Additional Research

I stumbled upon this site, called "10 mind-blowing theories that will change your perception of the world" which I found really interesting. I think Cassandra would have a very philosophical view on life and I think the theory of Solipsism would be interesting for her to explore.

"Solipsism is a philosophical theory, which asserts that nothing exists but the individual’s consciousness. At first it seems silly – and who generally got it into his head completely deny the existence of the world around us? Except when you put your mind to it, it really is impossible to verify anything but your own consciousness.

Don’t you believe me? Think a moment and think of all the possible dreams that you have experienced in your life. Is it not possible that everything around you is nothing but an incredibly intricate dream? But we have people and things around us that we cannot doubt, because we can hear, see, smell, taste and feel them, right? Yes, and no. People who take LSD, for example, say that they can touch the most convincing hallucinations, but we do not claim that their visions are “reality”. Your dreams simulate sensations as well, after all, what you perceive is what different sections of your brain tell you to.

As a result, which parts of existence can we not doubt? None. Not the chicken we ate for dinner or the keyboard beneath our fingers. Each of us can only be sure in his own thoughts." 

As Cassandra is in a very small space I would like it to feel like some sort of make-shift bomb shelter. She is preparing for the end of the world because she can see it happening, she can predict it. I think if she was to explore and explain a bit about solipsism as well as warning the audience about the end of the world it could gain one of four reactions:

• The audience will believe the theory of Solipsism, but not Cassandra. (Meaning they won't believe Cassandra's warning and feel safe in their own mind.)
• The audience will believe Cassandra, but not the theory of Solipsism. (Meaning they may believe everyone is doomed to die at the end of the World.)
• The audience will fully believe both. (Meaning they may be scared of being essentially alone in the universe at the end of the world.) 
• The audience won't believe either. (Meaning they may think they are stuck in a small space with a mad woman.)

I would find any of these outcomes quite interesting and would like to hear feedback from audience members after the show. 

Script

I've been working at the script over the last few weeks and I think it's nearly there! I have about 15 minutes worth at the moment which is my main worry as I have to perform 20 minutes, so I am re-working some sections and will post the full script on here soon. I am going to use a section of text I found on a webpage called voices as it is only short and I think it works well with what I already have. I am also going to add "hear our voice, o lord our god" into the script as it is the title of the painting I have used as part-inspiration for Cassandra character.

Staging

I am going to stage my performance in 'Kevin's Space' in the Harvey Theatre. It is a smaller, long space so I will perform in Traverse. I think this style will allow for a lot of pacing and small movements and at the same time create a close and intense atmosphere for the audience. I am considering having some household props about the space so the audience feel they are in my character's personal space at all times. I am also considering playing some classical music on record player to act as background music - though this is something I need to test with the script first.

Work In Progess

We have to show some of our work in progress to the group next week and I feel quite under prepared! I have already spoke to the class about my previous ideas on Utopia, so I don't want to repeat myself there. I am currently re-working one of the 5 minute pieces I did in the workshops sessions as I think it is a good starting point for my final character. It is the piece inspired by the Edward Hopper painting. I think I am going to bring in some of the costume ideas I've had, the Jacob Kramer painting and then show a 5 minute section of what I'm currently developing.

"This morning i woke up alone, a gap in the great bed to vast for my lone body, I blinked confused, sad and looked
about the room. The once magnificant towering walls about me, which enclosed the bed in wonderous patterns and a
kolidescope of endless colours and shape are stood strong still, but bare. There is nothing there.
Grabbing and clutching at too much covers for my lone soul, I hold myself up and sit quietly tightly processing the
change, maybe just complacent though definitley not contented with the new found situation. Surroundings I have always
thought can alter the subconsious mind and bring forward posible subdued feelings, and in this case the bare walls
told me I was blue.
Blue, yes blue are the walls and now so is my mind. Gazing forward, I notice first that I am still waking and my thoughts
are still adjusting, I notice secondly that there hanging there, is one remaining lone picture. How symbolic. It's trees.
Trees have always held a special sort of meaning, here. Trees I imagine are the mothers of the earth, lone standing mothers,
all strong and some together. Family of trees that gave life to us. Stupid little monkeys. Sad lonely little monkeys.
I'm desperately searching my mind for the answers here, sitting now alone in my bare little cemented box... I sigh.
And I let the anxt go.
The ceiling is bare too.
The window is wide open.
The door is bolted shut.
Thoughts and zaned ideas begin rushing ferosiously through my head. I feel something is warped, what happened here?
My mind offers no recollection. My body is weak. My soul... Hears something.
I heard once there are voices, if you listen closely. Yes the voices are there.
If you start listening to them, they start listening to you.
And if you look, really look. You will see them. They like to hide, but they're everywhere.
You look right at them, and they'll look right back at you. The walls are bare.
And there's no-one there.
I think I'll smoke today.
I might look out the window."
I liked this style of writing and think it would suit my new character. I would like to start my solo piece off with this text and I am going to develop it further so that it works towards my Utopia ideas.

Research

Jacob Kramer - 'Hear Our Voice, O Lord Our God'



I saw this painting back in February while on work placement in Leeds and found it really powerful. I would really like to use this image as something to work towards in my solo piece. I could begin the piece quite 'normal' and with the use of lights and changing my physicality I could end in this position. 

I have currently been reading some plays by Sarah Kane. Although I do not wish to incorporate her style fully (as some of her adult/alternative themes would not compliment my own) I do like the intensity of her writing and wish to replicate her captivating flare. Themes of pain and death which are found in her plays work with my new character, as she has a very troubled mind and can only see death and torture for all in the future. When writing my piece I will keep Sarah Kane's plays and style in mind.

Costume Design Take 2

New Character

After discussing my options with Dianne, I have decided to create a new character and perform as just them. This will enable me to focus more on the context and writing of the piece, rather than having to rush and worry about set and costume changes in such a small amount of time.
The character I am currently developing is female, and in her early 50's. She is eccentric, though appears friendly and quite 'normal' at first. She is eager to please and help others, though her efforts are usually dismissed. She used to be pretty and 'free' in her youth, but now she is plagued by the dreams and visions she has of the future - a world where humans are used for experiments and no-one ever dies. No-one ever believes her, but she is so determined to prove herself she frantically starts to collect clues to find out Government plans.To add to her eccentricity, I am thinking of giving her some unusual quirks and possessions. She may twitch a little, as if she is over-tired or stressed, and I think she will have a colorful bohemian style of dress.
I am feeling quite confident about this character at the moment, and I am going to work on her background more over the next couple of weeks. I am going to research into the Cassandra Complex, as I think a deeper understanding will enable me to correctly apply elements of the Greek tale to give my character a stronger journey and persona.I am glad that I have been able to find a middle ground between my old and new ideas, I feel like I am still able to use all my previous research and channel it into the story and beliefs of my new character.

The Wall

I spent the Easter holidays feeling feeling very stuck and unable to continue with devising my piece. Before the break I'd had feedback from my presentation, which initially felt positive, though as the holidays went on I found it hard to develop the suggestions and felt like scrapping the idea and starting all over again! I had a tutorial with Dianne after the break and it really helped to clear my head of the old ideas, and embrace a new character.

Cruelty Free World

One of the main themes of my solo is testing on life in the name of science.  I have recently been reading many posts on the Cruelty Free World's Facebook page and it has given me further motivation to create this piece.
I think by linking my research on current animal testing with previous human LSD tests to create the idea of the possibility of all scientific test being taken on humans in the future, then my audience may be more inclined to relate to my point and understand that what is happening today (with animals) is wrong and should (and can) be stopped.

Presentation

After presenting my current solo idea to the group, it has become apparent that my idea is a little too complex for a 20 minute piece! I think I now need to focus on narrowing my idea down so that it won't need rushing on the night.
One piece of feedback I got from my presentation was that the idea of humans becoming immortal would be too much for the audience to get their heads around at the end of the show. I am thinking of scrapping the immortal idea now, in favor of simply stressing the point that animal testing is wrong. I will be showing this through the story, and highlighting elements such as the possibility of humans being tested on in the future.
I am considering combining zone 2 and 3, and the savage and test subject characters to simplify the story.

Mission Statement

Through the element of promenade performance I aim to take the audience on a journey into their future, showing them life on Earth post-World War Four.
I plan to present the audience with with characters they can relate to, playing scenes designed to highlight moral choices and actions.
My main intention is for the audience to leave with a sense of appreciation  and motivation. To enjoy the lives they have in the belief that they can make a change to their future.

Characters and Costume Design

I currently have 3 characters in mind for my solo piece. The first is a scientist at the research lab, where the audience will be taking their 'tour'. She is going to introduce them to the show and tell them about what the company are researching (improvements to health and well being, longer lifespans etc - all lies!) She will only be present in the foyer before the show, as she will be interrupted by a message on her earphone alerting her of an 'escapee in lab 12', she will then leave and the audience will be guided into the theatre by FOH.
The next character the audience will meet is the Savage. She is going to try and communicate with the audience and attempt to trade her sticks for audiences possessions (nothing will be taken off stage - she will give everything back!) The Savage has been brought up after the nuclear war and has no concept of the English language, so she communicates using her own various tribal-style grunts. The savage exits as a siren sounds and a voice-over explains that this is means that scientists are out looking for new 'volunteers' for their research.
The third character is a girl (aged about 12) and she has just managed to escape from the science lab where they were doing tests on her. She is hiding in an old den she used to live in with her sister and explains to the audience what really happens in the lab.The scientists say they are trying to create a perfect world where no-one will ever need medicine again. But in reality, they are putting 'volunteers' through painful tests in order to find the right genes and chemicals needed to create an immortal race.To make an immortal human, they impregnate female 'volunteers' who grow and give birth to them. When an immortal baby is born, however, the mortal mother dies due to the overwhelming levels of chemicals the child has left inside her. The girl (test subject) tells the audience that she is going to wait in the den for her sister to escape from the lab, before complaining of a stomach ache and showing the audience her scarred belly.

Set Design Draft

This is my first draft of a set design. I am hoping to have the Harvey Theatre split into 3 stages using the curtains. This way I can have 3 different scenes which the audience can walk through. As my solo piece is going to be promenade style, each stage needs to be easily accessible for the audience. I will discuss with Matt what options I have, and I will suggest maybe having someone as a stagehand to manually work the curtains.

Fantastic Planet

This is a film called The Fantastic Planet - originally 'La Planete Sauvage' (translates to 'The Wild Planet') - and it was made in France in the 70's. The film is set on a planet where aliens dominate, and they keep humans as pets. The wild humans are seen as vermin and the aliens try to get rid of them - as if they were pests. The humans manage to steal one of the aliens 'learning devices' and with that, all of the humans are able to know what the aliens know. Long story short, they fight at first but then agree to live together peacefully. I like the concept of this film, the way the aliens treat the humans at first is exactly how we treat most other animals.
I think the story works because although the film is set in a completely different world, it has enough similarities with our world for us to relate to it, and gives us a powerful message. I want to create my own world for this solo piece and I have let my imagination run away with me a bit! But I think in order for my audience to understand the piece, I need to keep relating back to our world and society.

Pilobolus Dance Theatre

This is a video of Pilobolus Dance Theatre's "Shadowland", I think it's beautiful. I especially love the dog character and think it would be great to create something so simple using just a sheet and some lighting.

Christmas Homework

Over the Christmas break we were given this poem:

I have eaten

The plums

That were in

The icebox

 

 

And which you

Were probably

Saving

For breakfast

Forgive me

They were delicious

So sweet

And so cold.

We had to create a piece based on this, and I liked the style the poem was written so I thought I would continue the story and build on the character further. I liked the idea of having someone who felt compulsed to confess everything they had done, and thought it would be quite sweet - though a little sad - if it was an older lady who was becoming gradually more forgetful and wanted to get eveything out in the open while she still could.

 

Forgive me

Please

Now I near

The end

 

I know there’s

Not much time

For us

to speak

 

I will confess all

I’m sorry

For everything

I can remember

 

When I was young

About 6

I stole a sweet

Stripy mint humbug

 

At seven

I stole chocolate

2 squares

From my Dad

 

At eight I was good

I wanted

A bike

For Christmas

 

At nine I screamed

And shouted

As Santa was

Not real

 

Through my teens

I ate a lot

Drank a lot

Too

 

I was happy

Everyone else

Thought I had

problems

 

I met you

You made me happier

Still

Thank you

 

I left that tap on

When we went

on holiday

Not a burst pipe, sorry

 

I found ten pounds

In the street

I spent it on sweets

Didn’t share

 

I found your shirt

The one with

The flowers

I hid it again

 

It’s not the flowers

Flowers smell

Nice,

Pink’s not you

 

Pink is the colour

I forgot

Last week

Remembered now

 

Also forgot someone’s

Birthday

Quite a few

Feel bad

 

Had the lady’s tea

In the next bed

When she slept

Felt sick

 

Hid my dinner

From last night

Not sure where

Can still smell it

 

Think I might be tired

But I

Am never

Really sure

 

Think I will walk

And find

Someone

To speak to

 

I found you

And I took

Your blue

 

Handkerchief

 

I forgot the room

The name

Of it with

The sink

 

A box in it too

Cold box

With a light

Food and ice

 

I have eaten

The plums

That were in

 

The ice box

 

 

And which you

Were probably

Saving

For breakfast

 

Forgive me

They were delicious

So sweet

And so cold.

Ways of Seeing

In class we looked at different optical illusions and discussed how we could take the brief literally. If someone was to perform a play in darkness it would be completly different to a play which is fully lit. If you were able to limit the ammount of set the audience could see, they might think of different locations. Another way of seeing we discussed was beeing able to see ony one persons point of view (E.G. One letter or one side of a phonecall) I found this idea interesting and found I could link this with some of the research I had been doing for another module (ELP). I'd been looking into the 'underdog' in politics and how in many countries (UK included) there are many people who do not get thier voice heard (general elections, wars, wikileaks). I also thought about how, in some of these countries there are women who don't have equal rights and how they have to wear scarves and long clothing to cover themselves. With this in mind I decided I wanted to perform as a female character who is suffering from hardship - though I did not want to make it too obvious what her situation was. I like to leave some room for audience interpretation.
For this piece I used a larval mask with a headscarf on. I began by crying, using controlled breathing and contorted body movements to depict the sadness. I used 2 props. I had a book by Nietzshe - "Thus Spake Zarathustra" from which I read the passage entitled "Voluntary Death". I thought this would be an appropriate chapter to be seen reading as I wanted to show the character at her lowest point. The other prop I used was a selection of coins which I shook at the audience as if asking for spare change.
I used very simple lighting for this piece, I used a push-light infront of me with the main lights turned off - this created shadows of myself on the walls behind me and I was very pleased with the effect.
I composed my own sound with my fiance (and bandmate - Marjorie's Garden Party) and it is an experimental soundscape which includes guitar and both our vocals. I included some spoken verse in the recording which I took from the 'Voluntary Death' passage in the Nietzshe book, and then played in backwards in the recording to give it a more distorted sound.

 

 

I felt like the overall feel of my piece came across well, and everyone seemed to understand the character. I would like to experiment further with music and lighting.

Back Story of a Minor Character

I had no idea where to start with this session's brief at first, we had to create a back story for a minor character in a film/play/story whom the rest of class would know/recognise. I thought about creating a piece based on a Storm Trooper -from Star Wars - who had a change of heart and decided to become a careers adviser, advising students not to go and work for the dark side, but I soon realised I didn't know enough about Star Wars for this to be believable! I then decided I would play 'Lucky' from Samuel Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot', as we had seen and studied this play in class and everyone would know the character. I decided to carry on Lucky's story after the play, I wondered what would happen to Lucky if Pozzo had died/left him leaving him with the ability to do what he wanted and think for himself. I then wondered if he would even be able to think for himself anymore (assuming he had spent a very long time with Pozzo). I thought I would explore the irony of him finally being free but not being able to appreciate it, I thought he would maybe get stuck in the same routines and become confused by the presence of others - not seeing them as equal, but above him.


Lucky

LUCKY stands CS, he is asleep. He is carrying an assortment of bags, an umbrella, a newspaper and a coat.

He slowly wakes up and stares at the audience.

He drops his belongings and signals to the audience to stand up.

He takes a chair from an audience member and places it USR. He returns to stand CS.

He repeats this process until all audience members chairs are US.

He signals to the audience to sit back in their chairs.

He picks up his belongings and stands CS.

LUCKY: (Gesturing to his belongings) these aren’t mine.

He turns to face the audience, US.

LUCKY: They used to be his.

He drops his belongings and looks at an audience member. He selects a bag and hands it to the audience member. He continues selecting audience members and hands them his belongings until they have all been given away.

LUCKY: They’re yours now.

He walks to CSL. He turns to face the audience.

LUCKY: He used to have a hat. It made me think. Now, I just do.

He turns to face SL.

LUCKY: Now I have nothing.

He walks to USL. He turns to face the audience.

LUCKY: I am Lucky.

Exit USL.

Hamlet

We had to learn the famous "to be or not to be" speech from Hamlet for this session, which I wasn't really looking forward to in all honesty! I do enjoy Shakespeare though I find the language quite difficult to understand at times and I find it much harder to memorise than modern-day language.
I have a basic understanding of the plot of Hamlet, and I was familiar with the first section of this speech after using it as stimulus for a show I devised with Ruth Brown and Natalie Sugars last year. Reading further into the speech I realised there were a few words I did not know, so I looked them up so that I could gain a better understanding of the overall text.


To be, or not to be--that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep--

No more--and by a sleep to say we end

The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep--

To sleep--perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub,

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause. There's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life.

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely

The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscovered country, from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprise of great pitch and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry

And lose the name of action. -- Soft you now,

The fair Ophelia! -- Nymph, in thy orisons

Be all my sins remembered.

Contumely: Rudeness or contempt arising from arrogance; insolence.

Quietus: Release from life; death/A final discharge, as of a duty or debt.

Fardels: A pack; a bundle/A burden.

Orison: A prayer.

- www.thefreedictionary.com


I felt a lot more confident performing this once I had understood the meaning behind it. I tried to perform this as though I was contemplating suicide and getting to grips with the concept of life after death - or rather nothing after death. I performed this sat quietly in the corner of the room with the audience sat closely around in a semi-circle. I felt this gave me the opportunity to connect more with the audience as I was able to speak quietly, at a 'normal' level, and directly to them. I felt that creating a smaller, quieter atmosphere worked better for me - with my understanding of the speech - as I thought using a grand, traditional Shakespearian style would take away the intimacy of sharing such a deep routed thought.
I think my speech went down quite well this session and I felt quite proud of myself for being the only one to learn the speech off by heart.