I have been reworking "Losing My Tonsils Finding My Voice". It is now called "Lost and Found". I'll be posting the most recent version of it tomorrow, but I've literally lost my voice again --for real. I think this piece has a profound affect on me---go figure. Anyhow, since Shyamala and Cynthia will be helping manipulate the long white cloth as a prop in this piece, here are my ideas about the structure of the piece and where/how the cloth gets manipulated.
I begin inside the circle of white cloth. I'm talking about when I was young and free to be me with a nice robust voice all the while my feet are slapping thi thi thais and I am gesturing with backstroke alapadmas, singing alapadmas, hamsasyos of the people that silenced my innocence and slapping gesture slapped me into quietude. I talk about as I grew older, having to go under the knife and get my tonsils removed. At this point, Shy and Cyn move the cloth in front of me on the floor and it becomes the operating table. I lie down on it flat on my back until I slowly start curling up into a ball. When I get up I am fearful and rounded back, but as I try to speak and nothing comes out time and time again. Shy and Cyn start wrapping the cloth around me like a bit of a straight jacket. That fear builds to anger and I unwind from the cloth and transition into gestures that turn into full bodied movement (the jathi revised). Here, Shy and Cyn move the cloth behind me and hold it up like a screen or backdrop behind me. At the end of the jathi I stop and begin trying to yell/speak as my feet slap louder and louder (no voice coming out) At this point Cyn and SHy move the cloth in front of me so audience can only see my head and feet. We finally hear my voice at the end, my feet stop the stomping and the cloth drops to the floor---Blackout---END
Please check out the new structure changes and note that the cloth is not integrated like it will be. Also, this is a really poor performance due to my being sick and overtired
PASSWORD: anj
I begin inside the circle of white cloth. I'm talking about when I was young and free to be me with a nice robust voice all the while my feet are slapping thi thi thais and I am gesturing with backstroke alapadmas, singing alapadmas, hamsasyos of the people that silenced my innocence and slapping gesture slapped me into quietude. I talk about as I grew older, having to go under the knife and get my tonsils removed. At this point, Shy and Cyn move the cloth in front of me on the floor and it becomes the operating table. I lie down on it flat on my back until I slowly start curling up into a ball. When I get up I am fearful and rounded back, but as I try to speak and nothing comes out time and time again. Shy and Cyn start wrapping the cloth around me like a bit of a straight jacket. That fear builds to anger and I unwind from the cloth and transition into gestures that turn into full bodied movement (the jathi revised). Here, Shy and Cyn move the cloth behind me and hold it up like a screen or backdrop behind me. At the end of the jathi I stop and begin trying to yell/speak as my feet slap louder and louder (no voice coming out) At this point Cyn and SHy move the cloth in front of me so audience can only see my head and feet. We finally hear my voice at the end, my feet stop the stomping and the cloth drops to the floor---Blackout---END
Please check out the new structure changes and note that the cloth is not integrated like it will be. Also, this is a really poor performance due to my being sick and overtired
PASSWORD: anj
Love the ideas! I'm excited to try them in person and can't wait to see costume and next rendition on video. Beginning and ending may be affected by the transitions from and two the adjacent pieces but right now makes sense on its own.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Shy
I just watched the video and here are a couple of quick thoughts.
ReplyDelete-The circle is interesting because it could be a spotlight feeling rather then a containment. I think the box might be more of a containment. Perhaps we start with a circle and change it to a box. Or a random idea: we keep pushing the circle around so you're forced to move while telling your story.
-I especially like how the dance section is so clearly about voicing now.
-I miss you starting with the itching, it used to be a theme that I enjoyed coming back to over and over. First it was more of a funny kid like scratch, but later it became a serious health issue and a silencing.
-I like the dress idea. This one looks like a dress a woman would wear rather then a little girl to me, which is what I had expected. However, it looks good on you and perhaps it bridges the adult and child worlds, since you are an adult telling the story.
-I know the ending is hindered by your hoarse voice so I would like to see it again but my gut feeling is that the voice might be redundant
I'm definitely enjoying how the dance section at the end has developed. I also miss the itching in the beginning and think the voice at the end might not be necessary (though I couldn't actually understand what you said). Dress looks good to me. As stands the part on the operating table seems underdeveloped to me, but maybe that's because we're not doing the cloth manipulation. Feels a bit tricky to stop the footwork and lie down - maybe we push you down as nurses/orderlies? Generally it might be good to think about Shy's and my roles - are we just stage hands/postmodern task-based manipulators of cloth, or characters in your story (friends, the doctor?), and does it switch? I also wonder about the black-out as an ending since we will have no perfect blackouts with the video projections...so it would be great to think about how this could possibly transition into Ranri.
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