Post by christopherjgould on May 1, 2013 17:18:37 GMT -5
Mermaidens and Gentlemen of the sea.
It is here at last.
I have been working on the Sailors Purse for what seems like years - perhaps it was.
However, Alchemy Moon does not have a reputation for quickly knocking something out for a quick buck.
And I wanted to test, fine tune, refine and ensure that all of the props are just perfect.
So here it is at last, the Sailors Purse.
So let us look first at what you get, and then at what the performance actually is.
Sailors Purse will come in both Pro and Elite versions.
I will describe the Pro version first, and then the Elite version.
The props for both are exactly the same and worked to the same standard. The difference being that the pro version comes in a rather wonderful 'sailors chest' with additional pieces and additional routines.
Sailors Purse Pro
For the Pro Set you get everything except the chest and the objects poking tantalisingly out from the chest. So let's have a look at these in more detail....
On the left you will see the users manual. (you only get the one of them!)
This contains the Sailors Purse short story. This gives you the full narrative of the tale that you are to tell. This is then followed by a basic overview of how to perform the piece. This in turn is followed by a more in depth look at all of the subtleties and nuances of the performance. Finally there are essays that explore some of the more ambitious aspects of the performance.
The small scraps of papers are the two 'Tobacco Books'. This is not the time nor place to go into the detail or fascinating history of these strange items. However, there are two books. The first tells the story of the Sailors Purse in images, the second are a series of images that add 'fate' or emotional content to the images. These are used to seemingly create a random story by combining events and emotional context. They certainly can also be use to illustrate the story being told, as well as acting as an aide-memoir. Useful if your short term memory is shot away from the drinking of too much rum.
Next to this, there is a broadside ballad, this can be recited or even sung by the more beautifully voiced performer. Or, perhaps you would like to play an old cylinder recording that I recently unearthed of a rather frail Edwardian woman singing the ballad. The singer, surely it could not be.....?
The Tobacco Books and the Broadside ballad can easily form a performance piece in their own right.
Also, I am sure that the creative performer will find many uses for this idea, beyond the simple story-telling device given here.
The main performance piece is the purse itself - how I would like to show you more and tell you more about this. However, to do so would give the game away somewhat. All I will say is that this is no ordinary drawstring purse. Each one is hand made from.... well that would be giving away more than I would like. Each one is unique and I guarantee will seriously creep you and your audience.
This is the contents of each purse. Six objects that the doomed hero of our tale carried with him at all times. Six objects that symbolically define his fate.
You will also see that there are two sets of hand forged dice, as used by old time mariners. Dice created from the lead shot from their own pistols. Only, the hero of this tale acquired these tiny, blackened things from a far more sinister source.
Also in the pouch, there is a rolled up piece of parchment which will deliver one of the climaxes of the tale.
With the pro version, you have an entire evening's performance that can be carried in a jacket pocket!
The Elite Version
With the Elite Version you get a rather fitting 'Treasure Chest'. This is the chest that William Harte (our unfortunate sailor) carries his most precious possessions.
It also makes an ideal way to carry the items around.
Inside the box are three additional items. A simple good luck anchor that William carried around with him at al times, a rather odd octopus pendant, and a rather wonderful scrimshaw mermaid carved by William himself.
I genuinely like to have an element in all of my work which remains unfinished. Why? Laziness? Lack of creativity? Well, no.... I like to leave something that will work on the owners own creativity and subconscious. Something which suggests ideas and routines.
So no specific routine is presented with these objects.... well not yet!
For a second aim of this is to encourage interaction on the AMForum.
So, I will be posting ideas and routines for this on the forum, but I want to encourage users to interact and think some ideas too. It is fun!
However, for those of you who think this is a cop-out. All you need to do is to apply the 'Free Will' principle to the three items.
The box gives you a focus and a talking point for your collection.
What is Sailors Purse?
My intention for Alchemy Moon is to explore the edges of what a performance piece can be. With Kadar, I do this from the point of cold reading, it is not really a trick, but a method for unlocking the potential of you sitter. With the Hedge Tarot, you have a complete system of augury, of real magical working and a series of portals to other worlds accessed through the imagination.
The aim of the Sailors Purse is to provide a solid performance piece for the storyteller and mystery performer.
In this respect, it is the spiritual successor to A Death in the Family. Or should I say spiritual ancestor to A Death in the Family. Those of you with both the Sailor's Purse and Death in the Family will have enough material for two nights of related storytelling.
Sailors Purse is modular. You can perform it as a very short routine, without going too deeply into the story. It can be a 'trick' (not that you would ever present it in that context!). Or conversely, it can be a performance of storytelling with no deceptive elements at all. It can be a very challenging price of performance including hypnotism'guided visualisation, psychological forcing and all manner of advanced techniques. At this end, it will challenge and develop even the most confident performer.
There is a central routine - a thread of the story - hung onto this thread are various modules and ideas that you can choose to use or not.
So you can select the aspects that suit your performance style and the context you find yourself in.
If you want a quick performance, you can just show the objects, briefly discuss their properties and perform a stripped down version of the routine. Or you can just use the props to deliver an evening of spooky story-telling. You can cause the audience to travel back in time and actually see the story unfold, you can take risks and explore challenging ideas. The whole routine is structured so that one, more or all of the techniques and methods can go wrong, and no one will ever know or care!
You construct your own performance from the tools given to you.
The Performance.
The Sailors Purse is a storytelling piece. The whole aim is to drag the audience into a world created by your words.
The story is of a Sailor who sailed the seas in the early 1800's. Young William Harte was a renowned gambler who always won the wager. That is, as long as he carried two small and rather peculiar looking dice. He would only hint darkly as where he had obtained these fated items, but they were undoubtedly the source of his good fortune. So when a dark stranger appeared on the dock, it was with some relish that our young hero entered into a wager, confident that his luck would hold out. However, this was not to be , as this game would end with him losing all, all that he carried, all that he owned, his fortune, his home, and as the stakes were raised; his young pregnant wife, his body and his soul. For The Stranger had come to claim his own.
The storyteller engages his audience in a piece of theatre of the imagination, using the props to re-enact the events. A sensitive person, who we call 'the medium' is drawn from the crowd, who attempts to contact the soul of the fated sailor and travel back in time to see event though his eyes and to play the final game he played.
The medium is handed a small peculiar draw-string purse. She holds it on the palm of her hand. This will enable her to make contact with the young sailor in a manner that is both profound and ultimately chilling.
The performer lays the small illustrations down from an old 'tobacco book' to illustrate the sequence of events, the 'medium' lays down random shuffled pages from a second tobacco book, which give the emotional content of the story and magically reveal some of it's symbolic content.
The medium 'sees' William and describes him in detail, focusing on the design of a small tattoo on his chest. She sees him sitting opposite the terrifying dark creature who has come to take his soul.
Six objects are taken out from the purse and laid out between the performer and the medium; the final game of 'hi-chance - low-chance' is rein-acted. A single shell remains, it symbolises the security of home, and (on a higher level) the 'shell' which is home to William's doomed soul - this is the final prize that The Stranger is to take.
There is one more thing in the purse; a small scroll. It is opened and it is seem that the result of this wager was long foretold and the doomed sailor was merely re-enacting his dark destiny.
There is one more thing, one final chilling revelation - one that I guarantee will make the audiences flesh crawl. Something held in the hand of the terrified medium!
I really do not exaggerate when I say that you will never have experienced a magical effect such as this one. It take that ideas of parlour performance to a who new level. It will also take your performance to a whole new level too. These are not false claims.