Into the unknown

The gentle swaying of the boat, the ripple of the waves. It’s almost hypnotic, like the ocean itself is trying to comfort me…or lull me into a false sense of security.

My character, Jen, uses fantasy as a way of coping with anxiety and feeling overwhelmed. It is escapism for Jen. In Jen’s fantasy world, she is a knight and goes on many adventures. She has battled many monsters, including dragons and wyverns. Now, she is embarking on her next quest, to rescue Princess Maisy from a tower and defeat a huge Sea Serpent. Jen’s fantasy scenes echo with what is happening in the real world. Jen develops a crush on a woman called Maisy, so she includes her in her fantasies by making her a princess. The need to save Princess Maisy reflects Jen’s feelings of inadequacy and feeling like a coward most of the time. Jen the Knight’s persona is that of a fearless person who loves adventures and never makes mistakes. This reflects Jen feeling like she is not good enough. The Sea Serpent represents anxiety. It surfaces right near Jen’s boat, causing huge waves, violently rocking the boat. Jen struggles to stay afloat, so she turns the boat, trying to get away from The Sea Serpent, only to be knocked under the water by a huge tidal wave. This represents anxiety interfering with Jen’s life in the real world. In the vlog below, I experiment with the staging for the fantasy scenes.

Further into my rehearsal process, the scene changed from having two chairs as the boat to instead using lighting to create the fantasy world. I will have a type of spotlight, called a Special, which boxes me in. This will work better as there is now no set to move, making the transition smoother and it pulls the audience right into Jen’s imagination. With the rest of the stage in darkness, all the focus will be on Jen in her fantasy world.

I did some research into devising theatre to help me in my creative process. I found a useful exercise in Anne Bogart's and Tina Landau's book The Viewpoints Book A Practical Guide to Viewpoints and Composition. Whenever I was feeling stuck, I would refer back to an exercise in this book called The Basic Building Blocks for Devised Work. This exercise consists of three main components, which are The Question, The Anchor, and The Structure. The Question (or theme) motivates the entire process. The Anchor is a person or event that serves as a vehicle to get to the question. The Structure is a way to organize time, information, text, and imagery. (Bogart and Landau, 2014). My version of this exercise looks like this:

The Question/theme- a young person overcoming the daily challenges of living with anxiety. Letting people with anxiety know that they are stronger than they realise. To make people with anxiety feel seen and let them know that they are not alone in their battle.

The Anchor- Jen, a twenty-one year old who has anxiety and social anxiety.

The Structure- a series of vignettes of Jen’s life, showing her in situations like sitting on the bus, hiding at university, and going to the beach. The vignettes are chronological and they show Jen’s anxiety slowly start to get worse, until she finally builds up the courage to face her fears.

Bibliography

Landau, A. B. a. T., 2014. The Viewpoints Book A Practical Guide to Viewpoints and Composition. 1st ed. London: Nick Hern Books.