As I have made many changes to my script, I have decided to also look at the set and how the audience will engage in the piece. As I am only focusing on the first story I have removed all audience participation, however I want them to remain an active part of the story, therefore my piece will still incorporate interactive elements.

The first notable change is that, instead of sitting in chairs that are placed to look like a car, I will have the audience sit in a recreation of my living room– using throws, a tray and a coffee table from home. I will also provide the audience with biscuits (particularly ones that I favoured when I was a child). By doing so, I hope to add an intimacy to my piece by inviting the audience into my home. I am keeping the projections to create the effect of a home theatre. By doing so, the audience become involved in my memories as soon as they sit down. This also allows me to have more room as a ‘stage’.

The show will start with the audience entering my house as I am looking through a photo album– another item from my house. At the end of the piece, I am going to close the photo album, symbolic of the memory coming to an end.

When I fall into the swamp, I am going to have bucket filled with water that I can place my hands in, so that I can flick water at the audience. As such, the audience are not simply passive listeners in this moment. Throughout the walking section of the story I am going to have the sound effect of cicada’s playing (similar to the video below), further involving the audience into my memory. The staging area is also going to feature a plank and a chair which will be used by me to symbolise the bridge and car, respectively.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpQUmRCGNuc

Throughout the piece, many of the sound effects will be made using my own voice to further demonstrate how these are my own memories- it is how I remember it sounds. I also intend to use various lighting states to reflect the mood or atmosphere during the memory, for example, upon entering the forest in the car, the lights will slowly fade to a dark green. By doing so, I hope to add another layer of interactivity for the audience. This will also help make the transition between the car and the walk more obvious and interesting.

The structure of the show is therefore as follows:

• I start sat in my living rooming looking at a photo album as the audience come in.
• I stand up and talk to the audience about my dad and my holidays in Menorca to contextualise the piece.
• I sit down on a nearby seat in the ‘staging area’ to aid in conveying the story.
• I begin telling the story of when I was 6, based in the car.
• I get out of the car and pick up some ‘plant props’ and begin to scratch them near to the audience, making the noise that happened using my voice. Lights transition from warm light to dark green.
• I mime crossing the thin bridge.
• As I fall in, I use the bucket to flick water at the audience and begin miming swmming around in the swamp.
• I resume the story and conclude with Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken.
• I close the photo album.

Currently these are all the changes that I have made but I will continue to update the blog as additionally changes are made.

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Jojikiba (2011) Cicada sound effect (2) . Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpQUmRCGNuc [accessed 23 April 2017].