During our research we discovered a clear link between our two areas; Lucy Tower.
Lucy Tower at the Castle - Uphill
The uphill Lucy Tower is in the Castle grounds however, the Lucy Tower downhill, is now a multi-storey car park on Brayford Wharf.
Lucy Tower Car Park - Downhill
According to the Royal Archaeological Institute, ‘the name Lucy Tower was formerly attached to the keep of Lincoln Castle… It has been transferred to a small round tower which formed the termination of the city wall at the south-west angle, next to Brayford-water’ (1850, p.288). It is also said that, at this Lucy Tower, there was subterraneous passage through which ‘a communication is traditionally said to have been formed with the castle’ (Allen, 1834, p.198).
Our research provided us with a clear link between the two sites, so, as long as our performances relate to Lucy Tower, they will be site specific.
Word Count: 139
February 13, 2012
by Kate Dawson Comments Off on Facing the public!
We have decided to film our final performances because they take place in two locations at different times. We will also film interviews with the public about Lincoln’s division and edit that into our final film, which will work as research to inspire our performance. This research method is also used by the Chicago-based Community Performance, Inc. According to George Hillow, ‘since 1991, Artistic Director Richard Geer has been going into communities across America and helping individuals find their own unique theatrical voices by interviewing them and compiling their stories into scripts’ (Stage Directions, 2002).
Also today, the class did a small flash mob exercise on Lincoln High Street so we could get a feel for performing in a public place, which was very useful.
Word Count:125
February 11, 2012
by Kate Dawson Comments Off on Initial Ideas and Development.
Our main idea is to act out a tea party scene in 2 different locations, to emphasise the social differences between each location. The first will be downhill on the High Street and the second will be uphill by the Cathedral/Castle. Each tea party will be altered slightly, in keeping with the social class our group expect to see in that location.
However, to emphasise the historical aspect of this performance we will reverse the typical social classes of each area, by having a historical tea party downhill and a modern tea party uphill with character and costume changes to reflect the social classes.
Hopefully, this idea will make the audience really take in what is around them, rather than letting it pass them by. They will not have looked at Lincoln in this way before. Just as Pearson says: ‘… recent practices have rendered familiar places unfamiliar or taken unfamiliar locations to the audience (2010, p.40).
Downhill
Uphill
Word Count: 157
February 8, 2012
by Kate Dawson Comments Off on Research, research, research!
Research is essential when creating a site specific performance, ‘…a large part of the work has to do with researching a place, often an unusual one that is imbued with history or permeated with atmosphere’ (Pavis, 1998, p.337-8). If you know nothing about the site, you cannot possibly tailor your production to fit.
For inspiration, I researched different site specific performances and discovered this interesting film, created by the Classical Theatre of Harlem, of a historical site specific performance.
‘On August 21, 1831, Nat Turner led a slave rebellion that became a watershed event in America’s long and troubled history of slavery and racial conflict. EMANCIPATION is a thoughtful, powerful and visceral examination of this pivotal moment in American society. This site-specific performance was held at The Shabazz Center, in the historic Audubon Ballroom – the site of the assassination of Malcolm X’ (Classical Theatre of Harlem, 2008).
I found this film fascinating because, although we could never recreate such powerful themes, the idea of creating a production based on true events would give our performance meaning.
Lincoln Cathedral and Castle
We discovered that even as late as the 1800’s, Lincoln was ‘divided into two parts, known by the appellation of Above-hill and Below-hill… The former part is the general residence of the gentry and clergy; while the latter is mostly inhabited by merchants and tradespeople’ (Stark, 1810, p.279). This is interesting because we think there is still a divide in place between the uphill and downhill, in terms of architecture, housing and social differences.
Lincoln
Our aim now is to produce a performance, which highlights the division between the uphill and downhill areas of Lincoln.
Word Count: 272
February 2, 2012
by Kate Dawson Comments Off on Discovering Lincoln
Today we took on a tour around Lincoln, to see if we could find our site specific performance space. We explored areas we had not visited before, by following members of the public around the city.
These pictures show the route we took around Lincoln and how we discovered locations, which we were not previously aware of.
