Final Performance

The final performance was fun. Audience ate almost all the food which was good. The feedback the group got was mixes. Some remarks made ware very reasonable . I have enjoyed this module very much and most of all I have my group to thank for that.

5th Rehersal

At today’s rehearsal we had a dress rehearsal with the material for the barrier. We also decided on using calk to draw lines on the floor which will indicate that the audience shouldn’t cross in to the worlds.

Week 9

Today’s class was dedicated to rehearsing and then presenting work.

 Our group has focused today on certain details of our performance. The sheets that we are going to which will separate our world from the outside world and props we are going to bring. Each one of us is going to bring items relevant to our needs in the performance. The actions performed in the piece are relevant to each member of the group. By sharing that part of us that is personal to us we try and recreate the idea of personal but in the public. I am referring to the performers who lived and slept in the shop windows. To me it’s a juxtaposition of two opposites -public and private. The fact that we are leaving our phones on a table with a sigh saying - Play Me, to me it represents a part of me, my phone is a part of my life. By displaying it in the performance, I think that I am offering an insight in to my life. When participant open the phones it has our private videos on display. But the participant can easily browse through the phone messages and pictures if they wanted to. I’m just trying to highlight that it a conscious idea of choosing phones to play our videos as they are a private part of us which we display in public and by doing that with the participants/audience we sharing it in public.

4th Rehersal

At today’s rehearsal we needed to make some final decisions about our piece. First of all we decided that we are not playing the dream material instead of that we are going to film short video clips of ourselves talking about our private life’s and habits. Also we decided that we are going to have a white see though vial as a barrier between our private worlds and the audience. We also decided that we will start in our world and remain there for the whole performance. The table will be messy with food and our private belongings on the table and chairs as if we were there not long ago.

3rd Rehersal

Today’s rehearsal consisted of filming the dream material. The dream material is going to be played when the group leaves the table and each goes off to their world, performs their action and falls asleep. After filming we headed to the Mac editing suites to start editing the material. We did not finish editing as it took us some time to work the Mac out. We hope to finish the editing tomorrow during rehearsal time. The group also discussed the barrier between the audience and us which needs to be more defined. The possible barriers are: net, plastic foil, if in a room. We also are thinking about the Library window. We haven’t decided today we set to finalize the choice tomorrow.

Week 8

Today's lecture  was led by a guest lecturer Tamara Meneghini from Colorado, Boulder University.
Tamara intruduced the idea of a mask to the class. She spoke about her one women show and how the idea of a mask has been used in her production.
 

The second part of the seminar as dedicated to groups rehearsing. We had a run through with Munir as he couldn’t attend Monday’s rehearsal.At today’s workshop we had a chance to show Rachel what we came up with. We got some critical feedback which I must admit has confused me slightly but also raised some important questions. When we have told Rachel that we want to play the dream material on a projector when we leave the table, she asked us why we want to play the dream material and how it relates to the rest of the piece. I have realized that the reason we thought about the dream material is because the archive that we exploring is called The Dream Capsule, and that is not a good enough reason. During the rehearsal we decided to use more multimedia in our piece. Today we were playing with the idea of projecting the videos on our phones and pads and leaving the device at the table which the audience can choose to play and watch,  while we go off to our worlds that are spread in the four corners of the room. But now I’m thinking that the worlds don’t have to be in the corners because that is predictable. They could be scattered not necessarily in equal distance from each other. Also, we established that we want to present our work in a form of an Installation, which will involve us staying in the space for longer period of time. We also want to invite the audience to sit with us at the table and to feel free to move around and enter the different worlds. We still need to establish how much we want the audience to interact with us in the different worlds. I think that the approach should be more innovative. Rachel also asked us to consider a better transition from the table to the worlds so it’s more defined

 In the last part of the workshop groups showed their work to each other. We showed our work to the class. The way I understood our feedback was that we have a stable base, but that is all. The ideas we have might be clear in our heads but they aren’t to the audience. Our representation, whether, metaphorical has to be innovative and simple.

2nd Rehearsal

 At today’s rehearsal we had a group discussion on how we could possibly incorporate our own dreams in this piece. Then through discussion we have decided that through our piece we will portray the public and private instead of the dream and reality.

The piece so far:

 - We start siting down at a table with five chairs. One chair stays empty for a member of the audience.

 - We start eating, sharing food.

 - One by one, we play a personal video on phone/pad, leave it at the table, get up and walk to our worlds.

 - In our worlds , we fall asleep, we wake up.

 - One by one we say our lines (that portray how the individuals felt living together).