Category: People

Learning.

Gabriel / / People

Our group has decided to turn the cafe of The Collection into an Exhibition.
We first tired out to make small plaques like in an art gallery.

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Though once in place we noticed that they were far too small, and though we were planning for subtle, it was far too subtle, so we have now decided for big letters, made out of plastic.

We then noticed the cafe was a far too small place for now a much bigger performance, so we have now moved the “exhibition” outside the cafe, though we are still mirroring the cafe, and having our text come from the conversations we heard in the cafe.

Learning but doing is a valuable form.

Our performance now reminds me of this video

(Homotopiafestival, 2007)

Like him with his salon, we are now mirroring the cafe culture but in a more exaggerated way. This similarities do not stop there, like him we are performing with text from actual customers.

As we start anew we are unsure where our near ideas will lead us, though I believe being more bigger with our acting and plagues will hopefully become an effective piece for people to understand that we are mirroring the cafe.

Bibliography:

Homotopiafestival, (2007) Salon Adrienne. available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmUn2ZTzeY0 [accessed 16/04/13]

Cafe Research Survey

Francesca Maria Izzo / / Development, People, Research

To help our group with Cafe research, I made a survey which was a similar design to the surveys the Collection Gallery asks the visitors to feel out when they visit. We thought of using surveys to find out why people come to the cafe and to see the age and type of people who use the cafe. An example of the survey is attached here in this blog: cafe research survey

As well as using the surveys for research purposes we are also going to use them in our piece. For instance, we are going to make placards which will include data retrieved from the surveys and put them on the tables where people filled them out. This will make the cafe into an exhibition which is our main aim for the part of the piece which takes part in the cafe. Other placards will also be created from verbatim; conversations and observations we have overheard and seen in the cafe. Each placard will be dated, with a quote and the name of the person who overheard it. The placard layout will be very similar to this which is an example of a placard found next to a piece of artwork in the Collection gallery:

placard text

Our group experimented with the placard idea in one of the sessions held at the Collection gallery by showing the rest of the Collection group the idea for the placards. The feedback was positive with people saying it was a good idea and the placards were easily noticed. Some suggestions were for the pieces of paper to be brightly coloured so it would make the pieces of text even more obvious however, at this stage we’ve decided to keep the placards white with back writing on so they resemble the placards you find next to pieces of art in the Collection gallery. Other suggestions also  included putting the placards on other objects in the cafe and not just the tables. For example, on the plant pots and high chairs as well as using the windows and the tables and chairs outside the cafe. This suggestion helped fuel our initial idea of connecting the outside space with the cafe and the education room but we were unsure how exactly. Therefore using the placards on the windows and the tables outside we should successfully be able to connect all three.

Cafe Research

Francesca Maria Izzo / / People, Research

To help us with our performance, we needed to know the type of people who would be in the cafe visiting the Collection Gallery and how many people would be our audience on a Saturday. Therefore one Saturday I sat in the cafe and observed and recorded quotes of peoples conversations. I sat in one of the booths at the end of the cafe as that was the only table free, from 1pm- 3pm. During this time the amount of people in the cafe was very consistent with the busiest, loudest time being between 1pm- 1.30pm. Therefore I think it would be a good time to do our performance between 1pm and 2pm as this will be the best time to have a good sized audience.

The observations from being sat in this part of the cafe made me think the type of people who sit in the booths want to be secluded from the rest of the cafe. Sitting there you can hear whats going on in the rest of the cafe but you cant quite make out the conversations from other people. For example, I could only hear parts of the conversation of an elderly man and woman who were sat behind me and the manager when she was on the phone. The type of people sat at the table behind me also in the booth demonstrated why they chose to be secluded from everyone else. The first woman who sat there was by herself, having a drink and some food. The next couple who sat there were having a small general conversation with the woman noticing the engagement ring on the tree outside the cafe. The last person was the manager who chose to sit away from everyone else so she could do her paperwork in the quieter part of the cafe as well as make business phone calls.

When I got up from my seat to order a drink and observe the rest of the cafe, I noticed a man on his laptop in the seat where my group have noticed one person is always sat there either with a book or newspaper alone. This illustrates that even on a Saturday the space is still chosen for the same thing. Meanwhile, the rest of the tables in the middle were taken up by families with small children. This is another factor which we will have to be aware of in our piece as there will be a mixed audience ranging from young children to the elderly. A couple of the children were observant with their surroundings in the area outside the cafe, playing with the plant pots and peeking into the window of where I was sat. This therefore shows that the children will be more likely to be interested in our  performance as they are easily drawn to things and may even notice things before their parents do, maybe causing the parents to notice us through them.

Attached in this blog are the recordings of my observations: Café observations

 

 

Listening to Conversation

Holly Rudd / / People

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.

 

Music affecting the piece.

Gabriel / / Development, Experimentation, People

As our group is in the Cafe, many variations can change the mood of our performance.
Whether it be the weather, how many people or the music.

Music effects the tone of the piece, and the Cafe through my many days of me sitting there plays many different types of music.

I believe the classical music played will go with out piece nicely, as an exhibition of art and classical flow well together.

Jazz will make the piece more lively and jarring, with an upbeat tempo our pieces will seem happy, Will the audience in the cafe look around more if the music isn’t relaxing?

The last music I hear was Adele’s album, the music is often about sad relationships, will that make people put a story to out art pieces?

For example some of our exhibits, are people reading alone, another is sipping a coffee alone, will being alone with Adele playing make people think there is a realtionship story to out piece.

11 Someone Like You

If you can imagine those exhibits with that song, a story starts to become for the characters, a story about lost love.

Though we don’t get to choose the music on the day, I believe this will be interesting on how it effects out piece.