How DIY Theatre Influenced My Performance.
My Views.
While developing my solo performance or show one question I constantly kept asking myself was what did I want my audience to see and experience, of course with any theatrical performance you want the people watching you to go ‘Ohh & Ahh!’ anything less feels slightly underwhelming as an actor/theatre-maker. While undergoing research for my performance I used my own realization of what I myself as a theatrical theatre-maker enjoyed and admired, this left me with one option which I can only define as “rough theatre or DIY (Do It Yourself). ” I have always admired a practitioners ability to take simple everyday objects and elevate them into ones of a more imaginative or practical nature; very much like what I plan to do within my own performance.
I myself as a person could be considered highly cynical, so I think I find the non-bullshit of DIY theatre to be a fresh look in a inventive format. But let’s be honest theatre as a working format is always underpinned as something that takes little thought and clings to its past, this looks to its future and openly embraces that challenges of message and imagination. How else could you makes a performance about procrastination without the aid of DIY theatre where you can turn a everyday object into something extra ordinary.
My performance I believe will effectively utilize the format of DIY theatre and through this medium will highlight and elevate how such a pointless, and I openly admit this boring subject into something that borrows heavily from Jamie Woods and Victoria Melody’s theatrical style. It is unapologetic and honestly I think that is what makes it brilliant.
What Is Do It Yourself Theatre?
The term DIY is pretty much self explanatory it is often associated with rebirth or the physical act of reinventing something from a personal perspective, the act of undergoing or to “be independent, or at least ‘self-reliant’” (Daniels, 2014, 7).
However it should be dismissed as being a simple act or process that encompasses a lack of overall thought. “DIY is often associated with an aesthetic that celebrates the imperfect and the make-do-and-mend mentality.” (Gardner, 2014). It has the capability to approach any given subject in a ascetically pleasing and non financially constrained format that allows deeper focus on the content and not on what will and will not please a passive spectator, and allows a deeper focus on outside of the box theatre-making as Tim Crouch states on conventional theatrical methods of devising, “we are brought up in a society where we are not encouraged to consider the alternative” (Crouch, 2011). I would argue that DIY thatre is a relatively unexplored medium that has little research into its orgins, however it does seem to thrive in the hands of theatre makers that want to entertain, educate and create a sense of community.
In many ways DIY theatre could be more associated as theatre for the ‘working-class’ and not those associated with a bourgeois social-norm conventions. “DIY provides an anti-establishment alternative which embraces the understanding that “art exists in questions and ideas around uncertainty and alternativeness” (Crouch, 2011). Crouch says that it rally’s against social-norms, and its importance and relevance really stands on a actors ability to use this medium effectively in their given topic. Interestingly DIY theatre is considered an effective tool when dealing with political issues as it in-itself is a format that is both non intimidating or exclusive as Gardner claims, “DIY is not just about doing it yourself, but also about doing it together and in the process enabling other artists, audiences and institutions through the spirit of generosity.” (Gardner, 2014). It is “helping to bring about a shift in the relationships between artists and buildings, and artists and audiences.” (Gardner, 2014).
Once more into sticky tape and nonsense, or something more fitting to my talents.
Works Cited.
Daniels, R. (2014) “Shit-Good” and doing it myself (with a little help from my friends). In: Daniels, R. (ed.) D.I.Y. (Do. It. Yourself.) Chichester: University of Chichester, 6-13.
Crouch, T. (2011) Edgelands – Tim Crouch provocation (curated by Fuel) Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf7Wz8oiOjE [accessed 27 April 2016].
Gardner, L. (2014) DIY theatre (because nobody else will). The Guardian. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2014/oct/23/diy-theatre-little-bulb-chris-goode [accessed 12th May 2016].