Day 17. The final two showings.

So, I made the big lounge into a 'cooling down' room, where I placed a couple of candles and some props - Complete Works of Shakespeare, and three 1960s travel brochures with ships on them.

Scott cut 3 minutes off the soundscape, and we made it louder at the end.

When the audience came in I noticed straight away that they were speaking in hushed tones. It was already working!

When everyone was here, I handed them each a lantern and said that when they were ready they could make their way to the stairs. That the whole thing would take about 15 minutes and that there was no rush and to take their time.

Then I went outside and waited.

Well, what a huge difference. I could hear that they were much quieter than Friday's audience. They were really listening and taking it all in.

After it was over they were all extremely positive. I could see (and they said) that some of them were really quite taken with it. They all found it very creepy and tense, but they were quite exhilirated and curious afterwards. They said they lost track of how much time had passed and just when they'd felt they'd looked at everything in the room, the sound started to develop so they were listening hard.

They picked up on a lot of the things I was trying to do, like the pictures behind the sheet - how you could see bits of them, but when you put your lantern up you couldn't see anything, so you can actually see more of them without the light.

And they were very taken with the plant dripping, especially once they realised it wasn't part of the soundtrack (when it dripped on someone's head!).

The second audience was very similar, which signalled to me that the changes we'd made, had a big impact.

One person said they felt it was very tense, rather than scary, which is good.

So, in the end, I felt it went better than I expected. I think it is half an idea, but as Christian pointed out, I worked on this for the fraction of the time I worked on Hamlet. So I think I should be fairly pleased.

I certainly learnt a lot about how sound and light can work. And how I work.

More to come in the report.

End of Day 16. The first showing.

Well, that was different.

As soon as the audience started turning up, I realised I'd been too inside my own head with this project. I had a strong sense of foreboding.

I still didn't really know how to start it, so I had put some candles in the house and left the lit lanterns by the door to the stairs down to the garage.

When I let the audience in they looked around the lounge for a while, confused. Then they started going down the stairs without the lanterns so I had to tell them to take thme with them.

Then I waited outside. And waited and waited.

It felt extremely long and boring. And I could hear that they were confused about what to expect and were looking for something to happen. Some of them even wandered back up the stairs.

The ending was awful, with me just opening the door.

It did not feel very successful at all.

We had a good chat afterwards, and people said they were confused about what was to happen. They felt like there was a mystery to be solved. That says to me that although I don't want to explain everything, I have not given them enough information about what to expect.

I realised that if I want the audience to be more contemplative then I need to signal that better. I still don't want to have to explain everything before they go in though. But I might be able to create a feeling so they understand it better and understand what is expected of them.

And I'll make it a bit shorter. 15 minutes was much too long.

There was some positive feedback though. The way the light worked was very interesting to them, having their own lightsource to carry around. And the liked the soundscape, the delicacy of it. It just needs something more at the end to feel like its going somewhere.

One part of the sound did not work, the line of dialogue that comes from the side room. I think that would have helped make it feel like it was going somewhere, but we'll see tomorrow night.

I will  make as many changes as a I can, but ultimately, the work has some fundamental flaws. It does not have enough movement, so you don't feel like anything is developing. And it is much darker in terms of mood than I expected.

Day 16. D Day.

Well here we are.
After the longest two weeks in history.
I've added one more thing just now (6pm) which is some mirrors on the shelf. I can justify it, but I don't know how effective it will be. I will get some feedback from my audience tonight and see what the verdict is.

I have absolutely no idea how this is going to go. It's a weird feeling. I should be more nervous I suppose, but I think I've done all I can, and it makes sense to me, so now we just have to see if an audience feels the same.

So long as the tech stuff runs smoothly then I will be satisfied. Or relieved at least.

Day Fifteen. Dress rehearsal day.

Okay. This is it. Almost.

Cleared all the crap out of the room, and just left the real stuff.
I'm still bothered by the empty shelf. It doesn't look right.

Scott sent through a first draft of the sound and we tried it out tonight in the dark. Wow does it add alot. I'm so pleased I have not over done the visual side of it because the sound is so potent.
Its currently a bit long at 20 minutes but we can shorten it and tweak a few things and then we should be ready for an audience.

The lanterns give off ALOT of light, so I will have to deal to that tomorrow.

And I'm still not sure how the actual entering of the room will go. But we'll sort it out.

Overall I actuall rather like it. Didn't think I'd say that.

End of Day Fourteen. Decision making time.

Okay.
So I've made some choices about what is actually going to be in the showing.

There will be...

The drowning mobile.

STILL TO DO: Decide what to write on the backs of the mirrors.

Reinforce hooks. 

 

The bird table with box of feathers.

STILL TO DO: Nothing.

The stairs with shells on them.

STILL TO DO: Put shells on stairs. 

Decide if it needs light.

 

The dripping plant with glasses underneath.

STILL TO DO: Decide exactly which glasses.

Make sure plant doesn't die of overwatering.

 

The empty chair.

STILL TO DO: Nothing.

The skull in the cupboard.

STILL TO DO: Tidy cupboard. 

Decide on light colour (probably the blue).

 

Wall of pictures.

STILL TO DO: Decide if I'm going to put candles up again. If not, ditch the sheet.

 

Empty shelf.

STILL TO DO: Decide if anything is going to go on it.

 

Floor.

STILL TO DO: Decide what to put on it. Maybe nothing at all. It's a floor in the dark after all.

Entrance: 

Write instructions for audience. Decide on light to lead them to the stairs. Place strategic clues.

Day Fourteen. Get clear! 24 hours til Dress Rehearsal.

I think I've just realised what it is I'm trying to explore.

It's the connection between loss and renewal.

And how you get from one to the other.

You get there with one or more of the following:

Pain. Ceremony. A trial. A sacrifice. Patience. An exorcism. A journey. A big black pit.

And probably more.

And also the duality of these two things. The old "as one door opens..." etc etc.

A dichotomy.  A parallel.

Like they are two halves of a whole. You cannot have the second without the first. And you probably can't have the first without some form of the second.

If you want something, you're going to have to work for it. Well, that is certainly something I believe in.

These are my musings.

 

 THIS is what I should have started with.  Well, at least I got there in the end. Now to clarify it in the actual work.

End of Day Thirteen. A solution to the light problem!