Author: Kristian Oscar Joseph Clark

So as previously mentioned I would like my solo performance to have a personal touch based on factual and true events in my life. My idea which I would like to develop into a performance is based on a weekly occurance in my life. This regular event is a meeting between me and my father at a pub where we have a drink and a catch upon the week gone by. During these meetings my dad also tells me stories and anecdotes about his life, in a similar sort of way Spalding Gray delivers his works. The stories are generally hilarious and shocking and  I would like to use these stories and recite them to an audience. In terms of staging the piece I would like to keep it minmalistic with one spot light. I would also like to emphasize the point of these stories being in a pub, so I would use a stool and sit a table with a pint, just as I would be doing if I was actually there. The piece itself would be scripted and not spontaneous as I would like to write, revise and learn the stories so no misjudgment on my behalf can be made about the content.

 

Our last task in lesson was to a presentation on a practitioner, as I have already looked at an  autobiographical piece and know of performance art, i thought it would be a good idea to look at a piece which uses a scripted play. I chose to look at Chris Goode and his written play The Adventures of Wound man and Shirley. The play simply tells the story of an unconventional friendship between the abnormal super hero, wound-man, and his new found friend, Shirley. When performing this piece Goode uses a box of props which he uses as and when he needs them. I like this particular idea as nothing is given away before it happens as all props are concealed an hidden. He also uses several soundtracks throughout composed by himself to help the story progress or avoid awkward moments and silences. The use of props i particularly like and would consider manipulating in my own way to use a similar idea in my piece.

In one of our most recent lessons we looked at Spalding Gray and his award winning solo piece, Swimming to Cambodia. This particular piece has to be my personal favourite  out of all the other performances I have seen. The general concept to this particular piece is Spalding Gray sitting at a table telling his story of being in Cambodia for a film, meanwhile the whole time on his own personal mission to see for the ‘perfect moment’. The whole story is based upon true events with some elements over exaggerated for comedic purposes. Although some are over the top he mentions this at the start so we know making the rest of the anecdote honest. This kind of performance is exactly how I wanted to mould mine around. a personal story close to home. He also makes great use of props, he has a map on the wall he constantly refers too, to help embed the truth of the story in our minds. Gray also makes great use out of media, some points he will show brief videos and others he will have the images playing over his face whilst still telling his story. This is certainly one element I will keep in mind when developing my performance.

In my next few posts i’m going to explore several practitioners and their methods to try and decide what kind of performance i would like to do, at the moment i am more favorable of a personal piece, performing something which is based on truth and relates to me. Hopefully with the research i am about to do i am able to start to form a dramatical element around my basic idea.