Work devised in rehearsals – soloperformancefotheringhamd

Character and Performance – Creating Mrs. Arsehole

Daniel John Fotheringham / May 7, 2018May 22, 2018 / Progression of Performance, Work devised in rehearsals

Hello there,

It’s been a while since I wrote something so in these next few posts, I will be highlighting some of the things I have been creating. For now, this blog post shall focus on my script-writing and the creation of my character, Mrs Arsehole.

Now it is important to note that whilst the script has been developed, the concept of my childhood as a rollercoaster has not changed at all so you can relax for now. However, in furthering my script, I decided to establish a character that would become an alter ego for me to play in the show. The reason I wanted to do this was as the show focuses on my time at school and the knock on effects of my conditions being ADHD and Worster-Drought Syndrome, I felt that there needed to be a character which the audience could hate and genuinely struggle to treat seriously. Plus, at my time at school, this headteacher was the only one which caused the problems. So, with that in mind, I decided to create Mrs Arsehole.

However, people may ask how this has been utilised in the script. To give you an idea, here is a little snippet of her speech.

The Script

However, my first downhill would occur when I had my first assembly at my primary school. I was pushed into this one room with everyone. Everything went silent. I could hear the noise of distant footsteps. Out of the blue, this thing who looked like Maggie Thatcher arrived. She yelled “Good morning everyone”.

(Audience: Good morning Ms. Arsehole!”)

The performer puts on the wig and becomes Mrs Arsehole

Me (As Mrs Arsehole): Now, today we have a new student called Daniel. So I want you to be really nice to him. Now, Daniel needs some friends so lets be nice to him. Now how do we behave in this school? Yes.

V/O: We laugh about how you are called “Ms Arsehole”

The V/O laughs and the school laughs and starts singing “MS ARSEHOLE IS A FARTER”

Mrs Arsehole (Exploding): QUIET! (Silence) Anyway, who’s ready for our hymn today?

The performer takes off the wig and blazer.

Me: What a b…Witch. I definitely mean witch.

When devising the character, one question that I raised early was how she was going to be utilised in the show. Whilst I did want to expose her as a comedic character, I do still want to expose her true colours in the solo performance and show how she was to students at my school. One way I want to do this is by showcasing the comedy as irony. In other words, I want the comedy to start off as if I am joking. However, there is a truth behind her methods of teaching. From this, I hope to bring true terror for the audience and for them to understand how she ended up being worse after a first glance.

As well, one other idea in creating the character is through the idea of costuming. Indeed, whilst a lot of the character comes from the mannerisms and scripting of the character, some of the creation comes from costuming. So, in costuming, I have decided to dress Mrs. Arsehole as Margaret Thatcher. Possibly one of the most hated people in Barnsley.

(mynameiswhatever, 2009).

Now there are numerous reasons to costume this character as Margaret Thatcher. Firstly, one of the reasons is due to the connection to my home town. Indeed, as I live in Barnsley, she is possibly the most hated person due to the closure of the mines during the 1984/85 strike and also causing so much unemployment. Still to this day, the town has not recovered. So, as I have not recovered from Mrs. Arsehole, I want to utilise her as a character. However, another reason I want to use her as a caricature for Mrs Arsehole is because, upon further research, I uncovered that from 1970-74, she was in the Cabinet as Secretary of Education. So, I felt that this would be a prime example to use her for my alter-ego.

I have also decided to further this idea by placing in another line in the show based on Margaret Thatcher’s death. This is the following line:

I had defeated the Wicked Witch of the West. For now. It’s just a shame she didn’t melt away.

Again, the reason I wanted to bring in this line was I wanted to showcase the ideas of Margaret Thatcher. In particular, I wanted to highlight her death. When she died, there were a lot of party’s particularly in Barnsley and the most popular song played when she died was “Ding, Dong, The Witch Is Dead” from The Wizard of Oz. Whilst I do not particularly agree with the behaviour, by including this line, I will be able to reinforce how the similarities between Mrs. Arsehole and Margaret Thatcher are not uncanny to each other.

Overall, I am happy with the performance is going. I hope that by using Mrs Arsehole, I will be able to create a lot of comedy with her. For my next steps, I need to work on performing the role and also on how the script will merge her role into the show. For now, here’s to more work for the next few weeks.

A New Post – A New Concept

Daniel John Fotheringham / April 26, 2018 / Performance and Reflection, Progression of Performance, Work devised in rehearsals

Since Easter, I have been massively busy on working on my solo performance. Indeed, there has been a reason why I have not been on this blog for a while.

When working on the show, I did a couple of work in progresses and felt that whilst my concept was interesting, it was a difficult topic as I ran the risk of either being insensitive and narcissistic or too self indulgent about the topic and this was a key problem that rose in my work-in-progress. Indeed, the show, whilst focused on a personal story of my friend was actually coming across as if the incident had happened to me. So, with that, I decided to rethink about the work that I had done as whilst I was concerned about the topic, I felt that I did not want to lose the staging I had created.

So, with that I decided to work on the idea of a rollercoaster but instead, this time I focused on trying to use it as a metaphor rather than a literal thing. When doing that, I felt I had to have a look online and came across this picture.

Image result for life is like a roller coaster quotes — (Pinterest, 2018).

Now when looking at this, I felt I had hit an epiphany as I always knew I wanted it to not only be autobiographical and authentic but also have a wider meaning. Therefore, as I continued working on it, I felt the need to look at the idea of the ups and downs of life. At first, I felt I wanted to talk about it in a generic manner but I then discussed about an incident when I was at school and was basically brought as an outcast when I was diagnosed with ADHD and Worster Draught Syndrome – a rare disorder in which the brain cells stop you from doing certain things. In this instance, it stopped me from speaking properly.

When I was discussing this with people, I felt that there was a sudden engagement as they felt very hooked on the idea and felt actually really interested in my experience. Therefore, I have decided to focus on this as I feel that there is something unique and that I would be able to combine this with a really good metaphor of the rollercoaster. Plus, it also means that I would be able to keep the staging as it was but just in a different manner. To give you an idea, here is a diagram of the old and new staging.

Old Staging

New Staging

As part of the show, I also intend to set the outside of Studio 2 out as a queue line and I hope this will immerse the audience into the world of the rollercoaster.

As well, I have named it The Ride of My Life” as I want to make it something that is quite broad but also gives nothing away which I hope will work. Here is a little segment from my script.

The Script

Pre-set

The audience is stood outside by a podium which says “Welcome to “The Ride of My Life”. Please wait for your ride attendant who will escort you to the ride. The Performer walks and we hear the music “The Call to Adventure”

Me: Good afternoon everyone and I would like to welcome you to “The Ride Of My Life”. In a couple of moments, I will be seating you into your carriage but firstly, it is important to note that whilst the piece does contain true events that did occur, all of the characters mentioned have been fictionalised for safety regulations and for your own entertainment. When boarding the carriage, please ensure that all loose articles such as bags, coats and even notebooks are placed into these lockers. Now, I ask for those who are priority pass members to come forward so I can seat you in your carriage (The performer gestures to the sheet below). Please can these people come forward.

Once the priority pass members are in the studio, the performer turns to the audience.

Me: Ladies and gentlemen, please can you now form an orderly queue so you can be seated in the carriage.

The audience forms a queue and enters the studio. Once the sixteen seats are filled, the performer speaks.

Me: Ladies and gentlemen, the carriage is now filled. Please can you now move to the seating area one either side of the studio sat down on the floor?

The audience moves into the studio having heard the instructions from the performer.

Scene 1

The lights fade up. A whiteboard is seen at the side of the stage. The Performer walks to it.

Me: Ronan Keating once said that life is a rollercoaster. It has its ups and its downs and whatever it brings, we must face it. Scary, huh? You see its weird. All this trepidation. I mean, some people may disagree with me but that’s how I personally see. I mean my story in many ways was a rollercoaster. It never felt right. If anything, it felt like some sort of soap-opera. Just not with the death, affairs, elongated story lines. It was real. It was a rollercoaster that was painstakingly hard to go through. It all started in 1999 when I was a toddler.

I was a late one you see. I enjoyed being cosy in my mums tummy. But with that came my first drop. When I was three, my mum started to realise that I had some problems. I was always a larger than life character. Hence why I got told off last week for being too loud in the library (Pause). Woops. Anyway, back when I was three, I was brought to the doctors to see whether I was ok. My mum at the time was working part time at a job she hated and had a larger than life son who sometimes needed to be controlled. When she brought me one day, she found I had been diagnosed with two conditions. ADHD and Worcester Draught Syndrome.

Now some people may not know about what this is and the truth is she didn’t either. I didn’t know. But the truth was I was just a kid. Essentially, its where the muscles in mouth seize which causes you to stop speaking. Which would mean if I had it now then (As I speak then, I try to speak the next line with the syndrome) this is what I would sound like. It’s impossible to say anything and at this rate, I ought to be a new ventriloquist act. (Pause)

Throughout this period, I would struggle to get words right and even words like “mummy”, it would come out as “Bo-ee”. My mum found this amusing. Not in a horrible manner. Just as something that she found a little funny that I would say. But, as time went on, she knew something was wrong and I needed help. I was getting attachment issues. Don’t worry. I wasn’t becoming a Norman Bates type of character. She knew that something must be done. And so my ascent began.

The sound of a lifthill chain is heard. The performer draws this hill.

When I was six, she brought me to a primary school and got me sorted there in the hope that it would be the right school for me. It seemed nice. It had everything you wanted. Displays that were appealing, a range of nice and welcoming teachers and a friendly atmosphere. It made me feel like I would enjoy my time at school there. It seemed like I had hit the jackpot. Of all of the primary schools, it felt like Disneyland – the happiest place on Earth.

My intention now is to further my script and make it even longer in the hope of being able to make it exciting but also different. In my next post, I’ll discuss the influences that I wish to have and who I want to reference as my practitioners.

From conceptual thinking to visualisation…

Daniel John Fotheringham / March 27, 2018 / Performance and Reflection, Progression of Performance, Work devised in rehearsals

In todays session outside of study time, I decided to make the first step in staging some of the work that had been discussed and thought. Partly, this down to the fact that when creating a performance, it is ok to conceive ideas. But, in order for the performance to become successful, the ideas must be more than things that stick on a piece of paper. As a lecturer once said, “The time for thinking is over” and it is therefore time to start getting things on its feet (Dubois, 2018).

In beginning the work, I decided to rehearse this piece in Studio 2 due to the fact that after discussion of the idea with people, they felt it would work better. When considering the seating of it, I decided to go for a simple seating arrangement being eight rows in a four by four arrangement. However, this was down to more than a simple arrangement as I wanted to give a sense of the experience of being on the rollercoaster, The Smiler. Since the seating arrangement is a four by four carriage, I wanted to recreate this to give an idea of the scope of the ride.

Image result for smiler test car — The Smiler Cars

However, in discussion with a peer, they suggested the possibility of maybe having another set of four rows in four by four. This was to indicate the empty “test carriage” that “had been sent around the 14-loop ride, but had failed” and the actual that had occurred (Reynolds, 2016).

SP 3 — A side angle of the chairs in the layout of The Smiler ride cars

As you can see in the pictures, I tried to stay faithful with this layout without making it feel too obvious as I wanted to explore how performing in the space may be seen as claustrophobic. Personally, I felt this was very uncomfortable as I felt very trapped with the performance space as it felt as if in the space, you felt very exposed as the audience were invading my personal space being the stage. Therefore, I decided to make sure that their space was invaded in which the audience would be asked to be seated in the back four rows. Thus, as you may notice in the picture to the left, there was very little space between the second carriage and the first on the front and back row of them as I wanted to recreate the feeling of the crash and as if they were sitting in a recreated version of the ride.

After getting the seating arrangement sorted, I decided to work on the final section which would discuss my experience of going on The Smiler at Alton Towers three years after the incident had occurred. Through this, I decided that the use of storytelling would be a key mode and paid attention similarly to the style of Tim Miller when considering the idea of pace by making it quick dialogue. The use of this would help the audience go on the journey and would therefore allow them to go on the journey as if my experience at the theme park was a rollercoaster.

When rehearsing it, I found it difficult as I wanted to ensure I got the details in concerning the day as well as the feeling of being on the ride. But, the main thing I was keen to explore when devising it was how to focus on the idea of the past and revisiting it and by the use of the physical obstruction, it allowed me to show this idea of how the past was not as far away as to some people. When devising it, Bleeding Edge Theatre (who were rehearsing next door in the other studio) kindly offered to come in and watch what I had created. As you will see in the footage, it is a little rough but I was glad that they had offered to become an audience in order to try out some of the ideas I had been testing.

(Daniel Fotheringham, 2018).

After performing it to the peers, the group had seemed impressed with what I had done and felt that whilst the performance would be limited to sixteen people, it was an effective staging. However, they commented that I could run the risk of coming across narcissistic about the event when it was my friend who had been involved in the incident and needed a bit more clarity. When discussing the other ideas I had in mind to combat this, they felt that this could work and I felt, like them, there had to be more of a “red thread” in combining The Smiler Incident and the experience I had going on the rollercoaster. Indeed, I feel there needs to be more of an idea in revisiting the past and how this may be not helpful and I also feel that there needs to be more of a voice from my friend (Leah Washington) who was involved in the incident and how her experience affected me.

However, when considering the use of the chairs, I was a bit concerned when performing that I would struggle to get seated even without audience members and I am considering, instead of four chairs representing the empty car, the use of tape marking the other one similar to what is used in a crime scene investigation. Partly, this was down to the fact that it was quite impractical. I also feel that the audience would want to sit anywhere and would therefore lose the impact of the piece. Indeed, when Bleeding Edge entered the room, I had to tell them where they must sit. However, whilst this was not a problem, I do think that the audience I perform to may not get the mantra and will therefore make the piece lose the impact.

Overall though, I think today was a success. I have an idea on where the performance is going and whilst there are some elements that need to be refined, I feel that this has helped me in thinking what could be improved the next time when I perform the piece. I feel now that in order for it to work, I am ready to have an audience to test out ideas to ensure that the performance is a success and I hope this will enlighten me on the experience that they have and how to improve their experience.

Works Cited:

Daniel Fotheringham (2018) Solo Performance Draft 1. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LaMrCNfIqE [accessed 27 March 2018].

Dubois, D. (2018) Pitching my solo performance idea and discussion of technical requirements [workshop]. Solo Performance DRA3043M-1718, University of Lincoln, 20 March.

Reynolds, L. (2016) Alton Towers Smiler crashed with ‘force of 90mph car accident’: Shocking details emerge. Express, 26 September. Available from https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/714454/Alton-Towers-Smiler-ride-crashed-with-force-of-90mph-car-smash [accessed 27 March 2018].

Refining the idea. From the broad to the personal…

Daniel John Fotheringham / March 27, 2018 / Progression of Performance, Work devised in rehearsals

In a rehearsal yesterday, after the thoughts that were discussed in my first work-in-progress, I decided to use social media as a starting point. The reason being was that I was concerned that I was approaching a very niche topic that had too much to say. It does not mean to say that doing a niche topic is bad but that if you do a niche topic then there must be a reason on why you want to do it. Thus, I decided to just scrap the idea and think of something else.

Throughout this time of discussing the thoughts, I decided to pinpoint some ideas that were discussed and one of them was the way of how social media had become a platform for privacy for people to type away stuff that was not heartfelt or used for a personal agenda and decided to think about something that has angered me before and comments that have made me feel annoyed about certain topics. With that, I decided to write down some instances that had occurred in the last five years or so and decided to write down what triggered me and why it made me feel triggered.

When writing up certain things up. Certain topics like Brexit, Donald Trump and other stuff such as equal pay came up and I decided to dismiss these as I felt that these ideas were too generic and there was nothing original or new to mention. As I kept thinking about ideas that angered me, I started thinking about the “#PrayFor” movement used to pay respects for certain people. Such certain ones that came up when researching were #PrayForParis and also a #PrayForLeah which was based off the person who was injured in the Alton Towers Smiler Rollercoaster Crash.

(Jullien, 2015).

However, I felt very annoyed about this as I personally feel that people used this trend as an idea to jump on the bandwagon and use this for their own personal agendas to highlight instead of paying respects. Indeed, as I was doing some further research, I decided to do a research on YouTube and found a video that showcased some unknown attacks that were going on similarly to the time of Paris for example. Whilst it is important to note that some people do genuinely use it to pay their respect, what was clear in the videos was that certain attacks are not known due to the popularity of the place. Yet, I personally believe that some of this was down to the fact that people used the hash tag to metaphorically “jump on the bandwagon” as seen in the following video.

(Adrian Fernandez, 2015).

As I was thinking through this idea, it was based on three incidents on people using the #PrayFor as a platform to gather their thoughts and not taking action and instead using it as a fad. In this piece, I was thinking of using three incidents being Paris, The Alton Towers Incident and the recent Florida shooting. The reason using this was because of this. As we know, it was mainly the Paris shooting that triggered the “PrayFor” movement but part of the reason to use the Alton Towers Incident was because my friend was involved in the incident and personally, I still feel affected in the community of friends that are know of Leah yet a lot of other people have moved on. I then decided to juxtapose the two things with the Florida Shootings to show how society is moving on and taking action and therefore there was no more of a sense that people were using it for a trend and instead wanting to take action.

However, when working on this, I felt this was too much and decided to stick to only one incident that would be the main focus. Because of this, I have chosen to focus on the Alton Towers Incident. However, instead of looking it from the angle of social media, I have decided to focus on the community side of it and a particular incident I had a couple of years after the incident and how that has personally affected me in trying to face the incident in the past. Therefore, the piece will be on that in particular. I have already started contacting the person involved in the incident and I intend to interview her about the event.

Whatever the case is, I hope that this will be a piece that can alarm people in understanding that revisiting the past can be unhealthy and not good.

Works Cited:

Adrian Fernandez (2015) #PrayForParis (World Peace) AVIID Edition. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rePXvaDQPBE [accessed 26 March 2018].

Laurent, O. (2015) 70 Million Shared Their Prayers for Paris on Instagram This Weekend. Time Magazine, 16 November. Available from http://time.com/4114288/paris-instagram/ [accessed 26 March 2018].

“Look around, Look around” (Miranda, 2016, 41) Exploring space.

Daniel John Fotheringham / February 19, 2018February 19, 2018 / Research Material, Work devised in rehearsals

In focusing on space, one must be able to understand the possibilities in exploring the space that is picked. This was clearly shown in an activity that we wished to do in class and explored for a week.

In the task, we were split into small teams in which we were asked to explore a particular space from a set of options we were given. Our group decided that we wish to get a tight corner and we started to think about the possibilities of the space. As we did not get specified whereabouts our space was, we started brainstorming some ideas in which we began with the idea of a boxed up corner including silhouettes. The reason we started with this idea was that, as a group, we felt that whilst “Language barriers are the most common communication barriers which cause misunderstandings and misinterpretations”, universally we are able to understand emotions and feelings from actions that humans do (Businesstopia, 2018). Thus, we had this as an idea to explore to evoke the ideas of how people may feel as if they are excluded and yet there can normally be a universal language that is seen through movements instead of being secluded by the way we speak.

However, in furthering the idea, we found issue with it as we were concerned that the idea would not be able to progress and could come across as very episodic which is what we were not after. Therefore, we decided to change the idea as we felt that we wanted an idea which would not only entice the audience but make them feel uncomfortable as they watched the piece. Therefore, we decided to revert back to our childhood to the idea of when we were at Primary School.

In reverting back to the idea of our childhood and our time at Primary School, we decided to think about certain ideas such as the book corner and the naughty corner used as a “time out” area if a kid was acting out of order and needed some space away from the rest of the class. So, from this, we decided to create an idea based on the idea in which the book corner was an area in which certain books were banned. In discussion with the rest of the group, we decided to do this as there are certain texts around the world that are banned due to cultural reasons. Certain books that rose in discussion were texts such as Alice in Wonderland which is banned in China for its issues concerning that animals speak in the text. As well, other texts that arose were the Harry Potter books for its depiction of magic and also John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men for depiction of someone with a disability and also its attitude towards the American Dream. Below is a video discussing more books we thought about from YouTube channel, WatchMojo, to get an idea of the discussions we had.

(WatchMojo, 2015)

From creating the stimulus, we then started thinking about how the piece would progress and decided that it may be interesting with playing around on what books has been banned, reading them inside the audience and then stating where they are banned and why. The reason we wanted to do this was to showcase how silly some of the reasons are. For example, in the case of the Harry Potter books, certain states and countries have banned the book for its observations on magic and that it promotes the ideas of wizardry for younger children. Yet, as a book, it is highly regarded as one of the best selling children’s novels of all time so it is quite shocking that people will not allow this book in certain countries.

From doing this idea, we then explored the space by pitching it in the space and this I found very interesting. In exploring the space, it felt quite claustrophobic with the space we were doing it in as it not only felt intimate but quite oppressive. Indeed, the fact that it was done in the style of a ninety degree angle which were straight with chairs, it made me feel quite exposed and as if it was extremely formal as if there was nowhere to hide. Compared to if it was done on an arc with a different form of seating, such as bean bags which were discussed in our time, it made the space feel quite exposed and scary for the audience to observe and I felt that by having it done in that manner, it meant that the performance could come across as extremely formal compared to if it was done in an arc which would feel less scary and comforting for the actor to perform.

From doing this activity, this is a space that I really am passionate to consider as I feel that it is quite exciting to observe. Whilst it is limiting in terms of space concerning what is possible, I feel that with this space it would feel quite intimate and this is something I want to do with my solo piece. To me, performance is about that intimate moment between you and an audience and what is created in that small amount of time is magical as you have witnessed it. Thus, this is something to consider as a space and I am excited to workshop in the space how it may be oppressive and also how you can make it relaxed for both the audience and the performer.

Works Cited

Businesstopia (2018) Language Barriers to Communication – Definition of Language Barriers. Available from https://www.businesstopia.net/communication/language-barriers [accessed 19 February 2018].

WatchMojo (2015) Top 10 Books That Have Been Banned. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTpGunoyANA [accessed 19 February 2018].