Of particular interest to me were the understated references of these Freya chronicles and photographs to witchcraft, goddess worship and polytheism. In many of the Spinster yearbooks paintings of demons and sacrifice are displayed with no explanation and frequent descriptions of "cauldron clubs" and spells and chanters. There are also many references to lesbianism, particularly during the eighteen hundreds when the girls often wrote of kissing and experimenting with their schoolmates as an expected precursor to experiences with men and marriage. Depending on the period these suggestions are playful or blatant but exploring these aspects of Hollins history would certainly be an interesting research project all its own.
I feel that the program notes which the audience received were interesting and informative but it was difficult for me to chose which aspects of my research to emphasize. The notes went over very briefly some of the trends in performance as these celebrations evolved. Within a larger and more scholarly project in would have been extremely interesting to compare the evolution of Hollins, and specially of the Freya organization's, theatrical productions with overall theatre history.
Another subject of much interest is the influence of contemporary history on each of the works. Influences such as Isadora Duncan and other figures of modern dance certainly made a huge impact on the tone and style of the productions but I also wonder about the effect of school, local and worldwide politics on the everyday lives of the students and thereby on their artistic works. The teachers, courses, programs of study and overall emphasis of the college changed radically over time as well and must have influenced the productions in very specific ways. It could be hypothesized that the style and evolution of these Freya productions are a chronicle of Hollins history, and to an extent of local and world history as well. The subtle ways in which period, politics and art influenced these often isolated students are certainly noteworthy.
In this project I have spent many more hours than I anticipated in research and design but I have thoroughly enjoyed my delve into Hollins history. Originally I had planned to pick my own locations and write text myself, only loosely based on the campus I chose to work on. The choreography I planned was especially unrelated to site, it was simply to be freed by performing on real land. When I decided to look for old pictures of the campus to help me choose my settings, everything changed. I became fascinated by the history of this place and outdoor became site-specific and historical theatre. I spent weeks losing my concept of time, locked in the basement and special archives rooms of Fishbourne Library, pouring over yearbooks, photographs and personal scrapbooks of the past one hundred and fifty years. I almost didn't finish the performance pieces, I was so interested in learning their historical basis.
When the idea for this project came to me I was simply intrigued by the idea of breaking that proscenium and performing outdoors. The division between performer and audience was to be broken by eliminating the set and the division of space. Instead the division was broken by the subject matter, I wanted to share and teach about these places and this history. Performance was a way of opening this history and this subject up for others. The potential of performance to interest, encourage and inform was restated for me by this project and my enthusiasm is greatly increased.