Performances and Portfolios

Anyone who knows me in real life or on Facebook will know that I've had a particularly awkward module at university. We've all been worried about it, but yesterday was performance day, and going by what I saw from my coursemates I don't think they have anything to worry about. The module was entitled The Performer as a Real Person. Some of us worked in groups, some of us worked alone. There was a wide range of strong performances yesterday, using autobiographical theatre, verbatim theatre, and immersive theatre. Theatre based on truth. Based on real words and feelings.

I chose to work alone, and did a piece of autobiographical theatre about how isolating it can feel to have Asperger Syndrome. I must admit I found it hard, and during the initial writing process I did get rather depressed. The good thing about my course though is that we are all supportive of each other and encouraging. And I had a small group who promised to cheer me up when I was feeling particularly depressed. One particularly funny thing was the collage. One of my friends, after reading it, said I may have been using the word 'but' too often and that I should think about editing some of them out to make the piece run smoother, She said that as encouragement she would make me a collage for every 'but' that I took out. I removed six. And this was the result:

The Butt Collage! One butt for every but! This certainly made me laugh! With my friends around I couldn't stay depressed for long. Thanks guys, if you read this. It was very much appreciated! You rock!

Once I was over the writing and editing, and on to the staging and scenography, I found things much easier. I decided to do it in the form of a shadow show, to highlight the feelings of separation. I don't have a photo, as I was performing it, but imagine a screen at the back of the stage. One lone spotlight shines from behind the screen, showing the shadow of a woman sitting alone, writing in her diary. I spoke the text as though they were my thoughts, an internal dialogue with myself as I wrote. I don't yet know what the marking tutor thought, but I had some good feedback from my peers.

Now all that remains to be done is to finish writing the portfolio that is to go with the performance to be graded. I have almost finished. I just need to create some diagrams of staging etc. I could actually probably finish it tonight if I wasn't procrastinating by doing this! Once the portfolio has been handed in, I have unofficially finished my second year. The academic year doesn't actually finish until the middle of June, but we have no more work to do after hand-in on Monday. I still can't believe I'm at the end of my second year!

I may post my text from the performance in another blog post if people are interested. I wrote it myself, from my own feelings and experiences.