Month: April 2016

Costume is always an important part of a performance. Whether you wear it or not this is important in itself. Costume can show the audience or at least give them a small insight into your character. I have decided that performing as myself I would like to almost be a blank canvas which is why I am going to wear black. I feel this will give me the ability to change characters as I become my Granda or a younger side of myself. the added hats and scarfs will not look out of place if I am wearing black.

I understand the importance of costume however I do not want my costume to show too much, I want my audiences attention to be on the additional costume that I use as well as the words that I am saying. Sometimes I feel that an extravagant costume design can take away from the action that is occurring. This may work in some performances but it is not the image I would like to show. I feel the messages within my memories and my speeches at the beginning and the end should be enough to help the audience understand the theme of my performance.

therefore I have decided on black shoes, black leggings and a black top. Full blank canvas apart from a hat and scarf which will be added at certain parts of the performance.

Everyone in their lifetime forgets something, whether it is where they have placed their keys, or when they travelled somewhere, or what a mathematical equation is, we have all been in this position. However it is more difficult when we forget something we used to have at the top of our minds. That we could always recall. To try and show this deterioration I am going to use the platform calls as well as the memories. The memories become weaker and throughout my Granda’s recall get’s worse and this is shown as I explain/ show the memory. However I have also decided that the call outs from the train conductor will get weaker. I will do this by firstly calling the platform, time and all the calling points then the next one I will simply call the place and platform, then just to board as the next one is coming, then simply the place. So as the memories get weaker, so does the destinations, the memory of where we are going and what is happening around us becomes weaker as time passes.

I hope this will give another level of memory loss and the confusion on my face will show as I find it difficult to recall where we are going.

My Sunderland match idea keeps seeming to alter. At first I thought it would be great to show what it was like at a Sunderland match, the chants, the kind of people you get seeing a match and what the arena is like itself. However, I was then thinking, this simply shows Sunderland. It doesn’t live my Granda’s memory or show what I wanted it to. I want this memory to be strong, to show that childhood memories are stronger.

With this in mind I have altered this destination. I will now perform it as if we have just gone to Sunderland, I will jump in with my Granda asking where the best place in Sunderland is. I will talk through entering the stadium for the first time ever. Then I will say about my Granda’s favourite memory. Where he turns and see’s me colouring in. I like the humour behind this, the bigging up of the whole event to the fact that in the end I may be in the shirt, the scarf, the hat. I may be wearing top to toe Sunderland gear but in the end I am simply more interested in colouring in.

I am intrigued in creating humour where it is not expected. Especially after the opening of questioning the audience about planning their lives to then have the comedic side of one, Sunderland actually winning, two my Granda’s reactions to the matches, 3 me colouring in instead of watching the match. Then leading to 4, me on a suitcase travelling to the next destination.

This light and easy movement of the piece I feel carries it along and allows the darker meaning behind it to not surface too much. Although the subject of alzheimer’s is dark and upsetting, the comedy helps the audience feel for the character more. This is the side I would like to show. I feel with this change in my performance style it will suit my audience better.

Tim Crouch’s work is based around a specific idea, he had a “self generated impulse to tell a story or explore a form.” (Timcrouchtheatre.co.uk, 2016)

As I read this about Tim Crouch’s work I automatically thought about my own research into Alzheimer’s. I alone had wanted to explore the Alzheimer’s journey, the path’s that occur in such a story of real life. Tim Crouch always uses his own scripts which I find really amiable as it shows the truth behind his ideas of the subject as well as the research which has gone in to it. It was this idea of telling a story which has helped with what I believe will be the execution of my piece. I wish to perform 4 different pieces at the four destinations. As I go along I will falter with the memories, they will become shorter, parts will be missed out, the idea of forgetting will be made apparent. Lines will be snappier. With this in mind I will also do the same to the destinations and train callings, they will get shorter until the only thing called to the last place is ‘Durham’. No timing’s, no idea of where the train is calling apart from that place and no idea of platform. I never want to mention the word, memory is fine, forgetting is fine but Alzheimer’s I do not want to mention. I believe that the performance itself should allow the audience to understand what this piece is about and why this word never needs to be mentioned.

Timcrouchtheatre.co.uk. (2016). Tim Crouch Theatre. [online] Available at: http://www.timcrouchtheatre.co.uk/ [Accessed 15 Apr. 2016].

It’s so difficult to read through your own work, to have written it and love what you have written yet to know it is not exactly what you need. That you haven’t quite captured an aspect of the performance that you wanted to. At certain parts I have feared that because I was not mentioning alzheimer’s that my audience would not understand what I was performing and the memories that I was sharing. Therefore I have so far had to draft and redraft, some being too personal, some being too characterised rather than myself and some not explaining or showing the memories to much. I read that

“Drafting and redrafting are essential parts of script development. Most writers say that the first drafts they write bear little resemblance to the final stage of their plays- they write and re-write until they think the piece is ready for performance.” (Anderson, 2006)

If anything I have found that this is an extremely important stage of writing. I have never written a play before, nor have I ever performed a solo performance therefore I have had my moments where I have absolutely loved my writing and could not understand which parts an audience did not understand or particularly like.  It has taken me a while, as well as a lot of stubbornness to get over, however I now feel I am at a point where I am able to edit and redraft my script for the sake of the achievement of the performance.

I now agree that sometimes I am being to personal, describing certain sides of my Granda and giving him monologues to say. This seems like too much, it should be me representing my Granda not simply becoming him. I also feel my performance is stronger with the memories and stories being from both my Granda, as well as myself, as that way I can describe what happens to my audience through my own eyes. While still being able to become my Granda within certain parts of the memoires to emphasise what is occurring at that point.

Although I still have a lot of redrafting to do I can now see the shape of the performance and I now feel I have more of an understanding as to what solo performance is and why you need to show yourself and your own personality to the audience not just a character you wish to create.

Anderson, M. (2006). SOLO – A guidebook for individual performance. Sydney: Currency Press, p.38.