Once I decided this I came to a dilemma. HOW was I going to include musical theatre into my performance without just recreating a musical. As a result I began researching into musical theatre and came across the work of Brian Lobel who used musical theatre as part of a live art performance.
Hold My Hand and We're Half Way There
'Hold My Hand and We're Half Way There' is a durational piece of live art that includes the audience. I have found a better description of the performance on his website and am going to paste the extract below.
Hold My Hand and We're Halfway There , an interactive performance installation, uses four televisions, 12 headsets, a sturdy bed and over 100 classic musicals to explore issues of isolation, community, secret pleasures and the age-old question, When are you alone? And when are you lonely? Hold My Hand links Depression- era Dance Marathons, where contestants danced until they dropped in pursuit of fame and fortune, to young boys dancing in their bedroom after school, where they too dance until they dropped, often hoping for fame and fortune.
I find this synopsis very interesting because it incorporates many of my interests into his piece. Most obviously is includes musicals, what is more it is a durational piece of theatre that tests endurance and this is another thing I want to put into my performance. The piece asks many different questions and maybe I could use this and ask questions in order to help me create my piece. The performance also helps answer one of my research questions of 'Can musical theatre put a smile on anyones face?'
Below is a clip of the performance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Vcv-8GF69M
Although Lobel discusses how his performance focuses on loneliness I think it can also help link to my idea of the perfect female body and making women accept who they are. If you watch the video you see the audience members dancing in a care free manner. The short clip focuses on two female friends who explain how they enjoyed participating in the performance and when you watch them dancing you see how care free they were. They were not worried about what they looked like or the colour of their hair. They were just concentrating on having a good time. It seems from Lobel's explanation that the participants acted in this way because they felt as though they were along in a private space. Women could be who they wanted in their own private space but I want my performance to follow on from this and let women be who they want to be and accept who they are both in private and public spaces.
The information about Brian Lobel was found on his website and the link is posted below.
http://www.blobelwarming.com/index.html
Making A Musical
When I decided I wanted to put musical theatre into my performance I decided to look into how to make a musical.
When I did this I realised it is a lot harder than it looks. You can't just have an idea and expect a musical to be made.There is a large team of people that helps make each minor detail happen to the best of its ability.
What is more when you are in independent company you are often overshadowed by large companies such as disney that can make any production a success.
Throughout the article I read on making a musical the writer split each part of the making into sections and one section I found interesting was on the House Manager. The writer explains how the house manager is a person that works extremely hard yet doesn't get any credit for it and I found this extremely interesting and could maybe use this in my performance.
Further on in the article there is a section on 'How to write a musical' and when I saw this I thought I had my performance in the bag. Unfortunately not.
The article explains that there is now specific way to making a musical, it all depends on your artistic preference.
However it does go on to explain how you know your musical idea/storyline is a good one. The article asks, 'how compelled are you to tell the story?' also questions 'do you care deeply about the story, so deeply you must tell this story or die?' The article explains that you should not create a piece of theatre that you think is an interesting topic to others but create a piece of theatre that is an interesting topic to you. Go with the detail you care deeply about with a story and characters you believe in.
I found this part of the article a highly useful one which helps me back up a point in one of my previous blogs. I need to include something I really believe in in my performance or else it won't be as successful. Moss Hart once told Alan Jay Lerner that nobody knows the secret to writing a hit musical . . .but the secret to writing a flop is "to say yes when you mean no."
I should always be saying YES to my ideas and then they will be far more successful.
When creating a piece of theatre we have to question 'what is it all about?' We can't just say it is about a women who wants to accept her body but instead we need to find the emotional core of the piece. You must create a premise (what the show is really about at its core) and then make sure the material in the performance matches the premise.
Useful tips for creating a performance
- Study the musicals I like and find out what makes them tick.
- Create a piece that you would spend 5 years working on without even making a penny.
- Make sure work has a genuine sense of humour. Don't make it too serious as it will bore the audience.
- Show don't tell. Don't tell us what is going to happen, let the performance do the talking.
- CUT EVERYTHING THAT IS NOT ESSENTIAL
- Tell a good story in an entertaining way. NEVER PREACH OF TEACH. Do not create a piece of theatre that tries to preach a moral. If you create an interesting story that is entertaining, the moral will be clear.
- If including music, open with an amazing song.
This information has come from the website posted below:
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