Wednesday, November 16

Macbeth Matinée- November 16

Today was our first run through with an audience. We had about 5 or 6 schools come to watch us perform. We had to leave school early, at around 12, to get hair and makeup and costume, as well as have time to practice fights and scenes we found difficult. Everybody was a little nervous about todays performance, we were worried about the smoke machine/lights not working, missing lines and cues, backstage was not the loose environment that it usually is.
The first act was really good. Nothing went wrong at all. Since a majority of my scenes are in the first half (discussion with Macbeth, killing of Banquo), so it was very rewarding to get through the first half with no problems. Knowing that the first half was a great success, some of the pressure I felt started to go away so by the second half, I (and i think the whole cast) got to enjoy and relax.
The second act was good as well. Other than some small slip ups with "Birnam Wood" scene and the tree we had to hold up, everything went quite well. The audience did laugh and some peculiar things, for example when the other murderers and myself killed the kids, they laughed vivaciously and cheered. They also laughed at other scenes that were not meant to me comical, for example, the scene in which Gabby wails and tries to wash the blood off of her hands.
Overall, the audience really enjoyed our play and we enjoyed performing it for them. It was a great experience in terms of what it feels like performing with an audience.