another long gap in my blogging, i'm getting very lax. well, i suppose the research paper was a good excuse - congratulations VLP bods on getting those done!

just the final show in september to go!

its the final push now and it looks like it might be uphill all the way. I still don't have confirmation on my site (hopefully part of an art/performance festival in an old timber yard in peckham) and i've lost my actor, not a great start - but we will prevail!

I would like to make this one much more simple and contemplative, leaving the audience more room to make their mark. I wish i had time to explore some more software and stuff - would really like to do something with the Nintendo Wii, it's my latest nerdy obsession. But I will have to work with what i know for september or else there will just be too many unknowns. Still, I think the simplicity of upstage has its own appeal and i like that it riles the techno-junkies with its general clunkiness. Just need to work on the graphics and not trying to do too much.

hmmm... then there is the documentation space in college. i really want it to be something interesting - am excited about the possibilities, but need to think hard about what i want to represent of myself since most people who see it won't see my show.

WOOOO WE DID IT

Well, 'the old hotel part II' went without hitch (almost). I am so relieved. we had a power cut on site just before the show, then the webcam wasn't working, but it all came good with seconds to spare. Suzon, James and Liz did their bit online very smoothly, they kept to the time limit and worked all the elements on stage as if it was the easiest thing in the world (this was the first time we had got through the script with a technical failure!). Jonny (on site) interacted with both the webcam and the projected image and confidently drew the onsite audience into the weird world we had created on upstage, whilst also grounding in the site (the work was site-specific). I couldnt have asked for more.

Of course there were so many things i could have improved on - the presentation on site, the amount of rehearsal jonny was able to have with proper working webcam (none!), parts of the script etc etc.. would also have been great to have someone experienced to help me direct the show (in particular to help jonny with improvisation and interaction - i did my best but he pretty much had to work it out on his own - what do i know about acting? Saying that though, I think he did an amazing job, but would have been less stressful for him with proper direction.) HOWEVER time, money and friendly directors with nothing better to do were not on my side, so I think we did pretty well. Was very exciting to be back on the building site, not knowing from one day to the next which rooms would have floors, ceilings, windows etc. The guys were still working on site this morning and had to down tools for half an hour so the show would be audible! Fun fun.

Will try to write a more objective analysis when i have a bit more distance and will also give a link to the film of the show which will be uploaded to my website shortly. In the meantime, here's some pics of rehearsals.