Tag: Charlotte Restall

Our process started when we investigated Willi Dorner and his belief that to “see the space you also have to feel the space. [Which makes you] feel closer to the city” ((Pinchbeck, Michael (2013) Site-Specific Performance Week Two: Practice [shown at Lincoln: The University of Lincoln. Main Admin Building] [viewed on 3^rd May 2013])). From this we investigated the space around us, feeling the architecture and landscape to and learning more about the historical context of the site. We learnt many things about the uses of the site during the war but we wanted to focus on the site during its most in use time and then relate it back to now. Wanting to personify the Grand Stand allowed me to think about the memories the architecture held including how it might feel now, perhaps: lonely, cold, isolated, lifeless, dilapidated, old and broken. We wanted to see how the city engaged with the site, wanting to know their view as to the uncertain future of the Grand Stand. To make it fair for the audience, as a class we realised that we needed to take the audience on a journey through time as well as through the site where it would end with us receiving feedback from the audience regarding their suggestions.

Our performance took place on 1^st May 2013 where we presented the audience with plots of the two demolished stands which were made from horse hair twine and 200 suggestions attached to this. The audience explored the suggestions, tracing the plotted stands, taking them in and adding their own. By doing this they were able to walk in someone else’s shoes: those who once were. The audience was able to perceive the landscape as a way of “carry[ing] out an act of remembrance” ((Pearson, Mike (2006) In Comes I Performance, Memory and Landscape, University of Exeter Press. p. 12)). I felt through our performance we were able to carry out this act by showing ghosts of the past intermixed with the infinite amount of future options. On reflection we found the performance to be hard hitting for some members of the audience. On some of the thirty seven ‘demolish’ suggestions they had been tampered with to say ‘no’ and ‘don’t’ which was an unexpected conflict. We appreciated that we were able to impact the audience in such a positive way that it created debate between the audiences.

Our performance developed from our first investigation of the space. We used the technique of drifting as a way of “disrupting routine” ((Goven, Emma, Helen Nicholson and Katie Nicholson (2007) Making a Performance: Devising Histories and Contemporary Practices, London: Routledge. p. 142))where our investigation helped us to re-imagine “the social order of the city into a more fluid and interactive space” ((Goven, Emma, Helen Nicholson and Katie Nicholson (2007) Making a Performance: Devising Histories and Contemporary Practices, London: Routledge. p. 142)). Our perception of the space changed as we learnt more about the history and we realised that the city is “a ‘potential’ space, a place of inquiry and invention” ((Pearson, Mike (2010) Site-Specific Performance, Macmillan. p. 25))of which is free to be explored. Rob Shields states that “a site acquires its own history… connotations and symbolic meaning” ((Shields, Rob (1991) Places on the Margin Alternative Geographies of Modernity, London: Routledge. p. 60)). The Grand Stand is so full of its own history and connotations yet through our investigation we used drifting to get rid of these preconceptions so we could imagine our own.

This documentation of our post-show performance shows some of the hundreds of responses we received. We hope that the legacy of the Grand Stand remains.

Even though our performance and post-show performance has ended our performance similar to the saying ‘how long is a piece of string’… It does not have an end, it is a continuous performance which will outlive the Grand Stand. Upon leaving this project we can only imagine and dream of what is to come of the Grand Stand. Hopefully it will not end up standing lonely and broken but above all, never forgotten by the city of Lincoln.

“The word ‘text’, before referring to a written or spoken, printed or manuscripted text, meant ‘a weaving together” ((Barba, Eugenio (2006[1991] ‘Actions at work’ in B. Eugenio (2^nd ed.) A dictionary of Theatre Anthropology: The secret Art of the Performer, London and New York: Routledge. p. 66))

Our performance weaves together many different elements in order to show the connectivity of our journey including audience and performance. It begins in a betting shop where someone: maybe someone with an addiction or a first time better, picks up a betting slip and places their bet. Some of the slips will have been winners however the majority will lose because that is the way the games are designed. We have acquired some of these betting slips as they have already been taken on this journey and been held by many different people. This interconnectivity weaves into our performance as we took the betting slips and wrote the future ideas for the Grand Stand on them. These ideas had been on a journey of their own as they were given to us by members of the public and then taken to the Grand Stand. Remaining betting slips were kept for our performances so the audience could make an informed choice as to what they felt it should or could become. One audience member I spoke to felt that it should become a

“Drive-in cinema. This is because I thought the site was nice and open plan and in a good place (in terms of being just outside central town) for the noise of a drive-in cinema.” ((Watson, Cassandra. 2013. Reaction to ‘Safe Bet’. Interviewed by Charlotte Restall. [written] University of Lincoln Library, 12 May 2013.))

So some of the audience were informed by our performance choosing things like:

Some of these suggestions were interlinked with the site on a different level whereas others wanted to adapt the site so that it would become something new.

Lone Twin created a response to a recent freak tornado where “the performers carried a pole as the crow flies between two buildings which took them through Colchester town centre” ((Govan, Emma, Nicholson, H. and Normington, K., (2007) Making a Performance Devising Histories and Contemporary Practices, London and New York: Routledge. P. 123)). We want to recreate the idea that Lone Twin had with this performance: Totem (2005). We took twine through the city, after the performance, to interact with members of the public and collect ideas for what they think the grandstand should or could become in the future. We were able to discuss our project with them to collect more ideas in a post-show discussion. Many members of the public interacted with us as they wondered what we were doing. We were able to explain how we recreated the demolished stands, brought back the voice of the remaining stand and that this, currently, was us bringing the future of the Grand Stand back to the public. “Events that project themselves on the city… are part of the experience of the city”. ((Wodiczko, Krzysztof quoted in Kaye, Nick (2003[2001]) Site-Specific Art: Performance, Place and Documentation, London and New York: Routledge. p. 37)) Some people added suggestions to add to our growing list whilst other simply browsed what was already proposed. The performance is an on-going process as we will be presenting our findings to the Lincolnshire Archives.

Restoration – giving a voice to the voiceless: Grand Stand. We wanted to have a mix between first person perspective of feelings and factual: what would actually have been announced by a commentator as well how we believe the stand felt and currently feels. When delivering them, the audience will be seated on the available steps of the grandstand. We have created two monologues: one which tells the story of a race, using the grandstands voice as a tannoy system. As the audience listen they will be facing where the race track used to be. The other monologue explains in an emotional way what the grandstand has been and how it now feels. I’d like to have the monologue read out with the audience turned to face the building (me stood behind them reading so they can’t see me). This way they will be looking at the building listening to what it has witnessed and felt. To create my monologue I used a book called Overcoming Pathological Gambling: Therapist Guide. This book contains statistics and themes which I have used to gain an inside perspective into gambling so I could write an accurate first person narrative of what it looks and feels like.

“The games are designed in a way to let the gambler believe that it is possible to predict a win. Gamblers who seek the “best” way to obtain the jackpot essentially bet on the idea that they will one day master the game”. ((Landoucer, Robert and Stella Lachance (2007) Overcoming Pathological Gambling: Therapist Guide, Oxford University Press. p. 3))

This shows how gamblers often believe that they will master the ways of the game.  The horse races are not something that can be predicted unless the races are rigged or if people who went received inside tips. However, this suggests how addictive gambling is, especially since it’s something that cannot be mastered because house always wins. As well as this, studies by Crockford and el-Guebaly (1998) and Smart and Farris (1996) “have found a strong association between pathological gambling and substance use disorders” ((Landoucer, Robert and Stella Lachance (2007) Overcoming Pathological Gambling: Therapist Guide, Oxford University Press. p.13)).  I wanted to incorporate this into the monologue as the Grand Stand would have seen people going through these things.

The whole use of the tannoy system is very much like Mike Pearson’s projects Carrlands and Warplands. Carrlands project (Pearson, 2008) aimed to “enhance public appreciation and understanding” ((Mike Pearson (2012): ‘Warplands: Alkborough’, Performance Research: A Journal of the Performing Arts, 17:2, 87-95, p.87-88)) which we have taken on board and replicated through our performance at our site. We want to increase audience awareness of the Grand Stand which is an almost deserted site with so much history to be explored. Performance enhances the public’s knowledge to a site we want to get more of an audience to the stands since a lot of people don’t really know what it is anymore, it goes unnoticed by the world. Warplands shows the “ways in which a particular landscape has been made, used, reused and interpreted” ((Mike Pearson (2012): ‘Warplands: Alkborough’, Performance Research: A Journal of the Performing Arts, 17:2, 87-95, p.87)) which is what we have achieved with our performance. We want to show what it was intended for – as a stand for horse racing, then other uses during the war and then what it is currently used for.

Finally we are asking for audience interpretations of the Grand Stand which includes their ideas for future uses of the site. In Pearson’s pieces technology played a vital role as it was used to accompany a series of walks. Similarly, “technology plays a significant and transformative mediating role” ((Pearson, Mike (2010) Site-Specific Performance, Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke. p. 81)) in our performance. We intend on using technology to direct the audience throughout the whole performance through use of a loud hailer. The informative and emotional dialogue we use will help the audience to visualise the past and history of the Grand Stand.

We undertook a task where we wanted to restrict people from their senses. In today’s society we can use technology to predict many things like for example: the weather. We use devices to predict the future weather as well as using it to tell us what the current weather outside is, rather than simply experiencing it ourselves. The worldwide wed offers “representations of cultural memory” ((Peter Matussek (2012): ‘Memory Theatre in the Digital Age’, Performance Research: A Journal of the Performing Arts, 17:3, 8-15.)), not the actual real thing. “Essences of London” by Curious looked at the connection between smell and memories to create an intimate performance. Helen Paris stated they were interested in looking at “What is going on in the brain that makes this incredible connection between smell and memory and emotion” ((Curious presents Essences of London A portrait of the city navigated by the sense of smell. 2004 [DVD] London: Curious Production.)), how smell (senses) trigger memories and emotions.

In their performance they used smells like perfume and food as they spoke of memories they had about the smells (however on the DVD they can’t portray the smell… a type of sensory deprivation is achieve without intention). The words they used were very descriptive which also used the sense of hearing. But what about taking it away? So we were able to do the opposite of Curious and stop the audience from experiencing the sensory emotions. In a way, through depriving our audience of the experience of outside and instead allowing them to experience a representation of it (through written words and onomatopoeia), we take away their senses; stopping an emotional attachment being formed between them and the outside world.

This links back to the Grandstand as it has been voiceless and unused for its original purpose for many years. We tested out how the audience felt to this type of sensory deprivation in order to gain knowledge for ways of expressing how the grandstand might feel. The personification we are giving to the Grandstand through our restoration piece shows how community driven it once was and how the passion and spirit the grandstand once had, has now been lost; creating a lifeless, hollow, ghostly shell of the building that once stood there.

 

“Cities are multitemporal. The remains of the past are all around us: architecture survives” ((Pearson, Mike and Michael Shanks (2001) Theatre/ Archaeology, London and New York: Routledge.)).

The Grand Stand is in a rundown condition. The stand was last used for its original purpose in 1964 when it closed down and moved to Doncaster; the stand has remained, however the purpose has changed. Some “buildings are repaired, their function changes: a chapel becomes a disco. Their identity is unstable” ((Pearson, Mike and Michael Shanks (2001) Theatre/ Archaeology, London and New York: Routledge.)). With our project we are trying to restore the plotting of the two other stands: the real Grandstand and the Silver Ring stand, as well as reflecting on its past to create ideas for what it could become.

There are an infinite amount of possibilities of what might be; the grandstand has a limitless amount of future potential. We want to re-plot the other two original stands from 1896, when they were first built. This restoration project shows how “cities are multitemporal. The remains of the past are all around us: architecture survives” ((Pearson, Mike and Michael Shanks (2001) Theatre/ Archaeology, London and New York: Routledge.)). Bernard Tschumi sees architecture as “the combination of spaces, events and movements” ((Turner, Cathy (2010) “Mis-Guidance and Spatial Planning: Dramaturgies of Public Space” Contemporary Theatre Review, Vol. 20(2), PP. 149–161.)). By recreating the plots for the other two stands we are able to re-imagine the events that took place within the space. This shows how the memories of the walls were lost to history – after they had been demolished, the memories that once resided in that place are merely ghosts. To recreate the stands we will be using horse hair twine, this incorporates horses of which have played a major part in the races and are still a prominent feature on the West Common in Lincoln. The idea to recreate all three stands came about after seeing a picture from back when the races were happening.

The picture shows (from left to right) what we call currently the grandstand which is in fact called Tattersall’s Stand, then the actual Grandstand and finally the Silver Ring Stand. We wanted to recreate the size of the stands to put it into perspective for the audience to see how big the structures were but also the importance the race course had within the city. Perhaps by seeing the scale it would show the audience how much has been lost by the demolition and the impact it had on society after it was so busy and animated to now: lifeless.

As we take the audience on a journey which ends at our construction of stands, we will be entwining the history to the site in order to create a future for the Grand Stand. Similar to Reckless Sleepers project ‘The Last Supper’ which they created in 2003 where they invited an audience to dine with them whilst they told “and then eat the last words of… criminals… thirteen of these are last suppers” ((Reckless Sleepers, 2013. The Last Supper. [online] Available at: <http://www.reckless-sleepers.co.uk/project.php?id=7> [Accessed 21 April 2013 ].)); we have taken ideas from people in the community as to what they think could become of the Grand Stand.

((The Reckless Sleepers, 2013. The Last Supper. [picture] Avaliable at: <http://www.reckless-sleepers.co.uk/project.php?id=7> [Accessed: 13th May 2013]))

What Reckless Sleepers achieved from bringing back memories of criminals who were on death row and giving back their voices or requests. We have re-created this by allowing the audience to give us feedback for future uses of the stand and then taking the other two plotted stands into the city and so that the whole city can see the suggestions of people in the community. We want to incorporate these suggestions with the plotted stands made from twine – this links the past, present and future of the Grand Stand. During the performance we invite the audience around the Weighing room and outside to look around, learn some of its historical context and then make an informed decision as to what they believe the Grand Stand could become. While the audience thinks about what they have seen they will be able to walk around our map where we will be securing other people’s contributions to the twine. For these ideas to be written on we have acquired betting slips. This not only ties in with the gambling which happened at the race course but also the uncertainty of the future which is like a bet in the sense that the outcome is uncertain.