For our performance we are planning to develop script by listening to conversations. People come to cafes for many different reasons. But no conversation is the same.
Most recently I have heard mostly working conversations among others.
‘He would have been sacked if it were me’ overheard Monday 25th February
‘It don’t think it would be allowed’ ‘maybe it’s worth a try’ overheard Monday 4th March
‘You begin to think I should go to the doctor and then it goes away for half a day and you think, oh I won’t bother then. But you know it will be back tomorrow’ Overheard Monday 4th March
Those are some examples of the conversations I have heard. These were heard in alcoves around the cafe. It would appear that work conversations happen more within the safety of an alcove whereas outside in the open areas of the cafe, more family orientated and gossip conversations take place. I feel that because of the nature of the conversations people feel safer talking about colleagues in a more private space.
Using verbatim within are performance is a strong decision as it can show the thoughts and feelings of the visitors of the gallery cafe. It gives us a good idea of what people come for and what they discuss when they do.
We also put out surveys to ask people questions about why they visited and about what they like about the cafe. Most people had come locally to see the exhibits but a few of the locals come just for stokes cafe itself because of its ‘Relaxing atmosphere’ and ‘Nice coffee’.
‘Verbatim theatre reflects truth differently from other forms of drama’ (McManus, 2010, pg 143) This quote shows how verbatim reflects the truth but it’s the part about how it presents it differently to other forms of drama. I feel that verbatim theatre reflects the real truth as it is a direct projection of the public’s views whereas other forms of drama could be an idealised reality and not a true one. Although verbatim theatre could also bring with it a false truth as you could not have gathered views from every possible view point.
I still believe that verbatim is the right direction for our performance as we have been observing the cafe visitors and feel that verbatim will offer us the chance to give a true representation of these characteristics.
Our group are looking at the types of people who visit the cafe; we want to make each table an exhibition. Taking an area of the gallery that is viewed differently and brings it into a different light. By naming the tables with plaques to draw people’s attention to them we are creating an exhibition of the customers and of the cafe itself. Therefore I think verbatim is an important element of our performance.
McManus, Donald (2010) ‘Great Souls, Big Wheels, and Other Words: Experiments With Truth and Representation in Verbatim Theatre’ in Kiki Gounaridou (Ed) Text and Presentation 2009, United States of Ameria: The Executive Board of the Comparative Drama Conference, pp.141-153.
I think that using the verbatim technique to create the script is a good choice because this could make it feel more personal and in a way private to the people in the cafe as they are actually words from people who visited the cafe. It would be good if someone whose conversation you took was there on the performance day as it then leaves the question as to weather they would recognise the speech or not. I also think taking other peoples words is a good idea because no two people speak in the same way.