What Makes Performances Good

Also, today in class B period wrote a short reflection (a paragraph or so, sentences not bullet points) on what makes these performances good, what makes the poetry come to life, what keeps you engaged as an audience member.

You can speak in general but use specific examples.

It might be also helpful to note what makes you disengaged as an audience member, what makes the performances weak or boring although it is not necessary to call out specific people.

A period, please complete this for homework and post on your blog.


Some things that make performances great are the uses of sound, through both the music that they played and their reading voice. Students achieved this with their chosen music, many people decided that they were going to use more natural sounds like rain falling or wind to demonstrate what season they were in or the environment because we didn't have a lot of set design or props. When specific people brought out more unique props like a globe or a mask, I thought it was more interesting to see what the purpose of the object was.

Going back to voice briefly, when people changed their tones or volume it was more interesting because it not only gave the poem a voice but it put in personality and engaged the audience.

As an audience member, I feel disengaged if the speaker is monotone and doesn't express emotion. I also become disengaged when there are barely any props like only a piece of cloth over them, it is hard for me to understand what they are trying to point out and emphasis. I think that little use of stage or only moving around small amounts, and I do this a lot, makes it hard for the audience to focus because there is nothing changing so you don't have to constantly be paying attention. Also, it is harder to focus on the poem when a person is speaking to a small audience, I think that sometimes in class when we perform we don’t speak as loud as we would form a larger group in the same space because we think that there are fewer people so we don't have to be as loud, but it makes it hard to hear and takes away any changes in voice that you could have.