Finding the right questions

The Sunday rehearsal really began to consolidate a number of questions that had remained unanswerable. The driving question being 'What is this piece? As we pose this question we have explored ways that seek to to answer it. One of these has been, as with Last Night I Dreamt My House Was Leaking...to address the issue of the theatrical space, in Last Night... we had to define the 'Zone'; In this current work we have the metaphor of the 'Secret Theatre'. We began by considering what is it to arrive in the Secret Theatre, who are we when we arrive? We have made the decision that this 'Secret Theatre' is a place that we travel to as a 'troupe', in order to escape. This definition of the theatrical space as a metaphor has anchored us in a specific world. This has in turn anchored the the 'personas' that we have been working with, and then begins the process of finding new questions that seek to be answered: What are the different personas doing in this metaphoric place? We began to find action for the opening of the piece which was based on their arrival at the 'Secret Theatre'. What do they go there to do? What is the relationship between them?. We began to consider what they are arriving to do there and what do they arrive with? Where have they come from and what has happened to them on the way to this place? This opened up a number of creative possiblities that are based on a 'What if', this spurs our imagination and creativity into making connections between the different elements of the material that already exists, the personas, the filmic narratives, the stories, as a result of this process new material is generated and the existing material is reconfigured to provide a sense of purpose and meaning. This creative process demands that we make these connections,throught he questioning, weaving the form together to create new forms that are textured with complex layers of meaning.