So in the beginning, I started out with little to no idea what I wanted to perform and, if I look back at how far I’ve come over this module, I would say that in three years, this is the one piece that I’m most proud of. I know, I know, sounds soppy to say it, but it’s true; with help from Martin, my piece has come a long way. In fact I think it’s important to note how much my piece has changed.
I came in to one workshop with two ideas, one based on Asperger’s Syndrome and OCD and the other associated with making music. This second idea of making music I partly wish I’d gone with as it would have let me be creative with my own musical talents. However, OCD is a mental condition that has interested me for a while, and after reading Holly Bourne’s book Am I Normal Yet? I discovered new viewpoints on OCD that I’d never considered before. It was these new viewpoints which inspired to me to look more at OCD over Asperger’s, despite the fact I took on inspiration from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time in the earlier stages of my process.
After this, one of my first ideas was to be a person with OCD saying everything that was wrong with those who say they have OCD but really, they don’t – hence the extract from Am I Normal Yet? I felt that challenging the things that people said was OCD but actually wasn’t was a good road to go down. However, with Spalding Gray as a massive influence on style, I’ve gone down the route of being a person with OCD giving a talk on OCD. By giving the impression of someone who has OCD, it would be as though I have personal experience of OCD. Although I personally don’t, I have done a good amount of research so I do know what I am talking. Included in my research was looking at those who’ve had/got OCD and looked at their lives and stories and their individual personalities with their OCD. A couple of these I reference in my performance.
I think it would be important to reference real peoples experiences rather than make up my own, although I do do this but using the stereotypical ideologies of what OCD is.