Admittedly, I started with little or no idea what to even start thinking about in terms of a performance. The very first idea I had was rather large and very vague:
– audience participation
Whilst thinking about ideas that would be better and could have some metaphorical meaning, I came up with two relatively strong ideas:
– The preconceptions/clichés/stereotypes of a drama student
– What really is OCD?
The idea about the clichés, etc. of what it is to be a drama student I thought would just be a fun idea to explore. It would be fun to explore why we get the stereotype of acting like a tree or why one of the first references to Shakespeare is ‘Alas, poor Yorick’?
However, my idea about what really is OCD came from a book I am currently reading, a fictional book called Am I Normal Yet? by Holly Bourne. The book focuses around the central character of Evie who has just gone back to school after having been in rehabilitation. She just wants to fit in at school and hopes nobody discovers her extreme OCD, or fear of contamination. My idea for a performance came from one of the chapters in the book where she is cleaning quite profusely: cleaning her room and herself. As simple as it is, my initial idea for my performance involves me cleaning a bedroom set up in one of the studios. Part way through I would stop, but then say my thoughts aloud: ‘Oh, oh no. I can’t stop, in this time I’ve stopped cleaning dust has fallen and dust is made from human skin and other people have been in this and other peoples skin might have germs on it and I could breathe that in and get sick and die.’
From what I gather from reading the book, these are along the lines of what she would be thinking. However, I do realise that much research is required in this field to be able to get an understanding of what it is like to have OCD this serious. By how much I have thought about it, it would appear which of my ideas would be the best route to take: an exploration of OCD.