Berkoff/ A Woman Alone Final Performance

Costumes/Makeup Final Decisions

Today in our lesson we did our final performance of or extract of A Woman Alone! Here are some pictures of the costumes and makeup that we decided on due to a) us not being able to wear face paint -Megan, who plays the housewife element- is allergic to it, and b) we couldn't wear sexy nightdresses to school.

Melody playing the Psycho Element

Picture showing the juxtaposition between our different character traits

We decided on this makeup because it is kind of mime like and the Berkoff style and makeup is inspired by mimes. Whilst we didn't have incredibly white faces, we didn't really need them because we're all so pale anyways (England, woo!). Also, the black lipstick we decided would help the audience understand that we were all the same person and was a representation of our unified voice as The Woman. Also, our costumes are all in black and white, but they are inspired by our elements of The Woman.

We decided on:

• Sexy Element/Emily- having a full face of makeup that is kind of drag queen like, extreme, colourful eyeshadow that is noticeable, with huge eyelashes and lots of blusher, with the black lipstick; black dress with black tights
• Psycho Element/Melody- Gothic makeup and black lipstick in a frowning shape; band t-shirt, ripped jeans, converse - all black and stereotypically gothic
• Bubbly Element/ Me- Lots of blusher, minimal eye makeup, and black lipstick in a happy/smiling shape with two dimples on either side; white dress and black tights -juxtaposing the Sexy Element through costume, but still similar to show the link between us both being idealistic toys for men to play with
• Housewife Element/Megan- No makeup except for lipstick, lipstick goes to the side- extending lips in a sort of frown; white dress shirt, black trousers, apron

Final Performance!

Things that went well: 

• Pace- which was something we were consistently concerned about was good and we remembered all our lines, certain of each section that came next
• Establishing our characters- I think that our group did this particularly well, using costume and makeup and throughout the rehearsal process...giving people fitting lines and movements that represented the elements of The Woman genuinely

"Stay still you cretin, stop pulling at me..."

"What are you doing? Let go of me!"

"What'll I do!?"

Things to improve on: 

• Reactions - the Berkoff style askes for huge and over exaggerated reactions. We needed more reactions and bigger reactions between each other and the audience. For example, when we do synchronised reactions -we could do them more between ourselves as well as directed towards the audience. 
• Staging- because we hadn't really gotten to practice in the space that we were preforming it in, the proxemics of the stage were slightly off and often the riser wasn't centred as it should be or the person speaking (being the voice!) wasn't in a place that was easy for the audience to realise who was in control.
• I also messed up once, and accidentally put my 'gun' down too early, so I would change that if we did it again.

"This is no time to start playing jazz!"

The end of our extract of the play