Spent a couple of hours in Studio 1 playing with seat layout and testing a few ideas out.
I have decided on performing my piece in the alcove of the studio as it is a small confined area within the room and works well with the “trapped” feeling of my piece. I also don’t need a lot of room as I don’t want a lot of tech or props/set and therefore the alcove is an ideal space for a small solo show.
As discussed in a previous post I was torn between a few staging ideas however, in the end I have decided to go for something very simple. I am still relatively unsure as to what to do with tech however, I am one step closer to the performance with my set design now clear in my mind.
There will be a maximum of 20 chairs within the space therefore the audience numbers will be capped to this. The seats will be positioned in a semi-circle around the alcove with an aisle down the middle. In the picture below there are only 17 chairs, however this was because the curtain was in the way and I only did two rows due to my limited amount of time in the studio. Behind the group of chairs with no wall/curtain behind, I would like a wall of flats so that the space really feels enclosed and confined. All the chairs will be positioned so that they are so close together that they are touching, again making the space feel tight and making the audience members feel as trapped as me.
When I was in the studio, the alcove itself was full of things as normally within the room it is used for storage therefore I was unable to actually get into the space itself. However, here is the space: 
Within this space I want all three walls to be covered in paper. After much deliberation I am leaning more towards overlapping A5 piece with writing on some of them. I want them to look like diary entries and they would need to plaster the walls so that no black paint was showing through. I would also like them on the floor, again covering the floor and bleeding out into the audience. I also had the idea of having the paper covering the audiences chairs. However, when I tried this in the space I found it awkward to cover the chairs and due to set-up timing I don’t think this will be possible and I would rather time was spent covering the walls and floors than the seats themselves.
I am unsure too, a to whether to have just a chair in the performance space or a table instead, again completely covered in paper. These would be something I could cover in paper before my get in, so that time would be saved. I am swaying more towards a table because it is both easier to cover but also because I can use the table as a table or a seat depending on what was required. This will be decided within the next week.
The main reason for the paper covering the space is because most “depressives” write their feelings down within a diary and I want to make the audience feel as though they are within someone’s diary, within their own personal thoughts and experiencing this. The writing on the paper will be taken from the material I have collected (both facts and accounts) and will be written in different hand writing, not just my own, making the performance a little bit more personal to the audience members. They will be written in black biro and so some may not be legible to all audience members.