Kyle Higgins Solo – Performance

While undergoing research for my own solo performance I came across a book by accessible writer Matt Haig who has written a variety of books that deal with personal health, humor, death and the absurd. I found his writing and sense of scope and also deep humanity to be approachable and almost gentle. Granted, his topics  deal with areas that are sometimes the ones we as a society tend to avoid or ignore for fear of opening the figuratively speaking ‘a deep can of worms’. A self confessed manic depressive he give a honest to life account of dealing with depression in an often upbeat and humors manner. Truth be told while reading his book as part of my creative research, I found myself openly laughing about content that I really should be more closed about, however this is where I feel the line between topic and performance truly begin and this is what I want to incorporate into my own performance.

As my own show is a “comedic exploration of procrastination and loneliness” I feel looking at sources that talk about emotion and depression are interesting and insightful as often loneliness can be a product of depression or visa-versa.

One of his chapter’s titled, Life On Earth To An Alien:

This opening deals with some of the ideas that I want to express concerning loneliness, however it has to be said there are moments in this text that could be considered a little bleak or depressing. I want to avoid this, however I do ultimately aim to educate my audience, but I do not want to preach. I want the audience to feel a small sense of fulfillment or ‘difference’ in   change, in a small way of perspectives. I honestly feel his writing style, lends itself to one of a theatrical nature.

It’s hard to explain depression to people who haven’t suffered from it. It’s like explaining life on Earth to an alien. The reference points just aren’t there. You have to resort to metaphors. You are trapped in a tunnel. You are at the bottom of the ocean.  You are on fire. The main   thing is the intensity of it. It does not fit within the normal spectrum of emotions. When you are in it, you are really in it. You can’t step outside it without stepping outside of life, because it is  life. It is your life. Every single thing you experience is filtered through it. Consequently, it magnifies everything. At its most extreme, things that an everyday normal person would hardly notice have overwhelming effects. The sun sinks behind a cloud, and you feel that slight change in weather as if a friend has died. (Haig, 2015, 25-26).

Depression Is…:

An internal war.

A black dog (thanks, Winston Churchill and Dr Johnson).

A black hole.

An invisible cooker.

A pressure cooker.

A devil inside.

A prison.

An absence.

A bell jar (‘I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar,’ wrote Plath, ‘stewing in my own sour air’).

A malicious code in the operating system of your mind. A parallel universe.

A life-long fight.

A living nightmare.

An echo chamber.

Dark and hopeless and lonely.

A collision between an ancient mind and a modern world (evolutionary psychology).

A fucking pain.

(Haig, 2015,  175-176).

The Power of Negative emotion. 

This book I would claim has been both beneficial and a huge hindrance to my developing work as it has changed my own preconceptions of what ‘negative emotion’ is. Overall I assumed that escapism and mundanity were caused by those around you however this book illustrates that it is your depressing surroundings that can cause these feelings. It takes case studies and accounts of those admitting or retelling parts or processes of their lives where they have felt overwhelmed by ‘negative emotions’ and aims to dissect them into the smallest detail. It has been highly useful as a source for both humor and narrative content within my own developing scripts and work. It inspired me when creating a narrative to use some of its text in order to ground my work within a scholarly sense. In many ways it further inspired me to continue my pursuit into looking into self-help books and see the whit and cynicism within them. Some if its chapters make for an interesting albeit cynical read if you are like me, never the less I can’t deny its value within my own developing work.

CHAPTER 1. THE FALSE NOISE OF HAPPINESS

CHAPTER 2. THE RISE OF THE COMFORTABLE CLASS

CHAPTER 3. WHAT’S SO GOOD ABOUT FEELING BAD?

CHAPTER 4. HOW POSITIVE EMOTION CAN LEAD TO YOUR DOWNFALL

CHAPTER 5. BEYOND OBSESSION WITH MINDFULNESS

CHAPTER 6. THE TEDDY EFFECT

CHAPTER 7. THE WHOLE ENCHILADA

(How can I not be sarcastic about this?)

The World Beyond Your Head

 

This book has been an interesting read for me because If I am honest I find myself at odds with the entire thing as it yet again leans towards self help and suggests statements of ‘you are pointless unless you do something about your life’ it has however influenced how I write on the subject of both loneliness and procrastination. This book highlights on elements that in everyday life are made to influence or distract you from advertisements, technology to other mediums. I think this text is interesting as within performance we are being distracted and it is only through concentration that we are able to produce worthwhile material or highlight key issues. However vague this text may be I think I should utilize some of it overdone lessons within my solo performance, maybe use the format of multiple medias in order to convey my overall message.

Works Cited.

Haig, M. (2015) Reasons To Stay Alive. Edinburgh: Canongate.

One interesting aspect of undergoing solo performance is the ability to create content on your own however I myself have found within myself that I am deeply visual learner and performer and even actor. One aspect of my developing solo performance I have always maintained strong links to is the idea of visuals as these either aid or hinder a overall performance and its development, one image can say a thousand words where as several can only say so many. As with my original Idea I talked with Martian about including elements from Chris Goodes’ The Adventures of Wound Man and Shirley, which we examined as a group during one session. I think the most interesting aspect of this text as a solo performance Is the fact that it is unapologetic and almost dreamlike and whimsical, I also like the idea of creating something that is normal while still maintaining the aspect of not being real. Although I  don’t particularly like Goodes’s writing I can’t deny it has amazing theatrical style and is in itself highly clever and approachable. However I think my real problem lies in this text being to theatrical and at present my work is more autobiographical. I shall develop this further in the coming weeks.

The Adventures of Wound Man and Shirley Trailer. 

(Hull Truck Theatre, 2012).

This text taught me the importance of creating a character on stage and I think it could be useful in aiding the overall development of my script. When I talk about creating a character I am not talking about myself as a performer however one of a more narrative driven nature. As Goodes text creates the split duo of Wound Man and Shirley I too could create something similar along these lines, originally I intended to create the idea of a mouse trapped within a performance space and talk about loneliness as one of my original script dictates. (Mentioned previously in the blog, titled A side-plate of cheese.) I think is interesting and should be explored further.

Part of my overall process is the changes that have come during a working rehearsal and through this the exploration of using a bedroom to create my given space.  As exemplified below by (bad photos, sorry) of my rehearsal space.

However crude this may look it perfectly fit my need for my developing solo performance as in essence it provided a accurate idea of the space I would have, it was also interesting as a actor to show a space to myself and this in turn helped me as a visual learner see what I could and could not achieve in the space. The space in itself how crude may look fitted the performance the masking tape shows the overall layout of a bog-standard bedroom with the bed taking center stage, there were ideas for me to create a nostalgic ascetically pleasing performance style I.e. a torch under the covers, however I am not sure how this would add to my performance or if it would hinder it. This could be interesting to explore in future rehearsals. Around the bed was going to be all variety of objects, this appears to be a running theme throughout my performance ideas. (The idea of everyone being together, the idea of possessions and not really mattering. A tad sad to admit.) With this script I also had the idea of behaving like an animal, very much like that like texts such as Rhinoceros written  by Eugène Ionesco and The Metamorphosis written by  Franz Kafka as these plays I find highly interesting and have always wanted to explore animistic performances on stage. However I’m not sure if this is appropriate for a ten minute solo performance.

Time will tell.

Works Cited.

Hull Truck Theatre . (2012). The Adventures of Wound Man and Shirley. [Online Video]. 30 May 2012. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud5jsvC1x4g. [Accessed: 12 April 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].