Singers
A singer, 4 dancers, plus recorded images of the cast that will be projected during the piece.
People Involved
Marcelo F. Lazcano I'm looking for partners!
Project
The idea is a variation on a theatrical piece I wrote several years ago in which a man gets help from his "future-self" that has come back to give him advice. This version takes on a more psychological approach: A main character (let's name her Lucy for the time being) who suffers from mental disorders/ illnesses such as depression, schizophrenia, and/or Alzheimer's disease. Lucy has an encounter with her mind (a projected version of herself. with her own audio channel), and tries to make sense of her world by interacting with her psyche. At the beginning it is very clear to us as an audience which one is Lucy on which on the psyche, but as the work develops the distinction between the two gets blurry and at the end is up to us to make a decision as to which one is the real Lucy. The transition to create the blur between the two characters (real vs mind) has to be scripted.
My motives
The reason why I would like to embark on a project with this topic is because I have lost relatives to senile dementia and atherosclerosis, and my wife recently lost a cousin who suffered from schizophrenia. The ending of the piece leaves a question for the audience: which one is the real Lucy? I insist on this idea because, as it was the case with my grandmother, perception of reality as we see it, is altered in the troubled mind of a patient, yet every now and then, in the case of the most critically ill ones, there are moments of lucidity in which they recall moments of their youth or crucial events in their lives. These moments are very similar to hallucinations during analgosedation ( high doses of sedatives) experienced by patients. These events might be completely unknown or relatively known to the relatives and after the loved ones have passed, we are left with the questions: where those moments real? where those moments of lucidity a window to the real person, a moment in which they involuntarily reveal to us their most intimate aspects of their being? In my personal opinion, having experienced this situation with my grandmother, and not too long ago, with my father in-law as he was dying and was under heavy sedation, these are beautiful moments in which we find comfort knowing that in the midst of the tragedy, there are some clear remnants of our loved ones present in the psyche and spirit.
Technical Aspects
The singer is given a piece of music specifically written for the piece. These songs are then recorded and processed with Max/Msp or PD; the processed versions will then be the part of the projected image (mind) and the original version will be part of the live performance, assigned to the man character. As the piece evolves and the roles switch, the processed sound becomes clearer and the original singing is processed live. The dancers may represent people which the character has known in the past, people she is confusing then with, etc. These characters will not have a specified role, the do not interact verbally with the main character and I'm considering have them wear white makeup or masks. The contact between Lucy (singer #1) and her mind (singer #2) happens through a video projection on a transparent screen. This way i can make a better use of the space and it will also provide a more dramatic interaction between the two characters. There will also be pre-recorded videos; these represent flashbacks and are to be shot with low fi cameras and with camera motion. Pre recorded, manipulated videos of the performers will be projected and there will also be projections of the dancers in outdoor settings, also manipulated (look at video link below for an "inspiration source"). The reason for this being that as is the case with trying to understand the mind of the patient, we don't fully know or understand what really is going on inside their heads so there is always this element of wondering sparked by our natural curiosity. This element becomes an unanswered question: are these images of dancers actual memories or are they images the mind is creating to make sense of its surroundings? The singing consists on songs that are performed as written, manipulated at time in real time, and also pre-recorded, altered, and then played back. For real time manipulation I will create (hopefully in collaboration with someone more experienced than me) a PD patch that will include markov chain. Why markov? I considered markov chain to be "without memory" and every event is dependable on the "current state," this is known as Markov Property[1]. So basically I want the technology is somewhat linked to the theme of the piece. I'm planning for latency to be a part of the piece, but I have yet to figure out how. I have not yet decided on a number of channels for audio.
Video Link
Flora Wiegmann, " Riddles in the Sand" (2010).
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Partners/ Collaborators?
I'm looking for people who have experience with dancers and with theatre.