To ensure our idea is grounded well within the criteria, it is important that each step we take with our piece remains to be Site Specific, therefore changing our title slightly seemed appropriate. We now ask the community to ‘Tell us a story about a place in Lincoln’, ensuring that all stories we collect are relevant to us.

I have found that referring to the space within our performance and our site and how the performance challenges the space between audience and performer relationship to be an interesting one due to the audience effectively becoming the performers once we ask for their stories. Like the rehearsal process of many performances their is a quality of the unknown and due to us being reliant of the community of Lincoln the effectiveness of our rehearsals comes down to their willingness and their stories.

Referring to space within performance, I then began to think about the city itself and whether its design aspect restricts our performance in any way: “Architecture controls and limits physical movement and sight-lines; it can stage and frame those who inhabit its spaces” (Pearson, 2010, p.g.21). I found this interesting as I am not sure that we consider this enough when in the space ourselves. As a society I think we are so used to having a conscience of personal space and becoming agitated when we feel this space being intruded. Bringing this back to the idea of architecture and how it perhaps restricts the space for performance, I thought into why new buildings are built and whether this shows representation of our economy and environment. Whether or not it does, quite often buildings tower over our picturesque city, however Site Specific Performance gives us the opportunity to explore these sites inside and out.

Works Cited
Pearson Mike, (2010), Site Specific Performance, Palgrave Macmillan.

In our second attempt at filming, we had with us our canvas which gave us a lot more confidence when approaching people and the opportunity for us and our audience to see our work coming together.

Unplanned, we kept meeting people we knew, mainly fellow students but also, one of our lecturers, who happened to be our first real story of the day. He knew nothing about our performance but was intrigued and proud to see us bringing our work to the streets.

For the first time in our process we had a group of people approach us. As a group, we were all so inspired by their willingness to be involved.

Name: Casey Wright
Email: 09172984@students.lincoln.ac.uk
Title of your Project: “Tell us a story about Lincoln”

Please describe your proposed work in no more than (50 words)
A site specific performance located in different areas of Lincoln, with the city of Lincoln itself and those residing in it as the theme of our piece.

Tell us what you plan to do and provide a sketch of the ideas behind the work (250 words)
We plan to interview members of the public of different ages, cultures and backgrounds to discover what Lincoln means to them through stories that are personal and meaningful of a place in Lincoln. We will use the tools of postcards to help us collect their ideas and carry a large canvas to display this information. We will also photograph willing members of the public holding their postcards. This information will be gathered by spreading across various areas of Lincoln for diversity including the high street and cathedral quarters.

All of this will be filmed and edited showing our process and we plan to incorporate physical theatre in to our work. The physical theatre will reflect the ideas of the public using our bodies to demonstrate movement and maybe even spell out some of the words they have used. This physical theatre will be performed in relatable locations of Lincoln, and included in our final film.

We plan to show our work in a public place for a communal feel. We then hope to encourage the audience to join in with the postcard idea at the end of our film, adding to our canvas which we will have brought with us.

We are also considering filming more footage on the day of the screening however this idea is a work in progress.

Tell us about your target audience, and how your work will interact with them (150 words)
Our target audience is a whole variety of the Lincoln Community, including an assortment of different ages, cultures, backgrounds and occupations.Our audience for the filming will range from locals to students and all the postcards will contain data of their age, occupation and where they are from. We feel this data will help us to get a wide range of material for our film and physical theatre and that their differences will make the film interesting.

As for interaction with the filmed public we will be gathering their ideas and filming/photographing them where applicable. Interaction with the viewers of the screening will involve collecting their thoughts to add to our canvas and perhaps including them in further filming.

When and where do you propose to present your work (location, date and time)
A public place that is accessible to both students and the general public, such as the Tower Bars or The Shed. We are yet to acknowledge the specific date and time as we are unaware of our groups allocated day/time for assessment.

Provide a project timetable detailing key targets and actions between now and the presentation of your work. Include Permissions, Materials, Health and Safety checks where applicable (250 words)
All day Monday’s and wherever possible throughout the week.
We need some footage to show by Monday (5th March).
We want all our filming to be completed before the Easter holidays.
When we return all editing will be completed in time for the performance.
All materials and equipment we need have already been bought.
We will require permission from our chosen venue for screening and are unaware of other permissions needed.
Health and Safety will consist of generally taking care while moving around the city centre. Choosing carefully physical theatre movements so that it does not surpass our skills or strength.

List the equipment and materials you will need to deliver your project (and how you will source them).
Canvas – To display postcards
Postcards – Cutting and printing the design on to them to be done.
Marker pens – For the public to fill in their postcards.
Camera – To film the public (when willing).

Give details of your project budget (though be aware that there is no Module budget so any expenses will, unfortunately, have to be borne by you alone).
We do not have a specific budget and will equally divide the cost of any equipment.

Audience suitability: is there anything in your work we may need to make audiences aware of (e.g. Swearing, nudity, flashing lights etc)?
We may have to warn the audience of swearing depending on the footage we capture of the public.

Include a brief artist’s statement that describes you and your work (100 words).
Our work is about seeing Lincoln through the eyes of a diverse public and what it means to them. It is about looking at Lincoln with fresh eyes and exploring great parts of the city. The public are a central piece of our performance and our direction to follow in terms of the physical theatre. The physical theatre is to highlight these thoughts and feelings and to add some excitement to the film. Our work is multi-disciplinary providing a combination of film, photography, physical theatre and documentary. We hope the viewing audience will question what Lincoln means to them.

As research, I asked my housemates to answer some questions that my tutor suggested we answer as realistically as possible. Although they all have common interests, I was surprised to see the answers varied throughout. The question’s asked were such as: ‘where is the best place in Lincoln to witness true beauty?’ By asking such questions, I was able to get a feel of how a variation of question’s that the public will more than likely never have been asked before will be responded too.

After presenting to our group again we came to realise that maybe our question of: ‘What does Lincoln mean to you?’ may be a little too broad to answer and will more than likely cut us off from expanding our ideas and findings. Therefore, we have changed our question to: ‘Tell us a story about Lincoln’, opening up as much or little information as our audience want to give us.

It is true to say that we were all slightly petrified on our first time filming. It is common knowledge that when people try to stop you in the street, you frequently want to turn the other way. For the first twenty minutes this was true as not one person wanted to hear about our piece, no matter how hard we tried. Finally a trio of 17 year old girls restored our faith. It surprised me how willing they were to talk about the City they lived in, and it was plain to see that whether they admit it frequently or not, they appreciate Lincoln and are more than happy with what it offers them.

Our next participant told us a fascinating story of an old fishmonger’s shop, ‘Macfisheries’ that was situated where The Carphone Warehouse now is. Her story was not covered in history but held personal relevance which we were grateful for.