From my initial reflections and audience feedback, I would like this final blog post to cover ways of expanding the ideas that the show conveys.
One piece of feedback I received was that the show was well conceived and although it was packed full of elements it would be interesting to tease these elements out. Things such as interacting with the shredder, the physical movements could all be expanded and developed further in future versions of this performance. The process of creating I Feel Pretty and receiving incredible feedback from a live audience has convinced me that I should take this performance further. It only seems natural to do so.
I would like to expand the show more to include more active moments. The piece has a lot of static sections which could be punctuated with more stage activity such as more physical elements. I think what I Feel Pretty lacked was an exploration into how these figures get to the position that they are in. The piece presents, to a degree, their vanity and so called worship; which is caused by their power and charisma but it doesn’t examine why. That is not to say I wish to provide a reason why, because I don’t think I can feasibly do that, but I will be able to provide an exploration.
In expanding the piece, I would like to explore more multimedia elements, expanding upon the projection-mapping that occurs during the piece’s ending. It would be interesting to explore full body projection. However, to do this, I would need to change my costume from the black shirt and black trousers to white variants. Alongside this idea it would be beneficial to research into what makes a leader, and how the same tropes occur in leaders throughout history.
A piece of feedback that I received was that the version of Horst-Wessel that I played on the piano was catchy and easily memorable. This is something I wish to explore in expanding the show. Often political leaders will use slogans, sayings, music to swerve political opinion and to create associations. With the Nazis it was the salute. With Donald Trump it’s ‘Let’s Make America Great Again.’ With Theresa May it is ‘Strong and Stable.’ It would be valuable to explore this idea in adapting my performance for a longer duration.
Broadly speaking, I Feel Pretty examines a level of deep-seated corruption that sits at the heart of political leadership. That is, to destroy things and by using the rubble; re-construct one’s own image. So with that in mind it is about identity. In expanding the show, I would love to be able to make a sequel to the performance. On my make-shift board I include the title to my piece. I also include something a satirical sentence underneath one of the images of Donald Trump. The sentence reads: The Secret Mask. At the end of Tim Crouch’s My Arm he states that his next show will be called An Oak Tree. In writing The Secret Mask on my podium board, I aim to do the same. Where I Feel Pretty might explore political vanity, corruption and destruction in openly vane, dictators and political figures, The Secret Mask might explore the unseen organisations. The Internet. The Media. ISIS. It will explore how they contribution to the notions surrounding corruption and destruction.
On a final note, it has been a pleasure to create this show. It has been a hard, uplifting and extremely rewarding experience. The way I worked in creating the show is the way I wish to create theatre in the future. Experimentation, exploration and being simple. The experience of creating a solo performance was both useful and exhilarating and I only wish to expand, adapt and create a larger, longer and better performance than the one I had just spent the past few months creating.