A short poem that I wrote a while ago seemed to resonate with some of the ideas we discussed. Liz wrote a response to it and we linked it to a text I had written to create a small scene. The text I wrote was a character imagining a relationship with his neighbour who he meets when they are forced to leave their house. Liz wrote two poetic texts that looked at intimacy and despair. The three texts slotted together creating a dream like scene in which two characters are connected but are also separate.

If the World ends….

Death

Forgets life,

Beautiful and exciting with

Accelerating speed,

Carrying hearts full of love

And glory of dreams.

These reasons for living

Give us help to survive,

If the World ends

Survive! To help us give

Living for reasons these

Dreams of glory and

Love of full hearts.

Carrying speed accelerating

With exciting and beautiful

Life, forgets

Death

by Jon Gavaghan

We are concerned with what happens to people when their situations are altered by a natural disaster. We were mainly influenced by the floods in Cumbria in November 09, however the recent earthquake in Haiti has turned this subject on it's head. The tragedy being portrayed in the media at the moment has prompted us to rethink ideas and to really look at how a natural disaster affects people. The main problem with this piece is how to make a work that doesn't patronise the audience or try to recreate actual events or people? What is evident is that natural disasters remind us that we are not alone and that nature is a force that can't be tamed or contained. How can we create a piece that highlights the the power of nature and it's affect on a fragile species?

Electric Arts Club! January scratch

19th January, 2009. The Electric Arts Club scratch night, Brixton.

Photographs by Mafalda Cruz.

January DogStar!

Rehearsal for Dogstar;
So what to do?

Our initial idea began looking at flood and disasters within our society and to what impact that could have on us.
Using performance ideas like; drinking water, holding our breath, re-telling stories of our experiences of water etc. to be the scratch basis to realising this topic.

Though is it too political to say we are doing a performance on disasters?

What is a disaster?

Does it have to be World War III for me to be effected, or can having a powercut in my home shock and make me fear more? Whats going on in our lives... right now?

After talking through ideas of how we could create a performance around this interest, led us quite broadly into researching natural disasters, man made disasters etc. Of every possible event that has taken place, and could still happen. from; 911, Cumbria Floods, earthquakes, erupting volcanoes, Titanic sinking, suicide bombings, tornado's, polar ice caps melting, burning from sunrays, etc.

But what became interesting, was the people that were centre in the middle of these events. Questioning; who are they? What's their story?

What if you were to meet someone you see, but have never spoken to, for the first time because of a disastrous event. What would be your relationship?

Taking this idea of creating relationships within events, exploring how can they last, or are they inevitably to be destroyed as well?

Keeping it simple...


"We are two people,

lost? abandoned? alone?

but we are two people...

So what happens now..."

Dog Star at Brixton!

'Lovely Weather!'

Images from first scratch performance 'Lovely Weather!' at Dog Star venue in Brixton, organised and compared by Steve Laughton, photo's by Geraldine Timmins.

Helloooooooo

Hello well I'm Jon and I am excited to be writing my first blog for ONIZ Performance. I graduated from Bangor University last year with a First in English with Theatre Studies and I am currently undertaking an MA in Advanced Theatre Practice at the Central School of Speech and Drama. As a performer I have mostly been in text based work, however after having some lessons in Corporeal Mime I have gained a new interest in the body and it's capabilities.

As a Practitioner I am interested in creating work that uses words, music, media and movement to create innovative and exciting performances that will leave an audience breathless. Liz and I are currently working on a project that was inspired by the flooding in Cumbria in November of last year. Through research and rehearsals we have devised a short piece that we tried out at the Electric Arts Club based at The Dogstar in Brixton. We are hoping to continue to work on this project and develop it into a scratch performance for late January/early February 2010. Although Liz and I have been working on the initial ideas together we are very open for other Practitioners, Designers, Writers, Directors etc to come onboard.

We will be updating our progress and developments on this blog as both a way of documenting our work and sharing it with others. ONIZ seeks to make work that has been made with blood sweat and tears in order for it to be comic, powerful, honest and inspiring. I am excited at what the future will hold and how our ideas will be put into practice and most of all to reaching an audience that we can connect with and captivate with our work.

Liz Wilks Bio blah!

Hey im Liz Wilks,

I graduated from De Montfort Univeristy with a first in performing arts. Im currently studying Advanced Theatre Practice at Central School of Speech and Drama.

The work I have made previously has been influenced by European Theatre, practitioners such as Pina Bausch and companies Ultima Vez, and London based company Gecko. Their work inspires me to find a new way of exploring contemporary issues through dynamic performance, that mixes raw movement, poetic text and bilingual performers together to create a 'new'; juxtaposing ideas in order to create shocking work that provokes audiences.

This year I aim to use media technology as a medium for aiding and creating performance.... so fingers crossed for the experiments ahead!