I prepared for my performance by starting several vocal exercises/warm ups to get my voice ready. Afterwards, I started going through the text and deciphering what the piece was about and who I would be and how I would act/feel. I believe understanding the text/character gives the actor the advantage of being onstage with confidence; if they were to forget lines but have understanding, improvisation becomes easier. I’m often a kinaesthetic learner, so I went through the text applying texts to gestures such as hand movements to make it more easily memorisable. 

I utilised several exercises such as tongue twisters (‘Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers’; ‘red lorry yellow lorry’) to help with my pronunciation and clarity, so that I wouldn’t slur during the performance. Another exercise was working on my breathing to calm nerves and to allow to me carry my breath subtly through my projection. This exercise consisted of breathing in for 7 seconds (via mouth), holding the breath for 3 seconds and then exhaling for another 7 seconds (via nose). I also played around with the text, finding where pauses create the most tension.

I decided to have an upright confident posture; slightly broad shoulders, head lifted parallel to ground, feet hips width apart; not only for my authorial character but because this posture allows a person to project better and have better control of producing sound from the diaphragm, rather than throat. At points of tension, I.e. “what more do you want me to say?” my posture became a bit more enclosed, as my character briefly faces the floor and ‘looks away’ out of guilt for perhaps having to be harsh, to which I raise my voice slightly more and put more emphasis on letters so that speech is heard clearly at the opposite end of the hall. 

I think my projection and use of breath control meant the performance went well. My projection was consistent from the start, even on lines that might not necessarily spark tension such as “he’s nice, he’s kind” and my use dynamics made the character feel real and relatable; whereas a monotone monologue would have been alienating. My control of breath allowed me to project well, as well as bouncing back from suspenseful pauses with power.

To improve my performance I feel I could have changed my voice to more of the stereotype for a concerned brother, displaying purposeful panic through my speech (“He’s WAY into drugs”), which would have created more of a suspenseful tension during pauses if executed well. I also think I shouldn’t have overdone rehearsing my lines before performing as I felt more pressured by myself and could have been more motivated at displaying the character by the time it came to performance.