Images from Dress Fittings

Makers Diary: Red Vogue

Sharon e-mailed me today and suggested that I need to get four ushers, so I posted an advert on the portal; I also text all of the performers to ask if they can ask about their friends too. Sharon is going to apply for a temporary performance license, so that we can charge on the door. I think I will charge £3 for normal admittance and £2 for students. I will also have a special guest list to give to the duty manager of people who do not have to pay to come in; such as supervisors.

I had an e-mail from Kerry at Camden asking for copy and publicity, I will have to put something together for her. I need to try and get some of our postcards to her as well really.

Lorraine had the dress fittings today-some alterations are needed but they are only minor. The dresses look fantastic and both girls are really happy with their dresses. I am definitely going to need to get them some specific bra’s though to go with the dresses. I can’t expect them to get them as they will be taking their clothes off and this makes their underwear part of their costumes and it needs to be right. Nikki’s needs to be one that Rich can take off easily and will not have to fumble around with. I will have to go on a mission to soton central I think.

I am a little concerned about the opening section, as I am not convinced that the girls are going to be able to move that easily in the dresses. It is a factor that I asked them to consider but they seem to think that it will be fine. If they feel that they can work in the costumes then I have to take them at their word.

Richie tried on the size 14 dress that I had left over from The Woman Who Swallowed the Moon, but it was far too small. Lorraine and I have been and bought a suitable pattern and some fabric; she will knock him up a dress over the next couple of days.

We are not having any more rehearsals now until Sunday because Richie is away seeing his kiddies-half term. We are going to have to start looking at the participation section in our next rehearsal. I will prepare some audience responses for the Sunday session, so that they have some material to work with. I have already prepared their toolkit and will be running through it on Sunday with them. I don’t want to give them a written copy because I want them to feel free and not to become reliant on a piece of paper. We will just have to keep going with it until it sinks in and they feel confident with the structures that they will have to respond to the audience.

Makers Diary: Rehearsal

Nikki could not make it to this morning’s rehearsal, so I decided that Richie and Debs should work on their five minute entrances. Debbie made some interesting progress on her entrance but it still needs to be longer. We all had a discussion about Richie’s entrance and Richard expressed a wish to enter as a woman, he wanted to try and ‘fool’ the audience so that they would be surprised when he undressed. He wanted to explore the drag angle of a female image. He suggested that he should do a choreographed routine to the song that he composed as his entrance. All three of us spent the morning trying out different scenarios and devising him a dance routine. He will need to work really hard on perfecting it if he is to fool the audience into thinking he is a woman; that will be the key to the success of his entrance. If he wants to puncture their expectations and assumptions he will need to find a convincing physicality and movement. He is going to need a dress and he has already tried some red ‘porn’ shoes that I had in my collection of red shoes. I rang Lorraine to ask her to bring a size 14 red dress to see if that will fit Rich, if not we may have to make him one.

Once Nikki arrived we tried putting the opening section together in a sequence. We tried doing the opening elements in several different orders but we ended up with: ‘She’ text-Rich-Debbie-Nikki-undressing-redressing-inscription. This was really successful and I felt very relieved as it is finally starting to take shape as a performance.

We rehearsed the moon text and the rape text for most of the afternoon. I am really concerned about their words; they need to be off book as soon as possible to start to really get to grips with the physical aspect of the sections. I am not convinced that they even look at their texts and notes between sessions! We had to make a few adjustments to the moon text just to express our ideas more clearly and to make it smoother and easier for Rich and Debs in their section of the text. Our previous blocking was a little to cumbersome and messy with the potential to go quite wrong and somebody get hurt. We have ironed that out and if they could just be more confident in their lines and blocking we could move on.

We are going to have to get on to the participatory elements as soon as possible now or we are going to run out of time and that is the heart of the work-the reason for all of the texts and inscription. I am definitely going to have to drop the other two texts for this round of performances because it is more than evident that we are just not going to have time and Nikki, Richie and Debs will not be able to get off book in time with even more to learn. We will get them prepared for Camden though.

Makers Diary: More Housekeeping

The performance gym and arts centre are not going to be available for out of hours rehearsals, so that is not going to be an option. It is so frustrating that we have not had an opportunity to get into the space that we will be performing in but what can I do. I have e-mailed Sharon Armstrong with all of the specifics of the performance, time etc, so that we can get the duty manager sorted and booked.
Lorraine is travelling down tonight with the dresses, so that we can have some fittings tomorrow. I am really excited about the dresses….lets just hope they both fit.

Reflective Practitioner: Rules=Freedom….or so it would appear

After the last few sessions, it has become evident that the tighter and stricter the rules, the more freedom is produced. Forced Entertainment seem to thrive on a more open and unstructured process but throughout this process I have not found that to be the case at all. Maybe it is the lack of performer’s confidence and experience of devising in this way or our awareness of time restrictions upon us…I am not sure but it does seem that rules=freedom in our sessions. However, Robert Wilson and Liz LeCompte do take an authorial responsibility over the devising process despite the ensemble and collaborative nature of their work. They both seem to take the reigns in a manner than Etchell’s claims not to. I do feel that my role in this process is more like Wilson and LeCompte than that of Etchells. I am not directing in a traditional sense but I am orchestrating and facilitating. I am more like a conductor of an orchestra-keeping a coherence but not adherence-allowing each skilled performer creative freedom and expression but under strict rules and tasks. Like a curator, working around a theme and set of criteria.

Makers Diary: Toolkit

I have had a really good think about how I can help the performers find exciting and challenging ways of bringing the audience’s material to life for them. This is such an important aspect of the work, in fact it is the heart of the work; all of the other elements of the performance are designed to enable this engagement between the audience and the performers. If I give the performers a choice of the ways in which to approach the material, I think that they will be feel less anxious and actually feel more freed up to be creative. I am going to call this their participation toolkit.

I have devised five different strategies for approaching the material that the audience provide them with: storytelling, soundscape, freeze frame montage, abstract movement machine and naturalistic. I have designed each one so that they are either a game or a task and can be approached as an interaction between activity and their performance personas. I have used some of the elements of playback theatre in order to create these tasks and games- only with a more aesthetically responsible view in mind than you would usually find in any playback session. I have combined elements of playback theatre with some of the warm up exercises that we have been using in our sessions to date.

Storytelling: One of the performers has to start by choosing a chalkboard that they want to address. Once they have chosen this, they will start by saying Once upon a time there was a woman……they have to keep going with telling a story that is based on the chalkboard until another performer interrupts them and then continues the story or changes its direction. This continues indefinitely until a performer calls stop and then that scenario is over.
Soundscape: One of the performer’s chooses a chalkboard that they want to use and respond to. They will start to produce a soundscape that tells the story or responds to the chalkboard suggestion. Once they have started the other performers will join in to build on it. It stops once one of the performers calls stop.
Freeze Frame Montage: Once the board has been chosen, the performer will take up a position and then the others will join them to create a freeze frame. Once they have held the first freeze frame for five seconds, the starting performer will call change and take up the next position; this process will be repeated until the starting performer calls stop.
Movement Machine: Once the chalkboard has been chosen, the starting performer will begin to make two repetitive movements in succession accompanied by a sound. The other performers will join in until they form one single unit- a machine.
Naturalism: This is fairly self explanatory really. The starting performer will begin a naturalistic improvisation and the others will join in until the starting performer calls stop.

I am really hoping that it will be useful and can’t wait to take it into a devising session. I suspect we will have to refine these games but I hope we can do that as part of the process.

am Makers Diary: More House Keeping and Other bits

Richard has e-mailed me a piece of music that he has made and would like to use for his entrance instead of the existing piece….this is fantastic, it means that he has been thinking about what he would like to express in this section and that is a wicked start…I am so excited for him. It shows a real investment in making his performance personae. I am really looking forward to working with him to devise this section now.

I have re-booked rooms to accommodate our change in the rehearsal schedule now and have had all of that confirmed which is good. I have e-mailed Sharon to get some out of hour’s rehearsal space but have not had a response back for that yet. I e-mailed Kerry at Camden Theatre to ask a few questions:

Dear Kerry

I just wanted to ask a couple of questions:

1. When do you need us to supply our publicity material by and in what format?
2. When designing the publicity material what details do we need to include about the venue?

3. In addition to my original tech requirements, I am going to need a microphone off stage, that has a live feed into the onstage sound system...will this be possible? I have a microphone, so really am just checking that it will be ok to do that.

I think that is it for now. If I think of anything else then I will drop you a message.

Best wishes

Joanna Bucknall
Vertical Exchange

Makers Diary: Ask for the moon

Today’s session started really well, the warm up was fantastic, full concentration, loads of energy and imagination. We did a couple of new exercises that they all really responded to. I wanted to get them to think about the relationships between them and to think more about their physicality. We did an eye contact exercise to try and build some trust and to draw out the tensions and fusions. They had to maintain eye contact with the ‘it’ performer, who had to try and avoid their eye contact. This was a really successful exercise. We also did some exercises that played around with the idea of Bouffant bodies. I took it out of the context of humour but we used the idea of bouffant to try and express ideas and concepts in a physical and vocal way rather than in a textual way. This was really successful and again was a useful bonding exercise. It seems that the tighter the structure of the exercise the father the performers will push it and run with it. It seems that the more rules, the more willing they are to take real risks and really invest in the exercise. I am hoping that this will also be something that the audience’s games and tasks will inspire and create.

We finished developing and blocking the moon text, so here are the results of our work:

SHE is leaning against the tall block, sitting on the floor, while HER is sat on it. Him is stood just moving casually around the space. He uses up the space and wonders around for the entire time that he is speaking.

HIM: She was a woman, you know, the kind of woman who wears suits, good
suits with heels. And when she passes by you catch a soft heady waft of her
oriental smelling perfume, sweet and exotic. The kind of woman who carries
an extra pair of champagne coloured stockings in her leather purse, just in
case. Go on, close your eyes and picture her.

Closes his eyes and takes a long pause and a deep breath.

The kind of woman who chooses not to be a mother and has an applehead
Siamese cat, called Digby waiting for her when she gets home late, in the
dark from the office.

The kind of woman who enjoys opera and always has a glass of good red
wine during the interval.
The kind of woman who always seems to rush to the ladies room after she’s
eaten.
The kind of woman who bites her cuticles when she is nervous.
The kind of woman with a pre-Raphaelite beauty hanging in her light and
spacious entrance hall.

AD LIB- uses the audience to create more dialogue about what kind of woman
she is.

The kind of woman who eats Thai food and sushi with chop sticks. The kind of
woman who sips her champagne from a crystal cup that (licks his finger and
makes the motions) sings when you tease the rim. The kind of woman who’s
snap action umbrella always matches her bag and shoes.
The kind of woman who takes baths, long baths by the light of flickering
scented candles.
The kind of woman who smiles without ever really opening her lips. The kind of woman who doesn’t own a biro and has a pink grapefruit for breakfast. The kind of woman who always seems to know what she wants.

Pause

The kind of woman like you (points to women in the audience) and you and you, yeah and you.
You know the kind of woman who is snooty and independent

(Pause)

The kind of bitch (both SHE and HER now focus all of their attention on him) who thinks that she is above all men, above me (HER gets up so that she is with him in time to interrupt), the kind of woman who/ (HER walks to HIM and puts her hand on his shoulder, then immediately steps in front of HIM. As HER does this, HIM lifts her up in the air)

HER: What he means to say is that she was beautiful and powerful but that was never enough, (HIM carries HER forwards to SL) like you and me and all women, (HIM lays her down on her side, on the floor. ) she wanted more. (HIM steps back, looks at HER for a moment and then sits on the tall block) More beauty, more power, to be more feminine, to have more choice. (HER is stood up by this line and SHE gets on all fours directly in front of HIM)
To have better shoes (HER puts her foot on SHE’s bum, all the time addressing the audience), a smaller arse (HER steps up onto SHE’s back and HIM stands up, HER swings her legs around his body and HIM sits down, laying HER across SHE’s back, so that she address the audience upside-down), for her tits to be more full and pert, her skin more fresh. (HER rolls off SHE’s back and then lays across SHE) She wanted more glamour (HER puts her arm upright in the air and brings her other hand down it slowly), fame (HER strikes a vogue pose), recognition (HER does a coy little dismissive wave and then covers her mouth), praise (HER does a little flourish of a bow. HERthen stands up by SHE’s feet). She wanted a bigger heart, fuller heart, more hopeful heart, (SHE takes her hand and pulls her, so that they end in an embrace) a cherished heart. (Her pushes SHE onto her back and straddles over her, laying her hands on SHE’s stomach, all the while talking directly to the audience) Her stomach to be flatter, (HER stands a little and runs her hands down her thighs) her thighs more slender, (HER crouches at SHE’s feet and lifts one of SHE’s feet up to her lips) her feet smaller, (HER reaches for SHE’s hand ) her nails longer, (HER pulls SHE to her feet, they look into each other) her love deeper (HER leans in to kiss SHE but at the last moment pushes SHE away). She just wanted more; more love (HIM comes in from SR, HE takes HER in a ballroom dance hold: step, step, HIM turn, HER turn. HIM touches her face, the hold a look as he moves off SL), more passion (SHE comes in SR, takes hold of HER in a tango hold, they both lean out. SHE touches HER face as she moves SL and back round to stand near HIM, shoulder to shoulder), more power (HER does a spin and clicks her fingers, as soon as HER clicks her fingers, SHE and HIM drop onto their knees), more sex (HER moves around the back of SHE and HIM and lays down across their backs, so that she is looking upside-down at the audience)), more chocolate. (HIM and SHE stand up, forcing HER to stand also, they stay shoulder to shoulder and HER pushes through them)
She wanted to be special.
She wanted to be special. (HER moves forward SR)
(HER stops)She wanted to be woman. (HER crouches down)
So one night (SHE moves off in an arc SR and ends up behind HIM), when the moon was full and fat (SHE does a handstand against HIM’s back and he pulls her up over his head, with her arms outstretched and puts SHE on the floor in front of HIM)), she stretched her arms up out of the waves, (HIM places one hand on her shoulder and brings the other over her face as SHE opens her mouth wide) she opened up her big red lips and swallowed the shimmering silver orb whole.

(Long Pause. SHE starts to turn and sink to the floor towards SL and HIM does the same, so that it looks as though SHE has vanished into HIM. They become like a rock on the ground)

And so the sea stood still (HER stands up and walks back towards HIM and SHE), the night turned black (HER sits on HIM’s back) and in the darkness we were found wanting.

(Beat. HER puts the boxes back into the original formation of a step system. HIM and SHE start to rise up from their positions in the same way that they got into them, by the time they are up, HIM will have removed SHE’s top and throws it to the ground. As they do this HER is choosing a pair of shoes from the wheelbarrow and placing them in front of the tall block, kneeling in front of them. Beat. HER turns to face HIM and he reaches around and undoes her bra, discarding it. Beat HER turns around and puts her back to him again. Beat lifts up her arms and holds her wrist with one hand. Beat HIM takes hold Beat Him lowers SHE to the floor and drags her across to the tall block. Beat HIM pulls SHE up to standing with SHE’s back to HIM. Beat HIM lifts SHE onto his shoulder and steps onto the podium. HER comes round to pull off her shorts, discarding them and moves back to HER original position. Beat HIM turns and lowers SHE into the red shoes in the floppy hands Christ position, hair down, head down, while HER holds them steady. HER gets up and moves around to the SL side of the tall block and steps up to HIM. HIM takes her into a tight and dominant embrace, holding HER to his chest with his arms around HER. Beat)


SHE:(SHE turns her palms up and lifts her head sharply) I am celestial.
I am a nymph.
I am a goddess. (SHE lowers her hands and takes a step forward)
I am the woman who swallowed the moon. (SHE starts to walk around the space, close to the audience and looking directly at them moving SL)
The one the sea didn’t take. The limp lady dangling stretched from the rope. The woman with her wrists slashed and her arteries pumping, spilling out their crimson honey into the bathtub.
The woman with the stomach full of paracetemol, co-proximal and drain cleaner.
The girl they laid low.
The beauty queen fizzing in the heart hot tub, rickled fingers clutching her hair dryer.
The rock chic jacked full of junk, petrified and gaping.
The sleeping beauty in the front seat sucking on invisible death.
The pallid diva stiff and slouched, head lolling on the porcelain rim, life leaking from her perfect nose.
The desperate housewife, fixed pupils, empty starring through the misty, scratched plastic.
The fem fatale with a knife in her gut.
The ancient figure head with an asp grasping her teat.
The smudge in your diary, the stain in your heart.
The woman with stale spittle and vomit on her lips.
The tragic smart feminist with her head in the gas oven. The woman who left a dark stain on the pavement. The woman who blew her brains across the dashboard. The woman tangled in the mud amongst the duck weed and lily pad stems. (By this point SHE will have done a full circle and ended up back in her starting position) (Pause. HIM and HER will get into a new freeze pose. HIM stood with a clenched fist and HER at his feet looking up)

That is I, The celestial, goddess, nymph; the woman who swallowed the moon.

(Pause)

(Still to the audience) But tomorrow I will stop. (SHE moves across and gets into a crouch to talk tenderly into HER’s face) Stop butchering, stop crying, stop shouting, stop dying, stop killing myself and listen to the silence song. (SHE stands up)I will shut the door (SHE pulls HER to her feet and helps her down off the block, she stands behind HER and puts her hands through under HER’s arms. They do 3 gliding steps forward in unison as one) and find that I have breasts (SHE from behind, runs her hands over HER’s body), thighs, ankles and a womb. (SHE takes hold of HER’s hands and pushes them to her crotch) With my soft delicate fingers I will pleasure myself. (HER turns SHE and helps HER to lay on her back on the floor. HER begins to do a repetitive curl and uncurl sensual movement as SHE walks over to the tall block, where HIM is still stood in his pose) Reclaim my lips (SHE steps onto the tall block too and says next line right up in his face), my cunt (HIM steps down onto the middle block backwards); from the men, from the lovers. Who have had me, used me, fucked me, screwed me, buggered me, raped me over and over and over (HIM steps back onto the smallest block). I will rip the moon her fat silver roundness from my belly and stagger into the street drenched in my own blood. (HIM steps back down onto the floor and faces the audience) Letting my sinew and song soak their sidewalks. Leaving a trail of where I once trod. I will hold up my face to the sky (SHE holds her face up to the sky), fingers raised to the heavens (SHE raises her arms up high, fingers outstretched), letting my insides paint me. (Pause. SHE’s arms and head drop back down)
I am woman.
I am celestial. (SHE steps onto middle block, looking at HIM menacingly and triumphantly)
I am a nymph. (SHE steps onto the small block)
I am a goddess. (SHE steps onto the floor in front of HIM but with her back to him. Pause)
(To the audience) I am the woman who swallowed the moon.

I was really hoping that we would be able to develop and pre-pare all 4 texts but that is really not looking very likely now. It is such a time consuming activity to develop each of the texts in this way and I would rather have two well prepared texts than 4 at workshop stage. I am not going to rule it out but we have so little time it now just seems inevitable. I think that we will have time to prepare them all for Camden. As long as the audience have a choice between the two that achieves my goal.

I brought the inscription text along to the rehearsal today, Nikki, Debbie and Richard were really pleased to see that the material they had generated had been fashioned into something and they liked the texts. We played with the notion of inscription and tried lots of different ways that we might be able to create ‘her’ and generate a presence of ‘her’ through inscribing on their bodies. Everyone really invested in this part of the process and we very quickly devised and choreographed a small section. Here are the results of that part of the process:

HER: (While inscribing HIM. He leans on SHE’S back as HER writes on his lower arm)
The used to pull her hair.
They like to make her wait.
They sometimes forget about her.
They don’t realise when she is dying inside.
They threw her out of the top floor window.
They always make her feel inadequate.
They heckled for her to jump.
They tear her flesh with their eyes.
They left her out in the rain.

HIM: (While inscribing SHE. SHE puts her leg on HER’S shoulder as HIM writes on her thigh)
They forgot to tell her the truth.
They told her that she would never amount to anything.
They laughed when she made a mistake.
They used to call her derogatory names.
They sometimes throw sticks and stones.
They always hurt her with their sharp tongues.
They take pleasure in her stinging tears.
They held her on the ground for him.

SHE: (While inscribing HER. HIM gives HER a fireman’s lift and SHE writes on the back of HER calf)
They tried to cave her skull in.
They never listen when she speaks.
They shit on all her ideas.
They poke her with their wit until she cries.
They used to tell her whopping great lies.
They always make her do it first.
They have broken her heart repeatedly.
They spit in her hair when they think she is not looking.
They used to lock her in the dark place.
They keep forgetting to come for her.
The piss on all her dreams.

We did some more work on the entrances and undressing section of the piece and I had hoped that they would have pre-prepared some ideas, thoughts and movements but only Nikki had done some work to show us. I gave them 10 minutes to work on them, while I left the room to make some calls about the sound and costume; I had hoped that they would work while I was out of the room to make up for not having prepared anything before hand but when I came back they were sat chatting and again Nikki was the only performer working. They also had not managed to devise anything to show me in that time either. I was disappointed because the first half of the session had gone so well. Debbie had some ideas but was having difficulty putting them into a visual language and Richard seemed to be at a total loss. Nikki’s work was really exciting, she used the floor and had worked with the concept of an actual siren and had looked at the relationship between the sea and the female psyche. He entrance is really coming on and it will not take much work to knock that into a polished piece of performance. I think with more encouragement Debbie will produce some really exciting work; I really want to encourage her to draw on her background and experience as a dancer and how this relates to her performance persona, there is so much there that she can problematise I think; notions of the trained dancers body and beauty etc. Richard’s lack of training and experience is more of an issue than I first anticipated it would be; not because I do not think that he is capable of using his body and his experiences to create a visual language but because I think that he is not used to exposing himself in this way and is struggling with confidence. I will have to make some time for a few one to one sessions to help Richard devise his five minute section. I am purposefully not going to do this for Debbie because I want her to push herself and I do not want to influence or interfere with her physicality. I want it to come from her…with Richard I have no choice. I do not want to have to direct or choreograph him the traditional sense but time constraints may mean that I have no choice but to do that.

Now that I have a few small sections devised and some of the text prepared, we need to start looking at the structure and how we can start to pull all of the elements together. We also need to think about how we can start to prepare the participatory elements without an actual audience present at every session. I have an idea of how it will run but it will not necessarily be that way in actuality.

I am concerned about the participation; I really want the performers to find challenging and innovative ways of approaching the audience’s material. After today I have realised that the tighter the rules the more I seem to get out of the performers, so I have a suspicion that I will get better results if I give the performers specific and particular ways of addressing what the audience throw at them. We are going to need to spend a considerable amount of time preparing and developing that particular performative toolkit, so that it is just right and still achieves our participatory objectives. Although we need to get onto this I don’t want them to forget the blocking and development that we have already done, so the next session will be rehearsing what we have already done to date. It has to be to set in solid before we move on to the next section.

I now have the perfs availability for the next few days, so I must remember to get us some space booked.

Makers Diary: Third Session

We spent most of today’s session developing and blocking the Moon text and the Rape text. It was evident that the performers had not really had a chance to look over the texts before the session, which was disappointing. Despite this, Nikki, Debbie and Richard responded really well to the texts and the level of concentration and investment was fantastic! I think that they all feel so much more comfortable with a script of sorts in their hands. I guess it is a safer option than devising. However, we did not simply approach the texts and discuss how to interpret them, instead we looked at the performer’s relationship to the texts and how the texts related to the themes, we looked at ways that we could present and deliver the texts rather than how we could act them. Nikki and Debbie were particularly inspired by this way of working and offered up some really insightful and imaginative ways of delivering and presenting the texts. This session felt as though we were all connecting and collaborating to generate fragments of stories and thoughts that the audience would be able to make something of, which is really exciting.

We played a few games so that the performers could continue developing their performance presence/personae/s. We spent a lot of time playing I went to the death shop- instead of sex toys-like in the traditional game, we had to think about buying objects that would enable us to commit suicide. This game generated some really imaginative and exciting material and resources for the performers to draw on. Nikki, Debbie and Richard really invested in this game and took it as far as it could go, pushing at the boundaries and breaking the rules. They seem to have fun and bond as well as create. There were some really gruesome and risqué offerings. I think that this game was a really fun way to help them get underneath and into the darker more macabre side of the theme woman and trauma. We had a long discussion about women who take their own lives and how so many icons or talented women have chosen this an option. We also discussed how many fictional female characters also meet this end in theatre literature both classical and contemporary. We discussed Sarah Kane as an example and the ways that she portrays that in her writing. We discussed Ophelia, Phaedra, Marilyn Monroe, Sylvia Plath and Cleopatra. We decided that suicide was something that fascinated us in relation to femininity and female iconography and was something that we wanted to explore through the texts and in the personas.

I am really excited by today’s session- we got so much work done and it really felt like we were starting to work together as a team to build something together-I hope we can keep moving in this direction at this pace-yey!

Here is the Rape text blocking: (we did not get done with the moon text but will continue that at our next session)


HIM is sat on the tall block, SHE is off to SL lying on her stomach and HER is standing up leaning on HIM.

HER: (HER comes forward as she begins to speak to FCS) Her soft canvass pumps crunched lightly on the small coloured pebble path. In the crisp, cool air, the sound seemed to echo out across the sleeping hills and houses. It was dark

HIM: (HER does not turn her body to them, only her head as they speak and interrupt) Was it dark? Not dusk?

HER: No, it was definitely dark.

SHE: How dark?

HER: As dark as the blackest night, but with a beautiful pale moon.

HIM: (As HIM starts to speak, he gets up and moves to SL side of HER) As black as aces, with a pale round moon hung low in the sky like a sinking diamond bobbing in a black sea.

HER: So it was dark, very dark; with a full moon. (SHE starts to walk up all the blocks until she is on the top one)

SHE: She nearly always met him in the dark, it suited him, it was part of what made him special, their secret and special midnight meets.

HIM: (HIM walks over to the middle block and steps up and HER starts to walk to the smallest block) So it was dark

HER: (Her steps onto the smallest block) With a full moon. (Beat. All step to the edge of their blocks. Beat. Look up)

SHE: She took meandering steps until the glow from the street lamp ended in a fuzzy line at her feet; she hesitated at stepping into the disparate light. (Him breaks the performance stance)

HIM: (HIM steps off his block and moves to the tall block, looking up at SHE) Disparate? Is that the right context?

SHE: (Irritated, looking down at HIM) Ok. Beat. (SHE tries to get back to it) She hesitated at stepping beyond the fading light.

HER: (HER gets down and comes forward to join HIM) I don’t like fading….it’s too…you know..
(Pause)
Ooh, I’ve got it. (They all rush back to their blocks. Beat) She hesitated at stepping beyond the luminous arc of safety, spilling from the street. (Beat, all take a deep breath and exhale for count of 4. Beat. All look SL)

HIM: She wrinkled her nose, took in a deep breath (Beat. All turn head to the front and take a deep breath, exhale for 4 count. Beat. All take a step onto the next block, except SHE, who steps onto the floor) and pushed on with hesitant footsteps further down the path. Although a/

SHE: Although a sinking feeling was nagging at her stomach and burning like acid in her throat, she pushed on. It was/

HER: He raped her.

HIM: Not yet. (Sighs and sits down on tall block)

SHE: (SHE walks over to HER and puts her back to the audience, placing her hand on HER’s shoulder, talking directly to HER) You have to build the suspense first, you know build them up to it, so that it comes as a shock. If you just blurt it out, then there is no story to tell, no progression. They don’t even know about him yet, the reason she was foolish, (SHE comes forward and starts to address the audience) the reason she was there, in the dark, alone. The reason she was making her way by the light of the moon underneath the murmuring canopy, darkness cloying to her like a liquid. (Ends up very SL)

HER: (Moves across to HIM and pulls him to his feet, brings HIM down FCS) He raped her. (She turns HIM sideways on towards HER)
He hitched her dress up over her arse (She holds up HIM’s hands), pulled her white pants to one side (She turns herself into his grip, with his back to her) and raped her. (She puts his hand on her shoulder and bends forward) He slid his cock deep inside (she moves her first clenched, forward and downward in a thrusting motion and does two whole body thrusting motions as she does the next line) and he raped her as she screamed.

HIM: (Just turns his head to the side to address the audience) He was waiting, poised behind the dark shadows, hidden and immanent. A deep secluded threat. (SHE starts to come over)

SHE: Stop, hang on not yet. (SHE pulls them apart but HER and HIM maintain eye contact) Tell them the story in full, tell them properly. Tell them how she was on her way to him, to meet her love in their secret place, their special place by the sea. Don’t just skip to the crunch.

HIM: (He begins to move round the back of her but keeping eyes contact, until he is up close behind her, over her shoulder SL) Brooding in the darkness of his concealed position, his jealousy congealed and festered, setting solid his resolve. (SHE climbs up onto the tall block and attempts to ignore them and her moves to MCS, keeping eye contact with HIM) He had seen the way she looked at him, how she teased him with her eyes.

SHE: Spurred on by the thought of her lover waiting in the moonlight, skimming pebbles out across the silvery sea. Waiting for her. Needing her. Aching for her.

HER: He raped her (SHE leaps off her block, puts her hand over HER’s mouth and wrestles her to the ground)

SHE: (Kneeling over HER, with hand still on HER mouth) Stop, you will confuse them. (Let’s go and looks at the audience, sitting back on her heels) Tell them she knew he would be waiting. Waiting to embrace her and to envelope her, desiring her. Waiting. Wanting.

HIM: She was raped in the bushes by the footpath, near the sea.
Beat. (HIM looks at them)
(Him looks at the audience) But nobody did see. (Her sits up on her elbows and extends her hand to HIM)

HER: (He moves over to HER and helps her to get to her feet, they hold hands and move forward to FCS. SHE gets onto the tall block and HER does a dance hold turn into HIM) He pushed it deep inside her, muffling the screams with his dirty, large hand. The feel of her teeth on his skin, only added to the pleasure.

SHE: Tell them how he would kiss her mouth so gently, softly; his lips on hers. His soft black fringe lolling across his forehead and brushing lightly on her cheek. His eyes on hers. His shallow, hot breath on her skin. These thoughts pushed her on down the dark path, pushed her on to him.

Him: (HIM looks at HER) He raped her.

SHE: She imagined his kisses like a summer’s breeze, how they would embrace and sink slowly to their knee’s. Just past the footbridge and she would almost be there.

HER: (HER rolls back out of the dance hold and breaks hands but he steps forward and grabs hold of the back of her hair, pulling her onto tip toes, HER body rigid) His knee’s dug into the ground; under the force of his rhythmic driving. He drove it deeper and harder into her. Grunting as he took it, took her, using her up with only the moon looking down.

HIM: (HIM pushes HER onto her knees, still holding her head up)His coarse hands pulling at her flesh, gripping her too tightly, his think fingers tangled in her hair, pulling, hurting. His body heavy on hers. His putrid breath, fast and hot on her flesh, as he took it, took her, used her up. (He gets to his knees and presses her forehead to the floor)Tears springing from her wide eyes, making silent tracks down her cheeks but only to find his dirty thick fingers where her mouth should be.

HER: (HER turns her face to look at the audience) He pressed down on her head to keep her from squirming under his grip; he was so close now, driving his rude and uninvited phallus into her.

HIM: (He flips her onto her back) He raped her

HER: (HER pushes her hand up to his chest trying to get him off her and they struggle) He raped her

HIM: (He grabs her waist and pulls her closer into him and they struggle more) Pushing, thrusting, he could smell her and he


SHE: (From off stage and SHE) STOP!

HIM and HER stop slowly get up and catch their breath. They move over to
SHE on the tall block. HIM is on her SR and HER on SL. Beat. HIM and HER
turn in so that they are side on to SHE. They do 6 organic fireman style hugs. Beat. HIM and HER turn to face the front, Beat SHE does an aerial scissor kick pushing off from their shoulders. As SHE lands, HIM and HER step back. HER gets the middle block and HIM gets the smallest block, they push them inline with the tallest block. They step up onto their blocks too. Beat. All eyes up. Beat

(Very long pause)
I pushed it with the very tips of my fingers (Beat. HIM turns into face SHE.).And it groaned like a weak old man getting up from his comfy chair. (SHE swings her FS leg up onto his shoulder and reaches into the air) I squinted at the sudden change to my wet, sore eyes; (SHE is down and HIM turns to face front again) the man made heat of the strip light buzzing on my cheeks. (Beat. All look up. Beat. All stretch both their hands out in front of them. Beat. All turn their palms up. Beat. All bring left hand up to face. Beat. All bring right hand up to face. Beat. All lick left hand. Beat. All lick right hand. Beat. All run hands down face and neck in a slow dragging motion. Beat. HIM and SHE start to do the shuddering breath soundscape and motions for 4 breaths. Beat. Shuddering breath continues as SHE speaks)

I stood still, entirely frozen for what felt like an age. Just standing glaring back at the pallid refection almost hidden by steam in the mirror. Looking at those big eyes, looking back at me. A stranger, so distant like a hallucination or ghostly trace of some distant memory. (Beat. HIM and HER stop breathing suddenly. Beat. All do 2 shuddering breaths. Beat. All do a circular body sway from R to L)

Beat

HER: I wrinkled my nose and frowned (Beat. All lift finger to nose and push. Beat all look to the L. Beat all look back to front. Beat. Drop hands to side), like an echo, she that stranger in the foggy looking glass frowned back. The tiny little wrinkles across my nose nudged forth a vague remembrance of a mischievous little girl; pouting at the dinner table when presented with sludgy green Brussel sprouts. Just a ghost now, confined to the depths of history; not even she could help me know. He had made sure of that. (Beat. They all hold hands. Beat they lean SHE out to the front. Beat and pull SHE back but they keep hold of each others hands) I stood so still, on the threshold of that room, the room.
Pause
HIM: She closed her eyes, put her weight forward and stepped in amongst the steamy clouds rising up from the hot water. (Beat. HIM and HER let SHE lean out to the front doing a dressage style foot dab. Beat. They pull SHE back to upright)
The cold, crisp white tiles underfoot made her gasp (Beat. They all look up. Beat. All gasp) as they made contact with her naked feet.

Beat

HER: Excitement was beginning to tickle from deep inside me and as I stepped up to the sink, butterflies were exploding in my tummy.
I placed both hands upon the immaculate white sink and steadied myself; I looked to those eyes again for courage but they stared back at me coldly, refusing any comfort. I stood still waiting for courage to come, searching for it within those eyes.
I thought I felt it begin to flood me, but it was panic rising up and gripping me violently. (Beat. All lean outwards. Beat. All back to upright)

HIM: (Off stage) “Stop it!” Her voice was muffled as though it were having to push up through something thick like treacle.
(Off stage)
“Get a grip” This time shrill and forced but somehow more familiar and comforting. It quelled the panic and set her resolve to reach up and open the cabinet. (Beat. HIM and HER turn to the side and SHE puts her back to the audience. Beat. HER holds one wrist with the other hand in front of her and HIM and HER step onto SHE’s block. Beat. HIM and HER lower SHE down, so that she is looking at the audience from upsidedown. Beat)

Pause

SHE: There they were, sat neatly next to the bewildering array of moisturisers, facemasks and anti wrinkle creams, as though they too were a mass marketable remedy to solve the problem. There they sat waiting, ready for me to abuse, but I couldn’t move, just couldn’t seem to relinquish my grip on the sink. (Beat. HIM and HER lift SHE back up. beat. HIM and SHE step back onto their own blocks facing the front. Beat)


HER: The coldness of the porcelain and the pressure of my grip were seeping into my fingers making pins and needles nip at them like hungry terrapins. (Beat. HER puts her hand on SHE’s shoulder, SHE puts her hand on HIM’s shoulder. Beat. All look SL.)
A wave of nausea crept up into my throat and flooded my mouth with a vile juice and I swallowed hard to fight it back (Beat. All sway to their right. Beat. All drop their hands down. Beat. All look to front. Beat). I wanted to reach up and grab them from the cabinet (Beat. HER turns to face SHE. Beat. She swings her leg over HER’s shoulder and reaches up. Beat), but I just couldn’t (SHE comes down. Beat and HER turns to face the front again), I was rooted to the basin (Beat. All hold hands. Beat. All go up on toes and come back down. Beat. All drop hands. Beat) and floor; suddenly I felt lumbering and foolish.

Pause

SHE: I shuffled my ridiculously heavy numb body (HIM down on one knee) and deposited it clumsily on the edge of the bath (SHE sits on the shoulder of HIM). The ceramic edge was cold despite the hot water tumbling into its capacity. I let my back sag like a lolling tongue and my arms drop beside me. (HER turns to SHE lifts her chin and turns SHE’s head out towards the audience, then let’s go) I cried. (HER starts to do shuddering breath and body motion) Huge wailing sobs burst out of me and sank into the steam; the tears cascaded off my cheeks and down my chest leaving slick wet trails. I wanted to reach up, to stand up and get them, but I just couldn’t. (HIM stand up and this pushes SHE across to HER, who then pushes SHE over HIM’s shoulder. Beat. Him lifts SHE and HER gets SHE’s legs. Beat. They both lift her up and turn her, so that SHE is facing FS) I wanted to find the strength. I wanted to move, to be moved, but nothing, just still numbness and tears. (SHE flips herself off His back, legs coming over the top of HIM into a standing position.)
We will finish blocking the moon text tomorrow. After watching back the tapes from yesterdays session, I have compiled a new block of text, it was the devising games that generated this piece of text. I have known that there was going to be inscription but I was not sure how that was going happen….if at all once we got going but watching back the tapes inspired me to compile this text which I think will be perfect to do something with for the inscriptions on the body. We will have to have a play with it. We may not even use it all, but I will take it along and see what we can get out of it. Here it is:


HER: The used to pull her hair.
They like to make her wait.
They sometimes forget about her.
They don’t realise when she is dying inside.
They threw her out of the top floor window.
They always make her feel inadequate.
They heckled for her to jump.
They tear her flesh with their eyes.
They left her out in the rain.

HIM: They forgot to tell her the truth.
They told her that she would never amount to anything.
They laughed when she made a mistake.
They used to call her derogatory names.
They sometimes throw sticks and stones.
They always hurt her with their sharp tongues.
They take pleasure in her stinging tears.
They held her on the ground for him.

SHE: They tried to cave her skull in.
They never listen when she speaks.
They shit on all her ideas.
They poke her with their wit until she cries.
They used to tell her whopping great lies.
They always make her do it first.
They have broken her heart repeatedly.
They spit in her hair when they think she is not looking.
They used to lock her in the dark place.
They keep forgetting to come for her.
The piss on all her dreams.

Reflective Practitioner: text

I was thinking about the performers as cipher and vessel yesterday- in terms of undertaking games, tasks and activities in preparation for today’s session. I have been thinking about how we can approach the text in a non-naturalistic way. I want the text to be something fluid and dynamic that holds the potential for stories rather than being a fixed story for interpretation. I want the performers to deliver it up and the audience to make something of it, something personal, something specific and particular to them-for them. I want the texts to be sites of possibility.

In tomorrows rehearsal I want us to find ways of presenting and delivering the texts rather than interpreting them. I have written the texts as ‘writerly’ rather than ‘readerly texts’ because they were intended to be used in this way and not used as scripts in the Cartesian fashion. We are going to have to explore ways of delivering the words into the air and use performative modes that venture the possibility of those words in the air rather than using the words to illustrate.

In a way, Richard should have an advantage as a non-actor, he will not have years of Stanislavski and Strasberg based training to overcome; although, Nikki and Debbie both have the advantage of other disciplines and other physical training to utilise as a mode of expression. I am hoping that their skills in the discipline of gymnastics and dance will bring lots of interesting possibilities to the devising table.

Makers Diary: Housekeeping

I have all of the performers availability for the next couple of days, so sent a request for space to room bookings, however, I got an out of the office reply from that so I had to actually call conferencing to get us a space for tomorrow. That is now done and booked and I have text all of the performers to let them know the details. Nigel started work today on the blocks, so now we have some shells. He will face them up tomorrow if all goes well. I think we will use them unpainted to rehearse with and then I will paint them just before the performance weekend, so that they look fresh. I am not sure though when I will get the opportunity to take them into rehearsals with me as they are far too large to take on the train. I will have to wait until Nigel has a day off that coincides with a rehearsal in a decent space to take them in. it is important that we have them as soon as we can though. They will affect the blocking.

Reflective Practitioner: Task and Activity

In Siren Song, the performers are not really actors or even performers in the traditional sense of the word, they do not have a part to play or perform; instead they have games, tasks and activities to complete. It is the way in which they approach and negotiate these games, tasks and activities that makes up their performative presence/performance personae.

I do not think that these performance personas can be fixed; I suspect that they will be in a constant state of flux, depending on the activity they are engaged in at any one particular moment. They will also respond and eneage with the audience which will also alter their performative presence and personae. They will in essence be present as a performative version of themselves and thus a carrier for the performance and a vessel of possibilities. They will carry and deliver the text or game, the meaning of which is multiple, with a plethora of possibilities that the audience must engage with to make something of.

How do you train to be a cipher or vessel in this way? How do you devise or rehearse for becoming a vessel or cipher? These are questions that we will have to work towards furnishing with possible answers and solutions.

Makers Diary: Second Devising Session-the work begins

I wanted to focus this evening’s rehearsal on generating some material and getting the performers in the right frame of mind to feel the spirit of the performance. We did some warm up exercises same as yesterday and I think that this will become a fixture of our sessions. I think that it will help with creating discipline and an expected work ethic for making. As far as devising goes I am going to use the same principle as the participation. I hope to use games and tasks to generate material and create their performance personae. I hope that by using games the performers, like the audience will forget themselves and in the activity of playing a game or carrying out a task will generate material for the performance or in the case of the audience will generate the actual performance itself. Games and tasks are a familiar device and because of this I hope will put the performers and audience at ease and in a comfortable place that has less pressure than a freer form might have.

We started the devising session by playing ‘Her Confessions’, (this is where the performers make a circle with a largish space in the middle and one of them steps into the middle, into the ‘performance’ space. I asked them to confess all of the things that she has done, god, bad but all in the third person. Once they have stepped into the confession ring, they have to keep going until someone else steps in and takes over- and so forth. There must always be a performer in the middle confessing while the game is in session) All of the performers resorted to comedy and smutty innuendo to pull laughs rather than using the game as a vehicle for discovery. They played it very safe and did not really push themselves; despite me joining in for a certain period of time in the hope of setting up the standard and the direction of the process. I realise that devising is a collaborative process but the themes and arena of discussion have been set and I really hoped that they would dive in and start to explore their relationship, thoughts, feelings and experiences of that arena. My other concern is that they simply considered the content of the task and did not consider how they might deliver or perform their thoughts. I was really hoping that the game would give them a chance to explore the subject in a comfortable and familiar way but with the opportunity to explode that out if they felt it was necessary. They kept running out of steam and I had to interfere and keep re-energising the game more than I would have liked to. This was only the first session and although I am a little disappointed and concerned, I am not going to give up on this format because I really do believe that it has the opportunity to develop and generate their performance presence as a well as some really exciting material. They just need to give into it and invest in it..I can’t do that for them.

We did some exercises to get them to start thinking about their performative presence, as well as their relationship/s with ‘Her’. We used a similar format again, as with the confessions game only this time I asked them to list all the things that she is. Same rules applied, they had to keep going until another performer steps in and takes over from them. Again, the performers played it really safe, relying on comedy and cliché. I am not going to repeat myself, as pretty much all of the same comments about the previous exercise appy here too. I am hoping that these sessions will develop and grow as we do them more often. My biggest issue is time! We don’t have a lot of development time at all. I know this only the second session but we only have about 9 more to go before we have to put something to an audience.

I gave them some time to think about how they wanted to enter the space and undress and urged them to think about it as a task. To enter and undress in five minutes. I wanted them to approach the task in relation to their relationship/s with ‘Her’. I wanted them to decide how they would negotiate the task. This task really seemed to fluster all of them, so after a short time, I decided that it might be more beneficial to move on to some exercises that would give them some resources to draw on in creating their performance presence.

We used the same format as for the previous devising games but they had to tell us little things about ‘Her’. Little habits that she has, little foibles and quirks that make her who she is. This time I explicitly asked them to think about their vocality and physicality and to consider the delivery of their thoughts. Throughout this exercise, they all kept looking to me for validation but I really just wanted t them to let go and run with it. I gave encouraging signs and hoping that this would give them the confidence to be imaginative and brave. Nikki produced some interesting thoughts but needed to consider her vocality and physicality more. Debbie is surprisingly insightful at moments but does seem to lack confidence in herself and this really holds her back at times. Richard relies on comedy and a deep seated masculine bravado- I think that this is something that we are going to need to explore as part of his performance personae and develop in relation to the themes.

I really wanted to push and test them today because we have such a little amount of time to get to where we need to be. I asked them to do the same task but they could not use words, they had to express their thoughts through their body and through sounds but not through words. This exercise fell flat on its face but it is something that I am going to have to come back to. I think I am going to have to look into more exercises and games that will help them to think about their physicality. Debbie is a dancer, so I was surprised at her hesitation and reservation in a physical task. Nikki has a background in physical theatre and has the best body awareness in the group, so I am hoping that if I can get her inspired, she will break the ice and push things on for the rest of the group. I might have a look at bouffant and some other physical styles. The energy overall was quite low tonight, I think peeps were tired and preoccupied which doesn’t help. Next session will be better, I know it will!

Reflective Practitioner: Imagination

Today’s session really highlighted the importance of the performer’s investment and creativity in this process. It highlighted the issue of performer training and showed a real need to address this in our HE and professional institutions. This was an issue that was raised and addresses at the conference I attended last year at Huddersfield University on the Postdramatic. I have made attempts to find literature on the subject but so far I have not been hugely successful. I will keep looking though. I took at look at the literature that was available about devising.

Today’s session really boiled down to an absence of Etchell’s notion of ‘play’ and ‘investment’ that I mentioned in previous entries; although I am familiar with his writing on the subject I need to find practical ways of achieving this level of play and investment from my performers, something that Etchell’s does not offer up. Only Oddey’s book, Devising Theatre: A Practical and Theoretical Handbook,[i] has any practical solutions for undertaking such a task. Although, Oddey’s text is also now a little dated and does not enter into discussion about the performer as cipher.

I need to consider ways in which I can facilitate the performers and inspire them to want to play and invest in the themes that we are addressing; as well as find games, tasks and activities that give them the opportunity to invest. Maybe it does all come down to the people who are involved with the project and thus what they can or are willing to bring to it. My performers and I have not been brought together out of a common ground or mutual interest in the project; I had to persuade people to take part, which is not an ideal starting point for a devising project. Forced Entertainment are so successful because of the people that make up the ensemble and what it is that they bring to create that dynamic- how they play and what they invest. They have relationships that have been developed over 20 years. I just hope that Nikki, Debbie and Richard can find the need to play and confidence to invest in the work that we are doing-they need to develop relationships and working dynamic-it is not something that I can give them but something that has to be found and discovered. Most of all they have to be willing to enter into that journey without reservation or hesitation-they have to be brave-I just hope they can be. I know what we need to do and I am now going to have to work hard to find out how I can facilitate them in getting there.

Etchell’s talks about what brought Forced Entertainment together in the first place:
‘We were a group of friends who somehow convinced ourselves that we would be able to make some things together. At the beginning, we were still students, and, in various combinations, we worked together and began to make things. Then, once we finished our studies, we started the company properly. But more than anything, at that point it was an idea or an inclination that we could perhaps make something together.’ (New Art: 2006)
In the case of Siren Song, I was convinced that I could make something and have tried to persuade undergraduate students that they could make something with me. It was a difficult task and although I do have performers I am still concerned that too much arm twisting was involved and because of that perhaps not all involved are as committed or invested in the project as I am.
‘How does that work in a group? Your inclination is not necessarily the inclination of other members of the group.
The group is a very curious thing, because on the one hand it’s got lots of inclinations, since there are lots of people, and lots of people are constantly pulling and pushing the company in different directions. On one hand that means that there’s lots of potential, on the other hand it means that there are lots of things that get proposed get kind of shouted down or stopped. But what also happens, which is the positive side of that, is that anything proposed by one person is endlessly modified and augmented and added to and taken away from by other people in creative ways - as well as not so creative ways (laughs) - but basically, for us there is a sense that somehow what you can achieve together in that process is deeper and richer than what you could achieve on your own if you had simply followed one of those desires or inclinations.’ (New Art: 2006)
I would like to think that we will be able to find such a fluid and dynamic way of working and it suggests that no matter what I bring to the table and attempt to facilitate, things will only happen when all of the performers are as invested and involved with the process as I am.
http://new-art.blogspot.com/2006/07/interview-with-tim-etchells-from.html accessed on 02/11/06
[i] Alison Oddey. Devising Theatre: A Practical and Theoretical Handbook, (London: Routledge, 1994).

Makers Diary: Our First Session

We had our first devising session today from 4pm to 8pm. Nikki Denny, Debbie McGregor and Richard Haddlesey were all present and definitely up for it; which was a really huge relief for me. I decided in the end to roughly apply the schedule that I had planned for the auditions as a structure to the session and to give me a chance to asses the performers and what I can expect from them during this process.

All of the performers were understandably nervous and a little reserved but then none of them knew each other before this evening’s session. Nikki was really enthusiastic and attacked all of the tasks with loads of energy-which was fantastic and if she keeps that level of commitment this will go really well. I suspect that she has the most performance experience out of the group. Debbie was really shy and didn’t really get warmed up until the end of the session. She does have something about her voice and her performance presence that is really intriguing and I will have to work hard to really pull that out of her- she just needs some of Nikki’s confidence. Richard seemed really daunted and was quite difficult to handle, he has a very short attention span and thus has a tendency to be disruptive to cover his nerves. I hope that once he gets into it and starts to invest in the project he will be able to focus more and will forget himself and be less self-conscious. When he gets it right it is really good, when he is honest he produces some really interesting material for us to work with. He does have no performance experience and is doing this as a favour to me, so I will be gentle but at the end of the day the work has to be done and done well. I will need to think about ways of helping him to understand and control his own physicality.

It was difficult to keep the devising sections going at certain points in the session, I had to keep interrupting and taking a lot more control than I would have liked to. I am hoping that this is simply a case of nerves and that as Nikki, Debbie, Richard and I get to know each other better that their inhibitions will just slide away in favour of the tasks ahead. Richard has a tendency to fall back on smutty humour and innuendo; whereas Debbie and Nikki relied upon clichés and obvious material. I am hoping that as we move forward they will challenge themselves to approach things in more difficult and less obvious ways. I will have to keep a tight handle on the direction of the process as we have such little time; we do not have the time for the performers to take a long journey to get to where we need to be. This will be very challenging for Richard as a non actor but I will also expect Nikki and Debbie to push the capacity of their performance skills.

Makers Diary: Pre-rehearsal jitters

I am not going to plan the first session too tightly; I really want to see what is going to happen instead. I am really excited but also shitting myself as well; with the luck that I have had so far, I will be lucky if everyone turns up and still wants to do it. I need to stay positive though and have a little faith that it WILL all come together. I am going to do a physical warm up and a vocal warm up but beyond that I am going to go with the flow. I do have the audition session plan that I can fall back on if things look like they are not taking off. I am going to video all of the session as this will really help in my reflection processes as well as helping with the making process. It will ensure that nothing we do is lost or forgotten and it serves as a living document of the process. I need to just keep my fingers and toes crossed that it all comes together.

Reflective Participant: Participation Round Table Discussion at Queen Mary’s

I attended a round table today at Queens Mary’s University London but run by Justin from Switch Theatre. These are my thoughts about the things that were said and how they relate to my own research and processes. The Comments that are bullet pointed are a summary of what was said but the comments in brackets are my own reflection on those discussions and comments.

The artist is also the audience; you’re not a part of it unless you are artist or participant. [This is really interesting because I have always thought about participation the other way round; I think about the audience taking up the role of the artist or practitioner in participatory work rather than the practitioner as taking on the role of the audience too. In Siren Song, I want the audience to take up the role of the creator and collaborate with the performers but if I look at it from this perspective, I am also asking the performers to become audience at certain points and for their collaboration with the audience to be successful they will also have to watch the audience and respond to them. It becomes a truly dynamic relationship, one is reliant upon the others participation and engagement.]

If the audience participate at more than a ‘base-level’ collaboration (by this they are meaning the usual complicity that is required by the nature of theatre and performance) and do take up the role of the creator, then they are changed by their experience. If they participate in a creative way then it becomes a spiritual experience. You go away having had a personal experience; a little changed; a little different (in some cases actually physically and materially different with wounds or body piercings), because you have lived through it. In this way, participation is more than spectating and witnessing-although often both of these activities are undertaken during the course of the participation. [This is what I hope to achieve with Siren Song, not in a physical way as many of the speakers and makers at this event do but in an aesthetic and cultural way. This perspective has been theorised before by academic such as Gay Mc Auley and Herbert Blau but there is little to no material or empirically based evidence to support this perspective. My research is hoping to address this issue- it is about documenting and recording those experiences and conceptualising how and why participation works in the ways that it does; as well as the implications socially, culturally and aesthetically.]

Kiera O’Rielly talked about how she tries to locate her work within the liminal space, the in-between space. [This is really interesting because I would suggest that participation is located within the liminal space but explodes that liminal space through its own manifestation of creative material collaboration between the performers and audience actually explodes the liminal space. The liminal space, with participation becomes the site of something new, it moves beyond the liminal space that it was first created in and forges a new tract. My research will explore and identify this new space that is created through specific participatory practices. I would further suggest that not ALL participation actually starts or is manifest within a liminal space. Panto and Cabaret offers interaction and participation but never allows the audience to cross over into the liminal space; such practices actually highlight the audience/performer divide. It is only very specific instances of participation that happens within the liminal space and offers the potential to explode it and shift into a new tract.]

Kiera also highlighted something that is becoming more and more of an issue for me as I write; what and who are those people that attend such events? (She does not mean what car do they drive or how much do they earn after tax, it is not a question of demographics it is a questions of distinction and definition) What do we call them? Audience, witness, participant, collaborator..? [This is a question that I feel my research is working towards addressing, terms, classifications; I have not yet discovered the correct term but feel that once the performance experiments get into full swing, it is something that I can start to explore.]

There was a discussion about the frustration and possibility of the ‘audience’ not getting it or not performing it right. [For me, the biggest fear is the audience NOT participating. I do not worry about how they participate, as I will be giving them that level of control, just as long as they do engage and take up the role required of them. The structure of Siren Song is such that there will be huge empty spaces or holes if the audience do not participate. I do not agree with a right or wrong way to participate; if you hand the audience the role of co-creator, then you have to accept and run with the material and performance that they generate in that role. It is no different to when you allow actors to do improve, you let them take it and run with it. It is the fear of non-participation that is the driving force behind the opening section of Siren Song, I hope that ti will explicitly show the audience the things that we have been working with and set up the themes and concerns that we would like to address with them to make a piece of work.]

The audience is the work, was a perspective that was shared by most of the speakers at the round table. [I think that this is indeed the crux of the matter for certain types of participation. In panto, the audience are not the work, they are a structured and planned for element of the overall plot and narrative but they are not the work itself. In Siren Song the audience will become both the object and subject and in this way, they are indeed the work, without them there is no work.]

Kiera discussed the concepts of risk and trust in terms of participation. She feels that the audience take the biggest risk in choosing to participate. The artist/performer has more control, they set the game plan and the audience take a risk in trusting them. The audience give themselves over to the artist. [This is something that I have discussed at length in previous entries, in terms of my performers. If the audience are to take up the role of co-creator with the performers, then it is the audience who must invest and who must risk. It is the performer’s task to get them to feel as though they can. In Siren Song, we have set the agenda, we will have decided what games will be played and the themes that we want them to address with us to generate a performance.]

The idea of context came up during the open questions and all of the artists talked about how venue, location and architecture is definitely important to the success of the event; the context will define the audience that it draws and set up the conditions of engagement. They suggest that for people to feel compelled to participate, to invest and take risks, the context must be right. [This really troubles me in terms of my own work. I have discussed my thoughts and fears about venue and context many times and the discussions today have only validated my won thoughts about venue, location and context. I am now utterly convinced that a traditional end on setting will inhibit the audience. This context will mean that the audience will have to be particularly brave to overcome the conventions and connotations of such a space in order to feel that they can cross over into the liminal space. My performers are going to have to work hard to persuade and enable the audience to do this.]

Makers Diary: Preparation

I have e-mailed all of the performers with details of the first two rehearsals and all 4 texts. I have also text them to ensure that they know to check their e-mails. So all is set now and I can shoot off to London knowing that I have prepared fully for tomorrows first rehearsal.

Creative Diary: House keeping

I booked rehearsal space today. I have e-mailed it to all of the performer’s and text them all to let them know they have an e-mail. I am really excited again now. I have not had a chance to see them all together, so our first session in the D Room is going to be a bit scary but I just hope that there is some chemistry there or at least the potential for chemistry.

Makers Diary: New text

I wrote a new text to day..not sure how it fits in or what we will do with it bit it came, so I wrote it down and here it is:


SHE: The woman wears Vivienne Westwood's Boudoir perfume for the night time and Chloe Narcissus for during the day.
The woman has long nails, real ones and often paints them black.
She loves Midnight Cowboy.
She likes things to have a place, a home.
She likes to make lists but never sticks to them.
She uses a fountain pen to do all her personal correspondence.
She keeps everything anyone ever gave her.
She keeps her dreams on her sleeve right next to her heart.
She writes magical fantasy stories for her nephews about cats, faerie and goblins.
She has to keep a diary diligently because she is so forgetful.
She has hundreds of shoes but only ever wears 2 pairs.
She has small fingers and all her rings are just slightly too big.
She values honesty and loyalty in her friends
She hates to stay in one place for too long.
She smokes long cigarettes but when she’s out she smokes black ones.
She always has a pen and note book in her bag incase inspiration hits.
When she is alone at home she likes to sing to 80's hair rock at the top of voice.
She hardly ever cries.
She collects things.
She can't sleep.
She loves strawberries with black pepper.
She spoils her kitten too much.
She misses the sea.
She's brave and ferocious.
She is very disciplined and makes herself do things that she does not want to do.
She always sees the bigger picture but is fascinated by the details.
She sometimes forgets to laugh.
She makes mistakes but knows that is okay.
She always talks too much.
She laughs when her brother burps her name.
She wears her heart on her sleeve right next to her dreams.
She always falls hard.
She’s never wrong.
She eats pizza with a knife and fork.
She can keep a secret.
She cries when she listens to her favorite sad songs.
She loves spring.
She sometimes lets the phone ring and ring without picking it up.
She’s never late.
She loves to feel heavy rain on her naked skin.
She gets turned on by the stink of her man.
She often feels alone.
She always checks the handle twice to make sure that the door is really locked.
She has hundreds of pairs of shoes but only ever wears the same two pairs.
She has a broken heart.
She is scared of the dark.
She takes a gleeful delight in the sight of her own blood.
She hardly ever cries.
She wishes she was an only child.
She knows that just because you have his cock in your mouth does not necessarily mean that you have his heart.
She collects things.
She never throws anything out.
She always weeps on her birthday.
She often wishes that she could just vanish.
She is selfish.
She appreciates Jazz and has an affection for the pre-Raphaelite masters.
She has to suck ice lollies because biting them makes her whole body shudder.
She is powerless when he takes up his words; the special ones that he knows make her weak.
She thinks in the dark.
She keeps her memories in a heart shaped box, deep inside her chest.
The smell of Malibu makes her vomit.
She likes things to have a place, a home.
She picks at her feet.
She always misplaces her keys.
She likes to make lists but never sticks to them.
She knows he knows how to tame her too well.
She has a fondness for old things.
She needs to be held tightly.
She makes mistakes but knows that it is okay.
She loves without restraint.
She misses the sea.
She doesn’t have a home.


I am really pleased with this text and think that it really captures the feel of the piece. I will take it into the D Room (this is how I am going to refer to out activities from now on) and see what we can do with it.

Makers Diary: the word is out

I have e-mailed Nikki, Debbie & Rich all of the texts and an outline of the show, along with all of the relevant housekeeping. Now I need to get on and get some devising space booked and a schedule worked out.

Practitioners diary: Some good news!

I am still really disappointed by the audition, or lack of one as it turned out but at least I have Richard and Nikki.

I managed to get hold of Bethany at last and she is not going to be able to commit to the project at all. I called up Debbie on the off chance and it turns out that she is going to be able to do it…thank frack for that!!!! So now I have my peeps, I just hope they are really up for it and up to it. Hurrah.

Reflective Practitioner: Actors-non actors

I have been thinking about ways in which to describe, identify and understand the role that I will be asking my performers to take up. They will not be actors because they will not be pretending or taking up a fictional character in the traditional sense of interpreting or mimetic action but the term performer is also far too broad with many connotations. I want to be able to understand what I will be asking the people who have come on board with the project to undertake.

I attended a conference in Feb 2006 about the Postdramatic and this difficulty of definition and distinction was something of a recurring topic of discussion and debate. It was a question of how do we classify the performative activities of those involved in postdramatic theatre and how do we train/prepare performers to approach this type of postdramatic work. Although my work is not fully described as postdramatic, it has sprung from these practices and the definition of activity and preparation is very much un-defined.

I thought that attempting a brief definition of the postdramatic at this stage would be useful:

1.1 The Drama/dramatic

In order to enable discussion of Postdramatic theatre, it is first important to briefly examine the nature of the Drama/dramatic in order to offer a provisional definition for the purpose of this investigation, which in turn is at the route of reaching a tentative understanding of the Postdramatic. There are multiple and various conventions, aesthetic schema’s that fall under the description of the Drama/dramatic. Therefore, it is difficult to offer a single or authorative classification of what constitutes the Drama/dramatic: as Szondi reminds us, ‘the notion “drama” is historically bound by its origins as well as in its content’. (Szondi 1987: 5) Throughout its long history the ontology of the Drama/dramatic has remained a contentious issue. For this study, I will not be making a historical review of the ontology of the Drama/dramatic, as many seminal studies in this arena already exist; I am, however, interested in the manifestations and understandings of those in relation to the Drama/dramatic, at the point when the possibility of a ‘post’ or beyond becomes evident. I want to examine the Drama/dramatic only for the purpose of gaining insight and understanding for the ontology of the Postdramatic, as a contemporary theatrical phenomenon. Thus, only a very specific and ‘particular dramaturgical from will be designated “Drama”’ (Szondi 1987: 5), for the interest of this investigation. It is the Modern Drama that will designate my classification and use for the Drama/dramatic: both aesthetically and historically. I will be looking to what Szondi and Fuchs cite as the Modern Drama, hence, ‘the clerical plays of the middle ages nor Shakespeare’s histories belong in this category. Working within a historical frame of reference also eliminates Greek tragedy from consideration.’ (Szondi 1987: 5) This narrows down the field of enquiry to a period and understanding of the Drama/dramatic that both precedes and embodies a crisis of the Drama/dramatic and marks the beginning of the shift towards the Postdramatic.


1.2 Postdramatic Theatre

Although Lehmann takes up Szondi’s project, he rejects his answers and explanations for the reconfiguring of the dramatic and suggests that the ‘epic’ can be understood as belonging to the very dramatic tradition that Szondi claims it dissolves: ‘One can speak of a ‘post-Brechtian theatre’, which is precisely not a theatre that has nothing to do with Brecht but a theatre which knows that it is affected by the demands and questions for the theatre that are sedimented in Brecht’s work but can no longer accept Brecht’s answers.’ (Lehmann 2006: 27) As I have shown, Szondi’s project asserted that at the end of the Nineteenth century the dramatic form was in crisis and I would suggest that at the end of the twentieth century, it is more so. As Lehmann argues in his taking up of Szondi’s project, ‘epic’ theatre was at the time a problematic answer to the crisis of the dramatic and is now, in view of traditional oppositional, political models, no longer feasible or credible in the postmodern climate. The ‘epic’ is starkly unequipped to offer any understanding of recent developments in the theatre: ‘What Brecht achieved can no longer be understood one-sidedly as a revolutionary counter-design to tradition. In the light of the newest developments, it becomes increasingly apparent that, in a sense, the theory of epic theatre constituted a renewal and completion of classical dramaturgy. Brecht’s theory contained a highly traditionalist thesis’

(Lehmann 2006: 33)

Although Piscator, Brecht and other playwrights such as Miller, that Szondi aligns with producing ‘epic’ works, formal aesthetic theory and dissolving the Modern Drama in doing so, Lehmann suggests, as does Fuchs, that they can actually be read as part of that very tradition of Modern Drama. They retain their place within that dramatic tradition because; ‘the fable (story) remained the sine qua non for him [Brecht]’ and this is also true of Miller. As Lehmann implies; ‘from the point of view of the fable, the decisive elements of the new theatre of the late 1960’s to the 199’s [and indeed the new millennium] cannot be understood.’ (Szondi 1987: 33) Fuchs also suggests that Brecht’s epic experiments can be understood as belonging to the modern epoch of the Drama/dramatic:

There is a radical Aristotelianism, subordinating character to plot, in Brecht’s supposedly “Anti-Aristotelian” dramaturgy. In his notes on the street scene, Brecht comments that “the demonstrator [the actor] should derive his characters entirely from their actions”.

(Fuchs 1996: 31)

In order to understand how Lehmann’s term Postdramatic theatre will be useful for my investigation I want to explore briefly some of his key assertions so that I might show a provisional understanding and usage for the term.

Hans-Thies Lehmann identifies a widespread shift within contemporary theatre since the 1970’s, from dramatic to what he describes as ‘Postdramatic’. His ‘study does not aim to be a comprehensive inventory. Rather it attempts to develop an aesthetic logic of the new theatre.’ (Lehmann 2006: 18) The shift that he identifies and examines in his study of Postdramatic theatre does not, as the pre-fix might suggest, signal the resounding death toll of the dramatic form, but instead suggests a continued relationship; he looks to understand the new ways in which that relationship is manifest in contemporary theatre practices. ‘The description of all those forms of theatre that are considered as Postdramatic is intended to be useful. What is at issue, one the one hand, the attempt to place the theatrical development of the twentieth century into a perspective inspired by the new and newest theatre-developments which are obviously still hard to categorize -and on the other hand, to serve conceptual analysis and verbalization of the experience of this often ‘difficult’ contemporary theatre and thus to promotes its ‘visibility’ and discussion.’ (Lehmann 2006: 19)

The shift into Postdramatic theatre identifies ways in which theatre developments’ relationship with the dramatic is being configured in the light of a mass-media, globalized, visually-led culture. The paradigm of Postdramatic theatre is a way in which we can describe and look to understand the current relationships that theatre has with drama in a culture of performance. The typographical categorizing of much new theatre as Postdramatic allows those practices a distinct visibility within the plethora of activities that shelter precariously underneath the umbrella of ‘performance’ and thus opens up the possibility for a field of debate and critical engagement with those practices, that has one foot firmly in the history and traditions of the theatre. ‘To call theatre ‘Postdramatic’ involves subjecting traditional relationships of theatre to drama to deconstruction and takes account of the numerous ways in which this relationship has been refigured in contemporary practice.’ (Lehmann 2006: 2) I would now like to identify some of the key aspects that mark work out as Postdramatic, along with some of the key playwrights, groups, artists and practitioners that will form the focus for part of my research into contemporary theatre practices.
Lehmann, Kaye and Fuchs, note that many of the developments since the 1960’s in theatre, no longer have the imposing and totalising structure of the Drama at its core and neither epic or Lyric interventions can account entirely for these developments. This is true however, of much Live Art and Performance Art, as well as other theatre forms, that aren’t linked or don’t have a relationship with the Drama/dramatic. I want to briefly outline how one might recognise and understand what signals Postdramatic theatre practices from the plethora of other contemporary performance phenomenon. As postmodernism has not left behind modernism entirely, Postdramatic theatre has not altogether abandoned the dramatic: ‘Postdramatic theatre, again and most definitely does not mean a theatre that exists ‘beyond’ drama, without any relation to it. It should rather be understood as the unfolding and blossoming of a potential disintegration, dismantling and deconstruction within drama itself.’ (Lehmann 2006: 44)
Postdramatic theatre has a variety of relationships with drama; text, the dialogue and the interpersonal communication that drives the action in the Drama/dramatic, is displaced. The primacy of the spoken word that is the vehicle of dialogue (and thus dramatic action), is lost and gets pushed alongside the other theatrical modes of presentation and representation; it becomes just one consideration among many: ‘the hierarchy vital for drama vanishes, a hierarchy in which everything (and every thing) revolves around human action, the things being mere props.’ (Lehmann 2006: 73) Dialogue (text) becomes an equal component alongside music, lighting design, costume and props. The hierarchy of the Modern Drama/dramatic disappears, all the elements of staging that served the human action no longer remain just support, instead they generate the thematic of the object: ‘we can speak of a distinct thematic of the object, which further de-dramatises the elements of action if they still exist.’ (Lehmann 2006: 73) The aesthetic components of Postdramatic theatre are multiple and varied but the one shift that they all point to is the turn towards performance and the shift from ‘work’ to ‘event’. ‘The fundamental shift from work to event was monumentus for theatre aesthetics.’ (Lehmann 2006: 61)
Many critics and theorists, most notably, Auslander, Fuchs, Phelan, Zarrilli and Lehmann have identified various playwrights (Crimp, Kane, Müller, Lori-Parks and Handke), Groups (The Wooster Group, Lone Twin, Goat island, Forced Entertainment, Mabou Mimes, The Living Theatre, Blast Theory and Imitating the Dog), artists (Spalding Grey, Orlan, Laurie Anderson and Bobby Baker) and practitioners (Robert LePage, Robert Wilson and Richard Foreman) that they suggest might be understood as Postdramatic or postmodernist. It is these groups and their commentators/critics that will be the starting point for my investigation into performance practices. I will be examining and exploring their interventions for the possibility of a shift in the actor/audience relationship and thus the potential for a shift in the audience’s role. I have selected the various groups, playwrights, artists and practitioners because of their relationship and involvement specifically within the tradition of the theatre rather than fine art or visual practices. (Although some of the practitioners may have a background in the fine arts or other disciplines, the work they produce has a relationship and link of some kind to the dramatic.) As well as looking to established and widely documented theatre practitioners that fall within the arena of Postdramatic theatre, I will also be looking to examine and identify new work. I will be applying the same principles of selection with which I will identify the more established works.
Lehmann is of course not the first to identify such a shift in contemporary theatre, other writers, critics, academic and practitioners have identified and attempted to offer an understanding of new theatre practices; most of which precede and to some extent pave the way for Lehmann’s classification of the Postdramatic. Many theatre theorists have attempted to identify and explore the widening gap between theatre and drama within contemporary theatre practices; a gap that has arisen in the wake of the postmodern condition and a move in the visual and performing arts towards performance: ‘Performance functions in a variety of contexts. Through various discourses and their theories, we have been advised that performance can be lucid, liminal, liberating; that it can infiltrate text, disposes it, and displaces its power along with that of the inseminating author.’ (Heuvel 1991: 5) Elinor Fuchs, Nick Kaye, Peggy Phelan, Philip Auslander, , Philip Zarrilli, Tim Etchells, Baz Kershaw, Herbert Blau and Richard Schechner are among others who have written on the relationship between theatre and performance; focusing on the role and relationship of elements of the new theatre practices, issues that have arisen since the 1970’s: the role of the actor, presence, narrative, plot, character and text for performance being some of the issues of contemporary theatre practice considered by those mentioned above: presence, action, dialogue and character being directly related to the dialectic.
However, I want to suggest that the majority of the studies previous to Lehmann’s have been undertaken in order to establish the theatres (re) action and response to the phenomena of globalization, mediatization, the primacy of visual aesthetics, the homogenization of culture, postmodernist and poststructuralist thought. As Nick Kaye suggests: ‘If ‘postmodernity’ indicates a calling into question of the modernist faith in legitimacy, then it marks modernity at its end rather than a true surpassing of modernity. It follows that one might understand ‘postmodern’ art and discourse as an unraveling of modernist claims to legitimacy.’ (Kaye 1991: 2) Many of the previous studies might be understood as part of such a discourse rather than as a direct response to the crisis of the dramatic as posed by Szondi, which is continued and re-addressed by Lehmann: ‘After Brecht we saw the emergence of absurdist theatre, the theatre of sceneography, the Sprechstück, visual dramaturgy, the theatre of situation, concrete theatre and other forms that are the subject of [Lehmann’s] book. Their analysis can no longer make do with the vocabulary of the ‘epic’.’ (Lehmann 2006: 33) Szondi cites the ‘epic I’ and Lyric theatre as the opposing force to drama and posits it as the answer to the crisis of the dramatic.
I am not suggesting that the Postdramatic is entirely separate or divorced from postmodernist/postructuralism and thus the previous studies that I mentioned, because it is very closely connected with them. As Karen Jürs-Munby suggests: ‘the theory of Postdramatic theatre is of course resonating with many aspects of postmodernist and poststructuralist thinking.’ (Lehmann 2006: 13) As both Jürs-Munby and Lehmann assert, there has long been a deep connection between the dramatic form and history with the dialectical model of philosophy; the dialectic has been a dominant feature of classical drama and ‘the model for a desired, imagined or promised development of history’; (Lehmann 2006: 13) however, as is well discussed and documented by numerous academics from various disciplines, most notably Lyotard and Hutcheon. Kaye examines Lyotard in saying, ‘The postmodern occurs as a moment in which ‘no single instance of narrative can exert a claim to dominate narratives by standing beyond it’; where the ‘grand narrative’ is given over to the little narrative and the telling of the story is displaced by the telling of a story that looks towards its own displacement.’ (Lyotard in Kaye 1991: 19) The events of the last century have shaken our confidence in those dominant Enlightenment ideologies and have led to a crisis of both the dramatic form and dialectical model of history. ‘We have lost a cultural space for The Excellent Work. This is not the day of cathedrals; it is the day of rental apartments. We are achieving McGreatness.’ (Ehn 2002: 194) It is as we look back over the events of the last century, ‘with hindsight and knowledge of our century, optimism has received a hefty blow: too much has happened in the name of science for us to retain an unquestioning belief, whether in science itself, reason, human enlightenment, or any global equality of progress.’ (Gottlieb 1999: 2002). Sadly similar events that have carried on into this one), the growing phenomena of globalization and mediatization that has generated the postmodern condition ‘Post-modernity signals an acute destabilization of the cultural climate throughout the world: an end to all certainties of the modernist past.’(Kershaw 1999: 6) It is exactly these cultural, political and social processes that have had a direct bearing on recent developments in theatre.


1.3 Why is the term ‘Postdramatic’ Useful?

Postmodernism has generated a vast cross section of studies that straddle various disciplines but are concerned with theatre and performance in the postmodern climate. Lehmann’s study of the Postdramatic is indeed a part of that body of work and intrinsically linked with the move towards performance in the arts. However, his study is particularly useful in identifying a particular group of practices (that have varying and multiple aesthetic and formal schemas) and pulling them out of the vast arena of work that gathers under the gargantuan title of performance. The Postdramatic is a term that can help to identify work which still has its roots in dramatic theatre rather than in other activities that can claim the title of performance; ‘Theatre is the site not only of ‘heavy’ bodies but also of a real gathering, a place where unique intersection of aesthetically organized and everyday real life takes place. In contrast to the other arts, which produce and object and/or are communicated through media’ (Lehmann 2006: 17) Postdramatic theatre is a useful term that can trace the lineage of certain performance practices from within a very distinct theatre perspective and in doing so can help to gain further insight and understanding to those practices. As Carlson suggests, ‘ “Performing” and “performance” are terms so often encountered in such varied context that little if any common semantic ground seems to exist among them.’(Carlson 1996: 3) I will be using the Postdramatic as a term and set of loose criteria with which to identify the practitioners and practices to be examined from the overwhelming multitude of work within the arena of performance: ‘The field of Performance Studies takes performance as an organizing concept for the study of a wide range of behavior. A postdiscipline of inclusions, performance studies sets no limits on what can be studied in terms of medium and culture.’ (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett in Bial 2004: 43) It will not be the only study that I turn my attention to (I will also be looking at those academics that I cited previously among others) but will be a useful term for identifying the starting point for my field of study.

At the conference in Feb 06 at Huddersfield University drama dept, there was a lot of discussion about the performer as a vessel or cipher- a deliverer of text and action. I have not been able to find any literature about this to date but will keep looking as I am sure papers will begin to crop up around this area of study. I think that I will be in a better position to consider this idea of the vessel of cipher once we get into the rehearsal room and start to make work. I am hoping that this will be something that I can start to explore in my reflections of our devising sessions.