From the very early stages of this process I knew that I wanted to create a performance that was quite atmospheric but I also wanted to challenge myself to create something that allowed the atmosphere to change making it a much more multi dimensional piece.
After initially exploring things that are frequently associated with children, I became more and more drawn to the idea of fairy tales and the cliché’s that they are filled with. This also suited well with my desire to compare ideals to real life events. I knew that I wanted to start light and then build to a potentially emotionally moving end. Due to this the task clearly at the beginning of my piece was to lull the audience into a false sense of security.My aim was to create a setting that allowed the audience walk into the studio and think that they were about to watch a serene and pleasant performance, however my choices also needed to fit with the fairy tale characteristic of my performance.
So out came the glue, the scissors and the coloured card … I went to town on giant handmade flowers. Arts and crafts is typically quite child like and the flowers in my opinion made my stage. They were placed centre stage scattered around a leather chair where I was seated, symbolically I wanted it to be a representation of the desire to create your own little world in your mind and imagination, an ideal world that isn’t filled with the difficult moments we find in the real world.
My choice of music hopefully only supported this, and in all honesty I think the music was the main influencing factor on creating the atmosphere when the audience first walked in, I wanted something that sounded beautiful and calming however the piece that I chose also seemed to have a slightly sad under tone to it. Below is the music that I used within my piece as well as some photo’s of stages that inspired me.
