Small Talk.

Shannon Turnbull

On Thursday 31st January 2013, I went to watch a Solo Performance at the LPAC. I was unsure about what the performance was about however I refused to read the blurb as I wanted to experience it with no premeditated ideas or opinions..

Performed by Antonia Grove and directed by Wendy Houstoun, this delightful performance was cleverly put together yet I felt uncertain about understanding it. This made me question, do we have to understand a Solo Performance to appreciate the performers intentions? The opening consisted of minimum lighting and no sound, this made me eager in wanting to know the reasons behind it. Antonia presented herself on stage listening to an iPod. The sound of her chosen ‘song’ was played through multi-media allowing the audience to hear what she heard. The ‘song’ we heard on the iPod was a therapeutic tape. I thought this was a very nice idea and gave the audience the potential insight into what possible personal reason she had to listen to a ‘help tape’. She was pretty, slim and looked confident so surely she didn’t want to be anyone else?

The changing of wigs, shoes and personas allowed me to interpret this as her ‘changing’ herself with the help of the relaxation/therapeutic tape. This made me feel sorry for her as she was obviously not happy with who she really was. She embodied the space through repetitions of movement and her speech became funny. She made her inner opinions comical which eased the audience as I felt some were unsure of what was happening and how to feel.. she captured our attention by doing something so simple yet creative which I will take as an inspiration.

The use of space was extraordinary when she took on the persona of girl number 03. By shotting tequila and dancing around she began to get more drunk and started to throw herself around in such a mesmerizing manner. You could tell she was well trained using her body as her movements had been thoroughly practised and perfected. The use of movement was strong and I enjoyed watching the movement from her, it fit perfectly into the dialogue and didn’t distract anyone from what message she was conveying. In this video at 6 minutes and 10 seconds, you can witness the precise and structured bodily expression.

During the audible tape, there were repetitions of the discreet messages ‘who do you want to be?’ ‘be who you want to be’ – this not only was directed toward the performer herself but also to us as an audience ourselves. Seeking help should not make you feel ashamed and I appreciated how the notion of help addressed everyone in the audience. I started to look at myself and reassure myself on what and who I wanted to become. I would like to create this feeling within my audience, making them look at their lives and themselves whilst also addressing the tribulations in my life.

The use of song and music was also a good way to up the tempo as at some points I felt like the production was slowly dragging. Singing along to ‘Crazy In Love’ by Beyonce, in her own way Antonia familiarised this song with the last generation and made the dance quite funny in juxtaposition to the desperate song lyrics. I liked the fact that even though it didn’t seem to fit, I enjoyed the different pathways her Solo Performance was going down. Taking on the different personas of women and portraying them in various ways made me feel good to be female and by questioning who I was, I felt comfortable in her portrayals. Towards the end, she took the props and clothes off which differentiated herself from each character, cleared the stage and left, however she came back on to give an acceptance speech which I thought was quite fitting.

It ended and I enjoyed experiencing an hour long Solo Performance – THANK GOD, mine will only be around 12 minutes long! I then looked at the programme given to me before the show and saw “A girl should be two things: who and what she wants – Coco Chanel”. This made me feel empowered and accepted.

 

WORKS CITED:

Probe Theatre Company Leaflet (2013)

Grove, Antonia ‘Small Talk‘, Online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPdMgt-uklY (last accessed 5th February 2013).

WE LOVE THE 90’S!

Shannon Turnbull

Here is just a collection of items/experiences from the 90’s that I can remember. This starts my research into what it was like in that era and how people experienced the same thing:

  1. Polly Pockets
  2. Slinky
  3. Barbie & Action Man
  4. Spice Girls
  5. S Club 7
  6. N.E.R.D sweets
  7. Kenan & Kel
  8. Sabrina the Teenage Witch
  9. Recess
  10. Go Go’s
  11. Marbles
  12. C.I.T.V
  13. Pippin the dog in ‘Come Outside’
  14. Asking people to dance at the school disco’s
  15. Turkey Twizzlers
  16. Party Rings
  17. Pick & Mix
  18. Thongs showing over the trousers
  19. Tammy & ETAM
  20. Clarks shoes
  21. The parachute game played in Drama
  22. Bulldog
  23. Singing hymns in the school hall
  24. Gingham school dresses
  25. Sunny D
  26. Panda Pops
  27. Daphne & Celeste’s song U.G.L.Y
  28. Song – ‘Sex on the Beach’
  29. Vengaboys
  30. BeW*tched
  31. Slow dancing far apart at school disco’s
  32. Fourtune Tellers
  33. Adidas popping trousers
  34. Jelly Shoes
  35. My Secret Diary
  36. Braids
  37. Mr Frosty the ice cream maker
  38. Tots TV
  39. Rosie & Jim
  40. Pingu
  41. Tip Tops
  42. When Freddo’s were 5p
  43. Gladiators
  44. Man O Man
  45. Noddy
  46. Postman Pat
  47. Sooty & Sweep
  48. Velvet headbands which had your name on it
  49. Dance Mat
  50. Mouse Trap
  51. Shagbands

An idea will always start from something small, you’ve got to make it happen..

Shannon Turnbull

Since the first meeting, my mind has been going crazy contemplating potential ideas for my own Solo Performance. Some have scared me, others have stuck since day one. I’ll talk through some initial ideas here..

 

Painting

In all of my ideas, I want to provoke the audiences memory. I want them to leave thinking about their own lives and how far I have come in mine. I thought about covering the whole floor and walls with white paper to symbolise that everything in life starts blank, if you want it to be. There are no mistakes and it’s a fresh start. I would give each member of the audience a paintbrush and paint and allow them to draw what they wanted. To paint their first memory and their most recent. To paint the event that was most hardest in their life to the most joyful moment.. I don’t quite know how it would finish or what it would provoke but I liked the idea of being children again, learning to express through other means of communication. To be creative..

 

Dance

I have always thought that the medium of dance or interpretive movement is an organic and beautiful way to communicate inner feelings without the traditional setback of speech. The body is your being and to express deep anxieties with suitable music interested me. I have always been confident to dance and move, especially after studying Physical Theatre in semester A and would like to incorporate an emotional piece of movement into my Solo Performance.

 

Music

For me and for pretty much every other young person, music is the key to my life. Expressing your emotions through a particular song is something you cannot experience unless you feel a deep connection. Lyrics, the various instruments, the deeper messages all contribute to the emotional impact you have for the song. Prompting an emotional connection to something in your life is something I’d like my audience to feel. Whether it be a happy, depressed, tense, excited song.. everyone in the audience will have their own memory and that’s what I find beautiful. How many people in one room can witness the same event yet inhabit a different memory and feeling? No matter what path I go down for my performance, I hope to use music in this way.

 

Stand-up

Stand-up is a path I would love to explore however you have to be funny, or even have a shred of funniness in your body. I can be funny in the spur of moments.. I just don’t know if I can pull off a whole performance being funny. I watch stand-up’s continuously and I feel it takes a special person to convey themselves in that manner. I would love to go down that route and I pray someone would find me funny! People laugh at me, not necessarily with me..

 

90’s

A group of 20-25 year old’s in a room, talking about the 90’s produces a raw and magical experience for all involved. Reminiscing over the television programmes, comparing the hideous outfits and singing the awful, cheesy songs interest me and I would like to contextualise my performance to that era. Entwining a comedy element to this is something I would like to achieve and I feel by talking about the 90’s this will stimulate memories and experience for my audience. Sharing my own personal experiences of what went right and wrong for me could hopefully produce a sentimental atmosphere.

 

Autobiographical material

I have a full 20 years of life experiences I can draw upon to make my work autobiographical. I like the fact that some Solo artists draw upon past events in their own life and portray it in an entertaining way. I have a HUGE catalogue of negative and positive experiences that could be uncovered and performed in a comical way. There have been parts of my life which are hard to talk about, I have been so low, thinking I was the only one going through this horrific stage and bundle of emotions, however as I have grown I’ve come to realise that I wasn’t the only one. I would like my Solo Performance to contain the dark periods of my life, go back through it in a comical and enchanting way resulting in a happy ending for all. I am a very emotional person so I feel my autobiographical material should have an emotional connection to the audience and visa versa.

 

Erin Hurley draws upon emotion and memory in her book Theatre and Feeling and acknowledges that “we theatre people share an intense interest and curiosity in the subject of feeling” (2010, p.x). What I begin to feel is an exact replica of what I want to achieve when she states, “it is easy in the theatre to create a moment on stage when everyone in the audience feels the same thing. But what I find much more interesting and challenging is to stage a moment in which everyone has different associations and feels something different (Hurley 2010, p.ix). This is what I want to create for myself and spectators.. hopefully through the ideas I have previously discussed.

A piece of Solo Performance I have researched and enjoyed watching is ‘Step Pad Poetry’ by Matt Chewiwie. This simple concept is turned into a long and enchanting piece of emotional dialogue. An open field of autobiographical dialogue draws us in through simple funny lines and I have used this as an inspiration of what I would like to achieve! WE CAN ALL HOPE.. 

WORKS CITED:

Chewiwie, Matt (2008) ‘Step Pad Poetry’, Online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoouBqguWzg (last accessed: 04 February 2013)

Hurley, Erin (2010) Theatre and Feeling, Basingstoke: Palgrave.

To stand alone takes courage: Research so far.

Shannon Turnbull

My initial research begins with Stelarc, a Solo Performance artist who’s work focuses heavily on the human body and it’s extreme capabilities. Pushing the body to it’s boundaries causing a spectacle of shock and pain, interested me as in the boundaries of what is and what isn’t Solo Performance are indeed blurry. By going hand in hand, I researched his infamous performance of ‘The Body is Obsolete’.

In this performance Stelarc hangs himself from wires which are attached to his naked body. Using these hooks, he is hoisted up to great heights, dangling in the view of passing spectators. He has performed this in various performances spaces including a bridge, a studio and in a lift well. Could this constitute as a Solo Performance though? What does Stelarc achieve in what some might say, an uncomfortable and obscene way? Is this ‘performance art’

Stelarc comments that “the body [is used] not only as a medium of expression but also as a means of experience” (2007). This makes me feel that the end product is not always the pivotal event but the process in acquiring expression and experience is just as important. He acknowledges that the skin becomes part of the structure of the body and relates his work in a possible Site Specific manner. “The body is seen as a sculpture medium, the body is a sculpture inserted in a space amongst other sculptural elements” (Stelarc 2007). I appreciate this connection of the human body and sculptures in an architectural mode, which in turn makes me agree that this is a Solo Performance in which Stelarc performs out of experience. 

In our second class, we watched ‘Swimming in Cambodia’ featuring Spalding Grey. This innovative and intense performance gave me a strong sense as to what was Solo Performance. Positioning himself on stage set up to begin his story-telling, his dialogue became a rich and powerful story-book. We discussed his performance and found that many of the group didn’t respond to his performance well. It was emotional static and there seemed to be no connection. I found this man talented however I did agree with there being no emotional connection. This made me question, does a Solo Performance have to create an emotional atmosphere? Do we have to enjoy the piece to appreciate the art? 

His use of voice and facial techniques contributed to the intensity of his dialogue which I found interesting, as in essence a Solo Performance is the telling of one’s story. By embodying the room, the talent of holding ones attention was evident and I felt I had to listen intently to keep up. There was two parts to his performance, a genuine side of communication and the performance. We discussed feeling personal towards him on some level, we had someone to relate to however on the other hand was the acting side, the side that had to be performative. That in turn was an interesting style to use for his piece.

We have also discussed Solo Performer Amy Taubin. Her work focuses on the exploration of the relationship between the actor and the spectator. By dealing with the long process, her work is not necessarily about character but about observations, questioning should every Solo Performance be personal or can they be objective? Her solo’s are about “the representation of self” (Carroll 1979, p.51) and by conveying herself as an object of attention, she achieves unusual performances.

‘Pimping for herself’ in 1975 explores the experience of being seen, “it is the performer who is the object of the audiences scrutiny and not visa versa” (Carroll 1979, p.52). In a section of the performance, there is a video of her naked body projected for all to see, however by zooming in too close to define what part of her body you were viewing, this sets up expectation and then quickly denies it. “Acutely proffering the actress as something we desire to see” (Carroll 1979, p.52) this therefore leads to frustration within the spectators as our sight is becoming restricted.

I would like my Solo Performance to engage an audience and leave them wanting more. I want them to delve into their own past and feelings, showing an empathy towards mine.  Learning that audience is an important part of Solo Performance makes me want to draw attention to them even more.

 

WORKS CITED:

Carroll, Noel (1979) Amy Taubin: The Solo Self. Vol 23 (1) March: pp. 51-58.

Stelarc (2007) The Body is Obsolete – Contemporary Arts Media, Online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKEfJRe4uys (accessed 03 February 2013).

On your own.

Shannon Turnbull

As soon as I clicked to apply for the end of semester B module Solo Performance, I felt an array of mixed emotions. How could I do a performance by myself? What material could I use? Will I be too nervous and let stage fright take over? Am I interesting enough? Feelings of nervousness and apprehension made me begin to doubt myself and my abilities, however the curiosity and excitement of a challenge were too empowering to dismiss. I realised I chose Solo Performance because deep down I wanted to get up on the stage and showcase what I could really do. I know I am confident and have the ability to approach this module with an open mind so  I wanted to give myself a voice..

Not having to rely solely on group work enticed me, yet the thought of producing, rehearsing and performing material significant to myself was a scary thought. I had no one else to rely on but me. I felt like an open book, ready to start my first chapter!

So what is Solo Performance? After thorough discussions with fellow students, it became clear that the term was difficult to define. Its ambiguous and indefinable category prompted meaningful conversations into what constitutes a good Solo Performance?

“The best thing about the term ‘performance art’ is that it’s so ambiguous; it includes just about everything you might want to do” (Bonney 1999, xii). For me Solo Performance is a performance of self. One individual taking to the stage and conveying what THEY want. A seemingly confessional performance produced by THEM in which the audience can become involved due to the performers discretion. Not purely for entertainment purposes, it’s goal in provoking thought and stimulating an intimacy with the spectators distinguishes itself from ‘traditional’ theatre.

Difficulty in defining what is and what makes Solo Performances intrigues me and by studying Stand-Up, dance pieces and autobiographical material, I would like to test the boundaries and ask the questions ‘what is art, what is a solo performance, what is theatre?’ 

The discussions in my first class questioned, at what point do the audience become the actor and visa versa? In the research undertaken, I have noticed that every performer reacts to their audience in a different way, “but all, in presenting their personal observations, convictions and fears, [they] share an intimacy with their audience, built purely from their live presence and their words” (Bonney 1999, p.xii). 

The appreciation of this art form should be dissected, discussed and interpreted personally for each individual, therefore I am looking forward to involving myself and creating potential performance ideas.

 

WORKS CITED:

Bonney, Jo (1999) ‘Preface’ in Jo Bonney (ed) Extreme Exposure: An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts in the Twentieth Century, New York: Theatre