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References

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Fractured Identity

The self-identity adapting to different forms and environments displays the concept of a fractured identity. The notion involves the composition of several contradictory identities that are constantly changing and being redefined (Barker 2012, p225). This concept is explored in William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (1601), where Viola must investigate gender attitudes as she dresses as a man to adapt to her contextual and physical surroundings. 

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Social Identity

Social identity explores the way in which we identity ourselves within the world around us. It grabs its foundations through socialisation and acculturation and also tends to ground the subject in a normalised role in society (Barker 2012, p.223). Ray Lawler’s realistic play Summer of the Seventeenth doll reveals socially formed identities in the context of 1950′s Australia. Lawler develops each character as a sum of their social interactions and values of their social world, often signifying various complications. This suggests that a social identity has both positive and negative impacts on not only an individual but also a global world. 

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Creative Identity

Creative identity refers to the fusion of creative influences, filiations and discourse that are represented in a creative practitioner and their work (Hatfield et al 2006, p.43). The process of forming one’s own creative identity can be described as the slow balancing of the relationship between external forces and inner passions. My purpose as an artist is to question humanity and bring challenging issues to the faces of society that both confront and entertain my audience. Elements of the human condition, emotion and what it means to be alive on this earth are all things that I hope to bring to my discipline in a way that may change the theatre process and purpose.  

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Authenticity

Authenticity in a creative context highlights the importance of imperfection of the artist. It values confession and truth as the dominant form of self-expression that places emphasis on truth to and of the self (Brooks 2001, p9). Authenticity also allows for a greater intimacy between the artist and their audience, where the truth of the self may reflect truth of the audience. Eugene Ionesco’s short play The Bald Prima Donna (1950) touches on the notion of authenticity through a satirical outlook on the lives of British civilians post WW2, with the destruction of language and structure within the play being used to accentuate the fake reality that, to Ionesco, contextual British society are conveying.

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Creative Influence

Creative influence reveals that the creative similarities within creative spheres can be related back to the lives and works of multiple creative practitioners (Hassan 1955, p.68). Artists are naturally informed and inspired by the world happening around them and it is almost impossible to develop a creative mind without an investigation and passion for everyday life. My own creative work, a short film titled SOLE was greatly influenced by film director Edgar Wright and specifically his film Scott Pilgrim vs the World. Not only did his film inspire the cinematography used within mine but it also enthused me to connect to a deeper level of editing that heightened the overall meaning of my film.

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Sensory Knowledge

Sensory knowledge investigates the use of all senses to acquire a worldly knowledge through a visceral connection (Howes 2005, p7). A widely explored theory also involves the idea that all streams of worldly knowledge has stemmed from a foundation of sense-experience or sense-data (Craig 1976, p1). Lally Katz’s hyper-realistic play Neighbourhood Watch explores this sensory knowledge through the character of an an elderly Hungarian migrant who uses her experiences of being a little girl in Hungary to explain life issues and bring wisdom to other characters. It is quite popular in the theatre discipline for practitioners to use sensory knowledge as a way of relating to an audience and I think that this is very effective in getting across a message, I hope to use this dynamic in the future 

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Overdetermination

Overdetermination refers to the belief that even the most trivial of behaviours are the focal point of a deeper psychological complexity (Mansfield 2000, p.29). It is exemplified through the suggestion that the unconscious is condensed and displaced within dreams; a naturally overdetermined outlook. This concept is seen in Lee Strasberg’s method acting approach, where he believed that the only way to truly understand a character’s psychological workings an actor must fully immerse themselves into the circumstances of that character (Simon, 2018 para.7). This was successfully executed by Jim Carrey in his approach to playing Andy Kaufmann, in which he strongly felt that every trivial behaviour of Kaufmann’s was part of his deeper psychological development. 

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Unconscious

Freud’s understanding of the unconscious defines it as the separate part of the mind with its own logic that projects un-relatable images into the conscious mind (Mansfield 2000, p.27). The theory suggests that this unconscious mind is suppressed despite being the entity of our true needs and desires and therefore makes its way to the surface through such things as dreams, parapraxes and jokes (Mansfield 2000, p.28). William Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello bases its dramatic controversy and morality on the decision between acting using the unconscious or the conscious mind, in which Othello lets his unconscious thoughts take over until he ultimately murders his wife, an ultimate downfall. Within my own practice I will seek to challenge the complexities of this concept through theatrical direction. 

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Essentialism

Essentialism explores the notion that individual identity is a fixed essence within us that we are called to ‘find’ (Barker 2012, p.221). Furthermore, essentialism suggests that this fixed essence of identity is responsible fro the similarities seen within various categories of life such as women, racial groups, animals and cultures (Gelman 2005, sec.1, par.2). Jane Harrison’s play Stolen explores the notion of being born with one true identity through a focus on the stolen generation and the psychological effects of disassociating them from their deep-rooted indigenous identity. It is a personal belief that an essentialist motif will run throughout my creative practice in theatre.

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Subjectivity

Subjectivity refers to both the human condition of being a subject created from outside cultural processes, as well as the way in which humanity experiences their own subjected selves (Barker 2012, p.220). It suggests that identity is not an inflexible entity, but rather an emotionally saturated and erratic description of self that has been, and will continue to be, subject to change (Barker 2012, p.221). Matt Cameron’s surrealist play Ruby Moon (2003) uses an absurdist lens to explore the effect of grief, cultural paranoia and suburbia on an individual’s identity. Cameron’s revelation that the intensity of our subjection to external processes will mimic the intensity in which we develop various identities solidifies this notion of individuals being a subject.