Performance
Overall the performance was a success, the reason being we managed to reflect our ideas in the performance. The project starting off being simplistic but what we always wanted to do was to produce a contemporary performance that produced a message to the audience about awareness.
Awareness:
The idea about awareness is that not enough people are aware of how dangerous the internet can be. The spectacle online site explain how the
“Internet is “dangerous” because it is a medium for the instantaneous and uncontrolled transmission of ideas. We think of free speech as being a given–almost an absolute–in the United States and much of the Western world. Though everyone knows that certain kinds of speech, such as pornography, are against the law, most of us don’t think about the web of social, nongovernmental constraints on legal but disfavoured speech.
This meaning a lot of people online do not realise just how harmful the internet can but at the same time can be useful with its unlimited access to information that could educate society. What our performance did is highlighted the combination of the positives and negatives in a dark and mysterious manner. We used 6 characters to each have a main role that would play a part in addressing an issue. We would get the characters to use buzz words that indicated come from influence of social media. The opening scene where the audience entered the building was very important because we wanted the immediate attention of the audience. We had the Jamie Downes play a strong dominates character that welcomed the audience in Tokyo.
The female characters of Sorcha, Christy, Sylvia and Emma expressed emotion and confusion. We wanted the audience to know they had entered Cyberspace and they were going to be displayed with several unexpected events. The Female characters Sang, screamed and used online buzz letters like www and words like log me out (Computer & internet association) , like, new post, tweet etc. The use of buzzword is described in American drama contemporary as being a
“Formulation of postmodernism and postmodernity have been invoked in this critical development. Suspicious critics have tended to perceive post modernism and its associated buzzwords as providing a depoliticized catch-all framework for cultural analysis. This is an important qualification give the tendency, sometimes manifest in models conducted within the frame work of postmodernism to forget about the operation of performance.”
We used this skill described by Steven Cohan to get away from acting and start performing in the space while always focusing on the message, which was to indicate the fact that the more technology develops the more people will want to interact with its development but in the process they face losing identity. This leads me to explain the process step by step.
Reflecting STEP BY STEP:
EXCLUSIVE AUDIENCE:
We wanted our audience to be capped at a size that was big enough to be divided at the end but also small enough to fit in the VIP room and Room two which we called the spam room. Therefore because our audience was online based and our viral videos were being watched online we felt it was necessary to have an event made online via Face book. We made the event exclusive and invited only people we wanted. For audience participation we requested the audience invited to post their favourite songs the event and that would be used in one of our rooms that would be a duplication of Spotify.
THE DOOR:
One the door we had someone checking the guest-list and what we were going to do was make the guest-list man check everyone in (VIA FACE BOOK NOTIFCATION) but because we weren’t sure who exactly who would turn up we did not get enough time to add the people on face book. To check people on face book you need to be friends with them and what we did is made a fake profile called TOM-TAGGED. He would add the people if we knew everyone that was going to be there but unfortunately we didn’t get time to do so. We used TOM-TAGGED because the name was inspired by TOM who owned MYSPACE. The first you were friends with online when you signed up to my space was TOM. On the door as people went in was a sign that indicated everyone was signing this was to indicated the building was a computer and the rooms and every step taken on the stairs was the audience connecting to the internet and once they got in their first room they were entering a website or chat room.
WELCOMING THEM:
We used Jamie Downes to introduce the audience and let them know they had been logged in. The moment Jamie said that, blue furthers was blown to down to the audience. This was an indication of the system loading as they logged.
INTRODUCING THE PIECE:
It was important the audience were introduced well because we wanted the audience to have a character they can trust that will dominate every scene and take them to every room. So we used Jamie Downes to be the master of direction.
WALKING THEM UP THE STAIRS:
The stairs indicated the audience logging into the internet and online are billions of websites and the top used website are the search engine Google, social media Face book, Twitter, YouTube and a mail box (Hotmail/Live). Therefore knowing the above we wanted the characters to screen out buzz words from these websites to indicated the importance of these websites and let them know they were online.
SHOCKING THE AUDIENCE:
Shocking the audience was a skill we wanted to use to scare them but also keep them focused on the performance. How this is by having a character crying and walking into a room where she is locked and raped by Jamie Downes. The twist is that is she not getting raped but instead she’s getting (FRAPPED) which is a face book turn for someone stealing identity.
TAKING THE TO VIP:
This was where the audience had the choice of choosing the RED/BLUE pill. The room also had tape on the floor symbolizing the loss of someone identity. It used the social networking site as a way to elaborate on easy access anyone can have when finding someone location just by looking at their face book page.
BLUE AND RED PILL:
The Phil was taken from the matrix because it gives the audience choice of their ending destination. Fortunately the location we had had so many rooms and we felt to make our contemporary performance a different experience for each audience member we would give them a choice that will dived them. Which the independent theatre company would describe as
“A theatre production t thcan be challenging to an audience member’s prior knowledge, expectations, or attitudes. As such, the same performance may be experienced as more or less challenging by different people.
We thought of things the audience might expect from us and did the complete opposite. For example one of the choices meant the audience would stay with the system. The system steps forward on stage and we felt the audience would expect the system to carry on making these movements but instead he stands steal while the screens played a video of the female characters dancing and the system doing acrobatics.
TAKING THE AUDIENCE IN THE SPAM ROOM
The Spam room is a junk room. We wanted to indicate how the internet is full of spam and unwanted offers that almost every website has. The internet is very commercial and their lot of companies trying to make money by using sex as it does sell and music because everyone likes music. Their fore we wanted to highlight female characters being sold to the audience by how many likes, Private emails, tweets, pokes and a lot of other terms that are face book associated. This room is the first times we see the system which I play. The system is the character that controls DOTIFY (manipulation of Spotify). I mixed the sound and recorded sounds to be used as an advert or jingle in between breaks. I would get the audience’s attention by tuning the lights on and having the advertising playing while the character froze on the sides. The room involved a lot of audience participation, Jamie the ring leader involved the audience by asking them to bid for the girls. We ended this scene by the loud music coming from the main room
MAIN ROOM
The final room is displayed in Tokyo’s main room. We wanted a big climax therefore the music was going to be dramatic and very loud. While the audience moved in the space the music carried on playing. The sound played a big impact in the project as it was the cue to the characters moving from one point to another. This scene was inspired by the matrix because everyone on the film was in the system and part of the cyberspace away from the real world. What we wanted to reflect was the components of the system getting shut down but related it to face book. It related to face book because of the de-activated option people on site have. Jamie the ring leader would announce the characters being deactivated and the use of water as symbolist way of the female character cleaning them up with water. This is taken from the operation of software’s and how it has the option of cleaning the system up to create more space. The combination of matrix concepts and software operation gave use the climax we needed to display for the audience. Once everyone was deactivated I removed a plug out of their ear and that would complete shut the system down and I would then empty them (Computer recycling bin) by carrying them out of the room.
COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER:
- Could have given the audience what they wanted and danced through the final scene.
- Could have had only one person sinning instead of everyone during the opening
- Could have rehearsed the script a lot more so it didn’t come across as improvisation
- Could have mixed more music and more voice clips in the main room
- Could have had more organisations in the span room so the audience wasn’t too confused
- Could have used more rooms in Tokyo to pick up more issues about the internet and its dangers to the public