What is exciting about the new discoveries that we make through devising process is that once again our imaginations are propelled. These discoveries, that effectively make the material more solid and present to us begin to generate new directions for our thoughts about the developing piece.
What we have set out to do this weekend has been an attempt to define the performance space and our dynamic with the audience. As in the previous process, we realised that it was necessary to define the metaphor of this space more clearly to ourselves. Once we have done this, the theatrical space provides us with an anchor for the material. It has been as if, until this moment, the material has 'floated' in our heads, and has therefore been difficult to pin down or hold on to. We have both commented upon difficult it is to grasp this piece, it has seemed to evade us and lack substance.
The definition of the space as a 'secret theatre', where we go to re-discover our secret dreams, places us in a different relationship to the material. We realise that this space has a gravitational pull, the material is pulled into it and we can begin to see it more clearly in this fictional world we have now created. Our relationship to the material changes when we ask why we would come to this place, why do we bring this material here. We become more present in this process and this changes the dynamic between us and the fictional characters that we are enacting, it has become less about our mothers. The focus shifts to us when we ask why we would need to go to this place. This provides us with the opportunity to position ourselves in relation to our material, and connections, that have probably been there all along, now begin to trigger at a pace. We become inspired and creative thinking begins to surge, as we make connections that until this moment had not been available to us.
Friday, 14 May 2010
Thursday, 13 May 2010
How We Work With Space
Last time we met we began by imagining the space we were walking into when we entered the stage. This time we sat in the audience and thought about the qualities of the space we were conjuring. There were key questions we asked in order to consider this:
What are the rules that govern this space? Are they different from the rules that govern our everyday lives?
What is possible in this space that isn't possible anywhere else?
What demands does this space make upon us?
What do we have to leave behind in order to enter this space?
Why do we seek out this space?
Who is the spectator in this space?
Having posed these questions we then laid out chairs in different audience configurations. We wanted to find out what our relationship would be to the spectator, and this helped us to determine the audience/performer dynamic we would play with in this piece.
We then put objects we had been working with into the space to see how they sat within the context that was developing. Now we were able to start making decisions about what belonged in the space and what didn't. The hostess trolley which had featured quite strongly over the past two rehearsals was unceremoniously ousted, however the fairy-cakes remained. It's a great moment when you start 'knowing' things like this! A period chair asserted itself for the first time and was terrifically helpful in the development of the work over the next two days, and some objects 'hung on in there' with the proviso that they might not make it through too many more rehearsals - such as the old gramaphone records.
We stood back and looked at what we had made; it had a solidity quite in contrast to the abject ephemeral quality of our last piece, and it stretched the imagination temporally as well as spatially. The battered old trunk, covered in labels raised questions as to the journey which had brought it here; the 1950s suit and sunglasses referenced film images quite distinctly. We talked about the space and its potential until we felt compelled to enter it - there was a game afoot, now, and once we had smelt it out we wanted to embody the potential we had created.
What are the rules that govern this space? Are they different from the rules that govern our everyday lives?
What is possible in this space that isn't possible anywhere else?
What demands does this space make upon us?
What do we have to leave behind in order to enter this space?
Why do we seek out this space?
Who is the spectator in this space?
Having posed these questions we then laid out chairs in different audience configurations. We wanted to find out what our relationship would be to the spectator, and this helped us to determine the audience/performer dynamic we would play with in this piece.
We then put objects we had been working with into the space to see how they sat within the context that was developing. Now we were able to start making decisions about what belonged in the space and what didn't. The hostess trolley which had featured quite strongly over the past two rehearsals was unceremoniously ousted, however the fairy-cakes remained. It's a great moment when you start 'knowing' things like this! A period chair asserted itself for the first time and was terrifically helpful in the development of the work over the next two days, and some objects 'hung on in there' with the proviso that they might not make it through too many more rehearsals - such as the old gramaphone records.
We stood back and looked at what we had made; it had a solidity quite in contrast to the abject ephemeral quality of our last piece, and it stretched the imagination temporally as well as spatially. The battered old trunk, covered in labels raised questions as to the journey which had brought it here; the 1950s suit and sunglasses referenced film images quite distinctly. We talked about the space and its potential until we felt compelled to enter it - there was a game afoot, now, and once we had smelt it out we wanted to embody the potential we had created.
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