“Actor Spalding Gray has a way with words. Especially in the spoken form he’s made famous: monologues delivered in direct personal address to a live audience. Intelligent, funny and disarmingly confessional, he sits at a table with only a glass of water and his outline of key words, ports-of-call in his freewheeling, autobiographical odysseys that strike resonant chords of cultural anxiety in his listeners”(Brandes, 1992).

Set out as the audience walk in is a table, with a microphone and glass of water on top. The house lights are on and then the actor walks in casually like an audience member, but then continues to sit at the table on the stage. He takes a sip of water and then the lights dim and a spotlight is left on him. This sets the atmosphere, it lets the audience know that there is a casual tone to the piece the actor is going to sit and talk, but the spotlight highlights that he is the focus of the performance. There is also a projection screen which shows the places he is talking about so the audience can get a slight more sense of where he is talking about whilst still using their imaginations. This is a key feature of this piece that inspires me, the use of projections and pull down map screens.

Although i said from watching Matt Chewiwie’s videos last lesson that i did not want to just rant or lecture the audience i do like the use of facts, but the way the performer presents the facts is what is key. I find the constant talking from one performer quite intense and my brain switches off, therefore i have been thinking about possibly not speaking at all. However, i like the use of a microphone as it adds a ‘performance’ spectacle, the audience may wonder if i am going to sing, or say a monologue. The microphone could just be a visual metaphor for my life being a show. My solo performance is going to be autobiographical, therefore i am the centre of the focus. Due to it being about something that isn’t a visible disability, it therefore means that it is hard to show what happens to my body and so the use of me not speaking could be interesting, to try show visually what is going on inside me. I also like the use like the use of repetition in Swimming to Cambodia as it makes key elements stick in the minds of the audience. This could be useful when trying to explain to the audience what type 1 diabetes is. make sure the miss pre conceptions are outlined and understood, ie it is not gained by eating too much sugar. I could then have images of sugar cubes comes up on a screen and multiply and then repeat again it is not gained by eating too much sugar.

I want to experiment with writing a script, then trying my first idea of going to the microphone at certain key points, try voice overs, and try using visuals instead of speaking.  I need to set up the atmosphere as the audience walk in and then switch it up. I want my pre set lighting to be impacting and create an uncertainty of what will happen in my performance. The lighting changes with the change in the time and place being spoken about.

Brandes, P. (1992). A Perfect Moment : Actor Spalding Gray says that after 13 monologues, he’s going to give up the medium. Los Angeles Times. [online] Available from http://articles.latimes.com/1992-03-05/news/vl-4622_1_spalding-gray [Accessed 27 April 2016].