Thread: Acts - Keeping it Simple

Hi everyone,
back again! I was just (finally) reading the interesting things people had said in the thread about act creation processes and I started thinking about an act I am trying to work on but stuggling with... the problem I have is that the idea has got too complicated and hard to portray onstage without the need for half a dozen props and at least three signs or voiceovers - which seems like a lot to me!

So... I'm interested in hearing people's thoughts about narrative in acts - do you like to create/watch complex and unusual narratives or is simplicity the key? Has anyone else grappled with the desire to do something interesting vs the need to keep an act accessible and easy to follow? Aside from the obvious signs and voiceovers has anyone seen/used any other devices that make the act easier to follow?

Can't wait to hear from you all!
xxx

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hey Em ,

above all it needs to be entertaining . . . so any narrative needs to be clear and not too much faffing about, i like the use of signs / voice overs / sound effects i think they add another layer to the story that is sometimes impossible to get across .

watch this :: and watch part 2 as well . .. many sound effects / signs / beautifull story

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6jFqJJEQW4"]YouTube - leela waiting for Stanley[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-Y4n7Ke_Uc[/ame]


x x x

Thanks for the advice Red... and I think it's the faffing about I need to work on... I'm a very faffy sort of thinker!

The act on those videos was amazing - I can't believe how transparent what she was trying to portray was... It's amazing as well how she used so few props to create such a believable world. It was really moving at the end as well.

That's really given me food for thought about how you show things and also thoughts about how you convey a sense of other people when you are a solo performer...

Thanks so much for posting... It is so great to get a refreshing, different perspective on things... I think I have been stuck too much in my own head with this one!

I suppose it depends a big deal on where you plan to do this act. My acts tend to be autobiographical and quite a bit political (well, asides from the Teenage Fangirl act which was a total tribute to Savage Garden), and do involve a little bit of narrative complexity. My most recent act combined burlesque, political commentary, and slam poetry - it was co-directed and co-designed by a women's circus I'm a part of for a 3-month project where we came up with acts and performed them at a recent festival.

My act wouldn't go down well at all at typical burlesque nights - the first half would, but then the switch into more serious territory at the end would put people off. People who come to see burlesque shows here are after entertainment, not brain-pokage! I think this act would be much better suited for performance art, festivals, events where it's more about the art rather than the glamour factor.

I've been helping out at revues recently and noticed that the really glamour pretty attractive acts tend to get a much better reception than the more offbeat ones, even if artistically the latter has more value. Boobs win out overall!

So yeah, think about where you want to bring this act - there are many places that I've noticed may be more open to unusual burlesque work even if they don't specialise in burlesque necessarily. Yours seem like a mini one-person-play in the making - I'd say go for it! It may not be suited for a burlesque revue but who's to say you gotta stop there?