On the 19th May 2015, after four months of actual blood, sweat and tears (no exaggeration) JumpCut presented Username at the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre!

When developing our show, we intended for our performance to be humorous and jump cutting to a serious subject, however we never imagined the reaction we had on the night. The reactions we received were shocking, overwhelming and emotional. I did not expect such wonderful and kind comments! My personal favorite:

From Andy Jordan:

It has been such a pleasure working with three amazingly talented and determined artists. As the director, seeing the creation on the night was very overwhelming and a hugely proud moment and even better than I imagined. As a close team, we collaborated our ideas together and created a piece of theatre that we were all truly proud of.  I honestly believe that all our hard work and hours of time and effort was worth it and that Username reflected the JumpCut style and delivered a mixture of humor and a serious, shocking emotional piece of theatre. The development Username has come a long way since initial ideas.

I could not be happier with how the show was delivered on the night. Throughout rehearsing I always encouraged my fellow actors to give as much energy as possible however after the technical rehearsal, Michael Pinchbeck mentioned to up the energy even more, and I feel we did exactly that! When the show finished were all exhausted, sweaty and completely out of breath! The clothes were off the rails physically and we were too!  If JumpCut decided to develop the piece I would definitely consider incorporating more audience interaction through technological devices, for example social media and phones, also possibly even more destruction for example, breaking our phones and ripping up our clothes. Overall I have found that the position of director challenging, rewarding but most importantly, fun!

We obsessed, we took too many selfies, we contorted our body until it was painful, we got sweaty, out of breath and covered ourselves in make-up, we officially went too far and hit destruction!

Chloe-Ann Gudge- Director.

Works Cited:

Chase, R., Gudge, C., Hartley, S. and Haynes, H. (2015) Username. Lincoln.

Gudge, C. (2015) Username. Lincoln.

Jordan, A. (2015) Drama Subject Site (DRA-SUBJECT): Username. [email] University of Lincoln, 22 May.

I have come to understand that to create good theatre you need to be aware of the type of theatre interests and entertains you; therefore you must allow other theatre companies to inspire your work. Additionally, as a director, I knew I had a lot to learn, and therefore this journey has enabled me to formulate rehearsals, scenes and most importantly a performance with a message. Developing from our previous rehearsals about status’ we realised as a company we wanted to create a piece of theatre that would make the audience walk away from the stage with a message. I envisioned being; ‘how far does one person go to become the ‘perfect’ identity before destruction takes over?’ A discussion we had very early on was the amount of selfies we take before uploading just one to social media and how long it takes to edit the chosen photo. Many filters and editing later, the photo gets uploaded seeking likes and comments from our online ‘friends’ and ‘followers’ which is a very altered and unrealistic representation of the offline identity behind it.

One of the very first inspirations we loved was YouTube tutorials or ‘how to’ videos which help and assist individuals to do hair and make-up routines. One in particular was a make-up tutorial about how to contour the face.  ‘Contouring creates shadows to the areas where you apply it to make your features appear smaller and more defined’ (Gudge, C, Username, 2015 p. 5)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dLSy75M46o

Contouring has become more popular and through these makeup tutorials, and through the Kardashians who are idols to many young people. We chose this tutorial and used it out ourselves and began to notice the change in our faces. The contour and highlighting gave the illusion of a slimmer nose, defined cheekbones, and a smaller face. This experiment lead to the topic of the ‘perfect selfie’, we discussed that the makeup tutorials enhance and better an online identity, therefore ‘selfies’, editing, and angles were all elements we agreed need to be in Username to create the ‘perfect’ online identity.

As we collectively were the writers of Username it was our responsibility to make our message clear to anyone who was coming to watch our performance. It had to connect with all generations and the society we live in today. There were many ideas that we wanted to include in our show such as the ‘Kylie Jenner lip challenge’ this topic would have suited our performance, due to it being about how to plump the lips with a bottle or glass, which in some cases have destroyed people’s lips. The daily mail described it as ‘disastrous and painful for many who tried’ (Siebert, 2015)

However due to a social outrage we decided against including a physical representation of the lip challenge in our show because of the dangers and because that particular topic may have not been as recognised by an older generation. Therefore, instead we decided just to mention it within our first voice over as one of the newest craze; ‘from thigh gaps to plum lips, new trends become more extreme and dangerous’ (Gudge, C. 2015, p.1)

(Developing ‘contouring scene’)

Another inspiration was Jena Kingsley, a comedian who conducted a social experiment about social media. ‘Social networking is completely out of control these days. But do the things we do online make sense in real life?’ (Kingsley, J, 2015) Kingsley experiments with social media slang such as, checking in, liking and commenting, and uses the language into reality to see the public’s reaction.

This social media experiment shocked, humored and confused  the locals, even though this language is used daily by many, it is used behind the protection of their online identity, it is used in reality. I was really inspired by this experiment and wanted to bring social media to life in Username by the controller (Stacey) addressing the actors by their social media names which would suite the online influences in our performance. For example, we are going to take names from Twitter such as, @chloegudge1, which will be read as ‘at chloe gudge one’. This will hopefully highlight the social media element to the audience but also show a comedic side.

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker was another influence because we liked how the lighting was separated in boxes. We also liked how the actors started with different movements at different times and joined in gradually wearing high heels which was also an element in the sequence we liked and wanted to develop. It was a risk as we were performing contorting movements and could have fallen, slipped and hurt ourselves but that was a risk we were willing to take for the sake of created the ‘perfect’ online identity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVd7RugO_Xk

Forced Entertainment was another big influence, one show in particular; 12am Awake and Looking down as we also wanted to have huge amounts of clothing on the rails positioned either side of the stage, with shoes and all make-up in a row.

As director, I envisioned various technology devices, social media, selfies, online identity fascination and destruction to be included in Username, which I have discussed with Rosie our set designer.  In order to present the increasing narcissistic society we live in, we have decided to use; two large projector screens, one hand-held camera, two TV monitors, one mannequin and similarly to Forced Entertainment; two large clothing rails. This set decision represents how individuals in today’s society are becoming more obsessed with their appearances online.

Works Cited:

Achterland, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker 3 de (2010) [online video] Avaiable from 7  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVd7RugO_Xk  [Accessed 13th April 2015]

Chase, R., Gudge, C., Hartley, S. and Haynes, H. (2015) Username. Lincoln.

Forced Entertainment (2015) [online advertisment] Available from http://www.forcedentertainment.com/project/12am-awake-looking-down/ [Accessed 13th April 2015]

GlamBooth TV. (2014) Contouring & Highlighting- Kim Kardashian’s Makeup secret!. [online video] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dLSy75M46o [Accessed 13th April 2015].

Kingsley, J. (2015) Social Networking in Real Life -Social Experiment. [online video] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pyJlERCrJE [Accessed 13th April 2015].

Siebert, V. [online advertisment] Avaiable from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3093084/Love-ve-got-Teens-hit-controversial-Kylie-Jenner-Lip-Challenge-flaunting-natural-pouts-series-inspiring-selfies.html [Accessed 13th April 2015]

As the Director, my initial vision for the performance is to create a piece revolving around the topic of identity and the use of social media. As a company we want to demonstrate the effect that social media and technology can inflict on society, and people’s insecurities. I hope as a company that we create a piece that will relate and impact on the audience and make them rethink what they post on social media and how far they are willing to go to make themselves ‘perfect’. To support our process, we looked into previous theatre companies and artists that use multimedia and share the same topicality of our performance, the use of social media and identity.

One of the first influential performances that inspired ‘Username’ was Pretty Ugly by Louise Orwin. The piece is a ‘research project that aims to arouse critical debate and new insights into our relationship with the internet and social media through performance, activism and workshops with teenage girls’. (Orwin) Orwin shares her research and shares that ‘advertisments, magazines, film and television had been spoon-feeding images of unattainable ‘perfection’ to young girls, it now appeared that it was the girls themselves that were perpetuating these dangerous myths about body image with the constant reblogging, retweeting, regurgitating.’ As a company we also wanted to explore a current generation’s fascination with various social media. In particular we took inspiration from the fact that this piece “seeks to bring awareness to the way we are beginning to use online platforms; becoming relentless self-editors and communal co-creators of our online and offline identities” (Orwin). We also hope to raise awareness regarding the effects that social media has on us as a society. We want to explore the public’s obsession and fascination with their body image and identity, and how they search the internet to learn how to become a ‘perfect’ identity on social media. We intend to send a message to the audience by representing the insecurities, obsessions and destruction of a desperate woman in today’s society.

Additionally, Orwin uses TV screens, projectors and a handheld live-streaming camera which projects close-ups of her face which screams live to screens at the back of the stage. As a company we would like to explore with a live streaming handheld camera to display close up’s of our faces.

Works Cited

Gudge, C. [rehearsal] 2015

Orwin, L. Pretty Ugly. [online] Available from: https://prettyorugly.wordpress.com/about-the-project/ [Accsessed 7th April].

I am truly honored and ecstatic to have the job title of ‘Director’. By having the role of director, I have been gathering knowledge from the book by Kate Mitchell, The Director’s Craft: A Handbook for The Theatre (2009).  I specifically looked at how to prepare for the role of director. I believe that a director has two basic responsibilities, firstly to bring about a combined vision within the finished production, and secondly to lead others toward its final presentation.

I have researched many directing and devising books for guidance and inspiration; The Actor Speaks: Voice and the Performer book helped me understand how to manage balancing being the director and an actor for the company, whilst still having a professional relationship with the other company members. I knew that the director’s role ‘can be a lonely one’ (Rodenburg, 2002, p.253). This was why I wanted to concentrate building a relationship with the actors and stage manager so we could really work as a team. I wanted to be a director that would ‘bring inspirational insight into the rehearsal room’ (Rodenburg, 2002, p.253) which would also inspire the other members to share their own ideas and visions so that we could build ‘Username’ collaboratively. Most importantly, Rodenburg states, ‘the actor-director relationship seems destined to be uneasy and maybe this tension accounts in some way for those unforgettable performances that we will always remember’ (2002, p.253).

During our first meeting as a company, we talked a lot about what we wanted our theatre company to represent and portray. The term ‘JumpCut’ to us has the definition of, uncertain, sporadic, fast and broken, we wanted this definition to link to our final show ‘Username’ and additionally linking to social media, technology and society’s idea of ‘perfect’. We discussed as a collective that this theory of how social media and society is linked to how individuals are becoming obsessive about creating the ‘ideal’ identity online.

During the first rehearsal we decided to research social media sites such as Facebook to research our online ‘friends’ recent status’, make them anonymous, and use these to create an exercise that would help us create some starting material. This exercise included us searching for ‘typical’ status’ in our own time, bringing them to the practical space and sharing and swapping in the group. The actors chose a status and expressed it using their bodies and facial expressions to create a movement sequence. I then wanted to experiment collaborating these movements whilst Stacey read the status aloud which was going to be a voice-over. One of the first ideas was to have a projection screen behind us and have the words typed up as we performed the movements, however we realised this made the movement a little show and dull.

As a company we realised that most of the status’ were about personal emotions and how it is dramatized and heightened for social media. This got me thinking…when communication on social media becomes more dramatic than the communication in real life, how do you keep up with what a true identity is or do you become someone else and create an online fake identity? We have since been exploring more within technology, and how photographs can be edited to create a better version of the original.

Works Cited:

Gudge, C. (2015) JumpCut rehearsal. Lincoln.

Gudge, C (2015) JumpCut Theatre Logo. Lincoln 

Mitchell, K. (2009) The Director’s Craft: A Handbook for The Theatre. New York: Routledge.

Rodenburg, P. (2002) The Actor Speaks: Voice and the Performer. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.