I gave my first performance of Purim Piggle Puppets yesterday (14 September 2012) in Nottingham as part of an AHRC-sponsored network event, Object Theatre: Methodology and Pedagogy. This same event featured also workshops, performances and talks by a number of leading practitioners, and I was able to receive detailed feedback in a discussion which followed. Reactions were quite positive on the whole: one participant said it was the most moving performance he had seen in some time.
One of the more poignant moments of the performance for some was a bit of exploratory play with a pen.
It was suggested I work further on the things/objects of daily life, including my knapsack, and that I also get a handkerchief. (The room was cold and my nose was running and I had to dab it a number of times with a tissue.) This was interesting to me as my father always carried a hankie, in part because he was subject to regular nosebleeds. One of the reasons I don't carry one is that I always felt it odd that he would carry around in his pocket a soiled piece of cloth.
There was also some suggestion that I play more with the emotional scale of the performance. Something not so easy for me as a non-actor, but an interesting challenge.
The performance was documented on video and photographs and it is likely there will be excerpts of it available on the web in the coming months.
This blog concerns a project in development, a performance piece with the working title Purim Piggle Puppets. Part lecture, part participatory performance, part object performance, it deals with the origins of theatricality. There will be autobiographical elements. Play. Readings from psychoanalytic texts. And, oh yes, a Purim play by my father Dr. Donald J. Cohen (1940-2001) and a puppet of him too. All stereotypes about children of psychiatrists are absolutely true.
No comments:
Post a Comment