Planning, Production and Research - March 13th

There are many things that have to be considered when coming up with the final interpretation of your characters. One of them is research. For my performance, especially being a sensitive topic that it is revolving around suicide. This can now link to what the first research point is about what the performance is about and how it originated. As mine was mainly devised, it was originally inspired by Slender Man who is seen as an iconic horror figure but will be researched more in depth as we break down the scene of both my characters and how the Pillow man acts as someone who assists the suicide or can be seen as therapy. This then links to the second research point on what therapy is and how it can benefit a person and the different types of therapy there are for different cases such as mental illnesses. The way that this is gong to be researched is through an interview/therapy session with a therapist to explore what actually happens when someone is put in to therapy and how it allows them to express themselves to someone who just listens and gives advice just like the Pillow man. This then leads to research about the different types of mental illnesses and how they may be caused and what side effects of having a mental illness can cause.

Murder can be considered to happen due to mental illness which links to my character of Jake and the fact that he murdered his whole family and becomes insane. Usually when one is to go insane, some jump to the conclusion of suicide to terminate the guilt after the deed is done which is integrated in to my character. However, as I am playing two characters, I have to make sure that their personalities do not mix, so I intend to research the culture and go deeper in to creating a back story for the character and how they got in to the scene in that moment in time on stage. Due to the fact that I intend to research to help build a solid foundation of a back story for my character, this may also influence the clothing they wear on a daily basis or if it is dedicated to the day of the suicide. Furthermore, this can help expose the character's personality and why they think suicide is the solution. So this results in having to research split personalities which I may explore by living a day as them. This can also lead to the point where research is made to find articles relating to certain situations in the play to help benefit us when it comes to putting the final pieces to the scenes. Although these research points are very important, one is the key to getting the correct audience to come to watch the piece - market research. I need to research those who are typically interested inn watching this piece as it is sensitive some due to the nature of its topic.