Monthly Archives: December 2013

My initial idea

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After the class experiment on Marina Abramovic’s Night…., I began thinking about the concept of stillness and how people react mentally, physically and emotionally. I began asking myself what were my own insecurities about myself, inwardly and outwardly and how an outsider, who has no inclination of what the meaning behind the performance would take on it.

In our groups, we individually came up with ideas for our performance and I followed on from Marina’s performance in staying still and what happens during a period of time in the same position. Instead of sitting we would be standing, separated across the room and members of the audience will come in without any  knowledge of what’s happening and can join us by staring at us.

By doing this I believe that it will bring the notion of insecurities within ourselves, the performers. Some of us may not like people starring at us for too long because we might not like a feature of our face, while others may be more confident in the way they look. During our experiment of Marina’s performance, I was intrigued by the various reactions the class had towards the trial. Some believed that their every thought was being seen or heard by their partner sitting across them, therefore bringing them out of their comfort zone.

Naomi

 

 

Techniques and Rehearsing Styles (2)

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Another technique I looked at was non-performatic texts, which is anything other than a theatrical script.

An example of this are:- Receipts, credit card statements, Flyers, take-away restaurant menus, Notes and reminders.

By looking at these form of texts in a performing style, creates a different manner of reading them and broadens one’s mind to plenty of theatrical opportunities.

 

Being able to  obey your own pre-decided rules in performance gave an outcome of interesting prospects.

The rules before experimenting through performance are:- The only lines you could say were words on non-performatic texts (eg. flyers, receipts, notes), if you wanted to speak you had to lie down, if someone picked up one particular object everyone had to laugh, the performance space only included the shade, you could not touch the sunshine with your foot.

By  experimenting and obeying these rules, for a few minutes,we were memorised in a captivating performance as everything was improvised and people were able to bring together their team working skills.

 

 

Techniques and Rehearsing Styles (1)

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Whilst we were experimenting different ideas leading up to our final performance, we have gone through a variety of rehearsing styles and techniques

Proto-Type Theatre

During our lesson we were able to experiment with Proto-type Theatre’s concept of performance by having three candidates sitting at a table, which had three microphones and three scripts laid out in front of the rest of the class. In performing this, there were a set of rules allocated. One was that the lines of  the script is not appointed to anyone, therefore any of the three candidates are allowed to read whatever line they liked. The second was that if two people  said the same line they should continue in unison and the final was that silence is also an important factor as well as the dialogue itself.

From an audience perspective I found watching this performance quite fascinating, as each line delivered would not and could not be performed again as the performers would be biased towards the lines because they would have to put on an act instead of it to flow naturally with natural responses.

The spontaneity presented in the performance was  something explored in our devising process especially in the audiences behaviour. An idea we came up for this was, in one out of the five stations we would have a place where the audience could write their feelings and we would write ours on a piece of paper and together place them in a box. We would have paper and pens and a placard explaining that if they wanted they can write something about themselves (any insecurities or a deep secret) and put it in a box which would not be opened at any time. Also we would have a station which offered some sort of beverage, handed to them directly from us which makes it impossible to experience the piece we were doing twice, for they had a knowledge of what was to come.

Naomi

Reflection Time

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After all the nerves, technical problems and sourcing stage weights, we ended a successful three hour performance on December 11th. Working up to the performance over the last nine weeks has been stressful but so enjoyable. Its opened my eyes to so many new things, to look at things in a completely different way and to ask myself more questions when I go to watch a performance/ installation or just in everyday life.

Everyone else’s stations seemed to have gone as well as mine did. With having a set time slot for each participant, meant that it would run smoothly. We made sure that none of the participants would see each other while they were doing the circuit of stations. This was beneficial because it gave the sense that they were the only person in the room and that we were only concentrating on them.

The way that we had set out the stations was very important because we wanted it to look neat but we also wanted it to effective to what was happening in each station. When the participant entered the room, there was a path which lead to a door way into the space.

The list as follows:

Station 1- The Welcome Table – This station was in the centre of the room with the other stations dotted around it. It was in the open space because I felt that it shouldn’t be closed off like the others were as it would ruin the concept of being welcoming and happy. This station was general chat about life, which could have lead to any other topic of conversation, whilst drinking from tea cups and eating cake. Before moving on to the other stations I gave the participant a little bit of information about what they were going to experience without giving too much away. I also gave them the option of a get out clause if they felt uncomfortable with anything along the journey. I then explained that if they did say they weren’t uncomfortable they may be asked why.

Station 2 – Anonymous computer chat – This station was the smallest out of the five because we wanted the space to be intimate like they were enclosed in their own private world. When on a social network site you’re usually on your own and it’s on a personal device which is why we wanted to make it as personal as possible.

Station 3 – The Human Body – Again we wanted this to be a personal enclosed space that felt comfortable for the participant in order for them to be able to open up and talk about parts of their bodies that they liked or disliked. This station was behind a curtain in a small alcove in Studio 1 (another reason not to use the flats).

Station 4 – Hugging – In the work in progress showing, there was a lot of debate about how the hugging would come across to a participant. There were comments along the lines of sexual meaning, however we didn’t want it to come across in this way. From this the decision was made that the hugging would be done stood up so people wouldn’t feel uncomfortable. This station was quite open with just one divide that blocked the view from the rest of the room. We felt like this station didn’t need to be small and enclosed because it was to try and make the participant feel more relaxed, maybe.

Station 5 – Screen Test/Live Stream – This was the last station because we wanted the participants to have time to reflect on the different experiences and issues that might have arose. From the participants point of view they were just sat reflecting, however they were actually being streamed live. We didn’t want to record it because it would become something different so we decided just have it as a live screen test instead as a one off.

The last ten weeks have been a massive rollercoaster of emotions, there’s been times where all we want to do is find out more about what we can work and other times we really struggled to find inspiration.

For me personally, my station was very difficult because it put me out of my comfort zone into something that I wasn’t familiar with and felt very nervous about. I find it very difficult to small talk with a stranger. There was a moment when I was sat in front of a participant and I suddenly got all flustered, my mouth went dry, my hands were sweaty and there wasn’t really much I could do about it. I relate it back to the Abramovic experience I had when I had to stare at another class member for a period of time, where there were points in that experience where I felt the same way.  Whereas with other participants I found it really easy to talk to them about what they had been up to and what they were looking forward to.

Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience and hopefully one day we can take our work into the public and do it for longer than three hours to really get down to those hidden secrets that people keep locked away.

Is this the end?

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In response to our performance on Wednesday 11th December, I feel  that the experience as a whole went alright. However, it was difficult for me to personally judge how the experience went as I didn’t get to see the reaction from the participants or feel what kind of atmosphere had been created in the room as journeys were made. It wouldn’t be right of me to discuss the performance as a whole because I would just be making assumptions so I can only really discuss how my own station went and the feedback we received afterwards. The setting up of the performance was pretty easy and simple, I feel as though I achieved my goal of making it a comfortable atmosphere to walk into and one where you can relax.

Throughout the process I had been debating whether to make a set list of questions that I could have asked the audience member however I decided against this because no two participants would respond in the same way. ‘The actors are likely to improvise large portions of the performance based on their individual impulses or audience response’ (LaFrance, M (2013) p.514). I found that to be true with my own performance as I created a list of basic questions which could lead to other topics of conversation. It was then up to me to improvise and think on the spot as to which direction I wanted the conversation to move next. I could have easily had a set list of questions and followed these through without straying from them. I gained some interesting responses to my questions. One participant in particular became very annoyed that he didn’t know who it was that they were talking to. Time and time again they kept saying ‘Who am I talking to?’ to which I couldn’t give them my name as this would have changed the whole dynamic of the station and could have easily become a personal chat if the participant or I revealed who we were. I had to think of a response on the spot as this is something I hadn’t predicted might happen. I ended up saying I am just a person who wishes to get to know you a little better. This seemed to work for a few lines to which the participant then asked who I was again. This time I replied I am somebody, who is nobody important but who wishes to become your friend. They seemed to accept this and the conversation began moving, they still seemed reluctant to give any information at all away so I took it back a step and shared more about myself to which they seemed to start to relax. During feedback in our little group at the end this one participant was discussed because every time they moved to a new station they would ask the actor whether it was them that they had been talking to. This was a really interesting response because it felt as if they had to know who it was, they couldn’t accept that they wouldn’t find out.

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This station was only 10 minutes long, which was great for the conversations where the participants didn’t seem to want to give anything away no matter how slow I took it. It was also a negative thing because there were times when I felt like the conversation was just getting somewhere and I would be looking at the clock and thinking Is this the end? I really wasn’t ready for the conversation to end. At some points when they had said goodbye I was even tempted to write ‘No please don’t go just yet’ but I knew we had to stick to the 10 minutes otherwise our system wouldn’t work. I wasn’t ready for that conversation to end I wanted to keep getting to know the person more. I personally felt sad that they had to move on to another station. I feel like at time I should have pushed harder to get information from them however I didn’t want to push too quickly and scare them back to giving me no information.

I feel like this was a good experience for me as well as the participant because it really made me think about myself. I learnt a lot about myself through the performance and I hope that the participant learnt about themselves too. I am not sure how the mix was between me trying to get information out of them but at the same time giving them information at the same time. I went away with a lot of questions going through my head, some created by the responses that they participant had given me. It made me question things I hadn’t really thought about before.

I feel that if we were to do this again it would be a lot different. I think the stations would be kept the same however it would be nice to turn it into five separate one on one performances without time limits. That the performance should last as long as the participant feels it should last.

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Another thing that I really liked with our performance was that fact that our last station was a live stream, we had been able to make this work on the TV that was situated in the café downstairs as well as a link on our blog. The response of some of the passers by was interesting as they tried to figure out what was happening. There was some people who walked y and second glanced at the screen and them came back a few minutes later to see if anything ad changed.

Overall I feel like this was an exciting project and we did well to work around the challenges that we had faced and as a group this made us even stronger and even more determined to make this successful, which I think it was.

 
Works Cited:
LaFrance, M 2013, ‘The Disappearing Fourth Wall: Law, Ethics, and Experiential Theatre’, Vanderbilt Journal Of Entertainment And Technology Law, 15, p. 507