One of the things that really interested me during this module was manipulating the audience performer dynamic. There are many ways of implimenting this throughout the performance spectrum. One of the more interesting performances, by BLast Theory, is KIdnap Blipvert (1998), where participants applied to be kidnapped. Eventually two were chosen, and the audience witnessed 3 days of their life, kidnapped.

‘This project is designed to highlight and to some extent expose the workings of the media in Britain. It is our working assumption that any thorny problems of morality will not hinder media outlets from covering this event. In fact, if we do our job properly we expect them to cover Kidnap in large numbers. The key question will be: how will they cover it? As a wacky human interest story, as art event or as news story? Will it be condemned, condoned or merely reported? What space is there for this kind of unclassifiable activity in the media? Our aim will be to keep all readings as open as possible. We will closely follow the media coverage and respond to it. The fact that we – the tail – will almost certainly be unable to wag the dog is a fate we are prepared for.Media coverage will fulfill other functions. It will give Kidnap a conceptual function: no one who hears about it will be unchanged by it. They will surely ask who would do such a thing? Why? To most people both kidnapper and kidnappee will seem crazy. But perhaps it will also set off secret chains of thoughts in their minds: what would I give to leave everything behind for a couple of days? They will perhaps be quite attracted to handing someone else responsibility for their life for a short while under very specific conditions. And perhaps one in a thousand might even register. This seeming perversity, an inversion of all normal values, might just set someone onto a different path in life.

Kidnap is also a performance, a piece of theatre. This is a play with several acts but with improvised scenes and an unknown ending. It is a drama where you pay for the chance to play the lead role. And it is a performance both for the media and for the winners. Those kidnapping will play their roles but will those who have been kidnapped? Perhaps those shortlisted will rehearse for the big moment, practicing being kidnapped in a number of ways. Perhaps they will hone their performances for the most captive audience anyone will ever have: the kidnappers.

The theatricality will be maximised even further by the fact that each entrant will be able to specify a scenario that they would like enacted. They will be able to choose different types of kidnaps that they would like to experience from Son/Daughter Of A Millionaire through to Story At Bedtime. Furthermore Kidnap will be a Pinteresque drama: two strangers find themselves in a locked room for 48 hours. We will document the resulting script.’ (Blast Theory, 2012)

Blast Theory. (2012) Kidnap. [online]London: Blast Theory. Avaliable from http://www.blasttheory.co.uk/projects/kidnap/ [Accessed 23 April 2014]

There’s that famous saying; “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade” coined by Elbert Hubbard in the original phrasing of “He picked up the lemons that Fate had sent him and started a lemonade-stand” (1915). The phrase is used to describe a situation where something seemingly goes wrong, but you make the best of what you have been given.

We were told that our original site area, Grantham, was no longer available for us to perform in on the 10th of May and we were to make use of the LPAC to perform our performances. Determined not to loose all meaning of this project, our group wanted to gain a space that was more than just an empty studio with 4 black walls. We started looking into emailing the local council in the hope we’d be able to use one of the empty shops on lincoln high street, but it was soon suggested we attempt to gain the Zing cafe in the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre.

After a short exchange of emails we were granted access to the space at the end of the room. The space comes ready set with varying things we feel will actually make our performance more interesting than if we used the space in Grantham.

The Zing cafe area has;
– A TV we can play some form of information or promotional video on
– Sofas and other furniture we can make use of if we see fit.
– A notice board we can put posters on
– A Book shelf
– Leaflet rack we can put information booklets in.

After spending time in this space, getting used to this area, we have come to the decision that this area to perform in will possibly be more beneficial to us than the empty shop in Grantham, as we are using a ‘non-theatre location’ (Wilkie, 2002) which just so happens to still be in use as a space that works in the retail industry on a daily basis.

Hubbard, Elbert (February 1915), “The Fra: A Journal of Affirmation”, The Fra (Elbert Hubbard) 14 (5): xxiv–d, archived from the original on September 13, 2012

Wilkie, F. (2002) Mapping the Terrain: a Survey of Site-specific Performance in Britain’, New Theatre Quarterly, 18, 2, 140-60.

Exploring the dynamics and layers of performance is a tough job to do, and as drama students we each have faced the challenge of interpreting performances that have been specifically designed to be interpretive! Luckily for us we are trained with the skill to identify what works and what doesn’t, or so we think. The Defying Gravity group stumbled, broken limbed into a new process of exploration with the visually stimulating, headache inducing glow-in-the-dark (GID) idea developed through visual means of illusion. What we found was another story, if ever one considers physical movement with paint, just remember it’s messy. Not just in the ‘It’ll get all over my clothes and in my hair’ messiness, but also performative, it is sloppy, gruesome and just too darn difficult to reproduce on a non-existent budget. What works for The Blue Man Group, does not work for four Lincoln-based drama students. But we soldiered on, not willing to fall at the first hurdle (especially given that we had countless more to leap), and developed numerous ways in which we could explore and create this image. With the expulsion of any consideration towards a narrative, we faced the challenge of making the GID paint performative and intriguing to observe, enter the music. Watching a physical body react and blend to the rhythm and intracacies of music is stimulating and (when done well) completely engrosses an observer into a new world, a visual story to be explored and interpreted. The group considered this an interesting way in which to challenge the force of gravity, incorporating the muscular awareness through means of Pilates, the movement of the body would then be extended through the use of the GID paint, to further the removal of gravity by the force exerted behind the movement. Essentially, paint flying everywhere in the dark, in some stimulating, psychedelic trip for the observer to witness with the backdrop of music accompanying the development of a visual story. And yet, what was a simplistic exploration morphed, into a sloppy trifle as each layer was added to it. We had movement against gravity, check. We had paint, check. We had music to form response, check. We crashed and burned, check. The numerous layering of artistic concepts made us lose sight of the foundation for the idea, and as a result we suffered with poor feedback, specifically for the choices in music. This isn’t to say that music in performance does not work, but the relativity of the music in regard to the performance is key, and if not executed with clear conceptual understanding of its implementation what you’re left with is a performance lost within the misplacement of a heavy bass line and unnecessary lyrical accompaniment. Luckily, we have found a means to strip back the layers of the mismatched performance elements and have rediscovered that we had not completely strayed from our group aim; to defy gravity. There is movement, and we have been fortunate to challenge the negative qualities of the performance pieces at the stage we have, allowing us to explore the dynamics of our new performance concept. So, what did we learn from this process? Well, in this case: Music? Nay.

Throughout the development process the Defying Gravity group have journeyed a long road filled with alterations and introductions of new process, concept and dynamic. We produced two different ideas with very weak relation to one another’s foundation, and lost our most prominently considered approach to this project after our pitch to Jeremy and Rosemary. We came away from our original concept of challenging the boundaries of performance space and began to explore the visual and artistic capabilities of glow-in-the-dark. We made a conscious decision to steer clear of a narrative and implemented our own initial responses, culminating in physical response and representation to auditory reception and the dynamics of visual art constructing our impulses in movement, to eventually create an image of blended and interpretive colour. However, as we created and developed short pieces (5/10/15 minute performances), we found that we had layered our concept into a jumbled mess of confused discoloured visualisations of performance; we had lost the clear and dynamic sight that we had discovered through our initial pitch idea. Taking on board the fresh and constructive feedback from Conan we found that within our pieces we had subtle nuances of simplistic performance exploration, quite simply the expression of movement in competition with the force of gravity. We found that our “Doll Performance” had a clear relation to the challenge of muscle exertion versus gravity; ultimately the slow and conscientious movement of our bodies to move from floor to standing could be explored further. How could we explore the forces acting within our bodies, as we challenge gravity with a simple step, or a leap into the air? The performance quality of simplistic movement is abundant with exploratory capabilities that are both intriguing and subtle. Our latest hurdle has led us to explore this simple concept and we have discovered numerous performative ways in which to discover the intricate details of muscle mass working against gravity. The next step within our process has prompted our furthering of our understanding of the performative quality of physical theatre, specifically the dynamics of ‘lifts’ we have found a way to express how we defy gravity on a daily basis.

Human.Inc, could go brilliantly, it could also go very wrong.

The very idea of Human.Inc is pretty simple, advances to the human form, offering products to change or evolve the body.
Due to the venue being changed, we are now thinking of having our interviews in the Zinc Cafe as we will have access to a lot of people, they will also be a lot more willing to take part.

We are still planning, swapping and changing our interview questions, wanting to make sure that we ask the right questions, getting all the necessary information, whilst giving them a good idea of what the company does and work some of the science of our products in as well, as well as trying to remain professional at all times, making it seem like believeable company.

Making sure we are getting the science right is one of the trickiest concept, as some of our products haven’t been created yet, so trying to get the science for the basic idea, like changing eye colour, we are looking into regular eye drops and seeing what’s in it to transfer it to our product and we are trying to do that with as many of our products as we can.