During our experimentation and rehearsal process leading up to our performance, we have undergone many techniques and rehearsing styles to discover more about the genre of Performance Art.
What happens if we just sit here? (Marina Abromovic)
We tested this question by re-creating one of Marina Abromovic’s many experimental performances The Artist is Present, see blog post What Happens When We Just Sit Here? for more detail.
Noises not speech.
An additional experimental technique we adopted was simply sitting in LPAC cafe in silence, listening to the sounds the natural environment gives us everyday without being noticed. We sat quietly for 10 minutes, noting down any noises heard excluding speech and music.
Examples were… A phone alarm, feet shuffling, doors shutting, coughing, hum of the fridge, a can opening, a plastic bag rustling and a chair leg scratching against the floor.
This natural soundscape of the chosen environment was something we found extremely interesting, and led to us choosing to use every day objects to help translate our story relating to the different senses in our devised piece.
Proto-Type Theatre.
In class, we experimented with a performance concept originally done by Proto-Type Theatre. Three of us sat at a table facing the audience, with three microphones, and read from a script. There were three initial rules; the allocation of lines within the script are unassigned, if two people said the same line in unison they had to continue together, and that silence was as important as dialogue. Watching this piece of experimental performance was extremely interesting, as the same three actors could not successfully perform it a second time as they would have preconceptions of how to deliver each line. Experimenting with the spontaneity present in this performance is something we explored throughout our devising process extensively, particularly the spontaneity of the audience’s behaviour. For example, in our performance we offer things to our audience like a slice of cake, a glass of wine etc. We hand these things directly to them, but it is up to them if they wish to drink or eat it, therefore the audience could not experience our peice again as they would know what was coming; something we wished against in our performance.
Non-performatic text. Experiment #3
During our experimental process we were encouraged to look at non-performatic texts differently, to see what possible ideas for performance they hold. A non-performatic text can be anything apart from a theatrical script, and examples we collected include…
- Receipts, credit card statements
- Flyers, invitations, take-away restaurant menus
- Notes, reminders
Looking at these texts in a performatic way makes you read them in a completely different manner, and opens your mind up to many theatrical opportunities you could adopt.
Making your own boundaries of performance.
Discovering and obeying your own pre-decided rules in a performance was something very new to us, but gave very interesting results. As a class, our rules before experimenting through performance included…
- The only lines you could say were words on non-performatic texts (eg. flyers, receipts, notes).
- If you wanted to speak you had to lie down.
- If someone picked up one particular object everyone had to laugh.
- The performance space only included the shade, you could not touch the sunshine with your foot.
- If you stood on the chair you had to sing to the group.
This was an interesting way to perform with a group of people, there was no rehearsal needed, it was all improvised. Although we are all individuals working together, this kind of performance united us all, we became a team.
It was obvious that everyone wanted the performance to work, for instance, one of the rules we had made was that someone could not stand up without a standing group member clapping their hands. We were all aware of the space, who was where and what objects were in which section. The atmosphere around this improvised performance was electric but also very tense. The inclusion of the rules made it feel like a test, no one wanted to forget a rule or go wrong.
Another part of this session was to look at one of the texts that was brought in. We were given a Christmas Post Office flyer, we chose specific parts of the flyer to use for the short performance:
“Customer 1. How do I take up this offer? If you are eligible, write your name and address and sign in the boxes overleaf. Once you have done that take the completed voucher, along with proof of eligibility, to the counter of any Post Office branch. Don’t forget! *This voucher is valid for one purchase only, but up to two eligible people may use this voucher to apply at the same time.”
We were told to perform this in the style of Chekhov. This experiment proved that text isn’t the key focus of a performance, its more about the style in which something is performed which leaves the lasting effect.