I had previously shared my ideas for the ‘Bertha’ section of the performance with the class and had received positive feedback on the chosen text, simple expression and moments of character change. How to distinguish between the ‘Natalie/Curator’ character and then the ‘Bertha’ character was questioned. I decided to do this simply with light; creating a spotlit ‘stage’ for the Bertha portion as opposed to broad lighting, including the audience, for the ‘Curator’ sections surrounding it.

Martin suggested that I explore the distinction between the ‘curator’ – a quirky, obsessive librarian who inhabited Babel’s library, and ‘Natalie’ as my true persona / the performer. Eventually, the curator slipped away and it seemed that I would instead take on a characterised version of myself for the non-Bertha portions of the performance. It was at this point that I decided my costume should be a simple, grey shirt-dress; something plain and colourless seemed fitting for Bertha, whilst the grey also seemed to fit the cold, dystopian library. However, I added a touch of Natalie to my costume by wearing thick, woolly, slightly holey, grey knee high socks, pooled around my ankles; a trademark comfort when I’m around the house.

By our final session as a whole class, I was feeling fairly comfortable with the majority of my script, except for the introduction. How should my audience enter and how should the piece actually begin? It was at this point that Martin and the class suggested that I go further than being ‘Natalie the performer’ and try just being Natalie. After all, I had always felt the need to address the constructedness of the performance, for I would know all of my audience and they would know me, and so know that I was, obviously, performing. I also reconsidered the technique used in creating the script for Major Tom; telling stories off the top of your head and transcribing the result. This led me to combine some earlier text, documented in the ‘Introductions…’ blog post, with some direct address to the audience in which I would speak as Natalie, tell them that I would at times also be ‘performing’ some text through the Natalie they all know and taking on an entirely separate character too.