On Friday 18th May, I performed my final degree show How to Succeed: Corporate Enlightenment (HtS:CE). Having had the weekend to reflect (and most importantly, relax!) after the performance, I’ve reflected on the positive and negatives of the performance and my progress throughout this module.
Artistic Influences
Throughout this module, I’ve researched into a variety of practitioners. Laurie Anderson, Shia LaBeouf and Marina Abramovic are just a handful of the ones that have been analysed and utilised during this module. Specifically for HtS:CE, my main influences were Rosie Kay’s MK Ultra (2016), TOOT Theatre’s Focus Group (2016) and the Julian Baggini article in The Guardian about the Illuminati.
Why the Illuminati?
Throughout my degree, I’ve consistently done comedy performances. Stemming from my Tragedy & Comedy performance in first year, all the way up until my Off the Page last semester. I wanted to create something different – to use a different facet of my writing capability, to see if I can make ephemerality and a seemingly serious performance work for my solo performance. My interest in popular culture is often times used for comedic reference, but I wanted to look into this to create something seemingly dark. Therefore, the thing that stood out the most in popular culture to me was the secrecy of what goes on behind closed doors. Owing to the erratic nature of conspiracy theory and Illuminati involvement in popular culture, it seemed that this was the best way to utilise pop culture references to write my performance.
At the start of the module, I was very torn between doing an auto-biographical performance or not. Indeed, I could have done a performance about my experience as a bisexual. I could have written about my drag performances, or even have done a drag performance to celebrate the culture that I involve myself in regularly. Yet, when I began planning auto-biographical performance, I found it hard to make the performance material relatable. Whilst people like Tim Miller have cleverly used their solo work to make commentary on wider LGBT+ issues, I found it difficult to relate my personal experiences for a wider audience. It also seemed inappropriate to use the experiences of LGBT+ individuals around me, as these are not MY experiences, so the performance (to me, anyway) would have felt inauthentic. Therefore, I decided early on in the module that I didn’t want to make my performance about myself, but instead wanted to make something that would be inherently political using the motif of the Illuminati as a gateway to such.
I’m an incredibly political person and I believe it’s important to make this flow into your performance. The motif of the Illuminati allowed me to make commentary on issues of gender, political divides and sociological ‘Otherness’. Using the New World Order, I made reference to the political divide that followed Brexit, the issues faced in America by the US President and also the ‘cult logic’, where those who are ostracised by their community turn to crazed activities (like joining the New World Order) because of their community. It sounds cliche, but so long as I have a voice I’ll always stand up for oppressed and othered communities and groups, so my performances are a way of attempting to be impactful in making commentary about this.
Final Performance Reflections
Overall, I’m very happy with how HtS:CE went on Friday! The feedback I’ve received is really truly spectacular and I’m really grateful about that. When asked what he thought about the show, Daniel Fotheringham stated the following:
“I think you did an outstanding job. You created one of the most unnerving atmospheres out of all the solos and actually made me have goosebumps down my spine when you were talking about the Illuminati” (Fotheringham, 2018).
I was glad to hear that the performance appeared to work in creating an unnerving atmosphere, seeing as this was the word I wanted to be associated with my performance since I began writing it! Despite some technical qualms a few days beforehand, I feel that the performances tech worked well, hand-in-hand with the script tailored to it, to create this mood and atmosphere.
If I were to extend or reshape the performance, I feel that there was definitely room for more text. If I had a longer performance slot, I feel that the piece could potentially be altered to become a 30-minute performance. There is so much depth to the New World Order and the connotations that come with it, that it was difficult to fit everything I wanted to into a twelve-minute performance. The way in which the performance ended, again with extra time, could have definitely been strung-out for a longer period of time, to make it feel less sudden. This was have meant more performance researched, as I would have to look into how to work on the subtleties of a slowly deteriorating facade within the character.
Overall, I feel that I created a performance that I can certainly be proud of this semester. It was an oddly relieving feeling to have the performance done with initially, but now the reality has sunk in that my time here as an undergrad at the University of Lincoln is done! I’d like to say special thanks to the following individuals for their involvement in the process and performance.
Acknowledgments
Diane Dubois, Andy Jordan, Martin Curtis and Donald Pulford. Thank you for your guidance and teaching throughout this module. Without your knowledge of solo performance and practitioners, I doubt the performance would have reached the potential it had.
Jonny Carr, thank you for being a rock to me throughout this performance. Without your love and support, I doubt I would have trusted myself and my judgment enough to go with the performance theme that I truly wanted. As always, thank you so much for being your caring and wonderful self.
Tilly Devine, Sebastian Farr, James Reilly and Daniel Fotheringham, thank you for constantly reading my performance script and working with me to make my performance the best it could be. Your work throughout the module has meant a lot, good luck with all your final performances!
Another thanks goes to my close friends and family, for supporting me throughout my three years at this university.
That’s all, folks!
As this blog post is submitted, my blog reaches its final publication, meaning my final submission as a part of the University of Lincoln. Thank you to everyone that has made the past three years the most amazing, thought-provoking and rewarding of my life thus far. Time to go out into the real world and work on getting my journals published!