A Reflective Interview About My Performance
//Category: Internal Discussions
//Group Work, Meta Physical Reality and First Poetry Reading
//Group Work
The task was simple enough – as a group of 3 we each had to select a short 1-3 sentence extract for our form of literature and put them together to make a performance with appropriate lighting and sound. As a group we decided to randomly select our short extract because the task itself was seemingly random. We assembled the sentences to create a form of dialog with some element of a plot/emotion/effect.
(Mighty, 2014) Group work script.*
It seemed like we were hoping to create or find meaning out of this random amalgamation of words, so we experiment. We said the line together, we said the lines separately, we overlapped different lines, and we changed our tempo, rhythm and inflections in the hope that we could create meaning.
(Mighty, 2014) Experimenting with how I say “visited a foward post”.*
During our tech set-up we used lighting and sound as a way of creating meaning. For example we created a playful underwater atmosphere by using blue strip-lighting and the song “Under the Sea” from the movies The Little Mermaid. As the song played we all said the one line that held any reference to the sea and that was “Casson building aquarium”.
(Angela Chan, 2009).
What I find interesting about this experience is that we were constantly looking for and creating meaning where there was none to begin with. I think documentarian Ken Burns puts it best when he says “we superimpose meaning over the chaos, we tell jokes, we tell stories, we put a frame around things and that’s a way of trying to create a narrative about stuff that has no narrative.” This understanding of reality is equally relevant to our group work as we felt that if our performance didn’t have a narrative of some kind it would lack substance.
First Poetry Reading
I tested out the foundations of my new performance Under My Hair as I read 5 poems to the class. There wasn’t any imagery, lighting, sound or narrative, I simply stood at the front of the class reading poetry and believing I had a performance. What was pointed out was that the poems alone held no substance as a performance. Within a stage all forms of reality are heightened, acting becomes louder, personalities become bigger and men and women become heroes and scoundrels. Whereas poetry alone is captivating at an open mic, it is not as captivating when used as a staged performance because the realm of a performance is a heightened reality where meaning and narrative has to be slightly exaggerated. My responsibility as an actor is to find the meaning within the poems by framing them with light, sound and imagery and making them relevant to the audience.
Citations:
Angela Chan (2009). Under The Sea – The Little Mermaid with Lyrics. [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpqdexBnNkM [Accessed 13 April 2014].
Team Coco (2014) Documentarian Ken Burns— Serious Jibber-Jabber with Conan O’Brien. [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCxbCYHVZ7k&list=PLVL8S3lUHf0TIbLusugli-_6OhbvqgMvD&index=2 [Accessed 13 April 2014].
A Change of Ideas
//The first draft was a fail.
After presenting the first draft of my idea The Man You Hate I got a mixture of responses. “It was too DIRECT”, “it focused too much on Hitler, which is clichéd”, “and the performance wasn’t relevant to me”. These were not reason alone the want to change my idea; however I then realised that the idea was paradoxical and juxtaposing. How could I create a performance that seemed real and intimate while presenting a character that isn’t real and isn’t intimate but direct? This is reason why I found myself to using clichés stereotypes about WW2 and Nazi’s because that was to only way to frame this character as familiar or real. I created a bad performance because I used material that the audience were used to, and bored with. Some horrific parts of the character did not come through because the audience was desensitised towards the denigration of Jewish men and women.
One Door Closes, Another One Opens
While looking over my notes for solo, I come across a few poems I wrote a while back. And as I read on a small grin turns into a large toothy smile as I realise I could do a performance about poetry – my poetry! They are intimate and personal, well written (I don’t have to write a script) and they hold topics that are relevant to my target audience of university student.
(Mighty, 2014) The poem I found 3 pages away from my solo essay notes.*
The research I did to find out how I can present The Man You Hate in an intimate and realistic manner is transferable to this idea as the poems don’t have to replicate a sense of reality as they are real, instead I can use this knowledge to better create a feeling of intimacy and community with my audience.