Thoughts on Paul O’Donnell’s “We’ve Got Each Other”

Daniel John Fotheringham / / Other Solo Performances, Research Material

In being able to analyse solo performance, one must be able to observe the various methods of solo performance put into practice. Indeed, by being able to analyse the piece, we are therefore able to see ideas placed into practice. This was clearly shown in Paul O’Donnell’s solo show “We’ve Got Each Other” which I got the opportunity to watch on the 8th February at Lincoln Drill Hall.

(O’Donnell,2017).

In Paul O’Donnell’s solo comedy musical, he takes on the premise that he was going to do a new Jukebox musical based on the music of Jon Bon Jovi except what he proposed has been denied. Through the set of lights and some effects such as sound and mist, we then have to imagine the musical as he reads the show to us as a workshop. Thus, we could say that he makes some interesting statements concerning musical theatre and that there has been a reliance on technology and the story to “spell out” the story out to us.

During the show, there was mainly a few changes that I was able to categorise as lighting and sound, dialogue in the musical, spectacle and the breakage of performance. The reason was as the concept was based on a supposed workshop of the show, it contained many sections concerning this in which Paul O’Donnell would have direct contact with the audience as if we were imagining what the show would look like instead of having it been made obvious for us through the spectacle of the musical. This not only created comedy but also allowed us to imagine the world of this show and let us have breathing space in letting us take in the shows spectacle.

However, what was interesting was particularly the ending in which O’Donnell decided to break the formula. Whilst there was still a sense of us being asked to imagine this spectacle, the show changed the formula in which  O’Donnell showed us a final dance scene between Gina’s cousin, José, and Gina’s forbidden lover, Tommy. In doing this dance, he broke the rules by leaving the chair he had been sat on during the entirety of the show and therefore allowed us to get an idea of this choreography that would occur in this final fight in which Tommy would die. Whilst some may say that this idea to show it compared to getting us to imagine it, I felt it was very successful as it made us understand the style of dance that would happen in this knock off Paso Doblé dance.

Thus, in conclusion of this post, Paul O’Donnell’s piece was seen to me as a success. Partly, this is down to my own self love and passion for musical theatre as I love it but as well, it is also down to his witty comments among musicals. Particularly, the Jukebox musical which has always been seen as a bit tacky and lazy at times. His use of sound, dialogue, lighting and movement allows us to have breathing space and imagine the world of this make believe musical. As well, the use of this “stripped back” production highlights to us the issues that can arise when creating a musical based on the songs of an artist and what traps can arise concerning corny one liners to introduce the song or even a character and the amount of reprises of a song that can be done differently to wow an audience when it is exactly the same song but with a different tempo, different key change and is different to the first time you heard it. By a mile, it is hysterical and also very cynical in the way it approaches musical theatre but has helped me in understanding the importance of why there is a fourth wall. And of course, it’s musicals so why wouldn’t you want to watch something like that?

In self reflection of the piece, I have gained a lot from observing this piece. It has allowed me to understand how the fourth wall can be broken as well as the breakage of rules that you can set up in a theatre. It has also helped me in understanding the distinction of actor/audience relationship and this is something I wish to take on for my solo piece as well as the idea of stripping yourself back and making yourself very bare onstage. Finally, I have also learnt that ripping to shreds musicals is great fun and entertaining to watch even if you are a fan of musicals and this is something I hope to use with the idea of YouTubing and the community of YouTube.

What is my artistic statement?

Daniel John Fotheringham / / Progression of Performance, Research Material

In doing the module, we have been asking the question of what art means to us and why it means that much. So, in the style of Matt Chewiwie, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss my artistic statement and what it means to me.

What are your particular interests to art?

I have many interests when it comes to art. Partly, I’m a massive fan of musical theatre, drama and comedy as I feel they are the most enticing forms of theatre. But, mainly, the interests I have focus on the idea of storytelling as I feel that theatre comes from stories. Stories are things we find interesting and I think that these interests are important as it allows us to enjoy something more than scratching our heads and wondering what we watched. Therefore, my interests are fixated on the use of storytelling in performance and how they can not only engage an audience but bring them into an enticed manner.

Do you rebuke certain ideas about art?

Not really. Art can mean a lot to different people and to be honest, I won’t inflict my own views. If you want to like other ideas I hold then that’s fine. I just believe that sometimes when it comes to art, we become too fixated on making a point. Whilst I don’t disagree that art can be used to make political statements or that it shouldn’t, I do believe that it should be entertaining for starters. Otherwise, what is the point in making theatre when your audience would not feel engaged or interested in your work that you have created? Art should be a mixture of things but above all, it should be entertaining.

How can art be entertaining?

Art can be entertaining over a mixture of ways. Just because it is entertaining does not mean it must be funny or light hearted. If anything, it can be serious or abstract. So long as it is used as a way to captivate an audience and engross them into a show, that is how it can be entertaining. It has to be something that makes the audience feel like an active participant rather than a voyeur observing it from the outside. In many ways, art  is entertaining because it is a way to express ideas. However, the strength of art relies on it to be explicit and accessible to any audience. So long as it is clear and tries to tackle it in a interesting manner.

What do you want audiences to take away from your show?

A mixture of things. But, evidently, I want it to be two things. Accessible and entertaining. To me, the theatre is a place for anyone and everyone. It should not be for the highbrow or for those who have to read an entire textbook to understand art. So, I want my audiences to take away that the show should be accessible and something that anyone can connect to. Whether its something based on social media or anything, I want to rebuke any form of hierarchy and help an audience in understanding that art can be for anyone.

But evidently, I don’t want to use art as a means to make a political statement or a issue. If anything, I want it to be fun and something that can entice an audience so they are engaged with my work that I produce onstage. I want theatre to be, at its core, a hobby and an experience for people to watch. Theatre should not be focused on making statements. By all means, we can make statements concerning world issues, like feminism for example, but it should be something to enjoy. At it’s heart, I want my work to be entertainment first and anything else second.

So that is my artistic statement, in the next few posts, I will discuss ideas I have in mind for my solo performance that I wish to do. Till then folks.

Breaking the ice – “Words, words, words” – Hamlet (II, VIII)

Daniel John Fotheringham / / Work devised in rehearsals

Last semester, a university lecturer said to me that “The hardest thing…is a blank page.” as you never know where to start or where your first piece of inspiration will come from (Bolton, 2017). Personally, I feel that no matter what you write for the first time, it will not be amazing. If anything, it will be terrible. However, its better to have terrible stuff on a piece of paper than have nothing at all. As Hugh Laurie once said, “no one is ever ready to do anything. There is almost no such thing as ready. There is only now. And you may as well do it now. Generally speaking, now is as good a time as any.” (Laurie, 2012).

So why am I saying this? Well, in order to help create some ideas for my solo piece, we did an exercise in which we had to create a monologue for ourselves that could be on anything we wanted it to be and had to take into consideration the audience and their role, the space and what would happen, lighting and sound, changes and transitions in the work and also the essence of the piece. Now for some, this is a daunting prospect. To me, if you don’t like it then scrap it. You don’t have to stick with it if you really don’t want to do it. Here is the finished product.

Words Page 1
Page 1
Page 2
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Page 3
Page 3

So as you can see, it looks very messy and clunky but I started to think about things that rile me so I could have a rant about the way society is going with two rules – no mention of Trump or of the sex scandals that have happened in Hollywood. So as I was writing, I became obsessed over the idea of the internet culture and how social media has taken over our lives. However, my main inspiration that I wanted to look at was at YouTubing and I decided to take on the persona of a YouTuber struggling to get views on YouTube. Now the reason why I wanted to look at that is because in the past five years or so, YouTubing has become not only a successful industry but also a place recently which sparks negative connotations such as drama, ego and also the idea of how you can get a name easily as seen in the following video below from YouTuber, Logan Paul titled “So Sorry.”.

(Logan Paul Vlogs, 2018).

Now in observing this culture, I felt this could be interesting as I wanted to see how people view someone just by one video and I also feel by experimenting with the idea of that you only see one side to them and never their honest and genuine side.

So from doing that, I decided to tweak it and change it where now my idea evolves around how a YouTuber gets the reputation and how far they are willing to go to receive the reputation whether good or bad. Yet, I don’t know much else aside from that I want to be able to livestream the show so people not in theatre are able to see me tarnish the idea of my “supposed” reputation live on their phone but also so it can raise awareness that people must be careful now of what they say and do on the internet.

Works Cited:

Bolton, J. (2017) Introductions and Inspirations [workshop]. Off the Page DRA3047M-1718, University of Lincoln, 27 September.

Logan Paul Vlogs (2018) So Sorry. [vlog]. 2 January. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwZT7T-TXT0 [accessed 08 February 2018].

Timeout (2012) Hugh Laurie sings the blues. New York: Sophie Harris. Available from https://www.timeout.com/newyork/music/hugh-laurie-sings-the-blues [accessed 08 February 2018].

Matt Wars – The Chewiwie Strikes Back!

Daniel John Fotheringham / / Other Solo Performances, Research Material

In my last post, I discussed in detail on Matt Chewiwie’s artist statement which I had significant issue with. However, in order to contextualise the ideas that he discussed in his statement, we will observe one of his works shown in class. Using the ideas discussed in the statement, Chewiwie’s piece, Step Pad Poetry is the piece we observed. In particular, it focuses on Chewiwie’s “DDR obsession and personal strife” in which he retells the story of his life in general and how he was able to make a positive change with a dance pad and is done in collaboration with artist Pat Payne (Chewiwie, 2008).

(Chewiwie, 2008)

He begins this performance by stretching in which he discusses about his issues concerning health and friendships in which he says that “Just when life is stepping on me again and again and again…that seems to be the perfect time for my best friend to tell me he’s never going to talk to me again.” (Chewiwie, 2008) This introduction with the stretching can help us in seeing the idea of the strain of life. As well, the fact that there is a spotlight onstage and yet he chooses not to do this in the spotlight as it implies not only to an audience that is a story that has not yet been told but also can imply as if he is not performing yet and as if the minute he steps into the spotlight, he is performing.

He then give a transition when he says the words “You don’t want to hear about that” which, as noted in the last post, reverts back to his artist statement in which he claimed that big issues and politics are beyond his scope.. This is meant to be use purposefully as a means to make the audience feel pushed away and as if we don’t want to know the details.  However, at the same time, by doing that to the audience makes us more interested in the story. So, the use of the transition allows us to ask what happened and makes the audience want to know more about the incident that occurred.

Throughout the time he talks to us about his incident, we can also see the manner of his confidence in which he isn’t massively insecure and he has a stage presence which is confident. However, through the manner of how open he is in his body, he still looks as if he is insecure. This may be that he is trying to imply his nervousness but also the fact that he may have never told the story before. Therefore, by doing this, it makes the audience feel sympathetic towards him and as if they still hold a bond with him as he continues his monologue on how he has gained so much weight in the past couple of years. Thus, we could also see that this body presence also implies to us how this is not just personal to him but also as if there is a lot of “pressure put on his shoulders”.

The next transition then continues as he begins to explain about DDR in which he explains how the game works. Through the use of the body and voice, we are then able to see his comfort in which he gives a smirk as if he is reverting back to his childhood. Thus, he is therefore able to revert back to his childhood and child-like mind in which he is able to reflect once again on his statement in which he aims to bring out the “inner child” in everyone in the audience (Chewiwie, 2008).

There is a sudden change of mood in which Matt continues to reflect upon his friend and we suddenly get the feeling that he is reverting back to the sad times and the past has always been on his shoulders as if it has never been forgotten. Yet, this is very brief in which he then steps onto the mat to forget and possibly help him escape from the realities of the world. This is because he mentions about how kids were using this in an arcade and yet whilst the mat can help you in a cathartic manner, it also helps Matt in escaping from the troubles and worries of societies of which society expects of him. Thus, we could say that when he begins working on the mat, it is used as a form of escapism instead of a form of helping him cope with the struggles that he has encountered in society.

As he begins playing the mat, we begin seeing him starting and stopping as if he is constantly failing. This idea of it in which he speaks about the game laughing at him makes helps transition nicely into this idea of a struggle to get things right. As we see this frustration, we can see him reverting back to this idea of the struggle of trying to bring the inner child without him being too childlike thus creating more tension and frustration.

He then concludes the piece with the idea of stomping and using the stomps both in the physical manner of trying to create an escapism but also as a coping method. The use of this allows the audience to see this journey and allows us to see this overall win of a battle in which, by stomping on the various arrows, Chewiwie therefore wins the game.

To conclude, this piece of work does help Chewiwie’s work and statement and whilst he does touch on serious subjects such as his mental health and friendships, by being able to use this as a coping mechanism, it allows the audience to be entranced in what we are seeing leaving with a result and a success that we all wished that he was hoping to achieve.

“I am an artist.” (Chewiwie, 2008).

Daniel John Fotheringham / / Research Material

In exploring the ideas of solo performance, my attention first came to the artist Matt Chewiwie. An artist that aims to explore the fluidity of reality (Chewiwie, 2008) and the distinction of performance art and entertainment. His statement explores the issues of his performance seen above in which he aims to explore the distinction of what art is and how he can be classed as an artist. However, upon a second showing I started to doubt how he could be classed as an artist.

He begins the video by paying reference to an unspecified artist in commenting supposedly to Chewiwie that “life is a vicious, nasty dragon” in which he disregards this comment immediately (Chewiwie, 2008). This already causes issue by asking the audience to not disregard the way the world looks but also asks us to approach the idea of the world in a naive manner and accept that the world still lives with ‘pink and fluffy unicorns’. What he risks with this opening statement is his problem of patronising the viewer watching his statement as if they do not know the problems of the world.

He then carries on by exploring the tools that he uses to not only generate performance but also document his performances for his work. The reason he does this is to supposedly comment on the “absurdities of life” in which he aims to ridicule society and the way we act in society (Chewiwie, 2008). Whilst his comments are appreciated that he aims to satirise problems of society, I worry what he means by an absurdity. He never clearly shows us what he means by this absurdity of life and if so, what that absurdity is that he wants to approach and how he approaches it. For example, could we gain more about this absurdity from the works of Samuel Beckett or even the from the rapidity of the work of David Mamet?

The main issue that arises is when after the words, “I am an artist.”, he then continues to say that “more as an artist,” Chewiwie “sees himself as an entertainer” and therefore shows issue with trying to distinguish this issue between Art and Entertainment (Chewiwie, 2008). He then furthers this problem by claiming that he wants “to make people laugh” and also “make people excited” (Chewiwie, 2008). Whilst in no means I am saying that there is only one option, by trying to categorise himself as an entertainer, it down-cries art as a form meant to feel something rather than to produce a topic or issue explored that can be explored through the medium of art. Indeed, Richard Schechner highlights this issue in analysing performance in which “Performances mark identities, bend time, reshape and adorn the body and tell the stories.” (Schechner, 2013, 28). Whereas with Chewiwie’s statement about being an artist, by claiming he makes people feel something, he is therefore performing to make an audience feel an emotion in comparison to the idea of art which, according to Oxford Dictionary, is “A person skilled at a particular task or occupation.” (Oxford Dictionaries, 2018).

He then concludes his statement by talking about his audience and his work in which he answers that he “strives to find the inner child in everybody else” and also argues that he is not “trying to tell people how or what to think” and “trying to tackle any…big political or heavy issues that are way above my scope.” (Chewiwie, 2008). Again, this sparks debate for me as whilst Chewiwie does try to ensure that an audience is immersed in the imaginative world of his pieces of work, I do worry that not only he is trying to limit himself but also is also saying that those who focus upon big issues are not willing to play around with the functions of performance. Therefore, by saying that politics is above his scope, it implies that Chewiwie is actually trying to limit what he can do and therefore, his work can seem a bit confusing and nonsensical.

Thus, in rounding up this conclusion of the discussion of Chewiwie’s statement, it comes across to me as confusing, nonsensical and a bit patronising. He tries to make out the distinction between an artist and performer when in fact he is never able to get that distinction correct between performer and artist. Chewiwie is someone who I struggle to understand after watching and analysing his statement numerous times.

 

Works Cited:

Chewiwie, M (2008) Matt Chewiwie’s Artist Statement. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yJPZfFOrsc [accessed 5 February 2018].

Oxford Dictionaries (2018) Artist – definition of artist in English by Oxford Dictionaries. Available from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/artist [accessed 5 February 2018].

Schechner, R. (2013) Performance Studies – An Introduction [ebook], 3rd Edition. Routledge: New York. https://www-dawsonera-com.proxy.library.lincoln.ac.uk/readonline/9780203125168/startPage/8/1 [accessed 5 February 2018].