Site and the City

Whilst looking for a location for our performance we stopped outside Lakeland further down the high street. Noticing that the building looked like it could’ve been a court, we went into the shop to investigate. We were informed that it was in fact the location of the old train station, and within Lakeland was an original timetable from the station. (Pictured below.) A member of staff within the shop explained that it continued on through to Argos and that they had some original photos in the store.

We moved on to Argos to look at these photos, and whilst doing so an elderly couple approached us telling us that they remembered when the station was originally there. The gentleman of the pair explained that he took the train from Lincoln to Newark to see the woman who is now his wife. They have been together for 47 years, 48 later this year. This story gave us confirmation that our theme of romance would create an interesting and captivating performance. It also confirmed that couples will be willing to tell us their stories, and that it won’t just be our peers that want to take part.

Today I decided to spend the majority of the lesson at my site, Speakers Corner, observing the buildings and the public that filled it. Six pages of notes and roughly three hours later, I found my observations to be pretty dull and ordinary. I was hoping that as I sat there I would be overwhelmed with a great sense of community but the people who filled the site, merely used it cut through to another place or to quickly make use as the benches and ATM machines. The Speakers Corner felt more like a transition through places and personally I found this to be quiet sad, seeing as nearly a century ago this site was the home to one of the suffragettes rallies in Lincoln.

I find it hard to believe that this site was once filled with protesters and the public is now virtually empty, even during its busiest period. This has me wondering whether Lincoln, as a society, has lost its care for a public voice or lost its confident to break the norms of how to behave in public and use its voice. I wonder this as the site remained fairly quiet all day, other than the background noise of traffic and if anyone disturbed this silence; for example a mother telling off her child, the looks of disgust and annoyance received by the public were by the many. As Dr Helen Pankhurst, Emily Wilding Davison’s great granddaughter suggests, if Emily Wilding Davision was still alive today than she, and possibly the rest of the suffragettes, would fight for; “Increasing the numbers of female voters”, A more diverse Government”, “Ending Violence against women”, “the growth of the pornography industry worldwide”, “the rape culture that blames the victim” (Pankhurst, 2013).  I’ve decided I want my final performance to highlight these issues and to encourage the public to use their voice and use this space. However, unlike Emily Wilding Davison and the Suffragettes, I’ve decided to take a less obvious and violent approach to my performance, which may not even class as a protest. After a discussion with my class, I’ve decided to spend my performance walking in and around the site, each time speaking about these issues. I want my performance to be simple but creates a sense of unease about the public, as I will be breaking the norms of public behavior and I hope that eventually they come to the realization that I will be performing/protesting.

My next step is to go back and visit the site at night (with a large group) to see how the behavior and atmosphere changes and compare this to the daytime. I’m also going to start researching the points raised by Dr Helen Pankhurts and start building my script around this research, as well as also contacting the university’s Woman’s officer and various groups to ensure my scripts won’t offend anyone or cause any backlash.

References:

Pankhurst, D. (2013). Feminism: what would the suffragettes be fighting for today?. [online] Telegraph.co.uk. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-politics/9825131/Feminism-what-would-the-suffragettes-be-fighting-for-today.html [Accessed 3 Mar. 2016].

Lincoln

This week was the first week that our group had been able to meet as a whole due to a variety of absences and prior engagements. We took this opportunity to have a meeting prior to the seminar, something which will now occur every week. During this meeting we brought together all the ideas we have had and decided upon the theme of romance and the relationships of the people in Lincoln. At this stage the way in which this would be done was still undecided, these decision was made following our research within the city.

At the beginning of the seminar the class had a brief talk with Steven during which we explored the idea of Live Art through a video by Joshua Sofaer, called ‘What is Live Art?‘. In this video Joshua explains that Live Art “comes into being at the actual moment of encounter between the artist and spectator”. (Joshua Sofaer, 2011.). Having watched this we decided that we wanted our piece to do just that, but not only will the piece be created for the audience, we wanted the audience to help us create it.

Following this discussion a meeting with Steven was arranged for later in the afternoon, until this meeting our group went out into our site to see what we could observe to help us determine a location and how we wanted to approach the theme of love within the site. After visiting a variety of places up and down the city we decided upon an empty building on Speakers Corner, photos of which are attached. This was decided upon due to the fact we could decorate it by both sticking things to the glass walls and hanging things from the poles surrounding it, transforming it from an empty building into a large display of romance.

Having this location meant we now began to think about our performance. From the beginning we have much preferred the idea of an installation piece as opposed to a performance that involves us acting. After speaking to a couple in Argos, an interaction which I have included on a separate blog post, it was decided that getting personal stories from the couples to use as part of our piece was best. This would include photos of the couples. Their stories, including the date they met and a favourite location they have in Lincoln will be written down. Both the photos and stories will be used to decorate the building as well as variety of items you associate with romance such as flowers.

After speaking to Steven during our meeting in the city, it has been decided that research needs to be done into Speakers Corner, as he explained that it is too significant a location to use without the history behind it. As well as  this he asked how we are going to obtain the information from the couples in a way that entices them to take part and view our performance. We have decided to obtain these stories both on the day and during the weeks beforehand. Some of these will be gathered online, but most of the stories will be obtained through talking to couples in the city. Having stories and photos already on display on the day of our performance will make other couples more likely to give us their stories because they’ll see that they’re not the only ones taking part. As well as this we have taken inspiration from ‘Slightly Cloudy Chance of Rain’ , in particular the part of their performance in which they take bottles of urine from the roadside and replace them with other items. Using this idea we will swap a flower, something that people give to each other as a sign of love, for a couples’ story and a photo. This will be done both on the day, and in the weeks prior so that we can rehearse this interaction and see if it works, as well as obtain more stories before the performance.

(Photos of the building at Speakers Corner)

References

Joshua Sofaer (2011) What is Live Art? [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOUxv4Do01g [Accessed 2nd March 2016].

• During the reading week (22^nd – 26^th February) I did some research on the site specific subject.
• The notes from the beginning of this blog are based on a document I found from a book names “Making a Performance” written by an actress, Katie Normington, and two others name Emma Govern, Helen Nicholson.

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• SCHECKNER – Environmental theatre works through creating a living in styled performance.
• A style of performance based on the natural state of everyday life whilst having an alternative meaning.
• Polish Director – GROTOWISKI – Created living environments through witnesses.
• GROTOWISKI – “Dr.Faustus” – His perception of the table scene, his audience members were seated within the scene, around the table.
• This is an example of how his audience would witness his workings. They would live that specific moment of his performance with his actors. They would be just as involved within the making of the scene just without dialogue. Mute characters.
• GROTOWISKI’S style of environmental theatre gives the witness’s a sense of community. If not because they are being involved within a situation with others both actors and the other witnesses. But the community created for the witnesses alone because they are all just as on edge and apprehensive as each other. This gives them a sense of security that they aren’t alone.
• The reading itself refers to this ‘community’ as similar to the spectators in a religious situations – VICERS vs WORSHIPERS. – Due to the living moment that is lived by all within that situation.
• TRADITIONAL THEATRE IS AS FOLLOWS:
• ON STAGE – INSIDE –the living moment
• AUDIENCE – OUTSIDE – only spectators to the event.

• Within Living Environment Theatre the boundaries set in place by traditional staged performances are completely banished. The audience are invited in to closely witness the ‘living happenings’.
• LIVING SPACES – A techniques used frequently within the workings of a theatre company called ‘RECKLESS SLEEPERS’
• RECKLESS SLEEPERS group was founded in Nottingham in 1989. Their works are a combination of all the following:
• DURATION PIECES – On going performances that are detailed/repetitive.
• SOUND INSTILATIONS – Performances based on the sense of smell to create an outcome.
• EXBIDITIONS – Travelling performances that include more techniques such as activities to engage the audiences to focus and think about the topic of the entire piece.
• OUT DOOR PERFROMANCE – Performance that involve all of the above but outdoors.
• One of their very famous pieces was when the group were commission to create a piece of living theatre based on ‘The Last Supper’.
• The groups research Brief was to elaborate the phrase ‘Eating your words’
• To gather information and practical evidence the group took to the streets and read text from pieces of paper. Once they had read the entire piece of text they would move onto the next after putting the previously read one into their mouth.
• They continued this process until they had no other room spare to talk their own words. This thought of having the words but not the voice gave the group a solid stimulus.
• They looked at convicts that had been sentence to either be executed or live a life on Death Row. The autobiography’s that were written but convicts were used by RECHLESS SLEEPRS, the exact words from the convict’s mouth and their case numbers, table number, and a number with no significance.
• The result performance was performed in GLASGOW at the Tramway Theatre, 2005. All 39 audience members were given an invitation to a dinner party at this location. Before they entered they all received a table number, an incident number and number.
• The audience were escorted to their specific seats. An actor dressed as a chef would appear and shout a number across the hall. That person with that number would be fed 1 dish from the three optional: CHOCOLATE CAKE, COTTAGE CHESE, and LIVER AND ONIONS.
• The dishes were specific to the performance due to these three items were the exact things that Death Row occupant Lennie White asked for as his last meal before his execution in 1997.
• LYN GARDNER- a Drama and English graduate from Kent university – Gave a review of this piece in which she mentioned that “it gave a voice to the voiceless” This being due to the actually words wrote or said by the convict before their death.
• She spoke of how the imaginary words spoken buy some of the actors would be relatable to that of those unfortunate souls who were murdered by the chemical explosion Hiroshima.
• These aspects of a performance, use of imagination, are created by many different techniques: A director’s encouragement of using non-performing throughout the research and rehearsal process.
• Also by the reportage and down playing of emotion within the piece, deliberately just reading the text from a written script.
• As well as emphasising the game playing from each actor, they also play up to the audience. They continuously refer to the audience as themselves: “I don’t know what to say this.”
• This leading to an all matter of questions:
• ARE THEY THEMSELVES?
• ARE THEY INVENTED PERSONA’S AT ALL?
• ARE THEY MOMENTARILY REPRESENTATIONS OF THE PEOPLES WHO’S WORDS THEY SPEAK?
• This performance was performed at the TRAMWAY THEATRE in GLASGOW, Scotland. This buildings history is as it sounds. It was a building created to be a tram shed on the edge of GLASGOW. This building was also used by PETER BROOKS when his performance of “MAHABHARATA” toured.
• The building itself is a quintessential industrial due to its –
• CONCRETE FLOORING
• EXPOSED BRICK WORK
• DUCTING- Air ventilation systems
• GIRDERS – Support beams for a structure.
• During the performance the tables themselves were cluttered with wine and food – this heightens the irony of the building due to the unhinged effect of the derelict building.
• The Last Supper performance it’s self-acted as a realisation for both the actors and the audience. That both fact and fiction can be equally unreliable as each other. That history’s stable entity is and can be banished.

This week’s session saw our group discuss influences for our performance. Our main influence is Marc Auge and his theory on places and non-places. As we discussed further, another possible influence could be Adrian Howells and his performance Salon Adrienne. We saw similarities between his work on confessional exchange with audiences and our developing idea of inviting members of the audience into our newly transformed place and talking to them. With this in mind, we can start to develop a structure for how we will approach interaction with audiences and what we want to get from them (and even what we want them to get from us).

During this session our group also conducted research into our idea; this included doing a survey and getting the public’s opinions (the results of which will assist how we form our final performance, we will ask more people each week), and conducting experiments regarding connections between the public and the archway. To start, we counted the number of people walking through the archway in the space of two minutes. The results we received from this was:

Between 11.56am and 11.58am on Monday 29^th February:
66 people walked through the archway heading down the high street
49 people walked through the archway heading up the high street
115 people in total walked through the archway

This information gave us an insight into the mass of people travelling through the archway on a standard weekday. With the numbers being very high for only a two minute period, it left us with no doubt that there will be people walking past our performance and therefore many potential audiences for our piece. We also conducted a sound test for two minutes, as we believed this recording would assist our understanding on how social or unsocial the space under the archways is. The results showed that any conversations were only spoken in transit and there was never anyone who stopped and used the space as a social place to talk. This also supported our theory that the archway is a non-place for the general public and not somewhere where social life is generated. I found the sounds of footsteps very interesting to hear as they echoed around the stone arch, filling the archway with an endless sound of footsteps mixed with distant chatter.

I also gathered a video of the feet of passers-by. This was my favourite form of media to collect as the video showed people not only walking far away from the camera but also walking very close to the camera, showing urgency as well as a feeling of negligence by the public not taking enough time to avoid or even notice the camera.

Later we organised a tour of the Guildhall, which is the building occupying the top of the Stonebow Arch, to learn more about the history of the site (which I voice recorded for reference). We discovered that the building is a council room where council members still meet. Inside there is a bell which is rung for five minutes before each meeting starts. We were curious about the use of the bell being used as a method of summoning and allowing conversation/discussion, we questioned whether this could be incorporated into our performance; this is something we are currently exploring.