On Thursday the 18th May, I had the chance to experiment and try out elements of the show in the space with technical support and guidance. This session was extremely useful to visualise and to tighten some of the more technically orientated sections of the piece.
Throughout rehearsals it was hard to envisage the videos, projections and lighting effects in the space. This ‘muck around’ enabled me to put the entire show together and this was only enhanced by the technical rehearsal.
During these sessions decisions that had been previously rehearsed were cut and replaced with ideas that better suited the piece when I could visualise the lights, sound and visual effects. In the middle of I Feel Pretty I play Horst-Wessel (Nazi-Germany’s national anthem) in accompaniment with a video showing marching nazi and North-Korean soldiers doing the goose-step; interlaced with speeches by Hitler and Trump.
Credit to AshleyMarkWalls Photography
With the help of outside feedback, it became clear that the tune may not be instantly recognisable by the audience which would lessen the effect of the overall ‘picture’ or image. To rectify this I decided to change the pre-set music. Originally the pre-set was going to be The Man Who Sold The World by David Bowie; a fitting song that encapsulates the ideas surrounding political leadership alongside vanity. However, deciding to change the music to a recorded version of the original Horst-Wessel seemed more fitting. The music would create a better atmosphere than The Man Who Sold the World could. Bowie’s song, to a degree, had a more casual tone and therefore created a casual atmosphere for the beginning of the show. Listening to Horst-Wessel on the speakers in the studio made me realise this and in-fact replacing The Man Who Sold The World with Horst-Wessel seemed more fitting to create a more applicable atmosphere to start the show.
As well as having Horst-Wessel for the pre-set, I wanted to experiment with lighting during the ‘muck around’ and ‘Technical Rehearsal.’ For the pre-set I decided that I wanted white LED’s on the audience seating as well red LED’s focused on the shredder. Throughout the pre-set I will be shredding pages, magazines and images of paintings and religious texts, political texts etc. Coming into the atmosphere of the pre-set lighting state, the music playing over the top and a projected video of featuring Hitler, Goebelles and Trump, I hope would create an atmosphere for the audience. I want to avoid it being represented as too oppressive. In order to do this I will not interact with the audience. Often, audience interaction during the start of a performance might come across as being intrusive, an invasion of somebody’s personal space. The white LED lights in accompaniment with the red LED’s might give the impression of an ‘Us and them’ feeling between myself and the audience. I would be bathed in red, whilst the audience is bathed in white.
Another change to the piece was the section in which I goose-step to The Dictator Decides by The Pet Shop Boys. Originally when performing the ‘goose-step’ I went at half speed. However, it was not until the ‘technical rehearsal’ that I realised that I needed to go faster. The image of my goose-stepping seemed a bit too long as it was the only thing happening on stage. By speeding it up it reduced the time of the image and it looked more effective in relation to the music. Additionally, in speeding up the goose-step it allowed for the lyrics of the song to occur as soon as I reached the podium which made the section more succinct.
An additional element that I wanted to try in the technical rehearsal was the facial projection. All the way through the rehearsal process I had wanted to use projection-mapping to project the faces of Savonarola, Goebbels and Trump onto my own face. In order to this effectively I needed to shave my face and to paint it white. This, in theory, would make the project clearer. In the tech, this became the case. The faces came out extremely clear and was instantly recognisable on my own face. Painting my face had also been a stylistic choice, not just a technical one. It just so happened that the painting of the face became a lot more useful when used with projection.
The choice of having a white face makes the piece more stylised I feel. It, to a degree, diminishes my identity as ‘kieran’ but doesn’t signify myself as a character. Mime artists such as Jaques Lecoq, Marcel Marceau and even comedy performer Charlie Chaplin all made use of white face paint in their performances. The white face paint acted as a mask and it heightened any facial expression that is used or performed.
Credit to AshleyMarkWalls Photography
The way I view the mime ‘whiteface’ is that it allows the performer to have no face, yet, every face all at once. The mime was something that I was interested in creating and testing in the ‘technical rehearsal.’ I didn’t want to experiment physically, except in a few cases in the performance where stance and facial expression help to encapsulate the various stage pictures; rather I wanted to use the idea of the mime as a springboard for my costume. The black shirt, black trousers and white face doesn’t depict me as a character, nor does it represent me as Kieran. Instead it characterises me, the performer, as something in limbo. A canvas to be projected on, a canvas to be interpreted, a canvas to perform. Additionally, the use of the ‘non-character’, ‘non-self’ dynamic helps the exploration that I Feel Pretty creates. This exploration consists of the idea that anyone can become like these political figures and dictators. It is not a character endorsing or representing them. It is not me as myself endorsing or representing them. It is the Performer that links these threads together. That is my view of how this show works and will work in front of an audience.