Confessional Theatre
Spalding Gray’s performance Swimming to Cambodia is a very perplexing performance because the material presented is very self-indulgent yet manages not to become preachy or disengaging. Spalding constantly talks of his own experiences, actions and emotions and in his attempts to find his “perfect moment”.
(KOMENTARJI, 2009)
I wanted to understand why and how he does this, so that I may use the same techniques when performing my poems – which are self-indulgent. I believe that my performance will be greatly improved upon I can present it in a way that doesn’t make the performance seem self-indulgent.
The first idea I had was to have the audience participation within the performance. This wouldn’t be self-indulgent because the audience not just feels involved but is involved in the performance. However Spalding Gray never had audience participation to get them involved and invested in his story, instead he even created a 4th wall between himself and the audience. David Price Terry an assistant professor at San Jose State University writes his thesis about Spalding Gray’s confessional theatre and in Terry’s thesis he makes note of how Spalding Gray frames his audience “as theatrical patrons, trusted friends, therapists in a session, priests witnessing a confession, and voyeurs” (Terry, 2005, 04). What I find clever about this is that Gray frames his audience as people who would be deeply interested in his performance depicting his self-discovery and internal turmoil. He does this by presenting his story in a deeply analytical fashion, explaining each and every encounter. The audience wants to find out if he does find his “perfect moment” because they care for his wellbeing.
(Jordan Ned, 2014)
The Frame of Self-Discovery and Personal Growth
Similarly Whoopi Goldberg has her audience invest in a clearly made up character of a little girl who slowly understands the world around her. The audience invests because they want to see the growth of this character in the same way they want to see the growth of Spalding Gray. I decided to not just say my poems and try and recreate the environment and emotional environment I was in when I wrote them. Instead I would present the poems and accompanying stories as a way of understanding myself. I want my performance to be self-discovery through poetry where I demonstrate to the audience my attempts of growth in the same manner that Whoopi Goldberg and Spalding Gray’s characters want to grow into wiser and better versions of themselves.
Furthermore these Spalding Gray gets the audience invested in the performance by using music, lighting and imagery to change the atmosphere of the performance space into these eastern landscapes and Gray’s internal mind. I wish to also do this by creating atmospheres that symbolised the poems. For example there is a poem I might use which depicts WW1, and I would frame it by having backgrounds sounds of war with loud explosions and gunshots while the lighting would be dim and flickering like a bulb with bad wiring or a flickering flame. With each poem creating a new atmosphere the audience is taken on my short story of discovery, and they are engaged because they become part of the atmosphere for each state.
Citations
Jordan Ned (2014) Whoopi Goldberg Direct From Broadway 1985 YouTube. [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RAm86ybr8w [Accessed 20 April 2014].
KOMENTARJI (2009) Swimming To Cambodia (Full Movie) Part 1. [online video] Available from http://www.mojvideo.com/video-swimming-to-cambodia-full-movie-part-1/62c7d064d144bf4ef3d4 [Accessed 20 April 2014].
Terry, D.P. (2005) Spalding Gray and the Slippery Slope of Confessional Performance. Ma. B. S. Northwestern University.
