With one week left until my performance, I was given the opportunity to experiment with lighting, test out the mechanism for the ‘Dorito drop’, and discuss much of the technical needs of my piece. It was very useful to try these elements of my performance before the tech on Monday, as I’ve now managed to figure out the technical requirements of the show.
The performance begins with a stained glass window projected onto the wall, with coloured LED lights angled towards it, to give the impression of sunlight infiltrating through the window. This lighting – combined with Elgar’s Jerusalem playing when the audience enter, and the haze which will be established before the performance begins – should give the traditional ecclesiastical atmosphere I am trying to cultivate. This atmosphere alters as the show decays. The time spent experimenting with lights gave me a clearer understanding of how to create atmospheric shifts within the piece, so I will be using lighting throughout the performance to signify the decline that is occurring. However, as I planned on having Gregorio Allegri’s Miserere mei, Deus playing on low volume throughout much of the performance, I wonder if this choice will undermine the atmospheric shifts, or perhaps the near-constant aural presence of Miserere will contribute the message of visual decay occurring, as the spoken poetry (an aural form) remains un-perverted.
The ‘Dorito drop’ section of the performance seems to have been figured out (although I wasn’t able to test it with the crushed Doritos, instead using balls of paper to get an idea of the spread).
(picture of the mechanism after use)
The mechanism being used is very simple: There is a bucket/trough attached to the rig with rope (as seen in the picture) which will be filled with the Doritos. There is also fishing line attached to one side of the trough, which when pulled releases the trough from its position and pouring the filling down onto the stage. A member of the audience will be holding the wire ( which will be looped over the lighting rig, so the audience cannot see it) then when I give the cue line – “leaving only dust” – they will pull the line, releasing the dust. I just hope whoever I have pull the line has steady hands during the performance before this moment…
The final poem has the line – “The toxic population” – and when i say this the lighting will turn a bilious yellow/green, which should be captured in the haze, giving a toxic gas effect – mankind’s creation which accelerates the decay portrayed. As the poem then ends I say – “we build nothing” – and on the word nothing I want to give the impression of a cosmic void – so will be using a disco ball to give a semi-starry effect. This transitions into the final section of video, where I will be reading extracts from poems which are thematically similar to my piece. However, I have an issue with conveying that these words are not my own – as the short extracts I am taking may be unrecognisable to some. I have some solutions, though am unsure which one to take. One is that the papers I am reading from will have the faces of the poets who wrote them printed on the back, so that when held in front of my face it almost becomes mask like. Another is setting up a mic to speak into, to distinguish these words as separate from my own and slightly distort my voice. The final solution would be to project images of the poet onto a scrim when reading their work, possibly giving the impression of a spectral presence in the final moments of my piece. This issue will be resolved during my tech – and seems to be the only major problem remaining, especially once I get my final few rehearsals perfecting my delivery of the poems finished.