Shooting gallery research

Site Specific

Our site specific performance is a enactment of a shooting gallery/Shanty house. A shooting gallery is a place which is hidden from view and are everywhere . A group of drug addicts meet up and do all different types of drugs the most common drugs taken in a shooting gallery is heroine and crack.  THE CRAZIEST THING IS YOU WILL WALK PAST LOTS OF SHOOTING GALLERY.  

                                                  

This is crack         

This is heroine

A shooting gallery is a breeding ground for dieses, death, poverty and serious drug using. Many homeless drug users live there. Most heavy drug users who are there will die of overdose. The same needle is used over and over again which most likely has aids  spreading dieses and causing infections. This is an atical of a person telling you what he saw when he entered a shooting gallery.  

Inside a 'Shooting Gallery': New Front in the AIDS War

By THOMAS MORGAN

Published: February 5, 1988

Amid the flicker of stubby one-inch candles, the only light in an abandoned building near the Williamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn, a 32-year-old man who calls himself Wollenski fidgeted as he watched another man glide a hypodermic syringe filled with cocaine and heroin effortlessly into his right biceps.

Wollenski anxiously awaited his turn at the table because he did not have his own syringe and had to wait for the man to give him one - one the man said was clean.

But driven by the urgent need for a fix, Wollenski did not question him about cleanliness. Here, in this ''shooting gallery,'' in stark relief against the political and moral questions being asked about whether government should issue free hypodermic needles to addicts to help stem the spread of AIDS, such questions are momentarily moot. Needing a Needle

''They don't want to give out free needles because they want us to die, and they see it as a good way to get rid of us,'' said Wollenski, who explained that his 15-year addiction started as a cool thing to do with other teen-agers but now has wrecked his life and left him hopeless. He seeks a fix three or four times a day, and each time he needs a hypodermic syringe.

''This talk about addicts liking to share needles is a lie,'' he said. ''The only reason you would use another person's needles is because you have no money to buy them, your own are clogged up or you are too sick to care.''

The man with the needles, a 31-year-old man who calls himself Cano, agreed. Cano sells illegally acquired needles to addicts on the street to help support his cocaine and heroin habit.

A pack of 10 syringes costs him $4 he says, and he sells them to others at $2 apiece. Demand for new needles is way up, he said.

''People are buying them a lot because they don't want to share,'' he said. ''People are afraid of AIDS and other diseases.''

According to city and state public health officials, there are about 200,000 intravenous drug users in New York City, and already more than half of them are infected with the AIDS virus.

About 46,000 intravenous drug users are receiving treatment at methadone clinics or drug-free clinics where they get counseling and treatment without drugs. Another 2,800 people are on waiting lists for the treatment programs, but the number is misleading, officials say. After several months, addicts give up waiting and another takes his place on the list.

Even more tragically, there are escalating numbers of wives, lovers and babies who do not use drugs but who have been infected by an addict.

With this health emergency in mind, Dr. Stephen C. Joseph, the New York City Health Commissioner, is devising a pilot project that would allow the city to distribute free syringes to about 200 drug users who are now on treatment center waiting lists and must agree to receive counseling and turn in used needles.

The project, which was approved by the state last week, cannot begin until the details are worked out. The plan drew sharp criticism by those who claimed that free syringes would simply encourage drug use.

But Yolanda Serrano, president of a community-based drug prevention program, and other city and state publich health officials, disagree with critics of the program. They see free needles as the lure to get more people into treatment. 'We've Got to Be There'

''We are not condoning drug use,'' said Ms. Serrano, president of the Association for Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment, a private organization that receives city funds. The organization's small staff visits shooting galleries in Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn. ''We are trying to stop the spread of AIDS to drug users and their lovers, wives and children,'' she said.

If the free needle program expands beyond the pilot stage, no one knows how many drug abusers would be willing to undergo counseling in exchange for the needles. Drug users are suspicious of public and law-enforcement officials because drug use is illegal. Paranoia caused by drug abuse simply heightens those fears.

''I believe we can change behavior, but we've got to be there constantly,'' said Ms. Serrano, who faces danger every time she and her volunteers enter a shooting gallery. ''We've got to open up storefront offices in neighborhoods where shooting galleries are. We need vans to take them to treatment centers or hospitals and we just don't have them. Now, they must get there on their own, and too often, they miss appointments.''

Inside the shooting gallery where the proprietor, a wily man named Bigote, also called the Doctor, welcomed visitors, Ms. Serrano and Ed McCoy, a former addict who is a volunteer distributed packets of bottled clorine bleach and sterile water, sterilized cotton and condoms. As the candlelight distorted human figures around grimy walls, and a woman wrapped in blackened rags moaned on a dirty mattress, Ms. Serrano and Mr. McCoy told the drug users how to clean their needles.

After a moment's search, one of the drug users she had instructed found a usable vein in an arm and, with his newly cleaned syringe, began to ''boot'' his mixture of cocaine, inserting it into the vein, withdrawing the mixture with blood back into the syringe several times to repeat the initial high.

''I don't know where to start,'' said Wollenski, who watched the man. ''I want to pick up my life, but I have no base to work from. I'm so ashamed of the way I've gone. My life has been a waste.''

     

Evaluation

The rehearsal process of this piece was challenging. Not only were there issues with health and safety hazards we also had to find a new space. We brain stormed many ideas however we really struggled in finding an interesting site responsive piece. Once we were in the new found site the rehearsal process became slightly easier. Exercises such as looking at what's in the space and wondering why its there helped us find a story line. 

Both spaces we had chosen offered a similar quality. This was secrets. The first site was in a hidden area looking as if it shouldnt be used and the second site was behind a primary school. The fact the site was behind a primary school gave us the idea of using an age restricted theme. This lead us to the idea of drugs. 

In our scratch performance we outlined too many issues such as sex, drugs, abuse etc. This made the space and the piece its self cluttered and confusing for an audience. We lacked an element of surprise. Overall the scratch really wasn't in a good place and was actually quite boring for audience members.

After the scratch we realised a lot of work had to be done and it was too late to change the space and its themes. Therefore we found our best way to work with it was to adapt the space. We used found objects to resemble to shanti house/shooting gallery type theme. Although this meant it wasnt organic to the space we still used it to create elements of surprise and themes that go on within these environments such as weather conditions being cold. 

The day of the site specific performance came and we efficiently set up the space using our found objects. We tuned into specific details, even as far down to language. As shanti houses are usually set in counties abroad we thought we would hone in on Brazil, where the largest shanti town is that attract drugs. Therefore we had portuguese writing up on the wall saying do not pass to direct the audience on their journey through the space. The use of cardboard on the floor also gave the audience a path to follow. Our element of surprise was a drug deal going on behind the gate. 

The feedback from our scratch performance made us want to change the space, although at this time in the process it was too late we found ways to over come this problem. As our space was quite large we decided to narrow it into a corridor size space to give us less to work with so we were able to create detail. I enjoyed how we were able to build within our space and reflect as closely as we can to a shanti house. I thought it was interesting how the audience got different views from inside and out of the space we created. We used holes in sheets to look through and pass things through. 

I think our piece still needed a lot of improvement and our idea perhaps could have been more experimental, however i still believe our demanding piece worked well. There is always room for improvement but i do believe we reflected on a space closely and made it imaginative by creating shelter within the space to reflect our theme.

The layout of the space

We chose to use pieces of cardboard as a path for the audience to follow leading up to our space. 

The audience then came in contact with a washing line they had to go underneath as an obstacle. We chose to use this as it represented a shanti house. 

To block off areas of the space we didnt want the audience to see we blocked it with cardboard saying 'do not pass' and 'nao passe' which is portuguese for do not pass. We used portuguese language as we set our space in brazillian inspired shanti homes. 

The space we created was made out of cardboard and found objects much like a shanti home would be made out of. Responding to the secretive theme we decided to base the story line around drugs. 

On the floor of the space we circled an area where the drugs were. This was almost like a table/centre point we were able to focus the play around. 

How we have changed the use of our space

Site Specific – How we have changed the use of our space 

Last week was our final prep before our actual site specific performance. We were given the opportunity to finalise our idea and to gather together any final props needed for the performance. We went and fetched the props that we needed in order to create a compelling performance: we went to DT and managed to get our hands on long planks of wood which we would use as a structure for our ‘shanty house home’, and we managed to get some sheets that would go over these planks of woods to act as a roof. This set up would have reflected the poverty that heavy drug addicts in shanty houses have to live in.  

This was the first time that we were able to use these props in our space, and so it allowed us to experiment with them to see what worked and what didn’t, which opened our eyes on how we could have improved our performance.  

For starters, we initially set up the wooden planks across the whole entire space, however this left many areas of the space uncovered and empty, and we just didn’t have enough recourses to cover the entire space. This encouraged us to change the way that we were going to set up our props for our performance. Instead of covering the whole entire space, we decided to restrict our idea to a smaller section within our space. This would be done by blocking off a large area of the space, and instead just setting up and focusing on a particular section. This would allow the audience to feel the pressure more of the negative effects of a drug house since they would be able to experience and witness our performance much closer and much more ‘in your face’, since the space would be much more restricted.  

We decided to have a washing line, along with hung up clothes at the entrance of the performance, trapping the entrance. This would symbolise the ‘trapped’ nature and atmosphere of our performance, and would also reflect the poverty that drug addiction can cause. The washing line would act as a barrier, trapping the victims of drugs from leaving the shanty house. The clothes hung up on it would show that the space is our home, and would devastate the audience since they would see that this decayed space is somewhere where people actually live.  

We will have massive sheets covering our shanty house, to show how isolated drug addicts are from society. The sheets would cover the entire shanty house and the drug users would be trapped inside. The covering sheets reflect how this hidden, desolate life of drug addiction takes place around us and we don’t even realise. It also represents how drug addicts are trapped inside their own little world and bubble, and how they are outcasted from society.  

Another element of our performance, is the use of the metal cage door. A drug dealer will pass drugs through this door to one of the drug addicts. The metal door acts as a barrier. It’s a barrier the separate the drug deals from society. It represents how trapped these people are and how issues about drug abuse need to be addressed. 

Opinions on the scratch

In my opinion I think our scratch performance yesterday was successful as our teacher said the our site literally looked like a ruin, like a place that no one would want to be in. I think the use of old school music was good as it gave a dull kind of atmosphere. Also I think that that use of pictures was interesting to show the audience the previous lives of the characters. I also think the audience found the physical theatre scene between me and Frank interesting; however our teacher thought that this was a bit too much for our performance. He wasn’t just saying that section that we did was too much, he was saying that the overall acting was a bit too much; he believes that the audience should have had their own different experiences of our site instead of us as actors trying to guide them through that experience. So for next time we need less dialogue between and let the audience see what our site has to offer. This means we should focus on the key bits of our site like what they are listening to, what are reading, anything that they might touch or pick up. I think we need to discuss as a group what me might include or improve in our site to progress further.


To improve on our feedback we want to focus on:

- Showing the characters living within the space

- Allowing the space to tell its own story to the audience

- Teach the audience the past lives of each character through the use of multimedia e.g - An information booklet and an audio recording.

- Take the audience on a journey e.g - Running through the space rummaging through a bag to interest the audience and take them around the space we have created

- Make the props more relevant to one specific topic e.g - Drugs - Needles, spoons, smoking

Feedback on scratch performance

Site Specific Shooting Gallery Feedback. 

Today we performed a sketch/rough run through of our idea for site specific. We spent the morning setting up: scattering props on the floor, playing music out loud for our piece, sticking up posters, and getting into charter.  

Overall, the sketch went well; it allowed us to see what was working well in the performance and what could be improved.  

The performance was effective because it created a grimy, gritty atmosphere through the use of hardcore drugs and symbolisms of sex and alcohol abuse, and this allowed audience to get a feel of the negative impacts of heavy drug use and drug addiction.  This was effective because it’s what we wanted to achieve – we wanted to create this shocking atmosphere to highlight to the spectators how corrupt this lifestyle can be. By throwing the spectators in the space and creating this performance around them so that they were in the centre of it all, it allowed them to genuinely feel as if they were in a shooting gallery and to witness the effects first hand.  

Although our performance went well, there is always room for improvement. We noticed some of the things that could have been approved upon, and we later got feedback from Jack which helped us in initializing what we needed to work on.  

One of the major problems in our performance was the rain – we don’t have a shelter in our space, the roof it wide open and so this means that if it rains, it becomes difficult to carry out our performance. At first we thought that this would add to the effect of the piece – that it would contribute to the ‘destruction’ theme and idea, however on the day we realised that it was a bigger problem than expected. The rain actually ended up soaking and ruining a lot of our props which created difficulties for us when we would try to use these props, or when the audience would try to interact with these props. It also got the audience wet which was a bit of a problem, because nobody really liked standing out in the rain. As well as this, it made our space very dirty and mucky with wet mud. This meant that the performers would get dirty while performing, the spectators would get dirty while experiencing the show, and the cleaning up after was hard because everything was covered in soaking mud. Our solution for this problem is to create a roof shelter for the actual performance using cardboard or a rain cover over at least half of the space. This would stop any rain from getting into our space, and it also created a more enclosed feeling which adds to the ‘trapped’ atmosphere.  

Another problem that occurred: Jack pointed out that we were doing too much for the performance; we were trying to include too many aspects into one idea. We were focusing on drugs, sex, alcohol, abuse, homelessness, depression and others, when we should have actually just simplified it and made the simplified version intense. For the next performance we are going to take away aspects that don’t need to be there: we are going to take away any sex scenes because they don’t add any effect, and we are going to remove any symbolisms of sex such as condoms on the floor, because even though sexually transmitted diseases can be a part of the drug addiction lifestyle, our initial idea was to have a shooting gallery and this is the idea that we should stick with instead of over complicating it. This applies also to the alcohol; we are going to remove the extra bits of alcohol that aren’t needed for the performance such as empty beer cans on the floor.   

Another aspect that would be improved on was our acting. Instead of acting out so many scenes in our performance, we should just find one or two simple actions that contain an element of surprise and stick with these. We tried to do too many things at once, and it just felt like we were cramming too many things into a small performance. Jack said that this wasn’t needed and that it was a bit too ‘full on’. For the actual performance, it was recommended that we each find a simple action or two that link in with our idea and just repeat these over and over again. This way the audience can simply walk about the space and explore the performance by themselves at their own pace instead of being crammed with too many ideas.  

As well as simplifying our performance and creating a shelter, we also came up with some ideas that we could add to make the performance more effective. One of these was the idea that the audience could listen to audio about the performance while exploring the space. Our idea for this was to create an online blog with audio’s, and the audience would be directed to log onto this blog using their phones by a poster, and once they were on this site they could listen to these audio’s and the audio’s would give a background story of each individual character; of how they used to have a positive life and how now their lives have been destroyed because of drugs.  

Overall our performance was good, we are happy with the idea’s that we have came up with and we are happy with the results that the scratch performance showed. We now just need to adjust little elements of the performance and this will improve our overall piece for the day of the performance. 

Props in the space

The space we chose was naturally for an adult themed performance as is on the back end to a primary school. Therefore the space is hidden away from children and is not an easily accessible place. The site its self had objects such as a ladder, pole and graffiti marks on the wall which led us to the idea of a shanti house. The idea of a shanti house was hard to create in terms of how the rest of the space was and its location. We discovered shanti houses to be in over populated and poor areas therefore having it behind a school would contradict the idea as people who live within a shanti house dont have an education. To develop the idea of being in a secretive, adult themes area we chose to do a shooting gallery. A shooting gallery is a meeting point for people who want to take or sell drugs. Its also known as a 'crack house'. Naturally the asthetics of the piece allowed us to go further with this idea. Even the floor was mouldy and slodgy to step in! On the day of the scratch performance we set our space up to become more visually pleasing. We used objects such as needles, condoms, images, food wrappers, rope and drugs. Using the objects was a good idea as it made the space come to life exactly how we had imagined it. To also compliment the space, there was already a graffiti mark on the wall therefore we used cardboard and spray paint to create more. Overall in terms of props in the space is was set out very well. We were told in our feedback to do less acting within the space as how we created it was enough to take the audience on a journey. A lot of the props we used was a symbolic way of representing the drug house we wanted to create. Also we didnt consider the impact of rain on our space as during the scratch performance the rain had ruined a lot of what we created. However it also created a dark atmosphere to what we were creating. Next time we will consider the weather as a means of creating and work around any possible disasters.