#gracewalsh

[miskindance2012]

Stalingrad Review:

I watched the performance of Stalingrad on Thursday 10th October. Having seen the piece before I was intrigued to see how the character could be brought to life by some different people and how well they took on the roll. When first seeing the piece last year I didn't really understand what the story was about and switching from different scenes every so often did confuse me lots and didn't allow me to be drawn into the play with the characters. This time round the story seemed to be a little more clear and obvious to me. I found that there was a group of gangsters that had more there from Georgia and they were in the middle of the war in Russia but seemed to also be getting on with their normal life as well by having a laugh and playing cards. There were many other different groups as well such as the Germans, the Russian snipers, and also the family of one of the gangsters as he had to attend a deal there and got them into trouble. Throughout the play we see many different trouble that people have to go through which were played very strongly. I feel that many of the story lines throughout really got to me and showed real deep emotion and portrayed many real life stories that happened during that experience. It was very difficult to be able to sit there and hear about the real life problems that happened throughout the war. The costumes throughout the play were very realistic and showed who each different character was so it was easy to show who was who without getting confused. All the gangsters had very realistic costumes with the suits with the fedora hats which made it look very 1940's. All the German's had very smart uniforms but didn't look very warm for the conditions they were suppose to be in but it allowed me to separate them as Germans. The snipers costumes were very realistic as they were white and were used to camouflage into the snow. The lighting for the whole show was very different but was able to see each and every actor on stage and in the part of the play which was good. Each different lighting really set the atmosphere of each scene and really portray the emotions shown throughout which really allowed you to be apart of the show. I also liked the fact that there was live music throughout the show which created a very warm atmosphere to the play and was much better than just a track being played I thought this was very effective and was also very professional. I do feel that the musicians slightly let me down as I could hear them talking throughout the show and this did distract me at times from what was doing on on stage. Many people throughout the show really stood out to me like the old lady which was in the house with her family as she was very funny and brought a very comedic side to the whole show. I also think that the main gangster was also a very strong character throughout the piece and stayed in character throughout. Personally I do think that some of the language in the show was very inappropriate as I could see quite a few young children around me and felt that they shouldn't have been hearing that language. I think that each actor was very focused and in character throughout however some people were stronger than others and this really caught my attention. Overall I really enjoyed the performance much more than the first time and found the acting to a very high standard from some of the cast. This time round I did understand the story a lot more which allowed me to be drawn in more by what was going on on stage. I do think that they all worked very hard to put on a show of high standard and hope to continue to see this determination throughout the rest of the shows put on at the theatre. 

[miskindance2012]

Without Words Review:

On Tuesday 15th October we all got the chance to watch all the Without Words pieces that were put together by the actors and the new dancers. I found that knowing what the stimulus was it was very good to see how each group had portrayed the picture in many different ways. The first piece was very scary but performed very well by each actor. From my point of view I thought the piece was about someone loosing their baby, but they all used the umbrellas to portray this. The piece was very distressed and seemed to have a lot of emotion throughout. I feel that the girl in the centre of the whole piece kept her character going very well and seemed to stay in character throughout the whole thing considering she didn't actually do much on stage and I always found myself going back to watch her. I think each person in the piece had a great amount of focus.

The second piece I really enjoyed and I think was one of my favourites. At the start I didn't know what to expect from the piece as it started all lively and happy with sort of like a party/celebration. I also liked the fact that they wern't in black but they had changed the colour to white. They used a prop which was a blue cloth which was used in many different and clever ways to create different illusions effects on the stage which made it more interesting to watch. Throughout the piece the music and lighting also change to reflect what was going on on stage at the time. I think each person stayed in character very well and this was very good to see. I think that they all took on a lot of emotion for the piece and portrayed this throughout. I did find the piece very sad towards the end but it was good that they portrayed the effects that someone dying has on another piece.

For the third group they also used a prop which was a cloth but was a different colour. I like how both the groups used the same prop but used it in very different ways to portray the actions that were going on. I really like when they were using it as a parachute and you could see certain people in the middle doing all different actions and this made it alot more interesting to watch. I didn't really understand the piece as a whole but could see that there was alot of distress throughout and was a very emotional piece which each actor showed throughout. I do think that it let me down not really knowing what was going on but still enjoyed watching the work that they had put together.

The forth piece seemed to be the dancers which I was quite excited about seeing on stage from previously watching the piece in the studio and giving them feed back. I really enjoyed watching all the new dancers getting used to the stage and seeing how far that they had already come. I did see that some of the dancers had really great focus throughout the piece but some people did let the piece down with the shark eyes and some people still seemed that they didn't know what they was doing. This did catch my eye for the wrong reasons and needs to be taken in to account. It was very good to watch my fellow company and too see how each person come forward to the challenge so close in the year. I really enjoyed the piece and was able to understand it very clearly.

The last piece was by the HND's and I really did not understand the piece as a whole. From my own perspective I thought the piece was about a love story and how two people couldn't be together for certain reasons. They remained very focused and in character throughout the piece and even when they weren't doing anything they were still in character which I thought was good. They used many props to portray the piece and how they were 'fighting' against each other which I thought was good. I didn't really understand who each person was apart from the 'main leader' of the group. I do wish I could have understood the piece more but still enjoyed watching the work from our fellow performers at the Miskin.