I have taken the time to consider my response to the student’s e-mail, so here is what I wrote back to her today:
Thank you for your e-mail. I really appreciate your comments and feedback; however, I am fairly confident that I know what I am doing with my project. I have been a performance practitioner for over 5 years now, running my own performance group: Vertical Exchange. As well as being involved in contemporary performance as a practitioner, I am also a theatre scholar; Siren Song is part of a year long, ongoing project that makes up the PaR section of my PhD research. (In fact this will be the 3rd development stage of the work; it has already been performed in Winchester and at Camden People's Theatre in London). Your response to my e-mail, suggests that you have misunderstood/misinterpreted the underlying principles of the project, so I wanted to take a little time just to clarify and theoretically contextualize my work for you, then if you still feel that you are interested, I would be more than happy for you to be involved in the project.
As I mentioned, Siren Song is part of my PhD thesis, which is entitled: Participatory Theatre: (Re) defining the role of the theatrical spectatorship. My research project seeks to investigate the production and reception of specific participatory theatre events through the actual experience of the makers and audiences. I am primarily concerned with the phenomenology of particular participatory events and the role that is taken up by the actual, material audiences in attendance. I am looking to conceptualise and theorise those actual experiences through applied cognitive materialism in order to develop a localised and specific theory of production and reception.
Your observation that the project is 'quite unusual', is an astute one. The objective of a PhD is to contribute original new knowledge to an existing field of scholarly research. The AHRC’s definition of PhD research is built around a frame of three key features that constitute and outline what may be classified as rigorous research:
• it must define a series of research questions or problems that will be addressed in the course of the research. It must also define its objectives in terms of seeking to enhance knowledge and understanding relating to the questions or problems to be addressed
• it must specify a research context for the questions or problems to be addressed. You must specify why it is important that these particular questions or problems should be addressed; what other research is being or has been conducted in this area; and what particular contribution this project will make to the advancement of creativity, insights, knowledge and understanding in this area
• it must specify the research methods for addressing and answering the research questions or problems. You must state how, in the course of the research project, you will seek to answer the questions, or advance available knowledge and understanding of the problems. You should also explain the rationale for your chosen research methods and why you think they provide the most appropriate means by which to answer the research questions.
(AHRC 2005)
The aim of this piece of work is to develop and identify strategies and devices of performance practice, that enable the audience to take up the same role ad the ‘makers’ and ‘performers’ (a role which I have coined as the ‘creatorly participant’). This means that I am pioneering a new and experimental form of participatory practice; hence the reason you may have found the concept ‘perplexing’ or alien. Forging into new and un-chartered territory is always an ambiguous and risky activity. (As I will go on to explain, risk is a vital concept and a key factor that underpins the project).
With Siren Song, I aim to bring together a group of performers and an audience in a particular ‘space’ (the party), at a particular ‘time’ (for 6 hours on the 22nd Oct), then through a pre-determined structure of games and tasks, the performers and audience will work together to produce a postdramatic performance text. The whole point of the performance is that by playing certain games and undertaking specific tasks both the performers and audience generate a unique (to that particular event), polyphonic, multiplicitieous, performative manifestation of HER/SHE. That performative manifestation of HER/SHE will not be a fixed, fictional ‘character’ but instead will be a set of possibilities, a plethora of ‘could’, ‘should’, ‘has’, ‘is’ an ‘will be’, HER/SHE’s. Thus HER/SHE will manifest in performance as a multi-dimensional presence; a presence that will be unique and personal for each and every person present, audience and performer alike. There is no conclusion, no cohesive whole or even an end to the work; potentially it could go for an eternity, dynamic, fluid and forever shifting. This dynamic repetition is a widely recognised device within contemporary practice. The element of the ‘unknown’ and the repetition push the boundaries of performance and make the event an actual experience, something that has to be lived through, not simply watched or witnessed; the audience become integral to the event. There is no event without the audience’s participation. Both audience and performer take an equal amount of risk during the 6 hour event. Risk and investment are the core ingredients for the success of the event.
I am sure that you can now understand why nothing except the games, tasks and space can be fixed before the event itself. I have no idea what will happen during the event itself and that is really the point. This type of practice does not have the opportunity to become stale or stayed in the way that you expressed concern about. We will only be preparing for the event, not rehearsing in a traditional sense. The process will be designed to generate material and I do not want to fix too much before that journey begins, as this would betray the practice that I am adopting for the making of Siren Song. I want the performers to be involved at the very heart of the creative process. It’s scary but really fun and exciting at the same time.
My practice sits firmly within an established body of work and has developed out of a 20 year trend for a particular brand of devising. I was surprised that you did not seem to be aware of such practices. (I would suggest that perhaps you have a quick look at the work of groups such as Forced Entertainment, Uninvited Guests, Blast Theory, Lone Twin, Imitating the Dog, Goat Island, The Wooster Group, Punch Drunk, Stan’s Café, Reckless Sleepers and The Little Dove Theatre Company). If you want to look at some of the criticism and theory that surrounds these practices and to some extent helps to understand my own, you might want to look at the writings of Auslander, Zarilli, Kaye, Kershaw, Fuchs and Etchells; all of which chart and explain where my work sits in relation to other practice and how it has developed from the practices of other makers, like the ones listed above.
The games and tasks will generate new material each time they are played or undertaken, thus I am not concerned about ‘monotony’ setting in. The audience will be free to come and go as they please, different people will be in the space at different times; so despite games being repeated, I very much doubt that they will elicit the same response for the many possible combinations of players at any one time. The games will be repeated but I suspect that they will create a totally different experience each time. It is repetition and games that will replace the traditional dialect of orthodox drama, these devices will take up the slack within the postdramatic situation, creating the tension, structure and pace.
I can understand how a lack of details might make you feel nervous or as if I am unsure as to what I am doing with the project, I anticipated that because of my previous two experiences of working with undergrad students on this project in the previous stages. I can assure you that I am completely in control and the whole process is underpinned by sound epistemological and ontological considerations as well as being marshalled by a rigorous research methodology. It is experimental practice that is breaking new ground and new ground always feels a little precarious.
The process will be a journey, one which continues on into the event itself. I am an experienced practitioner and have worked with performers on many similar projects. I have a whole ‘toolkit’ of strategies and practical devices that we will be applying in the devising process in order to develop and shape the work. I will be leading and guiding through actual material methods for the whole journey; you will not just be thrown in at the deep end. It is my responsibility to enable you, the performers to develop in the appropriate manner. It is a responsibility that I approach with respect and professionalism. My role will be more of a creative facilitator than that of a director. I don’t know if you have come across the term ‘creative performer’, but that is the role that I will be facilitating you to adopt.
Alison Oddey. Devising Theatre: A Practical and Theoretical Handbook, London: Routledge, 1994.
Deirdre Heddon & Jane Milling. Devising Performance: A Critical History,
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
Emma Govan, Helen Nicholson and Katie Normington. Making a Performance: Devising Histories and Contemporary Practices, London & New York: Routledge 2007.
All of these are great books for talking about this type of process.
I really hope that this helps to clarify the project a little bit better for you. If you have any further questions or if you want to meet up for a chat, then I will be more than happy to oblige. I am in the process of trying to find out everyone’s availability, so that I can organise and intro session before we get down to it. We do not have a great deal of time to get this project running, so I am eager to get things moving as soon as. I am still a little short on females, so if you know any other students who might be interested then I would really appreciate you passing on the details.
Monday, 10 September 2007
Friday, 7 September 2007
Reflective Practitioner: Defensive?
I had a slightly offensive e-mail today from an interested student. When I first read it I felt hurt and indignant but on reflection have found it to be quite challenging. I wanted to share the e-mail with you in case anyone else wanted to offer up some thoughts on it:
Hi Joanna,
This project is quite unusual and the vagueness of the character who captures the main focus whilst not being physically present really allows for a massive amount of development of Her and those at Her party. However, I do not want to sound critical but the vagueness could lead to confusion on the part of the performers as they develop this project and its aspects, unless you want that to happen, which probably will. I'm not entirely sure if you want to be ambiguous with everyone about who She is and Her qualities but in order for this project to progress and develop into something at least slightly understandable, digestible to the minds of everyone or some of those involved, and to have a direction (not necessarily a set direction but one that will eventually lead to an end product, conclusion or some form of finality), you may perhaps want to give the wording a little more thought. I mean it is your idea and project, and if you aim to have everyone in the dark or slightly in the dark then by all means keep doing what you are doing.
Also, as I understand it, you want to achieve a final result, a pieced together puzzle that is a picture of Her, perhaps a different picture puzzle each time with different pieces. I know that if done in practise it would make more sense to me I'm sure yet if indeed you wish to create three possibly different images of Her, yourself and the performers would have to come up with entirely new things each time in order to keep it fresh, unless that is not your intent. What I'm trying to say is, in order to keep the project from appearing a tad stale and/or over rehearsed and monotonous, completely new aspects should be introduced each time or different things thrown in to not make the performance seem like six hours of the same performance put on three times, unless that is your intention.
Please do not misunderstand that I do not like your idea, it's very original and different, it reminds me of Beckett's 'Play', Sarah Kane's '4.48 Psychosis' as well as some of Pinter's works. What I am not clear on is where you want to go with it? What details and aspects will be provided to enable an image or Her to be created unless only the speeches, objects, questions, contents of the tapes, etc are to be the only things provided and it is purely left up to the performers and audience to form a picture and get to know Her in their own way? Please do not take what I've said the wrong way, I certainly would not like to lecture and instruct you on how you should conduct your work but I always feel it does not hurt to get feedback from different sources as after all, not everyone could comprehend your creation the same way as no one thinks alike. I'm sure that once things are put into practise that everything will become clearer and smoother to think about. Please don't think I’m trying to knock you down, it's just the lack of details that have been given that makes the project a tad perplexing to comprehend but I would love to be involved in any way I can. Please do not hesitate to contact me further and I look forward to hearing from you.
I am going to take a little time to consider my response but I think that in terms of my research and development I need to think of it as an opportunity to reflect upon my concept and sharpen up my theorisation of it too. I know that I am easily offended creatively-it is because when you push at the edges you always get resistance and aggression….you get so used to defending ‘reactions’ to the work that you have to remember not to just strike back but to try and be understanding and make a considered response. It is hard though when the work is so much a part of you….it can’t help but be personal.
I am going to my folks for a few days to discuss dresses with my wonderful seamstress Mother and to consult my props shed! I won’t be back until Monday morning and will have no access while I am there.
Hi Joanna,
This project is quite unusual and the vagueness of the character who captures the main focus whilst not being physically present really allows for a massive amount of development of Her and those at Her party. However, I do not want to sound critical but the vagueness could lead to confusion on the part of the performers as they develop this project and its aspects, unless you want that to happen, which probably will. I'm not entirely sure if you want to be ambiguous with everyone about who She is and Her qualities but in order for this project to progress and develop into something at least slightly understandable, digestible to the minds of everyone or some of those involved, and to have a direction (not necessarily a set direction but one that will eventually lead to an end product, conclusion or some form of finality), you may perhaps want to give the wording a little more thought. I mean it is your idea and project, and if you aim to have everyone in the dark or slightly in the dark then by all means keep doing what you are doing.
Also, as I understand it, you want to achieve a final result, a pieced together puzzle that is a picture of Her, perhaps a different picture puzzle each time with different pieces. I know that if done in practise it would make more sense to me I'm sure yet if indeed you wish to create three possibly different images of Her, yourself and the performers would have to come up with entirely new things each time in order to keep it fresh, unless that is not your intent. What I'm trying to say is, in order to keep the project from appearing a tad stale and/or over rehearsed and monotonous, completely new aspects should be introduced each time or different things thrown in to not make the performance seem like six hours of the same performance put on three times, unless that is your intention.
Please do not misunderstand that I do not like your idea, it's very original and different, it reminds me of Beckett's 'Play', Sarah Kane's '4.48 Psychosis' as well as some of Pinter's works. What I am not clear on is where you want to go with it? What details and aspects will be provided to enable an image or Her to be created unless only the speeches, objects, questions, contents of the tapes, etc are to be the only things provided and it is purely left up to the performers and audience to form a picture and get to know Her in their own way? Please do not take what I've said the wrong way, I certainly would not like to lecture and instruct you on how you should conduct your work but I always feel it does not hurt to get feedback from different sources as after all, not everyone could comprehend your creation the same way as no one thinks alike. I'm sure that once things are put into practise that everything will become clearer and smoother to think about. Please don't think I’m trying to knock you down, it's just the lack of details that have been given that makes the project a tad perplexing to comprehend but I would love to be involved in any way I can. Please do not hesitate to contact me further and I look forward to hearing from you.
I am going to take a little time to consider my response but I think that in terms of my research and development I need to think of it as an opportunity to reflect upon my concept and sharpen up my theorisation of it too. I know that I am easily offended creatively-it is because when you push at the edges you always get resistance and aggression….you get so used to defending ‘reactions’ to the work that you have to remember not to just strike back but to try and be understanding and make a considered response. It is hard though when the work is so much a part of you….it can’t help but be personal.
I am going to my folks for a few days to discuss dresses with my wonderful seamstress Mother and to consult my props shed! I won’t be back until Monday morning and will have no access while I am there.
Reflective Participant: Case Studies
I have e-mailed Little Dove Theatre and Breatheartists today to see if they are happy for me to use them as Case Studies and to see if they are willing to answer some questions in a correspondence interview.
Thursday, 6 September 2007
Maker’s Diary: More Interest
Had more interested performers today, which is great, I have e-mailed all of them some details. This is what I have sent out:
SIREN SONG-Re Worked
Premise
It is HER party; hats, food and drink but SHE never appears. The performers will play games and give speeches endlessly for 6 hours, like they are stuck in a time warp, destined to repeat them selves over and over but with nothing ever being the same twice. Through, games, tasks and repetition, the audience and performers will work together to piece together HER, to generate the missing SHE; endless possibilities will play out and be generated over a 6 hour period. Who is She, What is your relationship with HER?
Outline
This will be a durational piece of work that will last approx 6 hours. The audience will be able to come and go as they please, moving freely through the space. There will also be a diary booth that the performers will take individual audience members into throughout in order to record their thoughts about their experience.
The work will consist of 2 overriding structures that will marshal the activity of both the performers and the audience. The structure will last for approx 2 hours and will be repeated 3 times.
Much of this will be developed through a devising process, so it is difficult to be particularly specific at this stage about the structures that will marshal this work.
There will be two main things going on: Speeches and Games. I am hoping that there will be many speeches and 3 games. I have already decided on two games but everything else will have to be discovered through the devising process.
The games that I have already taking a liking too are: pass the parcel and truth or tape.
Pass the Parcel- There will be objects hidden in each layer, things such as keys, etc. Each object will have a little tag attached with a question on it asking the winner to tell us something about how the object relates to her. So for example they key might have a tag that says ‘tell us about when she gave this back to him’ and the winner of that layer will have to do exactly that!
Truth or Tape- this is just like truth or dare, in stead of a dare the participants of the game will be able to pull a tape out of a bag and play it. The tapes will have many different things on them, all about HER life or taken from her life. So it could be a phone message, a piece of dialogue etc. If they choose truth then they will have to tell us something about her.
Process
These are the things that we will need to achieve or generate during the process:
-To generate new game that will create material about HER.
-To generate more speeches (see the attached document for an example of what we are going to create)
-To generate material for the tapes.
-To generate an overriding rule/game/task that marshals all of our activity.
These are the things that the performers will need to think about:
-their relationship to HER and the other performers/their performance presence.
-their relationship to the audience in performance and in the booth.
-generating a process diary/blog
Time Scale
The performance will be on the 22nd October 07 in the Arts centre.
Rehearsals will start towards the end of September and will be scheduled according to performer’s availability. I am also working on getting us a showing outside of the university either in Bristol or in the Railway, Winchester.
The attached speech was as follows:
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.
SIREN SONG-Re Worked
Premise
It is HER party; hats, food and drink but SHE never appears. The performers will play games and give speeches endlessly for 6 hours, like they are stuck in a time warp, destined to repeat them selves over and over but with nothing ever being the same twice. Through, games, tasks and repetition, the audience and performers will work together to piece together HER, to generate the missing SHE; endless possibilities will play out and be generated over a 6 hour period. Who is She, What is your relationship with HER?
Outline
This will be a durational piece of work that will last approx 6 hours. The audience will be able to come and go as they please, moving freely through the space. There will also be a diary booth that the performers will take individual audience members into throughout in order to record their thoughts about their experience.
The work will consist of 2 overriding structures that will marshal the activity of both the performers and the audience. The structure will last for approx 2 hours and will be repeated 3 times.
Much of this will be developed through a devising process, so it is difficult to be particularly specific at this stage about the structures that will marshal this work.
There will be two main things going on: Speeches and Games. I am hoping that there will be many speeches and 3 games. I have already decided on two games but everything else will have to be discovered through the devising process.
The games that I have already taking a liking too are: pass the parcel and truth or tape.
Pass the Parcel- There will be objects hidden in each layer, things such as keys, etc. Each object will have a little tag attached with a question on it asking the winner to tell us something about how the object relates to her. So for example they key might have a tag that says ‘tell us about when she gave this back to him’ and the winner of that layer will have to do exactly that!
Truth or Tape- this is just like truth or dare, in stead of a dare the participants of the game will be able to pull a tape out of a bag and play it. The tapes will have many different things on them, all about HER life or taken from her life. So it could be a phone message, a piece of dialogue etc. If they choose truth then they will have to tell us something about her.
Process
These are the things that we will need to achieve or generate during the process:
-To generate new game that will create material about HER.
-To generate more speeches (see the attached document for an example of what we are going to create)
-To generate material for the tapes.
-To generate an overriding rule/game/task that marshals all of our activity.
These are the things that the performers will need to think about:
-their relationship to HER and the other performers/their performance presence.
-their relationship to the audience in performance and in the booth.
-generating a process diary/blog
Time Scale
The performance will be on the 22nd October 07 in the Arts centre.
Rehearsals will start towards the end of September and will be scheduled according to performer’s availability. I am also working on getting us a showing outside of the university either in Bristol or in the Railway, Winchester.
The attached speech was as follows:
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.
Wednesday, 5 September 2007
Maker’s Diary: Some developments
I met with Olu today to discuss progress and other research matters; then I met with a few potential performers to discuss the performance and what their role would be. So I think I will start by sharing my thoughts about the meeting with Olu and then move on to discuss my chat with the potential performers.
Meeting with Olu
-we discussed the preparations for my upgrade next year and decided on a plan of action for how I need to move forward with that. I think that one of the key aspects is getting both practical parts of the research completed; the performances and the case studies. I can’t really move forward with conceptualising my thesis until I have done this.
-Olu wants me to involve his current debates students in this round of the experiments. He is going to make it compulsory to attend the performance itself as part of the module. He is thinking about getting me to give a performance discussion afterwards for them.
-We discussed Edinburgh and some of the work that I saw there; I am going to contact Little Dove Theatre & Breatheartists to see if they are happy to be used as case studies and answer some questions for me.
I am making progress and moving in the right direction now.
Meeting with Potential Performers
Dan, Adam, Phil and Ruth all came to meet me in the SCR. They all seem really excited about the project, particularly Phil and Ruth. It is difficult to get an idea of their ‘performativity’ from a quick chat but as they are going to present in the performance as themselves a quick chat gives me some indication. They all have experience performing and are keen. Commitment at this stage is as important as anything else. I have taken their contact details and explained a little about the performance but have said that I will e-mail them when I have finalised more details. They are now aware of the concept and time scale. So it is all good.
Meeting with Olu
-we discussed the preparations for my upgrade next year and decided on a plan of action for how I need to move forward with that. I think that one of the key aspects is getting both practical parts of the research completed; the performances and the case studies. I can’t really move forward with conceptualising my thesis until I have done this.
-Olu wants me to involve his current debates students in this round of the experiments. He is going to make it compulsory to attend the performance itself as part of the module. He is thinking about getting me to give a performance discussion afterwards for them.
-We discussed Edinburgh and some of the work that I saw there; I am going to contact Little Dove Theatre & Breatheartists to see if they are happy to be used as case studies and answer some questions for me.
I am making progress and moving in the right direction now.
Meeting with Potential Performers
Dan, Adam, Phil and Ruth all came to meet me in the SCR. They all seem really excited about the project, particularly Phil and Ruth. It is difficult to get an idea of their ‘performativity’ from a quick chat but as they are going to present in the performance as themselves a quick chat gives me some indication. They all have experience performing and are keen. Commitment at this stage is as important as anything else. I have taken their contact details and explained a little about the performance but have said that I will e-mail them when I have finalised more details. They are now aware of the concept and time scale. So it is all good.
Tuesday, 4 September 2007
Maker’s Diary: First Contact
Richard Ryan responded to my e-mail but I am not sure that The Railway will be a suitable venue for what I want to achieve this time round.
I put a call for performers on the portal again and have already had two positive responses which is awesome! They are both blokes too. I am getting really excited now. I am meeting with them both in the SCR tomorrow after my meeting with Olu. Things are really starting to gather some momentum now. I am relieved that it is looking as though performers will not be such an issue this time round.
I put a call for performers on the portal again and have already had two positive responses which is awesome! They are both blokes too. I am getting really excited now. I am meeting with them both in the SCR tomorrow after my meeting with Olu. Things are really starting to gather some momentum now. I am relieved that it is looking as though performers will not be such an issue this time round.
Monday, 3 September 2007
Maker’s Diary: Picking up Momentum
Right! I have done quite a few bits and bobs today to get things off the ground for the final round of experiments. I sent the following e-mail to Richard Ryan today to see if there is any possibility of getting an off campus public performance too:
Hi Richard
I hope that this e-mail is finding you well. I am in the process of re-working Siren Song to be a durational piece; it will be performed on the 22nd Oct 07 at a space in Winchester University (exact details still to be confirmed). I wanted to give you a heads up, so that you can pop the date in your diary.
I also wanted to ask another quick question. I am looking to take the work to a venue outside of the university but have run very low on budget now; I was wondering if you were perhaps aware of any local performance spaces that are (free) or very cheap within the Winchester area?
I look forward to hearing from you
Best wishes
Joanna Bucknall
I also made initial contact with David Buss to start up commxs on the tech side of things:
Hi David
I hope that this e-mail is finding you well.
For various reasons (mostly because I did not get the data I needed for my research), I am re-working Siren Song and have been allocated the Arts Centre Monday 22nd October from 10am - 5pm. It will not be a ticketed event, so I do not need to worry about a duty manager; however, I will require a certain amount of tech support. I really just wanted to check that this will be possible for this date?
I will pre-pare a risk assessment form and a tech drive in due course. I would really appreciate it if you could let me know asap if that is going to be okay as well as if you need anything further from me. I am now fairly familiar with that space, so don't really need to come and have a look around. The only major tech requirement is that I need the space free of the fixed seating bank. Since the space is usually without this, I am going to assume that will not be too much of an issue.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes
Joanna Bucknall
I now feel very re-freshed after my trip and have spent some time developing the new concept and structure of the performance:
SIREN SONG-Re Worked
Premise
It is HER party; hats, food and drink but SHE never appears. The performers will play games and give speeches endlessly for 6 hours, like they are stuck in a time warp, destined to repeat them selves over and over but with nothing ever being the same twice. Through, games, tasks and repetition, the audience and performers will work together to piece together HER, to generate the missing SHE; endless possibilities will play out and be generated over a 6 hour period. Who is She, What is your relationship with HER?
Outline
This will be a durational piece of work that will last approx 6 hours. The audience will be able to come and go as they please, moving freely through the space. There will also be a diary booth that the performers will take individual audience members into throughout in order to record their thoughts about their experience.
The work will consist of 2 overriding structures that will marshal the activity of both the performers and the audience. The structure will last for approx 2 hours and will be repeated 3 times.
Much of this will be developed through a devising process, so it is difficult to be particularly specific at this stage about the structures that will marshal this work.
There will be two main things going on: Speeches and Games. I am hoping that there will be many speeches and 3 games. I have already decided on two games but everything else will have to be discovered through the devising process.
The games that I have already taking a liking too are: pass the parcel and truth or tape.
Pass the Parcel- There will be objects hidden in each layer, things such as keys, etc. Each object will have a little tag attached with a question on it asking the winner to tell us something about how the object relates to her. So for example they key might have a tag that says ‘tell us about when she gave this back to him’ and the winner of that layer will have to do exactly that!
Truth or Tape- this is just like truth or dare, in stead of a dare the participants of the game will be able to pull a tape out of a bag and play it. The tapes will have many different things on them, all about HER life or taken from her life. So it could be a phone message, a piece of dialogue etc. If they choose truth then they will have to tell us something about her.
Hi Richard
I hope that this e-mail is finding you well. I am in the process of re-working Siren Song to be a durational piece; it will be performed on the 22nd Oct 07 at a space in Winchester University (exact details still to be confirmed). I wanted to give you a heads up, so that you can pop the date in your diary.
I also wanted to ask another quick question. I am looking to take the work to a venue outside of the university but have run very low on budget now; I was wondering if you were perhaps aware of any local performance spaces that are (free) or very cheap within the Winchester area?
I look forward to hearing from you
Best wishes
Joanna Bucknall
I also made initial contact with David Buss to start up commxs on the tech side of things:
Hi David
I hope that this e-mail is finding you well.
For various reasons (mostly because I did not get the data I needed for my research), I am re-working Siren Song and have been allocated the Arts Centre Monday 22nd October from 10am - 5pm. It will not be a ticketed event, so I do not need to worry about a duty manager; however, I will require a certain amount of tech support. I really just wanted to check that this will be possible for this date?
I will pre-pare a risk assessment form and a tech drive in due course. I would really appreciate it if you could let me know asap if that is going to be okay as well as if you need anything further from me. I am now fairly familiar with that space, so don't really need to come and have a look around. The only major tech requirement is that I need the space free of the fixed seating bank. Since the space is usually without this, I am going to assume that will not be too much of an issue.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes
Joanna Bucknall
I now feel very re-freshed after my trip and have spent some time developing the new concept and structure of the performance:
SIREN SONG-Re Worked
Premise
It is HER party; hats, food and drink but SHE never appears. The performers will play games and give speeches endlessly for 6 hours, like they are stuck in a time warp, destined to repeat them selves over and over but with nothing ever being the same twice. Through, games, tasks and repetition, the audience and performers will work together to piece together HER, to generate the missing SHE; endless possibilities will play out and be generated over a 6 hour period. Who is She, What is your relationship with HER?
Outline
This will be a durational piece of work that will last approx 6 hours. The audience will be able to come and go as they please, moving freely through the space. There will also be a diary booth that the performers will take individual audience members into throughout in order to record their thoughts about their experience.
The work will consist of 2 overriding structures that will marshal the activity of both the performers and the audience. The structure will last for approx 2 hours and will be repeated 3 times.
Much of this will be developed through a devising process, so it is difficult to be particularly specific at this stage about the structures that will marshal this work.
There will be two main things going on: Speeches and Games. I am hoping that there will be many speeches and 3 games. I have already decided on two games but everything else will have to be discovered through the devising process.
The games that I have already taking a liking too are: pass the parcel and truth or tape.
Pass the Parcel- There will be objects hidden in each layer, things such as keys, etc. Each object will have a little tag attached with a question on it asking the winner to tell us something about how the object relates to her. So for example they key might have a tag that says ‘tell us about when she gave this back to him’ and the winner of that layer will have to do exactly that!
Truth or Tape- this is just like truth or dare, in stead of a dare the participants of the game will be able to pull a tape out of a bag and play it. The tapes will have many different things on them, all about HER life or taken from her life. So it could be a phone message, a piece of dialogue etc. If they choose truth then they will have to tell us something about her.
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