"how naked can one person be without taking any clothes off?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Mi5_5Pidi4

I just watched this video on youtube as part of my research, I was interested of course in a performance art piece about self perception. I liked the video, it was thought provoking to a point; the painting was beautiful and an expression of self.

What really caught me was the tag line though.

"How naked can one person be without taking any clothes off?"

That made me think and made me smile.

That one question was more inspirational to me than the video itself; and something I'd really like to think about for my own piece.

Vulnerability. Its something we all like to see on stage. Usually, the stage is a place for actors, often performance uses this and simultaneously breaks away from it for performers to be able to express themselves, to explore themselves....I want to know how it would be not just to perform myself, but to be myself. To be real on stage. That's a challenge.

Something Real on stage could be something heartbreaking.

There is of course, the possibility of padding softly into the realms of reality TV or autobiographical pieces- everything has been done before of course.

I want this to be something else. I want the audience to itch, I want them to be more uncomfortable with a reality on stage worse than a naked body. To give them that unease, as if I were nude before them, and staring- but to do this with words and stories and experiences. To do this with myself, and the self I am of others.

I have thought a lot also, of stories. Everyone has a story, yet everyone in the world seems to feel the same range of failures or faults. We are all the same person with one thousands personalities.

That is a statement I may well rebut at some point soon. It seems a little blasé. We shall see.