Script Presentation
Transcript: By Antonia Farrugia-Dunn Script Presentation The Stimulus The stimulus given was a wordle based around the concept of 'change'. The wordle included words such as 'Relationships', 'social', 'care' and 'risk'. When I saw these words, I thought of flipping it upside down and perhaps considering a person who is not social and struggles with taking risks and communicating. I developed this into the idea of doing a performance based on... UNDERSTANDING STEFAN OCD Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Mental Illness is a subject that is commonly explored both in media and onstage, almost everyone is aware of the existence of mental health issues. I believe that performances surrounding mental health can be really interesting, because the audience are given insight into what it is like to have a mental illness, something that they never would have understood otherwise. I decided to write about OCD because although it is a widely known about disorder, it is rarely explored in theatre. OCD On TV, you see lots of programmes about 'obsessive cleaners' and reality shows about people who live with OCD. Because of these programmes many people are lead to believe that OCD is a disorder that makes you want to clean everything all the time, which is not true. OCD is also commonly mocked on social media and on television, many people will pick up a hair from their kitchen counter or close a door that is left open and say "I'm so OCD!" Because of this, the disorder is 'thrown around' and is no longer taken seriously. This is another part of why I wanted to write a script about a character with OCD, so that people can learn to understand that OCD is not an adjective. MEDIA MEDIA My main character, Stefan, starts off the script by 'debunking myths' surrounding OCD, thus teaching the audience a thing or two about the commonly misunderstood disorder. STEFAN STEFAN UNDERSTANDING STEFAN The script fouses on a young man named Stefan, currently in secondary school. On top of peer pressure and exam stress, Stefan has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, which makes his school life ten times harder. Stefan struggles with relationships, communicating with others, being social and taking risks. These were all words that I took from the stimulus that generated ideas for me. THE PLOT THE PLOT PLOT Stefan is the protagonist of the performance, and the audience follow him as he goes about his very 'un-ordinary' day to day life. Stefan is constantly followed by '3 Kids' who can only be seen and heard by him. As the performance goes on it becomes more apparent that the 3 Kids are not just annoying children, but they are actually a part of Stefans mind. The 3 Kids are Stefan's OCD. They say things to him such as "I don't feel good", "Maybe I've caught Ebola" and "What if I didn't sleep enough last night?". The kids cause all sorts of problems for Stefan, giving the audience an idea of how hard it must be to be constantly at war with your own thoughts. About halfway through the scene, Stefan bumps into a girl, Jessica, in the school coridoor and it's almost as if she silences all the voices inside his head. He takes an immidiate liking to her. Jessica seems to be able to look past Stefan's OCD. After a lot of worrying, Stefan asks Jessica out and the scene ends on a high after their sucessful date. THE SET THE SET My set is a huge, hollow cube (similar to the pictures on the right). The entire performance will take place inside the hollow cube. There will be no set used at all apart from the cube. Images and animations will be projected onto the cube during the performance to provide setting and atmosphere. (eg. when Stefan is trying to make a difficult decision, animated question marks are projected onto the inside of the cube and when Stefan is in school, there is a projection of school lockers.) I believe having projections instead of set works well because it means there are no transitions. No transitions means that the scene flows more smoothly. During the exploration period, we explored Steven Berkoff's methods, and his 'physical theatre', my idea to not use any set came partially from Steven Berkoff, who favours using very little set and instead uses movement to get his ideas across. STYLE #1 #2 #3 Performance Style I decided on an abstract performance style because it gives the audience more insight as to what is going on inside Stefan's head. A very naturalistic script would make it look like every other person's everyday life, and would not show the audience what it's like to have a mental disorder. The 3 Kids When the kids carry Stefan to the school nurse Stefan directly adressing the audience How? INSPIRATION INSPIRATION I believe that performances about mental illness are better when they're abstract because it's the best way of illustrating the 'abstractness' of what goes on inside someone's head. People's minds can rarely be expressed accurately in a naturalistic way, simply because our imaginations and thoughts are not naturalistic. A lot of Why
Prezi Present
Prezi Video
Prezi Design
