Weed Performance by Emily Maughan

Emily Maughan Site Specific Performance Module 105 Spring 2011

Contents 1-2

Introduction and Influential Artists

Poem: ‘Forbidden’

Beauty and Rubbish Photos

5-6

Performance task: Kimberley Park

7-9

Performance task: Prince of Wales Pier

Participation in the Street

Observation in the street

12 - 14

Mike Pearson: Forced Entertainment and Ideas

Secret Garden: Ideas for Performance

Words for Inspiration

‘Weed’ History

Poem: ‘Secret Garden’

Scratch Performance

20 - 21

Poem: ‘In The Next Room’

22 - 29

Final Performance: ‘WEED’

30 - 31

Reflections

Bibliography

“I would like the happening to be arranged in such a way that I could at least see through the happening to something that wasn‟t it.” John Cage Site Specific work is something created and designed to fit in or around a certain space. Site Specific work can be performance and dance, sculptures, installations, lighting, even a building with interesting architecture or a landscaped garden. When you have chosen your site, first of all think why did you select that particular space? What are its characteristics and what can you do to amplify the site, to intertwine with the space? How does the place make you feel? In order to understand site work, our group went on many walking expeditions, come rain or shine we were there, exploring the great outdoors. Site work can also be indoors but not in a typical studio. You create work in relation to the space. You need to feel the history, each memory, ghost and footstep that has gone before. It is helpful to do this in silence, to hear the birds, the rustling in the bushes and unknown secret sounds. You need to clear your mind to focus and lock into your imagination. Once you have found a space that you feel something for, walk around it, study and touch everything. It is very helpful to keep a journal. Sometimes I would write how I was feeling or a poem. It is a great way to keep a log of everything you have done. Spend time in the space and visit it again and again. What changes are there? How would you make a performance here? Where would the audience be? As a country girl, I have always loved walking, and so felt a familiarity with this module but even so, in the beginning, I felt slightly disorientated. I have always had a problem with maps and directions have never been my forte. I am forever getting lost and it has become something of a running joke with my friends and family. I usually like to walk without maps and just see where I end up. I forget where I am no matter how hard I try to remember street names and key sites, I tend to find myself drifting off and instead of looking where I am going, I look at a bird flying or a leaf falling, thus I get lost! I soon realised that I was taking things too literally and that it could be a lot of fun, so I decided to make maps of my own, to help myself overcome the fear of them. I took myself on small excursions. On my journeys, I realised how many disused and unwanted spaces there were and when you really look, find hidden treasures. In each place I took photographs and picked up any little things I found to retrace my steps, I found this very helpful. Nick Kaye‟s „Site Specific‟ book contains work by Meredith Monk, Tim Etchell of Forced Entertainment, John Cage and many more it explains the history of site work and contemporary performance. Sections from performances of the aforementioned artists are also included.

Meredith Monk said “I’ve always been interested in the mysterious and indefinable; seeing the familiar in a new way: crossing boundaries of how we normally perceive the world. I like to think that I am offering a template of expansiveness, of limitless possibility, of feeling more alive.” (Kaye, 2000: 214) I found this quote inspirational as to me this is how to view site work, infinite possibilities and ideas. I was taken with Monk‟s site specific piece called „Juice‟ (1969) it was performed in three different places over a month and a half, the audience would move with the performers to each site. In parts of the piece was a woman on horse-back, eighty-five singers and dancers who performed. (Kaye, 2000:206) Each piece was built upon. I would love to observe such a piece; it has given me ideas for my own site work. In small groups, we located different sites and were given a short amount of time to create with a performance. It was very simple, but effective. We wanted to show how history repeats itself. My partner and I firstly found our space, we stood back to back against a tree, and the audience could stand wherever they chose and walk around if they felt inclined. We remained still for a long time gazing at the sky, concentrating on all the sounds. Slowly, without looking at each other, we started to walk with definite slow steps. The mossy ground was perfect for what we wanted to achieve because each step made an imprint. The audience was able to see the footprints we had left and that gradually each mark began to disappear as the moss started to spring back to its natural position. We ended the piece by kneeling at a small plaque, and we said a short piece of text. This piece was polysemic. We had a talk with Clare Qualmann of „Walk, walk, walk,” a live art company based around walking and mapping. As I like to make up stories, I felt a special connection with the site specific work she and her group had done. One project called „Darned Memory 2010‟ is about making and mending, telling stories and discovering histories around Millbank. My favourite was their walk around Hackney, inspired by a mere chip fork that was found. They decided to create a story about which chip shop the fork had come from and how it came to be lying on the ground. From this, they decided to create a „tour‟ around all the chip shops of that area and to sample the chips from each one. They even designed their own papers to wrap the chips in, carefully designed with maps of the route. I felt I could take from Qualmann ideas for my own site work and simply by finding a lowly chip fork a great idea or story can begin. I soon realised my passion in this module was making up stories and the history of different sites. I was drawn to a particular place, a beautiful garden, with a grand stairway leading up to it, huge white flowered magnolia trees stood tall, dotted rhododendron splashed colour around. Hedges are tapered in to an „Alice in Wonderland‟ style. There is a bench with a small plaque, it says „WEED, YOU LOVED LIFE AND WE LOVE YOU‟ there was no date on the stone. I sat on the bench thinking and trying to make up a story as to who this plaque was for. This was my place, my site for investigation. Ellie, Alisa, Jenny and I all got a real feeling in this space and had many ideas that connected with each of us so we decided to work together for our final group piece. This is my portfolio of my journey into Site Specific work and the unknown…..

Forbidden, Disused, I am walking, I am directionless. A rubber-duck the colour of blue, no longer owned is stuck in the nettles. There is a forgotten window with no glass just a frame, it is looking sorry for its self. A chair upturned and covered in weeds next to beautiful river, Splashing around there is me - in my red wellies. I stumble on old crisp packets, through a tunnel of trees, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a dirty old bog with an oasis of green. Frog spawn near a broken bridge, where the river no longer runsâ&#x20AC;ŚI wonder where it used to go? Where it used to stretch, reach out and flow. A wooden cross covered in moss, trees with autumn leaves that have still not fallen, although they should have long ago orangey- brown still they glow, a lonely yellow daffodil reaches up to the sky, among all the rubbish this flower caught my eye. Rubbish, beauty, rubbish, beauty, rubbish, beauty. Dirty streets, dirty laundry, broken trailers and an old abandoned caravan, bins brimming with rubbish, like open mouthed monsters. Everywhere I step there is litter, it makes my head hurt. There is a broken slide where kids used to play; now it is forgotten. On its side it lies. Still I see beauty; I see a rose, its guarding some steps they lead to a hid away, a pond shaped like a star, a monument for the marines so we know who they are. Statues of nuns which have now lost their heads, this place is forgotten, redundant and dead, but I can see it was tranquil a nice place to sit, with dapples of sun so you are still lit. It needs some attention; it needs to be preened with a little more loving this place could be clean so once again the beauty is seen.

Emily Maughan

I wrote this on one of our walks around Tremough campus. We were looking at everything in a different way. I was stunned by the amount of rubbish people drop. It did look strangely beautiful.

Rubbish Forgotten Beauty

Disused Forbidden

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Memories

are motionless, and the more securely they are fixed in space, the sounder they are. Knowledge of intimacy is more urgent than determination of dates.â&#x20AC;? Gaston Bachelard

Performance number 1- homework task Task-Find a hidden spot, a forgotten place. A spot that feels neglected, dulled and empty. Record your experience. Kimberley Park. 5/3/11 - Abandoned ladiesâ&#x20AC;&#x; toilets Kimberley Park is a beautiful park near my house, a place I often like to go to read, walk and feed the ducks. The gardens are well maintained and pleasing to the eye, full of colour. But there is a small path, slightly over grown where nobody seems to go. At the end of the path is a small building, it looks very sorry for itself. Once a ladies toilet, now it is forgotten, covered in graffiti and boarded up. Behind the building is lots of rubbish. There is an old sign; it crumbled into dust when I touched a part of it. I decided this was a perfect place for performance, to bring life back in to the space. The sun is shining, this building looks strangely beautiful, the paint is green, a vibrant green, peeling off drainpipes and doors. I decided to do a small performance; I really felt something for the place. It was such contrast to the rest of the park as it is kept so beautiful and tidy, and yet this building is hopeless and pitiful.

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My partner helped with the photos. First I sat on the step looking down at the ground. I then stood I looked up at the boarded window, reading the graffiti. I then climbed up on to the frame, and stayed as still as a statue for 5 minutes.

My aim was to make the building feel needed again, for me to acknowledge its existence. I discovered that three people had stopped at the top of the path and started to watch what we were doing. One of them took a photo as I was clinging onto the window frame. I loved that they watched me as now they too have noticed this abandoned space. They also have a photo. It was a good feeling as normally no one goes down the path to these toilets, nobody notices.

As we left the space, two more people went down the path they were intrigued to see what we had been doing…all that was left was a flower I had placed at the door of the toilets.

Note to self- come back to this space regularly. Note the changes. Ideas for performance- Paint the boarded window, have a projector showing days gone by.

Performance number 2- homework task Prince of Wales Pier This is a place people don‟t notice. They walk to the end of the pier, buy their ice-creams and take photos of the boats and the view. People don‟t venture down the steps to the corner I have chosen. Each day the tide comes in and out. There are certain times when the tide is too far in you can‟t even get to my corner. This is an exciting place for a performance, as each day the tide brings something new to look at, old bit of junk, glass, bottles top, a key, shells, plastic and other bits and bobs. I loved all the different colours, as you can see from the photo it looks very pretty. The amount of man-made rubbish on this tiny piece of shore was quite shocking. If there is this much rubbish in this little corner, imagine how much rubbish washes up on every shore. My boyfriend and I decided to do a short performance together. One performance was when the tide was out, the other when the tide was in.

TIDE OUT      

He walks down the steps He stands on a step, looking towards the small beach I stand facing the wall in the chosen corner. For 5 minutes I kneel and pick up tiny pieces of rubbish I walk across the beach a climb up the ladder We both repeat our movements for 20 minutes

TIDE IN      

He walks down the steps He sits on the bottom step and looks down at the sea I stand at the top of the steps looking at where the shore had been He walks back up the steps to me We stand both staring at the corner Turn and leave

„The Prince of Wales Pier‟ was interesting as we did get quite an audience who were curious as to what we were doing. It was strange as they were high up looking down on us. One man asked what we were doing and I explained, he thought it was really inspiring to try to bring life back into un-noticed places, and he said he wouldn‟t have thought of looking there if we hadn‟t done our repetition performance.

Note to self-This piece reminded me of a workshop we did with Dr Joanne ‘Bob’ Whalley. Using the phrases ‘she/he sits, she/he stands, she/he walks. Each time a performer moves they say what they are doing. For instance when I move to kneel I would say “she kneels.”

“What might it mean to re-orientate this imagination, to question that habit of thinking of space as a surface? If, instead, we conceive of a meeting-up of histories, what happens to our implicit imagination of time and space?” Doreen Massey

A task we were asked to perform during our journey of walking and spaces was some form of participation on the street. Here are my notes from my journal.

Participation in the street I often say hello to people. I am from a small village in North Cornwall where everyone says hello to each other. When I was young my friends and I used to play a game „How many people can you greet and get a smile or a hello back‟. So I went on a long walk and monitored the responses. The tourists love it when you say hello they always say hello back. Most elderly people smile and say hello, some look slightly confused. I don‟t know if this is because of the stereo typing that goes on between the old and the young. Where the old believe the young are bad and they say “we were not like that in my day.” The youth think that the old don‟t understand them; they seem to forget that being young does not last forever. I tend to find it is people my age, the youth, which scowl and look at the ground if you say hello. Some smile back of course. I have noticed also that young girls can be unpleasant to other girls, often they are in packs. They scowl with the „what are you looking at‟ expression. I wonder if this is insecurity or a dominance issue here. One thing I know is I would like to combat this. I love to make people smile; it gives me a wonderful buzz. I love to see someone‟s face burst into a grin. It makes the world a much nicer place. It also makes me feel happier and I like to think the person I smiled at is happier too. I wonder why these days, people find it hard to look at each other. Is it that they are shy? Reserved? Or just worried and preoccupied with the troubles of the day.

Note to self- make a conscious effort to smile at even more people. Say hello whenever you can. Note down your feelings. Make a performance using smiling, scowling and staring. (S.S.S)

Observation in the street This was a task we were set. Individually we were asked to take in our surroundings, to sit and watch the world go by. How people interact, what they are wearing, where they are going. Do they walk quickly or slowly? This task fascinated me as throughout our studies of site specific, stories are a great interest of mine. I wrote this short piece in my journal while sitting on a bench in Falmouth town. 

A man selling daffodils. I saw him sell five bunches in less than six minutes. It was impressive. He greeted each passer-by and smiled, I believe this is the secret to success. I felt inclined to buy a bunch.

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A child non -stop shouting, nobody seems to notice. The people with the child ignore him and carry on with their conversation. It seems when you are a small child your voice is not heard and what you are saying is not important. If an adult was screaming and shouting in this way I believe people would pay attention. If I ever have children I will not ignore them, I will listen, that way they won‟t need to shout to be heard.

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Busy little pier, the tourist cannot get enough of the salty air and ice creams. They trundle in large, meandering packs. Their pace is painfully slow, often they stop dead right in front of you with a chorus of „oooh and „ahhh‟ as they admire a pretty building. They are totally unaware they are blocking your path.

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The sun is shining today, people are always happier when the sun shines.

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By day this place is friendly. At night it can sometimes be uncomfortable. There is unnecessary screaming, drunken arguments which can go on until the early hours of the morning.

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Adults walk slowly. Often looking down, with a mind full of worries.

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Children run. They look around everywhere, full of wonder.

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I love to watch the world go by. Watch the people go by. I make up stories for them all.

Mike Pearson is a leading artist in site specific performance. We were lucky enough to have a lecture with him. I found his work inspiring; he has made site specific performance in all different shapes, sizes and styles. I was drawn to a particular piece called „Bubbling Tom‟ (Pearson, lecture: (26/4/2011) it is a delightful idea and appealed to me because of the story telling. He returned to the town where he grew up and chose ten places that meant a lot to him when he was a six year old boy.

“Over a period of two hours we visited ten locations... And I talked; I stood and sat here and there; I pointed to this that still survives, to that that has changed; I recalled dead friends; I revealed a few family secrets; I touched surfaces. And I showed things; demonstrated things; enacted things. And my accent gradually got thicker, and at times dialect popped out: „By she‟s slaape, duck. Put sneck ont doar.‟” Mike Pearson

I loved this concept. As a small child you remember things very differently to an adult. Some places where an adult would find no relevance or importance are sacred to a child. Pearson told us it was (Pearson, lecture 26/04/11) amazing as many locals came to his „Bubbling Tom‟ walk, he recognised many of them. They all knew him; many elders had watched him growing up and had known him all his life. Pearson would show them a place from his childhood and talk about it, but he found he got corrected constantly for „incorrect information‟, or that he had „remembered it wrong‟. As a child I find that happens, you see things and recall events differently. Quite often as you grow up, a memory you see vividly is actually a regurgitated story from someone else‟s past, but it merges with your own. So the truth and the fantasy begin to blur. It made me see how folklore and fairy tales could have begun, where fiction and fact become one. This reminded me once again of Quallman and her „chip fork‟ story. You can make a story or a history about anything, even if it‟s not the truth, the story can spread like wildfire and get retold and rewritten time and time again, each person adding a little more until nobody knows how it began. I have special places I can recall from my childhood, Pearson made think of some of them.

….The fallen down shed at the bottom of the garden where I claimed fairies lived. The old oak tree with a hiding place inside its weighty trunk, it was here my friends and I would leave snacks for the „woodland folk‟, each day we would go to check if it had been eaten. We were so excited as every time we went to look the food had gone! I now realise it was my mother who had moved it. I remember an old church that to me was a castle, with ghosts and stories. I recall the sweet shop with the fizzy fish, and a tubby little old lady who used to say “You can buy one hundred fizzy fish for a pound!” We used to guzzle them until we were sick. „Bubbling Tom‟ really hit a chord with me, I thought it was a beautiful idea and I would like to try something similar in my home town, it would be very interesting to see what has changed, who still lives there, who has died and if they remember things as I do. Or maybe they have different memories; I feel it would be an inspiring journey. Another piece by Pearson which inspired me was called „Car lands‟. It is three different hour long audio works. Set in a barren landscape, with nothing to see for miles and miles. He told us how you can make up stories and lies. You can tell someone anything if you have conviction in your tone. This made me think of our group performance, we had collected together snippets of history, stories of times gone by and started to combine all the bits and pieces together. We had lines of text from various sources that we felt suited our space. “The Host and the ghost” was a term Pearson used, which means to say you can inhabit a building- the building being „the host‟- for a while and make your show, your performance or your art, then when it is over you leave the building as you found it, making you „the ghost.‟ This is also what we will do with our space. We will work with it and alter some things. We will bring in alien objects, but, when our performance is over, we will leave and clear up as if we had never been there. We will be the ghosts and our beautiful garden will be the perfect host. Pearson gave me a lot to think about for our piece. He talked about how different outside work is compared with a studio. He used the word „cloistered‟ meaning secluded and hidden from the world. In studio you can control the effects. You can decide what happens and you can make an audience silent. Outside is a different story, you have no control of noise be it human or mechanical. The weather plays a huge part; you have to deal with its unpredictability. You have to think about where your audience will be. You never know what they might do, for instance if they are watching you in a garden, you have to be aware that there are many distractions to take their eye. My group all enjoy text as well as imagery and movement so it was great to listen to Pearson as many of his performances contain speeches, poems or whole scripts work such as „Haearn‟ (1994) and „Godothin (1988).

Forced Entertainments love to merge fact and fiction, and they use wonderful text and take you on amazing adventures. I often start my performance ideas by thinking, „What would Forced Entertainment do in this space?‟ Below is a quote by Tim Etchell from the book „Certain Fragments.‟ which I particularly like. It talks about fabricating the truth and making up stories. Forced Entertainment write beautiful text.

„Nights in this city‟ (1995) was a guided tour of the city with its audience and performers on board a bus- a guided tour which avoided facts in search of a different truth. Slipping through the centre of the city and out of control- off the beaten path, playing always to the different histories written in urban space- the official historical, the personal, the mythical and the imaginary. This must‟ve been the first guided tour in Sheffield which began with the words, „Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Paris….‟ Come to think of it this was probably the first guided tour of Sheffield full stop.” Tim Etchells

My group and I went to many different sites around our campus. It is rich with history. There is often archaeological digs going on. There is a copy of all the things they have found in a book at the library.( Tremough‟s Archaeological and Historical Assessment) Dating back to times such as the Bronze Age, small villages have been found, pots and pans and other artefacts. Tremough has belonged to many different families with its beautiful mansion house and stunning gardens. There was once a deer park on the extensive grounds. Our campus was a school for Gentlemen and a convent. The walled Victorian garden is maintained beautifully. There is a Rhododendron bush that is the only of its kind. Several graves lie around the campus, an old rector, a benefactor, memorials of mariners and plaques for old students. So you see this land is brimming with histories, with stories. There are forgotten people, forgotten memories. But the ground, the trees, the walls they contain it, they hold it, for us to find. Some spaces made me sad, others uncomfortable. The space I kept coming back to again and again was the beautiful garden from my first short performance. I found the history here overwhelming. I felt the need to find out more, to study this space.

Ellie, Jenny, Alisa and I all had very similar interests in this space so it was natural we worked together. We were very excited as all our thoughts and ideas seemed to connect.

A list of ideas we had straight away was as follows.

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The Secret Garden - the plaque „WEED‟ was a secret to us. We wanted to know why it was there. Who was it for? There is a robin in our space who lives there all the time and a gardener who feeds him every day. The robin was the guardian of the garden in „The Secret Garden‟ by Frances Hodgson Burnett, also in the book is a gardener who feeds the robin! A SEED can be planted in somebody‟s mind and it can grow, either good or bad, just as a flower or a WEED can do the same. We wanted to use SEEDS in our performance. We wanted to use them to show a bad thought, a disease. We found text in „The Secret Garden‟ about a SEED of thought. „Alice in Wonderland‟ was mentioned by all of us, because of the tapered, strange shaped bushes. I love a poem by Henry Scott-Holland called „In the Next Room‟. I was quite overwhelmed with the feeling of history and I felt it the perfect poem. It connected so well with our ideas. This was the first piece of text we felt was right for our garden and the story we wanted to tell. It suited the space. Ellie liked the idea of The Butterfly Effect (Chaos Theory). This has always fascinated me also, the thought that a butterfly flapping it wings on one side of the world could create a hurricane in another side of the world. Similarly, if the butterfly stopped flapping its wings it could cease a hurricane on the other side of the world. I love this idea, I find it very beautiful. Alisa mentioned a film called „Drawing by Numbers‟ is a film by Peter Greenaway, it is like a fairytale. Throughout the film, the numbers are shown (from one to onehundred) sometimes the numbers are spoken, for example it has a young girl skipping and at the same time as this she counts the stars. She wears a long white Victorian style dress, the same as the young girl in the Secret Garden book. We had an idea of l Victorian night dresses in our performance also as much of the gardens and buildings at Tremough are Victorian.

Some words I thought of just sitting in the garden were:

Struggle, fairy-tales loss, flowing Memory, Repetition, stories Tranquil, mossy, music, hope walking, healing, soothing, quiet, birds, forgotten, Empty, full, Victorian, Love, names, seeds, graves, flowers, history, soil, secrets broken, intense, light, thoughts, alive, melancholy,

tears,

shaking,

sky, souls, spirits, beauty, silence, synchronicity, slow, calm,joy, captured, joined, forever, vast, breeze, love, green, water, shimmer, make-believe, lost,

flowing, endless,

vast, stopping, rebirth.

These words may inspire our performance. I wrote this poem while sitting on the small stone bench in our chosen space. I wanted to find out information on the „WEED‟ plaque. I was intrigued as to who or what this was for. I asked my friend who is a librarian at Tremough for help, she advised me to speak to the head gardener David Garwood and also John Cameron who works at Tremough. They informed me that „WEED‟ was short for Geneviève Shone she was in her early thirties; she had helped immensely with getting funding for Tremough University. She was very popular and kind. Sadly she died of breast cancer. The plaque and a bench have been placed in the garden in memory of her as it was one of her favourite places at the university. The garden is known by many as „Robin‟s Garden‟ as a small robin, tame enough to feed, is resident there. Flowers were planted all around the plaque for Geneviève. I like to think that the little robin is her spirit in some way.

A poem for our space; our Secret Garden In memory of GeneviĂ¨ve Shone (Weed)

Clouds speckle the sky. Bright colours of flowers reflect in my eyes. Body is longing but for what Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not sure. Sun bursts through and warms my skin; I am resting here with you. Time slips by but you are not forgotten, you are the forever, you go on when others fail to do so. I feel a need for speech but no speech comes, I feel a need to cry but no tears appear.

So I sit and I stare, I sit and I stare.

It is silent but for the birds, they sing songs that I do not know, I could not sing along no matter how hard I try, it is too beautiful to mimic or replicate. I sit and wait, I sit and I wait.

Do you notice when I come here, quietly and on my own? What did you contemplate in this space, your favourite place? The blossoms on the trees are awakening, they should not be touched or picked or they will fail to shine and sparkle.

I do not know names but I remember faces, I do not know names but I remember faces.

I should leave now, my eyes feel tired, I could write for a hundred days about the peace about this grace. I could sit for a hundred years and not feel old and still feel this place.

The robin with his gentle call, does he know I am here at all.

Scratch Performance Score (2 minutes long) Jenny – The Robin Ellie – Mary 1 Emily – Colin Alisa – Mary 2           

Jenny leads audience up the steps and into the garden. I am crawling up a steep bank and am unable to use my legs, so pull myself along with only my arms. Alisa is skipping. Ellie is closely inspecting her hands whilst singing „Mary, Mary‟ nursery rhyme. Alisa stops skipping. Ellie and Alisa begin to mirror each other. I reach the top of slope and shout “ Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?” x2 (from „In the next room poem) Jenny sees me, comes towards me, she puts her hands on my legs and I am able to walk. Jenny holds onto me until I am steady enough to walk alone. I reach the tree. Alisa and Ellie fall down.

 They say a line from Secret Garden “How still it is, how still” We had positive feedback from this performance. Our main issue was we were not using enough of the space, so this was something to focus on. The performance and space works for our audience in the garden as they can sit where they like and we work around them. Afterwards we sat in the garden. I suggested that we should forget what we had already done, and feel the garden again. So we individually walked around, inspecting every inch. Within a very short time the ideas flooded in. We work together well as a group; I think a strong point we found was that we really listened to the site and to each other. If one of us had an idea, we would always try it out even if we were not sure of it. Often from an idea that didn‟t work something else would come from it. The garden offered us so many possibilities, it is rich and alive and full of stories. We felt the site really was helping us; we had bonded so well as a group and looked forward to each day with each other in our garden. Our story just seemed to get deeper and deeper, I felt a little like Alice falling down the rabbit hole………….

In The Next Room Canon Henry Scott-Holland, 1847-1918, Canon of St Paul's Cathedral Death is nothing at all I have only slipped away into the next room I am I and you are you Whatever we were to each other That we are still Call me by my old familiar name Speak to me in the easy way you always used Put no difference into your tone Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow Laugh as we always laughed At the little jokes we always enjoyed together Play, smile, think of me, pray for me Let my name be ever the household word that it always was Let it be spoken without effort Without the ghost of a shadow in it Life means all that it ever meant It is the same as it ever was There is absolute unbroken continuity What is death but a negligible accident? Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?

I am waiting for you for an interval somewhere very near Just around the corner All is well. Nothing is past; nothing is lost One brief moment and all will be as it was before How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again.

„In the Next Room‟ inspired our first „scratch‟ performance. We focussed on two lines from the poem. We felt the words seemed to suit Geneviève, as we had been told how lovely and full of life she was. The poem explains that just because someone is dead, it does not mean they are no longer there. They are with you in spirit. It encourages you to continue to speak to others about the deceased; in doing this you are keeping their name alive. This is a poem close to my heart as it was read at the funeral of someone very dear to me. I think it is beautiful; it is a poem to bring hope and to help the ones who are left behind. It tries to stop you from feeling sad and to remember the person as they were and all the happy times you had. I read it to my group in our space, we all felt emotional as we heard the words, and we knew it was right. We stood in her garden next to her plaque; it was there so she was not forgotten, so she still would be a household name. We would tell our interpretation of her story, to help keep her name alive. We took the small bits of information we had gathered, and then began making our own story, fabricating the truth. We were creating our very own fairy tale. Many people in our group wanted to know about „WEED‟ and my group had managed to find out her name, her age and her personality, so we were excited to have this secret and that after the performance we could share it with whoever wanted to know. Thus meaning Geneviève Shone‟s name will go on, she won‟t be forgotten.

Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?

‘WEED’

Performance

As a group we generated a story, based around the plague „WEED.‟ We were keen on the idea of memories. There was no clear leader and we all had a hand at directing. I found our group inspiring as we all shared the same vision and each one of us had key ideas in the actual performance. The essence is that Ellie, Jenny and I present different interpretations of Geneviève. Ellie plays the role of the „healthy‟ one, I play the role of her spirit, and Jenny plays the role of the „ailing‟ one. Alisa is someone who loved Geneviève who returns to the garden time and again as it was Geneviève‟s favourite place. When Alisa enters the garden she is reliving her memories. The text at the beginning is repeated at the end of the performance. Alisa remembers her lover saying the words to her before she was ill. I lead the audience up the stairs into the space. There is a handful of SEEDS on each step. Once the audience are in the space, they see Ellie on a ladder. I am up a tree. Jenny sits on the bench. We are part of the garden. As Alisa enters we become alive, we are her memories. At the end of the performance, Ellie, Jenny and I are on the floor. When Alisa leaves the space, we rise and return to our starting positions. I love the repetition in this piece. We felt this was important as we were part of the garden and the garden was a part of us. History keeps repeating. We wanted to show the ghosts of what has been. The memories would hang in the branches of the trees and in the footsteps on the ground. The sounds in the garden are very important in this piece, the breeze, the birds and the stillness. The SEED plays a very important role in the piece; it is found in an old wheelbarrow full of water. The SEED represents the disease, which takes over Geneviève and causes her death. Ellie feeds the SEED to Jenny. I hand Jenny the skipping rope. She begins to skip frantically. This represents the SEED illness taking hold of her. The audience watch as she exhausts herself. She produces a heart from inside her dress to represent that the disease has fully developed and has taken over her body. Jenny gives Alisa the heart and she hurls it to the ground. Alisa didn‟t care Jenny was ill and still loved her unconditionally. As the heart hits the ground, both Ellie and I collapse, we were just memories. The lovers waltz one last time, but Jenny is dead. The text is from the last chapter of „The Secret Garden‟. It has fantastic words, musing over how powerful thoughts are, and if you permit a bad thought into your mind it can be very dangerous. The music used during the waltz is also most appropriate, „My Body is a Cage‟ by Peter Gabriel. Like a disease, you are ensnared in your own body as it spreads out of control. “My body is a cage that keeps me From dancing with the one I love But my mind holds the key Though the fear keeps me moving Still my heart beats so slow I'm living in an age That screams my name at night But when I get to the doorway There's no one in sight.

I wait at the top of the SEED covered steps I walk down steps to collect audience Alisa waits as audience approaches I lead them into the garden

Silence in the garden. The audience can see Ellie on the step ladder, I am in a tree and Jenny seated on the bench, next to the „WEED‟ plaque. We stay quiet for a long time, until Ellie breaks the silence with text from the last chapter of „The secret garden‟. Ellie: Thoughts Emily: Just mere thoughts Ellie: As powerful as electric batteries, as good for one as sunlight is (thoughts) Emily: Or as bad for one as poison, to let a sad thought, or a bad one get into your mind is as dangerous as letting a scarlet fever germ into your body. Together: Thoughts. Thoughts. Alisa approaches Jenny and sits next to her.

Meanwhile I am lost in the â&#x20AC;&#x17E;Alice in Wonderlandâ&#x20AC;&#x; style hedges.

Ellie retrieves the SEED from the water in the wheel barrow.

I pick up the skipping rope from the tree.

Jenny is fed the SEED and given the skipping rope.

Ellie and I wait for Alisa to return.

Jenny skips frantically. The audience see her become very ill; she is out of breath and rests by the ladder. She is dying.

The music â&#x20AC;&#x17E;My Body is a Cageâ&#x20AC;&#x; by Peter Gabriel begins as Ellie and I waltz with Alisa. There is good movement and use of stillness.

Ellie and I perform a short movement piece, hands to the sky the reach for our hearts.

Alisa approaches Jenny who has produced her heart (the disease) which she gives to Alisa, Alisa throws it on the floor, Ellie and I collapse. We are dead, as we were just memories in Alisa‟s mind.

Alisa dances her last dance with Jenny. Jenny is already dead as they dance.

Jenny is laid on the floor. Alisa puts a flower on the grave. She then stands by the ladder and repeats the verse Ellie and I had spoken at the very beginning.

She leaves the garden. Jenny, Ellie and I all get up and go back to our starting positions.

Alisa: “Thoughts, just mere thoughts, as

powerful as electric batteries, as good for one as sunlight is, or as bad for one as poison. To let a sad thought or a bad one into your mind is as dangerous as letting a scarlet fever germ into your body.”

Reflection on performance Our feedback from our performance was very positive. I believe the weather played a big part, it was sunny with clouds, so produced amazing shadows and almost angelic light when the sun broke through. Although it would have worked in any weather conditions I do believe it worked best with the sun. I was pleased with the way we used the space. We wanted to utilise all the different parts. We experimented with stillness. When there was action in one part of the garden there would be a performer who was totally still. We concentrated hard with giving and taking focus. We spent a great deal of time in the garden, listening to the sounds. The bird song played a big part. At the start of the performance Ellie and I did not speak for some time. We listened to the sounds of the garden, so did the audience. I feel this worked well as they were „in the zone‟ and captivated from the start; this was what we had hoped. Although there were four members in the group it felt like the garden was the fifth member. One thing we had been careful to do from the start was to let the garden help us tell the story. It gave us everything we needed; an ideal site for our performance. We spent a great deal of time thinking about the audience and how they would view it. We decided once they had been led in to the space they could sit where they pleased. This worked well as many people had different experiences and views dependant on where they stood. Some of audience members were very close when we performed. The feed-back was good on this point and they felt very involved. We had comments from several people about how we made the most of the space and what an improvement it was from our scratch performance. Some felt emotional and were very moved by the piece. One said “It was like beauty, darkness and beauty once again before your very eyes.” I think the performance had beautiful and serene quality. It was gentle and delicate. The white dresses added to this, two of the dresses are original Victorian, they had a ghostly feel. They also benefited from the sun light and the green shades of the garden. Our piece was totally site specific; it could not have been done in any other garden, as each movement and position was carefully thought out to fit with the shape of the garden. The main reason it was site specific was obviously as the performance based around Geneviève Shone. We decided to honour her by telling our interpretation of her story. I was so pleased with our group collaboration, we worked together as one. Each of us was nominated with different materials to bring in and parts to focus on. We made friends with the gardeners and technical team who helped us greatly. This will help with future performances. The head

gardener, David Garwood and the librarian who helped us with information on the history of the garden actually came to our performance. We were very touched by this. I have learnt so much during this module. I feel I have grown as a person; my mind has been opened to a different way of thinking. I believe spending time in the garden and the great outdoors contributed to the flood of ideas for the performance. I will feel differently next time I work in a studio and may have to go outside to find my inspiration! I would like to do more site work. It is challenging and rich in history and stories. You have to consider so much; weather, noises, lighting and changes to the site. Also the reasons for choosing the site are important. I have learnt much in „the doing.‟ At the beginning of this module, I was dubious and I didn‟t understand all the walking around and asking “What does the site say to me?” I found it difficult to focus but over time my view has changed. With help from the artists I have researched, our chosen site and my group I can see what site specific work is all about. I had a definite connection with the site. I know that when I have a block, be it in performance or writing I will get up from where I am sat and take inspiration from my surroundings, I will look at things in a different way. I will always ask questions. What is the history of this space? What does it say to me? How can I make a performance here? And importantly why have I chosen this space? I find now when I am walking along I see performance everywhere, my brain will not switch off, it bursts with ideas. I am on a journey and I never want it to end.

“Thus it seems that at the moment when the story reaches its conclusion that it is as cold as a police record, it has lost nothing of it oneiric richness. The imagination can never say: was that all, for there is always more than meets the eye. And as I have said several times, an image that issues from the imagination is not subject to verification by reality.” Gaston Bachelard

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