SENSORY PERFORMANCE

In groups we created a performance based around a section of “A Midsummer’s Nights Dream”. In these performance’s we used the skills of sensory performance which we had learned through the exercises to make the performance more inclusive for all people involved and in the audience.

Our performance centred on the forest that most of the characters move through throughout the course of the play. Leading on from the exercises we had been exploring our piece was centred around having audience members who were blind and focusing more on other sense’s such as touch and sound. For this we had our audience members placed around the room with their eyes closed and a narrator would make small indications as to what was happening and who was entering to woods to keep the audience on tack. We gave each audience member a leaf to hold on to and to explore through touch, this was to set the core of the piece and so that the audience could keep relating back to it to remind them on the setting without having to see it. I also think that it helped to transfer the audience to the place of the piece and be able to visualise it more clearly as they have something to reference to. This was supported by the sounds that we made of the animals in the forest and the wind and leaves rustling, our aim was to create the sound scape of that place so that the audience could feel immersed in it and transported there.

For each set of characters travelling through the forest we had different forms of touch and sound to show the audience their relationships and characterisation. For Example for the lovers we had romantic music playing in the background to emphasis the love between their relationships. The lovers ran through the forest and the sound of the fast pace feet emphasised the urgency that was created in that section and the danger of their running away and tension was created. This was then contrasted with the fairies entering in the forest as there was much lighter foot fall and we touched the back of the audiences legs to create the feeling of small creatures around them, we also traced the journey of the character on the shoulders of the audience with our fingers to help them to keep on track with the story. We also blew on the necks of the audiences and this created two different interpretations of firstly the wind but also the fairies flying past them, making sure that each audience member has a different experience. Finally the clam and cute feel of the fairies was interrupted by the layers entering, they were a lot louder and heavy footed, and this was to show the contrast of the characters and to make the transitions a lot clearer. Also we made them cough and snort to make them more grotesque characters, this made sure that each set of characters were really easily distinguished from each other so that the changes in the story were clear to the audience. This usage of the different senses made the performance more interesting and inclusive of all the audience members and put them all on the same level, so that they can have an exciting performance.