Performing arts - fayth violetta

Theory and Conceptual Perspectives

“Palimpsest or Potential Space? Finding Vocabulary for Site-Specific Performance” - Cathy Turner

In this piece, Turner discusses the relationship between the performance spaces and the performers who inhabit them - which she refers to as the “host” and the “ghost” respectively, stating that “the host site is haunted for a time by the ghost that the theatre-makers create” and that these two are “co-existent but, crucially, not congruent”. I found this to be a really interesting way of exploring the ways in which we as performers are able to inhibit and temporarily transform a space with our creations.

It is interesting the way in which this piece describes what happens when theatre is made in a specific place. and the affect that performer can have on the environment and vice versa. The language is very abstract and to a degree a little contrived for my liking but the ideas themselves are very fascinating, for example the discussions on the complex nature of a site specific performance containing multiple “narratives” and “architectures” - some from the history and context of the space itself alongside those of the performance taking place inside of it.

Working Processes, Methods and Approaches

“Ethical Questions About Working With Soundscapes” - Dr. Andra MaCartney

Whilst this piece of writing doesn’t really apply to theatre at all, I found it very interesting from the perspective of someone who has studied creative sound and music technology in the past. It has a focus on the “ethics” behind use of technology in sound engineering and performance, and explores the ways in which we can use sound to create an “imaginary place” and the possible repercussions in doing so. Many soundscapes focus on sounds of nature and faraway places, and are designed mainly for consumption by listeners who live in busy urban cities that are loud and unnatural. The purpose of creating such work is that it can serve as a form of escapism - giving people on opportunity to experience landscapes and places that they are not able to travel to in person.

It also discusses the development of hi-fidelity audio and how this technology has allowed for clearer sound that is much truer to the original signal, allowing soundscapes to replicate authentic nature sounds. It has also allowed for more control over the sound itself and the ability to process and edit out undesirable aspects of audio such as background noise or disruptive sounds in order to make these virtual environments “perfect” and sculpted. It’s very interesting to think about whether or not this is actually a good thing, as it’s possible that using these soundscapes as escapism or substitute them for the real thing could be alienating us from nature.

Case Studies 

“Let Your Mind Wander: Take Half A Dozen Young Londoners, Give Them A Camera And Set Them Free” - Will Self

I really enjoyed this piece and found it the most useful out of all the entries in the reader. It details the authors experiences as a teacher doing as the title suggests, and giving his students a camera and tasking them with to create something after embarking on a Dérive ("a mode of experimental behavior linked to the conditions of urban society: a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiances." - Wikipedia). He gives many examples of work his students came up with, such as one who made a video of himself rapping about his upbringing as a child from a refugee family, or another who recorded herself walking around her birthplace of the impoverished Calais and again in first world London, highlighting the differences between two very different lifestyles. Each dérive was distinct and personal to each student which I found really interesting, and it gave me many ideas on how I could go about creating a piece.

Idea Conception part 1

In the initial stages of coming up with ideas on what we could perform, I was personally inspired by the idea of “confessions” or “secrets”. We discussed this as a group and spent a day or so brainstorming and decided we would run with this theme.

We came up with the plan to collect confessions from strangers, and for our performance would read them aloud in a public place. To collect these, I set up a page online that allowed people to submit messages completely anonymously, and asked for “the worst thing you’ve ever done”. To the surprise of my group and I, the messages began rolling in within minutes. We were entrusted with a huge range of secrets, some were hilarious and some were heartbreaking. We kept this open for around two months in total and received hundreds of messages.

Idea Conception part 2

As we continued to collect these confessions, we discussed when kind of “angle” we wanted for the piece. Would it be funny? Would be be confessing these secrets as a humorous outlet for the public's most embarrassing life moments, or would it be a serious performance? Would we instead use this as a safe outlet for the painful secrets confessors have never shared with anyone? 

We let the confessions themselves shape the answer to that question. It was impossible to choose only one particular “mood” to the piece, as we received a volume of confessions that were funny (for example, a woman confessed to accidentally wetting herself on a bus as a child) as well as a volume of confessions that were much more serious dealing with marriage affairs, sexual and physical abuse etc.

Planning

We then began planning the logistics of the performance, most importantly choosing a site that would fit our idea. Someone in the group suggested we go to Bute Park, as there are the abandoned remains of a friary there. We decided that this would be perfect for our performance, due to the theme of “confessions” and it’s location being a church. 

We ventured the site and located the Greyfriars Friary remains. We also brought a camera with us and documented ourselves as we explored and pondered ideas on how we could set out the piece

Blocking

During the next few sessions we distracted reading through our script, which we created from the confessions we received online. As a group we found blocking difficult, as we knew we didn’t want too much movement but we also wanted the performance to be more interesting than just us wandering around just reading out the confessions. We also discussed the possibility of wearing masks or veils to fit in with the theme of anonymity and explored other costuming options such as wearing all black or costumes corresponding with the nature of the confessions each of us are reading.

Reader Interventions 

1. “To combat the functionalism of walking by having no particular place to go. To pick up on other walkers’ varied paces from speedy to slow. To invent small or secret dances at bus stops and on railway platforms...” - (“A Manifesto for a New Walking Culture: Dealing With The City” - Wrights and Sites)

To try out this intervention I left my flat with no clear idea on where I would go. I tried to pay lose attention to the paces that other people walked, and I noticed myself gravitating towards the direction of people who walked faster. I ended up in the city centre and during my walk I would intentionally slow down or speed up depending on the people around me, for example if someone behind me was walking fast I would slow down. I got a few angry reactions from this!

2. “When you see others approaching, say to yourself “They’re coming to get you Barbara!”. You are Barbara. Move through crowds without giving yourself away. Observe the dead and their places covertly - they have only space and themselves. Wherever you go make sure you know the escape roots. Map your journeys beforehand.” - (“Mis-Guide To Anywhere” - Wrights and Sites)

I was instantly drawn to this intervention because I found it really funny. It reminds me of childhood where I would ride in a car or walk around pretending I was in a scene of a dramatic movie except this time doing it as an adult, pretending to be part of some kind of horror. I actually wondered through crowds in a busy shopping centre on the day of a rugby match pretending I was Barbara - wondering through the danger zone trying not to give myself away and get caught.

3. “Think of one distinct area of the place you live and list all of the street names and signs that you can remember. Walk around this territory to check on the names you have listed. Take note of places you missed on on or perhaps have never noticed before! “ - (“Mis-Guide To Anywhere” - Wrights and Sites)

For this intervention I noted down the street names around Roath near where I live, starting from my street and branching out as far as I could remember. Southey Street, Oxford Street, Newport Road, City Road, Albany Road, Richmond Road...etc. When walking around afterward I was surprised by how well my memory had served me! There weren’t many that I missed out.

Walk Interventions 

Intervention 1 - The first intervention I chose was to note the first colour I see when I start my walk and then note how many times I see this colour throughout the walk. The first colour I saw was the grey of the concrete on my pavement. I live in a very dull area and upon further inspection I noticed almost everything was grey! There was barely any colour throughout my entire journey. For the walk itself I did my daily walk to the university from my flat in Roath.

Oedipus Tyrannous (or “Oedipus the King”) is a famous Greek tragedy dated around 429 BC. It is chronologically the first play in Sophocles’s Theban trilogy, and follows the story of King Oedipus as he discovers he has unknowingly enacted a prophecy he spent his life trying to avoid.

(photo from http://www.engliterarium.com)

The play centers around the themes of fate and free will, as many Greek tragedies do. What makes Oedipus stand out is that the prophecy in Oedipus is self-fulfilling in the sense that all attempts to stop the prophecy from coming true eventually lead to it happening.

For example, when Laius and Jocasta are told by an oracle that Laius would be killed by his own son, they decide to have Oedipus killed to avoid fate. When Laius is later killed by bandits, Jocasta is confident that the prophecy was a lie, unaware that Oedipus survived and was raised by Polybus.

Similarly, when Oedipus is told he is fated to kill his own father as a young man, he leaves Corinth and is then confident that he cannot harm his father whilst living in Thebes - unaware that Polybus is not his true father, and that his real father actually lives in Thebes. These instances show that despite all attempts to avoid their fate, one of the primary points of the play is that fate is inescapable. 

Another prominent theme is the symbolism surrounding sight and truth. There is a constant comparison between literal and figurative blindness, such as when Tireseas warns Oedipus about his ignorance getting in the way of him accepting his fate - even though Oedipus can “see” physically, he is still “blind” to the truth, ("So, you mock my blindness? Let me tell you this. You [Oedipus] with your precious eyes, you're blind to the corruption of your life ..."  - Tireseas, line 470) whilst Tireseas sees the future but is literally blind, the irony of which is not lost on Oedipus.

At the end of the play, upon finding out the truth that he has indeed killed his father and slept with his mother, Oedipus gouges out his own eyes in horror - he is now blind but has “seen” the truth.

Christopher Marlowe’s 16th century play “Doctor Faustus” is generally considered to be quite groundbreaking for it’s time due largely to it’s dark religious subject matter. Very few playwrights would dare explore these themes because the united kingdom was entirely non-secular and very closed minded about spirituality outside of Christianity to the point where blasphemy was a punishable offence.

The play (based on the German Faust legend) understandably caused a lot of controversy for depicting a man making a pact with the devil for his soul in exchange for otherworldly power, which would actually go on to become a trope in many other works of fiction for years to come, including Oscar Wilde’s novel “The Picture of Dorian Grey” (1890) and a more modern example, Tsugumi Ohba’s graphic novel series Death Note (2003-2006) both of which contain similar plot lines wherein an egotistical and excessively proud character makes the “devil pact” in exchange for powers that ultimately leads to their downfall. 

One of the most central themes of Doctor Faustus is religion. In the beginning the titular character is described as a man of science who doesn’t believe in spirituality at all, but becomes interested in it as he has grown bored science. The play looks in depth at concepts such as the human soul, the polarity between the constructs of “good” and “evil” and the Christian faith.

Another central theme is ignorance, or the ego. It is ultimately a cautionary tale about misplaced pride, as Faustus’ downfall isn’t the selling of his soul - it is his arrogant hunger for power.

Faustus’ foray into the dark subject matter of magic and necromancy comes to pass as he believes his superior intellect has already mastered and become bored of studies of subjects such as logic, law, and medicine, and he needs new things to learn. Also before making his deal to acquire infinite power, Faustus encounters a “good” angel and a “bad” angel who serve as polar opposites of his conscience and each of them try to sway him in his decision as to whether or not he should start experimenting with magic. Even Mephistopheles himself cautions Faustus to take heed, and describes hell to him in an attempt to save him from the same fate he suffers.

(Arthur Darvill as Mephistopholes, photo from Digital Theatre)

Faustus ignores these warnings, however, convinced that the consequences will not be as dire as they say and that 24 years of infinite power will be worth it. Over the course of the next 24 years, Faustus’s foolish pride and ego results in him never actually using his powers to achieve anything great and he comes to realise that he has ultimately sold his soul for no real reason.

1. The first lesson I’ll be writing up is the one at the beginning of the unit in which we explored various sites around Cardiff that related to the Jim Driscol story. This included the New Town memorial next to the Ibis hotel, the canal and the docks. After exploring these sections we were asked to share our thoughts on each location and then chose one to create a performance around. 

I chose the New Town memorial sculpture as my favorite because I find it interesting how the people who made it decided to put a memorial in such a tiny little corner, wedged between a loud construction site and a cheap, budget hotel. It almost felt disrespectful to the memory of all the Irish workers who came to Wales and helped our economy but at the same time it reflects the way the public have forgotten that New Town even existed and this was both fascinating and intriguing, and gave me ideas on how we could create an emotional performance at this site.

2. After a few lessons of rehearsals and planning, everyone in the class did a short performance in one of the aforementioned sites. During the preparation time we explored as a class what kind of themes we could draw upon surrounding the stories of Jim Driscol and New Town. One of the ideas that appealed to me most was that of the Irish immigrants and how they must have felt upon moving to Cardiff after uprooting their entire lives to escape famine and starvation. 

It was a very poignant thought to imagine and my group felt the same, and so we decided to run with this theme for our performance at the memorial. We decided to act out the lifespan of what many of the immigrants went through, many of whom were children. The overall idea for our piece was to demonstrate the way many of these children were sent to work in factories and ultimately died young from the exhaustion and poverty, but for every one that died more immigrants would arrive and the cycle would start again.

3. Another lesson during this module that stuck with me was the one in which we began to utilise social media in our work. As a class we began using twitter along with the hashtag #SSP17USW in order to share our favorite thoughts and quotes from the reading materials. At the beginning of the session we had a look through our readers and some books and we were able to share them quickly and easily through twitter. We then looked through the hashtags timeline as a class and were able to see what everyone had posted.

4. The final session I will be writing up about will be the one where my group and I began initial planning for our final performance. We had already talked about our idea and theme, as well has beginning our research and now it was a case of finding a site. We decided to explore Bute Park, as it is a quiet and peaceful area and some of our group knew of a nice enclosed space that would be perfect.

Patrick Hamilton’s classic 1938 play “Gaslight” follows the story of Bella Manningham’s descent into madness at the hands of her manipulative husband, Jack, and her discovery that he is not the man she believed him to be.

(The 2017 touring production of Gaslight, source unknown, http://www.newtheatrecardiff.co.uk)

The piece opens with an exchange between Bella (portrayed by former Eastenders star Kara Tointon) and her husband having an argument. A photograph of the pair has been removed from the wall and only Bella could have done it, but she has no recollection of doing so. It is revealed that for the past few months Bella has been behaving erratically and hiding or losing things during dissociative states of which she has no memory, a trait the Jack associates with Bella’s mentally ill mother who was sent away to live in a mad house. She has also been experiencing delusions and hallucinations at night when Jack leaves for work - the gaslights in her bedroom begin to dim, and she hears footsteps walking around in the room above hers.

The plot twist comes upon the arrival of a police inspector who reveals that Jack is actually a sought after murderer, who killed a young woman in the house twenty years prior in order to steal her valuable rubies. After never finding them Jack decided to buy that very house and spent the nights in the attic searching for them, proving that all this time Bella was being manipulated into thinking she was insane.

The production was thoroughly enjoyable, with particular thanks to Tointon’s great performance as Bella and Keith Allen as Inspector Rough. Their performances were incredibly solid; Tointon remained on stage for almost the entire two hours of the show which is very tiring work and Allen’s portrayal of the inspector gave the viewers the perfect amount of well-timed comic relief in all the right places.

The set design is also outstanding. The entire play takes place in the Manningham household’s living room, with a fully furnished, three-dimensional living room set up in the middle of the stage featuring bookshelves, tables, chairs, and even a fireplace. It gives an atmospheric and realistic quality to the action and the attention to detail is incredible.

Blurring the lines between physical theatre and contemporary circus, OTUS is a thrilling piece of entertainment about the complex nature of the human condition, devised and performed by circus artists Hugo Oliveira, and Sage Bachtler Cushman. The piece revolves around the pair’s characters co-existence within their bizarre wooden environment, which comprises solely of a darkened room full of wooden bricks and circus apparatus, and how they interact with it. This review will focus mainly on the set design element to the piece.

(Photo: The Circus Diaries)

(Photo: J Pedro Martins, Ashleigh Georgia)

With just a desk, a path of wooden dominoes, a rope, a and a trapeze to keep them company, the characters explore their surroundings whilst constantly getting in each others way and feuding over territory.

The set for OTUS consisted mainly of many wooden blocks, stacked in huge piles and littered over the floor. The performers utilize these several times throughout the piece, climbing up on top of them to explore different levels, or using the blocks as props to gather into more piles, to walk across and balance on or even throw at each other. They comprise the main set aspect of the piece and represent the characters living environment.

There is also the slanted desk which plays a big role in setting the scene. Whilst the piece isn’t suggested to be based in an office of any sort, this desk exists on the side of the stage anyway. Maybe as a symbol for us to recognize and identify with from our own worlds and living environments? The desk was made use of mainly during the juggling and staff-twirling sections, as a platform to stand on, a surface to bounce juggling balls from or to somersault off of

The room itself is darkened, and the technician made strong use of spotlighting, especially during the pair’s solo sections. There were also some periods of total darkness which added tension and suspense as we waited for the spotlight to appear again to show us what incredible aerial feat we were going to witness this time.

Based in gloomy Merthyr Tydfil, “Love, Lies and Taxidermy” tells the love story of a taxidermist’s son and the daughter of a failing ice cream seller who fall in love against all odds. It features a quirky and rather deadpan sense of humor, and plays upon the mundane, rather un-glamorous charm of life in south Wales.

A small cast of only three actors take on several roles each, sometimes switching from one character to the next and back again all in the same scene. It is an impressive feat which, whilst at times makes the plot harder to follow, is definitely challenging even for the most experienced of actors. Each actor was also incredibly precise in their comedic timing, and all three of them were very entertaining to watch.

The story telling is very fast paced, which I found detrimental to my enjoyment of the piece as it was hard to keep up with. I also personally felt the script didn’t do a good enough job of guiding the viewers through the story - there was a lot of simply “showing” or without much explanation as to what the characters are doing and the motivation behind their actions, instead the characters would often simply describe the action to us instead of acting it out for many scenes. This made it difficult for viewers to connect and invest fully in the storyline and characters.

The piece featured no set to speak of, instead the action all took place in the middle of the audience, who were all positioned to be sat in a circle. This provided a very interesting and intimate experience, and allowed for the actors to move more fluidly since they were not limited to facing one way, instead having a whole 360 degrees to move around, sometimes even sitting in amount the audience. I found this to be a very unique and interesting approach to the use of space, along with the fact that the characters in the play interacted with viewers directly as if there was no “fourth wall”. I think this worked really well and was a redeeming quality to the piece which I otherwise would probably not have enjoyed very much.

I think the final outcome of our multimedia performance was overall successful. We had little to no technical difficulty during our prep and I think everyone was well prepared with the exception of issues we had with the video.

Morgan has trouble with sending me the video so that I could sync the audio to it and create one file. By the time I received the video in an email it was late the night before the performance and I only received half of the file - about 2 mins worth of video with the last 2 minutes missing. So I then had to finish the video myself.

Besides that, I think Scott was well prepared and had put a lot of effort into his choreography and movement and it complimented the sound and video well.

When creating the audio I spent numerous hours sourcing sound samples relating o each life phase - eg. baby noises, ambient park noises, a couple arguing etc. I used websites like Freesound.org and YouTube for this, and I then cut and mixed them on Ableton Live to create a minute-long soundscape for each scene (since Morgan was still not done with the video and I didn’t know how long each scene was it made for sense to make the audio longer so I could cut and mould it to the video so they were synchronised). This was quite a lengthy process but was definately worth it because my group and I were very happy with our final outcome.

I felt our narrative was a strong idea, and going about it in a more impressionistic, abstract way was interesting to watch. I also liked the flow of the piece and the rises and falls of intensity, the calm beginning, the peak during the mid-life section and the stark, minimal ending where our character ages and ultimately dies was an effective dynamic to the mood adding tension and release.

For our multimedia performance project, I worked in a group with myself. Morgan and Scott. We decided at the beginning that Scott would be the performer, Morgan would do the video and due to my five years’ past experience in sound technology I would create the audio.

For the “story”/concept of the piece my group and I came up with the idea of a time lapse depicting the life cycle of a man from birth until death. We would have images projected as a background for each “section”of life (birth, childhood, young adulthood, middle age, old age. death) along with some soundscapes made up of sampled audio creating an immersive atmosphere in which Scott could do his movement pieces.

We decided on minimal use of props, instead letting the narrative remain kind of abstract to not distract from the choreography. We did agree however on using a walking stick for the old age “scene” to establish the character a bit more.

As an end to our carnival module, we were instructed to create and perform a Carnival-style piece.

My group consisted of myself, Jose, Morgan, Stephanie, Chinara and Hannah, and we came up with the theme of “nightmares” for our piece. We spent a few days brainstorming ideas for music, costumes and concepts and each brought in mood boards of inspiration that were full of pictures to help with ideas. We also researched things like the most common types of nightmares and what causes them. We wrote a list of ones that stood out most for us and from that we made our character list.

The narrative of our piece would involve a female character falling asleep and being tormented by “demons” representing her nightmares. It would be movement-based and each performer would get a chance to do a short solo.

With all of our ideas in place we delegated tasks to each other, such as finding a soundtrack, planning makeup looks etc. And we then began choreographing, both in uni and during several rehearsals we planned in our own time. We started with group movement sections and at home developed our little solo sections We did several rehearsals outside of class time and also did make up and costume tests at home.

Over all I’d say our performance went well however we would have benefited from more rehearsal time. Although my group did organise several rehearsals outside of uni hours there were people in the group who would not show up which left us in a bit of a mad rush on the day to establish a proper ending etc.

If we were to do this task again and change something I probably would have done more with the costumes and make up, to make them more carnival-esque, although I thought everyones make up on he day was really great and reflected our characters well.

For the first unit of our Interdisciplinary module, we first looked into what exactly an "interdisciplinary" performance might mean. As a class we came to the conclusion that most disciplines of performance require at least a little bit of multi-tasking. Examples of this would include a musical theatre performer to able to sing, act and dance usually all at the same time, or a rock singer utilising a theatrical on-stage persona for their act. Other disciplines for could include utilising skills in music, storytelling, technology and many more.

We took part in a range of activities to explore this over the first few weeks to broaden our minds and establish exactly the kind of work we will be doing during this module, including looking at the work of avant garde musicians whose works involve a range of disciplines. We also undertook a task in the class where we had to find a prop in small groups and create a multidisciplinary performance piece telling the "story" of the object.

The next unit focused on carnival. The first lecture of this explored the meaning of the word and what carnival represents to those who celebrate it.

We learned that the original "carnivals" were festivals or parades that take place before the Catholic "lent", and were celebrations of excess, simple pleasures and life itself. The celebrations are colourful, often featuring hundreds of people in large, elaborate and over the top costumes. We watched several videos and documentaries discussing the symbolism and culture of carnival, and did research at home.

“Important to Caribbean festival arts are the ancient African traditions of parading and moving in circles through villages in costumes and masks. Circling villages was believed to bring good fortune, to heal problems, and chill out angry relatives who had died and passed into the next world. Carnival traditions also borrow from the African tradition of putting together natural objects (bones, grasses, beads, shells, fabric) to create a piece of sculpture, a mask, or costume — with each object or combination of objects representing a certain idea or spiritual force. Feathers were frequently used by Africans in their motherland on masks and headdresses as a symbol of our ability as humans to rise above problems, pains, heartbreaks, illness — to travel to another world to be reborn and to grow spiritually. Today, we see feathers used in many, many forms in creating carnival costumes. African dance and music traditions transformed the early carnival celebrations in the Americas, as African drum rhythms, large puppets, stick fighters, and stilt dancers began to make their appearances in the carnival festivities.” (Unknown, 2001)

We were then put into groups and asked to come up with ideas on what we would do for a carnival-style performance piece. My group decided on “Nightmares” as our theme, and it would be a movement-based piece featuring my group and I in elaborate “demon” costumes, each inspired by a different kind of fear. Below is a video we used for inspiration during the research & development phase:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXTLbjrf7CQ

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