I believe overall i did a good job on my performance in children’s theatre the audience laughed at a lot of the jokes that were in the piece and a lot of them liked what we came up with. Of course there was a lot we had to improve on and pointing it out will make my future roles much better. in the beginning the president is talking I felt like it could’ve been more clear who she was talking to its it could be confusing to someone especially children. Our piece is roughly based off our sock puppet performance we did. The stories are the same with two heroes trying to stop a villain who has kidnapped a person of importance. This is not a bad thing this piece is for children so a simple story that anyone can understand is very much needed.
Then when Lauren says award ceremony thats the cue for me and jabs to come on and try to eavesdrop on her conversation, i tried to be all sneaky and over the top with this action since this is aimed for kids when the president is about finish her speech i have to interrupt it and say my line. When i said my line I could have gone more over the top with it maybe shout one the words or something.
The voice i used for ven was a much deeper voice than my normal voice, i did this to emulate the classic hero archetype like how it was in the 1940s where every single hero had a deep and booming voice so they could be a inspiration to kids. Another interesting thing i did was using another voice for this character this voice is similar to my normal voice which is intentional because i meant for ven to sound like a normal guy and when he is in hero mode he does the deep voice. This also makes sense because ven and every other superhero needs to hide their identity. I am glad I didn’t use that deep voice throughout the whole performance because it would have gotten annoying and would have undone some very dramatic moments, just because it’s for children doesn’t mean it shouldn’t have sad moments.
Ven and jet argue about the hero award and who should get it, the interaction between these two characters were extremely important and difficult to pull off it had to be natural in a way like these two characters know each other on such a level they can come up with insults within a seconds. In fact in the original stages of this piece this particular scene was improvised and the final piece retains some of that snappy energy. With that being said i did want to add character to this so i had ven struggle to come up with something at first. Then another funny scene that definitely can get a laugh from the audience was when i say “amazing jet more like amazing jelly” and then proceed to poke jab’s belly. Then the scene where the two heroes argue with each other about saving animals from trees, saving cats from trees is a really classic hero act to do and playing with that idea and putting much more weirder things in that tree is very interesting.
Then the bad guy rabs scene happens, this is interesting because of how it is structured. It starts out with Jordan coming out looking all menacing and intimidating with the imperial march from star wars playing this is a really popular song that associated with evil. All this leads the audience into thinking that the Jordan is the main villain but not shortly after it was revealed that he is not the villain but Hunters character is the ultimate villain bad guy rabs who is not that intimidating. This is really good because this subverts the audiences exceptions, making them think one way then pulling the rug under them and surprising them, in any other story this needs to be done carefully but in this story aimed for children this adds a lot to both characters and is an excellent introduction to the villain. A criticism i could say is that the story doesn’t really follow through and bad guy rabs doesn’t show up all that much which is definitely a missed opportunity. We could have had more of the henchmen and bad guy rabs interacting and opened up more comedic possibilities, i mean what we got is very good and funny but it wouldn’t hurt to have more.
Then bad guy rabs scared ven that he fainted and tickles jets to sleep this was good because it is a good way to show how powerful bad guy rabs is and also shows how useless the heroes really are maybe we got have done something more action packed that would interest kids more and keep their attention but I felt like this is good story-wise. After those three go off stage the scene after was the scene where the heroes realise they are not superheroes and have failed. This scene is interesting because it was a very serious scene so it required conventional acting skills and it didn’t need any of the high energy that we were doing before. This scene is good because it is a scene that is serious in nature and it belongs to this story which is very much a comedy and thats why it works because this scene grounds the rest of the piece and gives our heroes an interesting layer of complexity. One of my only negatives towards this scene is that it is too short, this scene was improvised between me and jabs and it really shows looking back at it we should have worked on it more and extended it maybe explore their backstory or their philosophy or even their friendship and the differences between the two, all of this character work we did like the character sheet and we don’t get to use it.
This is also where the heroes realise they are not heroes and come to terms that they have been really selfish. This isn’t like the typical superheroes in fact it is the opposite because at heart our performance is like a coming of age story where the main protagonists found out what it really means to be a true hero. From another point of view you could see this as a deconstruction of the superhero genre though that concept has existed before for example the 1986 graphic novel Watchmen where the whole story was about superheroes who were not good people and never really cared about saving people, we have a similar concept here ven and jet are not superheroes and will never be if all they care about is the fame and glory and realise that they need a big heart and i think thats a good lesson to kids who will look up to these people. The two realise that they need to save the president and they do a funny handshake, watching back at this scene I realise I could have slowed it down more and let the tension build making the audience wonder what’s going to happen next then do something funny to deflate the tension, because right now it was a little too fast. The funny handshake was a good addition because after a dramatic scene the audience are going to feel sad or confused so doing some funny handshake that makes them laugh was the right move.
The scene after this is ven and jet running to save the president, this scene consists of us running from wing to wing doing funnier actions in between this was a great idea when we were planning it but the execution of this scene was lacking. The main problem with this bit is that it went on for too long we run from wing to wing six times and thats too much we should have done it three times that would have left a better impact on audience and would be more funny. The music we used for this scene was i need a hero by Bonnie Taylor this song is very heroic and has been in plenty of movies depicting heroes so using it here is very fitting. One more thing i want to add is the funny bit before the scene ends is me and jabs looking at our phones instead of running to the objective I should’ve used my phone instead of mining a phone that’s silly mistake.
The scene now is the scene where the president is held captive at bad guy rabs lair. The president antagonises bad guy rabs by mentioning the hero league where ven and jet comes from this upsets bad guy rabs and tells his henchmen to guard her this adds a little bit of foreshadowing and peek at bad guy rabs backstory and it also adds world building like if heroes exist where would they be trained. Bad guy rabs leaves the scene and the henchmen is left to guard the president alone. We get a moment to get to know the henchmen and his relationship with bad guy rabs but we could have maybe explored it more and developed Jordans character more. When the henchmen was about to mention bad guy rabs hatred towards the hero league bad guy rabs calls the henchmen and he runs off then me and jabs run on. The timing had to be perfect because the second Jordan runs off we have to be on immediately. This is really funny because ven and jet are very obvious and it is a very smooth transition. When ven and jet make it to the location they are discussing about finding the president without knowing that the president is right behind them. This is funny because the main characters lose all hope and then the president says i’m here and ven and jet reaction is very calm maybe we could have had a bigger reaction to finding the president but i think that would ruin the comedy of this scene. One negative i have with this scene is that we didn’t have any rope to tie up the president we didn’t even need rope really anything would be good here.
Then bad guy rabs and the henchmen comes out and tries to stop ven and jet. Right here jabs does a really funny fighting stance but i did a really serious one which in my opinion was a wasted opportunity to also do a funny stance that adds to my character. Bad guy rabs tells his henchmen to attack but he says that he has stretched so bad guy rabs tries to do it himself, here maybe we could have had a funny scene where the three could have had a game of Rock Paper Scissors or something of that nature. The president stop the fighting and its here where bad guy rabs backstory is told to us. The president asks the reasoning for his hatred towards heroes and his says the hero league rejected him because he was too short. The way we did this scene is interesting because when he says he is too short he says it really quiet and ven and jets keeps asking him about it until the henchmen says it i think this adds a lot a nuance to the villain, there’s a famous quote by writer Ben Bova “in the real world there are no villains, no one actually sets out to do evil, there are only people with problems struggling to solve them” bad guy rabs is not a bad person he was just rejected by the hero league for being too short and this led him down a dark path. Ven and jet try to do what heroes do redeem the villain. When we find out about the truth about him being short jets laughs for second and then says “i wonder who came up with that rule” then we all look at Lauren, this is a really funny bit but i think it might be a little out of place considering the context behind it but it doesn’t last that long and adds character to jets and adds more dimensions and questions about Laurens characters. I should also mention that when the president tries to talk to bad guy rabs she moves her chair in a really funny manor that can get many laughs from children. Ven and jet say that bad guy rabs should not be here and should live in Petronious(a frictional city, where ven and jets live). Here i say the line “without destroying it” the delivery of that line before was very calm and I didn’t do anything with but during the final performance i put a very sarcastic spin on it which i think works better because it’s much funnier. When bad guy rabs agrees we all shout “yay” which is a funny way to ease the audience because undoubtedly they would be on edge because the tension is building and the audience will be wondering what will happen so letting them ease up like this was a good decision. Then the president is free from her imprisonment without explanation and we look at her then we continue celebrating, this is really funny because if doesn’t explain anything about how to the president got free and is a complete mystery and it would have been better if we had some rope to accompany this joke.
The ending to this piece is a very simple one we end with the president awarding both heroes for their hard work. We debated with ourself whether or not we should give bad guy rabs the award but we ultimately didn’t because he would realistically try to work for it. Me and jabs turned to each other and breathed heavily three times using the rule of three effectively. Then we have to say the line “yes miss president we wont disappoint” this was challenging because during the rehearsal i kept butchering that line and ruining it for jabs who said it with me. But in the final performance i think i said it well and in rhythm with jabs. The three characters leave and me and jabs turn to each other and exchange lines with each other then one final joke happen when we try to leave jabs goes the wrong way which i need to tell him he was going the wrong way. This is funny but a few thing that if I could go back i would correct first when we leave the scene we walked really slow we could have sped it up a bit and secondly there were multiple times when we were really far away from the audience and that really will ruin the performance if we not careful because the people in the back will not see us but overall i think i done great.
In terms of costumes and props i had a white Elvis suit with a red cape originally my costume was different instead i had a grey suit with a white hat, a cape and a mask this was too much and the hat and mask really obscured my acting abilities so the change was necessary plus the costume really stands out and it looks like something a superhero would wear. During the dramatic scene with me and jabs i got rid of the cape because it would be hard to handle during the next scene and again it might obscure my acting.
When I realised i was playing a superhero i really wanted to emulate that in my performance. In preparation for my performance i looked at a lot of old superman shorts during the the 40s and came across this one https://youtu.be/aIeAQyWzAbI this short was structurally smiler to our story and is where i got the idea to do a deeper voice was for my character.
Vishnu children’s theatre blog 