Our first performance was at St. Thomas More primary school in Letchworth, Monday morning. With it being our first performance in front of an audience this show was an indicator of what does and doesn't work within our piece.
In rehearsals we had a tendency to use more space than would actually be available in most schools and so it meant once we arrived at St. Thomas More we had to make some adjustments to our set. As our set consists of a fold out noticeboard used as a backdrop we had to ensure that the board was placed in such a way that the children could not see around the sides.
The performance went really well and the children understood the story and reacted well to it. We found that the children were most reactive to the "slapstick" moments within the piece, such as the "Chariots of fire" slow motion chase scene and Goldy's "stealth" exits. As in our performances to our peers Mr Pig was received very well and the children would always laugh when he snorted or laughed.
When Mr Pig arrives at Grandpa's house he calls out if anyone is there and the children interacted instantly by shouting out replies of "yes" or "no". The appearance of the Three Bears also caused a large reaction from the children and this highlighted for me just how effective adding simple hand puppets are to a piece.
I think the show was particularly successful but in places it still felt a bit flat and there was dead air in scenes, such as the "McDonald" scene and the "Wendy House" scene. So these scenes were our focus on improving and reworking once we returned to college.
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