I think that my group’s first draft was exact that; a first draft. There were many things that people liked that could be elaborated on and other things that needed to be clarified. And overall, the entire adaptation needed to be practiced a little more. I received a lot of both verbal and written feedback from my classmates, which was very helpful.
One problem, in the beginning, was Abby’s role. For many people, it was not clear who exactly Abby was. Also, her relationship with Sam needed to be established. I think the easiest way to fix this would be to just have Sam address Abby as her mother. Another way to really push their relationship is to have Abby touch her shoulder, or give her a hug to give that physical contact.
One major change that we want to make is with the relationship between the Madonna and Josephine. Many people said that they did not understand who exactly Abby was after the Sam crossed the river. Some thought that Abby was a doll, others just didn’t know who she was. After explaining what we meant for her character to be, we realized that it might be better if the Madonna only talked to the Mother until the Mother was arrested. I liked this idea because it gave the Madonna a very specific role in their lives; she was there to protect them. This becomes clear because only Sam can talk to or even see Abby. Abby only talks to Sam, but she can see everything that is going on. After the Mother gets arrested, Josephine is left alone. Because of this, Abby can now talk to me as well. This also can be further established with a conversation between the Madonna and Josephine explaining the situation.
One thing that I felt was a strength and a weakness was our set. We have more than three different sets that need to be changed in the middle of our entire play. We decided to use the triangles from the School of Rock set for the river because it allowed the mother to move through them as if she was crossing the river. It also made it easy for Abby to come in during Sam’s crossing. I think that because it was the first real time we practiced moving the triangles, it was a little confusing, especially at the beginning. Another thing to think about is the amount of set pieces we have that will be needed to be moved in between scenes. It was difficult for the three of us to move them and even with others to help us, it may still be a lot. Making sure that all the set pieces that we have are essential to the scene is an important step. For example, looking back, there doesn’t really need to be a bed in the house.
The biggest thing that our group needs (aside from the script changes) is more practice with the blocking and the lines themselves. Once we have our script finalized, it will become a lot easier to portray the characters. I think that individually, we must all do some characterization work. This will help the various relationships become more clear for the audience. More practice will also help us become more familiar with the lines which will, in turn, create more of a presence and more acting onstage. Overall, I think that it was a pretty good first performance for the amount of ideas that we had going into the project. With the improvements that are coming, our adaptation will evolve into a very unique and effective scene.
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