Category: Video/Audio

Issue with Steep Hill:  While the image is a striking, powerful one.  It represents the idea of ‘Penance’, rather than a physicalisation of the minds journey.  Performing outside also limits the use of lighting and sound which could be utilised to define my message, aid narration and generally make the performance clearer to my audience.

 

Back to Studio 1 (revised idea):

The room is fully lit.  There are weights at various points around the room.  I walk through the doors tot he studio with an empty box trailing behind.  I stand in the first marked space and gradually fill the box with all the weights.  Blackout.   The narration starts.  A dark blue spotlight appears on me.   More Weights added.  Character narration is played.  Motivational narration is played.  Another spotlight (Clear) appears.  I start to drag this heavy weight to the next spotlight. The first spotlight slowly turns from dark blue to an extremely light blue and then clear when the positive character narration is played.  By this point I should be situated in the next spotlight.  It suddenly turns dark blue.  Weights are added.  This repeats for 3 separate spotlights.  The ‘house’ lights come on and I begin to empty the weights from the box and then leave the room with the box trailing behind.  There are still weights in the box.

This is a very rough idea of how to incorporate text into the performance, to help elaborate and isolate the message.  However, considering the economy of expression, I will words to a minimum and let the physicality tell the majority of the story.

The only grey area is where to finish the performance.  Relating to William Shakespeare, Deo Laus states, “what you accomplish on the stage for whatever brief period of time determines through which door you exit the stage” (2010, p.575).  This is extremely indicative of my performance.  Without a clear exit/final position, the complete meaning may be lost.

Tzveta Kassabova’s solo work utilises all the space on the stage.  After researching her work, specifically ‘The Maze’, the intentions behind where and for how long I moved on stage, became clear.

‘The Maze’ stood out to me for various different reasons.

• Initially the lighting used resembled my idea of using dark blue to represent confusion, loneliness and negativity.  The lighting change throughout also resembled a similar journey as I will be portraying.
• The fact that the piece is about being trapped in a maze is very similar to my message.  I am trying to convey the negativity that streams through the mind when confronted by obstacles in life.  When trapped in a maze, these same thoughts are evident; feelings of confusion, loneliness, ‘no hope’.
• She makes use of the stage, moving around every space to help represent her journey.  I currently plan on moving from corner to corner, therefore maybe I should consider the use of the centre stage and if my ‘journey’ doesn’t have a direct path.

 

 

 

 

Works Cited:

Deo, L., 2010, The Bible Tapestry, Volume 2, Xlibris Corporation

Kassabova, T., The Maze, Available at: http://www.tzvetakassabova.com/solo-performance.html

I have always been good at rhyming. However, never really been interested in editing or recording therefore not done much with it. In the process of racking my brain trying to think of an idea that is autobiographical and humorous, I made a rap for the heck of it.

I soon realised that this can be modified to create a form of narration for my performance. Looking back at my notes (and dialogue) inspired by Spalding Gray, I can convey my stories of discovering sexuality in a form of rhyming narrative. This rhyming narrative will come across in a very fairytale like, naive way that will express the innocence that comes with thinking these awkwardly descriptive sexual thoughts that go through every teenagers head at some point. The context including subjects like masturbation, women and sex intertwined with the slow, magical story telling and colourful cardboard props should bring a humorous aspect to the performance.

Here is an example of the narration (very rough idea – not finished): Solo tester 2

 

As graphic as this is, the concept of Karen Finley’s work is very simular to my narration.  Sending a message or telling a story through song. Karen Ford forces the audience to listen to her vulgar mental images and forces her message into the audience’s mind.  My idea of conveying vulgar sexual text in a ‘innocent’ format would further enhance…

 

 

 

Works Cited:

languedamour, 2012, Karen Finley | Tales of Taboo, Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVZGODVVxBE&feature=player_embedded

Possible Content:

• Personal journey.
• Change of character.
• Inspiration – humorous stories of my family.
• Mind Set – How has my mind set changed. Mind set leads to physical change. Is it all a good thing or a bad thing?

Potential Primary Content:

Sexual endeavours (masturbation), women, depression and euphoria.

3 Stages: 1 – comedic intro, 2 – my motivation, 3- comedic conclusion.         Audience participation? (YES/NO/MAYBE?!)

 

I wrote a tester script to see how comfortable it felt and if it was deemed successful by my peers:

 

Text:  “We can’t deny that each one of us goes through a stage in our life where we look back and think, my god, that was me and not only was that me but I knew it was at the time and I had no problem with it.   Now, this could be bias, because I’ve always liked being centre of attention.  But I feel that past Richard Summers-Calvert.  Known more commonly as Richard Calvert back then or, ginger prick.  Could probably one up your past selves when it comes to being a certain shade of… unique.  He was skinny.  Very.  Borderline anorexic.  Photo appears (see right).  He has dyed blonde hair and braces.  His hips were by his armpits for some reason and he was commonly referred to as an overgrown fetus due to the shape of his distorted bone structure.  Adorable.  Like most boys around the age of 13-14.  Richard went through a stage of being into… sex.  Or the closest thing he could get to at that time, his own penis., THING IS, Richard wasn’t 13-14 when this happened.  He was 16.  He was mentally 2 years behind all his friends.  So at this point, all the boys in the school, because he went to an all boys private school, were starting to crack on with the GCSE’s A levels and get down to work.  However, Little Richard had no time for this.  He’d just figured out the magical forearm exercise of masturbation.  Or as he went to a private school it was MASTERbation.  No where was safe.  You name it, he wanked in it. Toilets, The school Pitch, The boarding house, my personal favorite to this very day, the library.  Jokes. But seriously the library.  He even had a standard regime of telling the school nurse he had a headache and needed a lie down… “Richard this is your 4^th headache this week….”yes yes It’s becoming quite a nuisance,  I seem to be missing a lot of geography lessons.  I just need a lie down. “  She’d leave him in the bed… he’d turn on his side and look at the wall as if because he couldn’t see the nurse, that meant she couldn’t see him.   And he’d MASTER-bate.

The way in which Spalding Gray delivers his dialogue is energetic, and picturesc.  He draws his audience in with incredible descriptive language and passion to back that up.  This style of speech is similar to that of a motivational speech.

Do I want to give a 10 minute speech on trransformation of the body and of the mind?

Do I want motivate the audience in a certain way.

What are my intentions of my performance?

Do I want to tell a story?

The idea of putting on the character of yourself and conveying that to an audience is an interesting one.  While people assume that you are being yourself, you can plan certain reactions and modify certain emotions creating a new identity in yourself.     Talking  about young Richard Summers-Calvert as a HE even though he eventually became what I am today would insinuate a difference in character.  THEN and NOW.

 

 

 

Works Cited:

iamtheuseless1, 2009, Swimming To Cambodia ~ Part 1, Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PCGmra0eFQk

Perception of the body is unique to each individual.  The stereotypical view on a muscular physique is manly credited for its aesthetic qualities.  I can display the body as an object by performing a 12 minute Full Monty.  Within the performance I will incorporate numerous body weight exercises transforming the performance it self into an endurance exercise and putting the body under enormous stress. Subsequently, this performance will allow the audience to create their own opinion of how to perceive my body as I put it completely on display, possibly creating an uncomfortable feeling in the crowd or an excited, euphoric reaction. 

Maria Obramavic is a potential influence for this idea due to her style of creating tension within her audience.  She manipulates the body as a tool to push the boundaries of social acceptance, testing whether the audience will react one way, or the opposite. 

To show the body and allow for the stress on it to be more visible, I will diet enough to be able to portray each individual muscle to the audience.  In doing so, each muscle will produce a ‘pump’ under the constant stress and become more vascular, thus aiding the indication that the body is under intense pressure.

To add to the idea of perception and how the public don’t look beyond the physical appearence, I could play muted clips of ‘Come Dine With Me’ in the background, while displaying the death threats and shallow abuse that was sent to me via social media.

Possible body weight exercises: 

Clap Press Ups

Pull ups

Sprint on the spot

Window Wipers

hanging crunches

Music:

I would require a song that was intense and could bring a sense of dis-comfort to the audience.

Current Ideas:

Marainne’s Wish – Rock n’ Roll Jesus

or

Nickleback – Something in your mouth (more likely)

 

 

 

Works Cited:

nicklebackrocks87, 2009, Nickelback Something In Your Mouth, Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-TvAqv43p4

infinity12records, 2012, Marianne’s Wish – Rock ‘n’ Roll Jesus, Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpNtv2Y02WM