Sarah GOEBEL
Obsession is an understatement. Being Cupid's assistant is not for the weak, but it helps when you're drunk on love... for your boss
Credits
Writer/Director/Performer - Sarah Goebel
Creative Mentor – Jannet Lee
Lighting and Sound - Jake Battle
Process
How the Idea Originated:
The piece would consist of her observing the trials and tribulations of love from afar by replying to the many “complaint letters” and “requests for love” on Cupid’s behalf. I wanted the piece to explore what love is and take the audience on a journey with my character as she discovers cupid’s cruelty
Making this draft forced me to consider whether my personal experience and knowledge of love would be enough to create an impactful piece. This is how I came up with the idea of exploring verbatim theatre. To research love’s complexities, I created a survey and sent it to a variety of age groups ranging from 13-68. With a total of 22 insightful responses, I began to question if I could cover the wide range of experiences in just 10 minutes. This is when I began considering the use of projection.
Love is complex. That’s the driving thought I had while constructing this piece. The concept of the play came to me while I constructed the play's mood-board (see image below)
The desk in the bottom right image led me to consider what kind of character would use it. I explored this through a free-write exercise (see image on the left), where I challenged myself to connect all three images.
One of the lines from the writing was “watching the love, watching them yearn, oh what a gift it would be to love.” This line became the basis for the first version Cupid’s Assistant; the girl who yearned to fall in love. When exploring this character, I wanted her to be naive and look at love from the perspective of rose-coloured glasses.
Mentorship:
The First Draft:
After presenting the idea to a friend, he asked me the question, “why is it a theatre piece?” This feedback made me reconsider how Cupid’s Assistant could interact with the projection. This is when I began exploring new sides to the character because one idea consisted of her watching the relationships on Earth through the projection, as if it were a reality tv show. Through improvisation, I found this version of Cupid’s assistant was sassy and used crude humour, whilst still maintaining her naivety. My tragedy piece was evolving into a comedy.
Whilst writing the comedic material, I drew inspiration from Phoebe Wallis Bridger’s comedic timing in Fleebag by interrupting her own trajectory, and the fast-paced thought process of the genie from Aladdin. I also heightened everyday moments and instances to an extreme, playing with exaggerated character.
The main questions I received were:
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How can I disarm the audience?
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Is “love” in general, too broad a topic to explore in 10 minutes?
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Must she be impartial?
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Can I look more into expectations of love and what it is to be loved?
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How does she discover Cupid is cruel?
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Will the verbatim letters take up too much time?
After receiving feedback I decided to abandon the use of verbatim theatre and instead, explore themes of unrequited love. In my second draft, Cupid’s Assistant pricks her finger on an arrow and falls in love with a human (see ubove for script expert):
Falling For Cupid
The feedback that changed Stupid Cupid’s trajectory was when I was asked, “will it be entertaining to watch her watch other people?” Deep down, I knew the answer was no, so I made three big changes:
Projection is interesting, but was it the right technique for this project? No.
No Projection
1
Tragedy works by growing the tragedy, 10 minutes was not enough time to progress to another genre.
Genre = Comedy ONLY
2
Genre = Comedy ONLY
3
This absurd scenario helped me clarify more about my character and the show’s comedy style, it also meant I didn’t need projection to support the play
I began constructing a third version of Cupid’s Assistant, maintaining her essence from previous drafts but drawing inspiration from characters like Marionette from Lady Bug and Cat Noir and Lavender Brown from Harry Potter for new characteristics
The last part of my process was creating the props. I printed out an A0 sized poster to parody the obsessive love young girls often feel for celebrities. I also designed three arrows for my costume instead of just one for comedic effect
(See images above)