These past few weeks in our theatre company have been fantastic and I’m really excited about the work we are making! Although we only formed as a company in January, I feel that as an ensemble, we have progressed immensely and the direction of our journey is vastly becoming clearer every day.
For a devised piece of theatre the process is much more collaborative meaning that the role of the director can be more adaptable. It is therefore my job to gather devising material, have a creative vision and guide the performers through their tasks and roles, ‘The prolific imaginations of the company, if well managed and focused, can be transformed from chaos into rich, elegant and often deeply resonant productions and performances for an audience.’ (Bicât et al, 2002, p. 9) Once into the rehearsal process I will take on a more ‘traditional’ director’s role and become a spectator, deciding what works well from an audience’s perspective. I will also run workshops to ensure that the performers are comfortable working as an ensemble and to discover the strengths within the group.
In the past few weeks we have been making an effort to see a wide variety of theatre and speak to existing companies about their careers. One which stands out to me is Stateless by Joli Vyann which we saw performed at Lincoln Drill Hall on February 19th. The company specialises in creating theatre which explores characters and tells stories through dance and circus. The company has ‘created a new fusion style to push this style further by blurring the boundaries of where the dance ends and the circus skills begin’ (Joli Vyann, 2015) What inspired me the most was the visual and physical aspects, making the audience work harder for an understanding and leaving more room for personal interpretation. There were clear emotions, intentions and stories presented but these stories were understood with the assistance of lighting, physicality and music. This is something that I intend to encourage in our workshops and will hopefully be carried through to our performance style. I also found it interesting that all of the pieces of set fitted together and were connected in some way. This made me think about our set and how, perhaps, the set could be the element that connects our stories together? In the video below, you can see how the set was used as well as the physicality of the piece.
Another show I would like to comment on is Broke by The Paper Birds. This was a piece of verbatim theatre, based on interviews with individuals focused on poverty, debt and class. Before the show, I was able to attend a verbatim workshop, led by Jemma Mcdonnell, Artistic Director of the company. Although there are no plans for our piece to be directly verbatim, we are interested in collaborating with our audiences and generating work from conversations. The workshop helped me discover new ways of exploring people’s stories and how to be sensitive during interviews. I had also managed to organise a meeting with The Paper Birds before the show. During this informal interview, we received advice on starting a theatre company; in the beginning, the art is more important than the business and admin side of the company, ‘Keep focused on your work and everything else will kind of just happen. Without a really good piece of work, you’re nothing.’ (Mcdonnell, 2015)
Works Cited
Bicât, T. and Baldwin C. (eds.) (2002) Devised and collaborative theatre. Marlborough: Crowood
Joli Vyann. (2015) [online] About us. Available from http://www.joli-vyann.com/dance-and-theatre-company-about [Accessed 5 March 2015]
Mcdonnell, J. (2015) Career advice from The Paper Birds Theatre Company. [interview] Interviewed by Michael Woodhall, 12 February.
