In order to expand upon my current ideas for my performance, I decided to look at Sean Bruno and Luke Dixon’s Creating Solo Performance, a book that contains many useful exercises that have allowed me to develop my ideas and understanding of what it is to perform on my own. Furthermore, the book provides many questions that have helped form my piece and the direction I want it to take.

For instance, a section I found particularly useful was a list of creative questions such as “Do you have a story to tell?”, “Is a solo performance the best way to tell the story?”, and “Does your material… lend itself to solo performance?” (Bruno and Dixon, 2015, 27). By asking myself these questions, I was able to better understand the form that my piece should take. I am still interested with working autobiographically, so I am currently considering telling a story from my own childhood. For my following lesson, I have to prepare a story to tell the class for which I am considering explaining one of my trips in Menorca (a part of my childhood that I remember fondly and believe would make an interesting story). Depending on feedback, I may wish to make this a theme I look at for my performance.

An exercise I thought was unique and enlightening was ‘being’ my audience. Bruno and Dixon advocate that a solo performer needs to see their work as “a show for an audience, not words on a page” (Bruno and Dixon, 2015, 28).  I began to think about what I want my audience to see when they come in – currently I am thinking of a spectacle that relates to the performance, but I have no concrete ideas in place. As I continue to work on my performance, I will refer back to this exercise to help inform my decisions about what I want the audience to see and get out of the performance.

Another section that will be useful later on in the process is “forming your script” (Bruno and Dixon, 2015, 32). Though I do not have a clear subject in mind, I think I would like my performance to focus around storytelling, similar to Spalding Gray. I think of lot of work will therefore be based around making a text and re-writing it until I am happy with the story.

Whilst there are several other sections of Creating Solo Performance I have found useful, I have listed the ones I have found most informative at this stage and throughout the process I will continue to use the book so that my performance is as good as it can be.

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Bruno, S. and Dixon, L. (2015) Creating Solo Performance. London: Routledge.

Giggs, J. (2015) Menorcan Greenery. Unpublished Photograph.