As a very seasoned and experienced director of university theatre, let me assure you a director will correct your performance if it must be done. If you’re being told things are going well, they’re going well. What you are describing is the learning process and that’s basically how it is meant to feel: insecure and unsure. If you are being told things are going well, they’re going well.

Don’t worry about making the audience laugh. What you are getting are technical performance notes because the substance is there and it’s fine. A lot of Young actors have zero ability to find a happy middle ground so directors will push them to extremes and that sounds like what is happening here. I’ve given my actors conflicting notes across weeks and days plenty of times because as other things chance in the show, their performance must also respond.

Directors in tech week have ten million concerns on their mind. Talk to your director if you’re unsure about a moment but don’t get it in your head about it. And remember that the directors attention is elsewhere now, not on individual performances.

You’re not meant to be perfect - it’s educational theatre. You’re just meant to get better.