For some time I have wanted to do something with students at Island School and John Donne's piece, usually called "No Man is an Island". I hesitate to use the word poem for this as it isn't actually a poem. It is a part of a text Donne wrote called Meditations XV1, but the section starting with "No Man is an Island" and ending with "Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee." is often extracted, and appears to have an individual coherence.
For me the themes of connectedness fit in really well with the Island School ethos. The idea that the misfortune of any member of the community harms each other member individually is a very powerful one. Of course for Donne this idea is magnified to the point of the community being the whole of humanity, and this again fits in with our ideas of humanitarian service and international mindedness.
On a more sensitive note, I am aware that Donne is stressing death and the effect another's death has on him. This too strikes chords with events in Island School's history.
What will the piece sound like?
I think of various bits. Certainly an a capella section with some of the stunning girl singers we have in year 12. I have engaged Jess to help me get the singers together and we will write that as workshop sessions.
I also have an idea of a fast speaking set of free flow comments. I think we can juxtapose the lines of the piece with commentaries on the piece made by students. I hope to work with an IB English Literature class to get some comments. This will be by Google doc
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LUQIA2Hvz4Oqat06VqD2PNMidUBtWKnMCfFrmmJKvSk/edit?usp=sharing
Hopefully we will get enough text for a voice or some voices to speak the lines over some fairly jagged music. I am thinking more Trout Mask Replica than rap, but we shall see what we get.
There also needs to be music associated with the movement.
What will the piece look like?
I am trying to think more on the lines of a video than a live performance, but obviously we can do a live performance, or even do the separate bits by themselves.
Beckett is again my inspiration for the movement part. If you do Quad with 5 people you get 32 different circuits. Each of these could be one of the singers, but they might not be singing. We might have a musical refrain repeated for each mover. So that when they do two at a time, you get two instruments playing across each other. Three at a time, three instruments etc. Every combination will be performed in the 32, culminating in all together.
With five people, there is a whole in the middle, an Island round which they walk, and through which they are connected. Yes, this is the image for Island Time, the lower school course!
I wonder if we can film the movment in several different places and edit them together, adding the soundtrack to the edited film?
