Month: April 2013

Producing a Stable Diet: Appetizer

Rachel Miller / / The Odds Are Stacked

As our piece has  moved over hurdles over the past few weeks  we as a group have been looking forward to the finish line for our final product.  In order to created our journey from the start to the end, we first looked at the space’s connotations and how we would apply them to our process.

Once a resting place for the homeless, the Grandstand a fellow outsider of Lincoln society stands on the out skirts of the city looking in. From the glory of  temporarily housing the once lucky to the unlucky. The potentially rich to now the penniless; We discovered an overall theme of loss permeates this building. Similar to site specific choreographer Willi Dorner we too looked into the past and future of our site.  We also found similarities between his findings from his Snienton Market project in Nottingham in 2005 and ours from The Grandstand. ” I got to see a place which seemed to me empty, silent and uncared for… I had a feeling that the perspective of tomorrow seemed vague and empty” ((Dance4 Toolkit 2005)) As we were shown around inside of the Grandstand on our second week we came to realize that the future of this space is a question mark.  Likewise to the market, the insides of the Grandstand are empty and in terms of the weighing room (our main performance space) it also seems uncared for. Taking this into consideration along with the theme of loss, we explored further into the spaces  past purpose as a racecourse center and felt it necessary to continue looking into its journey from being a positive to a negative space.  So in order to capture some of its old life we felt we needed to critically address what our performance could include with inspiration from Mike Pearson’s Why Performance study notes this helped us question ” What happens here, has happened here, might happen here” (( Pearson, Mike,2011,Why Performance,http://www.landscape.ac.uk/landscape/documents/eventpapers/toolkit/1whyperformance.pdf,Accessed 12/03/2013 )). When drawing upon”what happened here” we were intrigued by the loss caused by the gambling and betting that would of taken place, and how that experience can turn from being a positive to a negative experience.

We even placed a bet ourselves at a local betting shop in the opening race for the Cheltenham festival to get a first hand experience of  the emotions that go through a person when gambling.  From a personal perspective, i was a little unsure about placing a bet due to my beliefs. As a Christian i am taught that seeking wealth and love of money is not the root to true happiness. Even though  gambling is not directly mentioned in the Bible, it does mention that a love of money can be a curse and cause all kinds of  downfall:  Ecclesiastes 5vs 10-17 ((The Holy Bible, New Century version,2003:Thomas Nelson Inc))

” 10 Who ever loves money 

Will never have enough money

Whoever loves wealth will not be satisfied with it “

“13 I have seen real misery here on earth:

money saved is a curse to its owners.

14 They loose it all in a bad deal 

and have nothing to give their children.

15 People come into this world with nothing,

and when they die they leave with nothing.

16 -So what do they get from chasing the wind?

17 All they get are days full of sadness and sorrow,

and they end up sick, defeated and angry.”

 

Here i have highlighted the words in this passage which i find most significant to my personal thoughts on what loss is and also its links towards gambling and the emotions it can cause.  When betting on a horse to discover it  lost, it did result in some emotion of defeat although i was not in complete distress because i lost, i did it for the experience but i was reminded a  real gamblers aim is to win. When i was  in the shop i observed  that the majority of spectators were men. It posed the questions of : Are some of these men fathers? Back in the days of the Grandstand the likelihood of spectators being fathers was most likely, as it is a place of heritage. A place of memories for some families and Grandparents. Another was; Have their trips to the betting shop been made apparent to their children? What is the probability that this is how they increase their money to provide that bit extra for their family; in hope they do not loose it completely ? This relates back to verse 14 They loose it all in a bad deal. This could be the definition of all kinds of gambling. When the Bible talks about children here, it can also show  loss through a generational context rather than just in the present. It gives an insight into how gambling and loss can have a butterfly effect in the future.  Here is were this passage links loss with the Grandstand.  in depicting how loss can  have a chain reaction with its past and future.

So to make this journey slightly personal i decided i wanted to include some of this scripture in the piece, however due to timing issues instead of  having a line each from the chapter, we collectively chose verse 15 as we all felt it conveyed a harsh but true reality. The mention of the word nothing we felt related very contingently with the last line of the poem which we recite at the beginning of the piece. ” The Horse gets nothing“. (( Bastasa,s,Ric ,2010” the horse that i am riding”,http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-horse-that-i-am-riding/, Accessed 12/03/2013)) Furthermore showing loss can affect all things regardless of what race your in.

 

 

 

 

 

RAF At The Grandstand – Memorial Flight

Christopher Greg Sellers / / War and Loss

During the final rehearsal for Safe Bet  my idea has developed a good deal.  I looked at the RAF debrief I had constructed and saw that the main focus of this was to fly the aircraft continuously  I thought therefore that the audience could practice flying over and over again and I didn’t want to give them another speech. As we are trying to depict the horrors of war I thought it would be a good idea to juxtapose this with something negative. I therefore had another inspection of the Dambusters book and found a list at the back of all those aircrew who had lost their lives. I have consequently decided to read these, ordering the recruits to practice flying during this. My main aim in giving the piece a memorial was to portray issues of” ownership and occupation,  individual and group identity, power, boundaries, rights of inclusion and exclusion, memory” ((Pearson, 2011, p144)).

Following this sequence, I wanted the audience to wreck their planes, just like the airmen’s lives were wrecked. My first idea was for the audience to place their planes in a burning bin for them to be engulfed by the flames. However, due to health and safety procedures this was discarded. I then thought the same effect could be given if the planes were ripped up and then scattered on the ground , like a battlefield. Though a defect in this plan came when I was reminded that I am repeating this exercise three times, therefore the new groups would already predetermine the activity before it was started, if planes are lying on the ground  The world I am presenting depicts “performance as overlapping situations: one place in two different social occasions at one time ” ((Acconci, 1996:65)). Therefore, I thought the audience members could tear their planes to pieces then drop them in a bag. Yet, during the final rehearsal , due to the windy weather the pieces blew away. Thus, I needed to take the pieces inside.

 

Forgotten Items Housed In The Grandstand, One Of These Being The Tombola Which I Have Utilised 

 

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As the performance is centred around betting, one of the forgotten items housed in the Grandstand is a tombola. I am therefore going to ask the audience to place their scattered planes into the tombola drum . By theoretically gambling with lives , I am emphasising how poignant the situation is . Once the names are in, I will turn the tombola , as if they have become one of many forgotten many . Through the glamorisation of war, the audience will  react naturally given the sad circumstances. However, I do mention that by gathering up the remains they will never be forgotten, highlighted by the RAF motto.

During feedback, I was told that people found it hard to tear up what they had made , and gradually, as the names sink in, the audience no longer want to fly their planes. This is , in effect ” A restoration of the absent present” ((Pearson, 2010, p46)).

Works Cited

Kaye, Nick (2000) Site-Specific Art, Great Britain: Routledge

Pearson, Mike (2010) Site- Specific Performance, New York: Palgrave Macmillan

A Taste of History

Emily Holt / / Women of War

 

Theatre and performance has always been a feast for the eyes and a delight for our ears, but what about those senses that are hardly ever explored within performance?   During our research, we happened across some information which told us the exact refreshments that were served during the races at the grandstand from the serving hatches outside.  The items were; gingerbread, fresh fruit and alcohol. We had already found out at this point that the Grandstand was no longer licensed to sell alcoholic beverages so we knew that this was out of the question from the start. During our process we have  also already decided to play with the audiences sense of smell by using tea and perfume during the piece, experimenting with emotional memory being triggered by scent. Once we had learnt of the refreshments, we decided to take this idea one step further and experiment with taste. “Taste, however, is linked to the olfaction and therefore deserves mention. The Bread and Puppet Theatre shares freshly baked bread after their performances, and it contributes to the communal meaning of their work” ((Whitmore, John (1994) Directing Postmodern Theatre: Shaping Signification in Performance, United States of America: The University of Michigan Press))We wanted taste to be a integral part of our performance like the Bread and Puppet Theatre, we just needed to determine which tastes would bring the most meaning into our performance. By using our own emotion memories we have decided that the smell of baked gingerbread alongside tea links in with the community feel of the piece, Ideally triggering thoughts of community events that people would have attended; such as village fetes and charity fundraisers.

By using taste our aim is to create a sense of the community that the Grandstand previously enjoyed when it was in use. We really want the audience to feel as though at any second a horse race could begin or a soldier could walk through the room in which they are sat. Our first idea as to where to serve the gingerbread was to do so on a table decked out with some bunting, that we found at the grandstand itself, to recreate the community fete feeling as the audience arrive. However when we learnt that another piece was taking the audience on a small tour of the outside parts of the grandstand, and that it included the serving hatch where they actually used to serve the gingerbread, we decided that we couldn’t ignore the sense of authenticity that this would add.

We may come into some difficulties serving outside however. “At site environmental conditions may change and need to be accepted or actively countered” ((Pearson, Mike (1010) Site-Specific Performance, Palgrave Macmillan)) The weather will play a huge factor in decided if we can do this on the day or not. For example if it does rain we will have to think of a way to either serve it within a container that is waterproof or go  back to the original idea of the community fete table as the audience enters the weighing room. We will have to be prepared for both eventualities of course. Other than weather, we need to be aware of factors such as insects and birds as the food with be served outside. we also need to be aware of hygiene when dealing with food and drink. We will solve this by covering the food inside until it is served on plates, washing the mugs thoroughly with boiling water and washing up liquid in between shows and washing our hands regularly.

The Final Edit

Phoebe Wall-Palmer / / Women of War

The days leading up to the final performance were filled with the final changes to the piece and the last bits of sewing to create the patchwork material stretching from one end of the weighing room to the other.

We added a couple of sections to the beginning of the piece, mainly in the transitions, to fill dead space and hopefully become a familiar face to the audience throughout. A couple of the other groups want to use a rotation system for the audience. However, because their pieces may vary in length the audience may find that they have to wait a little while for the next piece. The audience reconvene in the first half of the weighing room, so our sub-group will set up an area in the corner where we will be applying make-up and brushing each others hair, as if we are getting ready for an evening out. But the most prominent addition will applying tea to our legs and drawing a line, using eyeliner, to create the effect of stockings. Goodman explains:

Women such as Helen Johnson and her friends wanted to look their best when they went out on a Saturday night… “There were no tights, prior to the war    everyone wore stockings… we used to enlist the help of our best friend who would apply this [Leg Tan] with a sponge or cotton wool, then there was a delicate operation of putting a pencil mark down the back of the leg for the seam.” ((Goodman, Philomena (2002) Women, Sexuality and War, Hampshire and New York: Palgrave, p. 66.))

By physically helping each other to apply the eyeliner, we wanted to demonstrate togetherness and sisterhood, connoting the women pulling together when they’re husbands were away. In addition, we want to show a contrast between our femininity and the masculine war theme, where two members of the group are acting as Officers. This juxtaposition should not only be aesthetically pleasing but will create the feeling of war from different perspectives. We will also set the scene by playing war-time songs, which will also be a reoccurring addition throughout.

When the rotation finishes our group will join the Officers at the front of the weighing room. We hope that the assembly of the us all together will paint a picture of the past, and shows a united front in the same light as when the first and second World Wars originally started. At this point we will then lead the audience into the next section, becoming the transition.

The ‘factory scene’ is our main piece and we are aiming to emphasise the change in women’s roles when war began. As explained in my previous post, Becoming a Woman of War, we will be contrasting our femininity with the bleak setting in the room, and the sound of machinery. However, where we position our audience in our  scene  has been an issue. We decided to use a long bench, found in the first section of the weighing room, and place it in the kitchen area of our space. We can only sit 4 or 5 members of audience in there and the rest will be at the entrance to the space. Though this is not ideal if the audience is large, we hope that all the different angles that the audience view our scene will make it a unique experience for each audience member.

The last time the audience see us will be outside, where the ‘Restoration Group’ is showing the audience aspects of the building, one being the service hatch where gingerbread and alcoholic drinks were originally served. From here we will be serving the home-made gingerbread. The juxtaposition of past and present in one space should hopefully highlight the rich history of the site, and the taste of gingerbread will heighten the warmth and community feeling that our whole group is trying to celebrate.

If these changes are achieved and are successful  then we hope the performance will provoke the taste of the past still existing within the walls of the Grandstand.

Filling the Dead, Finding the Beauty.

Emily Holt / / Women of War

“I got to see a place which seemed to me empty, silent and uncared for.” ((Pinchbeck, M (2005) NottDance 2005 Toolkit. Dance4: Nottingham)) ,
To fill these empty corners and walls, the floor and the doorways doesn’t seem enough. As many of the group experienced on their ‘drifts’ people do not always look up. Why is this? I found myself asking when I, myself, went on a drift and discovered beautiful architecture that existed above the shop windows of Lincoln high street, for the first time. With such a mass of people walking around and never looking up in everyday life, it would be interesting to see whether this behavior changes in a performance environment.
The long piece of cloth, inspired by The Riddlers Jacket by John Newling, that the group have been sewing since the very start of our project at the Grandstand site has now reached almost the full length of the weighing room. With the image of ‘looking up’ in mind, the group have decided to hang the cloth from the ceiling using horse hair twine. In trial this looked like bunting which links in quite nicely with the community feel. Because it is on the ceiling, however, the question remains as to whether the audience will look up during the performance.
“How might its dimensions, the configuration of its architectural elements – walls,floors, surfaces – and existing spatial arrangements inform the placement and
dispersal of both performance and audience? Do they limit or broaden
performative potential? Do they facilitate the provision of close-up, shifting focus,
multi-focus?” ((Pearson, M (2011) Arts and Humanities Research Council Toolkit: Landscape and Environment)) this question, asked by Pearson, evokes thoughts about the multi-focus of our piece. As a group we want the cloth to lead the audience through the center of the room and into the factory in which the Women of War are still working on the ‘make do and mend’ patchwork ‘ airplane wings’. By having a centre of focus leading into us, it eradicates any dead space between the other happenings and ours. The spatial arrangement of the cloth and the Women of War piece does allow for a shifting of focus from the ceiling of the building all the way down the drains of the urinals. This gives us the opportunity to capture the whole building and frame it with our performance, hopefully giving the audience a chance to absorb its floors, and its potential, all at once.