Site specific is form of theatre that can be defined as a performance that takes place within a particular space. The term “Site Specific” came to be in the “early 1980s, a term began to be used by certain theatre groups, such as the incredible Brith Gof, as an attempt to describe their own particular performance practices and their relationship to the local environment.” ‘Site-specific theatre’? Please be more specific’ (Andy Field, 2008). Even though the term Site Specific is relatively new the term is so broad “Site Specific” has been round for centuries. These days “site-specific” can be just about anything that doesn’t happen in a theatre. It can refer to bus tours through the streets of Sheffield, Shakespeare play  in abandoned vaults, dance shows based on Japanese horror films, two performance artists tracing a spiral across the grounds of the Barbican or an alternative reality game played across the streets of Soho. So Site Specific is pretty much anything that is not in a theatre, being able to have this blank page to do anything to was a nice change from other modules but also extremely stressful.

When Site Specific works it can be prodigious and exciting, it can show off the chosen sight in a new light, making the audience think that they have never been there before. But a few critics I have come accross think diffrently, they think site specific to be a “gimmick”. Will Gore writes in his article in The Guardian ” I fear the impact of this exciting genre is in danger of disappearing as it gets sucked into the mainstream.” Gore worrys that the term is to broad and wants theatre companies to take the genre seriously before making thier own interpretation of site specific he writes “When theatre like this is done properly it can been revelatory: the true shared experience that so many theatremakers strive to provide. My wish for 2012 is that theatre companies think long and hard about what it really involves.” I just hope our site specific performance meets the write requirments.

Work Cited:

Field, A. (2008)  ‘Site-specific theatre’? Please be more specific’,  The Guardian, 6 February [Online]. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatreblog/2008/feb/06/sitespecifictheatrepleasebe (Accessed: 7 May 2012)

Gore, W. (2012) ‘When site-specific theatre is just too vague’, The Guardian, 9 January [Online]. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatreblog/2012/jan/09/site-specific-theatre (Accessed: 7 May 2012)

Today is the day we show our short site specific film, after hours of editing it has finally come together. I think that we have worked very well together, I feel that we have all shown and interest to the piece and the work has been divided equally. I am very happy that we get to show our project today, even though I feel it could be improved with more time I also feel it is the best possible quality it could be with the time we have had. My contribution to the film is this, I spent most of my time behind the camera filming but I have also done my fair share of getting filmed, when it came to the editing Cassie and Casey knew how the software works but as I did not know how the software works I sat behind and gave opinions and gave an input to the final production. I think we have worked very well together and hopefully our film shows this.

As Lincoln is our chosen sight it would be wrong if I had no background knowledge of the city. Just by looking up Steep Hill you can see a part of Lincoln’s history but by researching and looking it is amazing how much you can find just by looking. I found this information on a website called http://www.localhistories.org/lincoln (accessed: 3 May 2012) “Lincoln began as a Roman town. The Romans conquered Lincolnshire in 48 AD.” The Population in Lincoln was between 6000 and 8000. In the middle ages In 1068 William the Conqueror built a wooden castle at Lincoln to make sure the townspeople behaved themselves. He destroyed 166 houses to make way for it. In the 12th century it was replaced with stone. The keep of the castle was called Lucy Tower after Countess Lucy. In 1072 the Bishop moved his seat to Lincoln from Dorchester. He built a cathedral, which was completed in 1092. This first cathedral was severely damaged by an earthquake, which hit Lincoln in 1185. It was rebuilt after 1192. This is just a small amount of what happened and I could write novels on the history of Lincoln, but if not taken the time to research what has happened these past events could be forgotten.

I found it necessary and enjoyable to take the time to research the city, it is truly inspiring to find out what has shaped the future for Lincoln.

Work cited: Lambert, T. (date unknown). Available at:  http://www.localhistories.org/lincoln (Accessed: 3 May 2012)

As the assessment date draws closer I am starting to feel a little apprehensive of our work. Today we have done more filming, we went through the audio we have and started to put it in sections so we will know how long we have to film in a certain place, just long enough to let the story run. I am also not sure if our work is going to be a “crowd pleaser” I find our once exciting idea has become a little dull even if it does fit the assessment criteria. We plan on finishing all the filming by the end of this week so we can start to edit it.