"Disco Ball" is a coming-of-age story written and performed by an adult who is learning to accept herself in all of her imperfect humanhood and celebrate that knowing yourself can bring you so much joy and happiness!
This is my debut hour show however I have done a few shorter shows before at Edinburgh and various other lovely fringes and festivals before. Because my show is about self-acceptance, it was very important to me that the poster for this show contained an actual photo of me. For all my other shows, I've been too embarrassed to have my face out and about on display on my poster, so I've previously used artwork of myself created by some amazing artists. I've done a lot of work on my inner relationship with myself over the last few years, and I want to do all that I can to be at peace with who I am as a person, accept my flaws, apologise when I do things wrong, celebrate the cool things about myself, laugh at myself when I'm being an idiot, and not hate myself for looking the way that I do. It's not easy, but I am so proud of myself for getting to the point where I felt like I could use my photo for the poster!
In the poster image, I wanted to be outside of the Disco Ball, as my show is about allowing myself to be seen and known and essentially coming out of my shell, whilst also acknowledging that I am still a disco ball as well - making sure everyone's having a good time and pumping out good fun times wherever I can. I am holding the disco ball above my head so that it can reflect me back onto me, which is a metaphor for what I often do for other people, and I'm wearing my shiniest spangly sequins so that I'm still reflecting everyone's good vibes back out into the ether, but I'm doing it now without compromising on who I am as a person, and whilst also setting the boundaries for what I need. Light beams refract out from the disco ball in a multitude of colours to represent all the many different things that I am - an idiot, mostly, but (hopefully) a fun one!
I've got my "Disco" necklace on, well, because it's my favourite and it makes me happy to wear it! And it's my poster, so I figured that was ok to do!
I've chosen a big 70's style font for my name to reflect back to retro '70's music posters and venue fonts. I've used bright pink and white for this because the colours pop and remind me of when I was a kid going out to roller discos. I've chosen blues for the title text because that is my favourite colour. And I've placed my quote from shortlist in my armpit because the quote feels like a hug to me, I was so chuffed when I got it, so I wanted to put it as close to me as possible on the poster so that it was hugging me. You'll notice that the title font isn't fully opaque, and that the actual disco ball is shining on through the title "Disco Ball" (WHATTT??!!! It's like inception!!...is it?), this is to represent not hiding away and to let yourself be known and seen more than bottling yourself up. The imagery represents not letting your light be controlled by anyone else. From now on, if I wanna shine, I'll do my darnedest to shine, even if there's some font in the way!
Mostly, though, I wanted this poster to make people feel happy when they saw it, like they might be in for a good time if they were to come and see the show, and that the show was going to be a party - which it is! It's a celebration of the fact that no-one's perfect, but that it is pretty cool to accept that. And, of course, it's a very silly hour of fun!
- Designer
- Katie Pritchard
- Photographer
- Karla Gowlett
- Performer
- Katie Pritchard
- Show
- Katie Pritchard: Disco Ball