tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-259566642024-03-14T02:52:26.807+00:00Northern CreativeJoanne Hartleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13736842718727009827noreply@blogger.comBlogger172125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25956664.post-43559655402528888202012-11-23T20:25:00.001+00:002012-11-23T20:25:10.475+00:00More No Strings<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">Our third pilot of No Strings Attached is on Wednesday 28th November at Oak House in Leeds. This is the last of our three pilot sessions, so if you want to have your say on the future of No Strings, here's your chance! </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.333333969116211px;">For more information about no strings, please read <a href="http://northerncreative.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/no-strings.html" target="_blank">this earlier blog post</a> </span></div>
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<b style="font-size: 13.333333969116211px;"> No Strings Attached </b></div>
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Wednesday 28th November</div>
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6.45pm - 9.30pm </div>
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<b>Oak House</b><br />Park Lane<br />Little Woodhouse<br />Leeds<br />LS3 1EL<br /><b>Directions and map attached</b><br />Link to <a href="https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=oak+house+leeds&hl=en&ll=53.800904,-1.561368&spn=0.007718,0.01929&hnear=Oak+House,+Park+Ln,+Leeds+LS3+1EL,+United+Kingdom&t=m&z=16&iwloc=A" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Google Maps</a><br /></div>
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<i>"Whoever comes are the right people..." </i></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Let us know if you'd like to be added to the list ( email northerncreative at gmail dot com ). We'll be evaluating over Christmas, with some help from the Young Vic and Theatre in the Mill, and (fingers crossed) will return with a revved up No Strings Model for all the Leeds/Bradford posse in 2013. </span></div>
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Shakera & Joanne</div>
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Joanne Hartleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13736842718727009827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25956664.post-3846622720071896882012-10-26T17:02:00.003+01:002012-10-26T17:04:31.290+01:00No Strings<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>No Strings Q&A by Shakera Ahad<br /></b><br />
<b>What is ‘No Strings’? <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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No Strings is an Open Space for creative people to create.
Put simply, a place to ‘Do’, where the agenda is set by whoever turns up on the
night. <br />
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<b>Why ‘No Strings’? <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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No Strings is not a co-operative, it is not a Company or a
class. All of these things require commitment – No Strings does not. All of
these things require formality – No Strings does not. <br />
We wanted to send the message that this space is a place for you to get
together with some like-minded people (meaning people who want to ‘Do’) for
just a couple of hours, at the end of which you all leave with no obligation to
stay in touch, come back, sign up for anything. No Strings is very much about
being in the moment. <br />
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<b>Who is it for?
<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->No Strings is not an
exclusive club. We believe that whoever comes are the right people, and they
shape the creative journey by their presence. There is only one prescriptive
rule at No Strings, anyone who comes must be willing to Do, to Try, to Share.
That means different things to different people and can be scary – and No
Strings aims to provide a safe space in which to challenge yourself. <br />
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<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>How does it work? <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Using an Open Space format, attendees call sessions, and
then use the ‘Law of Two Feet’ to travel to, and if they want, between
sessions. These sessions could be anything, as they are up to the attendees to
call, or not call. <br />
There is a collective responsibility shared with every member of the group that
night, to create a space, an environment of mutual support and challenge
between the other artists. <br />
All No Strings are therefore a mystery until people come and ‘create’. <br />
* You do not have to come with ideas, some people call sessions and some do not
– it all contributes to the balance of the group on the night <br />
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<b>What do you ‘Do’?</b> </div>
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Anything. <br />
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At the most recent No Strings, the following sessions were called: <br />
<u>Shakespeare Mash-up</u><br />
Pretty much what it says on the tin. Lots of Shakey Plays, lots of confusion,
lots of being okay with not making sense, lots of hilarity when lines from
different plays made curiously perfect sense. <br />
<u>Warm-up Swap</u><br />
No Strings by its nature will add to an artist’s toolkit. But you can guarantee
it by calling a session to share/learn techniques.<br />
<u>From the Mouths of Others</u><br />
A particular idea someone wanted to test out with the group. Verbatim story
meets movement interpretation (or, as we were in this session and not really
dancers... comedy character mime) <br />
<u>Ideas Sharing...no, really<br />
</u>All the ideas in your head, challenge your fear of them being nicked or
feeling exposed and get them out, it might help to hear other’s thoughts on
them. <br />
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<b>Who is invited? <br /><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Anyone....<br />
A semi-professional wanting to keep in practise<br />
An amateur wanting to learn new techniques<br />
A professional wanting to learn new techniques <br />
A director in need of a break from their own show, to play with something else
for a change<br />
An actor wanting to learn how they explore their very first idea for a
performance<br />
A writer wishing to challenge themselves to create with other collaborative
people<br />
An absolute beginner with no ideas but enthusiasm and adventurous spirit, happy
to try<br />
A choreographer with an idea, but nothing solid enough for an application<br />
A dancer interested in how acting could inform their practice<br />
A facilitator wanting to try a new technique from book before teaching<br />
A practitioner interested in facilitating an Open Space session<br />
We repeat. Anyone! <br />
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<b>What’s the point? <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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The answer to this question is unique to every person when
they come to No Strings, for their own personal reasons. </div>
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Our reason is that we care about Yorkshire and about the
creative work that is happening here. <br />
All creative work feeds and filters into other work, regionally, nationally,
internationally. Be it amateur, semi-professional, experimental, classical,
contemporary, scripted, everything!<br />
Activity which generates creative ideas
and energies is symptomatic of a healthy theatre ecology. And creative activity
can, in turn, boost that ecology. <br />
We do want to contribute on a larger scale, but we are also artists just
wanting to get in a bit of regular practice. Shakera directs and enjoys acting,
but isn’t an actor, she just wants a chance to play with no obligation or commitment.
Joanne writes and feels performing and directing feeds her understanding of a
piece.<br />
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<b>Where does No Strings
happen?</b> <br />
At whatever space is offered to us. We avoid any commitments to buildings or
building owners. The spirit of No Strings is one of no obligation or political
ties. (Big Up to Iain Bloomfield who lends us space and doesn’t insist on us
wearing ‘we love Theatre in the Mill’ T-shirts...that said we do love it
*personal views*) <br />
Be prepared to be surprised, it may be a studio, an office space, a disused
warehouse, an in use office floor... All we can guarantee is that you’ll need
to wrap up warm! </div>
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<b><br /><br />When does No Strings
happen? <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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We are in a pilot phase at the moment (which makes it no
less real so please don’t be put off – we need experience and feedback to feed
into its development) this means dates are fluid. <br />
The next date is Monday 2<span style="font-size: x-small;">9th</span> October. <br />
7.30pm – 9.30pm.</div>
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Theatre in the Mill <br />
You don’t have to stay the whole time, whenever it starts is the right time and
when it’s over for you, it is over. </div>
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<b>How to find Theatre in the Mill </b></div>
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<a href="http://www.brad.ac.uk/theatre/About-us/travel-and-parking/">http://www.brad.ac.uk/theatre/About-us/travel-and-parking/</a></div>
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<b>How do I get
involved? <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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It’s pretty simple. Come to a session! <br />
It is quite scary, we know. That’s part of the point – to be challenged. <br />
But you do need basic info, like the address (we are not challenging you to
wander Bradford in the later hours), so please email <a href="mailto:shakeralouise@gmail.com">shakeralouise@gmail.com</a> and <a href="mailto:joanneleahartley@gmail.com">joanneleahartley@gmail.com</a> we are
the facilitators. <br />
Hello! Welcome to No Strings. </div>
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Shakera & Joanne <br />
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Joanne Hartleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13736842718727009827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25956664.post-26799228505515757362012-10-22T16:51:00.003+01:002012-10-22T16:53:34.149+01:00Day fifteen - a really good day<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Anna, Jonnie and myself all come into the room with similar thoughts on how we can resolve some of the issues raised in the feedback following the previous day's sharing.<br />
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Anna is confident that with some fine tuning of the piece's 'moments' and with the re-incorporation of a device where the action is repeatedly interrupted we'll satisfy the need for some kind of narrative threading. I feel that the sound could be the key to enabling the intent/motivation for the performers to journey through the piece (does anyone out there want to talk to me about intent/motivation and if this is the same thing)? Jonnie has had some interesting sound ideas that compliment both mine and Anna's suggestions.<br />
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So, we spend a couple of productive hours incorporating these changes, we do a final dress tech which is filmed and photographed. We take lunch, review the footage, Anna gives notes and then there's a good rest period before the evening's performance.<br />
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And the rest is history. The performance goes well and is well received. There's an audience feedback session immediately afterwards and this is illuminating. I really enjoy the feedback. No doubt there'll be another reflective blog where I try to summarise the many different kinds of responses that we received.</div>
Joanne Hartleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13736842718727009827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25956664.post-68701759885552085552012-10-22T16:40:00.001+01:002012-10-22T16:44:00.863+01:00Day fourteen - the elephant and the magic in the room<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I'm writing this blog retrospectively. As you can imagine, the penultimate and final day of the process were busy, focussed and adrenaline fuelled. Subsequently I was not able to update the blog and I can remember few details of the two days now, even as I'm writing this only days after the performance.<br />
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The greyness of the previous day had definitely lifted. Despite not having slept I connected with some Buddhist guidance that reminded me that 'it is the heart that matters'. I realised that despite the fact that we'd stripped the work right back and despite the fact that the meaning of the piece was not clearly signposted and delivered to the audience on the plate, (and also despite the fact that yet again there were questions around intention - something which keeps coming up for me) the truth and the heart that we'd all invested in the work was still very much there. We just needed to reconnect with it and to start feeling good about it again.<br />
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There was still a residual tension hanging in the air. I recall Laura saying that she didn't know what the material was any more. At the time I felt very personally responsible for this tension but as I sit here writing this I wonder if it was simply a crisis point for the project, one that was needed for some reason. I definitely think it had a lot to do with the radical intervention during our mentoring. Eventually the tension came to a head and manifested in a disagreement between Anna and myself. Again, I don't remember details, though I do recall both Anna and myself expressing the sensation of fighting against each other. There was also a critiquing of my use of 'group advocated' strategic planning and I made notes in my notebook to ensure in future that these agreements were attended to even more carefully so that I'm not left open to this criticism :<br />
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'Quality of the agreements is important - establishing everyone's priorities, knowing exactly what is going to happen and who is going to attend to what. When the agreement is thrown out or the strategy shifts, it's important to identify that there has been a shift and why it's happened. Incorporate time frames and end goals.'<br />
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The disagreement subsided. I do recall explaining my position to Anna who I think felt I was stepping on her toes a little. I was concerned that the meanings in the work weren't clear and wanted to skip forward to certain sections which I felt were particularly confusing. In my notebook it says 'writer - meaning making, director - performance quality' - the summary of our re-iterating our roles.<br />
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From then onwards the day was rapid, exhilarating progress. The elephant in the room was cleared out of it and the blocking was fleshed out with dynamic enthusiasm in advance of a first dress/tech run to be shared with Theatre in the Mill's Iain Bloomfield and Ivan Mack. The magic is back in the room.<br />
<br />
The feedback that followed this sharing was encouraging but indicated that some kind of narrative threading was required for the audience to feel 'let in' to the work. This was something I had been fearing, that only those of us involved in the work would understand it and that the logic wouldn't resonate beyond the process we'd been part of.<br />
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Iain and Ivan both saw possible fixes and solutions, so all was not lost, but I was disappointed and acutely aware of some of the tribulations of my conceptual approach to writing and making work and the problems I am yet to solve.</div>
Joanne Hartleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13736842718727009827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25956664.post-13244034408704401142012-10-20T15:58:00.000+01:002012-10-22T16:52:45.655+01:00Day twelve - final mentoring<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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We share what we've been working on with Cathy Naden who is mentoring the project for the final time.<br />
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We described how we'd been working, the repetition of the sequence and playing and overlaying with tweaking as we progressed. Cathy connected with what we were describing but suggested that rather than trying to fix everything at once, focussing on one at a time might refresh our perspective.<br />
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Cathy guided us to re-visit the beginning sequence, singling it out and focussing on the detail of it. Cathy also encouraged us to explore what happened when the performer was liberated from a vision restricting mask that we'd incorporated. Suddenly something very magical started to happen.<br />
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We were, at this stage, very familiar with the structure we'd been running. The tweaking that Cathy proposed led us to a brand new iteration of that structure. Cathy had brought our attention to the new possibilities of a new approach, exploring the options of one given moment. After we'd established which of the options was the best fit I suggested that we play out our familiar structure by following the conventions of the best option.<br />
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A very stripped back version of the structure rolled out in front of us. By chance this included a new, very satisfying movement across the space.<br />
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It was a jaw dropping and liberating moment for me. We were able to step away from the repetitive running that we'd got into the habit of. Something structural snapped very certainly into place during this chance exploration.<br />
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Cathy told us that Forced Entertainment often try 'another version' of their shows when they're finding their structures. Even if the iterations are rejected they offer an opportunity to explore tones and qualities that might have been overlooked otherwise.<br />
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Another benefit of this exercise was that Jonnie got a much clearer sense of what was required from the sound following some feedback from Cathy.<br />
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We lovingly title the iteration 'The Po Faced Version' and conclude the day, and our mentoring with Cathy feeling positive and productive.</div>
Joanne Hartleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13736842718727009827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25956664.post-14118593035441838972012-10-19T16:10:00.000+01:002012-10-22T16:52:18.406+01:00Day thirteen - a grey day<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The spontaneous magic that we've enjoyed in the room to date is very much absent during day thirteen.<br />
The structure that evolved during 'The Po Faced Version' has ripped the guts out of the work. It is currently so stripped back that the heart of it feels like it's missing.<br />
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The elegant new shape of the work is definitely a positive, so much so that we can't revert to the previous chaos, but never-the-less it feels like we're all grieving what was there before.<br />
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Where previously we had game structures and improvisation, now we pin down moments. Where previously we had unpredictable spontaneity, now we have performed certainty. In all honesty, I am disappointed that we've begun to work this way. I think that until this point I thought there really was a holy grail of 'live-ness' that genuinely wasn't pre-meditated and then performed. It felt like a failing to not be able to achieve this and to have to be directing each moment instead. (In writing this I'm thinking that there probably is a holy grail of 'live-ness', the reason we didn't hit upon it was because our particular circumstances were not right.)<br />
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It's a painstaking day, we struggle with focus in our fatigued states. However, there are positives. We leave at the end of the day with a well honed re-worked structure and Jonnie's sound work has significantly evolved. But still, we all feel pretty terrible. As Iain Bloomfield (AD at The Mill) puts it 'You have to break it before you can put it together again' and this is what we're feeling the impact of.</div>
Joanne Hartleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13736842718727009827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25956664.post-44043272098911415092012-10-17T08:58:00.003+01:002012-10-18T07:16:19.560+01:00Day eleven - invisible architecture and back to improv<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hIgOaTQ07pY/UH5k_mfn1oI/AAAAAAAAAOM/QtY9FXt9WdM/s1600/IMG_1688.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hIgOaTQ07pY/UH5k_mfn1oI/AAAAAAAAAOM/QtY9FXt9WdM/s320/IMG_1688.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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I am very unwell. The intense work of the previous weeks has exacerbated an underlying health condition that I have. This means that I can't take hold of the process in the way that I usually can. <br />
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We begin with more sound work but in my depleted state I am less able to connect intellectually with the very fine detail. Jonnie and I are working in a way that we worked before with Elephant in the Room but it doesn't seem to be working quite so well in relation to the non-narrative game structure of Museum of Terrifying Example. <br />
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In Elephant in the Room the sound and action were inextricably linked with the action and sound cueing each other at different stages. I had thought that we'd continue along the same vein but trying to do this isn't productive. This is not just because of my fatigue. It seems that the best way forward is to run the structure and play with both the sound and the movement. The work is evolving through doing rather than through detailed intellectual investment. This makes sense as we're working with a fluid structure rather than a fixed script. We video everything and review it afterwards to establish what did and didn't work. Simply pointing out what is good and what not to do next time rather than being prescriptive about what we'd like to happen seems to bring about productivity and forward momentum.<br />
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We introduce a framing/structure element that we haven't yet applied to the work in the form of a system of numbers like the ones used in museum display cases to catalogue exhibits. The performers can use these to display themselves, to mark out moments of exhibition. As we improvise with this new element new moments occur. It is an effective structuring/framing devise for an otherwise chaotic sequence of action.<br />
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We leave early to allow some recovery time. Hopefully this will rectify my significant drop in energy and also help the rest of the team rest a little before the big push at the end of the week.<br />
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Joanne Hartleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13736842718727009827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25956664.post-43501176083620484112012-10-16T08:05:00.000+01:002012-10-18T08:06:18.154+01:00Day ten - slow and steady sound work<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Three of us are unwell. Possibly this is the result of a very intense previous week. <br />
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We arrive at Theatre in the Mill and acclimatise to our new surroundings while we drink honey, lemon and ginger teas to minimise the impact of our collective ailments.<br />
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We begin working by reviewing the footage of the material we shared with Dick and Peter on day nine. This is so that Lucy and Jonnie can come up to speed on where we're at.<br />
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Lucy has some interesting questions which highlight some of the less logical elements of the work. Most of these are tensions I'm already aware of but am reasonably happy to live with at this stage. <br />
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Lucy plans out her work for the week based on the information we've given her.<br />
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Jonnie has a long list of innovative sound ideas to try out. We have to narrow the list down due to our time constraints. I know from experience that some technical aspects can be time consuming.<br />
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The rest of the day is slow but steady process working on establishing a sound score. It's a very different kind of working day to the highly energised physical material we put together in week 2. This is for the best as two of us are pretty out of action and it allows for some recovery time.<br />
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Working with sound can be quite intangible. The language around the sound and the fact that we all hear the same sounds differently means there's a lot of discussion and listening and mistaken identity.<br />
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We work on tightening up one particular section, assigning a subtle sound cue to a set of actions. It proves virtually impossible because the qualities of the sound are too complex for us to hear the signals and subtleties. We look at tempo to find the right kind of structure for the action and then find the right kinds of sound to fit that structure.</div>
Joanne Hartleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13736842718727009827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25956664.post-77767231763980525652012-10-15T08:44:00.000+01:002012-10-15T09:30:51.846+01:00Day nine - structuring and scary first sharing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GUf39KVJTlM/UHu0u2wH3kI/AAAAAAAAANo/zWLh6N8-1cY/s1600/IMG_1640.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GUf39KVJTlM/UHu0u2wH3kI/AAAAAAAAANo/zWLh6N8-1cY/s320/IMG_1640.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>We begin the day gently by finishing the footage review. Looking over everything we've filmed is quite time consuming but it's a necessary task. Perhaps I could have undertaken this activity alone but had I waited until after the rehearsal to do this the four hours it took to go through everything would have meant that I would have had to stay up until the wee hours. That would probably have rendered me pretty useless for the following day.<br />
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Laura reports that she has really benefited from watching the footage so it seems that there is some value in sharing this activity. I certainly thought this could be the case and I had noticed that Laura and Kus were very engaged with the watching. There were lots of 'oh, I can see why that works now' kind of comments. It was a way of reconnecting the performers with the energy and feel of the material we generated earlier on in the process. We've tried to re-create some of the material and it hasn't felt the same. Now we can establish which kind of dynamics need to be brought back in.<br />
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Whilst watching Anna and I list all the material we've generated. Then we make an individual post-it note for each segment and lay out all the post it notes on the floor. From these we select the strongest material and think about how it might be structured into a satisfying through-line of action. Simple but effective. It's very rewarding to have a running order written up on big paper.<br />
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Anna has also kept a note of all the themes and a 'to try' list that we wrote on day one (which was actually less of a 'to try' list and more of a conceptual wish list of moments - such as 'sensationalise the banal and find the ordinary in the extraordinary'). Anna locates all the themes and our 'to try'/wish list in the structure we've laid out. We're confident that we have everything covered and again it's quite amazing how our plans have materialised despite often feeling that the process has a mind of its own (Cathy speaks of 'sculpting fog' - I wholeheartedly agree). It's as if seeds have been unknowingly planted and then sprouted up unexpectedly. </div><br />
We work through all the practicalities, what's needed when and where and set up for a first stagger through of the proposed structure. We're pretty happy with the raw material, unrefined as it is.Lots of detailed work is needed to make it as engaging as it could be, to tackle parts which have less of a logic (there are some clumsy transitions where material has been put next to other material that wasn't originally generated at the same time). It needs what I call 'fine work' (where we tighten the meaning, motivations, logics and align the action with the sound 'text') and also 'pinning' where the flabby raw material is stretched out so that it has energy and pace and shades if light and dark.<br />
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Anna and I give notes and set up again for a second run which is shared with Dick Bonham and Peter Reed. I am incredibly nervous about sharing the work. I'm happy with what we've made but there is niggling criticality in my mind which scrutinises every aspect of it. I recognise this position but it defiant make it any less nerve wracking.<br />
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So I'm very relieved that feedback is encouraging with Dick saying 'you're on to something there.' Joanne Hartleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13736842718727009827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25956664.post-18914107829364553612012-10-11T19:49:00.001+01:002012-10-12T09:46:09.180+01:00Day eight - enlightening review of footage and sound workLooking back at the footage from only a couple of days ago, it's clear to see that the museum of terrifying example is gradually forming itself. It's quite amazing actually. I feel like this is a journey and a process that I only have a certain amount of agency in. So much of it is simply happening around me.<br />
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I made a note to find ways to minimise the risk involved with this kind of work. I'm not sure if it's actually possible to avoid the risky factors of this kind of work but I will be asking a few established artists that I know if they have any strategies. <br />
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The emotional rollercoaster is something I was prepared for and I think I'll get more and more familiar with this kind of sensation. I'm more concerned with finding ways to get good results from the outset, so that's the risk management element I'm curious about.<br />
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We began to do some sound work today and this brought a whole new level. The world we're creating is very much a museum now and hearing that museum while we work is really helping. The performers realise how much they're supported and enabled by the sound. Some of their expectant/anxious energy subsides. <br />
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Laura comments that for the first time she feels like an exhibit. <br />
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I have a eureka moment which I won't expand on here because I don't want to spoil the surprise (expectation management - it's only a small surprise). <br />
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We explore how to interact with sound and play with this a bit. Jonnie is briefed to set a few things up for work next week.<br />
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Having the sound in the room and working with Jonnie who was part of the Elephant in the Room team puts me back into a comfort zone. I feel like I'm reconnecting with my own practice after running with Julia's and Cathy's.Though of course I am permanently transformed and influenced by the work I've done with them. <br />
Joanne Hartleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13736842718727009827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25956664.post-49754812758878602142012-10-11T19:35:00.001+01:002012-10-11T19:48:04.591+01:00Day sevenMentoring on day six brought about a shift and an urgency to consolidate the material generated in some way.<br />
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Establishing what the contract is between performer and audience has become a primary concern. I too can see the elements of the work which are problematic (as highlighted by Cathy) and having this kind of criticality in mind makes pushing forward tough.<br />
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I have to stick to my guns on some of the decisions that have been made. The museum is an alternate reality and this sets a president that I can not do anything about now. Cathy flagged at the outset that putting a museum into a theatre space raised questions and relied upon the audience subscribing to a pretence. Perhaps i didn't listen closely enough to Cathy's alarm bells or perhaps I was not ready to really hear her. But problematic or otherwise I have to embrace this alternative reality and work with it.<br />
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The team continue to believe in the material generated and our designer, Lucy reviews the footage and relays her confidence in the work we've begun to create.<br />
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Lucy proposes a design concept which helps to rationalise things. We decide to get rid of the seating in the theatre space at The Mill and using the space for an installation.<br />
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To an extent this alleviates the contracting issue. We are actually presenting something like a museum now with curated objects. Our performers can now also be objects. <br />
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We're also alleviating the expectancy that comes with the typical 'end on' theatre layout and taking the pressure off the direct address required in that context in the absence of narrative ( which remains absent despite this being a fictional world of sorts - are you beginning to see the challenge here?)<br />
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The subtleties of the contract are yet to be established and I remain uneasy about these given that we've committed to working in an alternate reality. But I'm not going to let the process get very snagged up on this. There are too many positives to focus on.<br />
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We spend a bit of time at Leeds museum and I find myself very inspired by the texts which accompany the exhibits. I photograph them and transcribe them and we look at making them work as performance. We don't quite achieve the right connection with the words at this stage, looking at it first as direct address and then as something more incidental, though we all enjoy certain qualities of the text. Again, the fine tuning of the contract could be what is needed to make this work.<br />
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Lucy picks up lots of ideas while we're in the museum. She sees ways to set up a museum easily and quickly. <br />
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It's a tough day. It feels stopped and started. I suppose there will always be days like these. <br />
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Joanne Hartleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13736842718727009827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25956664.post-28305308654900505742012-10-10T09:36:00.001+01:002012-10-10T09:36:59.351+01:00Day six - mentoring and lots of questions about formAm writing this on the bus. The journey takes longer but there's greater opportunity for reflection than on the 10 minute train journey. I was very, very tired last night so couldn't order my thoughts.<br />
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Cathy Naden from Forced Entertainment came in yesterday (Cathy has been mentoring me for past year or so) to have a look at the material we've generated. It was really useful to put it in front of a fresh pair of eyes, those of someone who has not been party to the logic and meaning making that the team are all party to.<br />
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We've really enjoyed being creative and exploring where our impulses have taken us but when presented to Cathy questions are raised.<br />
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Cathy considers the work from the position of considering only what is immediately in front of her. When you look at what we're doing from this stand point, at its simplest, our action can be taken as two mysterious performers (we haven't given any context whatsoever) undertaking various strange activities with tights, tape, packaging and string for no clear reason.<br />
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Of course we have our logics and reasoning but Cathy highlights the need for contextualising, something formal, a contract between the performers and the audience. And it's worryingly apparent to me that I don't know what these are or what they could be. I am laid bare in a way I've never felt before. This is the leap from the precipice of narrative lead to non-narrative work. I am so acutely conscious of my training and background in fiction and story telling right now. Am feeling very de skilled indeed.<br />
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On a lighter note, Cathy demonstrated how to drill down on the material we'd generated to get more out of it. We generated a lovely 10 minute sequence that we were very pleased with, strangely illogical as it is...<br />
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Another discovery of the day followed on from Julia's steer to simply keep trying things to see what happens. We began the day by taping Laura to a wall and Kus to the floor. Although the material is beautiful it seems unusable (mainly because of practicalities) but the journey the performers and myself and Anna went on was very insightful. The performers were giving themselves over, relinquishing autonomy, becoming 'objects'. We got a flavour of what this might mean from trying these things.<br />
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Cathy flagged the lack of autonomy on the part of the performer as problematic. Yesterday I agreed and freed the performers from this constraint. Today I feel more open to putting them back in this position as its likely that the sound will play a part as an external agent as it has in previous Northern Creative work and its something I'm instinctively attuned to. This means that either convention (ie autonomous or not autonomous) may have to be broken which may continue to be problematic. Though perhaps having the overarching external influencing factor - the sound - will negate this?<br />
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Today we'll explore framing. We'll see where we get with finding some kind of contract and logic for the material we've generated. We'll also meet the designer and explore her ideas. I'm wondering if some of the materials we've been using can be substituted for things that might be found in a museum instead. Though constructing a fictional museum is in itself problematic when considered using the base starting point that Cathy uses - ie 'what is happening immediately in front of me?' The answer would be 'people pretending that this is a museum' which goes against Forced Entertainment's policy of non-pretence and highlights a significant tension between my practice and instincts as a playwright and the fundamental building blocks of deconstructed contemporary performance. <br />
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I embarked on this mentoring and on this R&D with 'what if' questions around clashing play writing and aesthetics of contemporary work with a view to giving myself over to these new ways of working which seemed more relevant, but something in me is holding on tight to features of narrative. Joanne Hartleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13736842718727009827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25956664.post-52229561234800768072012-10-08T20:20:00.002+01:002012-10-08T20:20:58.533+01:00Day five - exploring opposites<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We're working in Leeds this week (we'll be at The Carriageworks starting from tomorrow). Fresh from our weekend off we have quite a remarkable day of high energy activity. We try out numerous ideas which were put on the table during our workshop with Julia last week. We're looking it despair by exploring the opposite to it (one of which we decided was beauty) and we're creating a sense of futility by engaging the performers in impossible tasks.<br />
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It's all about doing and trying and not worrying or thinking about the end result. Surprising things are discovered by simply trying things out and when they don't work, finding ways to make them work.<br />
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I won't go into too much detail because the work we created today is so good that a large part of it is likely to go into the showing. But I will say that a huge amount of fun and creativity can be had with four pairs of tights (which cost a tiny £2.40 from Leeds Market) and I will hint at an awkward moment when one of the performers had been put into bondage using packing tape and the window cleaner turned up outside.<br />
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We worked hard today and achieved a lot. </div>
Joanne Hartleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13736842718727009827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25956664.post-53937045296243054942012-10-06T17:35:00.000+01:002012-10-18T08:07:10.203+01:00Lowry residence Oct 2012<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This is a photo of Studio 2 at The Lowry where we spent the week last week working on the beginnings of our Museum of Terrifying Example. (Kus Kamau who is one of the performers took this shot - thanks Kus). The river and outside the vast window was a constantly changing landscape. It rained, the sun shined, boats passed, bridges raised up and then down again (though we never actually saw this happen - though there was no other way the boats could have passed). The walk to the building from our converted warehouse hotel was a treat with street art and contemporary architecture all around us.</div>
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The Lowry is a very creative place to work. J.S. Lowry the artist famous for depicting working life in Salford/Manchester whom the building is named after was a theatre fan and the complex includes an impressive gallery of his works. It is truly inspiring to see the breadth of Lowry's talent housed in one collection. The vibrancy and colour with which he paints his subject matter (though I realise not everyone sees Lowry's work that way) brought an energy to the whole building and the Salford Quays beyond it. It was such an exciting place to be. </div>
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Further creativity and inspiration came in the form of tickets to see the RSC's 'Julius Caesar' (one of the cast members was staying in our hotel so organised discount for us) which was on while we were there. Lucky us!</div>
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Thanks to Porl Cooper for having us.</div>
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Joanne Hartleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13736842718727009827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25956664.post-53474332516360430372012-10-06T16:39:00.002+01:002012-10-06T16:42:35.561+01:00Identifying the 'story impulse'<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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These are the notes from the point during our residency at The Lowry where I explained to everyone why Museum of Terrifying Example would not be 'a play about...'<br />
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Anna kept having what I described as 'story impulses' in response to the material being generated. Her imagination kept taking her on tangents that had story logics.<br />
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Every time Anna did this the performers visibly relaxed<br />
as if they were on territory much more familiar to them. So I would have to come in and make sure these trajectories were nipped in the bud. I felt quite mean doing this. I don't like to clamp down when people are being creative and imaginative but especially at the beginning I had to make it crystal clear that Museum of Terrifying Example was not about story.<br />
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I explained as follows :<br />
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For me story impulses or logics that we're conditioned to recognise through being exposed to story from birth can be rather restrictive. Story structures filter meaning and association and a lot of the work is done for the viewer/reader/audience by the author when crafted in this way. There's nothing 'wrong' with a story, putting these notes down I'm realising that by doing the meaning-making work for the viewer/reader/audience the author is creating a framework for a wonderful imaginative journey and putting the viewer/reader/audience in an open and receptive position which is generous and lovely. But that's just not what I do. I don't 'speak' in stories. I don't really want to tell stories, I want to share experiences and resonances and bring about insights and understandings that are transformational in some way. Stories can do these things, yes. But that's just not how my brain is wired. I don't experience life in a linear story-structured way, my experience is wonderfully abstract, strange and elliptical and very much inspired by the information flow of 21st Century life, fast, fragmented, bombarding, multi-faceted, multi-media, simultaneous, sophisticated, repetitive. I'm making associations and meanings constantly that I don't even understand yet, and everyone around me is doing the same on some level. We take in information and experience in new, ever advancing ways and that's how my brain is constructing information and making meaning.<br />
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I believe that audiences are very sophisticated, even if they don't realise that they are. I've had quite a lot of feedback from previous performances which began with 'I didn't understand it' and conclude with a reasonable accurate summary of exactly what I was trying to communicate. I'm aiming for a polymorphic read, where each audience member comes away with their own personal insight. The performance should be a stimulus for that, an inkblot test upon which they can project their own thoughts and feelings. Though, saying that, for me, a play with a story is also a polymorphic read with every audience member also having their own unique experience. (At this point I started to ponder how I could really differentiate the audience's experience - but that's another blog post entirely). So really I'm not so far from the original. I'm just doing it in a different way.<br />
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The story impulses have been written down and put in a drawer for future use. It may be that they come into play further down the line. I do feel that when the team has a strong shared logic for the work, the resonance is stronger and clearer and it may be that these story logics come into play as directorial interpretations of the constructed material at a later date.<br />
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The fact that these story impulses keep occurring and the performer's reactions to them (of relief, recognition) suggest to me that there's more work to be done on my part of bringing everyone onto the same page.<br />
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Joanne Hartleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13736842718727009827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25956664.post-2658310542630999532012-10-03T17:21:00.000+01:002012-10-06T17:35:35.940+01:00Day four - text work and then exploding everything<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We review some of the footage from the previous day and transcribe it into workable notes.<br />
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We had made lots of lists of 'I didn't, I couldn't, I haven't' and 'because' and we also transcribe these into workable notes.<br />
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We match up some of the text with the verbatim body language from some of the footage. We try to undermine the excuse making, with the body language giving the wrong signals to the words spoken. We take away vocal resonance to see if the words are more or less convincing.<br />
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There is a little bit of pressure in the room as we know that someone is coming in to look at what we've been doing. Perhaps this is why we moved to text today. Moving to text is definitely my impulse when I think that I/we're in need of something sure and solid.<br />
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Julia Wilson, a performance artist, my former university lecturer and a friend of mine joins us for the afternoon. I brief Julia and quickly fill her in on some of the challenges we're experiencing. We agree that we'll spend the afternoon working with some of the tools Julia uses in her own practice. Julia pretty much takes over, sharing her practice by doing and showing, exploding everything.<br />
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Firstly Julia levels off the playing field. Anna, Kus, Laura and myself are all from very different disciplines. I have an instinctive connection to the kind of work I want to create but I hadn't fully clarified the right terms. Julia put Kirby's Acting/Not Acting continuum on the table to clarify exactly what I meant when I asked Laura and Kus not to use their emotional memory but to represent it, or asked them not to 'go into themselves' but to just be themselves.<br />
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Here's a diagram of Kirby's Acting/Not Acting continuum :<br />
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With this in mind Julia suggested that we could use the 'not acting non-matrixed performing' end of the continuum to work on task based action rather than fictional action. Then Julia helped us explore how we might find the most appropriate tasks to try based on the themes and ideas of the premise. And then Julia showed us how to put these tasks up on their feet and how to interrogate them to create resonances that would stimulate the desired effect in the audience. We could create the emotional experience that we'd like the audience to have by presenting action that brought about that emotional experience (eg, fear and anxiety created through watching someone do something daring, the sense of nurturing and caring experienced through watching someone tenderly nurse someone else etc.)</div>
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Really these new tools unlocked everything. Initially I felt very de-skilled and destabilised. This kind of activity is so far removed from the play writing I'm trained to do. But this is why I invited Julia in to work with us. Instinctively I am grasping for these new ways to connect with audiences. I am very excited to work in this way and I am very, very excited about where this line of enquiry will lead. </div>
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For more information about Julia you can have a look at her website : <a href="http://juliawilson.vpweb.co.uk/Home.html">http://juliawilson.vpweb.co.uk/Home.html</a></div>
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Joanne Hartleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13736842718727009827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25956664.post-20621708515986016982012-10-02T15:06:00.000+01:002012-10-06T17:36:13.840+01:00Day three - playing with emotions, denial, excuse, explaination<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We began the day by playing with emotions using a game called 'emotional roller coaster' where a scene is established and a director calls out different emotions throughout to take the scene in lots of different directions. This was a lead in to more emotional competitions between Kus and Laura to demonstrate to Anna what we'd been doing the day before and to explore further.<br />
<br />
Playing 'competitive jealousy' was particularly interesting as it seemed less like a competition with the performers 'performing' themselves uncommitted to the emotion and much more real and believable. With jealously being a key factor in competition this made sense. We'd arrived at a new discovery of the dynamic between the two competing exhibits should we wish to portray them that way.<br />
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'Competitive paranoia' was also interesting as the audience were so implicated by the expression of this emotion. It was an invitation into the performer's internal world. It was uncomfortable and insidious.<br />
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Our focus shifted away from performers performing themselves performing (uncommitted emotions) and onto one of the other items on the 'to try' list 'constant state of excuse, denial and explanation. We attempted these quite literally at first - 'Make excuses for yourself continuously starting now!' and then looked at more surreal/abstract free association which needed to be broken down into manageable chunks as it was at times impossible for the performers to switch off their brains (necessary for free associations) when being asked to link an 'I didn't/I couldn't/I haven't' to a 'because' in a disassociated way.<br />
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We discovered that there was often a cross over from excuse to explanation to denial. The three blurred effortlessly into each other. Some really interesting text was generated.</div>
Joanne Hartleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13736842718727009827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25956664.post-3781264031462686302012-10-01T19:13:00.001+01:002012-10-01T19:26:11.848+01:00Day two, competition, status and pulling focusWe achieved a great deal today. We explored pulling focus, direct address and how to implicate the audience in the action. <br />
<br />
We established competition between Kus and Laura and incorporated the direct address element into their exchanges, preventing them from having verbal dialogue yet ensuring their relationship is clear. <br />
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We played with status and discovered that it's most interesting when the two statuses are close to equal. This way there's more nuanced sparring. It's watchable and engaging. The status play feeds into the competition we've been working on. <br />
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We learned what's essential to make a competition competitive (a level playing field and parameters). And then we explored lots of ambiguous things and asked what did and didn't work and why.<br />
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We played a bit with found texts, trying to find ways to sensationalise the banal and to find the ordinary in the extra ordinary. There are still lots of questions around this kind of work but its good to have made a start.<br />
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Kus and Laura both worked independently on a solo piece in response to further discussion about existential crisis. We focused on showing rather than saying, manifesting behaviours rather than telling stories. Any spoken language was incidental rather than expositional. <br />
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We've begun to build a language around the work and some conventions and structures we can continue to develop.Joanne Hartleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13736842718727009827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25956664.post-44504781260810095202012-09-30T19:05:00.000+01:002012-10-06T17:36:31.985+01:00Arriving<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A huge amount of jittery anticipatory energy today. We travelled in to Manchester from London, York and Leeds and then headed over to The Lowry. <br />
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We spent some time arriving and adjusting to our surroundings, we also did briefings and reconnected with the subject matter.<br />
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We looked around the Lowry including popping in to the exhibition of Lowry art works housed in the buildings. The paintings seemed very apt, staring faces with ambiguous expressions, and clusters of anonymous figures like city dwelling drones. We were inspired by the breadth of Lowry's practice. He's best known for his match stick men but he could paint and draw in a wide range of styles. The exhibition gave us a sense of the history of the area and helped us connect with our surroundings.<br />
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Then, to my surprise I discovered that an exhibition which included the portrait which originally inspired Museum of Terrifying Example (Spike Milligan photographed inside a bell jar) had transferred to the Lowry and was in situ at the same time as us. So, we all got to see the image in its full glory.<br />
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Arriving took a surprising amount of energy and head space. I'm glad we attended to it respectfully and didn't cut corners. The team feels at ease and we all know where we stand following our briefing and discussion. <br />
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My next job is to convert the brain storming we did together into doing and action. I'll do this by interpreting the notes and creating a list of things to try.</div>
Joanne Hartleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13736842718727009827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25956664.post-12998397779181003302012-09-29T19:11:00.000+01:002012-09-29T19:11:41.357+01:00Night before we begin<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Have set my iPhone up so I can write this blog while I'm on the move.<br />
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I find that I write quite differently when I'm on my iPhone. There's less space on the screen and somehow that gives me less place to think and less place to hide too!<br />
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The last few days have been intense! I've been preparing for the work that will happen over the next three weeks. <br />
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One of the reasons I wanted to learn how to be a collaboratively working writer was because I found working in isolation stressful. I didn't enjoy the weight of the responsibility of solely overseeing the creative architecture of a project and felt that rather than translate something I had in my head to make it meaningful to others, I'd work with a team to find a collective understanding of a project. That way less would be lost in translation, we could guide each other through, and many heads would be better than one, thus enriching the mulsh pot of ideas.<br />
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Sounds like a good plan doesn't it?! It's one I'm very committed to.<br />
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So, it's been funny how, over the past few days that I've experienced all the sensations I usually have when I'm lone authoring! <br />
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I have definitely prepared myself, I have nested like I've never nested before. My office and house are tidier and cleaner than they've ever been! I've created a wonderful working environment.<br />
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And tomorrow morning I will leave that environment and head to another city all together to do the actual work. </div>
Joanne Hartleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13736842718727009827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25956664.post-20443234154427152382012-09-23T16:26:00.000+01:002012-09-23T16:33:55.026+01:00We need you! <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">So, research and development for our next project ‘Museum of Terrifying
Example’ is being </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">supported using public funding by the National
Lottery through Arts Council England</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">. Very exciting.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">What this means in real terms is that a team of
seven of us will be working on the project for three weeks in three regional
venues. From 30<sup>th</sup></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> <span style="background: white;">September to 3<sup>rd</sup></span> <span style="background: white;">October we’ll be at The Lowry, from 8<sup>th</sup></span> <span style="background: white;">– 12<sup>th</sup></span> <span style="background: white;">October we’ll be at The Carriageworks <br />and from 15<sup>th</sup></span> <span style="background: white;">– 20<sup>th</sup></span> <span style="background: white;">October we’ll be at Theatre in the Mill. There will be a sharing of the
work as part of Open Space on 20<sup>th</sup></span> <span style="background: white;">October.<br /><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The three weeks will be spent trying out new ways
of working, honing techniques we’ve tried before, exploring specific themes,
generating material and pushing and developing ourselves as artists. The end
result of the three weeks will be a scratch ‘prototype’ performance to share
with an audience of critical friends and potential future stakeholders (venues
and organisations who could benefit from the work and help take it to the next
stages). We’ll ask the audience what they think of the work and how we can
continue to shape it.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The Museum of Terrifying Example will be a living
museum of existential crisis. We’ll explore the absence of meaning and
direction in our daily lives, the extremities of dissatisfaction that we
tolerate, the behaviours we adopt and the adaptations we make when we don’t
want to tackle the issue. We’ll look at ourselves, at the world around us, at
popular culture and at art and literature for examples. We’ll then craft
performance from our findings and create our museum by looking at aesthetics
and theories of collection and curation.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /><span style="background: white;"><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">We need you! We need you to be part of our audience
to help make this performance project great. Our plan is that this project will be finished
and made into a touring theatre show. There will also be a public space installation
which can be accessed by people outside of the theatre space. It will be part
performance, part live art installation, part exhibition; a wonderful hybrid.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /><span style="background: white;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Northern Creative are a steadily emerging company based in West
Yorkshire. Museum of Terrifying Example is an important step for us. We are
very excited about the project and have established a lot of support for it
already. Your attendance and feedback at the showing will steer the work in all
the right places and really help it thrive.<br /><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Your artistic, practical and professional interest and input will be
warmly welcomed at Theatre in the Mill on 20<sup>th</sup> October at
7.30pm. We look forward to seeing you there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">For tickets please follow this link : </span><a href="http://www.brad.ac.uk/theatre/whats-on/NorthernCreativeTheatre/"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.brad.ac.uk/theatre/whats-on/NorthernCreativeTheatre/</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Joanne Hartleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13736842718727009827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25956664.post-3169505337592925162012-06-25T12:24:00.002+01:002012-06-25T12:25:41.483+01:00Coming soon...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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</div>Joanne Hartleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13736842718727009827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25956664.post-1550766819112733672012-06-20T13:45:00.001+01:002012-06-20T13:47:36.800+01:00Emerge Open Space<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Here's my summary of Emerge's Open Space event held on 17th June 2012 at Left Bank. <br />
<br />
We talked about audiences. We asked why there wasn’t a large one for contemporary work in Leeds. We discussed the terminology around contemporary work and why anyone who didn’t make ‘work’ (and therefore understand the terminology) would want to spend their evening doing something with ‘work’ in the title, even if it was someone else who was doing the ‘work’? We asked why anyone would want to attend an immersive, promenade piece of ‘work’ when they could have an amazing experience in a spectacular place (tag line for Unfolding Theatre’s flag ship show Building Palaces) instead. We asked ourselves why we pitch work as ‘difficult’ or ‘challenging’, making value judgments on behalf of the audience who will never see it because we’ve decided that for them.<br />
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(And now we’ve established that ‘work’ is not great terminology, I’m going to continue to use it throughout the rest of my summary.) <br />
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We asked if festival formats were a better way of bringing contemporary performance to audiences rather than one off evenings which were easily miss-able when in conflict with other commitments and also expensive (especially for artists living on low budgets). We observed that a body of artists are turning out to support the work and that these work-making artists are also advocates for the other work and the venues who are programming it. We thought that there was an opportunity for the venues we spend time at to acknowledge this activity. I envisaged a group of artists who could be advertised as friendly approachable faces for new audience members to make connections with. We spoke about post-show bar activity and how important it is. We enthused about the new bar at Theatre in the Mill, the success there in engaging with new audiences and the welcoming and open atmosphere around that venue.<br />
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Iain shared his experience of pushing a marketing department to release tickets for Pekshar’s ‘After the Rain’ (about the aftermath of the Oldham Riots) into the wider community where they were sold over the counter in local shops. This approach was sensitive to the needs of the community who would attend the production. I had visions of those of us who make up the body of advocate artists I’ve already mentioned chatting to shop owners, over fish and chip counters, at bus stops (in the rain of course), down the local pub.<br />
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We acknowledged that some people don’t know the conventions of the theatre, like how to collect tickets from box office and all the ‘dos and don’ts’ inside the space and saw these as potential barriers. We acknowledged that the prospect of going in, but not being easily able to get out again, could be off-putting for some.<br />
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I overheard a conversation where someone recounted their slightly apologetic, self-depreciating approach to inviting people to see their <strike>work</strike> forthcoming performance : ‘if you’ve got something else on, don’t worry about it, it’s a bit wacky, maybe not your cup of tea’. I immediately related, this is exactly how I sell my own <strike>work</strike> (help, really can’t think of another word) work. We really should stop doing this! <br />
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We asked why Transform was successful and were pleased to hear Amy’s success in filling the WYP bar with unfamiliar faces. We noticed that ‘9’ had been particularly successful in bringing a new audience. We asked if a show with a mid sized community cast would automatically draw a large audience of family and friends and I suggested that actually it was also about the voices, the less prominent ones with their ‘small’ stories. I suggested that audiences wanted an authentic voice, that they could see through the veneer of marketed and targeted theatre offerings, we are, after all in an information glut, bombarded with opaque messages. For something to ring true amidst all of that is very compelling. Iain spoke of his positive experiences (in the sense of bringing in audiences) at Theatre in the Mill with representing voices from the margins and also of working with artists who were particularly honest and open in their approach.<br />
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We spoke about Yorkshire and about connecting the North, South, East and West of it. We grumbled a bit about having to travel to get from A to B across the region but we didn’t grumble for long. We were pleased that venues like The Lowry, Theatre in the Mill and Stockton ARC were collaborating on schemes of support such as Routes North and this seemed indicative of a wider culture of joined up thinking that was spreading across the North. Ellie told us of her experience of building audiences across regions and the support she’d had to achieve that from the network she had established. We spoke about the 50% share of ACE funding that was allocated to London and hoped that we could redress the balance in the future. We thought that a unified community, stretching across the geography and demographics of our regions could help make that happen.<br />
<br />
And then we talked about the Improbable Devoted and Disgruntled Roadshow (also an Open Space event) planned at the West Yorkshire Playhouse on 4th and 5th October. We agreed that we would all take responsibility to invite our wider creative communities to be a part of that event, that we could shape the event by sharing the benefits of being part of it to bring more people into it. <br />
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If you’d like me to tell you about the benefits of Open Space and Devoted and Disgruntled please drop me a line, tweet etc.<br />
<br /></div>Joanne Hartleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13736842718727009827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25956664.post-35193441819284671292011-06-20T15:19:00.004+01:002011-06-20T15:35:19.615+01:00Briefly on arts co-ops (summary of Emerge Open Space discussion 19/06/11)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ak8w8SIhH3c/Tf9XppxqCQI/AAAAAAAAAL4/Bl5xsDj3oFI/s1600/open_space_sessions.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320px" i$="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ak8w8SIhH3c/Tf9XppxqCQI/AAAAAAAAAL4/Bl5xsDj3oFI/s320/open_space_sessions.JPG" width="240px" /></a></div><br />
Ok, so as some of you can probably tell by my Twitter timeline yesterday’s Emerge Open Space with Red Ladder was inspiring, exciting, galvanising, educational, informative, fun and many other things in between. <br />
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Those of us who attended were all in agreement that there’s a huge amount of exciting work coming out of the region. Absolutely masses of the stuff! We had a fab discussion about consolidating a narrative around the work, the making of it and the people involved. We agreed that we should find a way of blowing our regional trumpet but I won’t mention that for now as it’s a whole other tangent (intelligent arts journalist types who might like to jump on bandwagon, please make contact).<br />
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We were also all in agreement about the challenges that we all face as artists/makers/practitioners and we identified that we’re all going through those challenges in isolation, trying to tackle the difficulties on our own.<br />
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The word COMMUNITY (a critical yet nurturing one) featured very, very heavily throughout the day. We all articulated a need for it and the fact that the room was buzzing with energy demonstrated the possibilities of being part of one. We became more and more energised and radiant as discussions progressed (despite many of us recovering from West Yorkshire Playhouse’s Transform Season closing event the night before). It felt fantastic to get together with like minded individuals with similar aims. It was supportive, cathartic and invigorating.<br />
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One of the proposed open space sessions asked ‘when should I give up the day job?’ another ‘do we measure our worth/work in terms of money/career?’ and another ‘what are the challenges/advantages for a new company starting out in the region?’<br />
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We grouped these three questions together and set about establishing how it could be possible to create the work we wanted to create, with the necessary resources in place, whilst also surviving financially. It seemed that making work was all sacrificing, exhausting, virtually impossible whilst holding down a day job and more often that not on a ‘beg, borrow and steal’ budget. We were operating as ‘jacks of all trades’ which prevented us being masters in any one area.<br />
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Rod Dixon (of Red Ladder fame) quickly identified the possibility of a co-op. I looked around and noticed that the people sitting around me had skills that I didn’t and vice versa. Each of us wanted to make creative work but we all had experience in different areas/roles/jobs to pay our bills. I looked at Kus with his sales experience, Jaye with her PR & marketing, Carolyn with her outreach & education background, Lucy with her arts management etc. etc. (there were other folk there – I haven’t forgotten you – I just don’t know your background so well yet) and I realised that collectively we were potentially a powerful machine. <br />
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I shouted out ‘We could be a producing co-op!’. <br />
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Recently I’ve felt the strain of trying to balance both the creative and the practical elements of a project and had begun to realise the significance of the producer’s role in making a space (space being time, energy, resources, gigs as well as physical space) for the creative work. I don’t normally speak without engaging my brain first but my producing co-op suggestion was obviously keen to be heard as it splurged forth without my thinking about it.<br />
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Perhaps the others had felt the same kind of strains as folk seemed to quickly subscribe to this idea. We identified that we all had time and skills we could offer in exchange for the space (time,energy,resources,gigs) to do our own thing creatively (I should point out that we all have different creative agendas – so we weren’t proposing that we’d all work together creatively, we’d keep our own projects). We could support each other by taking a portion of the workload for someone else’s project in return for the others taking a portion of the workload when it came to our project. <br />
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It was acknowledged that money would be required (we’d be sacrificing our time so we’d need a way to pay the bills) and it was expected that we’d be able to trade our transferable skills in lucrative ways (commercial sector workshops/training, education programmes, artists outside of co-op in need of support) and that we’d be able to take a living from this income and invest surplus back into the co-op to cover the costs of the range of creative work we make (which would also be income generating and also feed back into the co-op). We’d be a self sufficient little industrious machine creating a cluster of works/shows/performances which we could collectively promote and tour.<br />
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Strength in numbers! Empowering stuff! <br />
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Of course it’s not quite so simple as I’ve tried to make it seem here. There are parts that I’m still not 100% certain about and there’s complex fine detail that would need to be established. What I’ve written in this blog post are only my own thoughts, ideas and interpretations. Others may interpret the discussion differently. If anyone reading out there can see any snags or that I’m off the mark, please do feel free to point them/it out, I am still learning…<br />
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I don’t think setting up a co-op is an ‘easy’ thing to do. It takes a massive amount of extremely hard work, dedication and patience to attend to the finer points and details. There’s a huge amount of facilitation, negotiation, discussion, co-operation and teamwork involved. A co-op would definitely be looking for ‘workers not shirkers’ to make it work. Though as I write this I realise that making theatre already demands all of the things I’ve listed above. Maybe we’re better prepared than we realise to make a co-operative really work? <br />
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</div>Joanne Hartleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13736842718727009827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25956664.post-4710065000974280002011-05-10T15:45:00.000+01:002011-05-10T15:45:14.800+01:00Elephant in the Room at Accidental Festival<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x2tld854Z_I/TclOQgMHppI/AAAAAAAAAL0/-XrAyeS4B5E/s1600/Studio+sessions+flyer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400px" j8="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x2tld854Z_I/TclOQgMHppI/AAAAAAAAAL0/-XrAyeS4B5E/s400/Studio+sessions+flyer.jpg" width="282px" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
For tickets please follow <a data-mce-href="http://www.roundhouse.org.uk/whats-on/productions/the-studio-sessions" href="http://www.roundhouse.org.uk/whats-on/productions/the-studio-sessions" target="_blank" title="link to buy tickets for studio sessions">this link</a></div></div>Joanne Hartleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13736842718727009827noreply@blogger.com0