So it's been a long time since I last added anything to this blog, and life has taken a few sharp turns for me lately. A while ago I posted on facebook, asking if anyone knew of any theatre-making blogs. I got a few leads, but nothing like I was hoping for. It's occurred to me recently that I could write here about my progress on a terrifying solo project I've talked myself into. It's a continuation of the piece I made for my final project at LISPA in July 2014, which was born from a solo improvisation that I performed at the end of the first year of training.
There is, I believe, a famous Lecoq exercise, whereby the students enters as a professor or expert in the specialist subject of their choice, and addresses the audience as though they were about to give a lecture. As the actor talks about the subject, they gradually become more physically involved, until they are the embodiment of the subject. Embodiment is a difficult one to explain, though it was the one thing we got plenty of practise at - you name it, we embodied it!
I thought for ages about what my specialist subject could be, as I watched my classmates get up one by one and go through the process publicly, and all sorts of subjects embodied, from American football to the Evolutionary process. And the only subject that I could speak decidedly and passionately about was Tom Waits, he was in my ears every day on my long commute. The memory of my improvisation is foggy, but it definitely set something off, and through the ensemble piece that I performed a year later with four pals, and workshopped with several more, I've decided to get something going under my own steam in 2016 - and we'll add the ensemble back in later!
I thought for ages about what my specialist subject could be, as I watched my classmates get up one by one and go through the process publicly, and all sorts of subjects embodied, from American football to the Evolutionary process. And the only subject that I could speak decidedly and passionately about was Tom Waits, he was in my ears every day on my long commute. The memory of my improvisation is foggy, but it definitely set something off, and through the ensemble piece that I performed a year later with four pals, and workshopped with several more, I've decided to get something going under my own steam in 2016 - and we'll add the ensemble back in later!
I've been working on a kind of script / structure / dramaturgy since October 2015, and reflecting on the creative process at times, and I finished a script outline earlier this evening, which I fully expect to change over the year. I'll be performing little snippets from about March onwards, attempting Edinburgh previews in July, and then the first three weeks of the Fringe. It's going to be crazy, and I'll be logging some of it here!
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