Evaluating my product as an artist

I will be reflecting on my journey as an artist towards achieving my artistic intention and the
journey of me performing a monologue that I had intended to help the youth, I will be
reflecting on how I utilized the global context and the statement of inquiry into my artistic
intention and how I have developed as a perfomer.

My artistic intention was to perform a monologue that will be advocating for the youth to
deeply understand what love is and the challenges that someone might encounter while deeply
engrossed in love.I wanted to evoke feelings of joy in my target audience as I deliver my
artistic intention. I wanted to use my voice which was my main area of focus, body movements
and facial expressions to meet my artistic intention. My voice would evoke and set the mood of
my target audience.

During my Perfomance I managed to use all the techniques that I had intended to .Based on the
Perfomance I displayed ,I have got a lot of comments from the target audience .Since my main
message was to make the audience understand what love is , I tried to perform well as I had
intended in task 2.Perhaps I did not do my best according to the target audience and maybe
they found it interesting o mean that I did my best..The comments from the target audience are
very essential since they let you grow as an artist and to know the areas of
improvement.Through my character hope I tried to achieve my artistic intention.

Strength (What went well)

Based on the responses from the target audience, I did well in terms of body movements, voice
projection and facial expressions. These are key elements in a play or any artwork as far as
delivering the artistic intention is concerned. These key elements really helped my monologue
to be successful.Our voices matter as much as our words matter.They have the power to
awaken the senses and lead others to act, close deals or land us successful job interviews.Since
my artistic intention was all about love, I tried my best to use a happy tone to depict the
feelings of happiness towards my target audience.Voice projection and tonal variation goes
hand in hand in any play so I decided to use all of them at a time to enable my audience to feel
part of the monologue and to give them an easy time to digest whatever message I was
delivering .

The use of body movements was actually a brilliant Perfomance technique that assisted my
artwork to become successful.This is because there were some points of the monologue that I
needed to hold my body parts such as hand and face and physically touching those areas
enabled the audience to relate to the scene. Making them engrossed to the monologue and
understand my artistic intention was the objective of the monologue.Body movements are
important in various ways other than making the audience feel part of the scene.It is also
essential since it conveys the emotion, portrays characters and create a connection with the
audience.My posture and use of the available space also emphasized a lot on my intended
purpose of message delivery.Postures and use of the available space also conveys the
intentions and personality traits.It was my job and personal initiative to use those techniques
not only to make my artwork interesting and enjoyable but also to use these techniques
effectively and consistently to ensure that the audience understands who the character is and
what they are feeling when the monologue is being delivered.

What led to the good use of voice?

Basically, it is all about practice.Since a good use voice can enhance a perfomance and make
the story engaging I had to make sure that my projection is at the top notch.I projected my
voice loud enough to reach every corner of the theatre without sounding forced and
strained.This helped the audience to understand every word that I was saying thus helping my
artistic intention and the message being conveyed to be successful.

Vocal variety also led to the good use of voice. I modulated my voice to reflect different
emotions such as anger, happiness and sadness depending on the scene.The vocal variety
included changes in tone, pitch, and pacing and thus helped me to make good use of the voice
as the main perfomance technique that I was portraying.

Weakness (What needs to be improved)

As I was perfoming ,my audience noticed that I was too quick in terms of message delivery,
and this did not meet my intention in task two.I had intended to use a slow-paced voice that
would enable the audience to capture whatever word that I was saying.This is one of the areas
that let my artistic intention not to be at the level that I wanted it to be at.I need to pause and
make the audience be part of the scene .I intend to include pauses in my next artwork to avoid
such inconveniences.The use of perfomance techniques such as facial expressions was not
clearly shown.The audience were even shocked to see me smiling when the mood was
sorrowful. Despite of the fact that I created a rehearsal schedule when almost perfoming and
facial expression was included there, I did not showcase it.Since facial expressions are used to
make or bring a scene and their impact on an audience’s perception of the story is immense, I
think my monologue lacked all these because I did not use facial expressions appropriately.I
believe that an actor’s face is like canvas that they paint with different emotions that their
character feels, enabling the audience to understand what they are thinking and how they react
to situations.

Use of space is also a key technique in terms of message delivery.Even though I used it on
many occasions, but it was too much.This was a comment given by three of my target
audience.They said that it was too much, and I was moving even in areas that we’re not

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necessary.I need to minimize it even if it is a technique used in performance. Since space
creates a specific atmosphere and help convey the story’s message effectively, the audience
found difficulties in relating to the monologue’s atmosphere.

Skills learnt during the delivery of the artistic intention.

Perfoming involves a lot of skills that an a tor must or should possess in order to deliver a great
perfomance .A good artist should memorize their lines ,understand their character and
communicate effectively when delivering their main message.Without these essential skills of
a play ,I would term my perfomance as a failure since it has not met the core of an
artwork.Actually ,I was able to gain all these skills as commented by target audience.I
memorized my lines effectively and I did not encounter any challenge with my lines
Memorization of lines takes time but I took my time and planned for everything and that is the
reason as to why I created a rehearsal schedule in task two .

I also understood the character that I was portraying because it is also a crucial
skill.Understanding the character and the main message were amongst the main skills that I
gained, and I was happy that peers commented about that including my teacher of
drama.Communication is also a vital skill that actors should possess while performing ina play.
Whether it is talking, singing or even nonverbal communication, actors must be able to
effectively communicate so as to grab the audience’s attention. I was able to gain all these
skills and they really made my artwork a successful and I am impressed that my audience got
the message.

How I gained the skills

Since I had made a rehearsal schedule in task two during development, I made good use of it
and that is the reason as to why a gained the skills.Training matters before the delivery of a
monologue. It makes the artist confident that their artwork will be successful. Training before
the performance really enhanced the overall quality of my performance.It helped me learn
about my lines and to know the correct timings.Despite of the skilled gained, training through a
play is crucial to develop the ensemble among the cast.Working through the play together
helped to build my chemistry and to develop deeper connections between the characters that I
had chosen for the performance.

It is very true that to acquire the skills at a time is very difficult, it like chasing dreams that are
not realistic.In order for efficiency, I practised together with my drama students and other
performance experts so that they could give me feedback on the technique that I was focusing
on.This really helped me in terms of my development and it helped me gain the skills that I
have stated above.

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 The most interesting part of my monologue

As an artist, self-evaluation is key in terms of keeping you growing and making you a better
performer.The part I found interesting in the monologue and even the audience agreed with me
on that was the part that I was emphasizing on what is a name in love? I really emphasized on
that part because it was the part that I wanted my audience to clearly understand.Despite the
fact that we come from different families that enmity has taken control of them, love can still
exist and function as intended .As it said that love is blind, it cares about nothing .If love itself
does not care about death so what is a name? I found this part very interesting, and it really
stood out in the performance.

Was the artwork successful?

That is a question that must really disturb an artist like me after any performance is done.The
success of an artwork really relies on the hand of the performer.My artwork was successful but
I would like to improve next time since I did not use a low-paced pitch as I had intended so I
still have a room for improvement .I would like to perform an artwork that does not have any
negative comment just like William Shakespeare (the father of literature) did.He is my mentor
in terms of performance so I would like to be like him and perform at the peak or best of my
ability.

What I would like to improve on

Since I had realized my main weakness as being quick in terms of message delivery,I would
like to use a slow-paced voice that will enable the audience to understand each and every word
that I will say.It was noticed by the audience that I was too quick.I would also like to improve
on my facial expressions.As much as our voices matter in a play, I find facial expression as a
significant technique too.In my next perfomance ,I will ensure to use facial expressions
effectively in order to convey different emotions during the play.

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