"Splice" at Brookes' Drama Studio

And here is finally my next post, on the third performance of "Splice" on 28th Jan 2012 (review by Susie Crow, here). It was almost two months ago now, but with the distance, I can say it was probably the performance I was the happiest with. This time I felt centered, and better prepared. The lighting was grand (thanks Pete) and in particular, we opted to have the light pulse with the music at the beginning. Obviously I wasn't entirely happy with my performance but then, who ever is? And it still is work in progress...
Here are some snippets of the feedback I received:

• "The beginning is very strong and very contemporary" - I really like that, and it's probably due to the sharpness of the movements -something I'm always trying to perfect- and the fact that the music is intense (that's Manu's "Néon clignotant d'une pharmacie") and the minimal lighting, make me look like as a shadowy figure progressing by saccades in a dimly lit environment.
• "The middle section looses in intensity". That's the portion that is more balletic. I suspect that as this is more my comfort zone, I did slip a bit into auto-pilot, which naturally must have shown. I must make sure that I keep projecting during that section, especially as it comes after the beginning which seemed so strong.
• "The third section is still a bit messy, but the final image is great". I couldn't agree more with this. That section is improvised, and improv' is not my forte. I also realised that in a sense, I had a catalogue of images I liked and that I generated in rehearsals, in which I could tap and that although this is helpful, it did make me rush through too many of those images, without letting them the time to emerge properly. Definitely something I should work on. There are two ways I could deal with this: one would be to fix this section more, rather than improvise it, the other is to work on my improvisation skills :).

And here are some shots that Bruno took during the piece (Thank you Bruno!):

A "What's this thing?" moment. Studying the rope and wondering how

to interact with it.

Photography: Bruno Guastalla

Struggling with the rope, on the way into a position that I like to call

the "fish swish" (one of those images in my catalogue of images for

the improv' section), somewhere between struggling with the rope

and finding it to be a friendly presence.

Photography: Bruno Guastalla

The rope as a comforting presence, leading to the end in foetal

position under the rope, the rope wrapped around me.

Photography: Bruno Guastalla

This is all very encouraging, and I shall have to keep working on it. :)