Month: March 2016

 

This rather crudely drawn design follows as part of my original idea based around the subject of night-terrors, the idea behind this bed was that it would be built out of strong white/black water-pipe as this material is both cheap to acquire and also easy to assemble, I also toyed with the idea of making part of my performance be about construction as often children at night will find new ways to procrastinate in order to avoid the dullness that is falling to sleep. When re-thinking my idea however I was concerned with the amount of time that I would need in the overall construction and did however consider having a section of the bed half-built, in order to stick to the time-frame.

I was originally inspired by looking at amateur interior designs and the imagery they evoke when dealing with children, over-active imaginations and Not wanting to go to bed.  In some respects the very act of building a bed could be the performance, however I was reluctant to pursue this as it could be compared to to an earlier university module of sight-specific and pursuing solo performance I wanted to avoid this for obvious reasons. I also think construction in a performance is some-what overdone and can often come off as cliche, without it being integrated into the performance effectively. I even considered constructing my own “Light-people” that would help give a more child-like quality to my performance.

“Dramatists frequently make use of symbols and imagery. These can richly support the impact and effectiveness of a play, allowing directors the opportunity to enhance the meaning of a playtext through drawing out the imagery or symbols in production.” (Cooper and Mackey, 2000, 91 ).

If I am honest I am a visual performer and I often can not become engrossed in a performance unless I like the visuals that are taking place on stage. I will however stress that I still watch a performance for content and not for spectacle however having something to draw the eye in a dull performance is always a good thing. Also under the bed as mentioned in a previous blog post I wanted a large car-mat, using this type of constructed bed would potentially hinder my performance and god-forbid it could completely collapse on stage, if this happened I am not sure how I could bluff my way through this.

Works Cited.

Cooper, S. and Mackey, S. (2000) Drama and Theater Studies. United Kingdom: Stanley Thrones Ltd.

Reasons to be cheerful Part three. (Oxblood66, 2009).

Tony Hancock The Blood Donor 

https://youtu.be/IzJdS59ZiwA

(TurboToilet, 2013).

 

Martian suggested I explore these within my work. I shall indeed.

 

 

Works cited.

Oxblood66. (2009). Ian Dury – Reasons To Be Cheerful Part 3. [Online Video]. 8 June 2009. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcjh1a9Yoao. [Accessed: 12 March 2016].

TurboToilet . (2013). Hancock’s Half Hour The Blood Donor Part 1. [Online Video]. 11 June 2013. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzJdS59ZiwA. [Accessed: 12 March 2016].

The Fine art of giving offence by Julie Burchill.

This week we all had separate meetings with Martin, we sat and discussed multiple ideas concerning my performance from staging, lighting, and imagery. Martin seems to think that the topic of loneliness would be interesting to explore as we all as human-beings have experienced this in some form or another. Immediately I had several images conjured up in my mind on how to express this subject and how to make it approachable to an audience. (Will be talked about in a later post.)

We discussed multiple ideas on how setting my performance within a bedroom with be open to interpretation. I already had a few key ideas on what I could do with a bedroom setting, however I was struggling on how to make a solo performance based around night terrors. We talked at length and we talked about loneliness and how through my own life I had dealt with my own loneliness and the images  and words that had been conjured up from it.

A helpful suggestion came from Martin who suggested I look at a recent article in the NewsStatesman, at first I was reluctant however through reading the text it allowed  me to see how this one section could be used, developed when expressing both the disadvantages and benefits of loneliness. Through rewriting or perhaps taking separate lines throughout my performance I could convey the subject of loneliness in a fresh all be it striking manner as exemplified by Burchill’s almost direct tone, I think this statement is provocative as it gives a fresh look into class-divides and how people can be affected via paranoia or criticism or simply due to their status claim in a hierarchical society.

I also think this subject does worryingly lend itself to mental-illness, however this is a subject I want to avoid as I feel I am not the right solo artist to tackle this diverse and often taboo subject matter.

We also discussed the idea of imagery, how using lights and torches could be effective when conveying the stereotypical imagery of a child’s bedroom at night, maybe creating the sense of an enclosed space will metaphorically give the idea of being alone in a subtle way.

The fine art of giving offence.

“It is important to recognize that such gossip is not just a verbal form of “gratuitous violence” is not pointless or unnecessary, but in fact has a perfectly reasonable purpose, and clear of social benefits… Negative gossip also promotes social bonding between the gossipers. By criticizing someone else, we are affirming the values and opinions we share with each other-  emphasising what we have in common, cementing our friendships, building alliances.” (Burchill, 2016).

Works Cited.

Burchill, J. (2016). How Half Man Half Biscuit have forged a career mocking middle-class idiocy. NewStatesman: 4 March. Available from  http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/music-theatre/2016/03/how-half-man-half-biscuit-have-forged-career-mocking-middle-class [accessed 13 March 2o16].

 

For the purpose of understanding I would like to explain my staging idea as I feel my writing is sometimes unclear or messy.

I had the idea of using a large bed that could be both a bench and a bed.

Underneath the bed I was going to have a large make-shift car mat that could be used with the audience to create a journey of night terrors. I also had ideas on how I wanted my performance area to look like, in my head it would a pentagram as it gives the imagery of supernatural or slightly out of the ordinary experience.

However I also want my stage to be approachable but maintain a purpose.

I have also simplified my idea of the drawings above the bed as I felt due to the time constrain I would be unable to draw hundreds of drawings for this performance.

I did however simplify my workload by developing a almost child-like mobile that would hang above the bed, and spin around creating the idea of uniformity and deranged mental-state. I was inspired by the playful approach from the text The curious incident of the dog in the nighttime. This  text uses strong imagery of a young-boy with Asperger syndrome who struggles to understand the basic conformity of everyday life an his place on a social scale.

The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh

This painting by Van Gogh paints an almost idealistic backdrop on which to base a solo performance, it is both beautiful and horrifying at the same time. Van Gogh is rumored to have suffered all of his life with epilepsy and this proved both to be a gift and a curse, blessed with his own unique painting style he was able to portray visuals unlike any other artist today. As one of his more famous paintings I feel basing a solo performance inspired by this painting, would be an easy and a effective use of imagery. Basing it around the subject of night terrors also juxtaposes the calming and almost trance like feeling you get when looking deeply into Van Gogh’s work. I do not take exploring the subject of night terror’s lightly, however as a frequent member of this state of psychosis I feel I am apt a approaching this topic.

I want to let the audience enter into a bedroom that is situated in a stairwell, above it will be hundreds of varying in size drawings that are hanging down with different strands of red string attaching them to the ceiling, each drawn by me and with different artistic mediums. I want the stairs to be a physical representation of age and the process of change throughout life, however at this present moment I do not know if I will be able to find a stairwell that could be occupied as working performance space or if lights and sounds would be able to transferred into this performance space.

The Scream by Edvard Munch

The performance itself will also take inspiration in its varying tone from another famous painting of Edvard Munch’s The Scream which was originally inspired by a bridge near Munch’s path to work. It is rumored the depicted man is that of one of the pedestrians that would go to this bridge and willingly commit suicide from the fall. I love its striking visual style and vibrant, murky use of tone.

I feel this too is an effective source of imagery  for a solo performance as it is the complete opposite this Gogh’s work and could arguably be used to convey the emotional status of someone trapped in a living nightmare. I also have considered a one on one solo performance, in which I would have a large bed in the stairwell and ask the participant to listen to me talk and have them share their experiences of things that go bump in the night. (No pun intended.)

My only reserve on this is if I was to have a random spectator, would they feel able talking to a complete stranger in a intimate space? I was also wondering how this would affect being observed or graded as it would defeat the objective if there was more then one person in the room…

I’m honestly not sure.

I may have to consider this in future performance Ideas.