and finally...

Couldn't resist adding some more!

The Performance

Well done everyone on what I think was a really great performance! I've enjoyed this last week or two so much - thank you for all your hard work. Here is just a taster of some of the photos I took. Have a restful weekend, and if I don't speak to you before, a lovely Christmas.

A Parisian Boulevard

We had a very revealing production meeting on Monday with Dave Horn, the theatre manager, Julian, the theatre wood workshop technician, and Barry, the metal work technician, in terms of bringing in until this point outsiders to the project, and it highlighting previously unseen problems. Questions that were asked were:
- The three trees in the model box give the impression of the house being in a forest, with them encircling it - is this a correct impression?
- If the trees are meant to indicate a French boulevard, are there enough, are they tall enough, and is their positioning correct, i.e. shouldn't they be in a straight line?
- Flying all the pictures in the house, the billboards and the roof on a diagonal, will take much more time as they will cross fly-bars. Do we have the time for this? If we fly them perpendicular will this compromise the aesthetic?
- Are the benches we are going to use (the ones from the college courtyard), just being chosen because they are convenient? Have we done the research in to what Parisian Boulevard benches look like and do the college ones correspond?
- What about the floor? Previously we had added a suggestion of a road in to the design but then this was removed from the because of the budget. Should we reinclude this to enhance the suggestion of the space? What cheap methods of doing this are there?

So you see, there are many questions we have not looked at fully enough. Most deal with the outside space. This indicates something we had perhaps already known deep-down: that the outside space was slightly problematic in comparison to the interior space of the house, because we are not entirely certain of which world it inhabits....dream world/ surreal/ real/ the past/ or the present?
There are lots of things to clarify.
I have posted some pictures of a boulevard for extra inspiration.

Waves at the National Theatre

On Saturday I went to see 'Waves' at the National Theatre which is a multimedia production devised by Katie Mitchell and the Company from the text of Virginia Woolf's novel, The Waves. It was absolutely fantastic!
http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/?lid=20233
The stamina of the performers was incredible - the number of cues sending them all over the stage to be in place for creating a catalogue of sounds with a myriad of floor textures and props would have been endless. Not only did the performers create the sound environment on stage however, but they were also responsible for constantly re-positioning video cameras throughout the 2hr40min performance for live video screening that was projected on to a large BP screen behind them. A dinner party scene would take place for example, with all of the eight performers on stage, but through video, we were treated to an intimate close-up of singular characters' detailed facial expressions and through this, emotions. Despite the abstract, surreal quality of Woolf's novel, we were privy to a very real world: one where human nature was presented in its rawest form. The magic of the technology was never hidden from the audience, and whilst initially this allowed for a curious spectator to marvel at how all the tricks of the projection with the cameras and placement of each performer, was achieved, this evenutally gave rise to an acceptance and a greater immersion in to the entirety of the piece. It is hard to fully describe 'Waves' by word, it being such a visual piece, but what stands out most was the use of multimedia, not to detract or distract, from the core of the text and the personal confusion of each of the characters, but to enhance this and give the audience a more tangible experience of Woolf's world.

Working Title

It's late and I really must go to bed, but I think I have a working title for my personal project!

"Art and Ecology: Performing nature and the tree as symbol."

New photograph

I have decided that the previously chosen image of the women with the young boy is not appropriate as she does not look like she comes from the same background as the female in the other three pictures. So the above is the new replacement, the man being the son's father who died when he was little.

The mother and her grown-up son

The mother with her son as a toddler

The mother on her wedding day

The Mother's memories

The Mother, as a young girl.



Here are the four photos that I have chosen to represent the Mother's memories on the four projection screens. They show four significant moments throughout the course of her life, the first photograph from the 1920s, depicting a young girl in a garden, being the sort of photograph that I imagine to be like the one Barthes talks at length about in his book, Camera Lucida. After Barthe's mother died, he came across a photograph of her in what he calls the "winter garden", taken before he was alive. It is this photograph that seems to have prompted him to write Camera Lucida, provoking thoughts about loss, memory, the past, and whether the camera captures the truth.

Experiments with different types of puppets

Playing with different types of puppet. 3D and 2D to both fill the space and create interesting shapes and shadows that reference the Brassai photographs.

Tissue paper, tracing paper or paper that has been oiled will be used to give a sense of delicacy and fragility. What is part of the real world and what is not?....

Group Production Meeting:Costume

Designs for Mr North, greys and creams, tweed
and pinstripe.




Designs for Mrs North (his mother)

She will be played by an actress in her twenties and the idea is that Mrs North will look how she would have done at that age, c.1920.
Floaty fabrics - chiffon, toile....
Mainly a grey pallette with a highlighting of colour.
Printed with photogram images of lace, and other textured materials.

Group Production meeting: Final Set Designs

Set Design.

Theatre Model Box (1:50)

House interior model box (1:25)

These designs show the coming together of the two worlds. The surrealistic street scene that represents memory, both past (the mother's memories which will be recreated using the four old photographs the multimedia group are sourcing as a point of departure), and future (the Brassai photographs which hint at an accident, referencing Barthe's own death in a road accident, and the sitting room in the mother's house, which is located in the real and the present. These two worlds, and the differences in what they represent metaphysically, are emphasised by the nature of the set designs. The outside setting is black, cold, almost abstract, with semi-real trees lining the Parisian boulevard that crosses the floor, out of one wall and into another, contrasts with the naturalistic and homely environment of the interior setting, that is filled with trinkets and photographs, collected over the course of a lifetime. Here we feel both of the character's presences, and can sense their intimacy. The two worlds are linked however, by the characters' voicings of the past, their memories, and their mind's eye, which we will bring to life visually. This aspect will need to be developed from two weeks before the performance when the actors are available for rehearsal.

Feeling a bit more calm....

Had a really good tutorial with the artist Jordan McKenzie today. After getting a bit stressed about refining my personal project, and the piece of critical studies writing that will go with it, earlier this week, I am now feeling more relaxed about things.

Instead of worrying about whether I am a theatre designer or a fine artist, Jordan suggested that perhaps my work lies in the space between those two disciplines - or maybe it doesn't even have to be a case of separating these disciplines in to categories.

I am attracted to the work of artists who use organic materials, creating installations which show the effect of time on these objects, letting the pieces decay and change, an evolving artwork. I also enjoy performance, and the visual language that can arise from the text of a narrative, and the dialogue between the two. I particularly like the results that are aroused when fine artists such as David Hockney among numerous others, cross over in to the world of scenography, as I enjoy the collaboration and sense of symbiotic relationship between the painterly and a certain form of narrative, whether it be drama, music or dance. Maybe I should be looking at how artists link these two things?.......

Artists to look at:

Gonzalez-Torres, Pina Bausch, Joseph Beuys, Alastair McClennan.......

Photographs for Group Project

I'm looking for photographic images from the 1920s-40s to illustrate the life of the mother figure. I'm really looking hard for an image from about the 1940s when she will be in her 40-50s along with her son who will be about 20-30. They should have an element of narrative to them so that the actors have something to play with. If anyone has any I'd be most grateful - preferably from a book, as these will be better quality to transfer slides. I'm not having much luck on the web. These are some I have found so far but not sure if any are appropriate.

My personal research so far........arghhh!!

“Because there are innumerable things beyond the range of human understanding, we constantly use symbolic terms to represent concepts that we cannot define or fully comprehend.” - Jung, Man and His Symbols, p.21.

“The sign begins by repeating itself” - Jacques Derrida, quoted in Peggy Phelan, Mourning Sex, p. 8

I am interested in the use of symbols in the visual arts to convey meaning. This is the idea of an established connotation built up by repeated use, becoming a tradition, so that one “symbol” can stand for perhaps a relatively complex idea or number of ideas. This can allow in performance for increased understanding of the piece being performed and also enable a simpler or more minimalist set or setting. Symbols can also add extra layers of meaning to a performance, or alternatively propose new ideas and angles with which to look at an old piece.
As I have recently started working part-time in a florists, I began by thinking about focusing on the use of flowers in the performing arts as a symbol that can convey a great wealth of meanings. I have been investigating the Victorian practice of floriography in which flowers were used to send coded messages, allowing for otherwise secret information to become known - this could be an interesting area of investigation in terms of performance - i.e. the revealing of private information. An incredible number of meanings for particular flowers, some better known than others, arose and are documented in numerous books and websites. For example, sunflowers can signify haughtiness, and a string of ivy can denote fidelity.
I have now started to think about the wider context of garden imagery, in particular the significance of ‘The Garden of Eden’, as a communicator of grand narratives, from life to death and of course its numerous religious implications. I particularly admire the work of the artist Anya Gallaccio and have been looking at her ‘Because I could not stop’, 2002. This is abound with Edenic imagery, and I enjoy the way she harnesses the effect of the passing of time to the work itself, conveying ideas about death, decay and the cyclical nature of life.
I am beginning to investigate the plays of Chekov, as his works were rooted in the Russian pastoral tradition, thus communicating the aspirations and disappointments of modern day life, countryside v.s. the city, as seen in The Cherry Orchard and Uncle Vanya. Shakespeare also regularly employed garden and plant imagery, most notably in the Henriad, and in his Richard II, to convey the state of England, and the world, as a whole.
I can of course also look at fairytales, and the use of the forest as a mythical setting where magical or surreal events take place. It is another world/space in time, and I am attracted to this play between the real and the unreal. G. Ronald Murphy’s The Owl, the raven, and the dove: The religious meaning of the Grimms’ Magic Fairy Tales, (2000) examines the Grimms’ tales from a Christian perspective and thus opens up a bigger, grander dimension to these familiar “children’s” stories.
As a History of Art Student, I spent a significant amount of time studying the art of the Soviets, 1917-1950, in particular, the way that Socialist Realists employed traditional, often religious, motifs to imply stability and a return to order, in a time of significant social and political upheaval. Do religious metaphors have a place in the 21st century? How can we use them in performance to convey ideas about the self and the world as we now know it?

Becoming real

Here are some pictures of us playing around with shadows for the crowd seen, courtesy of Ming - Thank you!

Yesterday, for the first time, the whole group spent a day in the theatre. It was wonderful to be there, to get a sense of the space, and to bring a greater sense of life to our concepts for the performance.
We spent the majority of the day thinking about movement within the space, and the problem of making sure that the audience move around and don't stand still and stupefied, not knowing what to do, without physically moving them ourselves.
We are looking at various methods of drawing them towards the action, by using lighting spots where the action is taking pace, marking out an actual path on the floor (but not to the extent that there is too much of a boundary), and placing small performances or vignettes, in various places, dotted around the theatre, to encourage a greater sense of flexibility about where to stand (as we will not provide seating).
Things are coming together. Some lovely costume designs were presented. We are going to use a grey/blue palette, to exagerrate the feeling of a cold and wet outside setting, in contrast to the warmth of the house setting, but this will be highlighted with little hints of colour perhaps in a pinkey/orangey colour, making reference to the old-style tinting of black and white photographs before colour photography existed.
Multimedia groups task: to source old super-8 home movie footage to create a history for the son character, and also to find a number of photographs, documenting the life of his mother.

Memory Box

After a light projection workshop last week, we have established a narrative for our group performance.

Proposed Group Performance running order of scenes:
1. Girl playing (the objects/puppetry group are looking in to this aspect) – who perhaps represents the younger version of the mother character.
2. She brings a box on to the stage, opens it up and takes out figurines.
3. Girl arranges the figurines – she exits (?).
4. The Brassai photographs flash up on to a series of small hanging screens.
5. Silhouettes of a milling crowd appear on a large screen.
6. These silhouettes remain as a backdrop as we switch to the interior setting for the mother and son scene.
7. Mother is talking of a significant childhood memory. We see moving footage of this memory. – perhaps in black and white with the girl highlighted in a particular colour – maybe this could fade as she comes to the end of her story?
8. We hear that the mother has died.
9. The son looks through a box of photographs – as he flicks through them the audience sees projected versions of them on the screen.
10. He comes across a photograph of the memory that his mother was talking about – he mourns for her, wanting her to still be there.
11. We return to the Brassai photographs. Hints of a road accident and maybe suggestion that it is son who is the dead figure.

We have now split in to small groups to work on different aspects of the production. These are: Scenography, Costume, Puppetry, Sound and Motion Graphics.

We in the motion graphics team are concentrating on finding images to project on to various screens that will be on the stage. At the moment we are thinking that we will project slides on to the walls of the interior setting to hint at the changing time of day. These will be simple, wallpaper-like images. We need to decide on a time-period in which the narrative will be set with the scenography team.

On the back screens, we are going to create an animation to illustrate or give a sense of the memories that the mother figure evokes. I have been looking in to the dream-like imagery of Chagall's paintings to give me some inspiration.

Orestes

I went to see Shared Experience's version of Euripedes' 'Orestes' in Oxford on Saturday night. The set was sumptuous and decadent, with a huge glass door dominating the stage. The door had racks for dozens of gold-sprayed shoes all over it. You can see a video clip here:

http://www.sharedexperience.org.uk/cgi-bin/downloads/orestes_videoClip.html

Shared Experience are rather good at strong visuals - their 'Jane Eyre' last year had Mr Rochester's insane wife ranting around on a balcony in the Gods for the duration of the performance, creating a tension throughout. The entire action of 'Orestes' took place in the recently murdered mother's room, creating a real sense that the two children who had killed her, really had no way out.