A couple of years ago for my acting module i read a fantastic book; Other People's Shoes by Harriet Walters, a biography of her work in the theatre. It was incredibly interesting as a text to see her journey from young hopeful student to someone successful in their craft. However, i have been thinking recently more and more about the title of the book. I have bgun to wonder if this is what i like about performance.
Although when i chose to come to university rather than drama school i had unconsciously made the decision i wanted to do more than act (although i have drive to be involved in the theatre somehow, i am not convinced that my place was ever really on the stage) i do love the idea of telling peoples stories, whether those stories be fictional whilst playing fictional characters or whether those stories are real through verbatim or auto/biographical performance. Perhaps this is why i have wanted to experiement with these performance modes, no longer interested in the acting that many plays still utilise. It is not that I dislike acting. I still think that more traditional performance such as acting and naturalism does still have a place in Theatre. My problem is learning how to perform these stories in the contemporary performance modes that i prefer to watch and use myself.
When i saw DV8's To Be Straight With You i was mesmorised by the stylistic movement which was not necesserily clearly linked to the words being said live or those used in recordings. However, somehow the action onstage conceptually represented those stories, these real stories that had been collected regarding views on homosexuality, race, equality and so on. At times in the performance you would be listening to a story and become acutly aware that what was being said was not fictional but a real experience being recalled or a real opinion being expressed. Although there are obviously holes in this; what is real on stage when everything is really a lie because truth does not exist onstage anymore, i cannot help but find something far more rewarding in creating material from the everyday person than creating something completely and utterly false through fiction.
In Pornography, one of the problems we may potentially face is how to perform the final scene. Scene 1 is a list, 1 to 52, short descriptions or anecdotes about each victim of the 7/7 bombings. At first we were extremely worries about this section as we were unsure how much truth they were based on. Scene 4 is a monologue of one of the bombers and we have found through research that at the least the first part of the journey described is fabricated by Stephens and is not the actual journey the bomber took. However, the list of voctims in the final scene are all based in truth of the real vicims. Our dramaturg Ursula has researched each victim and each description can be found on the BBC website. The way that this section is performed will ultimately make or break the piece.
Having worked on Verbatim projects previously, hopefully the lessons I learnt from performing verbatim text will aid in methods concerning performance of this scene. Furthermore, my key research project at the moment is a professional study regarding the place of performance and site specific theatre, exploring community and identity in the audience of these pieces. The memory aspect of this particular scene, and the way Stephens has written the other scenes as if they are memories of the characters has also got me thinking about the memory of places of performance and the imprint that humans can leave on buildings.
This, for me is what makes site specific decisions and the reasoning behind these decisions so integral to the aim for the piece but also its reception by the audience. Although we are not employing site specific in our performance the creation of a symbolic space is key for us. Adrian and Sue the designers are currently designing how the space we will perform in will look. I'll keep posted about their ideas!
End scene.
Although when i chose to come to university rather than drama school i had unconsciously made the decision i wanted to do more than act (although i have drive to be involved in the theatre somehow, i am not convinced that my place was ever really on the stage) i do love the idea of telling peoples stories, whether those stories be fictional whilst playing fictional characters or whether those stories are real through verbatim or auto/biographical performance. Perhaps this is why i have wanted to experiement with these performance modes, no longer interested in the acting that many plays still utilise. It is not that I dislike acting. I still think that more traditional performance such as acting and naturalism does still have a place in Theatre. My problem is learning how to perform these stories in the contemporary performance modes that i prefer to watch and use myself.
When i saw DV8's To Be Straight With You i was mesmorised by the stylistic movement which was not necesserily clearly linked to the words being said live or those used in recordings. However, somehow the action onstage conceptually represented those stories, these real stories that had been collected regarding views on homosexuality, race, equality and so on. At times in the performance you would be listening to a story and become acutly aware that what was being said was not fictional but a real experience being recalled or a real opinion being expressed. Although there are obviously holes in this; what is real on stage when everything is really a lie because truth does not exist onstage anymore, i cannot help but find something far more rewarding in creating material from the everyday person than creating something completely and utterly false through fiction.
In Pornography, one of the problems we may potentially face is how to perform the final scene. Scene 1 is a list, 1 to 52, short descriptions or anecdotes about each victim of the 7/7 bombings. At first we were extremely worries about this section as we were unsure how much truth they were based on. Scene 4 is a monologue of one of the bombers and we have found through research that at the least the first part of the journey described is fabricated by Stephens and is not the actual journey the bomber took. However, the list of voctims in the final scene are all based in truth of the real vicims. Our dramaturg Ursula has researched each victim and each description can be found on the BBC website. The way that this section is performed will ultimately make or break the piece.
Having worked on Verbatim projects previously, hopefully the lessons I learnt from performing verbatim text will aid in methods concerning performance of this scene. Furthermore, my key research project at the moment is a professional study regarding the place of performance and site specific theatre, exploring community and identity in the audience of these pieces. The memory aspect of this particular scene, and the way Stephens has written the other scenes as if they are memories of the characters has also got me thinking about the memory of places of performance and the imprint that humans can leave on buildings.
This, for me is what makes site specific decisions and the reasoning behind these decisions so integral to the aim for the piece but also its reception by the audience. Although we are not employing site specific in our performance the creation of a symbolic space is key for us. Adrian and Sue the designers are currently designing how the space we will perform in will look. I'll keep posted about their ideas!
End scene.
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