In creating text for performance it can be easy to fall into the trap of creating texts that show no variation and allowing no depth to be created within the writings. As our piece is based on the creation of the untold stories behind the artwork it is essential that we are able to produce texts that are able to invite, hold attention and inspire audiences. In trying to establish a balance between our texts we decided to look at Tim Etchells’ Certain Fragments, in which he suggests writing as though one is in a different scenario with each text ‘implying a critical dialogue with more traditional notions of theatre performance writing’ (Etchells, 1999, p.98)
As our performance is open to the public it is vital our chosen texts are able to appeal to the majority of the visitors within the gallery, and are able to instantly draw them into to watching the entirety of the performance. I decided to look at writing one of my texts as if telling a secret, as we are instantly drawn into finding out the unknown and with it being a text that is spoken by a celebrity figure, visitors will instantly begin to speculate whether the text is fact or fiction. However through ‘mixing, matching, cutting, pasting’ (Etchells, 1999, p.101) I am able to incorporate works of other writers, journalists and the person themselves, to construct a text that becomes so indulged with quotes that it appears to be truth. Another scenario which caught my eye was writing a text as if it was to be whispered by the bedside of a sleeping child, in which I felt would work well with the print of Jackie Kennedy mourning her husband John F Kennedy’s death. I feel writing this text will potentially connect to some of the female visitors to the gallery quite personally as some may have children themselves and have encountered a time where in their childhood they spoke to them whilst they were asleep as a way of letting emotions and personal issues off of their chest. This is exactly how I have structured the writing to Jackie Kennedy’s children, as she releases her feelings towards her husband’s unexpected death and her opinions on his alleged affairs. By ‘collecting, sifting and using from bits of other people’s stuff’ (Etchells, 1999, p.101) I am able to re-account the events in the first person as if I am the first lady herself.
I will continue to use Tim Etchells’ guide to performative writing as a basis to developing and expanding on my own texts, to encourage the viewer to see our writings as more than just a story of the untold, but as a way of delving into feminism in a creative and innovative way. Through incorporating facts and elements fiction we are able to attempt to answer the questions artists and the gallery failed to do so.
Works Cited:
Etchells, T. (1999) Certain Fragments. London: Routledge.