Solo Performance- Greg Sellers

I have , in the process of creating a solo performance, recorded the monologues describing feelings of loss. Within this process I have discarded some losses as I must ensure that my tone of voice is different to represent each loss.I have also discarded similar losses, those that are not as applicable to everyone, and have added a concluding statement focusing on losses that are in the back of the mind, but never forgotten. Sometimes parts from discarded losses were added to those which I have kept in the monologue. The script though is a detailed outline. When I recorded it , I improvised, and changed certain parts, just sustained this framework.

This is a copy of the edited , and final script.  Loss final script

Now these are recorded I am editing them together and currently vigorously rehearsing these together with live actions.

 

I now also know the staging and lighting sound effects for my performance. When the audience enter I will be sat at a table with a radio next to me. There will be a dim white wash and a spotlight on me. When the performance begins I will turn on the radio and my monologues will begin . The cue for the end of the performance will be the end of the monologue , as this concludes the lights will slowly fade  and the spotlight will disappear.

In addition, my performance should be more than a monologue , taking the audience to another world. I must incorporate the “the gestures, physicality, voice attributes and attitudes that are suggested by the play text” (Anderson, 2006, 5). Movement should be dependent on the character I am creating,  maintaining eye contact with the audience throughout. I must reflect the reality of the situations by presenting tensions, resolutions and transitions, all the time being audience indulgent. In addition, it is imperative that I employ pitch, dynamics, and pace to sustain clarity .  I must ensure I utilize the space to best suit my character. building the rhythm of the performance , and thus the intensity.

When creating a character , a simple fact is “if you do not find a form of characterization which corresponds to the image, you probably cannot convey to others it’s inner, living spirit” (Anderson, 2006, 61).  A relationship with the audience must build so that the solo show is more focused on me as a person than a character. whilst also surprising the audience, in revealing more information than expected. The next step is to explore a range of rhythms when rehearsing , so that the presentation can evoke joy, pathos, humour and anarchy to the audience, and when transitions of mood take place to inform the audience. This then symbolizes the setting , and makes any movements purposeful.

Therefore, my performance to be successful I must portray a journey which I am following, imaginative ideas, a structured use of metaphor (how the losses are represented), and adhere to the time limit allocated.

Works Cited

Anderson, Michael (2006) Solo A guidebook for individual performances, Syndey: Currency Press .

Armstrong, Gareth (2011) So You Want To Do A Solo Show?, London: Nick Hern Books.

I thought long and hard , judging the feedback I had been given, to create a worthwhile solo performance. I asked myself what would I really like to focus on. I thought about adapting the comic style and producing a sitcom in which I talked to myself, to display that many people talk to themselves in everyday life.  However, this didn’t have much scope for how far the material would go and I am not very confident with many multi-media technological tricks , so I discarded this. I took myself back to the beginning of the module and asked myself what it was I really wanted to make the topic of my performance. I asked myself is the  performance about self, and focused on how I have coped with grief, following a recent family loss.

I next placed this idea in a performance context and realized that it is too self absorbed. I pondered all the feelings of grief that I had experienced , and began to accept that this was a form of loss. I also knew that I wanted to  reflect the real world in my performance and also not make it too painful for me by delving into sad memories. So, I took the concept of loss and wrote down 25 different losses, ranging from losing the will to live, losing my confidence to losing time and losing a loved one. After I had wrote these down and saw a pattern in how the losses were arranged, I grouped certain losses together. From this I examined that some of these losses were very minor and some major and decided that there must be a journey in my monologue otherwise it will be incomprehensible. Thus, I decided to start with the minor losses and increase the severity throughout the piece. I also became aware that if I specified the loss it would make it rather self contained , would lose the flow and not leave the performance open to interpretation. I then recorded this monologue for class.

This is the full monologue script- Loss

I was given positive and negative feedback from the class about the idea, giving me constructive criticisms on which  to develop. My recording was well written  and the range of losses were well presented. However, the advice was that I should say less about the bigger losses, as in real life what would there be to say? Furthermore, negative  critique was  that I should respond to the issues, without voice , as if portraying the emotions live behind the speech. Finally, I should give a different voice to each loss so each is differentiated well, and perhaps include fewer losses.

Within my feedback it was also proposed that I research into surrealism as the piece I presented had an abstract, surreal style. I decided to start this process by examining a surrealist text, and I have chosen Becket’s Krapps Last Tape. Through my research into the practitioner Robert Wilson I have scrutinized his portrayal of Krapp. Wilson’s gestures were exaggerated, almost as though he were portraying scenes from a silent movie. His face was open mouthed as though he has passed on to another life and he seems spooked by this. I wanted to take those key emotions he brought to the text , though I want to deliver the piece naturally , I feel it is the strength of the words without a specific topic, just emotions that trigger a surreal impression, not my live response.

I was given information this week through the delivery of presentations, on solo performers. In  particular the monologue style , which was portrayed by Eric Bogosian and from this decided to create a performance around school children. I originally thought of positioning the audience as school children and delivering a class to them, asking them questions as pupils. However, I then began to think of a classroom scenario involving a teacher and pupil, and kept in mind the notion of my voice being recorded. I wanted to make the scenario as real as possible. I also wanted to draw on my passion for teaching and the experience I have had in the classroom.

 

Therefore, I recorded , in a cockney accent, to give a different voice,  a teachers  retorts to a child asking him to focus , and stop affecting others concentration in class. I left gaps in the recording to state the answers live, as though talking to the pupil.

Here is the script- Dialogue between Teacher And Pupil

Feedback I was given from this was basically to scrap the idea. This didn’t work as I had not researched the pupil enough, so this didn’t seem natural and there were gaps left in the performance, all adding to not much  believability. The advice instead was to try and create a monologue based on life. It was suggested that I could try and add mufti media projections as I talked to myself, as though being  interviewed. I took these points on board and considered a further, and would be final idea.

I developed  previous  ideas to create a third 5 minute solo performance. Having already expressed that I should work with my voice  and building on the honesty in my monologues which people favoured,  I decided to continue recording. I had also been offered  the idea of portraying the inner life of a comic, so that of  showcasing situations in life which I had been in where I had to laugh to stop myself from crying. I thought others could relate to this, the situations may not be the same but hopefully the emotions would be. I carried out  another stream of consciousness exercise , writing for 5 minutes each on reactions to situations in which I want to cry.  I then recorded 5 minutes of the free flowing writing, concisely writing down the first thoughts, or words in my mind.  I did this until I filled two pages. It was very interesting to see the pattern of words, which words had been repeated and which were  enforced. It was also interesting to see the the structure of sentences , the topics I discussed and the connections that could be formed from the language.

I then recorded 5 minutes of the monologue, leaving a 5 second pause on occasions. I continued  the same process with the jumbled words . Afterwards , I mixed the words with the sentences so that one monologue was created

These are  the monologue, and stream of consciousness scripts –

Stream of ConsciousnessMonologue Scripts

In the performance I played 5 minutes of the two tracks- the 4 monologues were more pronounced than the string of words,further enhanced by adding an echo for authenticity. . Simultaneously, I felt I had to do something live  during the performance  but didn’t want any words as this would distract from the audio recording. As the recording was based on experiences in which laughter was covered up I thought about silently crying but then thought this wasn’t clear enough to the audience, it may not be construed as laughter. I therefore continuously wrote on  post it notes ‘ha ha’, and placed several around the table I was sitting at to represent a smile. I then began placing them over my mouth , indicating that I am stopping laughter escape .

Evaluation for this performance was mixed. One strength was that my voice is very listenable , but the delivery of the piece wasn’t. I had over complicated the piece through the post it notes. A weakness relating to this  was that I didn’t explain to the audience to walk around and see the post it notes , as they were hard to see. Furthermore, all people heard were a jumble of words , there was a lack of  emotion involved . Krapp’s Last Tape portrays a man listening to a recorded tape about his life, alike to my intended performance rationale .

Here is the online link that gave me that inspiration

I don’t need to do anything, just present the power of my voice. However, I must ensure that this narrative is a detailed account.

 

Works Cited

Howell, John. Performing Arts Journal , 1979, Vol. 4 Issue 1/2, p152-158

From this week’s theory session, and John Howell’s Solo In Soho I have learned a lot about the expansion of performances beyond just speech.  It is important to remember how my performance links to society and that “Everywhere someone talks, someone listens” (Howell, 1979, 152). It is therefore key that I engage the audience by talking but it must be something that is listenable. Increasingly, “interior talk” and the aspect of an “unqualified personal statement” (Howell 1979, 152). In other words private thoughts are being made public and an opinion on those thoughts is expressed as exactly that, an opinion. I would really like to talk as if in confidence to the audience , expressing my deepest thoughts however expressing these through my own experiences, my own opinions. To be classified as art, which I would like my work to be, it “at least appears to be more by virtue of it’s being less aesthetic” (Howell, 1979, 153). The personal testimony that I want to produce must be reconstructed, perhaps as a stream of consciousness , to highlight it’s honesty.

I also love the imagery of “audio visual technology to create verbal environments” (Howell, 1979, 153).  Words are floating around with no meaning, though arranging those randomly strung words together creates a magical solo performance. Accinci’s performance The Red Tapes inspired me , especially through the “unrelated scenes separated by a blank screen and voice over readings” (Howell, 1979, 153). By playing with the audience’s perception  the audience experience the material in two different ways . I thought I could incorporate this notion into my performance. Perhaps I could include repeated words  which was proven in this production to add an impression of reality.  I don’t want to separate the audience from each other as I feel  this would lose the intimacy and confessional scenario I desire, I could do something at the same time as a recording so that my audience are expressing the performance in two different ways .

It was furthermore important to me that I was myself , rather than in the previous week when I played the character of an interviewer, or as a comic; an exaggerated caricature of myself “through non-acting or acting out rather than “acting” (Howell, 1979, 154). Sometimes, as  Robert Wilson and Lucinda Child’s work does, a presentation can “project a large inner space of free flowing disturbance”  Both performers show no relation to each other and the audience try to convert the language of these , and struggle , imitating “verbal clatter ” (Howell, 1979, 155). I would love to take this thought and implement it into my performance.  I also would like to involve Wilson’s ethos of not telling the audience what it is, but make them question what is it? , just ensure “that each expression arrives from architecture” (Howell, 1979, 155).  Thus, taking the structure of my piece and ensuring that feeling and emotion are projected. Through the new forms of parodied performance shown today, I must learn to play with theatricality to distance myself from character, actor and performance.

Robert Wilson greatly inspired me having researched him for my presentation. I was inspired by the use of the surreal on stage, as well as time and space. He was manipulated by negative and confused reaction to his environment. He asks what’s wrong with illusion , in his art, uses striking comparisons,  and works with minimalist staging.  More than anything the quality that really struck me, and that I wanted to bring to my performance was a journey through life, poetry and the emotional core of the piece.

My presentation on Robert Wilson can be located here- Robert Wilson

 

Works Cited

Howell, John. Performing Arts Journal , 1979, Vol. 4 Issue 1/2, p152-158