SHARING DAY (Tue 5 August)
The day we were all dreading - I mean, anticipating - I mean, well.
Lots needed to still be done today, so after getting all our production tasks in order yesterday we spent the morning frantically trying to get through all the scenes that had yet to be devised, as well as attempting to do a run. We quickly discovered that we would not have time to iron out smooth transitions or work out all our scenes, and needed to focus simply on what props and costume items we would need when and where - we had never done a run with all our props before.
After the lovely warm-up and morale booster that was our participation in PLEASE's sharing, we stumbled through our own and experienced how the pacing was off. Here are some of our key feedback points:
VEGETABLE METAPHOR: The vegetable metaphor has great potential, insofar that it could stand for so many different things in our first politican scene. It also comes with interesting nationalistic associations (they are of the earth, they are from nature, they belong there). Be really conscious of all its potential meanings and try to keep the metaphor as wide as possible.
PACING: The structure we currently have is diagramatic: each scene is attempting to communicate something with the audience. The moment that the audience gets the meaning of a scene before the end of it, we lose their attention. The politician scenes started to become very predictable and repetitive. How can we bring back elements of surprise?
BLACK/WHITE MORALS: Right now, the politicians were clearly the baddies from second one. In order for the complicatedness of this topic to be communicated well, we need to be able to empathise with/associate with characters before they do bad things (at least, if we want to say that everyone can radicalize and everyone has a part in this story). The moment a politician says 'I don't care about the oceans', the audience will dissociate themselves with this character, as they do care, so they must not be a fascist. Bring back the nuance and make the piece smarter.
BE SPECIFIC: Telling all ten stages of genocide is too much. What chunk do you zoom in on, are you most interested in exploring? Is this about the emergence of fascism and do we just see the first hints of it, or do we start with an already established fascist government and does the piece focus on the effects of it on the people? Hit the ground running whatever choice you make, i.e. start with the banning of the carrots/...
STRONG WRITING: Sharp, satirical American sitcom-like writing. Keep using that muscle, there's something there.
GENRE: What other genres might there be that offer you the same performance style as you're currently using, without the inhibiting rules of clowning that keep you from getting on with the story and getting the pacing right? Think cartoon, children's TV programme, ...
MEDIA THREAD: There was something interesting and new in the Anastasia thread: consumer capitalism, replacing vegetables with digital goods. Explore further!