Questions that need to be asked and answered:
- Do you have a story to tell? Yes. I want to tell the story of depression, how someone feels with the illness and what they face from self harm, suicidal thoughts and their everyday experiences both with people’s perception of their condition but also their own thoughts.
- Is a Solo performance the best way to tell the story? Yes. A solo performance is personal, like a friend telling you a secret or a story.
- Is it the only way? No. In order to tell a story about depression or suicide a performance with more than one person could be done, or a piece of performance art that expresses both the stages a person may go through or an expression of the illness itself. There are many ways to perform the idea not just solo performance, however I feel that Solo is an ideal way to really inform people of the condition in a personal way.
- Does your material, whatever it might be, lend itself to solo performance? Interviews and facts make up the majority of my material and they do lend themselves nicely to solo performance. I am not creating an autobiographical performance but a personal one and therefore, using these two sources allows me to make the performance impact the audience on a personal level.
- Do you want to display your skills as an actor, mimic, singer, dancer, mime artist, clown or puppeteer? I do not one to display any skills. I will not be acting as such, I will be playing different “characters” but I will not be acting these parts. Just representing them. If its being acted then it doesn’t feel as real as when someone is just telling you the story as themselves. II will in some respects be a mimic by mimicking the information I have collected.
- Does the material lead to the solo show or does the desire to make a solo show lead to the idea? The desire to create a solo performance led to this idea due to the fact I wanted to take the module before I decided on an exact idea. However, I wanted to create a performance about a subject that isn’t shown within a theatre very often and something that is very taboo even in life. Therefore, they both led to each other in some respects.
Questions about the audience needed to be asked and answered:
- Do you want to be able to see them? This I am still not too sure about until I rehearse in the actual space later this week. I think I do want to see them as I want to feel trapped on the stage and I want this to reflect on the audience.
- Will they be in darkness? Again, I am not too sure until the lighting workshop. I have chosen a very awkward space for lighting both myself and the audience. I think yes, I would like them to be in darkness but not at the very beginning as I want to make them feel slightly uncomfortable and for me, light being on over the audience during a performance is very uncomforting both as a performer but also as an audience member.
- Will there be a fourth wall? No. I will not directly address the audience at any part within the piece except from right at the beginning (or at least that Is what I am thinking now). But I will be aware of them and they will be aware that the “characters” know they are there.
- Are you aware of your audience? Yes.
- Do you talk directly to or with them? No audience participation at all but I may acknowledge them at the beginning.
- What would you like your relationship with the audience to be? *Intimate**Entertaining**Informative**Personal*
Questions from: Bruno, S. and Dixon, L. (2015) Creating Solo Performance. Routledge, Oxon.