Be.Long

The InterACT performance that I watched was ‘be·long’. The performance that night was directed and facilitated by Elizabeth Wellman. The play was devised and written by the InterACT Theatre ensemble in spring 2016. The play took place at the Roy Bowen Theatre at the Drake’s Centre at approximately 7.30pm on the 22^nd April 2016. The performance was  part of a service-learning course and was mainly conversations between characters and the audience for research purposes.

            This was the first ever interactive theatre performance that I have attended. It is a completely different experience as compared to all of the theatres that I have experienced throughout the semester. The play started in Part 1, where a group of students were seen in class at the start of a whole new semester and Part 2 is an interactive session between characters and the audience. I was really interested in the performance as I can somehow relate my own life with almost all of the characters in the play.

I felt a great connection with Mario(Eduardo Lozano). Mario(Lozano) was depicted as a student who does not have any friends in the class and seemed really lost. Even when he was assigned into groups with other students, he seemed scared and did not really open up with any of his group members. To be honest, I felt that way earlier this semester. My first ever semester in a different country. I felt out of place. I felt scared at not living up to my classmate’s expectations, which I imagined and created upon myself. I also felt scared of the consequences if I didn’t manage to speak English properly. I felt insecure. Thankfully, I realized later in the semester how silly I was going on about my insecurities. It’s normal to feel that way, but what matters most is how we adapt and overcome that feeling.

Next, I also can relate to Charlotte’s(Kesley Frustere) situation. Being in a group with her friends, she probably already knows her friend’s habits and decided it was best for her to do the proper research. I myself literally did it once as I was not satisfied with what my friend had came up with on a previous project together. When you know your friend is a total slacker who doesn’t really put his heart into his work, you end up taking the work load upon yourself to get the best of results. It was really horrible of her friends, Adam(Mohamad Quteifan) and Evan(Alex Wilson), to not have even the slightest of interest since the start of the class.

Lastly, I loved how Amanda(Ronda Cristie) improvised on her mistake of forgetting Kate’s(Casey Murray) name. If I were in Kate’s(Murray) shoes, I will definitely feel better if my TA apologised had they forgotten my name instead of pretending to know. I feel it is better to clear things up earlier in the class rather than face the awkwardness later. I’ll also feel disappointed if my TA pretended and will probably lose all my interest and focus in the class. It also leaves a really bad impression on the TA.

All in all, I really enjoyed my InterACT experience. Audiences pointed out a lot of things that I did not even think about in the discussion and the session rolled out pretty interestingly. The performance truly reminded me of myself earlier this year.  It was awesome how people share great ideas to overcome the problems that the characters were facing in their class. I believe the outcome of this InterACT research will prove important for the future.