As a group we have found this module quite challenging. Our first idea, was to use the Arboretum’s link with WW2 to create a story following the lives of a couple and their family but, after visiting our site with Karen we realised we were going in the wrong direction as Karen explained to us. So, after discussing new ideas with some input from Karen we decided to try a different approach which almost divided the group. One idea was the idea of time, taken from the WW2 original idea, and simply focusing on the emotion behind the goodbye of war. This, I felt personally, did not fully connect to the site as much as I wanted our piece to; I felt you could simply put this idea into any site that had a history of War so I decided to dive deeper into research about the Arboretum and WW2 again. This time I managed to find a 1981 census for the Cold Bath House (It’s About Lincoln, 2013) and a retell of events from a man that had been in the area the time the Cold Bath House had been bombed (BBC,2005). Through finding this information, I had the idea of placing each of the people on the census around the Arboretum and have the audience walk around listening to each of the stories and memories that we had created for each.
On Tuesday’s lesson (17th March) with only three members of our group, I explained what I had researched and we decided to find some research to possibly link in with the stories of the people who had lived in the Cold Bath House. On the Wednesday (18th March) we decided to meet as a group to discuss Audacity and the backing track needed for the piece, after this me and Lee went to the Mac suite to use audacity and completed the track.
On the Friday’s lesson (20th March) we had problems as a group deciding which idea we felt was stronger, questioning whether it was easier to split into two different groups. Deciding we were stronger as one group we merged the two ideas together, and found our final idea. As a group, on the Tuesday’s lesson (24th March) we had planned to record what voice pieces we could but with all the voice recorders out we were stuck, instead we wrote all the lines and monologues we needed for the whole piece and planned to meet up Friday to record these and edit them in audacity which we did on the 27th.
We wanted our piece to come around full circle and make the audience feel like they had traveled a journey, to do this, we are starting and ending the piece with the same quote making the piece more cyclical. The time throughout the piece will be the present, with the performers simply giving the audience a starting point to imagine what it would have been like; the performers will not pretend to be the character only resemble them. The pieces we have recorded are in first person so the audience will be listening to the character’s as though they were alive and in front of them. As well as having verbal directions through the earphones, some performers will be guiding the audience through parts of the Arboretum. We wanted to work with the sites natural rhythm so as the audience are guided through the park, on the backing track we included every sound they would pass.
Works Cited:
It’s About Lincoln, 2013 Lincoln’s Smallest Parish [blog entry] 17 October. Lincoln. Available from https://itsaboutlincoln.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/lincolns-smallest-parish/ [Accessed 16 March 2015]
BBC(2005) WW2 People’s War [online] London:BBC Available from www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/10/a7503310.shtml [Accessed on 16 March 2015]