In class, for the past two weeks, we’ve been asked to start thinking about material for our solo performance. 

In the first week, we were instructed to share something personal and to tell it to the rest of the class. This little story should only last five minutes but would see how we delivered the story. My story was about the relationship between me and my little sister. The story started with me stating how I am a bitch to my sister. I mean, when she was born I went to see her for the first time and decided I did not like her, as she was not the little brother I had hoped for, and took it upon myself to put her in the hospital bin. After this little incident, I started to warm to her like a four year old older sister would with a new toy, and played little role play games with her. Believe it or not, this ended badly too. Playing the role of the doctor feeding my little sister, the patient, eye drops that I found on the side left my sister hallucinating and running into walls while talking to these strange people she was seeing. Off she went to the hospital getting her stomach pumped while I was grounded and sent to my room, screaming to people to passed by to save me. Oh, but she had her fair share of revenge, all the fights and snitching that went on between us. It’s safe to say now that we do love each other, if she ever got into trouble I would be the first person she would contact. But it is still fun to wind her up. That’s what sisters are for.

My sister, Megan, aged 2 with my dad.

In the second week, we were asked to share a diary entry. For this, I wanted to share something that I experienced a year ago, and something that has altered my life mentally for a long time. The context of the diary entry is something I do not tell a lot of people as there is a lot of surrounding stigma, and people who I have told who I thought were my friends, well, turned out to be very two faced and are no longer friends of mine. I felt like there was a lot of trust within my class and after sharing my diary entry with them, I felt a great weight was lifted off of my shoulders. I’ve realised that in solo performance, to get a honest performance you have to be honest with yourself, and this diary entry and the context surrounding it is something I would like to experiment with further.

With both little performances, I have always tried to play with the idea of comedy, as this is something I do in every day life. Hiding traumas I have experienced with a little joke at the end to lighten the mood, but still making sure my point was made. This is something I would like to develop and will be looking in to similar female comedians to study there delivery on stage.