Collaborative Reflection (halfway point) Strengths/Weaknesses

One of the strengths of our project right now is that it has a very well developed plot. We have decided what is going to happen when, and in what order these things will take place. This has been true of our project from the beginning, and while our project isn’t very complex with our sequence of events, what happens in each scene, and the emotions of the characters are the more complex aspects of our project. Another one of our group’s strengths is our interaction with each other on stage as characters. We have definitely been working on the dialogue between characters to make it more like what people would say to each other during a conversation. I think the first scene between the “real” Ellie (Helena), and Sophia (Caroline) has definitely come a long way and they have improved a lot on this scene since we started this project.

One of our weaknesses right now is the scene during the dream between me and Caroline. During this part she is at the war base and I am at home writing her a letter. We have just started working out the blocking and timing of this scene and it is proving very difficult. What is hard about this is that we have to make sure that it makes sense for the audience, and that they know that we are in two separate locations. Another weak part in our project right now is that we are still trying to figure out where Helena’s bed is going to be during the dream scene. We don't want it to be in the way but at the same time we don’t know how we would get it out of the way. These are both problems that we are going to have to solve in the weeks leading up to the due date. 

As a group I think that we need to work on just making sure that things make sense to the audience in general throughout the entire performance. I think that it may be hard to follow for the audience when we go into the dream and then come back out. However, lighting and sound can both help with that and those are things that we haven’t really touched upon yet. 

Individually, I think that I need to work on reciting my monologues as well as my blocking while Caroline is at the war base. I also think that I might need to work on making my monologues a little longer because Caroline needs more time to go through basic training, and right now all she has time to do is clean her gun. During my monologues I think that I need to work on making a better progression of emotions throughout because I don’t know if the ones that I am portraying right now make sense for what I am reading.