Question 5
How successfully did your final performance communicate your aims and intentions for the piece to your audience?
When we first began developing our piece we believed that our piece would be primarily aimed at a more mature audience, however from our dress rehearsal we found that younger audiences seemed to grasp our message. I found this to be particularly positive as a younger people in general are more likely to be swayed by the various methods of propaganda such as the media. Our intent was ‘those who are meant to protect us harm us the most’ and we thought it best to present our ideas as a montage.
With our Argentina scene I wanted to educate the audience on the events that occurred in the nation.I also intended to emotionally affect them as we depicted the horrors faced by people under the oppressive rule of the military junta. I did not anticipate the impact the scene would have upon the audience as one member was brought to tears which surprised my group and I. I think the use of verbatim theatre in the scene was particularly effective as we had a direct firsthand account of the events sparking an emotion reaction from members of the audience. I think this scene in particular captured our audience and they understood the historical reference we made to this regime which was made evident when we questioned them.
I think the government cult scene could have been improved as evident from the response we got from our question and answer session it was clear