Site specific: Day 8



We had our tour of fort Amherst today, and I think it definitely helped start to trigger some ideas and how we could stage particular scenes. In addition we also were able to assess potential areas that were big enough to perform in and those that were not big enough, which was a shame as some of the smaller areas were very nice and atmospherical, such as the small rooms with wooden beds in them.


However as some of the tunnels are so narrow and steep stepped, trying to fit an audience in there would be very hard, if not impossible, so we would have to pick our performance spaces carefully.

Another problem we encountered was the fact that we didn't know our way around the tunnels, therefore we would have to keep the promenade performance fairy basic in terms of where we wanted to go, as we would never have time to learn our way around well enough in order to confidently lead an audience from room to room without embarrassing ourselves and getting lost. So that may be something we have to think about.



We did also find out that the fort is one of six in Medway and one of those six was used as a mental asylum up until 1963. Therefore this revived our idea of the mental hospital we originally thought of. I came up with the idea that those chosen to evacuate were actually brainwashed in the end and not evacuated, but turned crazy by the authorities. It was a very basic idea, but we could come back to it as we continue to develop our current evacuation idea.



Personally, I think the space is great for a performance. It has a sound system which allows us to play music or sounds in there to add to any atmosphere we wanted to create. As well as a power source to help light our way if we feel necessary. It also has plenty of spooky features and corridors that you can see below, that hold a very eerie aura, and provide a very striking and realistic setting for spooking an audience.