At 12:00pm, local time, on the 30th January 2014, the module had begun. Art and performance the main focusses looking at two “artists” in particular – Spalding Gray and Karen Finley.
But first things first we analysed a reading by Jo Bonney, entitled Extreme Exposure: an anthology of solo performance texts from the twentieth century.
From the reading it is clear that solo work has been shaped by the community or rather community’s change over time. Jo Bonney states that “the nineteenth-century emphasis on the community to the late twentieth-century elevation and examination of the individual” (2000, pXIV), is how the notion of solo performance has evolved, to now where it is in fact a reflection of society, indeed “the era of the “self”” (Bonney 2000, pXIV).
Another point which Bonney proposes which I think to be interesting is the fact that “ more than any other form of live performance, the solo show expects and demands the active involvement of the people in the audience” (2000, pXIII), which in my opinion, and the opinion of our discussion group, depends on the audience. An active audience is just as important to ‘Documentary Theatre’ as it solo as the audience will all come away with something different and as it can be political or news based, that a knowledge of that before watching would be beneficial and more “active”.
However according to Bonney “all solo performers are story tellers” (2000, pXIII), and indeed will construct a performance which will initiate a provocative response in audiences. This also leads onto my next blog post…
Works Cited
Bonney, Jo (ed.) (2000) Extreme Exposure: an anthology of solo performance texts from the twentieth century, New York: Theatre Communications Group.