A ‘terrible’ lesson in procrastination.

Here’s a thought, what if my performance/show is awful? what if it is so bad I leave everyone deeply disappointed and underwhelmed. It’s an interesting idea you have to admit. I’ve had many ideas throughout out this process ranging from pieces that would have been better suited to performance art, varying to a full blown theatrical performance. I think at last I have found my show.

‘OBJECTS OUT THERE: A NON-STARTER EVENT.’ It’s simple the show is terrible, there is no acting and it is just me talking, killing time… trying to justify why I am doing what I am doing while being lost in my own head. It’s an constant idea that I have been exploring throughout my devising process, finally I think I have figured it out. The show is simple, un-complex and unforgiving. The ascetic is simple and make-do, the humor is bad and generic, all in all it is simply a waste of time (this is it’s purpose) I don’t want a audience to feel emotionally-invested or content at what they have seen. I want them underwhelmed, I want them annoyed they wasted the precious moments of their life with me, in my space.  I’m going to use a simple style, plastic-back filled with objects. (Random, un-ordered chaos.) Ping-pong balls, Jellybeans and half-eaten bowls of cereal’s. Simply put it’s a mess, be it a theatrically organised mess. (There has to be order somewhere.)

My style.

I am going to adapt my ascetic style to one that gives the connotations of ‘make-do’ everything is what you see, there is no pretense. All objects situated on stage are what you could find in the real world, (with a bit of imagination to help elevate them further.) My inspiration comes directly from a small Lincolnshire based theater company titled, ‘Flick book’.

‘FLICKBOOK THEATER’.

How to describe ‘Flickbook Theater’? Small, unique, charming, uncomplicated… Simple. Simply put everything you need in a theater show. (Hence my enthusiasm for my own show.) I’ve always been a huge admirer of their style and context. However not directly linked to my own work in subject matter, their overall style is what I am going to adapt within my own performance/show. All of my props will be obvious and no needed explanation. In many ways, I want to create a relaxed and free atmosphere outside of theatrical social/normal conventions. I also feel I am drawing on my experience from watching Jamie Wood’s “Oh no” with certain use of props, in many ways there is a very playful nature to what I am trying to achieve and convey. As he states on what his performances is essentially made up of and what he hope the experience delivers:

“The period of conversation, thinking, exploration and experimentation, the discovery of languages for each particular piece feels like mixing colours whilst the construction of the piece with its structure, tones and rhythms feels like applying paint to a canvas. To create a piece of work that belongs collectively to a group of people, who share a particular period in their lives as they wrestle with specific questions and ideas is an extraordinary privilege.”

(Jamie Woods, 2016).

Homemade  beating McEnroe

(Jamie wood Performer, 2016).

The most interesting point for me within my own conversation is a Jamie Wood’s states above. ‘[a] period of conversation, thinking, exploration and discovery, the discovery of language.’ In essence I hope to convey a conversation between me and my audience. I hope that through a un-intimidating atmosphere I will achieve this. Interestingly both theater makers use a easy, laid back atmosphere to convey their conversation/message.

“…we felt theatre must be: joyous, live, alive, exciting and accessible.”(Fickbook theater, 2016)

They describe themselves in thier manifesto as:

“We document and imagine.
We listen and interpret and translate.
This is theatre for us and you.

For the people that get left out of the story books,
For the Nine to Five and the routine,
And for fantasy, and imagination,
And all the wonderful things that just haven’t happened yet.

This is theatre that takes life as it is.
That doesn’t sugarcoat or mock.
Theatre that glories in the little absurdities of real life.

The Flickbook Theatre Philosophy:

Whatever floats your boat (but doesn’t sink anyone else’s).”

(Flickbook Theatre, 2016)

(Google Images, 2016)

Works Cited.

https://sp2016higginsk.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/wp-admin/post-new.php [accessed 05 May 2016].

http://www.flickbooktheatre.com/our-mission-statement/ [accessed 05 May 2016].

http://www.jamiewood.org.uk/performer/[accessed 05 May].

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=google+images&safe=off&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=643&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi4wKPh78LMAhXEaRQKHXVlCDYQ_AUIBigB#safe=off&tbm=isch&q=flickbook+theatre&imgrc=3n0d4fzlcEBOOM%3A [accessed 05 May 2016].

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