During our third and final year of uni, one of the modules it included was Independent Project. Here, you work independently to create a performance of what you like and do research around it for your dissertation. My performance, From Normanton to Birmingham, explored letters. In February 2017, my Grandma sadly passed away and when my Father and his siblings were clearing out her bungalow, they came across three shoe boxes full of letters. When me and my family started reading these letters, I came to the conclusion that this was a story that needed to be heard. The way people met in 1957 was so differently to how people meet nowadays. As Simon Garfield explains: “Letters have the power to grant us a larger life. They reveal motivation and deepen understanding.” (Garfield, 2015). You get to know a lot about a person through letters with how they write and their dialect. I never met my Grandad but reading these letters allowed me to get to know him the same way my Grandma did. Adapting these letters for stage was the main hurdle for the performance but after reading Love Letters, a play by A. R. Gurney (1989), I came to the realisation that little to no action helps the audience listen and fully understand the letters. I did add in a little action for as if we were reading and writing the letters themselves to try and show my Grandparents as to how they were, or might’ve reacted. Take a look at the first performance on the 12th March 2018 below.
Bibliography:
Garfield, S. (2015) To The Letter [Internet] Available From http://www.simongarfield.com/pages/books/to_the_letter.htm [Accessed February 27th 2018]
Gurney, A. (1989) Love Letters. Dramatists Play Service, Inc.