#interdisciplinary performance

In my previous blog post about the preparation for this performance I talked about my inspirations for the audio and what I used to edit it all together. Now I will talk about the rehearsal process and the performance.

Our rehearsal process for this piece was extremely lacking as as a group I frequently alone during our scheduled lesson time and if other members were present  there was most likely still someone not in attendance. External rehearsal time was  also either cancelled last minute or they turned up late. I feel our overall performance on the day was affected by this, especially in the live performance department, as someone with dance experience their choreographed moves and movement felt under rehearsed and unclear in their intensions. Spontaneity can often add an unpredictable edge to the performance, however in this case it just felt amateuristic. I did try and offer some guidance towards making their movement better and more effective but it wasn't carried thought into the performance. also during the rehearsal process I felt stunted by the other members of my group as even though I was in charge of sound they kept changing how long they wanted the piece, meaning I had to remix audio from scratch around three times and although the wanted a loud noise they didn't tell me where they wanted it.

During the performance we had to stream the video off YouTube a the person in charge of video had already left to fly home and did not give us the file, this meant that even though during rehearsals  it streamed fine, about 30 seconds in it buffered and did not continue for the rest of the piece, the video, much like the audio and live performance added a lot of meaning and context to the piece as it showed videos of Refugees risking their lives to get to safety in contrast to western youths partying and not caring about the crisis or reacting in an appropriate way.

For audio I used the apps mentioned in the previous blog post, i used the Drum app to create the backing drums, Saucillator to add in an eerie melodic synth and loud jarring beats, that were even difficult to mix as they sounded so unpleasant, not only did I mix all these elements together in Lexis, i also used it to record various phrases such as 'Help ME' which I then reversed and slowed down until it was unrecognisable in order to show how there are people crying out for help but their voice are often hard to hear.

Our class was tasked with getting into groups of three, or four in our case, and creating a performance that involved projection, sound and live performance. I chose to do sound. My groups performance was on Refugees. We decided go for a concept of surrealism to portray the struggles  of refugees as if we went too literal it may come off preachy therefore closing themselves towards the issue and not making actually think about the issue.

Originally I had the thought of using sound bites from a BBC News Report stating facts and figures over some ominous more jarring industrial sounds inspired by a video I saw as well as the type of sound used in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, which at times can use deafening computer generated almost synth tones and complete silence at others creating an unpredictable atmosphere akin to having a disorder on the autistic spectrum. The sound is over stimulating and the beeps that vary in frequency and length add on to that further. I also took inspiration from a mobile phone game called PinOut, a pinball game set in a neon space, the music to the game also uses synths.

To edit the sound I used various applications on my phone as part way into the project my laptop stopped working. The apps I used were: Lexis audio Editor to put all the various pieces of audio together and add after effects, Electro Drum Pads 24 to create the backing drum beat and Saucillator for Android to create the synth sounds and long obnoxious beeps.

An example of one of the videos watched is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQlDEPLHPyQ

Lexis Audio Editor can be found here:  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pamsys.lexisaudioeditor

Electro Drum Pads 24 can be found here:  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.paullipnyagov.electrodrumpads24

Sacillator can be found here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mattfeury.saucillator.android

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.

During our first lesson on Carnival we discussed as a group what we all thought Carnival was, there were suggestions such as: Colour, rhythm and celebration. We were really prompted to widen our horizons on what we thought Carnival really was, for example back in my home county of Lancashire we have a festival in the spring called 'Club Day' (as pictured above) where a young girl is crowned the Rose Queen and then walks in parade through the village with other clubs that go on in the village such as: Brownies, Rainbows, St John's Ambulance and a marching band, finally it ends at a village fete. I only took part in Club Day a couple of times while in the Brownies but I always enjoyed it, despite the event being largely religious, walking to the beat of the brass and and the sense of community I felt during the walk was thoroughly enjoyable.

Here is a small documentary on club day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VEMQb8P92Q 

I had always assumed that Carnival was something that happened in other countries, much hotter and sunnier but this lesson really changed my perception on what is Carnival. Through the widening of my horizons on Carnival I was able to understand that I had been to more events under the bracket of Carnival than I had originally thought. Carnival even has a place within Renaissance England: 

The Midsummer watch was a collective celebration, combining spectacle and festive abundance with social and political functions of the town meeting and the family court.

This quote highlights that Carnival has always been a celebration of togetherness within a community no matter the location.

Our group chose to tackle metal illness for our performance inspired by the idea that carnival can be anything you want it to be, to do this we chose to be dressed all in black, wearing white masks and with signs around our necks telling the audience our mental illness which we each put on each other to represent the labeling of people who society thinks are different.

October choreographer Emma Kimball is back and ready to show a winning piece on Thursday. She's collaborating with storyteller Tim Manley.

Emma S. Kimball is a multifaceted Dance and Theater artist focused on the collaborative process and blending movement and text in her work.  Emma studied Dance, Theatrical Design & Production and International Studies at Colorado State University before becoming the first ever Production Assistant for the Dance Division there. Recent directing/choreography credits include: The Evil Dead: The Musical with Walt Jones (University Theater), Orestes 2.0with Sanaz Ghajarrajimi (Studio Theater), Searching For in collaboration with poet Noah Kaplan, and a world premier staged reading of Honey Whiskey by Amelia Parenteau (Blue Gene’s Pub).  Work in sound design and audio editing includes: Comic Potential (Studio Theater), Doctor by Seth Klusmire (Community Creative Center), and Red Wednesday (LPAC). She also worked at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center as a Sound Fellow from the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.  Emma is thrilled to begin work as the new Associate Development Director for Brooklyn-based theater company Built for Collapse.

  Tim Manley is a writer, illustrator, and storyteller. He was a raconteur on the Unchained Tour and his stories have been featured on the Moth podcast. His first book is Alice in Tumblr-land: And Other Fairy Tales for a New Generation, out now from Penguin and currently being optioned for TV by Twentieth Century Fox.