[As of yet, untitled]

• Staging: centre of studio 1, a circle of light wide enough for me to sit cross legged surrounded by books.
• Possibility of using books, and the closing and dropping of them, as the beat of the poetry. The idea of getting the sound of pages turning also works. Would be difficult and involve a lot of rehearsal and hard work, but if done properly could be really effective.
• The idea of books came from a book Why We Lie by Dorothy Rowe- a psychological look at lying and why we do it. This made me think of the concept of books as lies, and the number of books that explore the concept of lying through fiction. [Currently drafting a post explaining this in more detail, making more sense.]
• The poem should be a mix of lies in society/psychological effects and reasons of lying, as well as the reason I lie, and how it’s affected me. Still unsure, starting to write to see how it happens.

A problem I need to address within the creation of my performance is that of boring the audience.
Spalding Gray may be able to get away with speaking for an hour and a half whilst retaining the audience’s interest, but can I?
I am aware that my subject matter may keep my audience interested, especially as if I am speaking of secrets and lies from university my audience will be very aware of my subject. However, that doesn’t change the fact that some people find it difficult to listen to one person talk for 12 minutes.
I need to think about the possibility of other things happening on stage, behind stage, the use of music, screens voiceovers, or movement to create and interesting and invigorating performance.

Today’s task- planning a performance.

- LPAC theatre- fronts seats away, back seats up. Empty stage.
- Lights are up as the audience file in, there are spots focused on some of the seats, but this is not clear with the rest of the lights on.
- As the audience come in, there is the sound of whispering played, at such a level that the audience are unaware of it- it blends in with their discussion.
- Once the audience are in the lights start to fade, making the spotlights clear on the audience. At the same time, the noise of the whispering has got louder and louder and louder, but still no clear voice/wording is audible, just murmured whispering.
-  There is a spotlight in the centre of the stage, with just enough theatrical haze to ensure the tunnel of the light can be seen, but not so much the stage is misty.
- The whispering becomes louder and louder, to the point that it’s almost uncomfortable to hear. As this happens the performer, who has been sitting in the audience, stands up and walks towards the spotlight. She steps into it, turning to face the audience, and whispers quietly with the recording. The words are inaudible, not real words. Slowly she builds the volume, becoming louder and louder, changing rhythm with the recording. Her volume reaches a climax, and at the loudest point the lights go to black. The only sound is the quiet whispering from before.
- Spotlights start to relight on the audience one by one, as , after a pause, she begins to recite latin names for flowers. With each flower, a light flicks on, or off, seemingly randomly.
- As she gets louder, the whispering fades to just one inaudible voice, and the reciting of flowers. The names are staccato, emotionless, with pauses of a 5 seconds between each one. As she recites the flowers, she starts to sway, and so begins a dance similar to Pina Bausch’s Cafe Muller- she moves around the stage, reciting the names quicker to give her a form of beat, stopping as the lights flick on and off in front of her- she never moves through a light.
- As the dance becomes more violent, the whisper becomes audible- it is a list of the names of the members of the audience. This voice becomes louder as the dance slows, and the performer loses volume.
- When the voiceover finally names the performer, she falls to the floor and every spotlight used in the performance comes on- giving an almost pillared effect to the room (due to hazing) and then slow fade to darkness.
- When the lights are returned to normal for the audience to leave, the performer has gone, but flower petals have descended from the ceiling to cover the flower. They are still fluttering down as the audience leave.

Italics are Helen Dyer’s ideas.

Today I issued a warning on Facebook to the people I know stating:
“PLEASE READ THIS:
For my solo performance I am exploring the importance of lies and secrets and as such I’m creating a list of every secret I have ever been told whilst at Uni. Obviously, some of these will be you guys’ secrets, so if you think I know something that for whatever reason you don’t want the world to know, drop us a message or a facebook, and I’ll bear that in mind I’m not naming and shaming, I’m making art!
♥” 

This allows me to know what secrets people don’t want shared, and also will give me a chance to assess people’s reactions to secrets.
I know a lot of ‘gossip’ from the three years we have been at uni, and I am aware of the fact that most of it doesn’t put people in a good light- especially some of the men on our course!
People’s reactions to the sharing of these secrets will be very interesting, although I know that a lot of people probably think I wouldn’t dare to do this, I think it’s something that follows naturally with my line of interest and research, and makes something very intriguing for an audience, especially an audience with a personal interest in the words I am saying.

What is Beat Poetry?

Beat Poetry is a form of poetry that evolved during the Beat Movement of the 1940′s and 50′s in New York and San Francisco as part of the ‘ battle against social conformity and literary tradition’ (1) .
The label of ‘Beat’  was first referenced in an interview by John Clellon Holmes the NY Times and summed up the feeling of the initial movement: Any attempt to label an entire generation is unrewarding, and yet the generation which went through the last war, or at least could get a drink easily once it was over, seems to possess a uniform, general quality which demands an adjective. It was John Kerouac, the author of a fine, neglected novel The Town and the City, who finally came up with it… “You know, this is really a beat generation.” The origins of the word “beat” are obscure, but the meaning is only too clear to most Americans. More than a mere weariness, it implies the feeling of having been used, of being raw. It involves a sort of nakedness of mind, and, ultimately, of soul; a feeling of being reduced to the bedrock of consciousness. In short, it means being undramatically pushed up against the wall of oneself. A man is beat whenever he goes for broke and wagers the sum of his resources on a single number; and the young generation has done that continually from early youth. (2)

Beat Poetry itself is a form of poetry with little structure, very different to the classical style of poetry, performed usually to a gentle, jazz-influence backing track, though not always. The original Beat Poets were Jack Kerouac, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady and William S. Burroughs. More modern examples of Beat Poets include Tim Minchin and Ani DiFranco.
The text of the Beat Poem is spoken with a rhythm, and sometimes a rhyme, essentially a monologue to music.
Also referred to as Jazz poetry

Why do I want to attempt Beat?

In McDougal Street Blues Kerouac says that he writes prose, not poetry. A beat poem is prose with a rhythm, it brings it to life and, in my opinion, gives you something to listen to. Whether a monologue with a touch of beat, a la Spalding Gray, or a straight out Beat Poem, there is something about the form that interests me. I like the lack of form, the lack of rules, the music (if used) doesn’t need to match the words spoken, which is a lovely juxtaposition. Also, in a way, it can be seen that Beat Poetry is a song, for which you needn’t have the talent to sing- and as a non singer, that of course appeals to me!
I can’t exactly pinpoint what it is about Beat Poetry that fascinates me and makes me want to attempt  it, but there is something within the genre that pulls me in, and to attempt to do it justice would be an absolute honour, as well as a challenge.

Sources:
(1)http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5646 [accessed, 30/1/12]
(2)http://www.litkicks.com/Texts/ThisIsBeatGen.html [Accessed 30/1/12]