Site #2: Woodland Path leading to stone circle
Site Location: This is specifically being considered for a footpath and stone circle in my home town and a nearby wood, however this is likely to be a highly site adaptive production, as there are many similar situations in the areas I grew up in Wales (rarer where I live now)
Purpose/Use: This is a footpath, and a wood with stone circle to commemorate the Millennium (year 2000). These are public areas, linking the centre of the town with the countryside around it
Relationship: Having grown up Welsh I will always have a romantic view of the stone circles. This same romance is often echoed with the way people respond to sites such as Stone Henge. Locally, it is a short walk from my home, and takes me from the edge of the town centre into Oxfordshire countryside. Because the wood is fairly new it has the young feel I imagine that the earliest settlers of Britain would have come accross, rather than the old woods we know now.
Concept: This is likely to be highly site-adaptive, and as such I am thinking of it in that way. The feel I get is of stepping back through time as I walk the route, and there is an odd mix of history reclaimed by nature and new bits. This would be a promenade performance, starting at the end of the footpath, and leading to a final showpiece in the stone circle. The performance at the beginning would be modern, or even futuristic, so contemporary dance styles. As you move along the path then the 'spirits' of the old world would start to lead you to their world. At the end of the walk it would be mainly fantasy. The 'spirits' I'm considering are the fairies of traditional lore, so more Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream than Sugar Plum or flowers. These are the fairies that would steal children, and the idea would be to give the audience as they are ushered/lead/follow the path of performance to feel as if they have been stolen away into another place. Having these spirits move from the gremlins of modern technology to the dryads in the woods, to all of them capering around an audience in the centre of a stone circle with the different layers could be interesting.
Photographs to describe the site:
Although taken a bit too far back this is close to location with houses nearby
This is a view over the path walking up
