Dags: Play Analysis

The play ‘Dags’ is based on the life of a young teenager going through the changes in life and facing everyday issues. The story line involves the struggles as a girl is growing up and discovering relationships with friends, boys and family. With the troubles of boys breaking up friendships and friendships breaking up family relationships, main character Gillian discovers what is really important and what is just a false expectation of reality.

My character in the production was a significant role and helped shape the personality of the main character. She helped improve and tell the story line. Monica was a young social cripple that was best friends with main character Gillian, and the two of them share each other’s thoughts on life and together share the same passion for food and hate for fake girls. Monica’s character is an important character to be able to understand the story line easier. With the two characters being able to share their life experiences and tell each other there problems it creates a relationship between them that reflects throughout the story. With the relationship becoming in jeopardy from the need of popularity and boys Gillian learns that friends are more about quality rather than quantity. My roles importance in the roll was not compulsory but does include a roll that makes the play come together more, and define the main characters personality and lifestyle further.

There are many different choices that have been made to the set to alter the effects of the how the play is presented. The stage was set out in a professional manner with the use of props being very creative. The use of the area being divided into three separate stage areas made the use of scene changing easier and helped the audience to understand the setting. The stage that we were provided with for the production had very limited space and little room to work with but we used what we had well. The costumes that were use were very simple and effective. With majority of the play being in school uniform, all of the uniforms were easy to provide. The uniform represents the characters and how they are all coming together at a school involved site and all have to experience their own problems in their teenage lives.

The lighting throughout the lay was well organised but small areas were left for improvement. The most effective areas were the stoplight and the colourful lights. The sounding was organised very well also with the use of sound effects were very important to add a higher effect and create a more understanding scene. I helped the audience to realise the different scenes and understand the story line.

The venue that was for the viewing of the production was of limited choices and was held at the local town hall. This venue was perfect for the small production that was being held and seated al of the audience. The provided lights and sounding options were perfect, and the backstage access was fantastic.
The acting that was presented in this production was done very well. I have never acted before and I did struggle to remember my lines, but with the help of the cast it was forgotten and covered up very well. I did not use the right technique to learn my lines and with the nerves of first time acting I froze up and struggled to get my lines right. I was very nervous and paranoid of messing up and this affected my overall performance. Other than a few minor slip ups on words and a couple of forgotten lines it was overcome well and was overall a well-acted performance.

The production overall went well, with some minor staging issues then most difficult being the costumes of the main character Gillian having to change multiple times, with limited amount of time. The way her costumes were put could have been improved but still ended up working well overall. The set worked well and was very effectively. The actors in the production acted very professionally during rehearsals and during the production.

Our class worked well as a team and put together a good production. I am proud of how our team worked together and I believe that without the help of everyone this production wouldn’t have been possible.
I do believe we could have improved the attendance throughout the rehearsals and overall that would have improved the performance. Overall it was fantastic performance and lots of fun. It was a great experience and thanks to everyone in the production crew who helped make this possible.