Ritual performance to Conan

Today was a nerve racking day to the whole group, as today was the day we presented our ideas and site work/research to Conan (Module Leader). Being short on members within our group we felt a little under pressure. However upon reflection with informing our ideas I was pleased that Conan with Rachel included like the idea of a misguided tour with rituals connected to the history of the potters that worked on the uphill section of Lincoln dating back to 14th Century.

As a suggestion by Conan is to make the most of the open space that the ‘Secret’ Garden has to offer with the connection of rituals idea. One thing that has always stood out for me was the open fire place within the garden, back in the beginning  of this module I thought it would make a brilliant puppet theatre. However today Georgia & I agreed with Rachel & Conan that it makes a better connection to the original kilns that would of been used by the potters.

One thing that didn’t work out well with the connection to the misguided tour was the walk up to St Anne’s Well located behind the cathedral. If the well wasn’t locked up it would of made a perfect link as the water supply for the Potters clay to keep it moist and wet.  Also basing our performance around P.Pinkering would make the misguide more of a drama performance than site specific.

Think now we have a strong idea with site, more research and testing (playing around is needed) next week within the garden.

Till next time

 

Bye

Devil in a well?

These are my notes, thoughts and reflections from today.

Today, we actually managed to try out our ideas and actually put them into practice. We started at Pottergate.

Here we started by inviting our audience/participants to start by finding a slap on the floor and in chalk writing a wish or a memory of any kind. Look at it for a minute then wash it away. – We did this because after spending time within Pottergate we found many names and messages inscribed into the wall from many different dates. Also Pottergate when it was built was used as an entrance to get in to the city. There was a communications portal in the bottom for people on the ground and the people in the building could communicate to each other. People had to give a reason why they wanted to come through. After further research we found that a group or Monks called ‘Sand mandala monks’ made patterns meaning the circle of life and they would then wash them away to cleanse the mind and soul. This is what further inspired us to wash the participants memory or wish away so that they could cleanse their mind of it. We then asked that they step out of the arch looking up to the sky for 10 seconds. Then close their eyes, thinking of a bad memory and asking them to concentrate on that memory. Then we asked them to open their eyes. This made them try cleanse their mind of also a bad memory. We had different reactions one of which made one of our participants cry. This is very important to think about as we do wish people to see this as a performance and a mythical adventure and not a self help pilgrimage.

We then walked toward Saint Anne’s Well, where it is said that a devil lives inside. Legend has it that if a person walks around the well seven times, goes up to the door putting their finger in one of the holes in the door, they would be rewarded with feeling the devils breath meaning they would be going to heaven or if they were a bad person they would be going to hell and this would be shown to them by having part of their finger being bitten into. Again, we want this to be fun and not taken really seriously as Rachel advised that again this could be like self help, but we also wanted to make it link in with what we have just done and make it have a purpose. So when I arrived home I was thinking about this and to tie in with Folk tales and myths, so I came up with a little poem that could perhaps be read out before they do the tasks as a little introduction to why we brought them here.
This is only a rough draft of the poem for now and I need to develop it a bit more but this is what I’ve got so far:

“There once was a Devil in a well,
He decided if you were going to Heaven or to Hell.
You had to walk around in a ring,
And put your finger in.
For that naughty little Devil in the well!

P. Pinkering did think it,
This silly little trisket.
That it was rewarding for landscape,
to create such a silly myth.

You may feel the nibble of the Devil’s teeth,
Or you could be overcome by slight relief.
But by now you may have guessed,
That this is all really made in jest.
And is all in the name of fun.

So come on P. Pinkering’s mythical journey.
We invite you to take this task,
There really is no reason to ask.
He made it all up, we are going to give it a go.
Now come on lets get on with this show.”

Don’t worry be happy :)

SAM_1327

 

 

 

 

Hi everyone!

Haven’t blogged in a while and I think it’s about time I did. So since the Blog I posted last, I’ve been a busy bee with my group (Georgia, Beth & Luke). We have started to explore some of our new ideas and theories as well as learning more about local folk tales and legends associated with uphill lincoln especially with Pottergate as well as the secret garden.

Some of the sessions we have explored uphill have developed our readings further by physically doing some of the tasks, tours & movements that have come from many of the weekly set readings. One I enjoyed was a set list of tasks that was given to everyone as a group by Rachel to do three things that would affect the space without physically damaging private & public property. Finally I can say i’ve performed as a tree in Lincoln, something that people think drama students do in their degree for three years.
The picture I’ve attached on to this post was taken a couple of weeks ago as part of the set tasks given to us by Rachel. With this quote I feel it was the right thing to put up as the day we wrote the quotes it was pouring down with rain. In all fairness our quote paper wasn’t respected or appreciated as much as we would like. An elderly lady thought we were littering the bushes and trees with paper, I think if she had asked why were we doing this project  I feel we could of brighten her day saying we were creating performance art for all to enjoy.
For now i’m going to look up who owns Pottersgate to see if we can explore the room/s inside the archway gate.
Thanks