Evaluation - Shelagh Stephenson's Five Kinds of Silence

Evaluation

The play we used for our practical performance was Shelagh Stephenson's Five Kinds of Silence  it begins in the immediate aftermath of a gunshot—sisters Janet and Susan, in the presence of their mother, Mary, have taken a shotgun and killed their father, Billy, who is played by me. All are perfectly calm, accepting of the absolute necessity of their actions, immediately willing to confess and take whatever consequences are coming to them. The rest of the play is an examination of the history of this family, and eventually a circling back into the moment of the shooting. The sister’s journey through a legal process that feels indescribably gentle compared to the terrors we learn about their home life; their history is brought out through interviews with police investigators, attorneys, and psychiatrists, as well as the letters Susan and Janet write to their mother from a minimum-security prison. Also, is the powerful figure of Billy himself, both appearing as a ghost or spectre in their minds and their scenes, and addressing the audience directly to tell his side of the story from his childhood to the moment of his death.

I feel that the first performance went well for me and my class mates because everyone was excited and full of energy. I felt that I was nervous throughout the afternoon show because it’s the first time; my class put up a production and had to be a company. Although the rehearsal process was challenging, I manage to get through it by focusing and taking back negative and positive feedbacks. My first appearance in the show was when we were all on stage and I was standing up with a straight face, clothes had to be nice and nit. We were trying to portrait a very strong image, letting the audience know that I have more authority than others. Next step was every male actor was walking off stage one by one I was the 3rd to last to leave the stage and walk off with a straight face.

My second appearance was when me and my colleague were acting like the drunks parent coming home late from a night out, the way I manage to deliver this role was to loosen up my body, dropping on the floor, let my arm swing freely. I wanted the audience to get the impression that we were really drunk and fighting at the same time. I also thought the way we used the bed as one of the Billy’s were doing his monologue in the bed looking and sounding scared at the fact me and my colleague were drunk and fighting.

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