After weeks of doubt but creativity and bravery, I am now pleased to announce that I have completed my monologue which will be the core of my performance. It is exactly 12 minutes long, which is perfect as it was once 21 minutes long. It was apparent that I had unnecessary material and so cutting it seemed wise, especially as I wanted every word to count. As there is tape across my mouth for the performance, the monologue is going to be performed through audio and video meaning that I needed to get it recorded. This was difficult as I had to make sure the camera was set up steadily and that my mouth was fixed to the correct alignment of the screen throughout the whole recording, so that nothing was out of shape or moving out of place. I could also only do it in one take as I needed the audio and video to be synchronised.
After the recording, the next step that I had to take, was of course, collecting feedback. I needed to know if my idea, along with the material would work.
Therefore, this week, I previewed my final performance to a few of my peers. I had come to a point in the process where I could now only progress if I had critical responses. Without some of the technical aesthetics, which included the picture frame, roisterer, projection and lighting, I was only able to present my audio and physical performance. Everything went accordingly and my feedback was positive and valuable. My peers understood the narrative of my piece, crediting the subtlety in my movement opposing the detail of my audio and suggested that with the extra technical requirements it should look strong and effective.
The opening line of the script is ‘Women are like flowers’. However, my peers suggested that considering that I do not refer to I, she, or he in the rest of the script, I should change the first line to ‘We are like flowers’, insinuating that ‘We’ is universal. Of course the audio links to the video which my peers stated was a bonus as although they said I didn’t necessarily need it, it would help with the understanding of the speech. Not to say that my speech isn’t well spoken but the quality of the audio was disturbed slightly. I was also advised that once I begin to rebuild the flower, my projection should be switched off, as this is the first moment that I move my head within the piece. This makes sense, as the projection is also a kind of substitute for the movement whilst I am static.
Regarding my costume, instead of a long, appealing dress, I have decided to wear a white over-sized shirt. This is because the beauty in this piece lies within the flower and so I didn’t want to detract from this. In addition, I wanted to keep a colour theme of white/cream, symbolising vulnerability. Something in which one of my peers also added to this point is that I wear no make up, tie my hair back and take all of my jewelry off too.
A final point that my peers had proposed was that I record the video and audio again as there happened to be a couple of pops, stumbles or other background noises that they felt distracted the piece. Seeing as though my audio is what is carrying my performance through, it should be almost perfect.
These are all points that I agree on entirely and I will record my final video and audio before my tech slot on Sunday.
Here is the link to my final script: Rebuilt – script final