How it all started…

An image that came to mind – a green field, flowers, a girl in a white dress, the countryside.

Led to…

Bearing this in mind, I was able to draw out useful performative elements – bringing the outside inside, ethereality, a performance that is fun and peaceful.

Led to…

A child playing in the field – the memories and experiences of childhood.

Led to…

A performance that is sensory and stimulates a feeling or an emotion prescribed to a particular object.  E.g. a rose= love.  My monologue was episodic in structure, based around the hide and seek framing device to allow the memories to filter in to disrupt my game and which followed the pattern as to the way we think, written almost as a stream of consciousness and in the way I remember my experiences.

Led to…

The telling of that experience as a story – blurring the boundary for the audience as to whether they believe the piece is autobiographical or not.  Predominantly, it is, but I’ve developed the performance material in a way that, despite that fact that I refer to the stories in the first person, they are relatable, an experience that the majority of the audience will have also experienced (or something similar) in their own lives.

Led to…

Lots of colours – bright – a wonderland, stepping onto the border between reality and fantasy – making the ordinary, extraordinary! The lighting highlighted when there was a change in state, with the pink and blue representative of two particular memories, the orange serving as the basis throughout the performance (a sunny day) the near blackout at the end (with the only light at the end coming from the fairy lights) representing end of day and the fact that she is waking up from her own imagination, has ‘found herself’ in the process and has been on her journey of discovery.

Led to…

The set – fully embodying the idea of the ‘theatrical’, very decorative.  Something artificial versus something that’s real – the combination of both in my performance, with the grass now being fake and the gravel being real, almost strengthens the idea that she is using her imagination, solely from what she is surrounded by, to create these tales of fantasy.

The crunch of the gravel beneath my feet in the dark…a sense of isolation and being alone…

Staring into “the water’s reflection” (Nicholls, 2014) making me aware of my sense of self…

Led to…

Props – I think the hardest thing for me throughout this process has been in achieving the image that I initially imagined.  My work in progress forced me to acknowledge this realisation.  In all honesty, I feel a little disappointed that I’m no longer using real lawn but for me, it were the practicalities in getting and maintaining the lawn that were proving to be difficult.  However, there is a beauty that lies in the idea that I can play with the resources I have to make them appear as if they are something more than they are, relating to the concept and the basis of my show.  In accepting that there is an alternative if Plan A doesn’t always go to plan.  Before show day, the only prop left to now purchase will be a small bouquet of roses, but I will get those the day before the show so they are nice and fresh for the performance, slightly easier and less risky than buying 3 or 4 rolls of fresh turf the day before!

Led to…

Music – The song playing as the audience enter is called “Shine Your Way’ by Owl City and Yuna, created for the Dreamworks movie, The Croods.  I thought this song was particularly suited for the start of the show, as both the song and the movie follow the dreams of a young girl for an adventure which parallels the journey of my performance, my finding my way through my various memories and experiences.  The song that marks the end of the show is called “You’ll Always Find Your Way Back Home” by Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana about a girl with a double identity and that, despite the fact that she leads two very different lives, she knows where she’s from.  This mirrors my performance in that, towards the end of the show I express, “all I wanted was my family, my home” (Nicholls, 2014).  Not forgetting of course S Club 7’s “Reach” that features in the show which was not only a song I used to listen to as a child, but at the point in the show in which it plays, aims to show a ‘seizing of the moment’, a journey into an unexplored and unknown land.  The happiness in these three songs contrasts against “Goodbye” by Avril Lavigne.  I use the first minute of this song underneath speech, in which the lyrics present the feelings felt from a break up, supporting the story that I am simultaneously telling to the audience.  It also represents how a particular moment can remind us of something else, the breaking of the rose signifying the remembrance of this song and its lyrics and the poignancy of their meaning at such a time.

Reference:

Nicholls, N. (2014) My Solo Performance: A Place of Escape. [script] Lincoln: University of Lincoln.