Today’s session was about collaboration. Our stimulus words were Failure for Tom and Levels for myself. Combining the two words together, we had to try create a show.
Impossible tasks/playing with the audience
Audience enter the space to find it set out like a TV Game show studio. The audience sit on tiered seating. It is lit with a wash. A ‘presenter’ (solo performer) sits on a stool, getting his makeup touched up. There is the sound of audience chatter being played through the speaker system showing the real audience that they are allowed to chat and that this is pre-performance. There are film cameras panning round the audience and the audiences faces via live stream are being shown on the large back screen of the game show set. When the audience have all been seated for a small time. A loud cheesy gameshow voice introduces the show “Good evening ladies and Gentlemen and welcome to…. etc” The presenter stays motionless and straight-faced throughout. A spotlight highlights a podium with two red buttons on it. The back screen now displays the rules of the game. “The spotlight will pick a member of the audience, the audience member will be required to approach the podium and press one of the two buttons as corresponding to the task. They will then return to their seats” .The game show begins by a round of tasks related to the solo performers personal life. For example, things that they actually love or hate. eg ‘Eat an apple with the skin on’(for me this is challenging as I struggle to eat the skin but it seems more of a safe option than- ‘eat a whole bag of sugar’ which being diabetic could potentially kill me). It will start light-hearted and jovial in this way. Very like butlins. However as it goes on the tasks become more extreme, and the audience are forced to make tougher decisions. The audience are told if they don’t press a button within a certain time one of the presenters balloons will burst. In the second round. The camera shows just the presenters face. We ask the audiences very personal questions about the presenter such as “How many times has your mother tried to kill herself?” Two or five?- Tom. Through this we learn autobiographical information about the performer. The voiceover will speed up with the questions becoming more and more serious and unbearable for the audience to hear. The lights dart sporadically until the performer stands and approaches the buttons, and there is a blackout.
Although I don’t want my piece to be quite as shocking and make the audience feel uncomfortable, I do however like the idea of going from light hearted and cabaret bright lights style to a darker tone with mood lighting. I want the audience to take away a deeper serious understanding of type 1 diabetes whilst still understanding there are positives and I have a happy outlook on life, hence I want to add comedy in my script too. The game show idea I like in terms of having bright coloured lights and perhaps a microphone, as it puts the one performer under pressure. The idea of revealing a screen with questions on could work for challenging the audiences pre conceptions of obvious questions like “what is the difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes?”
The idea of completing tasks on stage really appeals to me as my whole life is a game, playing with numbers and levels- “getting to the next level” in a game. Eating onstage I think has a really big impact if you use it correctly. If I ate a whole jar of nutella whilst there was a serious voice over about how I once nearly died from having ketoacidosis, that would however make me look stupid as I would be putting my life at risk from eating too much sugar. I do not want to promote eating ridiculously, I want to let the audience understand I can eat sugar, just in moderation. Therefore 3/4 jelly babies would have the right impact rather than a whole jar of nutella.
“Going to your friend’s house and their parents buy “diabetic food” because they think that’s all you can eat- Diabetic food contains laxatives It will cause me to shit myself like I did when I had my first pack of sugar free polos, and ate the whole pack, in one go. At my dad’s friends house. I eat normal chocolate.
However if I eat a whole giant bar of chocolate and don’t carb count properly I end up feeling even more sick than a “normal” person from stuffing my face.” (Baillie, 2016)
Key ideas: Pre-performance, Voice Overs, Question screens, Multi-coloured lights, microphone, performer becoming more and more challenged, Confessions.