I performed The Little Girl and her Red Balloons on Wednesday the 15th May at 12 midday, on the University campus bridge to a crowd of around 30-35. I felt nervous, as anyone could imagine but I also felt excited. Excited at the fact I was performing outside wearing nothing but a dress, in such a public area. It was exhilarating to perform as Shannon but also as a Solo Performer, making the private, public knowledge. I wasn’t there to drone on about life/life quotes/sadness, I was there to perform aspects of my life in a reflective manner.

I trusted my narrative, however I enjoyed performing some improvised speech. Accommodating to my audience was something I felt I needed to do, to help them in understanding my intentions but to also include them. There were many people on the bridge who stopped, stared, joined in and recorded my performance and I appreicated the interest. At one point whilst I was shouting at the LPAC, releasing my frustration over essays, performances and dissertations, I asked.. WHO EVEN CARES ABOUT DISSERTATIONS?  One audience member responded with.. I CARE! This was humourous and I appreciated that someone felt comfortable enough to join in! I had to improvise and respond as I didn’t want to dismiss it and pretend it didn’t happen. Anything could happen in a performance and I wanted to incorporate improvisations in to make it more truthful. My performance wasn’t static as my audience followed me around the bridge as I moved around the area. Sometimes I was close (in their faces) and at others times I distanced myself, depending on my narrative. “Distance is always central to involvement in small shows, as when the physical distance is, in actuality, close, a special bond can develop between solo performer and viewer” (Reid 1997, p.6). I hope this bond was established in my performance, both whilst I was close to them and distant.

 

Here are some photos of my performance taken by audience members – (click on them to enlarge):

There were some things that went wrong in my performance but I feel I coped with them well and had to improvise on the spot. I wanted to let each balloon off singularly however as it was extremely windy, the strings got tangled and produced a big knot. I overcame this by using the balloons as a bunch rather than as singular problems. This worked and actually gave a bigger impact when I let them go, this was when I was thankful for the wind!

I also wanted to give out my song sheets for 5ive – Keep on Movin’, however there were too many people and if I stood there and gave them all out, this would have detracted from my performance. Instead, I let the audience give them out but was glad most of them already knew the song, hence why I chose a popular 90’s classic!

Overall, I felt my performance went really well and I was thankful for the turnout and support I recieved off my audience. There were very interactive when asked, yet fell silent at the right times. I’m happy that I trusted my up & down personality and delievered my piece in the mood I felt at that particular time.

 

WORKS CITED:

Reid, Gilbert (1997) You’ll become part of me: Solo Performance, Canadian Theatre Review, Issue 92, pp:5-10.