Month: September 2017

This is the lesson where we started playing with the idea of having the money strangle me, and moving onto other characters that were overcome by money in different ways. We also started discussing the techno side of the project. We decided to use blackouts and a bit of stop motion, showing us going between stills to show my death. We also started discussing the types of backing tracks we would have and I told the group members about my idea for having a layering of voices speaking about the different topics as we wouldn’t speak during the actual performance. We also discussed projecting onto the screen or us different images pertaining to the issue.

Then we started talking about the need to have another cool visual. So, we played around and eventually got to the idea of this:

We played around with rippling the fabric and different positions but this was our favorite visual. As usual we’re not solid on what the meaning is. However, it’s an interesting visual. We then transitioned the visual by folding the sheet into a screen, and put Kate in the front. I then had the idea of putting someone behind the screen to be a sort of monster or “control” Kate. We ended up with this visual:

Kate and Andrea then worked on movements that transitioned from fear of the power of Andrea and the sheet, into a sort of curiosity and control. This also separates Andrea, and through the use of the sheet kind of can make her seem more part of the sheet as she embodies power and money. They continued and played with the idea of Kate taking the sheet from all of us like I had in the first practice. 

Of course Kate was doing this all while under the control of Andrea which upon reflection provokes some interesting thought processes. Are we ever really in control of our desires? We then wanted something striking to show Kate finally taking it from all of us, and given the silence we already had, Andrea had the idea of a clap which is simultaneous with Kate taking the sheet.

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That lesson we didn’t have as much time as we had in other practices and mostly worked on an idea for how I would grow after my “death by sheet”. I had the idea that we could have me have breaths almost mimicking the heartbeat in the beginning, eventually coming out of the way I was buried, but instead getting put in “shackles” by the sheet.

We spent most of the lesson playing with a movement where Kate and Bailee would move in a circle around me, while holding the sheet, kind of like the hands of a clock. I would be dragged by the sheet in a circle.

Once again it was mostly about the aesthetic and the movement, but we figured it could be representative for the passage of time and how money or riches or greed had so much power over me that it controlled me for several cycles.

That lesson we played around a little more with the idea of walking on the sheet, and eventually decided to use the idea of actually using the the sheet as a screen and we played with idea of having shadows behind it.

We thought it had a good aesthetic. It’s very interesting but we didn’t really think of a strict meaning for it. However we did keep using the idea of columbian hypnosis, and we thought maybe it could somehow have some sort of meaning to do with how I’m drawn by money etc… However, eventually I get buried by money or riches, showing how it overcame me.

I get buried by the sheet, and Andrea controls the burying of me in said sheet. We then had an idea about how we could start off the performance keeping the idea of the sheet on the ground, and instead making movements like a heart beating behind it. Mostly we’ve been working on visuals and not so much meaning.

We also worked on the idea of having us all spread out into a line, once again more for aesthetics than much of a message. However, one time when we practiced the transition from heart into line, Kate accidentally ended up a bit farther from everyone else, and we decided to use that and separate me from the rest of us in a way of expressing how I’m different and I discover everything else first and exploit it and get overcome by it.

The first real practice of our CP (including a ten minute session at the end of the previous lesson where we brainstormed) was very productive. We walked in with a lot of ideas. We all knew we wanted to do something abstract, and we kind of wanted to play with lights and possibly an unconventional stage. For stimulus, Kate brought a poem, Andrea brought the idea of a diamond, and I brought the phrase “the grass is always greener on the other side”, from that we all came to the idea of inequality, or the idea of our relationship with stuff other people don’t have. I really wanted to play with the idea of using light as a barrier, so we got  spotlight and a block. I was in the spotlight with the block, and we tried to do some stuff with the idea of me having the light and the block. We played with sticks a bit to show this idea, but ultimately abandoned it. I suggested the use of a sheet as it’s more flexible and we can do a lot more things with it. We then played with the idea of having a diagonal line across the stage; me in the spotlight downstage right, with the other end upstage left. We played with the idea of them having the sheet and me taking it or wanting it and exploring it. Then Bailee had the idea of laying the sheet on the ground, kind of like a runway. We then played with the idea of all of us coming from nothing, and then going to discover it. But, the other girls couldn’t really touch it, while I walked on it. Then when I got to the middle I would try to touch it and Bailee would grab me, we’d freeze, and then I’d gather up the entire sheet and go back to the spotlight. Then they would keep trying to get it from me, eventually succeeding by getting Andrea to use Columbian hypnosis on me so they could steal it. The idea was that it would show how some people steal from the masses and how that results in inequality.