Political Performance Evaluation- The closure of libraries

Political Performance and Rehearsal 

The closure of libraries is a huge issue that is impacting the country. You don't have to be a bookworm to feel the force that this is will be and is having on our society. This was therefore the main focus and epicentre of our performance.

"Library campaigners accuse the government of "hiding" the scale of cuts which they predict will force the closure of a further 400 UK libraries by 2016, bringing the total of library closures since 2009 to more than 1,000." Is just one quote from an article abut Library closures. It is shocking to see that so may people's access to education being ruined and taken away from them.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jul/12/library-campaigners-1000-closures-2016 



Clara Brennan's play Spine was a key stimulus for us. Spine is the story of Amy, a teenager who suspects she might have been relegated to life’s rubbish heap, and Glenda, the fierce old woman with whom she strikes up an unlikely friendship. In a house stacked with books stolen from the dismantled local library, Glenda educates Amy with literature of all kinds. This just highlights the importance of writings which were only accessible from the library and the doors that they can open. We followed the story of Amy's development throughout our performance in the library. I feel like this was done successfully as the audience whilst travelling through our piece also travelled with Amy and her own journey. By having different people play Amy it was symbolic as it showed that Amy is a representation of the youth of society and someone of working class, this is a clear Brechtian technique and also it meant that the audience didn't invest in the emotional story of Amy but more on the message of the piece; this alienation is an extension of the V-effect as talked before previously.

My favourite book is The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, (I liked it before it was cool). For me The Hunger Games symbolized something so unimaginable and horrible and Katniss Everdeen was the golden light in the darkness. She was everything I thought being a woman was about, she was strong, selfless, family-orientated but she wasn't perfect. She had a temper and was emotional but it was who she was. I enjoyed talking to people about the books as I think everyone has their own calling from different literature and it shapes who they are and people use book characters to help them through life.
 

Another stimulus was the Nazi Book Burning which we then developed into a scene. On the 10th May 1933 the 'finest' students in Germany came together to burn books that were seen as 'un-German'. The burning of books is a powerful thing. Filtering the knowledge that people can take in and almost playing God in the sense of teaching people what they want to hear. This isn't much different than destroying libraries. By stopping the access of education from certain people is just lengthening the gap between different classes and people in society. This will split communities into who can afford education and who can't. Therefore doing a piece on Nazi book burning is relating the closure to a dark time in history.

The response to the book burnings was immediate and widespread. Counter demonstrations took place in New York and other American cities, including Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Chicago. Journalists in the American and world press expressed shock and dismay at these attacks on German intellectual freedom, and various authors wrote in support of their assaulted German brethren. Artists, writers, doctors, and other intellectuals fled Germany, prompted by the barbarity of the book burnings and by continuing acts of Nazi persecution.

Such barbarity was just the beginning, however. One can see in retrospect how the book burnings and other steps to remove “Jewish influence” from German institutions foreshadowed much more catastrophic Nazi plans for the Jews of Europe. Eerily, among the books consigned to the flames in 1933 were the works of the nineteenth century Jewish poet Heinrich Heine, who in 1822 penned the prophetic words, “Where they burn books, they will, in the end, burn human beings too.”

I watched a video of this on youtube which I found deeply moving

 I thought that our scene with the Nazi book burning was reasonably successful as I think visually it appeared strong and as if we were shining a light on the issues at hand as well as representing Nazi torches.  Even though we were playing the role of Nazi Youth I think as well as that, the marching showed that we were united, giving the sense of a process and uprising. A power against something bigger than us, this links in nicely with the line from Spine, "There's nothing scarier than a teenager with something to say." 

My main role was to play Mrs Wormwood from Matilda by Roald Dahl. To keep in line with the pivotal theme of books and libraries, I did some research on quotes from Matilda for this:

“The books transported her into new worlds and introduced her to amazing people who lived exciting lives. She went on olden-day sailing ships with Joseph Conrad. She went to Africa with Ernest Hemingway and to India with Rudyard Kipling. She travelled all over the world while sitting in her little room in an English village.”
― Roald Dahl, Matilda

“So Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone.”
― Roald Dahl, Matilda

“All the reading she had done had given her a view of life that they had never seen.”
― Roald Dahl, Matilda

“From then on, Matilda would visit the library only once a week in order to take out new books and return the old ones. Her own small bedroom now became her reading-room and there she would sit and read most afternoons, often with a mug of hot chocolate beside her.
― Roald Dahl, Matilda

“A girl should think about making herself look attractive so she can get a good husband later on. Looks is more important than books, Miss Hunky..."
"The name is Honey," Miss Honey said.
"Now look at me," Mrs Wormwood said. "Then look at you. You chose books. I chose looks.”
― Roald Dahl, Matilda

“With frightening suddenness he now began ripping the pages out of the book in handfuls and throwing them in the waste-paper basket.

Matilda froze in horror. The father kept going. There seemed little doubt that the man felt some kind of jealousy. How dare she, he seemed to be saying with each rip of a page, how dare she enjoy reading books when he couldn't? How dare she?”
― Roald Dahl, Matilda

“This allowed her two glorious hours sitting quietly by herself in a cozy corner, devouring one book after another. When she had read every single children's book in the place, she started wandering round in search of something else.”
― Roald Dahl, Matilda

We soon had to create a scene to show to the audience. Using the quotes and the characters that I myself had come to love (and hate!) I wrote the following scene:

Matilda sitting amongst piles of books. Mr Wormwood storms in.

Mr Wormwood: Hey kid. Any packages today?

Matilda: I left them in the garage with all your other stolen car parts. 

Mr Wormwood: Now don't mock me, your father is making a business. [notices books] Where did all of these come from? Did you steal them? [looks happy]

Matilda: No, they're from the library-

Mr Wormwood: -The library?! You've never set foot in a library you're only 4 years old

Matilda: 6 and a half 

Mr  Wormwood: You're 4

 Matilda: 6 and a half

Mr Wormwood: If you were 6 and a half you'd be in school!

Matilda: I want to go to school!

Mr Wormwood: Come here! [drags Matilda to living room]

[Mrs Wormwood sits painting her nails]

Mr Wormwood: [Plonks Matilda in chair] Now sit here and watch TV

[Matilda clutches on to her book tightly and looks at the screen. Mrs Wormwood gives Mr Wormwood a TV dinner and kisses his cheek.] 

Mrs Wormwood: [nearly sits on Matilda] Oh my I didn't even notice you were there Matilda

 Matilda: You never do

Mrs Wormwood: Now be quiet it's time for Sticky Money! I love this show!

[silly gameshow is on TV Mr Wormwood laughs with mouthful of food and Mrs Wormwood cackles. Matilda opens book and reads. Mrs Wormwood clocks on and alerts Mr Wormwood with a poke or cough of some-sort]

Mrs Wormwood: Why on Earth are you reading?!

Matilda: Because contrary to your belief, I find books more entertaining and I learn so much from it. Since you wont let me go to school I have to find another way of educating and entertaining myself. 

Mr Wormwood: Don't talk to your mother like that! Who needs a book when you have everything that you could possibly want on a 12-inch screen!

Mrs Wormwood: What is that crap you're reading anyway?

Matilda: Moby Dick

Mr Wormwood: Moby who?!

Matilda: The librarian said-

Mrs Wormwood: [ cuts off Matilda] see that librarian Matilda?! She made mistakes. Look at her and then look at me. She chose books and I chose looks. A girl your age should be trying to look good for your future husband. 

Matilda: I'm 6 and a half

Mr Wormwood: Listen you little rodent, books aren't important and you're wasting your time on some puny little words when pure enjoyment is right here! Now spend time with your family. 

Matilda: Why would I want to spend time with you guys? Dad you're a bad man who cheats people for their money and lies to their faces to make a profit that Mum ends up spending down at the casino because she has a gambling problem and you're both so obsessed with money you don't care about your only daughter who from a few months old you practically abandoned. So to me books are important and take me away from the fact that I have to live with you. 

Mr Wormwood: [takes the book from Matilda's hands and tears pages as he says:] I'm big, you're small. I'm smart,you're dumb. I'm right you're wrong and there's nothing you can do about it!

As a group we worked well to get the staging of the scene to look comfortable and natural, taking our audience's attention to Matilda and her love of books. At first our characterisation was weaker than it should have been, sometimes I found myself forgetting that this is a Brechtian piece of theatre and that my very naturalistic acting would come through. Originally I found Stanislavskian techniques easier to perform with but after our continuous work on Bertolt Brecht I found a fondness and eventual familiarity with his work. I had to work on creating big gestures and characterisation but after a while I found this easier to do. 

I'd like to think that our scene was a success as we communicated the lack of respect for Matilda and our dysfunctional family which was the epicentre for her turning to libraries. I did find that we had a tough crowd who didn't seem to engage with our comedy which was a bit disappointing. At one point a new line 'FOUR!' that we incorporated my partner forgot, I think this made the emphasis on the fact we didn't know her age fall in power and prominence. I think with a bit more practice we could have been slicker as I felt that our scene was edited quite a few times.

We did a scene with Malala Yousafazai. The prominance of us (The Taliban) shooting Malala with books showed how education could be used as a weapon and I think that our synchronisation was effective as well. The facts about females in education were powerful as well as I find that we very often live in our own little bubble in the world as a MEDC (more economically developed countries) where we forget that there are so many people deprived of education. This video shows Malala talking about how it's not just terrorism that causes a lack of education amongst girls. 

This article shows how Malala who had an access to education from a young age wrote a diary about education. This just shows that with education it can give someone the power to have the confidence to write things ad removing libraries in the UK can deprive people of that extra confidence. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23241937  

Overall I feel that our piece definitely told people about the concern of the closure of libraries. I think we used the space of the library and foyer well and I'm proud of the work that we have pulled off.  With the scenes from Spine I felt like they should have been maybe closer together or perhaps should of had a bigger focus on them as the meaning and importance of them got slightly lost during the piece as a whole as the audience was often moving around and their attention was often pulled to different places. I felt that everyone who played Amy did it really well as they shared characteristics of her and Glinda similarly. I found that their pieces of text were refreshing and they all breathed life and empathy into the role. With the Nazi book burning I felt that visually it looked strong and empowered but I felt as if the audience was't really focussing on what was being said. The moments when we spoke together were grasping and I think naming the authors was prominent as it showed how the books were burnt as we placed our hands down afterwards and that meant less lights were shown and less hope. My Matilda scene I feel went well, some of the audience said that it was their favourite part. I feel like we brought a different energy to the piece as it was very Bechtian and over the top and the pace was fast compared to the previous scenes. I do feel that although we tried to bring a comedic element to it, and our classmates gave us a good response, the audience of our performance was a bit cold and didn't really laugh at our performance which is a bit discouraging but in true professionalism we didn't let this affect us and I think our characterisation was really clear and well communicated and our feedback from rehearsals was taken on board. I didn't get to watch the individual pieces of the public's opinion at the performance night but I heard that there was a mistake when people started talking at the same time, this would have really distorted the messages as the audience might not hear everyone's part, in the future I think that is something that they should work on . In our Malala scene I thought that the scene itself was strong but could have had a bit more energy as responding to our audience I felt like they needed to receive a bit more energy. But ultimately as a piece of political theatre I felt as if  the message about libraries closing down was extremely prominent and current on a relevant political issue.  It changed my perception and awareness on libraries and I really hope that it did for the audience as well. 

The Library...a place of power.