Jumping on Me Stunts my Growth
Jumping On Me Stunts My Growth
Throughout this entire drama a person will be positioned in a cage suspended at the top front of the stage (Appendix 1) and will sign all dialogue of the presentation with hands outside of bars. Throughout this play dual roles have also been used and will be denoted by a slash eg. Woman/director. All entering and exiting of stage by actors will be done as a death march unless specified differently.
“The Thin Ice” (Appendix ¬A) is played as the start of the drama, at the end it starts to fade as the director/woman walks centre stage, the song continues to play underneath the didactic statement.
Dircector What matters is individual existence, subjectivity, individual freedom and choice. Individualism reigns when deciding questions of morality and truth. You must accept the risk and responsibility of your actions. Choose a goal and follow it with passionate conviction aware of the certainty of death and the ultimate meaning or meaninglessness of your life. Stand aware that human situation is absurd.
Episode 1
Group onto stage and forms single line behind woman/director. Group speaks all of their parts in monotone. Underlined parts of woman/director are to be said robotically her other parts are to be said with exaggerated expression.
Woman: Occuring in specified living conditions
Group: Existence
Woman: precedes indispensable qualities or elements
Group: essence
Woman: and has primacy over indispensable qualities or elements
Group: essence.
Woman: Man is a with mental faculties aware or awake
Group: conscious
Woman: subject, not a thing to be predicted or handled or managed in a skilful or cunning way
Group: manipulated.
Woman He exists as a with mental faculties aware or awake
Group: Conscious
Woman: being, not in accordance with any definition, essence, generalisation or system. Existentialism is nothing but your own conscious existence.
Episode 2
“Another Brick in the Wall” (Appendix B) plays as Group and woman leave and Keith Haring 1 and 2 enter. The song stops as soon as they are in place. Positioning (Appendix C)
K1 & K2 I am a Keith Haring born in 1958
K1 I am not a beginning. I am not an end. I am a link in a chain. The strength of which depends on my own contribution as well as the contributions of those before and after me.
K2: The meaning of art as it is experienced by the viewer, not the artist. The artist’s ideas are not essential to the art as seen by the viewer. The viewer is an artist in the sense that he conceives a given piece of his own way that is unique to him. His own imagination determines what it is, what it means. The viewer does not have to be considered during the conception of the art but should not be told, then, what to think or how to conceive it or what it means. There is no need for definition.
The last half of the song is repeated as Keith 1 and 2 leave stage.
Episode 3
¼’s cartwheel on stage and position as in (Appendix D).
1st 1/4 : (said monotonously) Good and happy existence to anyone who can be bothered to take the time and listen to my dribble, I’m a woman and this is my view. In a world where we are slowly losing our personal liberties, our freedoms, our privacy, our ability to govern ourselves through our own hearts and souls, it is time to make a stand. Its not about the right to smoke dope it’s about the right to watch what we want, go where we want and think for ourselves. To choose our own drug of choice, as it were.
2nd 1/4: (said expressively) So I’m here among the merrily stoned masses, to raise my voice against increasing breaches of civil liberties. For as long as we follow the Buddhist creed, “harm none”, then as adults we should be allowed to live as we wish without being monitored, intimidated, sniffed, bombarded with junk mail, subliminally manipulated by ads or censored.
3rd 1/4 (said melodramatically/over the top) But who says that watching someone having sex is more or less offensive than watching Hannibal Lecter eat someone’s brain? And by whose standards is smoking cancer sticks or getting drunk to the point of violence less of an offence than taking a drag of a joint?
4th ¼ (said eloquently) I’ve long favoured the motto: Education, not legislation. As a society, we need guidance from our respected peers then to be left in privacy to make our own heartfelt choices, as long as they harm none.
All ¼’s fall to the ground intertwine and then slither off stage to 1st verse of Empty Spaces (Appendix E)
Episode 4
Presenter walks onto stage centre front. Position in (Appendix F). When Boy and You enter they bring their respective chair and box.
Presenter Welcome to the show where Anxiety, Anguish and uneasiness is the name of the game. Drumroll. Enter the three pubescent’s. Stop centre stage. Girl walk and sit a position 1. Boy walk and sit on chair at position 2 and You walk and stand on box at position 3. Today’s statement is, Anguish is the dread of the nothingness of human existence. Existentialists agree with certain streams of thought in Judaism and Christianity. They believe that human existence is fallen and is lived in suffering, sin, guilt and anxiety. Existentialists reject happiness, enlightenment, optimism and the general sense of well being. It is naive and foolish denying the despairing and tragic aspect of human existence. True or False. But before Boy, Girl and You answer this statement we will move to a commercial break.
Stage darkens and focus is on screen where person is talking every first line and sings every alternate.
Advertiser To Swiff, or not to Swiff: that is the question:
Tis better to swiff in my mind than to mop
But it’ll really cost you a fortune,
But seen it doesn’t affect whether you die or sleep…
Actually you’re better off forgetting about it
Forget the heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That this decision will leave your flesh
You won’t be able to afford it anyway
So you’ll only be able to wish, die and sleep
To sleep- perchance to dream: ay there’s the swiff,
But don’t bother with that either
For in that sleep of death your swiff won’t come
Swiffer the wonder the mop!!!!!
That’s not a mop at all.
Screen fades out as spotlight grows on Boy
Episode 5
Presenter Boy speak now. What is your answer?
Boy Absurdity- I am my own existence but this existence is absurd. It is inexplicable and wholly absurd. When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after the little space I fill, and even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of space of which I am ignorant and which knows me not, I am frightened, and am astonished at being her rather than there, why now rather than then. Absurdity… Absurdity… Absurdity… Absurdity… Absurdity… Absurdity… Absurdity… Absurdity… Absurdity…
The word Absurdity is echoed softer each time till it fades. Spotlight fades while the word is repeated and the word only stops after the woman who has entered the stage is in place at front centre stage. The screen displays the number when she says it and a huge dong rings for each number.
Woman One! (one dong)
O man, take care!
Two! (two dongs)
What does the deep midnight declare?
Three! (three dongs)
“I was asleep -
Four! (four dongs)
“From a deep dream I awoke and swear:
Five! (five dongs)
“The world is deep,
Six! (six dongs)
“Deeper than day had been aware.
Seven! (seven dongs)
“Deep is its woe;
Eight! (eight dongs)
“Joy – deeper yet than agony:
Nine! (nine dongs)
“Woe implores: Go!
Ten! (ten dongs)
“But all joy wants eternity -
Eleven! (eleven dongs)
“Wants deep, wants deep eternity.”
Twelve! (twelve dongs)
“This is the first day of my last days (softly)
INSANE (yelled)
Episode 6
Woman exits as spotlight is shifted to girl.
Presenter Speak now girl. Your answer comes forth.
Girl Nothingness… Void. If no essence defines me as an existentialist. I must reject everything ( philosophies, sciences, political theories, religions)
Voices echo underlined words throughout the rest of her piece.
Girl Which fail to reflect my existence as conscious being and attempt to impose a specific essentialist structure upon me and my world, then there’s nothing that structures my world. I stand in anguish at the edge of the abyss. I am my own existence, but my existence is nothingness. I am without anything to structure my world, I look into emptiness and the void, hovering over the abyss in fear trembling and living a life of dread.
Spotlight fades as lady enters centre front stage and white wash proceeds as a boy holding a small plastic cube joins her.
Episode 7
Said with only emphasis on the underlined words while keeping expressionless faces.
Lady Boy what are you doing?
Boy I’m just looking out the window lady
Lady What a stupid thing to do boy?
Boy What looking out the window, lady?
Lady Boy what are you looking for?
Boy Lady I’m not sure
Lady You won’t find anything boy!
Boy There’ll be something lady!
Lady Boy don’t talk garbage
Boy Lady haven’t you ever looked outside
Lady I haven’t needed to boy
Boy But there’s things you’ll never see lady
Lady There’s nothing I need to find boy all I need is in here
Boy Lady haven’t you ever thought about what’s outside?
Lady Boy my grandmother didn’t , my mother didn’t I haven’t and you’re my child so you shouldn’t either
Boy Lady you can’t stop me
Lady But society can boy
Boy It doesn’t have the right
Whitewash fades to spotlight on You as Lady and Boy exit stage.
Episode 8
Presenter You sit down. Talk. What is your answer.
You I am filled with anxiety when I permit myself to be aware that my final nothingness is death. The unaware person tries to live as if death is not actual, trying to escape reality. But if I take death into my life, acknowledge it, face it squarely I will fee myself from eh anxiety of death. Only then will I become free to be myself.
Spotlight shifts to presenter
Presenter Thou perceivest the flowers put forth their precious odours, and noe can tell from how small a centre comes such sweet. Forgetting that within that centre Eternity expands it’s ever during doors
Blackout, all exit and take props of with them but they are seen through an infra red camera projected on to the screens. The song Closer is heard. (Lyrics in Appendix G) Following movement sequence is also seen on projection through infra-red. Figure and four people re-enter stage forming positions in (Appendix H). Figure stands tall and four people throw punches, Figure doesn’t move. People start to push her moving around in circles. Figure stands tall. People scratch her changing their level and pace. They all place their hands on her head and shoulders and try to pull her down. She doesn’t move until the walk to the Four Corners. Figure falls to knees and people rush back and kick her until she’s lying on the ground then take positioning as in (Appendix I).
Dual roles are played by Figure/Teacher, and each one of the “four people” play dual roles as Student 1, 2, 3 and 4.
Episode 9
White wash to find 4 children in a circle with teacher in middle (Appendix I). Under lying this scene are songs from The Wall by Pink Floyd. A central figure (Teacher is standing in the middle signing what the students are saying.) Movement sequence which accompanies text (Appendix J)
Student 1 Society molds individuals to think in particular ways. It is rare for someone to defy it’s aimless influence.
Student 2 Aimlessness can be defied only by having an aim. It must not be a pursuit of one’s emotions and whims or an arbitrary goal one chooses. The only goal left is to pursue, which is to find purpose.
Student 3 A person who defies society is called an impartial. The essence is to follow logic alone. A philosophy of wanting nothing. Open to anything which may appear aimless.
Student 4 It is that either there is a goal or there isn’t. If there is none, it doesn’t matter what we do. The case is covered no matter what. Impartials are interested in cases in which there is purpose. Impartiality cannot be learned.
Student 1 It is difficult to attain impartiality, the difficulty arises not from having to grasp difficult concepts but from trying to rid oneself from distractions and the many flawed views around us.
After the last tumble turn, all of the students still lying flat on their backs turn anti-clockwise so that their legs are at the teachers feet, they all lift their backs up and hold hands with the opposite person around the teachers legs.(Appendix K)
Student 1 I am the teacher
Student 2 Why am I the teacher?
Student 3 I don’t want to be the teacher
Student 4 Why can’t I be taught?
Teacher Meaningless! Meaningless! say’s the teacher. Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless, all things are wearisome more than one can say. What has been will be again, There is no remembrance of men of old and those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.
Fade to focus on projection screen of a silhouette talking with “In the Flesh” as background music (Appendix L). The silhouette will be a live projection from the back of the theatre in the aisle. The only thing lighting the man will be the exit sign above the door behind him and the lights on the ground showing the aisle. Positioning of silhouette (Appendix M).
Episode 10
Silhouette Nothing is so important to man as his existence; nothing so much to be feared as eternity. And therefore it is quite unnatural that there should be men indifferent to the loss of their being and to the of an eternity of misery. They think quite otherwise of everything else; they fear the smallest things, they anticipate them, they suffer from them; and the same man who passes so many days and nights in rage and despair over the loss of a place or for some imaginary slight on his honour, that same man knows without anxiety or emotion that he will lose everything at his death. It is a monstrous thing to see this strange sensibility about small things, existing side by side in the same heart at the same time.
While focus is still on screen woman and man walk onto stage and bring chairs and position as in (Appendix N), spotlight is then focused on woman when silhouette finishes monologue.
Episode 11
Woman : Alienation.
Is inevitable but you must take it on board and strive to disassemble it. We are hemmed in by a world of things which are opaque to us and which we cannot understand. Estranged from human institutions, we feel we aren’t part of them and can’t understand their workings. Shut out form history, we don’t have a sense of having roots in a meaningful past or moving towards a meaningful future. Don’t Belong.
Past
Present
Future
All personal human relations poisoned! by feelings of alienation from any other. Alienation and hostility within the family. Between!
Parents and Children. Between! Appendix O
Husband and Wife. Between! Appendix P
Children. Between! Appendix Q
Affects all social and work relationships. Between!
Dominates relationships of love. Between!
Visuals Appear on screen when a)parents and children b)husband and wife c) children are said. Total whitewash as woman returns to seat.
Episode 12
Woman from previous scene becomes Girl and Man becomes Presenter. Young Man walks on stage while saying his part, he finishes when he gets to centre front stage and leaves again silently.
Young Man Today’s music test consists of only one question. What album has been on Billboard’s pop charts for over 1194 weeks? If you didn’t immediately answer, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, then we can only assume that you spent the last quarter-century locked in a closet. How can you account for the enduring magic of Dark Side? Why has this one album captured the imagination of 4 generations of music fans? And what’s the story behind the new release Bright Side of the Sun by Zodiac Blue? (spoken intellectually)
Presenter Presenters turn to speak. What created your desire to respond to an album like Dark Side of the Moon?
Girl Like millions of other people around the world, I felt very dark and intense emotions about
life after hearing the album. What I’m saying is that there is an opposite way to look at things. The Bright Side is – find out who you are, and then having discovered that, go out and be that person, the best, and the most that you can. It is my view. It’s the way I look at things. It’s the way I’ve had to look at things to get anything accomplished in my own life.
Presenter Would this be anything like the film concert that Pink Floyd did on the Isle of Mann?
Girl No, this would be totally different. I’m a strong believer in the concept of visualisation. If you can strongly picture the future, I believe that you can have an influence on it. Force has good and bad sides, it is very real to me.
Presenter When I look at your songs, I like the responsibility that you place on the individual for taking control of his life. Your songs say accept the call, it’s an active course of action. What were you trying to achieve at the end?
Girl “Eclipse” says that life is only what you individually have experienced, and “Precious Moments” points out that the precious moments that you individually have had and have created for yourself add up then to the total of the value of your life
Presenter All actors enter stage.
Episode 13
Lights dim to BO. Infra red camera takes over and projects onto screen the motionless and expressionless actors. Spotlight goes to pre placed actor in audience he stands on seat and signs while whole cast says
s
Actors In the world of the spirit luck and accident do not make one a king and another a beggar, on more beautiful than the queen of the orient and one more miserable than Lazarus; he only is excluded from the world who has excluded himself. In the world of the spirit all are invited.
Total whitewash as all leave stage and man in audience returns to his seat and signer in the cage opens door and climbs down rope ladder and tumble turns off stage.
A section of Enter the Sand Man is played as in (Appendix S)
