Assessment 2: Tonia Shepherd

Question 1:

Open play is a straightforward yet dazzling way of devising new material. Watching from the outside of the open play session, I felt as though I was watching a performance already devised and rehearsed for many months. It was so mind gripping to see the how the communication and interaction between the characters helped them to naturally develop.

After observing the process of Porto as a whole and focusing on the individual progress of characters, I found the improvisation as a distinctive eye opener. Many of the characters illustrated different characteristics that they themselves did not anticipate. Characters started to interact with other characters they had no intention of communicating with in the start of the process.

The open play session was definitely of use for the progression of Porto. For the characters, Royona and Paul it opened a whole new stem of ideas of scenes to be created or explored later on. Many new relationships were created and many alter egos unmasked.

This session would not have been as effective in the early stages, as many of the characters were still unsure about their purpose in Porto.


Question 2

Visualising the opening of Porto from the audiences perspective was hard initially as I, myself to not have a character in Porto. It was hard to visualise how the audience would interpret the performance. I then realised I did not need a character to depict the audiences interpretation of the piece, and once I realised this, the interpretation became effortless.

I began to question whether or not the audience would comprehend the opening scene. Would they identify with cast being characters in Porto? Would they know what Porto meant?

As an outsider documenting the process of Porto, every week for me is watching the piece from the eyes of the audience, although I have knowledge and understanding of the characters throughout. Trying to discard all knowledge of Porto and concentrating on visualising the opening scene, with my mind being a blank canvas to begin with was hard, but I removed all understanding of Porto and the characters within to gain achievement of the task at hand.

Initially I was uncertain what potential Porto had. I was unsure as to whether the original idea could create as good material as last year’s performance of Fractal. Since being given the role to document the process, it has given me the chance to gain a deeper understanding of the different characters within Porto. This in turn has helped change my starting perceptions of the concept.



Question 3

The already devised material needs no additional narrative. The intensity comes from the actions and the emotions of the characters in Porto. I personally believe that the less dialog the more effective the piece will be and the more the audience are forced to focus on decoding different signs within the performance.

Dialogue should not be used within this piece unless there is a definite purpose for its input. Using unnecessary narrative can distract the audience for the immensity of the performance.

I believe later on opportunities to input further dialogue may arise but until then the narrative at the beginning, is all Porto needs.