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