structure and effect of the play.
•Were there sections of the script that did not make sense, and which the performance either did or did not help?
•Were there parts of the script that were particularly challenging to create on stage –falling chandeliers, flying English nannies, rain?
How did the production tackle these difficulties –and do you think it worked?
•Do you think the production supported or strayed from the script’s story or intent?
•Could you identify portions of the production that were not in the script, or were added in to the performance?
Do you think these helped the story, or do you think they went against the script or the writer’s intent?
•How well do you think the script suited the actors? Was the material too simple or too difficult for the abilities or resources of the artists?
This is not an invitation to offer negative criticism, but playing the 1812Overture may be a bit much for the second-grade music class and their recorders.
•After you had seen the show, and you thought back, what about the story or script do you remember?
Were there particularly beautiful speeches, or a very funny scene, or a specific line that stuck with you?
Why do you think that was so memorable –or do you remember nothing that was said