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Theatre Arts for Advanced Secondary Schools

The sitting plan necessitates performers to aim at reaching everybody in
the room or space. This is not the case in performing for screen. The
camera captures, with an assistance of other recording tools, the action
of the performer in segments and screen after processing with different
shots and other aspects of compositions. The process manipulates details
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of each aspect the audience ought to see which basically close the gap
between the audience and performers.

Challenges of performing for screen, stage and radio
Performing for stage, radio and screen is not an easy task. Performers are in
most cases not at ease when occupying the performing area. They are usually
haunted by a dozen of fears such as: a fear of failure; fear of competition; fear of
forgetting lines; fear of losing emotional control; fear of losing one’s looks; fear
of losing one’s audience. Some performers may thus feel anxious. Eventually,
performers encounter the following performing challenges:

(i) Differentiating between the real and the unreal: Performing is a demanding
activity. To perform perfectly, a performer has to ensure possession of both
skills and determination in order to overcome challenges that might spoil a
career. The foremost challenge that performers face is to note differences
between the real and the unreal. Performers are real persons made to live
in unreal world and situations at the moment of the performance. They
have to artificialize actions that everyone else does naturally. To remain
believable, they strive to project natural life in harmony with expectations
of audience whose daily lives have been used as the raw material in a
preparation of a certain performance.

(ii) Maintaining continuity: Another challenge is related to being conscious
about continuity especially for a screen performer. Filming for the
screen requires performers’ adaptability and preparedness to repeat the
same action several times and in different shots and takes. Recording a
performance for screen makes performers perform over and over again
so as to capture a good performance or to shoot from different angles and
shots. Performers with limited patience find this a challenge, and if not
well guided, they are likely to quit performing. Contrary to screen, stage
performers are free from this challenge as their performance is continuous
with some pauses or repetitions.

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