mary-masked

Brain Soup

Published: December 8th 2021, 4:00:23 pm

My darling patrons, I am the worst.

I have an embarrassing amount of half finished posts in my draft folder and I hope this doesn't become one of them.

The other day a younger performer reached out to me for advice on how to bring more character and story to their acts. My answer essentially became a summary of my creative process when making a burlesque act (though a lot of it transfers to other projects as well.) So I thought it might be a good post here.

"I guess the short version of my advice would be to spend some time thinking about what you're trying to do with your act.

Are you telling a story? Expressing a specific point? Making a joke? Exploring some aspect of the character that you connect with or think is overlooked?

Once you have that pinned down, brainstorm different ways to express that thing (or things.)
What are some poses, actions, visuals, or types of movement (i.e. fast or slow, flowing or staccato) that express that thing? Are there iconic moments from the movie that you want to recreate?

The things you brainstorm don't necessarily need to have a logical explanation, they can just be things that feel right.

Then just listen or move to the music, letting yourself play with whatever ideas you brainstormed. See what connects with you and the music. See what ideas naturally flow into each other. See what lends itself to different ways of taking your clothes off. Eventually, an act should emerge."

I'm not sure how much sense this answer makes to anyone but me. But it was the best way I could explain the brain soup that swirls in my head while developing an act.

Unrelated, I'm also attaching photos of art I've been working on.