Within solo performance, I have found that I am continuously questioning myself and my ideas when there is no need too. To continue, I think I have been overcomplicating things for myself when there is no need to as it is pretty simple. It’s just getting your ideas down and attempting them as you won’t know if they work without trying them. I have realised this week that it is no good over thinking and to just go with it. Furthermore, having this refreshed mind frame has really benefited me.

I believed that I did not have enough material however after gathering everything all together and combining it, I couldn’t be any more wrong. In fact, I had far too much material.  Today, I have gone through all my ideas and got rid of what I consider to not add as much substance to the performance.

I have now narrowed my performance down in to 7 key areas which I am going to talk about.

The order they will go in as follows

• Introducing the show with my Greek Cypriot name Anastasia Nicolaou.
• Introduce Cyprus as a little island in the Mediterranean Sea and establish that Greece and Cyprus are two very different places!
• Introduce the Greek foods on offer.
• Introduce the Turkish invasion on Cyprus in 1974 and explain the divide in the country.
• Introduce a comedic section on Greek mothers etc my mother!
• Introduce Sundays as Family days.
• Finishing off on Greek school Saturdays.

At the moment, reading my performance in those bullet points does not do it justice. However, once the performance has formed in its structure and the dialogue is finalised I believe this could be a strong performance. I have learnt over the past few weeks within Solo Performance, it is all about how you put your work together and the simplest of ideas can become extremely clever.

My performance aim is to have a show like Angelo Tsarouchas. Tsarouchas Performances have the potential such as my own performance to become very messy as we are mentioning many different aspects. However the way he has structured his show is extremely clever as Tsarouchas intertwines many different moments which all flow perfectly. Having watched many of his shows, he has given a huge insight of how I should portray the performance and structure the script.

YouTube. (2016). Angelo Tsarouchas Live at the World Famous Comedy and Magic Club in Hermosa Beach, CA.. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQO3mEo9V04 [Accessed 25 May 2016].

Initially my performance was going to be set in a restaurant but after some reconsideration, I have now decided to have it set as a picnic theme. The reason for this, throughout the module I have been told to keep the performance as authentic as possible. A picnic theme is personal to me as myself and family from a young age would always get together every Sunday and if the weather was nice we would either go out for a picnic or have a BBQ in the garden. At the moment, I am thinking of having traditional foods that my family would eat laid out on the picnic to heighten the authenticity of the performance. I feel as though having a specified number of audience members and catering food for them will enrich the Greek theme and enables the audience members to get more involved with the performance. Therefore, I believe that attempting to recreate the stage based on my family’s Sundays would enhance my story telling and help produce compelling pictures of how a Greek Cypriots life can be.