For some reason this week half of the class didn't show up. Were people tired from the demanding night before? If so, it was probably in their best interest that they didn't attend this session because they would have been completely drained.
The class spit into two: the singers of Anna B's song rehearsed in E100 while the rest of the class stayed in E111 to discuss the Piaf piece. I am still quite unsure about this segment and I was eager to hear feedback to improve it, so I read out a rough description of what I envisioned the 'opening' could be like. I am reasonably happy with the first half of my treatment, but I think that the second half is weak and I was interested on developing that part and creating a denouement for this section. People seemed enthused about what I had written, and equally enthused about the other ideas which Anna and I had been presenting and Myf raised an interesting perspective which I think could be a focus- the Piaf segment is an entry into hell. I always had this sort of thing in the back of my mind whilst thinking about the Piaf section, but the words which described it for me were; "seedy", "warped", "freak show", "rock-bottom" but "hell" is the perfect term. I appreciated this suggestion and thought that this could be our focus.
Some other students offered some quality ideas, but after a short period of discussions, I was beginning to feel like too many miscellaneous ideas were being poured into the mix. I don't know why, but a great deal of the ideas which some students suggest leave a very thick trail of sentiment behind it- maybe I'm too pragmatic or cold towards my work, but this is definitely a trait which I have detected, especially recently. Furthermore, when a large group of people try to collaborate on something, the work seems to follow a familiar path in terms of theatrical devices and predictable structure. Some examples of this are: the 'louder Louder LOUder LOUDer LOUDEr LOUDER LOUDER *silence*' technique employed to create tension or suspense. Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt and then returned it because the colours washed out too quickly.
Also, I don't want to play the accordion during the piece for two reasons: the first is that it's hard for me to build a powerful stage persona if I'm lugging around a huge instrument across the stage. The second is that I basically sound dreadful playing it. I'm considering that we need to do something radical with the accordion (because it's a bit of a Parisian cliche)synthesising it, or perhaps we get all LFO on it's arse!
Anna and I will get in a room and put our heads together and try our very hardest to improve this Piaf piece. We'll focus on Myf's "hell" idea, and develop a segment with dynamism, tension, horror but is ultimately uplifting or at least offers a resolution.
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J+M+W+08
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