1Performance Concept for Its Always Darkest Just Before The Dawn

Overview/Abstract Of The Performance:

This is an ensemble performance centralised around representing the isolation of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi, trans) community from heterosexual society and how it can be joined to create a sense of unity. It is heavily movement based, portraying trust and acceptance in oneself and others through the ensemble cast lifting, balancing and wrapping themselves around one another, creating various types of body sculptures. The performance exposes a lack of unity as being a downfall. That we are not able to reach new heights without it and that in order to go above and beyond we need a community of others to literally and metaphorically lift us up. The oppressive force in this performance is not society. It is, instead, depicted as yourself. It aims to show us that self-empowerment and being able to be yourself, accepting your sexuality and your body for what it is, is the greatest weapon a person can have against prejudice and bigotry.

Inspiration For My Performance:

My initial inspiration for this performance came from a song called Make It Stop (Septembers Children), by the band Rise Against, about the September Gay Suicides of 2010. The song mentions the victims ages and names in the lyrics and describes how they would have been feeling before taking their own lives. The band also puts forward the fact that not many people are speaking out against this pressing issue and that it keeps happening again and again. "Gathering candles, but not their tongues. And too much blood has flown from the wrists, Of children shamed for those they chose to kiss. Who will rise to stop the blood? We're coming for, Insisting on, a different beat, yeah. A brand new song." Rise Against Make It Stop (Septembers Children) This song questions society, especially American, and how we are born free but cannot be free because of all the ridiculously old views that still permeate our lives. The song also questions a lot of other issues such as the existence of God. It supports gay rights and is a call to the world for action to step up and demand for it. To me, this song is an extremely important voice out there in this current time. This song is in support of the It Gets Better Project.

Research:
By Emily Lombard (s3853719)

2Performance Concept for Its Always Darkest Just Before The Dawn

It Gets Better Project: This project revolves around supporting the LGBT community by creating a website and movement of people to support young people facing bullying and harassment over their sexual preferences. It was first formed by Dan Savage, who created a YouTube video in response to the gay suicides of September 2010. The website www.itgetsbetter.org is a place where young people who are lesbian, gay, bi, or trans can see how love and happiness can be a reality in their future (It Gets Better Project, 2011) and thats exactly what it does. The website is a forum for people to post videos with messages for young people in the LGBT community that they do have a place in society and that it is possible to achieve happiness. Its a personal way of communicating that it does get better. Its also a place straight people can visit to support their gay friends and family members as well. Since its creation, a lot of celebrities, organizations, activists, politicians and media personalities have supported the project and made videos. Its steadily becoming a very large and strong movement. Body Sculpture: I really wanted to focus on the movement and body imagery of my performance. The body is a work of art and something that can be sculpted as we choose. It made sense for me to look into performance or art centralised around shaping the body and thats where I stumbled across Cynthia Gonzalezs work called Bolivianische Bilder. Imaginative, bizarre and dangerously looking body sculptures have always been Cynthia's specialty, (TANZherbst Dresden 2007) her cast in this performance would wrap themselves around each other and balance entire bodyweight on one another. The pictures from this performance became a solid reference for me. Another feature of her work is the lack of repetition. Cynthia only utilises movement that communicates her ideas and contributes to the realisation of her messages. She does not fill in time with unnecessary movement which limits her ability to create durative performances. I do not wish to add any movement simply to buffer or interlude between things, so I can envision my performance being short and to the point also.

Text:
My performance is heavily movement based so any text (spoken or written) that is featured will be of the deepest significance and relevance to what messages and themes I am trying to communicate. I envision that towards the end of my performance the ensemble cast will echo this pledge back towards the audience, first with quiet reservation until they build with passionate and heartfelt ambition. Sort of like a dull whisper that gradually increases in speed and intensity until it is no longer in unison, a soundscape of loud and almost barbaric sound as if the feeling of charging forward simply cannot be contained within this people anymore. Hopefully this paints a likeness between the By Emily Lombard (s3853719)

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cast and a battalion at war, ready to go to whatever length to fight for their acceptance/freedom and stand up for what they believe in. The Pledge: Everyone deserves to be respected for who they are. I pledge to spread this message to my friends, family and neighbours. I'll speak up against hate and intolerance whenever I see it, at school and at work. I'll provide hope for lesbian, gay, bi, trans and other bullied teens by letting them know that "It Gets Better" (It Gets Better Project, 2011).

Movement:
This performance is extremely movement based. I want to express the turmoil of the cast and the power of their unity through their body language, expression and body shapes. The focus of this movement is balance and suspension. I want the ensemble cast to create shapes by putting trust in the other cast members to support them. The movement they produce will not be natural to everyone, but it will be within their capabilities, movement that has perhaps not been dared to venture by the average human body to reach new places. As the performance moves from the initial isolation at the very beginning, the aim of the next part is to get the cast higher and higher by using each other and by leaving their balance solely to a person beside or underneath them. The movement should communicate that we cannot rise without the help of others and without trusting ourselves to be able to do it. The movement will start out simplistic and isolated and eventually become more convoluted and unified to create interesting body sculptures.

Process/Workshop:
There are two that I would use to help the ensemble class develop their body sculpting movement. The first workshop I would introduce would be based around developing trust between my ensemble cast about leaving the movement and direction of their own bodies in the hands of others. Trust is extremely important in an ensemble cast, as well as being in sync with others so that movement can be synchronised together in a natural flow or chain. Workshop: The Blind Circle The group forms a tight circle around a member in the centre, whose eyes are closed and feet are together. Participants in the circle pass the player in the centre around while the person completely relaxes and allows the group to move them. This is repeated until all the people in the ensemble cast have had a turn in the centre. The workshop should take around 30 minutes all up. By Emily Lombard (s3853719)

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The next workshop I would do with my ensemble cast would be to help them get to know the shapes their bodies can make and ways their bodies can stretch/move. Its vital that the ensemble cast explore how theyre bodies can be sculpted individually, and then, altogether. Workshop: Statues The members of the cast work in pairs, positioned back to back. The director calls out a word, feeling, issue, etc. (in this case we would progress through general issues until we reached ones relevant to what we exploring through the performance). Then the director will count to three. On three, the partners turn and instantly create a statue that expresses that word and freeze. After a couple of turns using this structure, it can be changed from pairs to a larger number of people until it has been repeated to the point where the whole ensemble cast must do the workshop in one large group.

Costume/Props/Set:
I want the costuming of this performance to reflect each cast members individual personality. As this is a performance circulating around the acceptance of oneself for who they are and not ostracising them for their sexuality, I would like the cast members to choose their attire with not only comfort and manoeuvrability in mind, but also without trying to conform to societys perception of what gay people should wear (for example: rainbow colours, beads, flamboyant attire, short hair for lesbians). So when considering what costume to have, I will ask the cast to consider their personality and not their sexuality as we are not trying to conform or establish anymore stereotypes. In terms of props and set, I want the human body to be the only prop and a blank stage to be the only canvas for my ensemble cast to paint body images on.

Lighting:
The lighting in this performance is kept very simple. In keeping with the title of this performance, Its Always Darkest Just Before The Dawn, the lighting will begin very low and ominous looking in support of a sense of isolation being achieved. The darkness should aid an image of being alone and not connected to anything, with only your shadow as your partner. The whole cast cannot be seen at this stage. As the performance progresses it will become brighter and brighter until the whole stage is illuminated and the entire cast is basked in light when their body sculpting begins. The light is a play on the title, as the cast begins in complete darkness to low lighting, until their dawn is occurring as they start body sculpting when the lights start to come up.

Summary/Conclusion:
Being the daughter of a homosexual father, I have had my fair share of discrimination and bigoted attitudes directed towards my family. Being on the receiving end of taunts and bullying about the sexuality of my father, I firmly express that it is NOT ok to project your hate on to something that you probably do not comprehend fully. I acknowledge that everyone is entitled to their opinions; however, tearing another persons life to pieces over your prejudices is not something anyone should be entitled to do and is simply something I do not believe By Emily Lombard (s3853719)

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in. Lately, in America, there have been an alarming amount of teen suicides in the LGBT community and its frightening that in this generation, where weve made so much progress in terms of acceptance, that these people feel they are so trapped that they have no other option. My ensemble performance aims to project that no matter who you are or who you love, you are important and you are needed in this world. Its time people accept that there are other ways of life and welcome them with open arms so that a real sense of community and unity is finally achieved. There is power in numbers and power in the simple act of support. I want people to understand and know this and therein lies the purpose behind the concept of this performance.

References:
It Gets Better Project 2011, It Gets Better Project Give hope to LGBT youth, Lola Foundation viewed on the 10th October 2011. <http://www.itgetsbetter.org/> TANZherbst Dresden 2007, Cynthia Gonzalez: Bolivianische Bilder (Bolivian Images), Petr Karlovsky viewed on the 8th October 2011. < http://www.karlovsky.net/reviews/200712/bolivianisch.html>

By Emily Lombard (s3853719)