Making Amends

This week is the deadline to learn lines for the Drama Group. I have made amends to make sense of the changes of topic and introduce the more esoteric content / devices. I realised that my character - The MC - or MICHAEL - is undeveloped and it is difficult to know who I am speaking as and to. I am now more of a narrator - talking about the process and guiding the audience through the performance as well as speeches. I am always blurring the line between me as performer and me as a person. Me as an ex-member of the Drama Group and me as an ex-member of the Church on Rise Park. I introduce each act as the MC with a reference to the fact that I have been to Weddings / Christenings / Funerals here before. The site is rich with cognitive memory. I was confirmed here. My brother was baptised here. His funeral was here. I found and lost my faith here. This self-as-source device is embedded in my practice, working from autobiographical experience to create new narratives. In this project in particular, the lines between the self and the pretend self seem to be merging more readily. The presence of pretence creates a tension between the real and the fictional, the off stage and the onstage. I have found myself reimmersing myself in the church community, the coffee mornings, the network, the newsletter, seeing old faces in old places, being a member of the Drama Group. I am making amends.