Last Friday (day before yester-day) we in the IB Drama class of the Cleveland High School recieved a sheet of paper with five topics (five stimuli, if you will) and were given the instructions that in about a month, each of us must have a PRACTICAL PERFORMANCE PROPOSAL for one of the stimuli. What the PPP is is a plan for a performance piece with elements of theatre, but not necessarily existng within the confines of a theater. “Remember TBA?” Oh yes. We remember Portland’s Time-based Art fest. Let’s try not to repeat some of those, hm? (I’m lookin’ at you, Carter. You and your Erased James Franco. It’s not that I don’t like you, it’s just that your guarde is a little too avant for my taste.)
My stimulus is Lewis Carroll’s famous (infamous?) poem Jabberwocky and why shouldn’t it be? It’s my favourite poem, bar none. And surely there is a statement made there, considering I’ve read a few poems in my day.
There should probably definitely be some flying winged creatures suspended above the audience at times. And borogoves! And a bandersnatch! Calloo callay indeed.
Kicki said,
November 29, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Fellow IB-student!
Im from student from sweden that have chosen that stimuli as well.
Bounce ideas perhaps? I am not really familiar with this peom but I thought about doing something about overcoming obstacles, something surealistic and absurd…
Just contact me via email if u like…
/Kicki
doctorcurran said,
December 9, 2009 at 3:46 am
Hello, fellow IB student!
I apologize for my absence from the blog, but it’s neat that you contacted me! My instructor actually informed me recently that this can’t be my stimulus because I am so well acquainted with it. Sadness. But your idea about overcoming obstacles with absurdism is a good one. I don’t know if I would recommend much research into the poem because all of the words do have meaning. This is a double-edged sword because it might restict what your notions of a dramatic piece are. Jabberwocky is wonderful because, as Alice said in Through the Looking-Glass, “Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas–only I don’t exactly know what they are!”
I will attempt to assist you with this project if you’d like (and if I get on the internet).
~Curran