My research explores techniques and activities to be used in the rehearsals and performances held throughout the semester. Thus far Plato’s Allegory of the Cave has served as a foundation for the project bringing to light themes such as conformity, social norms and self-awareness. In Plato’s work the prisoners believe that the shadows cast on the cave’s wall compose reality, though they do not. Similarly, a persons’ socially constructed identity, is not truly who they are: or is it if that is all they can see? I am working to create performances that inspire self reflection in the audience members and that demonstrate perhaps Plato’s allegory, in many senses, is still present in society today.
Originally, I focused on the light and dark dichotomy that appears in Plato’s Republic Book VII. In my first plan, I hoped to use shadows to visually display the constructed reality we face in our daily lives.
As the project evolved, I moved away from strictly using the idea of light and dark represented by shadows. Instead, I shifted towards the reality behind the metaphor: knowledge and awareness as compared to ignorance.
This enabled me to make the connections to communication theory much more present in my performances. While light and dark was resulting in many dynamic visual performance choices, changing my focus let me explore more conceptual avenues of performance. I took the theme of awareness and applied it to communication and performance by asking questions such as: when are we performing? when are we communicating? when do we realize and reflect on these actions? what is the effect of this in society? Having thoroughly pondered and researched these questions, I have just begun to form my own answers to them. By holding two performances outside of the traditional theater setting, I hope to invoke others to also reflect on their perspectives of the reality of performance and communication in our daily lives. I’ll leave you with one last question: why do we seem to box up performance in a theater and what happens when it breaks out? |