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.