Our show consists of a variety of real life experiences of sleep from people who were interviewed on behalf of our dramaturg and director. I believe it important to represent these individuals as precisely as possible, especially as we are being given the opportunity to portray their experiences to a theatre audience.
As a performer for The Truth About Bedtime… I am involved in a verbatim section with Emily, where we both explain our lucid dreaming experiences. Lucid dreaming is a “proven scientific ability to become ‘self aware’ in your dreams” (HowToLucid.com, undated). We dedicated rehearsals to our speech and language in order to match the people we were representing. I knew we had to be authentic or it would become unethical to the people involved. I found that researching lucid dreaming and hearing of these individual’s experiences of this practice was interesting, to say the least. It made me aware of the abilities these people possessed, which quite frankly inspired me to experiment with this practice, which at the moment I am unsuccessful at. Throughout discussions with our director Emelia we both agreed that lucid dreaming is one of the more brighter topics in our piece, therefore I researched up beat, positive music and I came across Lucid Dream by Owl City:
(Revoredo, 2018)
The song relates to the scene, as the song is indeed about lucid dreaming. However, I have chosen to use an instrumental version in order to have the audience’s full attention on the verbatim. In terms of lighting, I have decided I want to incorporate a colourful and ‘dreamy’ wash with the use of blue and pink. The reasoning behind this is because we are showcasing these lucid dreams from the verbatim, and “colour meanings in dreams can be very telling about what’s going on in the deepest waters that stir within us” (Venefica, 2018). Therefore, having this lighting state makes the audience aware they are in a dream state. Here is how the lighting was showcased in our performance:
(Sired, 2018)
In terms of Arts Council funding using verbatim definitely allows engagement from everyone, especially as sleep is something which relates to every human. Arts Council England wants “to give more people the chance to take part in the arts, no matter where they live or their social, educational or financial circumstances” (Arts Council England, 2018). Using verbatim theatre allows our company to reach out to communities no matter what their background is. We allow anyone to get involved with the devising process while giving “a voice to the voiceless” (Burnside, 2003, 5), as we are wanting everyone to get involved in sharing their experiences on sleep which will be showcased in our performance. Furthermore, our set allows us as a company to easily transport our equipment to any location. We are therefore able to use community halls and other various venues to perform our show, which again allows anyone from any background to get involved with the Arts. In terms of sound I already have the program QLAB on my laptop with the show file, therefore all we need would be a speaker. The only lighting item we would have to purchase for non-theatre venues would be a UV Beam PAR for our Sandman and exercise scene. I have priced one of these lights up and it comes to a total of £33.00. This item can be found on this website: https://www.bax-shop.co.uk/black-lights/beamz-uv-beam-par-38?gclid=CjwKCAjwiPbWBRBtEiwAJakcpARQsVvl-htM5P-i1u6Mxlq7Sc8ShzRDGD4mACpBHcGNfbh1D3JcfBoClH0QAvD_BwE (Bax Music, 2018).
C.D.
Works Cited
Arts Council England (2018) Engaging people everywhere. Arts Council England. Available from https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/how-we-make-impact/engaging-audiences-everywhere [accessed 29 February 2018].
Bax Music. (2018) Beamz UV Beam PAR 38. Kent: Bax Music. Available from https://www.bax-shop.co.uk/black-lights/beamz-uv-beam-par-38?gclid=CjwKCAjwiPbWBRBtEiwAJakcpARQsVvl-htM5P-i1u6Mxlq7Sc8ShzRDGD4mACpBHcGNfbh1D3JcfBoClH0QAvD_BwE [accessed 1 March 2018].
HowToLucid.com (undated) What Is Lucid Dreaming? A Beginners Overview. HowToLucid.com. Available from http://howtolucid.com/lucid-dreaming-definition/ [accessed 15 March 2018].
Owl City (2018) Lucid Dream [download]. 4 mins. 21 secs. Cinematic. Universal Republic. Available from https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lucid-Dream/dp/B076H77B84/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1524182753&sr=8-1&keywords=lucid+dream+owl+city [accessed 1 March 2018].
Revoredo, W. (2018) Owl City- Lucid Dream (Welington Revoredo Instrumental Cover). Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjxP7L8STzg [accessed 1 March 2018].
Sired, K. (2018) A brand new theatre company! This show was incredible and I am so grateful for being asked to take photos during their dress run. Good luck for the future guys, I’m excited to see what’s in store! Sherbet Lemon Theatre. Katie Sired. Available from https://www.facebook.com/KSIREDPHOTOGRAPHY/ [accessed 21 May 2018].
Venefica, A. (2018) Colour Meanings in Dreams. Available from https://www.whats-your-sign.com/color-meanings-in-dreams.html [accessed 25 February 2018].