Going in to my technical rehearsal I had a few questions to ask the technician, as the tech for my show would depend on what was possible and if the tech that I wanted would be able to be created. After asking these questions I found that all of the tech that I primarily wanted was able to be done and this meant that I was able to have my first choice with the tech for my solo performance.
For my pre-set I wanted a cool wash over the entire stage with Summer Breeze by The Isley Brothers playing as the audience enter and take their seats.
Blowing through the jasmine in my mind
Summer breeze makes me feel fine
Blowing through the jasmine in my mind
In the evening on a Friday night
A little light a-shining through the window
Lets me know everythings alright
Blowing through the jasmine in my mind
Summer breeze makes me feel fine
Blowing through the jasmine in my mind
July is dressed up and playing her tune
When I come home from a hard days work
And you’re waiting there, not a care in the world
Food cooking and the plates for two
Feel the arms that reach out to hold me
In the evening when the day is through
Blowing through the jasmine in my mind
Summer breeze makes me feel fine
Blowing through the jasmine in my mind
I chose this song as the lyrics romanticise Summer in a way which makes the season appear extremely beautiful and relaxing, these connotations of summer are very different to the topic of my performance and I think it would be a nice contrast from the pre-set with this song in to my action of my show.
Once the audience are seated, the lights and music will fade to black and silence. I will then enter the stage and the lights will come up with a warm wash, similar tones to that of a summers morning. This lighting state changes when I begin to read my first testimony, prior to walking centre stage, the warm wash will snap in to a back spotlight allowing the audience to see a silhouette of my body, however my face would be shadowed. My reasoning for this choice of lighting when speaking my testimonies is that Paines Plough did a similar lighting state for one of their shows which involved verbatim. The use of this lighting allows audience members to focus more on the words that are being spoken than the ‘character’ that is speaking them. I think that this is a very effective way of lighting a verbatim monologue or testimony and therefore wanted to include this lighting state in my own solo performance.
Once the testimony has been read, the LED lights will snap back in to a warm wash over the stage, however this time the wash is more yellow toned to signify mid-day on a hot, summer’s day. As I begin to read the second testimony of my piece, the lighting will snap back in to the back spotlight as before, to signify to the audience that the words being spoken are not my own. After this testimony, the action of the play continues and the LED lights change to a blue toned wash over the stage, representing the passage of time throughout a singular day.
At the end of my piece, my character lies down and begins to sleep. As this happens, the lights will fade to black and the sound of chirping birds will begin to play and continue on until all of the audience have left the performance space. The sound of birds chirping is again, contradictory to the tone of the piece as I wanted the audio used to portray summer and happiness as this contrasts well with the theme of my show.
The last section of my script reads:
The suns gone down…a lot less people are walking past me…this is when I start to feel alone again…that’s when I know it’s time to sleep…I hope that tomorrow is a better day for me, all I can do is hope ….All I have is hope.
*LIE DOWN ON FLOOR AND GET IN TO BED*
Birds begin chirping and fade to black – audio continues to play as audience exit.
After my technical rehearsal I felt much more confident with my show and wanted to get on with rehearsing it, as I now had the technical aspects of the show visualised in my head.
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