Engaged or manipulated – you decide… Or do you?

Posted on May 3, 2012 by debdavemason

This week I have been to two very interesting theatrical experiences.  The first on Tuesday was at the Royal Court.   It was a traditional format, realistic play set in some nice box sets on a proscenium arch stage.   If it hadn’t been for the cultural references it could have been written anytime from about 1930 onwards.  So why was it so brilliant, why did it hold its audience in thrall – and we were – the packed house was clearly gripped for the whole 3 hour experience – but why?  Well it was written by the very talented Mike Bartlett and acted with passion and precision by the cast, so that helps.

Having only seen two other Mike Bartlett plays – ‘Earthquakes in London’ and ’13’ I was expecting it to be political – to have some kind of question or message.  But I am still pondering what that was… Perhaps ‘the baby-boomer generation destroyed the world’ .. ‘you never had it so good mum and dad, we never had it so bad’… ‘selfish is as selfish does’?

I don’t know but I keep thinking about it – it still has me gripped, engaged and wishing it had had a couple more acts – I’d have happily sat and watched till midnight.

The second piece of theatre I went to see deliberately set out to engage the audience, to debate with them, to quite literally and physically interact with them.  This was Uninvited Guests ‘Make Better Please’ at BAC.

I had booked to go and see it with someone I am working on an interactive/audience engagement writing project with.  Both of us are really interested in how audience engagement and politically engendered arts might actually make a difference – might indeed ‘make better please’.  So we turned up yesterday very keen to find out more and to take part fully.

After the show we sat down and discussed what we thought we had experienced, whether we understood what Univited Guests had hoped for us to understand – what had been their intended outcomes in creating the piece.

Clearly they wanted us, the audience to be part of it.  The evening started with the audience divided into 4 groups around a tea table piled high with the day’s newspapers.  We were asked to help ourselves to tea and browse the papers for stories that upset, shocked or angered us – ‘bad news stories’.  When we found one we were to write just the headline on a piece of paper (provided) and keep hold of it.  We then went round our table and read out our headlines and explained a bit about the story.  We were then asked to choose one story to have a further debate on.  Eventually someone came round and gathered up our written out headlines and we were asked to sit in a circle and nominate one person to tell the rest of the groups about the story we selected.  We chose the ‘Ugly women shouldn’t be on TV’ story, there was also the story about two girls jumping off a bridge, two relating to the increasing divisions of society and the increase in extremism, one of which focussed specifically on the French Elections.

The ‘actors’ then came into play – they told people that they were characters from these stories – except that these weren’t our stories but some others they had chosen, and then got us to ‘imagine’ these stories.  For me this just didn’t work, the stories felt imposed, it felt like I was in some kind of forum theatre training exercise, that the audience were being manipulated rather than engaged with.  They then went on to tell us that they were certain  people from ‘our stories’ – except again they chose rather blatant ‘topical’ figures – Cameron and Hunt, Boris and Ken, that no-one in the room seemed to have identified except the actors themselves – we had to put questions to them.  We enjoyed this.  But not the fact that they didn’t answer them.  We were engaging with them – but were they with us?  Then it all kicked off and became a bit 1960s/70s New York Art Scene – a lot of noise, a giant paper phallus, masks for the dead, more exciting, a bit disorientating. However, slightly disconcertingly, one of the things that got banished in this quasi-shamanistic section was ‘ugly women on tv’ – not quite our point in fact!

Finally the curtains were pulled back the windows opened and light and air let in.  The actress turned and told us a happy story about May Day and her wedding anniversary.  We were invited to reflect.  Invited to think about a happy story from the news and then, when we were ‘moved’ to do so, to tell it to the group – Quaker meeting style.  Interestingly  only a very few stories were from the press (and mostly about sport), but people happily shared a good moment or a good thing for their lives.  It was a cathartic thing – probably the most genuine thing about the whole evening – one woman was actually in tears having told us that her good thing was ‘I’m proud of my daughter’, a man sat smiling so happily having announced ‘I have fallen in love’.

But what did it mean, what was the point.  The thing I took away from it was that whilst we can find plenty in the media and in politics and in society to be upset and angry about, it is the small things in our own lives that make us happy.  That we are turning inward and away from politics and ‘society’ to provide us with anything positive, we find it only in our own lives and our micro-societies – a lot of the good things offered were random acts of kindness in this big City of ours.

Although I think (perhaps I’m wrong) that the intention of Univited Guests was to genuinely engage with the audience, to help us psychologically rid ourselves of the bad, what in fact happened (for me at least) was a mirroring of what they sought to anlayse.  The facilitators  of each group took notes of our discussions, these notes then made up graffiti on the walls, which the actors used as jumping off points and inspirations.  But the notes were distilled, unthought through, not necessarily representative of the views of the group, nor of the depth of feeling about one topic over another.  In the case of our group they completely reversed the thing we were upset about – not that there are ‘ugly women on tv’ – but that people should think this is a bad thing and call for them to be removed or have make-overs.  Although we shared our choices with the actors – they didn’t seem always to listen to them – they continued to use stories that they wanted to use rather than giving more weight to what we had given them.  To me this was akin to the politicians saying that they had listened to the nation about the NHS (for example) and then doing the opposite of what everyone was saying – but insisting all the while that they had ‘listened’.  It is also akin to the way in which the media tells us what stories we are interested in – ‘The Nation is up in arms about this…’ – actually it would seem that we are not! If our choice of stories last night was anything to go by we were more incensed by poor care for the young, by divisions in society, by sexism, racism and poverty than we were about Murdoch or mayors, or the so-called Government!  Perhaps in the end Univited Guests simply reiterated and reinforced the notion that our voices are not heard, that a system of representation by an elite few, of a diverse many, will always be flawed no matter how good the intentions of the few.  On the eve of the London mayoral and assembly elections this was an interesting message to take away.

One thing is certain though – if you don’t join in – if you don’t make your choice and defend it and speak for it – then it will never be heard – or even misheard – and there is a chance that even if the person you wanted to speak for you doesn’t – others have heard, others will join their voice to yours, eventually there will be enough people saying ‘stop you’re going the wrong way’ that there will be a change of direction.

Make your own mind up!

Make Better Please is on until 12th May – info/tickets here:

http://www.bac.org.uk/whats-on/make-better-pleaseUG/

Love Love Love is on until 9th June info/tickets here:

http://www.royalcourttheatre.com/whats-on/love-love-love

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A Torrential Drought

Posted on April 26, 2012 by debdavemason

Rather like our current oxymoronic water supply problems (still waiting for the ‘wettest drought on record’ headlines) my creative ideas, whist torrential, also seem to be unable to alleviate the drought (of my creative career).

I’m not sure I have ever experienced any kind of creative ‘block’ where ideas just won’t come – but just as unproductive is the creative ‘torrent’ – my head currently is full of the following:

Organise Tiny Play Festival

Get work as Director on other projects (a couple in the pipeline)

Work on new writing project 1 (voting)

Work on new writing/directing project 2 (improvised all woman play that isn’t set in a prison, convent or other all woman establishment)

Work on new writing project 3 (revise play and send to producers)

Work on novel 1 (The weird one)

Work on novel 2 (the commercial one)

Work on art project 1 (interactive drawing event for general public)

Work on art project 2 (voluntary work to do with tweeting for local art project/space)

Apply for acting jobs / do some acting

and really all the while the uncreative necessities of life are intruding – get new job for when contract finishes in July, do the decorating, sort out finances, do the gardening, lose weight, get fit, find love, win lottery…

And somehow I don’t do half of these things, I am so overwhelmed that I just read a book, or watch a dvd, or stare out of the window at the rain.

Perhaps I need a plan? *adds ‘make plan’ to list of things to do*

Or maybe just go with the flow, paddle along with the torrent and keep from going under?

Offers of help with housework, gardening, love life and money all welcome.  (Offers of work even more welcome!)

 

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If you build it they will come

Posted on April 3, 2012 by debdavemason

Tempting though it was to write another blog post about women’s attitudes to their own looks/self-esteem/each-other in the wake of Samantha Brick’s unintentionally hilarious article in the Daily Mail today, I am instead writing on the rather drier topic of theatre spaces/buildings.

Two things prompt this post: the latest round of Arts Council Capital Funding announcements and my on-going work on Julius Caesar.

Julius Caesar has been chosen to be part of the RSC Open Stages Showcase at Questors theatre in Ealing on 13th April.  This isn’t just a straight ‘transfer’ as we have been asked to do a 1 hr version and also we can’t get everyone in the cast there on the night.  Some cuts have been made, some roles swapped and some adaptations have been made to lights/sound to fit the new format.

I planned to have one rehearsal (on a day/evening when I could get as many people together as possible) to refresh everyone’s memory and work in anyone with a new role.  There will have been a two month gap between our original opening night (15th Feb) and the performance date (13th April) so I tried to time this close enough to the 13th to be meaningful.  The rehearsal happened last week.  It wasn’t too bad.  The main concern for both me and the cast was not – as it happened – remembering the lines and the action, but how this was going to work in a completely new venue.  When we first agreed to the showcase we weren’t sure whether we would get a chance to rehearse there.  In fact we do get that opportunity a couple of days before our performance.

Just in case, I went to see a show at the venue, made some notes, shot a little bit of video in the interval to show the cast and crew and started thinking about how we could make our production fit.  I had thought, naively, back in November (when I was at Questors for the RSC Open Stages workshops), ‘oh that’s good, our space is a thrust stage with seats round three sides, their space is a thrust stage with seats round three sides, they have seats that go to the floor and stairs up to them, we have seats that go to the floor and stairs up to them, transferring here will be simple’.  But… We have 3 staircases, (one centre front, one centre left, one centre right).  We have two voms*, (one front left, one front right).  I used all of these things.  Sitting watching the play at Questors I realised that they have one vom at the front, their left/right voms are right at the back and they have four staircases – none of them central.  I also discovered that playing area was now a raised platform and there was no back wall.

I worked out a plan and at the rehearsal used a lot of masking tape to mark up the new layout, and label things ‘stairs’ ‘vom’ ‘back’ ‘front’.  The cast who made it to the rehearsal, mostly got it.  I’m a bit worried about those who didn’t and who can’t make the rehearsal next week in the space but… I’m more worried that Julius Caesar has had a knee operation and is on two crutches – the new space has a lot more steps!

So what does this have to do with Arts Council Capital Funding?

Simply this.  The West End is still dominated by traditional, mostly pre-war Proscenium Arch Theatres – this affects the kind of theatre that can be shown in the West End.  If you are working in the round or partially in the round, if you are working to break down barriers between audience and play, using devices such as actors mingling with the audience then it is very difficult to find a West End space that can accommodate this (without a very expensive refit).   Now you may say that the West End is not the be all and end all of theatre – and of course you would be right, it is however a major financial market for theatre and the place where money can still be made for successful plays.  The types of play that start in the West End and go on tour – essentially commercially angled popular drama and musicals – will often find that the largest venues regionally are also Victorian/Edwardian proscenium arch theatres.

And the thing about a Proscenium Arch is, it’s always in the same place.  The front is the front, there will be wings at the side, you will have space to put your set at the back and can choose where to put your doors/exits/entrances pretty much in the same relationship to where you had them in your original theatre.  The route to the dressing room might be different, the trapdoor (if you are using one) might be in a different place, there might be more/less space on the stage and more/less flying space above.  But for the actors, most of the orientation will be the same, they will have blocked their moves to suit the proscenium arch stage and the set that sits on it.  This clearly has many benefits if you are touring a production out of the West End, or hoping to transfer your production into the West End – both ways of making some extra money and hopefully breaking even!

There are regional venues, and many (if not most) fringe spaces that don’t fit this model.  Many modern arts centres will have both a Prosc Arch space and a more flexible space (usually a smaller ‘studio’ space).  However there is no standard layout for these and therefore moving between these spaces – even if they appear to be similar – will present greater challenges – especially for any production that has significant set or effects invovled – than working in a Prosc Arch space.  This means that many of these productions don’t move, don’t tour, never get to the West End, and often then (thanks to a fairly London-centric value system) don’t get the acclaim they deserve (or the money).

So – my point? Whilst I have no problem with the Arts Council allocating the funds it sees fit to those existing theatres in the Capital that need some ‘work’ done, I do think that someone, somewhere should be looking to see if we can’t find a way of creating a space in the West End that would allow in-the-round, barrier-breaking performances to reach a wider audience – this would benefit regional producing theatres as much as it would benefit the West End.  It is interesting that currently the solution to the RSC having a London home is the same as for their US productions – which is to build a flat-pack version of their Stratford home on some vacant plot – rather than adapt to the architecture available.  If the RSC think a flat pack home is a viable option – why can’t we build one that everyone can use?

If we don’t take some steps to change the architecture of the main arbiter of theatre round the world (the West End) then the mainstream of productions will always have a foot in the past and we won’t move fully into the 21st Century for a long while to come, which would be a shame as I believe (see earlier posts) that theatre can make a big difference to our society and our world view.

 

*A vom is an entrance/exit that goes through the audience (usually partially under the seating area) from the stage level  – sometimes these are the same as the entrances/exits used by the audience, sometimes not.  The name Vom comes from vomitorium and was used by the Romans – I don’t think I need to spell out the Latin root – but the idea is that the Vom ‘spews forth’ the audience at the end of a show.  More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vomitorium

And whilst I’m at it, if you want more info on Proscenium Arch theatres here you go (thanks Wikipedia!) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proscenium

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Age shall not wither her (actually nothing to do with Shakespeare)

Posted on March 28, 2012 by debdavemason

Nothing to do with Shakespeare and in fact a bit of a rant!

In my job I often get asked for a medical expert to give their opinion of some anti-ageing or age-repairing product.  But really the medical experts I work with are more interested in makeing people healthier not younger.

Age is inevitable, so why deny the visible signs of it? Yes, we all have vanities – mine is my hair.  I’ve had beautiful, noteworthy hair all my life and, yes, I do find it a bit hard to say goodbye to that as age takes it’s toll and the number of white hairs increases.  I do sometimes dye it.  But I try not to obsess about it.  In fact I’m more worried about my itchy scalp and won’t dye my hair till that clears up.  I think that puts me on the more concerned about health than beauty side of things, but we all have our weak points.

And it is these weak points that make us prey to the beauty industry/media obsession with looking younger than you are.  Or in fact, just looking young.  The thing that got me started was a journalist’s question ‘At what age should we start using anti-ageing products?’.  It seemed to imply that implementing some kind of anti-ageing routine was a standard thing that everyone should and must do and it was simply the timing of it that was in question.  But that isn’t really true.  We can look old if we want to.  There is no law against it.  If we live long enough we will look old no matter how much gunk we put on our faces or how many magic ingredients the gunk has – it really isn’t rocket science!  And in fact, if we just looked after our skin a bit more earlier on in life – staying out of the sun, not smoking, healthy diet, etc, etc – we probably would never need to worry about anti-ageing as our skin will just be getting old along with the rest of us.  But perhaps that isn’t good enough in an age obsessed by youthfulness?

Ask yourself, if you are over 30, when you tell someone your age for the first time, do they often say ‘wow, you don’t look it’ – almost as an automatic reaction – assuming that you will want to look younger than your real age?.   Yes? Me too, and for a while it made me happy.  But now that I’m nearly 50 I’m not sure that it does, or that it’s helpful.  My body certainly knows it’s getting older, my spirit is certainly getting older, so why would I not want my outside appearance to reflect this?  Why would I put massive amounts of energy and money into appearing to be something I’m not, when I could be using those resources to enjoy being the person that I am?

In fact let alone looking ‘youthful’ I’m not sure the constant focus on outward appearance is helpful at all at any age.  Although it is now the subject of endless articles, comments, celebrity praise/criticism.  It comes hand-in-hand with achievement – “XXX has won the yyy prize and she’s looking great”.  But in reality how I look has nothing to do with the achievements of my life.  I think perhaps if you are a great beauty – someone who’s visible difference makes heads turn and people approach you in a different way – or if you are visibly different in a way that makes heads turn for all the wrong reasons then you might reasonably say that your appearance does affect your life.  But I’ve always been fairly average in looks; no-one was ever going to fall in love with me because of the way I looked, no-one has ever become my friend because of how I look(ed), I’ve never got a job simply on the basis of my looks, I’ve never passed an exam based on how I look, I’ve never got a promotion or a pay-rise based on how I look.  When I bought my own flat, no-one cared how I looked when I took possession of the keys ( brow furrowed with exhaustion and stress I seem to recall).  When I direct a play, no-one cares how I look.  When I write my blog, no-one cares how I look.

I don’t mean to say that we can all just walk around with unwashed faces and bin-bags on.  It is part of how we show we care about fitting into the society that we live in that we follow some of its norms, which in the west includes: clean teeth, clean bodies that don’t smell, clean hair (and in some contexts: tidy/brushed/neat hair), clean clothes that cover our bodies.  In certain contexts to do with where and how we work there might be other considerations of ‘context appropriate’ clothing.  But that is about making a conscious decision to say ‘yes I am part of this world’ – whether it’s wearing a suit because you work in a bank, or wearing a thong because you are a pole dancer.  If you decide to do this the other way round (wear a thong to the bank and a suit to the pole dancing club) then you are making a very different statement – one that consciously invites people to comment on how you look.

Beyond these social norms and context-appropriate clothing considerations – is it really worth worrying about how we look?  About our wrinkles? Our excess hair? The shape of our bodies? Or should we be using that mental and physical energy for more useful ends?   For example, caring and doing something about our neighbourhoods, the planet, the other people in our lives.

I think it’s time for us to say ‘no’ to the brainwashing of the media/fashion/beauty industry and stand up for the right to not care about  how old we look or what we look like and to start to care about how we think, how we feel and what we do.

Rant over.

 

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Our lofty scene

Posted on February 21, 2012 by debdavemason

“How many ages hence
Shall this our lofty scene be acted o’er,
In states unborn, and accents yet unknown!” Cassius (Act 3, Sc 1)

Well to answer your question Cassius, just last week this lofty scene was ‘acted o’er’ in a wide variety of accents and a multitude of tweets.  Our production finally hit the stage on Wednesday night after a tense few days of tech & dress.  Tense, because just prior to us starting our tech weekend we were told that the wi-fi in the venue would not be available to us (due to maintenance work) and we would have to rely on dongles and mobile phone networks to make our twitter feed work.  Also tense because that’s just the way a tech weekend always is!

But predictably by Wednesday we had solved our problems and were ready to go.  The actors rose to the occasion, as did the crew, most excitingly so too did the audience.  Over the space of four performances my ideas about audience engagement and the use of twitter were thoroughly tested.  On the whole the twitter feed got the thumbs up.

On Wednesday some Greek friends of one of our cast said it had been a life-saver in terms of making sense of the play, when the Shakespearean language certainly wasn’t ‘all greek’ to them.  On Saturday another friend said that the ‘official’ tweets had really helped him understand the play – although he also added that the ‘unofficial’ ones had added nothing to the experience.  I’m not sure that was generally the case, although many people commented that the twitter feed helped them understand the play the thing that I found most exciting was that once the audience got into tweeting on the hashtag #btiom their tweets quickly moved from comments on the production ‘interesting casting’ ‘nice hat’ to becoming characters in the action – taking sides with the characters on stage, commenting on the action as if they were part of it – in the same way that the character tweeters were.

I think that for many of the audience (who were inevitably there out of duty rather than desire, or who had been dragged along by more willing partners), the opportunity to take part in this way meant that they focussed more on the play itself, enjoyed it more and perhaps will come away with more interest in theatre.  Simply having to follow the action in order to tweet intelligently meant a greater engagement.

On Saturday (when our show starts at 5pm) we had a number of children in the audience – many of them under 10 – this did not however prevent them tweeting – even if it was using their parent’s identity to do so.  The tweets were slightly more random – some more about simply being there – but anything that helps a 9 year old sit patiently through Julius Caesar has to be a good thing!  I’m not sure how the 3 year old coped but she was pretty well behaved!

To me, a really exciting development was that people who weren’t at the play also tweeted or followed the tweets at home.  A number of people who had already seen the show, then tweeted on subsequent evenings and others were simply curious when their friends all started using the same hashtag.  We have storified the tweets so that anyone can now see them – many of the twitpics were either taken by the audience during the show, or by our plebian character @romansnapper – who’s backstory was as a photographer.  I think the production may also have opened some people’s eyes to twitter – I know of quite a few who set up a twitter account just so that they could tweet during the show.

Friday’s tweets (the most boisterous and full-on)

Thursday’s tweets

Saturday’s tweets

Official dress rehearsal photos kindly taken by Gareth Leahy http://www.flickr.com/photos/g_leahy/sets/72157629375144245/show/

“Unofficial” photos taken by @romansnapper during the show

http://www.flickr.com/photos/technokitten/sets/72157629384182797/?page=2

You can also see our video trailer and video of the crowd workshop at:

www.youtube.com/southsideplayers

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Spit and Polish

Posted on February 7, 2012 by debdavemason

Well I seem to remember back in November starting this blog by saying I was going to attempt to direct ‘democratically’.  I don’t think I have been particularly successful in this aim – my January mantra of ‘ruthless optimism’ has turned into a February catch phrase of ‘just fucking act it’! My ambitions for democracy were further dented by seeing the miraculous effects of a bit of army discipline!

As most of the cast play soldiers in the second half of the play (only 3 are exempt) it seemed like a good idea to give them some training in standing to attention, marching and saluting.  Fortunately I had been alerted to the fact that one of our number had once served in the military (as an engineer) and could provide some basic training.  Thus on Sunday, in the incongruous surroundings of a conference suite in a psychiatric hospital, my cast learnt to be soldiers.  Apart from the sort of giggling and back chat that would have you cleaning out latrines for months in the real army, they weren’t all that bad.  Even better, after 20 mins of drill the effects lasted almost to the end of the rehearsal period.

Following their ‘salute to the general’ and an interesting spaceing game we did our normal vocal warm up – this is usually slightly cacophonous (which doesn’t particularly matter) with different timings on each vowel sound – but now that they had drilled together they vocalised together! What a marvellous sound – all the way from our pelvic ‘zoo’ to our eyes – we almost would have got our birdsong ‘ki’ in synch had not a fit of giggles interrupted concentration.

Perhaps it was just my imagination that they all seemed a little bit more biddable through the rest of rehearsals? It is more likely that with just over two weeks to go there is a realisation that concentration and effort is now required to create the polish that the show requires before it’s first night on 15th February.  It was certainly pleasing to see the translation from practice into scene of salutes, standing to attention, marching off in the approved military style.  A little more sprightly-ness on entrances and exits and we shall be there.  The next trick will be remembering which army they are allocated to, at one point it looked like Brutus had every single person in the cast and Antony & Octavius had 3 soldiers.

Tickets can be bought at http://www.southsideplayers.org.uk

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Dad’s Army or Shakespeare in Love?

Posted on January 27, 2012 by debdavemason

I haven’t posted here since the beginning of the year.  Why? Lack of time? Not sure what to say? Mostly what I have been saying is:

“Don’t panic”

“It will all be fine”

“There has been progress….”

In fact at the first run through on 8th January I felt like I was in one of those sci-fi programmes where one person gets stuck morphing into a second one and keeps flickering back and forth*.  In my case not between some glamorous FBI agent and an alien life form but between Corporal Jones and Captain Mainwaring.  On the one hand my ‘Don’t panic’ cries had the same note of desperate panic as old Jonesy,  on the other my statement that we should all adopt ‘ruthless optimism’ had more than a hint of Mainwaring’s crazily dangerous confidence in his own superiority and abilities.

The first half was much better than I expected and the second was like watching a fly stuck in glue on a window-ledge slowly dyeing.  But as I (ruthlessly optimistically) pointed out: if we were perfect now we would have peaked too soon, and anyway was perfection really what we were aiming at – wouldn’t wonderful, amazing, thought-provoking and emotionally engaging be better? Not that it was any of those things either… but it will be.

The ruthless optimism of the New Year has been chipped away by nights of sleepless thinking and nights of crazy dreams (the only one so far not about Julius Caesar involved a very small, fat talking dog called Pig, but I couldn’t absolutely swear that he wasn’t talking about Julius Caesar).  But this week it’s back!

The intervening rehearsals have been a mixture of flies dyeing in glue and brilliant breakthroughs.   I have come to realise that speedy results and action are the enemy of democracy and debate! Yes I have resorted at least once to the phrase “Just act it!”.  The fact that our ten-year old Soothsayer seemed at one rehearsal to be the only person who knew not just his lines but all his entrances and exits, understood the dynamics of the space and the only asked sensible questions (to which I hadn’t already provided the answer) also made me question whether undertaking this project was just about me subconsciously testing the limits of my sanity.

This week has seen a leap forward.  The principles are now more confident in words and actions and all that character work is beginning to shine through.  There are many fine performances coming through in the rest of the cast.  The battle scenes now begin to look like battles.  The crowd scenes have dynamism and excitement.  We have begun to talk about character Tweeting.  A further boost came from having a small excerpt of rehearsals broadcast on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme item about RSC Open Stages.   This week also saw several meetings and emails with the technical team which reassure me that lighting, sound and costume are all more than taken care of and progress has been made on the AV and tweeting side of things.  We also heard that we have a slot at the RSC Open Stages Regional Showcase in April.

This Sunday sees another run-through – it will be interesting to see what progress has been made.  Next Sunday will see our first rehearsal in the space itself.  If we can get the wi-fi up and running we will have our first Tweet rehearsal.  Ruthless Optimism has returned and the moment has come for Shakespeare in Love* to take over from Dad’s Army:

Philip Henslowe: Mr. Fennyman, allow me to explain about the theatre business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.
Hugh Fennyman: So what do we do?
Philip Henslowe: Nothing. Strangely enough, it all turns out well.
Hugh Fennyman: How?
Philip Henslowe: I don’t know. It’s a mystery

Come and see how it all turns out: 15-18 February at Chestnut Grove School, Balham – tickets from www.southsideplayers.org.uk

 

*I may have been watching too much Dr Who and Haven

*thanks to Laura Cooke for the quote – she’s a drama teacher – it is her mantra…

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Welcome to the War Zone

Posted on December 8, 2011 by debdavemason

And I don’t just mean Christmas parties and Christmas shopping!

Our last two rehearsals have concentrated on the end of the play, which culminated yesterday night with me issuing the instruction ‘anyone who isn’t actually dead at this point can now come back on stage’.

In the first three acts of Julius Caesar only one person dies – Julius Caesar, in the second two, and particularly the fifth, the bodies are piling up faster than you can say: “What bastard doth not” – possibly one of my favourite lines – uttered by Young Cato just before she gets wiped out by a rampaging Octavius and her troops.

These rehearsals have been really tough on the actors, I don’t think I’m the only person who hasn’t left enough energy in store to get to the end of the year, and the chopping and changing of scene, the innumerable entrances and exits make it very hard to get into the swing of the acting.  Even though I had mapped out entrances and exits and shared these with each group, it still proved difficult (for all of us) to know when, where, who, what was going on.  Fortunately most of the actors did still manage the ‘how’.  In fact some of the guys playing smaller roles really impressed me with how much they had invested into these parts, even with all the ‘directing’ going on they still managed some really interesting and moving acting.   And I think that for the actors it is even harder than for me.   Having had detailed discussions with the lighting and sound designers I have a clear idea in my head of how it will look and sound on the stage.   The actors may well have a great imagined world but they are having to overlay it on a children’s nursery getting ready for Christmas and overcome the confusions and uncertainties of these complex scenes.

But it wasn’t all weariness! I did my best to help create the battle atmosphere by buying three toy guns from the pound shop – only discovering when I got them out of the package that they made a (sort of) machine gun noise when you pulled the trigger.  It certainly made it a bit more fun for the soldiers and people did seem to get into the spirit of it!

There will be things that will need to be reworked when we move into a larger rehearsal space and have more ‘extras’ on stage but as we near the end of our pre-Christmas rehearsals and have covered all the scenes (if not with all the actors!) I’m very much looking forward to bringing it all together in the new year for our first run through on 8th January.  In the meantime one more rehearsal to go and then finally every member of the cast will have been to rehearsal!

Outside of the rehearsal space I have been busy setting up Twitter accounts for all the characters.  Right now this is one of my least favourite jobs ever! First I have to set up an email account, then I have to set up the twitter account, then I have to get the account to follow all the other Julius Caesar accounts, and then I have to go back into my own account and add them to the Julius Caesar list I have created.  But it will all be worth it in the end!

Much more fun was my trip out with our Sound Designer.  We went to OccupyLSX outside St Paul’s to see if they were making any ‘protest’ sounds we could record.  In fact they were having a very quiet debate in one of the tents about the economy.  So instead we did vox pops on the question ‘Do you think we are living in a democracy?’ Fascinating stuff.  A full blog on this by the Sound Designer will appear soon on the Southside Players blog page: http://www.southside.wordpress.com  and we will also be sharing some of the results – watch this space.

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Riot Girls!

Posted on December 1, 2011 by debdavemason

This week’s rehearsals have been really exciting – counting down to the point where everyone in the cast will have rehearsed at least one scene (just two more people to go!).

On Sunday our biggest group of actors so far crammed themselves into the tiny Caterpillar Nursery in Balham.  Rehearsing amongst the tiny furniture and hand-made Christmas decorations of toddlers is always a surrealist challenge but never more so when you are directing political assassinations and riotous mobs.

I was once again delighted by the enthusiasm of those playing smaller roles for filling out the story and background to their characters.  In two specific cases it really transformed the scenes they were playing.  The Cobbler and the Carpenter who open the play with a typically turgid bit of Shakespearean ‘comedy’ have with their new interpretation of the characters (no spoilers here – you’ll have to come see the show to find out what these are!) transformed the scene into something that is both genuinely comic, recognisably London 2011/12 and also contain the potential to allow the scene to descend quickly into something darker.  They provided my two policemen (Marullus and Flavius) with something really concrete to work off.  I was also very grateful to the handful of actors who turned up just to be ‘walk-on crowd’ – alongside the other plebians they added an interesting context to both this scene and the riot scenes creating exactly the kind of street scape I was hoping for.  Happy director.

The second transformational characterisation came from Cinna the Poet.  It is a tricky scene, both horrific and also darkly comic.  The actor playing the role suggested that perhaps the poet was a bit of lush – this would explain him going out onto the streets even though he knew he shouldn’t – and also his behaviour in the scene.  This particularly worked with my all girl mob, as his drunken bravado, his proclamation of his bachelor status, could all be seen as more provocative if directed towards women.  I should make clear that my all girl mob is not some feminist statement, but dictated by the fact that it is a truth universally acknowledged by all amateur dramatic groups that there will be more women than men, and because there are more women than men, the women will be more prepared to play the bit parts!  But it works!  By the time we reached this scene the girls had been properly riled up by Brutus and then Mark Antony and were prepared for some action.  I love it when a plan comes together like this.

And then came Wednesday and the entrance of Octavius – our Baader Meinhof inspired sociopathic proto-dictator.  Considering I have cast one of the nicest people I know, she did a pretty good job of being scary.  In fact so much so that when I asked Antony to josh with her like she was a bloke he was too scared to actually touch her! Fondling her toy gun (bright green space shooter from the £1 shop – hopefully something slightly more plausible will be found in time for the actual show) and lounging in her penthouse suite (a couple of diddy tables pushed together) I thought she was doing a great job.  Then she just stopped and said ‘I feel weak’ – I am assured by my AD that I looked concerned and non-plussed – she chipped in ‘physically or in your character?’ (this is why I have my lovely AD, always handy in a crisis).  Octavius confessed that it was in the character.  At the time I didn’t quite know what to say, but to reassure her that she was on the right track.  In fact, perhaps it is more reassuring than I (or she) thought at the time, because it means we are aiming for something even stronger than she was delivering (which was good) – so by the time we get to February she will be truly very, very scary…

Brutus and Cassius then arrived and we looked at the face off at the end of the play, just before the Battle of Philipii.  I think this will work really well in the space we are using, with Octavius fronting from mid way up the stairs and Brutus and Cassius marching purposefully onto the Podium.  In our lovely nursery however the seriousness of the scene was somewhat brought down by the fact that B & C had to either peer over, or under a washing line of tinsel and paper stockings – not very battlefield!

Finally looking at the scene where Antony arrives to see Caesar’s dead body and negotiate his peace with Brutus and Cassius, this was where I really saw all the character development coming into play.  Brutus a mixture of sincerity, arrogance and guilt, Antony anger, grief and duplicity, Cassius righteousness and single-mindedness coupled with political-nous – it was all beautifully, subtley there – and yet we still have nearly 2 months in which to enhance, perfect and tweak it.  Ooh yes I was a very happy person on Wednesday night!

Tongue twisters you say? Oh yes we did do some more tongue twisters – still struggling with caramel cramming canibals (my own worst), smelly skunks and stumps, thermos flasks and picnics we added more food to our repertoire:

She chops chips in a chic fish and chip shop

and also a strange little story:

A really frugal rural ruler’s mural

which seemed strangely appropriate in our setting – I will post some photos soon!

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Thus falls Caesar

Posted on November 28, 2011 by debdavemason

Last week’s rehearsals were ones of great contrast.

On Sunday we focussed on Brutus at home.  Her relationships with her secretary, Lucius, and her wife, Portia.  We also looked at the scene with Ligarius and briefly at the street scene on the morning of the Ides of March.  Having looked at Caesar at home in the previous rehearsal it was interesting to have in mind the interactions of the two wives.  In both cases questioning the actions of their spouses, in both cases with good reason.  Although the relationships of the two couples are very different I decided to stage the scenes in a way that allowed visual references between the two – references which I hope the audience will pick up on – certainly my assistant director did which is a hopeful indication.

One of the contrasts that is most apparent is the different way people ‘get into’ the parts.  In some the approach is intellectual, they will understand every word they say, they will know all the historical/social context of the character but find it harder to grasp their conscious and subconscious purposes and objectives, in others they firmly grasp the thought processes of the character but stumble over the text and busk over the exact meanings of the words.  Of course I want both!  I also need to be wary of myself – I would say I probably fall into the latter when acting and therefore have more sympathy with this mode of working – am I too lenient here whilst pouncing on those who aren’t quite so attuned to the ‘creating a character’ approach?  Something for me to watch out for perhaps.

Sunday’s scenes had only two or three people in them and with a staggered rehearsal schedule it felt very intimate – in contrast to Wednesday…

This was the first rehearsal since our all cast workshops when I have had a large number of actors turning up all at once.  We were planning to rehearse the conspirators coming in the night to Brutus’ house, and then the death of Caesar.  I had scheduled for those only involved in the latter to come at a later time, but in fact everyone arrived for the start of the rehearsal at 7.30 and some came early enough that we actually squeezed in another scene!

I am sorry to report that there was a gleaming and excited keenness at the prospect of killing Caesar.  I’m not sure he deserved quite that much joyful enthusiasm and I may have ended up with rather more assassins than historically accurate – so many begged to be allowed to join the party!  It did however give the rehearsal a very upbeat atmosphere and the actors were alert and full of energy.

In directing large numbers of people to dispose themselves across an acting area, where that area in rehearsal is about a third the size of the acting space itself, is a challenge.  In fact it seemed to come very easily.  Having read through the scene we ‘walked’ through it with me moving about amongst the actors moving them into place or whispering possible actions to them as the scene progressed.  These are intelligent actors with an understanding of the playing space – with only a few prompts from me they filled the scene in a really interesting way.

The same was true when it came to assassinating Caesar – as if we were really conspirators we stood in the space and discussed where the weapons would be stashed, who would go where, who would distract Caesar, who Antony, what the signals would be.  Then we let Caesar join in.  I am really excited about the results.  This is going to be a really powerful scene.  Especially as following my meeting with my Sound and Lighting team on Monday night I now know exactly how the lighting will be for this and just how well it is all going to work together.

I plan to write separately on the technical side of the play and am hoping to get either or both the Sound and Lighting designers to contribute to the Southside Players blog (www.southsideplayers.wordpress.com) but suffice to say that Monday’s meeting was very exciting and if you see someone recording protests, street sounds or general ambient sounds in and around Westminster they may well be from my team!

Oh and just as a postscript this week’s tongue twister:

“If a canny cannibal can cram caramel into a camel, how much caramel can a canny cannibal cram into a camel.”

Plus some interesting variation on the skunk and the stump:

“The shrunk stump sat on the trunk stump, the shrunk skunk thunk that the trunk stump stunk and the trunk stump thunk that the shrunk skunk stunk.”

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