Devoted & Disgruntled 6: Singing in the Dark Times

DEVOTED & DISGRUNTLED 6: ALL SESSIONS THAT WERE REPORTED

2011-02-07T07:34:00.001-08:00

1. Wildflowers real and metaphorical Pioneers?
2. How can you be a parent of young children and a theatre maker?
3. Branding: Help Me!
4. Where the hell do we begin? The Graduate Dream
5. How to get in the industry as a foreign actor
6. How do we keep theatres and arts centres in Darlington and Barnet open…
7. Dr Theatre: Theatre Arts and the Healing Arts: Possibilities and Stuff to Discuss
8. Singing off key: the beauty of failure
9. Who Will Study the Arts at School now that the English Baccalreureate is success?
10. Motley Theatre Design Course is closing down: what are we going to do about it?
11. Big Plays. Big Casts. Where have they gone?
12. Practical composition
13. How can we make the process of tour-booking better for artists and companies?
14. I’m a producer. Do you have something you want me to produce?
15. International Crisis/ The Whitest Room
16. Making work that’s a bit taboo, a little bit naughty
17. I have a big idea but I don’t feel “big” enough to make it happen…
18. Training directors. Is it possible?
19. How can theatres support artists without dictating to them?
20. How Screwed Are We? Please Can Someone Come And Explain The Funding Cuts?
21. We all have resources – how can we share them? A Resource Sharing Network
22. Surfing or Opera?
23. Theatre and fashion : what can we learn from each other?
24. Can we still find new ways to communicate on stage.
25. Spaces + Places + Funding in The East Midlands and the North
26. How do I overcome the patriarchal blocks to my development/nurture/journey as an artist
27. Performing instructions
28. DEATH …Playing dying… How! Please help. What does death/facing your own death means to you?
29. Remaking and restaging. How to make it as big an adventure the second time around?
30. How Are You?
31. Cut the Arts, Save The Day Centre. How do you defend yourself against this argument?
32. Ok, Lets rant, really rant, rant til we’re blue in the face, red in the gills ‘cos that’s where our creativity o’erspills
33. How can I have an ensemble and make it work over a long period?
34. Crowd funding is here. Resistance is futile.
35. Does Theatre Need Age Badges?
36. Theatre and Games
37. Can Telly help, or would it balls things up even more?
38. What is theatre going to do about closing libraries?
39. Ritual in Theatre: Can Theatre Learn anything from Religion?
40. Such Tweet Sorrow - how can we stop it from ever happening again? (Or, what can we learn from it)
41. Theatre and Astrology
42. A Theatre with Glass Walls: How can we let the world in?
43. Who is going to cut the umbilical cord?
44. “I am young, theatre is not cool enough to go to.” How can we inspire young people to see theatre as cool?
45.Form Filling: have you had enough?
46. We really are all fucked or the death of thinking
47. How do we best nurture and encourage the next generation(s)* of playwrights?
48. What do I do with this theatre company I have lying about from September to July? (What options do new theatre companies have outside of the Fringe?),
49. Site-Specific theatre and theatre in non-standard spaces – Practicalities
50. Artist and organizer over 60- how does it work
51. Is blocking the equivalent of match-fixing? Do we root it out? How?
52. ‘How do you solve a problem like Peterborough’? Ode to Peterborough: Not in the South, not in the North, Not in the East, not in the West. Not in the fucking Midlands
53. How do small organisations get big organisations to play with them?
54. Lullaby for our Dark Time
55. Touring to Bosnia and the Balkans
56. Is there anyone else here from Cardiff?
57. IT’S NOT ALL CHEESE Why do people look down on musical theatre?
58. What does Punk Theatre look like now?
59. How do we reclaim a space in society for art for its own sake?
60. Is it fair to ask people to work for free?
61. Hackney Empire – not just for pantos?
62. Marrying an artist: HOW DO YOU SURVIVE?
63. How can we support the next generation of theatre makers?
64. What is your elephant in the room? & “We’re not talking about what really matters.” Well, come on then.
65. Are correspondence courses that promise to help you become a successful writer any good or are they a waste of time?
66. Theatre and Outer Space
67. Theatre in the public sphere: are we making a good account and could we do more?
68. Calling all the Dreamers
69. The Burning Man Festival: Immersive Theatre for 50,000 people?
70. Audience as Agent - What can theatre learn from video games?
71. I have the projects – as a young producer, how do I make them happen?
72. ‘Our ideas are in everyone’s heads’: performance and destroying capitalism
73. Do you miss your pet? Living or alive? Would you like to talk to me about it?
74. I’m often working alone – what about peer review or peer mentoring?
75. My friend Sally is really fit and brilliant. She would like a boyfriend.
76. Archives and Archivists: Dust and Paper
77. Does theatre have a role in climate change awareness?
78. Science and Art
79. Change: react or create? What do we want to make?
80. Theatre, therapies and religion: can there be a dialogue (If so, how and where?)
81. The kids are alright – Don’t dismiss youth theatre as bad theatre
82. What can we sell apart from tickets?
83. How best to integrate and delineate the roles of writer and director
84. Isn’t the time ripe for Good comedy?
85. Theatre companies can sometimes feel as though they exist in a vacuum, how can we encourage them to work with one another to challenge/build upon their practice?
86. Plan B: You have just lost your funding. What next?
87. How creative can access get in theatre?
88. Artist led performance platforms: What can they be?
89. Tea and Tax returns
90. Can you help me make a movement choir?
91. How can theatre make the world a better place?
92. D&D National Roadshow 2012 and WOSonOS (World Open Space on Open Space)
93. Not just talking about a revolution: showing solidarity with Egypt and Tunisia and artistic responses
94. DO IT WITH STRANGERS! (or, I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers)
95. I want to get on the international touring circuit. Help!
96. If I find spectacle dull, have I worked in theatre too long?
97. We are a venue! We would like to help support and develop artists. What is it that artists want/need?
98. Deaf theatre – integration and moving forward in the artistic sector
99. How can theatre as a place be more real than the lives we find ourselves living?
100.How to survive success
101. (we accidentally didn’t assign this number!)
102. What can we do with Forum Theatre?
103. Tell Me Something I Don’t Know
104. Sit Com
105. Brainstorm – What does an un-capitalist mode of performance look like?
106. Actors and writers collaborating live; anyone interested in helping me make it happen?
107. Making theatre happen in gig/club environments – any ideas?
108. NON STUDENTS ACTORS UNITE! – How can a drama school reject find work as a performer?
109. Theatre for Development
110. HOW DO WE MAKE THEATRE CROSS BORDERS OF LANGUAGE AND COUNTRY?
111. In the dark times, will there be laughing?
112. HOORAY!
113. Continued actor training
114. The great song exchange
115. The Hollywood Fringe
116. Developing New Work
117. Group Interaction, Connection, Presence. What can we perceive of each other, what can we express of ourselves?
118. "SIGNING IN THE DARK TIMES" - can anyone teach me some sign language?
119. Arts Journalism in 2011
120. Artist Resource Network
121. Teach me about the people on the D&D Map.
122. Encouraging Philanthropy or schmoozing the rich
123. What are we going to do to bring thinking back to life">

DEVOTED & DISGRUNTLED 6: ISSUES RAISED BUT NOT REPORTED

2011-02-07T07:33:00.001-08:00

120. My theatre company is a car, can anyone else drive it?
121. What has happened to notions of gender equality? Is feminisim a dead duck? Is this ok or not?
122. Meditation as preparation – what do you do?
123. How do we make theatre cross borders of language and country?
124. Hollywood is in its second year this June, what can they do to bring/attract international theatre companies?
125. Just in case: absolute last minute panic attack!
126. How to develop a culture of continuing actor training?
127. Anyone know a production manager who’s free this week?
128. Stretching / yoga
129. How do we find and nurture devoted audiences outside of that big London?
130. Write a play, squat a building, create a pop-up theatre: how direct action can create platforms for new work.
131. Optimism?
132. What keeps you awake at night?
133. 1 minute manifesto: fancy it? 1-2-1’s running through the day. Group sharing of manifestos at lunchtime. Find me!
134. I’ve got some lines to learn this weekend – anyone else need to learn some too? Maybe we can help each other.
135. Engaging audiences: imagination and play
136. Enchanting the suits: if only 20% of FTSE100 companies sponsor the arts – how to excite the 80%
138. In the dark times, will there be laughing? Taking the comic seriously (the ‘comic’ as opposed to the ‘tragic’ and why they shouldn’t be opposed)
139. How do I set up D&D in The Netherlands?
140. Gender or something or other. Just not about Sky Sports commentators.
141. Group interaction, connection, presence. What we perceive of each other, what can we express of ourselves?
142. Does anyone want to learn/share some songs?
143. The craft of the actor how can we support each others to work on this?
144. I’m currently finding Canadian tax laws taxing: can you help?
145. Fight 2.0. Come and have a fight!
146. Our friends in the North. Tracing the diaspora – are you connected to the north? If so, did you leave? Why? Why not? Would you like just a little bit of a connection?
147. Dancing in the dark: anyone want to focus on dance in 2010/11?
148. Let’s get together and act!
149. How can I use the arts to emigrate and keep working in the arts?
150. Afternoon tea and biscuits with the gays
151. A song for the dark times
152. What does it mean for an artist to have a career? And does such a thing exist?
153. Help me to make some nice signs for Open Space in a school on Monday
154. Politics: how theatre supports the systems that are failing us and (the unmentionable) class
155. Why should classical music be ‘relaxing’? Let’s tickle the ears and inflame the passions.
156. Is theatre a place which can be more real and more accountable than the lives we find ourselves living?
157. How do we nurture and encourages the next generation(s) of playwrights?!

DEVOTED & DISGRUNTLED 6: ACTION SESSIONS

2011-02-07T07:32:00.000-08:00

ACTION SESSIONS
Called on Monday

- March 26th: how might we contribute?

- Marking change- as things are cut/morph is there a need to theatricalise/ritualise this?

- Mindfulness- being in the moment

- Making my big idea

- Is it fair to as people to work for free? Part 2

- A graduate open space (but not “open space” in the D&D sense)

- Developing new work

- Connecting artists and organisations who work locally and quietly

- Affectively

- What resources are there for working more in Europe (and further afield)

- Can you teach me (briefly) what the people on the map did?

ISSUE 123: ENCOURAGING PHILANTHROPY OR SCHMOOZIN THE RICH

2011-02-07T07:29:00.000-08:00

Issue: Encouraging Philanthropy or Schmoozin' the Rich

Convener(s): Olga Petrakova

Participants: Josh Neicho, Antonio Ferrara, Clara Giraud, Tanja Raaste, Ed Bartram, Lisa Turner, Sue Frumin, Jean Paul Dal Monte

The meeting was suggested during a previous session held by Daniel Goldman: "Big Plays. Big Casts. Where have they gone?", when I raised a question if/how it is possible to attract an Impresario to support an artistic endeavor of larger casts.

This was one of the harder meetings to have as it seemed that we all had limited experience in communications with the privileged class or in finding ways to attract them, excite them with our projects or gain their support. This is due to the sheer fact that we generally don't have a direct access to them, being artists.There is an art to this type of communication, if we happen to be talking to the wealthy dude/ettes. When putting this report together, I came across a good article by Michael Owen Hill (St. Paul, Minnesota), called Stroking the Ego: Fine Art of Schmooze and lucky for us, it actually does highlight a number of issues that we raised. I will contribute some of Michael's thoughts to this documented exploration at the bottom of the page.

Some questions that were raised were:

*What would the title of the wealthy supporter be? Benefactor, Philanthropist, Impresario.
*We decided to distinguish between investing vs. donation. Investing would need a whole other meeting and it has a number of legal issues to consider.
*In the UK, unlike US, charitable donations are not tax-deductible. Something that hopefully will change, as that is a perk for the wealthy to support the projects they are attracted to, and it seems to work well in America. On the other hand, it does release government from providing a sustaining support for the arts, so that is the other side of the coin to keep in mind.
*How can we attract a wealthy person to become a Benefactor?
One suggestion was to look for those who want to be knighted.
If we are touring internationally, we can look for our countrymen conducting businesses in the foreign territories to encourage them to support projects from their homeland.
Entice them to become theatre visionaries. Use examples of people they might already know, who are visionaries in other fields: music, dance, art, etc.
* How do we come across wealthy people in our daily artistic lives, when we are immersed in rehearsals and such? Put ourselves out there more.
Offer private theatre services for their parties, events: dance shows, commedia dell'arte events, theatre with music. Become entertaining provocateurs, subverters of the expected, daily, banal, overly social. Learn from the past, when jesters were part of the court.
Create Imaginative Fundraising Events, that are unusual and attractive on their own accord. Part of them can be special silent auctions.
Hire PR person, as this is part of their job. They are professional schmoozers. Or learn how to do your own PR (www.doyourownpr.com) by yourself or with your company's members.
Pursue government agencies concerned with real estate development to request from developers support for local theatre - to provide space for us to create in. Rent is the highest fixed expense for any theatre company.

*Image is something wealthy people/organization are generally concerned with.
Banks are an example. While having a poor reputation they are recovering fast. Supporting a larger project or a festival may offer bank an opportunity to clean their image.
Wealthy people, who are pursuing government positions may be interested in supporting non-profit arts projects to boost their image.

*When we finally meet with wealthy folks, how do we interact with them?
We may want to share with them what it is we are doing, not who we are....
Be ourselves. We are interesting, weird people.
We should have wacky cool stories to share.
Have confidence/Intelligence/sincerity to share, do not be needy.
__________________________________

Supplement from some research Olya' did:

Mark Owen Hill (http://utweet.it/social-media/stroking-the-ego-the-fine-art-of-schmooze/):
"The one trait all successful schmoozers share is an ability to manufacture genuine curiosity. I’m not talking about mindless “rah rah” or groupieism, but genuine curiosity on a peer-to-peer level...
This leads me to point number one: Suckups tell you how great you are. Schmoozers show interest in you, your ideas and opinions. Suckups speak well about you. Schmoozers listen to you, and listen well. You get the point."
"Gratitude is another powerful tool of the successful schmoozer, but it can be a two-edged sword. Too much gratitude or thanks that are misplaced can quickly signal to the sophisticated person that there is serious suckupery at play. Make sure you thank people for things that are deserving of thanks. If you spend some time thinking about the other person — instead of focusing on the ego-stroking tactics you might employ to get what you want — obvious opportunities for honest gratitude will present themselves."
"Authenticity is key, but here is a little trick I learned from my years in... fundraising for arts and animal welfare nonprofits: In any written communication longer than a quick e-mail to a colleague — and certainly any communication to clients, potential employers or anyone whom it is your job to serve — begin and end with a thank you. Make the first thank you very specific, and follow it with a statement that shows you are actually thinking about the reader."
"Schmoozing is not about fooling people or finding the right “line.” Schmoozing is about creating a social or emotional space in which the other person can honestly feel good about themselves, and by reflection, you."

A few Key Points from Guy Kawasaki. They actually reflect some of what we arrived on our own. Read the blog to get the full take on each Key Point. (Guy Kawasaki's "How to change the world" Blog/The Art of Schmoozing, http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/02/the_art_of_schm.html#axzz1DHilTv6T)

Understand the goal. Darcy Rezac “Discover what you can do for someone else.”
Get out.
Ask good questions, then shut up.
Unveil your passions.
Read voraciously.
Follow up.
Make it easy to get in touch.
Give favors.
Ask for the return of favors.

ISSUE 122: WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO TO BRING THINKING BACK TO LIFE?

2011-02-07T07:27:00.000-08:00

Issue: What are we going to do to bring thinking back to life?
(Session on Monday morning following up from Saturday and Sunday sessions on ‘The death of thinking’)

Participants: Shonagh, Lee, Alan, Adam, Jen, Kate, Jamie, Annie, Rebecca

- Write to your MP… or become one?
- Make work which is smarter, funnier, more meaningful, better
- Think and feel dispassionately
- Be vigilant and know your values
- Hold dissent
- Encourages our advocates to speak for us
- Talk about immigration (and other thorny issues)
- Be honest when asked to talk (e.g. about the advantages you’ve had)
- Work out where you are on a spectrum of opinion about a topic
- Bring different ways of thinking into our world and take ours out to the wider world
- Go on marches
- Give people time off to go on marches (from work / rehearsals)
- Put 26 March demo in diaries
- Don’t assume shared politics – but have conversations where it’s ok to disagree
- Understand the process of how thinking has been killed – be in the roles of people who have killed thinking
- Be honest with yourself – about your beliefs and work and who it is for
- Use our theatre skills to help people articulate / voice their opinions
- Improvise other people’s POV
- Feel as well as think
- Let thinking be messy
- Don’t cut education budgets in the arts first
- Read Arnold Mindell ‘World Work’ and find out about Cooking Chaos
- Be braver – and worry less about being right
- Learn in life – ask better questions
- Formulate an ideological point of view – read, talk, and think
- Help as well as oppose
- Do battle but with awareness
- Create platforms for speech / thought = and prepare well if you are speaking yourself
- As each other questions
- Put ourselves in positions where we’re not experts
- Change your attitude to what’s happening
- Be on the look out for unspoken-anti-thinking-ism
- Think harder

ISSUE 121: TEACH ME ABOUT THE PEOPLE ON THE D&D MAP

2011-02-07T06:53:00.000-08:00

Issue Teach me about the people on the D and D map

Convener Thomas Eccleshar

Participants:
Kieran Hurley Fiona Drummond
Lindsey Hope Pearlman Daniel Bye
Gemma Brookis Tashan Pandey
Tom Hughes Dan Copeland
Julia Taudevin Phelim Mcdermot
Oly Petrakova Caroline Pearce
Ed Jaspers Lewis Barfoot
Caroline Horton Elles Kerchovey
Jennifer Tam
Lucy Foster

The purpose of this session was to try to learn who the names on the D and D map were and why they were significant. Phelim revealed that the connection between all of them was that they were teachers (of theatre practice) and, as we went through (almost) all of them we tried to trace a heritage or lineage that might reveal something about where we are now or where we’re going.

We all learned a lot.

It was suggested, and I would love to try (but it might be better suited to one of the ‘teachers’, that the Tate modern’s ‘map’ of 20th century artists both in time but also in space is a very useful conceptual way of figuring this lineage and wouldn’t it be good to have one of the people below.

The purpose was also to be brief so, in that interest, I have tried to keep the biogs / definitions short. I have also tried to write them in the order we discussed them as this was often informed by links/similarities.

The descriptions are key words, places, book titles and things they said / stood for.

Book titles are underlined.

Jaques Lecoq.
1960s → / Paris. / Work that concerns the body in space / a practice based on the purity of movement from his background as a sports teacher / The Poetic Body / “Everything moves” / Complicite, Mummenschantz, Clod Ensemble.

Philippe Gaulier
1970s→ / Paris, London / Pleasure, playfulness, games / “You are not funny” / Clown, bouffon, melodrama / catholic / Spymonkey, Sasha Baron Cohen, Peepolykus.

Prattki
1990s → / London / LISPA / Lecoq disciple but adds elements of psychology, zen, meditative, mindfulness / A negotiation between Grotowski and Lecoq.

John Wright
1980s / UK, Paris / Clown, bouffon / Moved to England because ‘he got cash’ / Like Gaulier but ‘more english’ / Improvisation / Codifying comedy, the science of laughter / Games as opposed to play / Pushed clown towards the pathetic, the tragic / Told by an Idiot, Trestle.

Keith Johnstone
1970s, 80s / UK / Impro / Impro towards narrative, storytelling (as opposed to Gaulier who was towards the relationship w an audience → often people who don’t connect w Gaulier are more comfortable/successful w Johnstone) / Ran the writer’s room at the royal court in the 70s → Barker, Brenton, Bond / Gaulier and Lecoq say ‘No’, Johnstone says ‘yes’ / Failure is an active part of the process / Lifegame (anecdote from Phelim about a woman recounting a story in Lifegame about her mother’s heart attack and it being the first time Phelim realised impro could create wonderful, memorable scenes, and not just comedy, moments).

Viola Spolin
1950s / USA / Pioneer of early ‘impro’ in the US. / Worked w street kids and developed, through this work, improvisation techniques / if Johnstone’s impro is about narrative, Spolin’s is about space / ‘Single focus’ allowing for instinct and intuition (eg. Coming onstage focusing on your feet allows you to instinctively use the rest of your body) / Improvisation for the Theatre / Games, play / ‘anyone can be an actor’ /

Anne Bogart
1990s onwards / NYC / Serious badass with a sensitive, vulnerable side (!) / Founder of Siti company / Works with ‘Viewpoints’, a system of codifying patterns in space and time to describe things and thus to be used in training or as a starting point for creation / not dissimilar from Laban / The performer of this has a 180 degree field of vision (unlike, say, a Gaulier performer who focuses on the audience) / an awareness tool / The director prepares

Tadashi Suzuki
Japan / Comes from a Japanese tradition of Noh and Kabuki / voice centering (in the diaphragm, not the chest or head) / THIGHS.

Yoshi Oida
Japan, Paris / Part of Peter Brook’s company / Noh training / the Japanese tradition of clear pictures, clean, clear language / Jo-Ha-Kyu / The Invisible Actor.

Konstantin Stanislavski
1890s-1920s / Russia / Came out of a period where declamation was king, his practice was a reaction to this, a search for authenticity, truth to life and a rejection of self-consciousness / He evolved from a place where actors worked as individuals to ensemble work / His system(s) has been misappropriated by Stella Adler and The Method in the US and is unfairly maligned as a result → in need of reconsideration!

Michael Chekhov
1940s / Russia, USA / Stanislavski’s student / ‘the psychological gesture’ → the idea of creating a whole body physicalistation of a character or a play / ‘Atmospheres’ as tangible, physical things, ‘there’s an atmosphere of love in the room, what does it feel like to move my hand through it?’ / He himself was a star performer (an amazing clown) and ended up in Hollywood teaching Marilyn Monrow, Yul Brynner etc. (you can see him as the Russian in Spellbound) / Phelim’s hero / To the Actor / the Charles Morovitz Biography / Spiritual / Jungian

Jeremy Whelan
Instant Acting / working w. text: the actors record the text then, while listening to it, move in the space. This is repeated but with completely different movement. After the fourth repetition, the actors try to speak it without the sound (and almost always manage with amazing success) / alternative to ‘dubbing’ exercise / the effect is almost like improvising a text / On the first day you should do the whole play(!) / Bypasses the intellectualising of the parts, lines / Dictionary of Emotions.

Joan Littlewood
1960s / UK / Radical / Socialist / Impro / ‘Oh what a lovely war’ / Devising / Working class / that theatre should be like boxing, should be a struggle / wanted to form the “Pleasure Palace’, a home for art and theatre, on the Southbank but was denied and ended up moving to Paris.

Uta Hagen
1960s-90s / Respect for Acting / sense memory / 6 questions / things like ‘who am I?’, ‘where am I?’, ‘How do I get what I want’.

Augusto Boal
1960s – 90s / Brazil / Forum theatre / Theatre of the Oppressed / Political / The audience became actively involved in the experience, performance / later became a politician / ‘rainbow of desire’ added a psychological aspect.

Joan Skinner
Dance / Dance improvisation pioneer / Similar to Chekhov’s ideas about externalising internal images physically / ‘Slinner Release / Feldenkreis / How internal images effect movement.

Wesley Balk
1970s-2003 / USA / Director of the Minnesota Opera / Created a system for actor singers / wrote a famous article called the ‘Disappearing Diva’, which argued that singing compromised acting (and vice versa) and, in the effort to do both, things became tangled and the result was unsatisfactory. He developed techniques to separate the two processes than bring them back together (eg. holding up emotion cards while they were singing) / The Complete Singer actor / Radiant Performer.

Dell Close
Improv teacher and comedy writer / ‘the truth in comedy’

MISSING:
Brook
Humphries
Craig
Fo
Duncan
Barker
Graham
Meisner

http://tiny.cc/a6kzj

ISSUE 120: ARTIST RESOURCE NETWORK/ EXCHANGE

2011-02-07T03:42:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately I lost the notes that I wrote during the session! But still have everything we did on the big sheets of paper so that is a relief at least! Do have a look at the report on Resource Sharing (Issue No. 21) which also gives further info in relation to this all.

There are three parts to this email: (I think)
1. Principles (which need to be added to and agreed)
2. More Inspiration
3. Other Things

1. Principles
These were generated by the group in the final session at D&D and are up for input - they are useful for both the creation and dissemination of this project. I would like to suggest that we find around 4-5 principles that we can then share via the Facebook Page. Here are the ones from the notes:

We will start simply and we will try and keep it simple.
You have to offer something.
If you give you get.
People who are part of the network need to be verified (in some way).
There will be moderation but it will not be like the police.
We will provide a platform for people to express need.
Negotiations will take place between the people sharing and borrowing.
The network will be for artists (mainly performance/theatre/live - but could extend?)
The network is not a platform for selling
There will be no advertising of personal wares (such as performances etc.)

2. More Inspiration
I am currently at the Transmediale Festival (http://www.transmediale.de/) in Berlin and have today attended a series of talks themed around 'The Currency of the Commons' and in particular the 'Future of Money. This has been ridiculously good timing in terms of the ideas we discussed at D&D. Here are a few references from the festival and from other research that are interesting in relation to Resource Sharing Networks:

The Future of Money by Emergence Collective (as presented at Transmediale 2011)
http://vimeo.com/16025167
http://www.emergence.cc/futureofmoney/

Some words that have come out of discussions today:
"It's not just what i am but its what i have access to."
"How can we quantify things that are qualitative in nature?"
"Don't hoard!"
"Peer-to-peer commons based economy"
"Self organising distribution networks"
"Linking unmet needs with unused resources"

Collaborative Consumption
An emerging movement spearheaded by Rachel Botsman - video is worth a watch.
http://www.ted.com/talks/rachel_botsman_the_case_for_collaborative_consumption.html
http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/

3. Other Things
As someone suggested in the session I think it would be worth looking at the Freecycle wording for pointers http://www.uk.freecycle.org/
We will need to nominate some people to be admins/moderators on this.
We should gain some further clarity on the difference between physical and other resources.
I would like to propose that those that can meet up in say a week or two (could skype others in)?
It would be good to get an idea of what people can offer to this?
We will try our best to make this succeed!

ISSUE 1: WILDFLOWERS, REAL AND METAPHORICAL PIONEERS?

2011-02-07T03:12:00.001-08:00

Issue: Wildflowers, real and metaphorical Pioneers?

Convener(s): Clare Whistler

Participants: Poppy Burton-Morgan, then Mark Smith

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

The seeds of something…, making art from seeds of ideas…performance in the landscape
Artists and change
Do you need to stand still to evolve
Not a be or a butterfly but a magnet
Performance contexts are breaking down all the time , not necessarily devised anymore
Being brave enough and to trust enough to go on a journey that no one else seems to be taking
To go wild….attend to what flowers……have beauty live……and have it die…to be the beauty and the art
Living in a wildflower meadow as a performance artist and seeing what one makes…living with the earth and weathers….needing collaborations and links, finding them person and place one by one, through intimacy, stillness, no technology
Cultivating the wild to re-understand that we will continue to make art money or not, being motivated beyond any money
Is it me singing in the dark? Sometimes that is a wonderful place to be,
Sometimes its necessary to be in the dark
Have you given yourself enough ‘standing still’
Reflect and breath and refract
The lightning hits the tree, what re-generates
Essence
Seeds
Being the wildflower

The session was held in Duncan – for Isadora – a pioneer

ISSUE 2: HOW CAN YOU BE A PARENT OF YOUNG CHILDREN AND A THEATRE MAKER?

2011-02-07T03:10:00.001-08:00

Issue: How can you be a parent of young children and a theatre maker?

Convener(s): Ed Bartram

Participants:

David J, Mark, Nick Haverson, Catzeagle, Jonathan Holloway, Nick Sweeting, Kate, a ferguson, Laura Edey, Simon Treves, K Lloyd, rod, Helen Pringle, Sarah jane, Martin, Paul, Scarlett, Alex, Kylie

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

Lots of varying views on the subject…

■ networks and other parents are vital - there is an amazing resource here [all different people who are interested] – parenthood as nourishing and stimulating us as artists; with parents in theatre, it really informs their kids what they do later in life.

■ as a parent some things start to make sense, you acquire some wisdom and really fucking annoying when the people in the room [making decisions about theatre and productions] don’t get it

■ plea in a positive way that you communicate your issues effectively – having children might be one of those things; don’t want to fall into mentality of “you can’t understand if you don’t have children”; everyone who has children has different responses to looking after children

■ as a producer can’t be all supportive – got to draw line somewhere in terms of supporting performers with kids

■ its really hard `‘when I’m with kids and making work I’m not really present [with kids]’; ‘completely lost my focus when my first child was born’; ‘whole new interest in young theatre’; ‘difficult to reconcile pursuing obsession of theatre and dealing with kids’; choosing your compromises: if you’re absent from the club its really difficult to get decent work; parenthood changes way of working, changes schedules, shorter term projects, won’t tour

■ got balance wrong at first didn’t spend time with first child, and not repeating pattern with later kids; responding to own experience of parents as actors and how that created problems

■ difficulties around child protection / OFSTED issues if you look after a group of children not your own; do the children have to be in the same room as you form a legal perspective? When does looking after children become someone else’s business

■ Holyheld festival (near Falmouth) really well organized for kids; Young Vic has group on genesis network for directors with children

■ Northern stage in Newcastle developing projects with performers with children but tough with OFSTED / nursery issues etc

■ childcare pools suggested for artists across country; in Australia common for nanny to work with a company

ISSUE 3: BRANDING: HELP ME!

2011-02-07T03:07:00.000-08:00

Issue: Branding: Help Me!

Convener(s): Lucy Ockenden

Participants: Timothy Bird, Sarah Corbett, Rob Crouch, Chantal Guevara,Chris Grady, Kirstie McKenzie, Sasha Milavic Davies, Mark Smith,

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

We discovered that the primary issue was the need for a brand to express a truth about a person, company or product (show, celebrity, artist). However, one main difficulty for many ‘arts people’ is that they wear many hats or do different things.

Some felt that when audience or market identified consist of very different people then often more than one brand, or website, or business card, or outfit (suit/casual/manual) is required.

Others thought that it was important to embrace the idea of an artist or creative company expressing their diversity under one brand.

Sarah Corbett would like to do a further session on ‘personal marketing’.

Notes for successful branding:
- Identify client / audience
- Brand design should reflect what you are
- Important then to be the thing you claim to be - IE TRUTH
- Don’t get too hung up on strategy and design, when in fact ‘word of mouth’ and referral are more likely to garner new business etc

Current culture (not just in the arts) is to distrust the polymath (ie we all want the kidney stone specialist to do the op rather than a generalist surgeon. Are people scared or threatened by polymaths?

However, all agreed that cross-fertilisation, integration and collaboration are of key importance to creativity. This makes life difficult given that we have also noted that polymaths are not necessarily trusted.

Conclusion – be brave, true to yourself, and if you are a polymath – admit it and hang in there. The world will realize it needs us!!! (hopefully…)

Secondary discussion

People came and went, but we also finished by discussing how some ‘successful brands’ (ie they make money) are not necessarily successful in their implementation and in behaving in an ethical way towards the people who enable their success. This reflects one of the principal drawbacks of the capitalist world.

ISSUE 4: WHERE THE HELL DO WE BEGIN? THE GRADUATE DREAM

2011-02-07T03:05:00.000-08:00

Issue: Where the hell do we begin? The Graduate Dream

Convener(s): Pat Ashe

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

This is just a list of what happened as it happened. It may not make sense.
• Grad jobs/internships – can you afford to work for free/ Are unpaid internships worth it/
• Should you be told the ‘truth’ about jobs before you leave training/uni?
• University should be equipping you with the skills you lack (covering letters, taxes, cv writing) Student should be feedbacking, demanding change once they have left.
• How you do it? Working to live, finding time to make and create. Fitting your art around ‘real’ work.
• Support over funds.
• A graduate open space? Pooling resources among the grads. Meeting every one else who has just been let loose.
• Knocking on the big doors, pulling open the cracks.
• Why London? Create a new artistic community. A new place to make work rather than chasing those already here.
• Corporate connections – We can give you this, what you can give us? (theatre deli – example of strong connections to companies)
• Grab it. Living choices/ licensed squats – live for cheap.
• Sweet talk the council/local businesses – make them look good to get what you want. Connect the people.
• Drama school resentment – not teaching the basics.
• Are we lazy? Ask for it, don’t wait for it.
• ‘Know what you don’t know’
• Admit what you don’t know, ask for that help.
• Don’t wait to be told you are good enough. Accept you are good enough.
• Feedback on your ideas with each other, share.
• The amount of freedom is overwhelming. Be liberated. You’re free. Focus on the positive, just go for it. Try, approach everyone. Stand on your own two feet.
• The freedom challenge, spoon-feed vs. challenge in education.
• Failure. Learning, embracing. A richer experience is fail more? Opens more spaces and avenues in your work. Danger making a better show?
• The scratch model? Whats wrong with being unfinished. Why say sorry?
• The pressure to make work straight away. 1 year before next flood of grads.
• Process is important at the start of your career. Make some shit work.
• Young companies, are we too easy on them? Looking at their possible future work over their current work.
• The link from maker to audience, ask a producer now, don’t wait 10 years to do it.
• How important is the spectator in new work/the reason for creation?

That was it briefly.

ISSUE 5: HOW TO GET IN THE INDUSTRY AS A FOREIGN ACTOR

2011-02-07T02:59:00.001-08:00

Issue: How to get in the industry as a foreign actor

Convener(s): Jean Paul Dal Monte

Participants:

Monica Nappo
Claire Thill
Martin Parr
Shuna Snow
Steven

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

- Find an Agent
- Sell your “diversity” your “Foreignness” as an asset not competing for british roles
- Try to break, to breach the rigidity of the cliché’ of Italian, French etc. giving the double choice between the stereotype and the “foreign” but versatile type of actor
- If the market is still and there are no funds, better do something on your own better than stay waiting. For example, that’s what many actors do in Italy.
- If you have your agent in your own country, it’s useful asking him for links and connections with UK agents

ISSUE 6: HOW DO WE KEEP THEATRES AND ARTS CENTRES IN DARLINGTON AND BARNET OPEN?

2011-02-07T02:57:00.000-08:00

Issue: How do we keep theatres and arts centres in Darlington and Barnet open…

Convener(s): Mhora

Participants: Kerry, Holly, Ella, Gary, Mark, Caroline, David, David, Dan, Jenny, Lynn… and more

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

Lively discussion with Arts Depot in Barnet, Arts Centre in Darlington, and Stratford Circus in Newham - all facing cuts from local authorities/London Councils (in London) and reductions in ACE funding

Also contributions and thoughts from BAC, Bradford, Royal & Derngate, Tricycle, Riverside…

Keeping open in the short term…

• Politicians – national and local - need to be onside – when they’re not its VERY hard
• Board has to be committed and strong
• Harness community and local support as advocates to local politicians
• Organisation needs to be planning how to remodel the business – for any eventuality
• Negotiate time to manage transition – do we have more time in London following judicial view of London Councils?

• Keep looking to the future – tell people about your vision and open the doors
• Harness the energy of the local people who love you
• You’re their arts centre in their community
• Don’t be afraid of the Big Society
• Where arts centre/arts service is local authority run – be ready to use your ‘right to challenge’ (Localism Bill) – could this happen in Bradford

• Necessity is the mother of invention…
• Change mindset
• Change the language – investment not subsidy
• Become more politically engaged
• Run ‘I love my arts centre’ campaigns

Keeping open in the medium to long term…

Treat the loss of funds like a project – ask who you can work with in partnership for the next 4-5 years – survival doesn’t have to be about mergers and takeovers

Reinventing the business model and building local political and community relationships and partnerships – it took Royal & Derngate a year to do this

Become fashionable – build the venue up as a destination

If your venue allows find tenants that help to pay overheads

Build up endowments/buy buildings and run them commercially (Live Theatre, Newcastle)/bequests programmes

Become a provider of other services - run other arts and cultural buildings/bring other services into the building – community services/libraries

See if we can create corporate philanthropy models such as SESC’s in Brazil, where local businesses receive tax benefits from putting money into local arts centres (but these are complex)

Get involved with neighbourhood forums – could be able to access Community Infrastructure Levy funds in future

Keep a hold of your vision

ISSUE 7: DR THEATRE: THEATRE ARTS AND THE HEALING ARTS: POSSIBILITIES AND STUFF TO DISCUSS

2011-02-07T02:53:00.000-08:00

Issue: Dr Theatre: Theatre Arts and the Healing Arts: Possibilities and Stuff to Discuss

Convener(s): Steven Whinnery—typed up by Kath Burlinson

Participants: Steve, Kath, Deirdre McLaughlin, Imogen Crouch-Hyde, Anna Porubcansky, Ewan Downie, John Hale, Louise Platt, Lewis Barfoot, Nicholas McInerny, El Heidingsfeld, Persephone, Theresa Feliz, Peta Cooke, Jamie Wood, Chris Grady

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:
Steven began by asking each of us in the circle at that time to introduce ourselves and say what we do/why we were drawn to discuss the question. The following is a brief and incomplete summary of what people said:
Steven—a mask maker and actor—mentioned the stigma attached to living on benefits and having clinical depression, also currently studying bodywork including Feldenkrais
Kath—theatre maker/director/actor, interested in creating transformative theatre, what makes a sacred event, also not separating, but integrating
Louise—drama therapist, professional connection between theatre and healing arts
John—works in psychology as well as theatre
Deidre—doing Ph.D at central, also actor/director/massage therapist. Wants to know how to circumvent the stigma around ‘healing arts’/therapy
Imogen—graduating soon from Central and concerned with survival issues—how to make a career in theatre bring in an income
Lewis—experience of healing in different contexts—medical and artistic—wanting to share the humanity
Percy—involved in creating piece about extinction/ecological needs/climate and relationship with non-human world
Theresa—nutritional and massage therapist—childhood experience on commune in India
Anna—involved in theatre in Poland and mentioned a festival called the ‘Brave’ festival (?)
Ewan—has worked for some years with Song of the Goat—interested in how much we can give to each other and audience—how do we make transformative theatre? And how do we build an audience for that?
Jamie—involved in devising and collaborative processes—can be a healing place if it comes from the right place—interested in how to take that knowledge into working with people who are not actors

Nick McInerny joined group, asked about duty of care when getting into deeper territory psychologically/emotionally, both for participants and audience. Some discussion of the dangers of not having appropriate structures in place, led on to recognition that conventional theatre too does not acknowledge the intimacy (false or genuine) that occurs within casts and the mourning/grieving/loss when a show ends. Led to discussion of ritual as structure and perhaps greater need for this.

Interesting how discussion that began as quite heart-based then went into a territory more governed by fear. Nick asked what strategies people have for creating safe spaces etc. Kath said starting with the self is all she can do—monitoring her own psychophysical responses moment by moment and being vigilant about doing her work before working with others. Lewis spoke about the importance of honouring what is, and spoke of her experience both with herself and Ewan and their audience in a piece they made recently about torture. The idea of really taking responsibility for your own experience was mentioned.

There was a discussion about what honesty is, or whether Ewan’s phrase ‘honest commitment’ is a better way to approach the issue. John and Nick spoke of the complexities of the issue, our capacity for self-deception, many stories and plays being based on different kinds of delusion.

We also spoke about audiences, how to encourage our audiences into the ‘right’ space—a space of openness. Kath also spoke about how you never know who is in the audience or how they will respond—transformative for one may be dull as ditchwater for another. A reminder came about the importance of play and playfulness. Nick spoke about immersive theatre and Ewan mentioned an example involving a performer night after night inviting an audience member to come and dance with him—no-one ever did until one night when a man stood up and shouted that he was from Iran, where dancing is illegal, and YES, he was going to come up and dance.

Action:
We agreed to create an e-group to continue these discussions and to perhaps provide a supportive context for those of us interested in these questions. Kath agreed to do the admin!

To Louise Platt: fellow dramatherapist would like to meet you!

ISSUE 8: SINGING OFF KEY

2011-02-07T02:52:00.000-08:00

Issue: Singing off key: the beauty of failure

Convener(s): Karin Verbruggen, David Cottis

Participants: Ben C, Zoe C, Fiona D, Tom M, Emma F,
Mike K, Tom B, Rhiannon, Laura, Alicia R, Francesca, Jocelyn C, Hugh H, Rena Arora, Sue Frumin.

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

Two distinct areas of failure were discussed – the failure of an individual project, or aspects of an individual project, and the sense of failure in general in one’s career.

It was generally agreed that it is necessary to fail, sometimes many times, in order to produce anything worthwhile.

Karin discussed a piece of work she is working on and will/could incorporate intentional failure. Nick made a distinction between work that you generate yourself that doesn’t work, but that you learn something from, and something that you’re engaged to do. Ben mentioned a production of ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ he’d directed, where he hadn’t been happy with the child actors, and had learnt important things about casting.

Tom talked about the idea of creating a piece of work that was intended to fail, and asked whether this was possibly a cop-out. It was argued that, so long as you produce work with integrity, it can’t be defined as a failure.

We discussed the importance of research and development before putting work in front of an audience, and being selective about the people you work with. Hugh pointed out that it’s possible to overdo this, to the point where you don’t work with anyone.

It was suggested that, with the current financial situation, the space to fail is disappearing. The idea of punk rock, where people were encouraged to ‘have a go’ was mentioned as an ideal.

People discussed ways in which we coped with the sense of individual failure – one female actor talked about self-belief, as something she’d learnt from Lee Simpson. Nick talked about the importance of mentors, and drew the analogy with sport, where people rely very much on their trainers. David discussed the idea of a ‘fanbase’, a group of people who appreciate you even when your work isn’t going well. People talked about different things they did outside the theatre, especially physical things like dancing. Karin discussed an exercise she’d done where she was encouraged to have an imaginary dialogue about her work with an artist she admired. A female actor mentioned a similar exercise – ‘Come into the room as someone you admire.’

Hugh argued that the idea that ‘talent will out’ is quite dangerous – that it is possible to produce good work, to work hard, and still not to be successful. He said that failure should be thought of as the norm – that to succeed is the exception. Nick said that, for people in the theatre, rejection was the default situation.

We discussed whether it was necessarily wrong to acknowledge that people have strengths and weaknesses, and that people can improve through realizing this themselves. It was argued that not every piece of work is for everyone, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

It was partially agreed that, because of the live nature of theatre, there’s little chance of being posthumously recognised like van Gogh, and this was something we had to live with.

Towards the end of the session, a new participant said that he found the idea of failure hard to understand, and that it was possibly more helpful to talk about being in some way ‘off-balance’. He said that, far from being a bad state, this was actually the human condition, and that we shouldn’t worry about it. He rejected the idea of ‘homeo-stasis’ and said that we should rather think of ‘homeo-dynamics’, as its in the nature of human beings to be constantly changing and seeking new things.

It was generally agreed that this was a good note on which to end – the idea that there’s no such thing as failure, and that, even if there is, it isn’t a bad thing. It was also generally agreed that, ironically enough, it had

ISSUE 9: WHO WILL STUDY THE ARTS AT SCHOOL NOW THAT THE ENGLISH BACCALAUREATE IS A SUCCESS?

2011-02-07T02:35:00.000-08:00

Issue: Who Will Study the Arts at Scholl now that the English Baccalreureate is success

Convener(s): Stuart Lock

Participants:
Regina,
Henrietta,
Keely,
Stuart
Eleanor,
Max,
Gemma
Grainne

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:
The Baccaleareate consists of a narrow set of subjects and schools will be measured based on the performance of their students in the following Mathematics English Science a language and a humanities subject. Success in music and drama will not be measured. Concerns were:

• Will Music and Drama teachers lose their jobs? What are the implications further down the line?

• The group consensus was that Gove’s imposition on schools is bad for the child’s education and development.

We discussed values.
Values are forced on young people.
Parents may place more value on subjects that are perceived as having economic potential especially as students will leave university with a great deal of debt.
What does it say to young people about the decisions they make?

Value of creativity
Entrepreneurial skills are highly prized. There is a growth industry in digital and creative arts in this country. We therefore felt that the creative arts should be taught in schools. Also we discussed how the arts develop the child as a person. The arts should be valued in general. We discussed that fact that people see it as a luxury and an activity that people could do in their spare time.

We discussed the fact that school should try to create conditions in which children will flourish. The narrow band of subjects will ensure that a lot of people who are currently succeeding may well now fail.

Solutions
How can schools teach within these constraints?

Teachers must be more subversive. Perhaps there is more buy in from schools. What dominates the thinking? Perhaps a broader view of creativity is required ie in mathematics. We need to show them the benefits. How is it measured? Can we think of Performance rather than theatre when we consider creativity? Theatre is perhaps a little antiquated whereas we live in a performative society where people present themselves a great deal through social networking sites
and through digital media. Perhaps this needs to be embraced across school.

Names we mentioned:
Mark Prenski – he has written about how out dated our tests are. We should not be testing knowledge, but how to research it and apply it.

Sal: creativity through mathematics.

ISSUE 10: MOTLEY THEATRE DESIGN COURSE IS CLOSING DOWN: WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

2011-02-07T02:33:00.000-08:00

Issue: Motley Theatre Design Course is closing down: what are we going to do about it?

Convener(s): Ellan

Participants: various

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

What can we do in the short term?
- express support, spread the word, join the facebook group and visit the website, add a testimonial – the alumni are collecting testimonials from directors, producers, etc who’ve worked with alumni, as well as alumni themselves.

Comments:
The course has to maintain its individuality
Be open to anyone.
Value the individual artist
Could it be run in the same way the Birkbeck Course is set up?
Be part of a university but not have to have grades and assessments? Can theatre challenge the current academic set-up? – probably not! A former student of the Drama Centre talked about what happened when that was absorbed into an institution – tutors lost control, were forcibly retired, course seems to have changed for the worse, less rigorous, less involved with the industry?
Alison and Ashley have taken it to this level, now someone else needs to step up and take it forward to the next level, find a new model for running it while keeping the essential ethos.

Could we keep the studio open next year even if the course isn’t running? Keep it as a workshop, drop-in studio, ex-students etc can come in and work, keep the space and the Motley community alive even if the course is lying fallow for a year. A space for peer mentoring.
We could maintain the energy and the name this way, but it still needs leader(s).
Keep the space going, and the leadership will emerge eventually – the will is there.

At the moment there is no one specific crisis which we can address, more a combination of circumstances, so it’s difficult to know how to progress – hopefully the situation will become clearer once the trustees have had their meeting; and hopefully at that meeting they’ll be impressed by the huge amount of support for Motley – facebook group etc..
A clear public statement needs to be made.

The SBTD – are they aware? Are they doing anything about this?
What about the SOLT? They have money, they support young producers via the Stage 1 bursary, might they be able to help?

This is not simply a funding issue – who will step into Ali and Ash’s shoes?

Don’t have to look at it as a crisis – it’s an opportunity to restructure, and solve some of the problems that Motley’s had.

We need to value vocational training more.

Motley is special because of the amount of skill-sharing from industry practitioners – if it closes, there’s nothing else like it to replace it; many of the tutors work for free, many only teach at Motley; if it closes, they’ll all carry on designing etc, they won’t be passing their skills on to designers at other institutions.

Why doesn’t the industry engage more with what it wants from new talent?

Many educational institutions aren’t engaging with the industry they’re supposed to be training people for.

Is Motley overburdened with the weight of its past? Do we need to be more cold and unsentimental? - but perhaps that’s what makes it different, why it hasn’t been subverted and compromised and turned into just another design course.

Re-consider the model of Motley – but who’s going to lead that process?

If the Motley manifesto is changed, it becomes just another design course; there are already more designers entering the profession than there are jobs for them.

What is it that is unique about Motley?:
- approach to text, different from many other places, ability to have the conversation with the director, think like a director..
- all teachers are practicing professionals first, teachers second
- industry links
- graduate employment record
- size
- independence
- non-academic entry criteria, un-graded, non-accredited

Part of the ethos of Motley is giving: tutors give their time for free, friends of Motley donate books, equipment etc – will the closure of Motley affect the spirit of giving, of philanthropy within the industry?

Is it wrong to expect those who run the course to juggle that with their careers?
Could a better balance be created between the two things? If the course leaders were paid more, and could afford to spend more time on the course? More money for an administrator?

Directors are able to use Motley projects as R&D periods for their own work, in a similar way to drama schools and directing courses.

The current model doesn’t work, it’s unsustainable.

If Motley is discontinued as a training institution, could it continue in some other form, perhaps as a bursary or internship with a company or a designer? Something like Alison’s at Stoke – the only thing like that that still exists is the RSC internship scheme, there should be more training schemes that offer opportunities for graduate designers to learn on the job.

The industry needs to take more responsibility for the training of young designers.

We should also celebrate the training that it gives you to go on and do other things outside of the theatre industry – alumni say the skills and experience they get from Motley benefit them for the rest of their lives.

Clarity, communication: What is the problem? What does Motley NEED?
Why does the industry still need Motley? What is its USP? What needs to change and what needs to be maintained?
How can it change with the times, as the industry changes?

What will the industry lose if Motley closes?

Part of what’s special about it is that it has a sort of ‘underground’ feel, but that’s also part of the problem.

Keep some form of momentum or it will die – if it’s quiet for even a short time, it’ll lose its place in the industry – try to maintain the space and the community in some form.

The effects of Motley closing won’t be felt now, but five or ten years hence when there are no new Motley designers coming fresh into the industry.

Rather than being absorbed into an academic institute, could Motley become part of a theatre? Somewhere that has money, space, an administrative framework to run the course while the teachers get on with teaching. Apparently there was some conversation about this with the National, but they pulled out when they realised they weren’t likely to make any money from it. Greedy – they’re subsidised, they’re our NATIONAL THEATRE – don’t they have a duty to nurture young artists without trying to make money out of them?! Someone suggested the Old Vic – apparently they have lots of money, and they already run the new voices scheme, so have an interest in developing emerging artists.

Need to work out who would benefit from having Motley in their building…

ISSUE 11: BIG PLAYS. BIG CASTS. WHERE HAVE THEY GONE?

2011-02-07T02:31:00.000-08:00

Issue: Big Plays. Big Casts. Where have they gone?

Convener(s): Daniel Goldman

Participants:
Rose Biggin, Nicola Stanhope, Sarah Punshon Jen Toksvig, Daniel Bye, Adam Barnard, Antonio Ferrara, Jonathan Holloway, Roddy Gauld, David Luff, Matt Trueman, Martin Parr, Tommy Lexen, Paschate Straiton, Clhloe Dechery, Rhiannon A, Alex Jamieson, Amber massie-Blomfield, Lise Marker, Malken Bruun-Aanodt, Eleanor Lloyd, tThomas Eccleshare, Alan Sharpinton, Lucy Oliver Harrison

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

Questions that arose… And answers

Where is large scale theatre happening?

Schools, TV, Community, Drama School, Am Dram, West End, Major Subsidised Theatres (RSC/National/Globe)

Why is there no funding?

Personnel costs to high. Spaces to small to balance budgets. Too risky an investment. Before, lets say in Shakespeare’s time, productions were supported by guilds… not so anymore… (Corporate Sponsors???)

How big is big?

8 or 12 or 20 or 100 actors in an aircraft hangar.

Where do we put these big plays? Where are the spaces?

Oudoors. Major theatres. West End. West End has 64 theatre makers on the payroll. Wicked has 35+ etc.

Small spaces make it difficult to work at a large scale.

Would more money mean bigger plays?

Is there a way of making large scale work without exploiting professional theatre makers?

Community casts/ Working with amateurs. Working with young people. Its important to give back to/care for these “volunteers”. Training. Sharing. Support etc.

Big productions work. They travel the world. But how do you sell them/sell the vision?

Should theatres support large scale new writing?

How do you move beyond the fringe when making big work.

Do playwrights want to write big plays?

Why do we need/love big plays with big casts?

Some stories require a big cast for the telling. Big is beautiful.

Should anyone be working for free? Should we entertain the notion of a fringe minimum salary?

Generally, being paid is better than not but the establishment of an fringe minimum (under the living wage) might do more damage. Let each company offer the most it can offer in the given circumstances.

How do we get corporates/angels supporting large scale work/any work?

Some had tried and found it very difficult.

Thoughts to making big theatre with big casts doable and easier.

1) Don’t work full time hours - rehearse part time for longer
2) Be savvy
3) Co-productions (become a bigger fish)
4) Raise your profile
5) Rep system ? (advantages – training, familiarity vs disadvantage – quality (sometimes)
6) New funding means – Complimentary activities (nightclub/bar/restaurant/corporate/teaching etc.)
7) Adopt an actor schemes
8) Long term planning
9) Good quality work!
10) Give give give
11) Sell the process
12) Don’t be so precious about your artistic soul
13) Bar splits – engineer contracts with theatres in your favour
14) Find your own space – too expensive and limiting to rent theatre spaces
15) Higher ticket prices (value of our theatre?)
16) More versatility
17) The 40/45 hour week. If you’re paying equity rates, get the most out of your actors. If they’re doing 20 hours of shows a week. Use them for the other 25!
18) Keep it real – you don’t start a start up business with 20 people… you grow into a company of twenty
19) Find an angel ☺

ISSUE 12: PRACTICAL COMPOSITION

2011-02-07T02:28:00.000-08:00

Issue: Practical composition

Convener(s): Lizzy Westcott

Participants: Andrew Scullin, Simon Pollard, Mary O’Connor, Suzy Almond

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

Lizzy called for suggestions about the practicalities of composition for musical theatre. How to progress if you hit a wall. Mary talked about Dalcrose Eurythmics, a fairly abstract method which helps to surrender the constraints and rules of standard composition, embracing ‘mistakes’ as they do not matter in the journey, as long as you reach your destination.

T.E.D. Talks and Bobby Macferrin sound as if they are singing from the same hymn sheet.

Kodaly. Hand gestures and forgetting the standard A-G scale. Read ‘Dramatic notes’ By Neil Brand.

Simon uses music as inspiration before starting work on a piece. Helps to channel creativity. Music is important even in ‘Non-Musical’ productions.

Andrew suggested to not fear completing an idea which you feel is bad or trite as this may be what the other parties are looking for. Most creative types are their own worst critic.

An actress popped up and mentioned a more ‘found sounds’ process, allowing the performers to become one with the music. Choreographer also talked about creating the dance and the music in tandem. This could result in a more powerful piece.

Important not to feel like a fraud if you have no traditional training. The confidence in your music is what counts. Don’t looked at people who are sight reading as more capable. Their rules are also their shackles. Without rules, there are more options, right or wrong.

Don’t get too clever. A flourish is nice but sometimes entirely unnecessary. There’s a lot to be said for simplicity. If your cast aren’t alienated, this will result in quicker understanding of the music = better performance.

Alex’s suggestion of using a musical theatre idea in a gig setting, therefore turning the tables somewhat.

Suzy added her lack of knowledge of her instrument is actually more freeing, allowing her scope to play with the words and is not a distraction. Followed up by a group appreciation imperfection. Judi Dench, Lee Marvin, Woody Allen.

Let’s create an opera performed by people who ‘can’t’ sing.

ISSUE 13: HOW CAN WE MAKE THE PROCESS OF TOUR-BOOKING BETTER FOR ARTISTS AND COMPANIES?

2011-02-07T02:25:00.000-08:00

Issue: How can we make the process of tour-booking better for artists and companies?

Convener(s): Simon Day

Participants: `Martin McLean, Jorgen Tjon, Kate Hall, Thursa, Fionn Gill, Olga Petrakova, Katie Roberst, Matthew Austin, Rachel Brisco, Lucy Oliver-Harnsen, Bill Bankes-Jones, Simon Pittman, Marie Juliet, Joey Morse, Liz Chen, Zane Herma, Eleanor Klidingfield, Jo Crowley, Katie Duffy, Flavia Fraser-Cannon, Alfie Massey, Emma Dedkin, Simon Bedford and others

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

Question has come about for me after experience of booking a regional tour following a successful Edinburgh. Although our small company (The Plasticine Men) have a good outcome, I found the process baffling. Why was so much work being duplicated? How are you supposed to conduct so many conversations at once and come up with a coherent schedule at the end of it? I thought that there must surely be a better way to do things…

It quickly became apparent that there were broadly three types of people represented in the discussion. Small companies relatively inexperienced at booking tours, experienced producers/organisations working with more established companies, and directors/programmers of venues.

The main thrust identified that the building of relationships was key, and that effective tours are many months, sometimes years in the planning, with communication between the venues and the companies/producers that they trust.

The question for me then moved on to whether small companies starting out with an ambition to tour, and without those relationships in place, should essentially aspire to find someone with that track-record to work with. The impassioned response from those people (I’ll call them ‘producers’ as a catch all term for now) was an unequivocal ‘NO!’. All the producers were forthright in recognizing the value of their own experience and knowledge, and in expressing a genuine willingness to share it with those individuals and companies who displayed the initiative to ask for it; it was offered that they share a responsibility, even an obligation, to do so, and underlined that there really wasn’t a right way and a wrong way. Examples were given of where this may have happened, through various ad hoc relationships and mentoring opportunities, or specific regional initiatives for instance.

Where certain regions had formal initiatives that linked venues’ programming, it was put that all venues operate within ‘invisible’ structures of recommendations. The model of co-commission, or associate venues was also put forward as a good way to facilitate touring opportunities after Edinburgh.

The discussion concluded with those individuals professing to possess valuable knowledge and experience that they would be willing to share, providing their contact details so that I could get back to them if I decided to move ahead with a plan to create a resource of some kind.

Other points raised/discussed

There was some discussion around the merits of a web-based resource to enable emerging companies to identify and communicate with venues, with many points well made on either side of the argument:

FOR AGAINST
Each new ‘intake’ of aspiring companies essentially duplicate eachother’s work every year in building their own databases. Company’s/producers may be protective of information that they’ve put a lot of effort in to collate.
Much of the information that needs to be gathered is public-domain, just not all in one place. The information is already out there, on the web and in the Performing Artists’ Yearbook.
A system akin to universities clearing system could help smaller companies fill available slots. This may also help communication when the ‘merry go round’ of bookings is set in motion where a company bails on one London fringe venue in favour of another one, and leaves a gap that should be filled. Web resources are only as useful as how much they’re used, and need extensive maintenance.
Theatre is lagging behind a little in comparison to say, music industry, in utilising potential of web and information systems. Information, systems etc. can never replace the importance of relationship building.
Resource could be a logistical tool to help rather than an attempt to replace the building of relationships.
A central resource could be very useful for producers having to find the right venues for groups with specific access requirements.
In globalised world, resource could offer global perspective for international touring.

• Defining WHY you want to tour to a particular venue is crucial.
• Questions were asked of what may be learned from models and structures of other countries. Consensus seemed to be that there were as many approaches as there are countries, and that whatever happens, we shouldn’t go the way of the Americans!
• It was put that although funding cuts’ affect on the key relationships and programming was still an unknown quantity, that already venues may be seen to be becoming more risk averse, and reluctant to offer favourable deals.

ISSUE 14: I'M A PRODUCER. DO YOU HAVE SOMETHING YOU WANT ME TO PRODUCE?

2011-02-04T08:46:00.000-08:00

Issue: I’m a producer. Do you have something you want me to produce?

Convener(s): Paul Cabrelli

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

Paul Cabrelli
pcabrelli@gmail.com
07791 184025

Also: Connecting producers and projects generally
Ed Jaspers
www.teaseltheatre.co.uk
ed@teaseltheatre.co.uk

Useful resources: www.producershub.com
info@nordicnomad.com
Tango Web
Old Vic
SOLT – Society of London Theatres
BAC – young producers network
MA or MFA in Producing
Anthony Nielson “The Cencors”
JMK
Artsjobs
Artshub
FUEL
High Tide
Arts Admin
“China Plate” in the Midlands
Meetup.com

Problems with Producers:

1 You feel creatively threatened
2 Only interested in money-making (disputed by the producers present).
3 Should producers be in at the start of a project or in later (most producers want to be involved from the start). Some producers want to do just the “nuts and bolts”; others wand creative involvement.
4

Producers can help you by:

1 Developing an “arts culture” and theatre on a wider scale.
2 Helping you to take a risk.
3 Being a strategist.
4 Being an administrator.
5 Being a project manager.
6 Facilitating artistic development.
7 Most producers do not want to simply find the money.
8 Being a mentor and partner
9 Being a spokesperson for the audience.
10 Providing networking opportunities.

Is being a producer creative?

1 Can help you to see the potential of the work.
2 Can help you stretch the work.
3 Can help by embracing the artistic vision.
4 Can help by creating the environment to make everyone look better.
5 Can help by responding and building.
6 Putting “fuel in the tank”.
7

Questions:

1 Do producers have to be passionate about their project?
2 What is the relationship between directors and producers?
3 Are producers interested in process or product?
4 Is anybody interested in international collaboration?
5 Most producers want to see the show not a video of it.
6 Should you stay in London or go to the provinces? Very London-centric, increased vibrancy in regions

ISSUE 15: INTERNATIONAL CRISIS / THE WHITEST ROOM

2011-02-04T08:43:00.000-08:00

Issue: International Crisis/ The Whitest Room

Convener(s): Dominic Campbell

Participants: About 12 people came and went over the course of 2hours – (add your name please I couldn’t interrupt the conversational flow to gather them)

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

I feel slightly inadequate to the task of representing this conversation affectively, so if you passed through or contributed to this dialogue please add!!!

It started slowly with four people explaining what it was about the phrase “International Crisis/The Whitest Room” that attracted us to this particular corner of the room;
• A project that was setting out to be global and local
• Curiosity about the privilege of a position that allows us to consider ourselves in a crisis. A crisis of privilege/privileged crisis
• Considerations of culture’s relationship to race, power, class, globalism, environmentalism
• A curiosity about the changing nature of Global dynamics, and the inadequacy of our own education or sources of reference, in facilitating our ability to hold multiple cultural perspectives in equal value.

Underpinning these were concerns about the role, strategy, function, language (and ability to refute these) of a performance/theatre artist. And concerns about the ability of p/t artists to engage people, or with technology, institutions, Corporate entity, State, educational systems, and media.

(ok breathe, now do you understand why I’m challenged by the recorder’s task?)

From here the conversation blossomed touching on;
The aspirations that motivate individual engagement with performance or theatre, the opportunity to transmit this to a wide population
Fluid’s podcast theatre for personal moments establishing personal but shared theatre (or is this “theatre”? or an emergent form?)
The democratic nature of Twitter’s offer to establish communities of interest cf Facebook’s offer of competitive allegiance.
The use of tech, the headspace it creates or is establishing, the difference between this mental space and the mental space used in creating performance, the difference between online and “meatspace” exchange, limits and values of both.
“Appointment theater” - “calls me into the space for special time/ritual”. “Supplies my need for ritual”.
Live theatre enables us to practice being together, enables us to practice conversing.
Live theatre as means to sustain purely social relationships cf a social relationship based on trade or exchange or vs the promotion of competitive individualism.

London as a cultural roundabout where non-UK formed cultures meet leading to international exchange (eg Indian and African continent artists meeting in London then take work to each others locales)
The role of p/t artists in the migration across sectors, borders and mindsets of knowledge, assumptions, ideas and attitudes.
The opportunity of non UK artists to inform the solution to the UK’s Crisis
This is 2011 not 1977 – it’s not the same crisis and we blind ourselves seeing it though that optic – it is international, the same cuts strategy apparent in several countries, its driver is globalised incorporation not the politics of nation states.
Economic cuts to the arts makes no economic sense so what sense does it make? or are our leaders none too clever?
Did a decade of State support for arts and State encouragement of participation infantalise artists?
Should artists assume more responsibility, how?

Are existing structures fracturing and therefore is an opportunity opening to establish new ones?, once the old one’s clear.
A need to hold physical space – eg student temporary occupation of colleges acted as magnets for intellectual exchange that is sustained online
The reverse model – Tea Party starts as Twitter conversation then physical manifestation
Why do people March? – the physical manifestations of protest – (a) movement – “change” made literal, metaphor.
The inverse form of protest – standing still in a place that’s always moving – “a jolt to reality”
“Mirrored” or “twinned” demonstration – simultaneously in two physical spaces (plus online) for real time demonstrations of solidarity and awareness and visibility

The industrialization of the theatre sector in last decade, matched by failure to change the position of the artist. Increase in management or arts not payment to or value rating of artist. Reflective of the “Big Society”?
In 1980’ s access to becoming an artist was possible through unofficial support structures (eg Unemployment benefit), later through University grants and loans, and now…..?
How do we maintain an opportunity to transmit the values of being able to make theatre to a wide population of potential artists (regardless of our attitude to the work they make)
The challenges that come with being aware of “the connection between Boadroom conversations and stepping onto the stage” – how few artists occupy these positions, being the only artist in the Boardroom, retaining or reclaiming one’s own language in this context, the need for artists to be part of this conversation and not exclude themselves

“A silence on March 30th for those voices that will be stilled”.

Crisis as:
an opportunity to clarify your commitment and that of others,
to bond in opposition,
to explore or establish an economy that can facilitate this.
A conscious strategy to avoid producing “serving the master” relationships in an economy that supports creation.
The tendency of this to emerge from crowd sourcing funding models, which replicate patronage
Failure or difficulty in the position of a state arts council to speak to power

UK culture can be understood as fundamentally bi-polar (left/right – high/low) or oppositional (right-wrong) and is based on a word alphabet. Chinese culture based on communicating through pictogram and hieroglyph embraces a greater degree of interpretation (eg “ a bit more right than entirely wrong”). Is this perhaps enabling of what seems to us a (creative?) fuzziness, a different (to us) relationship between power and responsibility and the relationship between individual creativity and embrace by the mass?
Is China not competing with US, just in the process of doing something completely different? Returning to the fuzziness of pre Enlightenment power dynamics?
Is this mindset (new to us) valuable (to us)
What can we learn from this that is valuable and are we capable of unlearning ourselves to partake of this exchange.

And much much more

ISSUE 16: MAKING WORK THAT'S A BIT TABOO, A LITTLE BIT NAUGHTY

2011-02-04T08:41:00.000-08:00

Issue: Making work that’s a bit taboo, a little bit naughty

Convener(s): Emma Deakin

Participants: Emma, Jamie, Louie, Kate, Paul, Mary, Allen… and a few more I think…

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

Taboo subjects discussed such as;
Religion, War, Terrorism, Pedophilia, Miscarriage, Menopause, loads and loads…

It seems that TV and film can address these issues ‘easier’ than theatre can, why? Comedians also are another example, they very rarely shy away from taboo!
Why is this kind of work missing in our theatres at the moment, historically theatre has always been there to challenge and present taboos to their audience. However there seems to be little being made around the taboo subjects that matter to us. Theatre has a place to talk about what is not talked about!
Venue’s not always willing to touch it as its too risky?? Do they feel there is a danger in selling/marketing this kind of work to their audiences? They need to be more commercially viable, this means less risk taking?

About half way through the session we talked about how it was interesting that there were only three of us sitting here talking about this…hmmm…why? …Then a few more people showed up and the session was on its second wave! ☺

Talked about Lisa’s show (No Idea), which was edgy on disability and challenging but honest telling it like it is… this level of honesty can manage to lessen the ‘taboo’

COMEDY within the naughty/taboo subjects. Getting an audience to laugh when they don’t think they should be, also lessens the taboo, keeps it real.

Knowing why you want to tell the story & address this subject material is the most important thing.
TRUTH
HONESTY
Using verbatim. The honesty in this is gold - and often you couldn’t write it!
No matter what the subject material, when you give the audience credit & intelligence, and approach them and yourself with truth and honesty then the work can become something very special.

Dangers or pitfalls that may be encountered when making work that’s taboo or issue based;
When the person/people making it are too close to the subject material OR when the makers are not informed enough about the subject material, too distant
The work being self indulgent
The work turning into a lecture, being didactic
Creating a piece that is a ‘carbon copy’ of what the REAL issues are. Work that begins to go somewhere and is then shying away.

Action: I (Emma) am going to start developing the piece which was the inspiration of this session and will contact those (who agreed and gave email addresses) with invitations to work in progress and/or writing to get feedback throughout the process ☺
If anyone else was at this session and wants to get in touch to offer feedback about the work I am making please let me know – emma@shakyislestheatre.com
I would be very grateful to receive feedback throughout the making of this piece so that I don’t end up becoming a self indulgent wanker making it ;-)

ISSUE 17: I HAVE A BIG IDEA BUT I DON'T FEEL "BIG" ENOUGH TO MAKE IT HAPPEN...

2011-02-04T08:38:00.000-08:00

Issue: I have a big idea but I don’t feel “big” enough to make it happen…

Convener(s): Jennifer Lunn

Participants: Lindesay Mace, Keely Elis, Sue Frumin, Francesca H, Angela Clerkin, Chris Grady, Shakera Louise Ahad, Vanessa Smith, Ellan Parry, Peta Cooke, Sam Hoyle, Stella Duffy and others…

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:
I have a big idea… it goes a bit like this…

3 plays came my way. A new Norwegian play by a friend of mine which we had translated into English with help from the Norwegian Writers Guild, a short ten-minute play by a new writer which I am directing as part of a platform of new work and a play by Rebecca Prichard which was part of the Clean Break season “Charged” at the Soho.

All three plays look at sex trafficking or abduction of women.

There is also the material for an exhibition of photographs and interviews of Moldovan women who have been “rescued”.

The big idea is to create a theatre event/experience in a large space (somewhere like the old Arcola) where the three plays are performed over the evening, the exhibition is displayed and there is a chorus of women who are “the displaced and disenfranchised” and exist in the space perhaps having moments here and there, guiding the audience from space to space and performance to performance and also directing them to bits of the exhibition.

The problem is… I don’t know where to start and I don’t feel “big” enough for it… by which I mean I don’t feel I have enough of a name to get people attached and make it happen… I need some help…

Wonderful people came and gave me wonderful advice as follows…

Stella spoke about the birth of the chaosbaby project here last year and said
“Every time I ask someone for help – they say yes.”

Someone else said “I don’t feel patient enough for my big idea…” What if it takes years – can I keep up the momentum.

“If you build it they will come.” Keep putting it out there and people will strat getting involved or send people your way.

“Invite “bigwigs” to other stuff you’re doing and have a pack of info about your projects… interacting with someone at a piece of work is easier and shows that you’re doing it.

Word of mouth is a powerful thing.

What would make us feel “big enough”????? People knowing who we were when we phoned them up!!?? Can we just step up and be the people we want to be??

You need cheerleaders and sometimes you have to be your own cheerleader.

Focus on the things you don’t know so much about first and come back to the big creative idea once you’ve figured the tricky bits out. Think about the event management for a bit as a job. Think about how you would manage the event for someone else and do it that way. Invent a persona – pretend to be your own agent and then you don’t have to be “big” enough.

Get other people on board…

Amnesty International
Julie Bindel (Emma Humphries prize)
Ice and Fire Theatre Co.
The NIA project
The Womens Playhouse Trust (does it still have a space? Wapping?)

Do a charity night. With a reading of the play with big names. Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman.

Come the end of the session we have a list of emails of people who are interested in the project. Vanessa Smith who is interested in doing some Assistant producing has offered to volunteer some time to work through some plans, Stella Duffy has emailed Julie Bindel to put me in touch with her…

I may not feel “big” enough but together we are MASSIVE!!

If people are interested please contact me on Jennifer_lunn@hotmail.com

ISSUE 18: TRAINING DIRECTORS. IS IT POSSIBLE?

2011-02-04T08:35:00.000-08:00

Issue: Training directors. Is it possible?

Convener(s): Alex Thorpe

Participants: Birkbeck Cohort 8, Simon Pollard, Chris Tomlinson, Jo Mackie, Chelsea Walker, Sam Worboys, Renu Arora, Jamie Rocha Allan, Will Bourdillen, and others.

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

Why do people question how directors are trained and less often question any of the other disciplines?

Other disciplines need more apparent technical skills than a director. Ie ability to make model box.

What skills does a director actually need?

Why are we training? Filling in the gaps?

A director needs a huge amount of tools to direct. Can be frustrated for actors if youre not good enough. A director needs an understanding of how everyone in the room works.

Our job is to bring all those masters of their trade together.

Directing is the art of communication

Can directing be taught or is like teaching a writer sentence structure

Is it more a question of natural ability

Perhaps a problem is: there is no established/ proved methods of training directors

Main job of the director is to liberate the performer

Birkbeck (MFA Theatre Directing Course): On this course you are expected tp already be a director before you start

HOW MUCH TIME IS SPENT ACTUALLY WORKING WITH ACTORS AS PART OF A TRAINING. This was felt to be a very important aspect of training

At Mountview there are many opportunities to direct the in house productions. It’s a cumulative process- very much learning by directing.

A Birkbeck student said “ I don’t need the course to give me opportunities to direct. I create opportunities for myself. Many of us are also working on our own shows”

The issue of financial barriers in accessing post grad programmes was raised.

An example was given of being refused assistant directing positions in regional theatres as they were taken up with MA directing students from Birkbeck and Queen Mary.

Needing a posty grad qualification to get jobs is not a unique situation to theatre directing (Journalism, Sci, etc).

For an aspiring not studying an MA It is essential that you approach the right people. E.g. Don’t mass mail theatres, but carefully select the director that you are ACTUALLY interested in.

Emma Rice, Simon McBurrney learnt directing through un conventional avenues.

Not doing an MA gives you the freedom to choose who you wanted to work with. Creating your own training.

A community of directors was important as opposed to directors fighting each other. Genesis Programme (Young Vic)

There are other avenues into directing eg workshop leading, education…

Directors employing new directors often respond to the right person for the right job.

Training is ab out knowing what you need to learn

Post grad training is a new approach to training directors. Directors used to come through other routes eg DSM.

Training directors were asked if that was the right route for them- YES.

Post Grads need more opportunities to direct

You need that tool box on the first day of rehearsals. A slightly academic approach can be useful

How do you train a group of directors? You only need one director- Most courses you break out and work solo before coming together to talk

Advanced theater Practice at CSSD: Collaborating with all the different theatre makers gave them a strong understanding of what everyone does

LEARNING BY ASSISTING: Only useful if you only get to apply what you’ve observed. Was disputed and said its good to learn different approaches.

Actor come director opens as many doors as formal training

Never stop learning even if you have trained formally

MFA marked on knowledge of what you have learnt. Is peer assessed.

Learning by just doing. A group of trusted peers can help you improve.

Worth remembering the director is a relatively new role anyway compared to the actor etc…

Is there enough opportunities to train as a director

Formal training should never be the only way

Collaborating and offering opportunities to others

What is the best way to use an assistant? Bounce of ideas. Trust your assistant

What skills does a director need? As many as possible

Know what you are best at when trying to carve your way into the industry. What strengths do you have. Use them to your advantage. EG working with young people to develop skills before working with pro actors

About choosing the right Post Grad course for you.

Training is as much about learning to direct as it is making links with the industry.

Is any theatre training (actors, designers etc) at all ‘necessary’?

Training directors is a current trend.

ISSUE 19: HOW CAN THEATRES SUPPORT ARTISTS WITHOUT DICTATING TO THEM?

2011-02-04T08:10:00.000-08:00

Issue: HOW CAN THEATRES SUPPORT ARTISTS WITHOUT DICTATING TO THEM?

Convener(s): Rachel Briscoe

Participants: Sorry, didn’t write down all the names. People whose names I knew already and who came or who wrote their names down include Annette Mees, Matt Ball, Ben Webb, Dan Barnard, Amy Letman, Mark Stevenson, Matt Rodgers, Ben Eaton, Victoria Pratt. Please add your name if you were also there!

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:
- Structured programme or informal support?
Benefits and disadvantages to both.
Structured programme means both parties know where they stand, there is progression and an end point; informal support allows greater potential to engage with different artists/ projects differently and respond directly to the project in question. Being clear with audiences if they are part of this processes: if audiences are coming to a work in progress showing, be clear about that, and use the opportunity to build audiences for future fully realized productions (everyone loves a phone vote.)

- Dialogue from the beginning?
Allow artist and theatre to find out together what they want. For artists, it can be useful to have a dialogue with people who know their space and their audiences. Venue needs to be clear with artists about their audiences. [Here we had an interesting sub-discussion about ‘educating’ audiences, our discomfort with that phrase but wanting theatres to be ambitious in their programming.]

- Ways of making approaches to venues that retain value for the artist.
Approaching venues as platforms or for something specific rather than funders. Remaining an equal partner in the creation of your work. Thinking about your offer to the theatre: what do you bring as an artist? That doesn’t have to be financial – it can be about the way you engage audiences or anything else.

- Conflict between theatre ‘brand’ and artist ‘brand’
Venues need to work with the right artists/ artists need to approach suitable venues for their work. Venues can help themselves by being clear about a) what they programme, and b) what support they provide. Programming is an artistic act in itself: artists should respect this. Artists can help themselves by getting to know venues, and by playing a longer term game: go to a venue with a portfolio of projects you want to do over the next couple of years and ask which of these might be of interest.

- Value of in-kind support, esp in financial times when no one has cash to chuck around.
Space, advice, introductions. What do venues actively offer? Part of in-kind support to artists should be ‘after-care’ – inviting colleagues/ funders/ ACE people who can help the project go further. Can companies do in-kind resource swops with theatres e.g. we have a projector we’ll lend you for 3 weeks, in return for a week’s rehearsal space.

- A shitlist for abusive/ negligent venues?
Sometimes damage is done by artistically frustrated people who run venues and want to take over ideas; sometimes through over-enthusiasm and rushing things to full-production before they are ready.

ISSUE 20: HOW SCREWED ARE WE? PLEASE CAN SOMEONE COME AND EXPLAIN THE FUNDING CUTS?

2011-02-04T08:08:00.000-08:00

Issue: How Screwed Are We? Please Can Someone Come And Explain The Funding Cuts?

Convener(s):
Sarah

Participants:
Imogen, Nell. Anne, Jo, Eleanor and others

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:
We wanted to know what was actually going on with the cuts, who would be affected and how, and what we could do to help ourselves. It’s a thing everyone’s upset about, but not everyone knows the facts.

Luckily, two people (Eleanor and an AC person whose name I didn’t catch) came who really knew what was happening and others who had a clear idea of the knock-on effects. Here are the facts as I understand them; those who provided the information should probably check I haven’t got it wrong somewhere!..

The government has cut 30% of the arts council budget. This predominantly affects the Regularly Funded Organisations – which are a larger groups or venues that get regular money (previously at least £30 grand a year).
All RFO’s now have to re-apply to the AC to justify their funding. The minimum funding has gone up to £40 grand. The application process was opened up for groups who wanted to become RFO’s.
The AC received about 1400 applications and can afford to fund about 700.

The effects will be:
Smaller groups who could justify £30 grand might struggle to justify £40, so will lose all their AC funding.
Losing venues that support smaller groups/artists would cause a domino effect, as those smaller groups would lose space and support (for example, think what would happen if the BAC disappeared?).
Very large or dominant venues will have to be more thoughtful about how they spend the money they get. They cannot rest on their laurels and expect to be funded forever.

Funding for Individuals , ie, Grants for the Arts, will not be directly affected by the 30% cuts. GfA will continue as before, but there were already far more applicants than money. However, post Olympics, all the lottery money being spent on that should come back to the GfA pot, so if you can hang on til then, things should hopefully get better.
Also, there are a couple of government schemes in the mythical pipeline. One is a plan to reform how the lottery revenue is taxed. This could theoretically free up about £50 million that would go into the arts pot.
Another is a match funding scheme. This seems a bit complicated. Something like £80 million could be found if the AC can find £50 million. The AC prefer to push more towards encouraging philanthropy than take this route.

The AC has just published a list of 5 new priorities, and will send you a copy of the explanation if you ask them to.

The AC itself has to cut its own spending by 50%, so everything’s going to keep changing for a while anyway.

Local Authorities have had their budgets slashed, and since other things like education and health are Statutory funding areas, the arts will be the first areas affected by this. Again, this is more likely to affect venues or large organizations than individual artists that can’t get LA funding anyway.

Someone brought up the case of a local (200 seat?) theatre that rarely sells more than 15 -20 tickets for a show and clearly isn’t serving the community or valued by that community. Is it really fair that the Local Authority should have to keep bailing it out?

On a positive front, the cuts are an opportunity to clarify your aims, be more imaginative, find other sources of funding that may be more fun or easier to get hold of than AC funding.
If you’re an individual or GfA applicant, there was never any money anyway, so you already know you can survive on peanuts.

The AC representative said the AC is less about the social/community element than it used to be and more about funding good arts projects. They’d rather have a clear, honest and exciting proposal than one with community workshops crow-barred in for no reason other than box-ticking.

Someone else talked about We Fund, an online funding resource where you can pitch you idea to individual givers.

We also discussed who has to adapt to whom. Should we bend our projects to get the funding or present projects and expect the funding criteria to bend to us?

ISSUE 21:WE ALL HAVE RESOURCES - HOW CAN WE SHARE THEM?

2011-02-04T08:01:00.000-08:00

Issue: We all have resources – how can we share them? A Resource Sharing Network

Convener(s): Alex Eisenberg

Participants: Chloe Dechery, Conor Short, John Pinder, Alex Eisenberg, Deirdre, Shakera Ahad, Kylie Lloyd, Will Bourdillen, Dan Simon, Kate Webster + others…

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

General Question
How would it be possible for us to share the material resources that we all have and don’t always use? For example – I have a good camera that I don’t use all the time – someone wants to borrow it. They do and in return I get some sort of credit for having leant something of mine out…
AND
How can we use an online resource (bespoke or existing) to create and proliferate this network?

Defining ‘Resources’
Resources at the things that we need or want to make our work. Resources can be all sorts of things but in this context we focused in on sharing material resources.

An alternative economy?
• A new form of currency
• A barter economy
• Points system
• Ratings and recommendations
• Feedback
• New models of insurance
• Web based and dynamic

Key Ideas

Institution > Artists
OR
Artists > Artists + Institutions

How can we get past a top down (hierarchical) model of sharing? Or is this the best way – Robin Hood sort of thing?

The notion of good will – can we just base this on good will and not worry about formalising it?

Worth – how do we measure worth in this context?
Do you just measure the amount you share – in spite of what you are sharing?

Contribution is enough.

What would be a method for putting requests forward.

How do you keep the system going?

It’s vital that people contribute to the network to make it successful.

The idea of taking a risk – but who takes the risk and how can we move away from the idea of risk. How can we reformulate the idea that sharing something with a stranger is infact usually NOT RISKY AT ALL.

BUT at the same time how can we mitigate for the inevitable fact that things will get broken, lost etc.

You don’t have to lend (but it will be in your interest if you do)

Lending Requirements – a series of things that make the lender feel comfortable

There has got to be incentives to foster honesty.

How would it be possible, or necessary, for small companies or individual artists to give something back to the National Theatre for example?

A chain or a network?
A network!

Trust is vital

Examples

Current Space Sharing Initiatives
• Northern Dance – “Spare Room” - each week when spaces are available they put them up on a website for people to book and use for free.
• London Bubble – give spare space out to artists for a very low fee or volunteer exchange
• Both of the above are last minute.
• Nothing like these exists in London!

Similar Models
• Wikipedia
• Freecycle
• SpareRoom.co.uk
• Couch Surfing
• Swapaskill.com
• Residence (Bristol) – Store Room
• Somewhere To Project
• Common Pool Resource
• Prop Share (USA) – academic models
• Time Bank
• The School of Everything
• Class Works Costume Store (Cambridge)

Both Wikipedia and Freecycle operate with moderators who bring parity to their resources. Freecycle as a material resource exchange – ¬ how different is this to a sharing network? The principle that Freecycle is supposed to be based on you sharing and then you receiving – but in reality it doesn’t quite work out like this.

Clear Practical Ideas to do:
Edinburgh Van Network
Material Resource Sharing
Space Sharing
People Sharing

Examples of things you might share:
Material Things: Projectors, camera, video equipment, space, vehicles, computer equipment, sound kit, microphones, props/costume, oddities (e.g. Binural Recording Equipment).
Non Material Things: Skills, advice, knowledge, information etc.

Visions

Starting online and the becoming phycisal – i.e. a series of central distribution points across the country.

How would you deal with the admin? You get it to become self moderating and self administrating – e.g. freecycle etc.

Getting Partners on Board
• National Theatre
• NT Studio
• Royal Opera House
• BAC
• Etc. (who has a lot of equipment?)

Aggregating existing services – that institutions, regional organizations etc. already use to share things.

Functioning like a social network.

Using an established system or website – for example:
• Facebook
• Yahoo Groups
• Google Groups
• Ning

Lets just take the first steps.

Practical Concerns
Insurance
• Is it possible to get insurance for an item that you do not own or for lending.
• New models of insurance.

Venues/Institutions/Companies
• Venues/institutions often do have things available but its not high up their agenda to share them – so perhaps we just need to make aware that the can and that they can be assisted in this process - that it is easy.
• Finding Reasons why space should be used.
• Good PR for large venues/institutions to show that they are helping artists (but lets make this count for real!)

Revenue from Advertising
• Could you use advertising revenue (e.g. for theatre/arts related companies) to subsidise the costs

Waste/Recycling in Theatres
• How can we harness the waste from theatres – e.g. materials, wood, metal etc./
• Setting up a network that seeks to recycle these things.
• How can we move from small scale or informal sharing networks to something on a National Level?
• Frugality and flexing as facets of a new culture.
• Using dead time in theatres the dark – make the dark LIGHT
• Betweens – time between exhibitions.

Collective Ownership
• Could the be a model that get beyond the insurance issues?
• Using Kickstarter (or other crowd funding model) to raise money to be able to buy resources and then share.
• Could there be support from more major institutions to do this.

Alternatives

• Just ask people for things more!
• Do not invite the no.
• Don’t be offended if people say no.
• BUT the problem with this is that not everyone is good at asking or can ask.
• How can we create a system that bypasses the machinations – or the shit! How can we create a template, a model – that is inclusive, well functioning and easy to use.

Final Thoughts
Partly this discussion was about a very practical concern of how to run this sort of thing – I would really like ‘this’ – okay that good I can borrow it from ‘you’ for free (almost free – certainly less that it would cost to buy)? BUT ALSO how can we address the current culture of ownership? How can we change the ways we think about the things that we have bought and move towards idea of sharing? And how can this help us become more sustainable as artists, and by doing so create better functioning and ‘richer’ communities?

ISSUE 22: SURFING OR OPERA?

2011-02-04T07:59:00.000-08:00

Issue: Surfing or Opera?

Convener(s):Bill Bankes-Jones

Participants:
Tanja Raaste tanja@nordicnomad.com
Claire.thill@gmail.com
Rod Dixon rod@redladder.co.uk
Jamie Wood jamosta@hotmail.com
Chris Tomlinson tomous@yahoo.com
Mark Smith mark@spiketheatre.com
Timothy Bird Timothy@knifedge.net

Theatrical Surfers Group:
Jamie – jamosta@hotmail.com
Laura – Laura.n.mcdermott@gmail.com
Simon – Simon@theplascticinemen.co.uk
Pamela – pamelar1@hotmail.co.uk [?] 07986080047
James Bush – james@presentattempt.co.uk
Bill – billbj@gmail.com

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

I set up the group entirely selfishly, in order to help me to work out how successfully to shift my own surf/theatre balance in favour of surfing. The session quickly morphed into a long, detailed, inspiring and enthusiastic exploration of the common ground between the two activities:

• Passion
• Tribes
• Time: the amount of preparation involved is HUGE in relation to the duration of the activity itself
• The addiction of intense but rare euphoria
• Don’t expect too much
• Both are really hard
• The more you put in, the more you get out
• Sense of occasion/both activities are very intense
• Highly supportive communities (as long as you behave well)
• A very long time before your next/second chance
• Surfing is better than working in the theatre (about the only point which didn’t get 100% agreement)
• It’s all about putting yourself in jeopardy, enjoyable risk
• About applying rules in an unpredictable environment
• Both need an open mind
• Lack of Ego crucial
• You don’t get bad reviews for surfing
• It’s a need beyond yourself
• To work in theatre/to surf depends on instincts that can be learnt
• A blissful sense of emptiness after it’s over
• It’ll never be like that again
• Great and lasting intensity of memories
• Sometimes you can’t deal with the idea that it’s over
• Very buzzy/a way of not being able to think about things
• Theatre=surfing in slow motion

CONCLUSION
We are going to try out a group of theatre people who want to surf together, and have shared our emails (above) to get it going. Though the discussion didn’t centre at all on my original dilemma, it was very therapeutic and certainly feels as if it has, in a strange way, if not solved it, helped me to live with it better.

ISSUE 23: THEATRE AND FASHION: WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM EACH OTHER?

2011-02-04T07:55:00.000-08:00

Issue: theatre and fashion : what can we learn from each other?

Convener(s): Valentina Ceschi a Santa Croce

Participants: Kane Lane, AlanHescott, James Bush, Jennifer Lee, Thomas Eccleshare, Sasha Milavic Davies and many more joined as it went along

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

The discussion raised a lot of questions such as:
Can theatre be couture? / if so, how?
The role of the designer. What if the designer took the lead and, writers, directors and performers followed (not necessarily in that order), but a theatre production company became more like a fashion house. (the Convener aspires to this)
Other things that were mentioned were ‘branding’, why is fashion so aspirational and why is theatre not?
Punchdrunk was the only theatre company people could name that does work which is ‘cool’, exclusive (often because of the secrecy and the general innovation). It is theatre which is more like a game, a party, a gig, an experience.
It makes other work look safe, pathetic, moral.

The ‘golden key’ is key – which very few privileged people possess. Secrecy also plays a big part.

However, the masses need to be told that there is a ‘secret’ going on, to spread the brand’s exclusivety. Glossy magazines don’t feature performance. It’s not cool.

Branding is a big topic. Theatre could brand itself more like fashion.

Why do European countries value the performing arts differently and on a same level as fashion?> Example: in French Vogue there is a whole section on theatre, dance and performance, which is missing in British Vogue.

Does theatre really have to have a moral obligation not to be decadent, superficial or purely aesthetic??
An analogy to describe theatre and fashion’s relations to their audiences was:

Theatre= desperate and needy boyfriend (which you’re not attracted to)
Fashion and couture= the elusive beautiful girl everyone wants to date, but no one can get to

Theatre needs to be less ‘invisible’ and yet more ‘elusive’ (exclusive) and marketed better. It is too accessible so nobody wants it/
Why does some British theatre feel almost like it is ‘rejecting fashion’, and therefore embracing dowdy, unglamorous aesthetic. Sounds like the bitter desperate boyfriend, not getting the girl.

In conclusion British theatre is dowdy and European theatre is more aspirational, with more emphasis on aesthetic.

I want to make theatre which is glamorous, aesthetically driven, dynamic and eye-popping, exclusive and fun – at the risk of it being decadent, costly and superficial.

Thank you for a great discussion!

ISSUE 24: CAN WE STILL FIND NEW WAYS TO COMMUNICATE ON STAGE?

2011-02-04T07:53:00.000-08:00

Issue: Can we still find new ways to communicate on stage.

Convener(s): Caro Parker

Participants: Caore group Tanya Roberts, Wonter van Oord, Thursa v. Til
Martin McClean, Liz Porter and others who came and wented.

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

Not about “translating” but finding different ways to communicate/tell the story.

How do you communicate eg is a voice over live or over cans? Always in relation to the work.

Methods

- sign language
- sur-titles
- stage design
- music
- voice over
- action painting
- puppetry
- interactive technology

In using audio-description what language do you use. Eg other than saying “Mr brown crosses stage to the left”.

ISSUE 25: SPACE + PLACES + FUNDING IN THE EAST MIDLANDS AND THE NORTH

2011-02-04T07:50:00.000-08:00

Issue: Spaces + Places + Funding in The East Midlands and the North

Convener(s): Chris Rowland

Participants:

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:
- Using Twitter to keep updated dated with local performances and events + getting connected to other practioneers.
- How to engage with University Students? Many disinterested in the subject of their degrees – do we need to engage this collective? Why do they leave the town they do their degree in? Treating uni students as viable artists. Should we be cultivating a ‘younger’ theatre - a space for these students or is it already there and not known widely enough.
- Companies that help develop new artists,writers etc: Theatre Writing partnership, Royal derngate (Northampton), Invisible Flock, The skeleton Project (Leeds) West Yorkshire theatre Network.
- The Theatre Trust – protecting and establishing theatre venues
- The problem of Established theatres not giving spaces to new/emerging artists. You need to ask venues as it is part of their policy to provide the spaces. So don’t complain unless you have tried.
- The need for a Scratch culture. The difficulty of an audience for this sort of event Examples being Birmingham’s Pilot night
- The need for spaces: these can be from established venues, disused buildings, local artist collectives (i.e. Stan’s café’s @Aeharris/ Leed’s Hub)
- The problem of having a London centric view of theatre. There being a lack of confidence in the ability of regional theatre - its audiences and artists. We need to talk to regional theatres and have the confidence to see the postives of what’s already established, hardly there, the possibilities and potential.
- What would persuade people to stay in the region? Community, easy to access cheap spaces, ‘better’ programmes in local theatres.
- Festivals that showcase new artists : Fierce Festival (Birmingham), Birmingham European festival (End of June- contact Mike Tweedle),Be Festival (July - Birmingham ), Emerge Festival, Freshly picked (Leeds) Hatch (Nottingham)
- The trend of local rather than regional theatre (i.e. community/ TIE)
- New work Network’s activators scheme – encouraging new artists.
- Questions that need to be asked: What works for the region? What is needed?
- IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF ARTISTS TO SEE EACHOTHERS WORK
- To create something it needs sustainability, needs to be persistent, putting in place an infrastructure that can network and have malleable qualities for a variety of artists to be included (from new to established ones).
- We need a network that is accessible for everyone, and make sure its sustainable. It isn’t about creating new ones by seeing what is already there and seeing how these can be further connected. – Sustained Theatre Network was cited as a key network throughout Britain that has a network of development spaces, international projects and leadership programmes.
- D + D events up North every month (please write on more information if you know anything about this`)

COMMENT WRITTEN ON BY HAND: First Wednesday of every month in venues in the north east- 6pm every time for about 3 hours. To find out more information- www.theemptyspace.org.uk. Also one large, two day event in March/April each year

COMMENT WRITTEN ON BY HAND:
Theatre shuttle buses!

ISSUE 26: HOW DO I OVERCOME THE PATRIARCHAL BLOCKS TO MY DEVELOPMENT/NURTURE/JOURNEY AS AN ARTIST

2011-02-04T07:35:00.000-08:00

Issue: How do I overcome the patriarchal blocks to my development/nurture/journey as an artist

Convener(s): Julia Taudevin

Participants:

Kieran Hurley
Julia Taudevin
Chris Goode
Gemma Rowen
Gabrielle Beasley
Rose Biggin
Francesca Lisette
Anna Marsland
Nell Ranney
Jonny Liron
Scarlett Plairez Commas
+ others

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

Initial responses
Media/celebrity culture/films = men’s playground (or does it?)
Money = men
The world is men’s film set
Men construct (literally) our world
Do these words (nurture/development/journey) connect with the idea of a career or of a holistic practice/position?
Stories of women in art – negated
Don’t need a consensus
Broader movement of questioning
There are as many feminisms here as there are people in this room
Feminism / gender – negative connotations
Feminism needs to be at the heart of things
Lack of resolution of the feminist movement means people now see it as a failure
Need to arm yourself as feminists – not the right words
Pressure not to go backwards / to do things that have already been ticked
The pressure to ‘innovate’
Instead, create space for what we don’t yet recognize
The market place values the ‘innovative’, we can’t guarantee we have anything new to say but stories CAN be told over and over again
Make new pathways?

What Are the Patriarchal Blocks?
Even if we can’t find the solutions, perhaps naming the obstacles can be a step forward.
Media
Imagery
Where do we see women?
Ownership (means of…)
Internal voice (“no” “you can’t”)
Where is that voice coming from?
History
Culture
Feminism as dirty word
Education
Language – too radical
- out of date
- connotations
Market place values
Work as commodity
Self as commodity
Confidence
Validation (lack of)
Definition of validation – value systems
Negotiation
Confusion
Hegemony
Old boys club
Old white boys club
Class
Shakespeare
Rejection of forms of sisterhood
My dad - language
- legitimacy
- values
- permissible
- set of choices
local blocks
heroes
Daniel
My mum
Me
Venues - culture of competition
- gate keepers
Teachers
Directors
Do people feel responsible for talking about gender anymore in the arts?
“your” “brand” of “feminism”
“sell by” date of “feminism”
Fetishisation/objectification of the performative act of getting naked

Caberet
A sub conversation
Is the context useful/generative?
Let’s have a space to take ourselves seriously and be unapologetic

What is the vision?
An attempt to find the opposite of the Patriarchal Blocks. What it is we are striving for.
Equality (not just about women)
No more insistence on the domestic
Being able to talk about injustice (?)
Freedom of identity
Permission
Shakespeare (or a whole new cannon)
Destroy the patriarchal gaze – but replace with high definition (not blindness)
Don’t accept the premise of the question
Tell stories of weakness
Non hierarchical
Success doesn’t equal value
Solidarity and support
Celebration of difference

What does this work look like?
Where?
Do you have to give up on your cultural history?
FUCK THIS SHIT

Action Point
Continue this discussion

A couple of Summarizing Sentences
which will be useful to this report

This question came from the personal and in discussion very quickly became quite a difficult discussion about the impersonal
i.e industry/systemic/structural/historical ‘blocks’.

When the language of the question was returned to, it being personal and using the holistic language of an artists’ practice rather than career, the complexity of the issue somehow became more manageable.

This was a big sprawling and passionate discussion. We discovered that the ‘blocks’ in question are so multiple – they are structural, cultural, internal... We were clearly unable to come to a solution in the form of Action Points, but we felt that collectively identifying shared concerns was a useful step. We drew a picture of the Massive Phallic Airship of Male ART, with the masses as its spectators. We were pleased with this outcome.

The moment of creating the Massive Phallic Airship of Male ART brought us together in a collective act of creativity and solidarity.

ISSUE 27: PERFORMING INSTRUCTIONS

2011-02-04T07:33:00.001-08:00

Issue: Performing instructions

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

(Note to the following section: I agreed to follow the instruction ‘document this session’. This is my response to that instruction in the first section of the session. Gloria)

Instructions are not exclusive.
Instructions can be high level.
Instructions are not just tasks.
To follow instruction is not to complete instruction.
In doing we reveal being.

The process of attempting instruction is interesting.
Question the instruction.
Resist the instruction.

This session is influenced by the impulse to follow instruction.

Inviting the audience to perform an instruction.
Instructing is teaching. Like a swimming instructor. Like a desperate death of a polar bear.

How can instruction be performance not process in mainstream space.
Rotozaza 5 in the morning Doublethink.

Accumulative effect of these instructions.
How do they know if it’s not rehearsed?
Do you need to know?
Is it rehearsed?

The audience need to know this.
We left them a trail of instructions taped underneath the piano.
To go to their separate postions.
It became a sort of game. We wanted her to bark like a dog.

Was there any musical instruction? The whole score was what I had interpreted.
This is a game. You need to complete it as far as you can.

He was this invisible presence. She came out and she couldn’t see him. I found it a pure way of making work.
The preparation was working out how you communicate a instruction. Another way of writing performance. You need to have an agreement between the performer and the audience.
Very simple contract essentially.

What are the rules for a good instruction?
I can tell you what I saw, I can’t tell you the instructions. She was counting, and she was looking, and when she dropped them she would laugh. The accident was incorporated.

The person who wrote these instructions.

People were laughing loudest when it was really scary.

ISSUE 28: "DEATH..." PLAYING DYING...HOW!

2011-02-04T07:30:00.000-08:00

Issue: “DEATH, …” Playing dying… How! Please help. What does death/facing your own death means to you?

Convener(s): Li E Chen

Participants: Paul, Rupert, Monica, Veronica, Nick, Lisa, Fionn, Lee and few more people.

Thank you for the participants to share their own experience and advices on above issue.

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

Issues:

1. Do not like acting, do not want to act: What to do?
Ring a bell if they see me acting, so that I can make sure I am not acting for dying.

2. Physical:
Body is slowly shunting down by each breath, switching each organ one by one, the last thing to switch off is the hearing.
The organ of the body is death but life still goes on.

3. Playing dying:
Making your own decision, Using your own imagination, Working on the Breath, Butoh dance, Ring a bell if people see me acting.

4. Do not like emotion, do not think death should be an end and cry for, how to deal with that?
Having an illness, sometimes it is out of our controls. Perhaps the character wants to control her own life to end her life and thinks it is ok to leave the world behind, and why not to be peaceful.

6. What reasons would you kill yourself?
If there is nothing left in life worth living for?

5. What does death mean to you?
,
.
!
Blank page
Can’t visual it
No body know, impossible to know, by the time you know, you’re already death.
Death is not connecting with your environment and nature.
Death is not what I can easily to say ok when I have children. Death means more than about myself, but it is about the people I love so that I live.

6. Thank you very much for your contributions on my process of playing a character who is suffering from cancer illness and facing her own death. I don’t know what death really mean to her yet. But I won’t cry, I’m strong, I’m ok of dying, I want my family and love one who also not to be upset about my death. I want them to be happy and enjoy life of living…

My process so far of playing the dying…

ISSUE 29: REMAKING AND RE-STAGING. HOW TO MAKE IT AS BIG AN ADVENTURE THE SECOND TIME AROUND?

2011-02-04T07:28:00.000-08:00

Issue: Remaking and restaging. How to make it as big an adventure the second time around?

Convener(s): Annie Rigby

Participants: Malcolm Rippeth, Simon Wilkinson, Cath Eaglestone, Helen Pringle, Liz Porter, Adam Barnard

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

Advice:
*Know what want you want to find out by remaking a show.

*The structures and decisions you made the first time round are valuable. They are your new starting point.

*Be brave about changing the ‘good bits’, as well as working on the ‘bad bits’.

*Keep fiddling with it. Don’t attempt to make a carbon copy. It’s impossible.

*The fact you’re worrying about it at all is a good sign.

Reply:
Thank you. I’m feeling much better now.

ISSUE 30: HOW ARE YOU?

2011-02-04T07:27:00.000-08:00

Issue: How Are You?

Convener(s): Chris Goode

Participants: Claudia, Daniel C., Marie Kenny, Brian Lobel, Catriona James, Mary, Emma Adams, Suzy Almond, Ben W., Kieran Hurley, Allison Julia, Annie Rigby, Tom Hughes, Pete, Francesca, Aliki Chapple, Lucinka Eisler, Sian Rees, Nell B., lots of others who came and went

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

Initially this was just about creating some space for everyone to check in at the beginning of a busy weekend, but it built into a really interesting conversation at a more meta- level, about the practice of asking each other how we are, as part of our everyday work.

- This can be a really powerfully supportive thing to do, in terms of being able to let go off difficult stuff, or at least to name it so that we know it’s in the room; not having to suppress things or “check them at the door”; having some space in which it’s possible to hear everyone and be heard.
- But there could be issues in terms of what’s brought up and whether it’s too easy to feel that stuff that’s been heard has also somehow been dealt with; and what happens when the truthful answer is also disruptive or signals a lack of safety

Deep Democracy – a model concerned with saying the thing you’re not supposed to say

Would it also be useful to ask the negative question – How aren’t you? i.e. What might we be incorrectly assuming about how you are?

Where do we locate the necessity of asking this question in relation to solo work, where there’s no one else to be the listener, and no one else to listen to?

Wanting not to overlook the fact that often the answer can be very positive and this too can be unsettling in terms of what we can aspire to together – when the room is full of energy and ambition and confidence. That a space in which we can affirm our positivity can really help close the disconnect between ourselves as artist and the very big, often very abstract, issues we may be trying to address.

Are there techniques for asking this question ‘properly’? What other ways are there of describing stuff & not getting tied up in language?

In order for the check-in to be worth doing it has to matter. There has to be something at stake. In particular we have to know that the process could, and can, and will respond to the answers people give – otherwise people don’t actually have, or feel, the space to be really truthful. A process that can’t adapt, or a target that acts as a constraint, could make this act harmful.

The importance of the ongoing “How are you?” and the unspoken “How are you?”

Do different responsibilities rest on directors when checking-in? Are there some things you shouldn’t say? Do you have the space to be wholly honest?

How also can we / do we ask an audience: “How are you?” How do they tell us anyway, in their responses and their behaviours?

Asking “how are you?” of an audience especially is neutralizing – by recognizing our presence it puts us all in the same place.

This can be a powerful and productive technology but it needs careful handling and it’s hugely dependent on the rest of the process in which it occurs and with which it has to be genuinely compatible.

ISSUE 31: CUT THE ARTS, SAVE THE DAY CENTRE, HOW DO YOU DEFEND YOURSELF AGAINST THIS ARGUMENT?

2011-02-04T07:07:00.000-08:00

Issue: Cut the Arts, Save The Day Centre. How do you defend yourself against this argument?

Convener(s): Kate Hall

Participants: Scarlet, Sarah & Kelly

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

How do you argue coherently and without getting drawn into the numbers game when your local Councillor is insisting that the arts should face more draconian cuts than any other service?

Ultimately it was the economic argument which we felt would be the strongest to put to such opposition i.e. I recently did a production which indirectly “cost” the council £500, but by doing it I brought £13K into the city – most of which were spent in the city on wages or was income for local businesses.

This is example of supporting the arts locally actually acting as an economic driving – invest in arts for growth. And long term investment would result in long term growth.

It was also raised the issue that in cutting the arts you are cutting services that are run efficiently and without waste – is this not a model that should be invested in. Especially as by cutting the arts you are likely to be impacting the very social system users that you are pitting the arts against – those in residential care, education etc etc – who would very much like to have their lives enhanced by the arts. But if the arts are not there, or are few and far between, then the social system users will either not get what they want – or what they get will be more expensive than something that would otherwise be supplied by the arts organsation that has been cut.

These ideas are also found in another economic argument that by cutting the arts he was actually depriving young people of access to the arts in favour of supporting for the elderly – both are needs that need to be serviced.

Another economic argument suggested was that by cutting the arts now it would take a disproportionate amount of funding to restore it to a comparable level in better times. And that by doing so it means that only the priviledged and wealthy will be able to access the arts in future times (aka Phillip Pulman’s recent speech on the bidding war for libraries.)

However, as the cuts are not solely fuelled by economics and are also ideological it is also necessary to have a defence which separates the arts from money – and gets down to other fundamentals. The story was told of Churchill being asked during the war to cut all arts funding so that those funds could be diverted into the war effort. His response was “If we do that why we are fighting this war.” And this is the type of ideological response I wanted to find – and one for austerity Britain.

If we can’t afford the luxury of “risk taking” “experimentation” etc etc, and all those other soft outcomes which have supported the arts for the last 15 years – what kind of society do we want to live in? Maybe the question should be more – “So where should the arts budget cuts be directed?” – will this debate flush out the ideologies and the values – and give us a level playing field to argue for INVESTMENT (a preferred description than subsidy – stolen from creative Scotland) in the arts. So we don’t have to be pitted against pictures of old people trapped in their homes, or patients waiting in trolleys in hospital corridors.

Another tack that came up was flattery – challenging those holding the public purse to become visionary leaders rather than bean-counters – to hold them to be accountable to have vision and leadership, whilst also balancing the books (or as a consequence achieving this.

Which is, after all, the hoop we jump through every day.

ISSUE 32: OK, LETS RANT, REALLY RANT...

2011-02-04T07:02:00.000-08:00

Issue: Ok, Lets rant, really rant, rant til we’re blue in the face, red in the gills ‘cos that’s where our creativity o’erspills

Convener(s): Lewis Barfoot

Participants: Helen Mugridge, Tamar Daly, John Pinder, Sarah Saison, Emma Deakin, Alison Goldie and Zoe Cobb

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

The intention was to explore the playful positivity and benefit of ranting

Love your rants
I love rants
The rantathon

I hear people rant every day about everything. Rants about funding, rantings about being broke, rants about power, rants about this ‘n that. I hear so much ranting I’m inspired to rant myself. I want to rant about them their bloody ranting- I am the ranting anti-ranter. But I want to make this fun, playful, a catharsis, an explosion of positivity, a release of energy so that action can be taken.

R
A
N
T

Most people today wanted to rant about washing up- we wrote a poem. I sort of rapped it, or wrapped in my own film of rapping

Washing up

Washing up
Why can’t you do it now?
I don’t wanna dig for a pan for my porridge
In your sink of slimy scum.

How long could it take?
It’s one of those things that’s cruel to life
Washing up
If you don’t do it, you’re already fucked

Then a few people left and new ones passed by and said

”oh no, I don’t want to rant, that’s negative”

“What are you moaning about?”

They didn’t stay.

Excited about how I could make the process of positive ranting a more understood positive experience, I decided to patent an idea

The Global Ritual Rant Routine The GRRR. Where at the same time of day everyday, whatever country you are in, (though I guess I need to take into account different time zones) you can stop what you’re doing and rant out loud. I wanted to conduct an experiment to see if I could document the effects of the rant on the average creative type.

Alison, Zoe and Emma were my willing participants.

Enthused and bubbling with energy we discussed how cathartic the rant had been it was “pure freedom” had “no structure and was playful”. “When you acknowledge something it gives you power and the ability to move yourself forward”

We wondered how we could we cultivate “ The Art of Playful Ranting”

Then Zoe suggested we could do a rant dance, and we did.

All in all a great session, thank you all

THERE ARE THREE VIDEOS AND ONE MP3 RECORDING THAT NEED TO BE INSERTED IN TO THIS. I WILL EMAIL THEM TONIGHT. lewisbarfoot@gmail.com

ISSUE 33: HOW CAN I HAVE AN ENSEMBLE AND MAKE IT WORK OVER A LONG PERIOD?

2011-02-04T06:55:00.000-08:00

Issue: How can I have an ensemble and make it work over a long period?

Convener(s): Dan Barnard

Participants: Tom Hughes, Jo Mackie, Ewan Downie, Sam Dalley Tushar Pandey, Rachel Briscoe, Sam Worboys, John Walton, Jo Crowley, Ben Webb, Lennart Pasch, Mark Morreau

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

Does an ensemble have to be something which happens accidentally.

John said that with Theatre du Soleil there is the image of egalitarianism but its actually very structured and dictatorial.

Is it something official or is it a loose group of people who sometimes collaborate?

People have to have ownership over the company, through agreement and consensus. This consensus may not be easy but can be reached – example of a group of aerialists called les arts haut who had a series of meetings to make sure they were all on the same page. They all invested 5 thousand euros in the company and created a constitution. They said they would review the status of the company in five years. They agreed not to do anything until they had consensus.

John had had experience of decision making being a nightmare and compromises were made

Is it a “genuine” ensemble or is it an army led by a director?

Phelim talks about running a company through open space.

Suggestion that the pillars are consensus, shared artistic vision and ownership.

There was another company where the longer you worked for the company the more shares in the company you got.

Question of whether it limits the choice of plays you can do because you have to give all the actors jobs.

The ensemble can reach a consensus to bring in outsiders like a director or a master carpenter etc. You don’t need to have all the skills within the company.

To have longevity you can’t be rigid.

Someone who had had the experience of coming in as a director to an ensemble said that had been politically difficult and time and energy had been wasted in politics.

The ensemble has to have the maturity to treat outsiders with respect.

There is the possibility of a loose ensemble.

Benefits of learning a shared language.

Sam said that you make work quicker when you have an ensemble with a shared language.

Gomito do open workshop for writers, directors, actors, designers – a good way to see who clicks and you see who comes back next time. Gomito could use these to workshop ideas they are interested in or people could bring in ideas and the group will workshop it – last time a writer came in with an idea and it was workshopped.

Gomito has about 10 core members – its an “evolving pool”

Jo said that Ridiculsmus have an evolving pool and know what they want to do and get people in to develop the idea. People know that their not going to be in the show but come in to develop it and that’s a creative process. A “creative pool”

Its finding the right people. 1927 never intended to make a long term ensemble, they just kept working together. Sometimes naming it as an ensemble can be dangerous, just let it evolve.

Some people are great devisers but not so great at performing in the show and vice versa. Possibility of having more devisers in the room than end up in the show.

Good ensembles evolve naturally but there is always a driving vision.

In the Lecoq autocours model there is always a leader and followers but who is what evolves and alternates during the making of the work.

In devising there always needs to be someone on the outside even when this changes.

Ridiculusmus work for intensive periods with long breaks – this helps the relationship remain intense without breaking down/becoming destructive.

By default you end up knowing people really well.

Make your own model of making work and work out how that will work over a long period.

The ensemble is always evolving and in a way the longer that takes the better.

There can be benefits like you lose someone from a show but you know you have someone else who can easily slot in and take over.

The unicorn and mercury Colchester have loose ensembles.

Its hard to define but it’s a like-mindedness.

It can lead to questions of ownership.

Sometimes a work by an ensemble ends up having a traditional director, designer, writer etc. Sometimes you have to say it was created by the ensemble – reflect the reality.

Take your time, keep at it and keep it flexible.

ISSUE 34: CROWD FUNDING IS HERE. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE

2011-02-04T06:51:00.000-08:00

Issue: Crowd funding is here. Resistance is futile.

Convener(s): Simon Day

Participants: Gary Horsmen, Lucy Foster, Nicola Stanhope, Deirdre McLoughlan, Ed Bartram, Matthew Austin, Leshwhd (?), Rod Dixon, Caroline Pearce, Amy Powell Yeates, Clara Giraud, Shipra Ogra, Julia Voce and others…

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

I convened this one because of my interest in crowd funding platforms that have taken off for the development of creative projects, mainly music (Pledge) and Film (Kickstarter). I was interested in setting up something similar that might work for theatre, when I found www.wefund.co.uk, set up late last year – that’s kind of doing it already. I think it has real potential to become not just part of our funding mix as theatre makers, but a way for us to relate differently to our audiences, and involve them in the development of our work.

We talked about how wefund was working for Lucy Foster, a member of the group who’s raised over £3,000 of a £5000 target using the site towards her latest project, Epic. Allowing for some teething problems, and for the fact that it’s early days as far as the site and the model is concerned, the site has been useful in raising a not inconsiderable amount of money, and leant a certain legitimacy to basically going cap in hand. Was also noted that traffic to her own site has increased loads, even where people didn’t donate.

Shipra Ogra from Bubble related how the company effectively continued to stage a summer project despite losing funding, when the team were challenged to use crowd sourcing as a way to make it happen. They set up their own platform, called fanmadetheatre, inviting audience members to donate and become stakeholders of a future show, the content of which they get to suggest and vote on.

Someone else talked about how they had donated to a project through Kickstarter, and received personalized response.

Interesting discussion between the nature of such funding for the arts as being either philanthropy (i.e. donation) or a transaction (more in line with the music model, where audiences/fans are essentially pre-buying a product). Points in favour for both sides were raised, where some saw the opportunity to engage philanthropically as being a greater incentive than to become a customer. Jury’s out.

The success of such platforms seems to rely upon the effectiveness of a company’s/bands/artists social networking activity, and we then talked more broadly about harnessing this, and whether it’s possible to create a community around work online or seed a trend. We were pointed towards two publications that might make interesting reading for anyone into this idea:

• Timothy Ferris, “4 Hour Working Week” (not necessarily the book itself, but his blog about how he did it)
• Kevin Kelly, Editor of Wired, “1000 True Fans” – blog post about niche artistic activity

Also made aware that a number of Social Media Analytical Tools exist that allow us to track and measure the varying effectiveness of posts – the point was made that IF we’re to attempt to use this kind of stuff to our advantage, we might do well to understand it more.

Suspicions were raised about the ability of the platform to raise larger amounts of money, and/or the extra effort that this might involve.

ISSUE 35: DOES THEATRE NEED AGE BADGES?

2011-02-04T06:46:00.000-08:00

Issue: Does Theatre Need Age Badges?

Convener(s): Amelia Bird

Participants: Helen Pringle, Sue Frumin, Carrie Thomas, Alex Thorpe, Renu Arora, Jennifer Tan, Japsit Kaur, Charlie Payne, Tyrone Higgins

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

Our discussion was split into two areas around this question:
ARTIST AGE BADGES
AUDIENCE AGE BADGES

ARTIST AGE BADGES
• Support programmes are geared for very specific ages, usually the young (under 25).
• Older artists felt that programmers and support schemes for their age often pushed them to create nostalgia.
• Young people working in the arts can feel patronized by assumptions made about their experience and also the gravitas they can bring to different roles.
• There was an acknowledgement by younger members of the group that often older people had more experience, but also a feeling that fresh blood is not valued as much as it could be.
• Older members of the group felt that it was possible to go out the other side after their 30s and assumptions about their ability to do the job are made OR they are told they have too much experience.
• The success of people in their 30s was put down to people having found their specific ‘groove’.
• It was noted that the acting industry whittles down the number of actors of a certain age, there are far fewer actors in their 50s for example than in the 18-25 bracket.
• Theatre is a social profession; it relies on networks and relationships, age is an easily visible symptom of this. The same could be said about gender and groups of friends.
• Summary: people feel isolated at both ends of the spectrum.

AUDIENCE AGE BADGES
• We agreed it was positive that generally theatre lets audiences make their own judgments about what is suitable. Film style classifications are unwelcome.
• Suggested ages can be useful for audiences (particularly parents and teachers).
• Age badges can encourage exclusivity and create barriers.
• Daytime/evening performances create informal age badges.
• Is there any worth in saying who is it NOT for?
• Dual purpose (theatre exclusively for children/adults) companies are possible.
• We discussed if their truly is theatre which is suitable for all.

ISSUE 36: THEATRE AND GAMES

2011-02-04T06:45:00.000-08:00

Issue: Theatre and Games

Convener(s): Tom Mansfield

Participants: Ben Eaton, Victoria Pratt, Annette Mees, Emma Forster, Kylie Lloyd, Lucy Atkinson, Louise Platt, Anna Barrett, Jacqueline Coombs, Chelsea Walker, Dan Copeland, Jenny Toksvig
Chelsea.walker@cssd.co.uk, rich@invisibleflock.co.uk, hello@annabarrett.co.uk, dancopeland@gmail.com, jacquelinecoombs@hotmail.com

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

This started with a discussion of what to call things and ended with a decision to reject labels (at least, as much as that’s possible!)

We had a wide-ranging discussion of different models. We began with a conversation about a project Tom’s working on which might be more of an interactive theatre piece than a game. Led to a discussion of the difference between these two things, on which we didn’t really reach much of a consensus. I think we all have a sense that the terminologies for what this kind of work is / can be are still being worked out. Annette said that at Coney they prefer to avoid using the word “game” while Invisible Flock think much more from a “gaming” model.

We had a long discussion about different gaming models. Jenny talked about her experience as a DM (dungeon master) in Dungeons and Dragons – a model in which the players create characters, the DM creates the “room” those characters come into. It’s a form of live, spontaneous improvisation in which the DM tries to ensure that the players are co-creators of the story – a phrase which recurred during our conversation. This led us onto a discussion of Live Action Role Playing (LARP), especially Nordic Larp which is much more reliant on character generation than on “action”, combat etc. Is this a way of allowing players to get involved in creating a story? Coney’s work for example is much more strongly authored, guiding players down paths while still offering them choices. But there’s a general sense through this conversation that we can and should offer players the opportunity to be co-creators – whether that’s of the story, characters or world – and explore ways to be honest in making our contract with them.

We talked a lot about the game-participatory-theatre-thingy (my technical term) creating a particular kind of contract with an audience: how do we set up this contract as part of the game or separately. Equivalent of the “tutorial level” with computer games. Ben suggested that the computer game model can be tricky in creating a live event – we talked about how non player characters in a computer game can only ever do a limited number of things, while actors can of course be much more reactive.

As Annette said, this means that we need different things from actors in this kind of work than in traditional models: they need to be much more responsive and empathetic. What’s a really “interesting” choice for an actor on stage in front of 700 people might end up being really banal if done in front of one person.

There was a discussion of rewards. Is playing the game its own reward? In traditional theatre the reward of sitting through the play is getting the emotional payoff at the end of the story. We discussed how giving tokens or points may create winners and losers. This can be good or it can be counterproductive. How to create a sense of “epic win” even if you “lose the game”. For Coney, the group is the hero. In tom’s show, there’s the possibility that the players must make a group moral choice in which some people can disagree. One major issue with this therefore becomes how to allow and/or channel dissent.

We talked about exclusivity in this kind of work – especially in alternative reality gaming, is there a problem with the creation of cliques? How can we get beyond this and encourage different levels of participation?

Some tips:
- map out the emotional arc of the players
- try it out early – otherwise it’s like rehearsing without your leading actor
- think about getting the audience from A to B in anything that’s promenade-esque

some reference points:
- Nordic LARP
- ARG
- Pervasive games – pervasivegaming.com
- Door in the Wall
- Coney – youhavefoundconey.net
- Hide and Seek

ISSUE 37: CAN TELLY HELP, OR WOULD IT BALLS THINGS UP EVEN MORE?

2011-02-04T06:42:00.000-08:00

Issue: Can Telly help, or would it balls things up even more?

Convener(s): Sam Hoyle

Participants: Peta Cooke, Simon Treves, Pippa, Jen Lunn and others….

Summary of discussion, questions raised, conclusions and/or recommendations:

Talent shows based on stage shows [Oliver, Joseph, etc] – great financial model that also gets people into theatres – but is it a price worth paying? Does it kill theatre? Perhaps Lloyd Webber is selling out to use this format, but it revives the show and brings new audiences to the theatre. Interesting that these shows are not about telly, but about theatre, or at least a theatre show. That’s promising, right?

Is it ethical for BBC to do talent TV shows that promotes a commercial production?

The choice of musicals is more depressing than the TV format – perpetuation of proven hits rather than anything new, or a show based on a film; is onus on us to react to this, and make artistic responses?

Is there a way of using a TV format to look at the making of new theatre? Problem is that these shows perpetuates an idea of theatre that is old fashioned, and doesn’t reflect what theatre does now and what theatre can do now. Can a TV show open out the “world” of theatre to TV audiences? A format that isn’t documentary, but interactive in some way? Making audiences more connected in a more direct way?

For writers, TV can subsidise their theatre writing – it is a relatively well paid gig that might not be great creatively, but can be the difference between making a living as a writer or not.

Existing Initiatives between telly and theatre.
• BBC Writers Room 10: a scheme run to link up new writers to theatres.
• NT Live – is this a collaboration between forms? Kinda – theatre crew get to work in different medium, and actors are playing to audience and camera.

David Tennant, playing Hamlet – sold out really fast as TV audience buying tickets, getting new people into theatre. And to see Shakespeare!

Are X Factor wannabes ruining training? Or is this show enabling a group of people to have a go at a profession that is traditionally not open to them, in terms of training and opportunities? EG, young, black kids don’t ‘fit’ at RADA, or Italia Conti – X Factor is their point of entry to the performing profession. Are these shows liberating talent that wouldn’t otherwise be there?

Upsurge in people going to live performances – we need to make sure that it stays ‘live’, that there is a reason why it is theatre and not told in another medium.

SKY Arts and BBC4 – making telly for theatre audiences, or the kind of people who go to the theatre. Are these the platforms to use, or do we think more creatively about how to disseminate a piece of work that is a meeting of the mediums?

If people totally abandon appointment television, and just consume that particular chosen content in their own time when it is more convenient for them…it would free them up to go to more live experiences!

TV is changing really fast – maybe now is the time where the two could help each other….

ISSUE 38: WHAT IS THEATRE GOING TO DO ABOUT CLOSING LIBRARIES?

2011-02-04T06:40:00.000-08:00

Issue: What is theatre going to do about closing libraries?

Convener(s): Ben Cutler

Participants: Lucy Ellinson, Joshua, A homes, Carie Thomas, Laura Mcdermat, Betty Brixham, Sarah C. A few others who arrived later and didn’t write names. About 4 of them.

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

Ben opened with a discussion of the Philip Pullman article championing libraries around the UK. Recommended that as artists we too have a great responsibility to help the libraries and a debt of gratitude for time spent reading, thinking or meeting in these spaces. How and what can theatre do. Lucy Ellinson discussed UKUNCUT in relation to action as an outlet for getting creatives to actively protest on behalf of libraries and public concerns (forest selling, bankers bonus’s etc.) Transforming corporate spaces into people places.

Points raised early on:
1) How do we use our skills to protest effectively?
2) Convert corporate spaces into public spaces >>>Topshop to forest creation.
3) In what ways can we encourage people to believe in the power of protest and the direct effect it has.
4) Example used of good practice were the Belarus free theatre(?). The company used the projection of numbers and statistics to great affect on its audience to communicate information about their society. So effective was this that many of them have either been jailed or exiled from the Belarus. The conveners suggested the use of statistics as a useful model to use somehow in relation to protest.

Many people realised that we did not have a large body of information about how and when the cuts have begun/will begin on libraries. Which have closed and when local councils are planning to begin closure. If anyone has more information please pass this on.

We began thinking about what libraries mean to each of us. What is the reason we should be so supportive of them.
They are communal spaces.
They are private spaces for personal time where young people we knew who had difficult times at home could go. They are spaces where many refugees and asylum seekers spend time using facilities and reading/learning English.

We also acknowledged as a group that libraries do not, and should, catalogue the reasons to celebrate them, though personally I find a time when we have to catalogue the reasons for celebrating library use sad and telling of the current governments politics.
Be this as it may we thought a large book each library holds that encourages people to write what reasons and why they have used the library eg. Came to meet friends and read books.

Forms of protest

Thinking specifically about forms of protest through performance here were some ideas floated:

Dancing in banks as a form of performance protest- difficult to move on.
Public library ‘stay in’s’- Local community members sit together and read stories throughout the night as a kind of sleep over.

A library shout in- Make as much noise I nthe library as possible bringing local media to the ‘shout in’. Make some noise about librarues closing.
Read an extract of your favourite book on public transport to passengers.
Read a favourite extract of your book in coorporate stores.

FIding famous MP’s constituencies and embarrising them through public demonstrations- as a hook choose those who have recently published books etc making the maware of how much money they have made from it and that these would be read in libraries. Get national pres to this through local press interest.

Begin a NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION- Every local library across the country invites local artists and performers to create a story from their shelves live in their space.

Withdraw all the books from your library- the whole commuity withdraws all of the books in protest of saving them.

Some networks to use were Artists of the resistance and A & R (Not sure what stands for?)

How to get involved

If you want to get involved please contact Lucy or UKUNCUT- perhaps through twitter feeds facebook can set up your best ideas for how to protest.

Last thought: Kettling the Houses of parliament- take a kettle, pot of tea and a book- read a story to each other and have a public sit down.

We need more information and contribution on this project. Do people know of a local library service that has closed, or a council that is threatening closure. Tell us!

Last point to raise : If the British government is so serious about austerity measures then why should they not remove their collective head from the arse of the Americans, take their troops out of Afghanistan freeing up billions of pounds for many programmes at home including important social obligations and University tuition.

If we are thinking about this Taliban insurgent rhetoric that is plastered around by spin-doctors left and right then how irresponsible is this in relation to our ‘boys dying in vain’ over there. The truth is British boys and girls have died unnecessarily because of Blaire’s arse creeping policies and ‘special relationship’.

ISSUE 39: RITUAL IN THEATRE: CAN THEATRE LEARN ANYTHING FROM RELIGION?

2011-02-04T06:38:00.000-08:00

Issue: Ritual in Theatre: Can Theatre Learn anything from Religion?

Convener(s): Nicholas Mcinerny

Participants:

tusher.players@gmail.com
clarew@dircon.co.ik
lisahayes32@gmail.com
lifestoosh@gmail.com
joshazouz@aol.com
hello@annabarrett.co.uk
adam@activated.co.uk
davidcottis@hotmail.com
lizziecrarer@hotmail.com

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

I started with brief account of why I proposed the issue. I mentioned both the origins of theatre in Religious ‘Mystery’ Plays which obviously located drama in a ritualistic world, a notion of a collective, ‘sacred’ space.

I then talked about a more recent history of drama, in the 20th Century and particularly since the WW2. Alongside ‘the death of God’ and the rise of politics as a chief concern, there was a process to demystify theatre and to pursue it as past of an intellectual narrative – so ideas around ritual were neglected because of their religious connotations. Alongside that was an alignment with political theatre with a kind of puritan rigour – distrusting ideas set around ‘the body’ and the kind of experiential effect ritual can provoke.

I mentioned my recent experience with Tantra – explore less ‘I think therefore I am’ and more ‘I feel therefore I am’. The use of ritual in Tantra – my facilitator had trained with Grotowski (?) in Poland as well as Margaret Anand, who first introduced Skydancing Tantra in the Uk, as a means of re-connection. Other ‘spiritual’ practice, such as the 5Rhythm dance practice, contributed to this. All were designed to let me live less in my head and more in my body.

Ritual, in Tantric practice, became part of an enabling space. This allowed us to recognized ritual as an essential part of our individual longing as well as challenging us to go deeper. It was affirming and created a space of safety to allow us to be braver. It allowed for the possibility of CHANGE – all vital parts of theatre.

OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS.

1. There was a long discussion about WHAT IS RITUAL? How do we characterize the apparently mundane – eg, making a cup of tea in the morning with the sacred, eg lighting a candle in church (and what about lighting a candle at home? Does that in some tiny way draw on the sacred too?
2. One practitioner, using these as examples, talked about how she cannot separate form from practice – ritual is an integral part of everything she does.
3. Does Ritual have to have a connection to something mysterious and/or transcendent?
4. Is it Sociological – a way or making sense of ourselves, the universe. The relationship between the two?
5. Tribal Longing. Does ritual perform a valuable function in allowing us to discover our tribe and reaffirm our sense of belonging to it – eg Community. This is something hugely relevant to our practice as directors/theatre makers/writers – in navigating the relationship between our isolation and our collaboration.
6. Ritual as a process and as a tool. Can you be both improvisation and respond ‘to the moment’ and also create something that connects with others because of some shared notion rooted in – what? Common experience of the world? Of History? Of shared philosophy? We talked about the power, shape and structure of traditional Religious rituals – baptism, marriage, death, mass – that are hardwired into our cultural DNA. They work – and work for a reason.
7. An example of a ritualistic activity that also has an improvisational element is Brian Eno’s use of cards for his ‘Oblique Instructions’ – where a set of random instructions are used to shape his creative process. Powerful and spontaneous – is this a real integration of the creative and ritualistic?
8. Again, Ritual as a place of safety in which you can go deeper. How does this relate to theatre, with its need to appear ‘on the edge’. Does that always best serve the best interests of an audience, when the alternative might be – especially in some forms of theatre, eg Tragedy – to provide something familiar in order to allow for greater exploration. I am thinking of Howard Barker’s writings on tragedy here as a guide.
9. The difference between Custom and Ritual. A fascinating discussion grew out of this. It centre around the idea that Ritual had a clear intention and focus, with a desire to be witnessed, and to share. Custom may, for example, be all the things we associate with the theatre experience – the programme, the drinks in the interval, the curtain, the chocolates – which are there to provide that context in which we can safely surrender to the Ritual if/when it happens – and please let it happen!
10. Related Theatre to other art forms, esp film. There was a discussion of the recent film, MR BONMEE RECALLS HIS PAST LIVES, which was structured around ideas of reincarnation and was episodic and circular rather than linear. This encourages a more meditative approach – not something we see so often in Theatre, but is that a possibility for the future?
11. Discussions of different models – eg the Lecoq ‘Neutral State’ – saying yes to whatever comes to you (very appropriate to this event!)
12. So what are our concerns and responsibilities as theatre makers. Surely we all have to know what kind of ritual will connect with your audience? But also you want to communicate an underlying belief about the world/people/audience in order to CONNECT with that ritual – so in theory there should be a creative tension.
13. The question was raised – is Theatre a Physical Space or an Individual Experience? If an Individual Experience is conducted alone, and without witness, is that truly a Ritual. I talked a little bit about the Burning Man Festival…www.burningman.com – and the way ritual becomes incorporated in a total experience.
14. How does the internet impact on Rituals? What new rituals are created by the internet. Given its influence on an increasing sense of an atomized, fragmented – how can theatre both use this extraordinary cultural and social tool – and reflect in back in our work in a meaningful way.

Finally there were several things we kept coming back to in our discussion. These are concepts that powerful Rituals symbolize but can be easily related to theatre. There are:

1. Intentionality is crucial to Ritual. What you intend will convey to an audience, even if they are unsure about what it means. This is the way to explore and extend trust for an audience.
2. Linked to this is Presence. Audience, congregation, witness.
3. Transformation. Every Ritual contains its own process, a journey that leads to the possibility of change. This is a huge abiding power that lies at the heart of Theatre.

Reflecting on that now, as I write up these notes, I am struck by one final observations.

Ritual contains within an inherent energy of optimism, or personal and collective empowerment, of pleasure, and of joy.

Nicholas McInerny

ISSUE 40: SUCH TWEET SORROW

2011-02-04T06:37:00.000-08:00

Issue: Such Tweet Sorrow - how can we stop it from ever happening again? (Or, what can we learn from it) Session 3, 4.30-6pm at the 'Craig' space.

Convener(s): Hannah Nicklin

Participants: Dan Bye, Jake Orr, Pat Ashe, Dan Baker, Aliki Chapple, Jenifer Tan, Miriam Zendle, Timothy Bird, Simon Bedford, Paul Whitlock and others.

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:
The session began with an attempt to isolate what, if anything, people found problematic about Such Tweet Sorrow (STS). It was suggested that the dialogue wasn't open enough for the medium it was in - that it paid lip service to Twitter as a form. Pat Ashe highlighted the problems with using Twitter solely as a base and ignoring the wider potential storytelling value of new media - and in fact the reality of how real people use this media, they don't broadcast, the inhabit a universe built of fragments shared of their lives/data. A link was drawn to Jake's previous session about 'cool' and theatre, and that STS seemed a facile attempt to make Shakespeare palatable for a younger audience; fundamentally missing the fact that the average age of a twitter user is mid 30s - facebook being a much younger audience*. Dan Baker wondered what was left in STS of Shakespeare, after the removal of the language.

It was also considered by Hannah Nicklin that there was something deeply troubling about not just product placement, but active product endorsement as part of the drama - insidious and manipulative at worst, story-universe-maligning at best. It was agreed by the group that there was a key problem in the casting of traditional actors - not actors with devising experience, or, indeed writers - in the roles, considering how the majority of the input was the writing of a character, not the performance (in a traditional sense**) of it.

Hannah asked whether, though, considering the small but vociferously defensive fan base, it could be suggested that there was potential snobbery on our part in the way we received the piece, but it was dismissed as formally fundamentally flawed - a devaluation of the twitter form.

Jake Orr highlighted the glimmers of interest that the rare forays onto other platforms - videos of a fight, and images - evoked suggested how it could have evolved into a more fulfilled and realistic experience.

On the question of the work's actual accessibility to young people it was suggested that STS seemed poorly researched in how people use twitter, the kind of people who use twitter, and young people themselves. There wasn't enough reciprocity and the characters were parodic.

Dan Bye suggested that despite this, it was interesting that such a large established company should recognise the importance of something like twitter, but that the problem came in not letting go of their old perceptions of how an artistic process or performance should be affected by those not 'in control'.

The conversation then sashayed into discussion on institutions and their use of Twitter, and how they work best when control (from old ideas about brand control) is relinquished, Jake talked about Little Angel's feed, and his work on that. Hannah wondered if their willingness to 'get' social media might have something to do with a being a children's theatre - are they less used to expecting to be always in control?

It was then emphasised that it's important to highlight that the idea of STS was laudable. Hannah then asked for 'solutions' to the potential problems presented by STS – more widely perhaps, of theatrical storytelling online.

Aliki's idea was the bringing of twitter text back into the live - a love improv of actors in front of an audience, tweeted directions by 'writers' from a screen***
Miriam put forward the expansion of other mediums' universes online - like the BBC Sherlock's blogs for Holmes and Watson. Hannah also pointed towards Hide and Seek's involvement with the recent Sherlock movie, and the ARG**** that they developed out of that across blogs and sites.

It was also suggested that more simply a story should spread into a universe - not create a single stream.

Dan Bye mentioned an interesting collaboration between himself and Dan Rebellato with Pilot Theatre coming up - R&Ding the potential of twitter theatre/writing/storytelling.

It was agreed that it's very easy to underestimate people's urge to find out more, of 'digital native' generation's tendency to play with things to see what they do, and that reward is what they need to get meaningful interaction, not guidance.
Aliki talked about Star Voyage - a SciFi twitter story over several characters which she discovered slowly after one character followed her (likely following a simple search for 'SciFi')

The discussion then tentatively moved toward the question of what is theatre. Aliki felt that it should be about bodies in space, whereas Hannah felt it should be more about story experienced or expressed thorough a body (navigated via instructions in a headset?). Dan Bye was less concerned with the question, than just making things. And talked about wanting online drama to leave real world residues - events that trickle into real life', and also the need that a piece needs to have not been possible in another genre/form/medium.

Hannah asked what successful cross-platform story-driven experiences the group could suggest, Tim Etchell's SMS performance, and Ivy from Blast theory were highlighted as two really successful examples, primarily because they pervaded your day-to-day life in meaningful ways. Ivy in particular because of the very powerful level of interaction. A piece by Unlimited was also mentioned, as well as the performance group who staged a hanging on Chatroulette (although massive ethical difficulties lie therein).

It was pointed to how easy it is to feel you know people online, as the conversation moved towards the ability of online performance to interrogate the gaps between 'real' and 'fake'. That the idea of 'authenticity' is a bit of a cultural obsession. Recently Catfish, and The Trip have skated this question or 'real'.
The discussion drew to a close with Jake's assertion that he was ready to praise STS, not for it's content, but for it's readiness to address the form. There is a fundamental question about how it was conceived - as audience development, as a youth project, or as an experiment - because if an experiment, it can be a success (indeed highly valuable) in relative failure.

Finally the remaining participants touched on how theatres themselves tweet - and about the problems encountered in larger or more traditional institutions/buildings by the need to control brand 'image', and the possible mistaking of conversation for marketing.

Thanks to all who participated!

And to you, for reading this far.

@hannahnicklin ;)

*for want of a better word?
**is a traditional sense the thing to apply here?
***Andy Field's Movey House is perhaps an interesting thing to look at further to this?
**** Alternate Reality Game, but did they call it this?

Really, the fact that we could have an almost 2 hour conversation about it is worth in itself.

ISSUE 41: THEATRE AND ASTROLOGY

2011-02-04T06:34:00.000-08:00

Issue: Theatre and Astrology

Convener(s): Regina Mendes

Participants: Alan Cox , Thirsa van Til , Chris Grady, Gabrielle Beasley, Fionn Gill, Caroline Pearce, Suzy Almond, Thomas Eccleshare + 1

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

There were 7 persons in the session for the first 45 minutes. Each of them came to the group and stayed for a while. The last half an hour 2 more persons joined. In total we were 4 men incl Chris, Alan, Thomas, .......and 6 women incl Gabrielle , Caroline, Suzy, and Regina.

Some of them didn’t know anything about Astrology and some did know something.

Gabrielle said that in the last 2 years she became very involved with Astrology and even being very sceptical she realizes that it can be very helpful. She said that helps her to understand more about herself and her potential. The more she goes into it the more she finds that it really works. It was the first time she was talking about Astrology in a serious way with someone outside her family.

One was interested because he is going to make a play about the outsider space and in the research he came across with Astrology.

One wanted to know about her sun sign because sometimes she feels she doesn’t fit in it.

One talked about his experience with a group of children asking them to create a character inspired by their astrological sign .He talked about the characteristics of each sign and the kids performed it. It was a good experience.

Chris said that his mother had done his astrological chart when he was born and he read it when he was 15 years old . He said it was extraordinary ! It was like the astrologer knew about all his life! He also commented about an experience when they were performing a play related with wolf . The play was running during a full moon evening and they felt a completely different kind of energy. It is an idea to see the sky at the moment the play is running to see how does it affect the play.

Alison talked about the Zodiac painted at the Globe Theatre and the old days when Astrology was an accepted knowledge. After Renaissance we had the split between Astronomy as science and Astrology as superstition. He welcome another person explaining about my experience and he said it was more interesting than he thought it would be. ☺

Suzy also an astrologer joined the group very briefly and she was curious to know how I work mixing both Theatre and Astrology .

I said that I use Astrology as a tool to develop a play. It helps to make the creative process more visible and easier. An instrument to help the actor and director to find out what is going on at a deep and essential level. It is very different from an astrological consultation as we are creating a living thing. The thing is already there and astrology can just make it easier to spot it during the process of improvisations .

I also explain that I work with the actor’s astrological chart which can be made by knowing the date of birth, local and time. I said that each of sun signs have their own qualities and properties that can be lived by each person in different ways. One of the reasons is because the astrological chart has lots of planets doing lots of aspects between them and they are placed in signs and houses. The sun sign is one of them. There are also some other important points and one of them we call ascendant. So there are lots of things combined together in very unique ways for each person giving a unique way of living it.

I have been studding Astrology for 30 years and reading astrological charts as a professional for 25 years. My first project mixing Theatre and Astrology was in 1992 when we create a play rehearsing during 3 months with a Japanese actress . People loved it! After that I have being working creating some plays in theatre and dance using Astrology as a very good friend.

reginaaa@hotmail.com

ISSUE 42: A THEATRE WITH GLASS WALLS: HOW CAN WE LET THE WORLD IN?

2011-02-04T06:32:00.000-08:00

Issue: A Theatre with Glass Walls: How can we let the world in?

Convener(s): Alex Swift

Participants: Many, who came and went so I didn’t get names

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

People read the question and the idea of the glass wall in many different ways, including:

As a theatre which asks the audience/participants to look outside(literally and metaphorically), at what is going on in the world outside.

As a metaphor for a barrier that prevents communication between performers and audiences. As something that might be in the performer’s head, or the audience member’s head.

As a barrier that prevents people from coming in – perhaps because they do not feel that the work is relevant to them, or because theatres can be frightening places if you don’t know how to behave in them.

As a metaphor for an arts world that talks only to itself.

As a way of opening out the mechanics of a piece – the rehearsal, the technical work, the bits that we normally hide.

Here are some of the things that people said (not quite in the words they said them because I can’t write that fast):

Someone performed in a show in a shoe shop with a glass wall. People would stop and look in, sometimes for the whole show. They never managed to talk to any of the people who watched from the outside, but some of the audience on the inside said it made them feel like VIPs.

Someone rehearsed in a shop window. It was unsettling seeing people look in. Sometimes as artists we are very separate. The rehearsal can be a secret process. It can be helpful to duck back into the real world sometimes.

Would it be possible to rehearse in empty shops? If people saw you rehearsing would it make them more likely to come? We didn’t know how we would feel if we rehearsed like this.

Would an open theatre mean you would lose the feeling of walking into the magical place?

Theatre’s can be frightening places if you don’t know what’s in them.

There are some fringe theatres which have windows that can be opened/ revealed (including the Camden People’s Theatre). It would be interesting to see some work that considers them as interfaces with the world which can be controlled – opened up or shut during performance.

Is there a lack in the theatre that doesn’t let us say what we feel? Alex did a relatively conventional theatre show just after the start of the Iraq war. Outside of the theatre he and the performers wore white armbands and other symbols of their opposition to it. But that message could not be allowed to live with the play, as though in order to enter the theatre we had to forget there was a war going on. Is this a good thing? Is it a necessary thing?

We work in very closed worlds. The arts is like a “self-feeding monster” which sustains itself with its own praise of itself.

Is there a sense in which you are the same as a political person and as an artist, or is there a divide.

What is the world? What is outside? What might we choose to let in?

Can the ethical standards that you hold yourself to outside of the theatre br brought into the way we rehearse and perform?

Being an artist or living a certain lifestyle is already a political statement which has value. The more you accept this the clearer the choices you make become.

Be transparent.

Making a living is important. It means we don’t separate ourselves from one another. There is a need as an artist to keep in touch with something that is foreign to me.

Grotowski lived inside the work so much that it was possible to say “You can’t understand it if you’re not in it.” There is something wrong with this.

Someone wanted to see a nakedness in acting.

Is it helpful to change people’s expectations beforehand? Provide them with a map or a key that allows them in to a performance?

How do we bring people in to the space? Ritual and cleansing.

It changes things to put the audience inbetween two actors talking.

Is there a sense that we as theatre makers are not “real people”?

Perhaps if we start to believe that we aren’t real people we start putting up walls, building glass boxes.

Someone told an anecdote about the inspiration for Tim Crouch’s The Author. He was watching a show in which an audience member died and was carried out. The show carried on as though nothing had happened.

The Roman Tragedies by [a dutch company whose name I can’t remember] at the barbican allowed audience members to go online during the show, to interact with the outside world while the world inside goes on.

I don’t think there were any conclusions, but I might go away and write a show.

ISSUE 43: WHO IS GOING TO CUT THE UMBILICAL CORD?

2011-02-04T06:23:00.000-08:00

Issue: Who is going to cut the umbilical cord?

Convener(s): Tom Martin

Participants: Matt T, Greg M, John P, James, Dave, Andrew, Rhiannon, a couple of others

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

• An umbilical cord is a two-way system – it provides food and sucks up shit. Does the current / past funding / subsidy system represent this at all?
• ‘Putting on our George Osborne masks’ – why aren’t artists in charge of deciding where funding goes? Not in a selfish, ‘fund me!’ way, but out of the belief that the government what art can do for them, rather than what art can be (?).
• We have the broader perspective.
• Artists that react to a removal of funding / cutting the umbilical cord – those that stand on their own two feet, crying AND those that shrivel up and die. So can the removal of funding (and perhaps the seeking of other models?) be productive as well as destructive? And perhaps destructive for good reasons?
• ‘I’m playing devil’s advocate here, obviously.’
• Artists that thrive on their own / artists that survive on their own / artists that die on their own.
• Setting experimental performance up as a commercial theatre model – do we need to hack into Legally Blonde: The Musical’s audience?
• Do we need to PICKET Legally Blonde: The Musical? And say ‘you should not be watching this – it will not be productive/good?’
• Can we get a 10-minute opening slot at Legally Blonde: The Musical?
• Should we sell our wares in the foyers, to strangers?
• So much experimental theatre plays TO ITSELF – how can we wriggle away from an audience comprised of fellow artists, and do we need to?
• In the same way as youth theatres attract parents and schoolmates, so too does live art etc attract fellow practitioners, but not Legally Blonde’s audience. What would happen if we started self-censuring our interest and support? Would it all dry up? And is it worth doing if we’re just perpetuating a cycle that doesn’t see outside itself?
• YOU CAN’T COMMODIFY CULTURE FULLY STOP TRYING TO.
• Possible models:
o HEN NIGHTS
o Money in a slot
o Taking inspiration from Pay-per-View telly
• And how much are we/they prepared to pay?
• Why aren’t we connecting artist and audience through the WORK and the EXPERIENCE, rather than MONEY?
• Can art just by itself and just for its own sake be sustainable?
• Are you a subsidised theatre company? Does subsidy make you work IN A VACUUM – i.e. not connected to the outside (real?) world?
• Cull everyone without a workable business model.
• Cull everything niche and high-cost.
• No more excuses, no more grants.
• Abolish buildings. Float about.
• Should theatre have insurance policies? What is the Sultan’s Elephant had BROKEN? And just STOOD THERE? For a DAY?
• ‘I think the way to tackle it is to make the highest quality work that you can.’ ‘Be honest about the worth of your work. You can never always make your best.’
• Adopt the Argentinean model – ‘I think it is worth this, what do you think it was worth?’
• MEANS-TESTED ADMISSION! Theatre, like charity, could be x% of your net income.
• What is STAR QUALITY in experimental work?
• Is it still Keira Knightley?
• Isn’t crowd-sourcing a horrible idea? Because WHAT IF THE PIECE IS SHIT?
• Buying shares, investing in a conglomerate of experimental artists, getting a share of profits back...
• Shares / units of theatre – Rotozaza’s Etiquette, £4000, here’s the box, there you go?
• Keira Knightley went to see Black Watch at the Barbican ‘many times’.
• Is it a sellout for Keira Knightley (or a lookalike of Keira Knightley) to walk across the stage for two minutes?
• Is it a sellout for Keira Knightley (or a lookalike of Keira Knightley) to walk across the stage, naked, for two minutes?
• WE ARE GOING TO CUT THE UMBILICAL CORD OF FUNDING WITH KEIRA KNIGHTLEY’S LEGS.
• ‘I’m playing devil’s advocate here, obviously.’

ISSUE 44: "I AM YOUNG, THEATRE IS NOT COOL ENOUGH TO GO TO." HOW CAN W INSPIRE YOUNG PEOPLE TO SEE THEATRE AS COOL?

2011-02-04T06:08:00.001-08:00

Issue: “I am young, theatre is not cool enough to go to.” How can we inspire young people to see theatre as cool?

Convener(s): Jake Orr

Participants:
Abigail Graham, Estella Duffy Shakera, Will Bourdillon, Dan Baker, Rebecca Joyce, Sam Falls, Yvonne Sewell, Amber Homes, Dan Barnard, Jenna. (And others)

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

- To get something as “cool” you have to get young people to go. (Cinema?) 
- How can you force someone young to go. They have to go on their own will. - Does it relate to theatres use of marketing? Are we not marketing theatre to young people correctly? 
- Parents fund for their children to attend gigs and the cinema, but why not the theatre? 
- Theatre is seen as sitting on the outside of “cool”. 
- Local authorities websites under their ‘what’s on’ section, always put Theatre separately – as if it is something different. 
- Theatre buildings are not good at marketing to young people. 
- Theatre websites often look like local authority websites – where is the fun and excitement in them? 
- Does it relate to the atmosphere of a theatre, and its buildings? Are theatres not allowing themselves to be assessable for young people and therefore creating a resistance. 
- Linked to schools taking their students to the theatre. How does theatre appeal to young people outside of the Education system? 
- Are the rules of theatre too strict – cinema allows people to get up and go as they see fit, theatre is stricter. 
- Is it a matter of the productions not engaging with young people instead of the building/marketing. Do productions engage with the world of young people. - Thinking beyond the usual engagement to get young people to see theatre as more than just one night. Setting up YouTube channels 
- Production values should be higher to engage young people. 
- Are regional theatres accessible for younger audiences – are they just playing to the same demographic? 
- Young people only like things that are cool, if something is hot, or a trend. They often want things they can’t have… therefore, are sold out theatre shows seen as cool because you can’t actually get tickets for them? 
- What happens when young people become part of the process of making theatre? 
- Roundhouse used as an example of an organisation that puts young people into the core work, and is developed with the same team that programmes the main space. 
- If young people are in a show, do these shows sell well to young people purely because their friends are in it? Are they only seeing it because of them? - Collaborating with young people might be the key.
- Germany has different attitudes. Young people wouldn’t be “seen dead” going to the theatre with their parents. 
- Do we need to create a new language and/or code to communicate with young people? 
- “No one could get into my world” – is there a path into a young persons world without being patronising? 
- Discussion went into two defined areas: a) Young People as participants in the process, and b) Young people seeing theatre. 
- You don’t have to participate to go to the theatre, just like you don’t have to participate in films to go to the cinema. 
- We are producing too much ‘bad theatre’. Why would young people want to see such bad work in the first place? 
- Do we look beyond the conventional theatre spaces to help the engagement – possibly site specific work. Do we trick young people into witnessing theatre? 
- Celebrities in theatre – does it make it cool? 
- Why are no purely theatre actors seen as celebrities/cool? But someone like David Tennant is seen as both? 
- What impact has the Andrew Lloyd Webber TV ‘Finding A…’ had to get young people interested in theatre? 
- Has Glee inspired young people – but Glee’s characters are all based around outcasts who want to get into theatre. Are we really the outcasts? 
- What does “cool” actually mean? How do we define it? 
- Does the question relate to the branding of theatre – why have big brands such as Facebook suddenly sprung up and become cool, and the thing to do for young people? 
- For something to be cool does it have to come from the underground – an underground movement? 
- What is cool within the industry is not cool outside of the industry – this constantly switches back and forth. 
- Why do young people not go to the theatre on their own? Because they don’t know how. (Schools sort tickets out for students, parents sort tickets out for their children. Why do they not teach the excitement of going into the box office to buy a ticket?) 
- What impact did A Night Less Ordinary have upon getting young people into the theatre? 
- Data shows that young people have not been going to the theatre for years. There is a significant gap between children, and adults, where young people literally do not attend theatre. This is nothing new, and this is not going to change. Why are we so keen to get young people to the theatre when they haven’t been going for years and years? 
- Theatre is depression. 
- I listen to Radio Four, but I never would have as a young person. Radio Four demographics aren’t young people. There is a distinct gap in ages. Argument: Radio Four is one channel on a spectrum of Radio as a whole. Young people do listen to Radio One, and other channels. Relating to theatre, we’re not talking about a certain channel or genre of theatre – we’re talking about ALL theatre. 
- Isn’t it depressing that young people don’t like going to the theatre? Isn’t it depressing to only see older people? 
- What is theatre actually for? It is not JUST for young people, so why make it into that? 
- Look at Street Theatre Festival in Barcelona. A free festival which gets hundreds/thousands of young people going, and they watch the theatre. It’s an event. 
- Is theatre too expensive? Would I rather pay for theatre or eat rice for a week? 
- Everyone at D&D comes from those individuals as young people who were enthralled by theatre – the outcasts, the minorities.
Are we all freaks and outcasts here? 
- Are theatre’s now using a ‘trojan horse’ style of attack to pretend it’s not theatre, and to get young people to come and see it. 
- Why are we trying to change it in the first place? Does it matter? Why don’t we just let it be. 
- Intelligence is frowned upon by young people. Should we make theatre marketing with “adult only” written on it, to get young people wanting to go see something that is aimed at adults, instead of them as young people? 
- Theatre is not inspirational enough to young people. It doesn’t offer the same inspirational values that fashion or film can offer. How do we make theatre more aspirational? 
- What is over, is over.

ISSUE 45: FORM FILLING: HAVE YOU HAD ENOUGH?

2011-02-04T06:08:00.000-08:00

Issue: Form Filling: have you had enough ?

Convener(s): Henrietta Leyser

Participants: Nell Bailey

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

Nell agreed that forms are frustrating and make people fearful and that they often ask STUPID questions.

But she thinks they really do help people evaluate their work and anyway she is there to help you with your forms !

So: just get in touch with her at nichefiller.co.uk

ISSUE 46: WE REALLY ARE ALL FUCKED OR THE DEATH OF THINKING

2011-02-04T06:06:00.000-08:00

Issue: We really are all fucked or the death of thinking

Convener(s):none

Participants: Alan Cox, Erica Whyman, Zoe Svendsen, Kate McGrath, Rebecca Manson Jones, Rupert Jones, Jonathan Holmes and others

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

The problem for us in the arts is not cuts to arts funding – as theatre is going to survive – the problem is the death of thinking.

The situation is: the universities will no longer be funded to provide teaching in the following subjects:

History, politics, foreign languages, economics, ECONOMICS!, policy studies, classical cultures and languages, international relations, art, English literature, music, anthropology, sociology, sport, geography, film, post-colonial studies, theatre, Latin American studies, African Studies, Chinese, ethnography, archeology, Arabic studies, architecture…

There will be no more funding for economics!

No more critical thinking?

We really are all fucked…
Feeling that the theatre/ the arts is an inadequate platform from which to make change, because it isn’t urgent enough.. Should we ditch our day-jobs to do something more politically effective, immediate, arts feels somehow too indirect?

We’ve rejected political theatre over the past twenty years – rejected the Shavian model for discussion-based theatre
Howard Barker not party political or Guardian-reader political – but presents thoughts bomb?

Where is our society headed?
Alternative income streams: Japanese practice: to hire actors to play relatives at their wedding (if you don’t have the right relatives)

The people who study these subjects go on to make up society

If the theatre has been influential in the next five years (ie the situation is better than we believe it will be) what will that have meant for what we’ve done in theatre?
How do we behave like the state is ours, not theres?

Gap between the desire for a political conversation (manifested on blogs and in comments pages on media sites) but people don’t relate this to the arts – and don’t come to arts events to join in with thinking.

How can we change this? How can the arts participate in a social and national dialogue?

Start a facebook café (relation between the online and the offline)

What is our national identity? What constitutes it?

Paradox: Tories not anti-art per se, pro heritage (free museums). Tories want economic success. But they don’t recognize that art cannot be produced instrumentally, because it is part of a much more complex economy than the relationship between buying a ticket to something, and receiving an experience in return.

What we want to achieve is for audiences to desire to buy a ticket to cross a threshold – to experience or be at something they are curious about, a desire to experience the as-yet unknown, rather than to buy a product

Even if you didn’t go to university yourself, many of the people you interact with did?

What does the university offer? A space for non-instrumental thinking – a place to test and articulate what is happening in the world and understand how we got here

Also university has come to substitute for the dole or other forms of subsidy as a place where people who want to make theatre can discover, make mistakes, try things out without external scrutiny

Stories:

Socialism is something like camping in the distribution of labour and leisure.

Our current (capitalist) situation is something like – if you were on a camping trip and wandered off into the woods and found an apple tree with wonderful edible apples on it, the reasonable thing to do would be to go back to the group and sell the others apples at a price you would set according to what they might pay. Giving them away would be seen as ridiculous and foolish. This is our situation.
Gerry Cohen - ~Why Not Socialism?

Stewart Lee satirizing Thatcher’s comment to a student studying ancient norse mythology that it is a privilege on Youtube

What do we want?

To think harder
To challenge ourselves to be smarter, funnier and more meaningful
To take our audiences more seriously
To talk to one another more – artists and producers – about the content of the work/what works/what doesn’t – as a constructive process

ISSUE 47: HOW DO WE BEST NURTURE AND ENCOURAGE THE NEXT GENERATION(S) OF PLAYWRIGHTS?

2011-02-04T06:03:00.000-08:00

Issue: How do we best nurture and encourage the next generation(s)* of playwrights?

Convener(s): Yvonne Sewell

Participants: I lost the bit of paper! Please get in touch if you were here – good chats occurred: yvonne_sewell@hotmail.co.uk

*not restricted to age

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

This is a huge question (one of many). What exactly do we mean by the next ‘generation’? We discovered that there are two quite distinct issues here: that of our education system and that of individual development amongst adults.

The education system:

Why isn’t script writing as integral to the curriculum as poetry, prose or Shakespeare? There is an argument here that children don’t want to write scripts as they’d rather improvise and use actions. But that cannot run true in comparison to the rest of the curriculum. The curriculum is (should be) there to give children the tools and knowledge to fulfil any potential – whether it’s scientific, physical or creative. If other creative mediums are actively encouraged then why is script writing left behind? True, with a gem of a Drama or English teacher this world might be opened up to people at a younger age but this shouldn’t be left to chance.

Obviously, there are huge hurdles here, both to do with funding and time within the curriculum. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk about it.

There are a few break-out groups for young people to learn to write scripts but these don’t hold priority over youth theatre groups and they need to be brought to the forefront to make the playwriting network more accessible to everyone both in the long and short term.

Useful resources:
Books
Story by Robert McKee
How Plays Work by David Edgar
The Secret Life of Plays by Steve Waters

Organisations
North West Playwrights
Playwrights Studio Scotland
New Writing South
New Writing North
The Antelopes
Scriptworks (at Contact Theatre, Manchester)

ISSUE 48: WHAT DO I DO WITH THIS THEATRE COMPANY I HAVE LYING ABOUT FROM SEPTEMBER TO JULY?

2011-02-04T06:00:00.000-08:00

Issue: What do I do with this theatre company I have lying about from September to July? (What options do new theatre companies have outside of the Fringe?)

Convener(s): Will Bourdillon

Participants: Simon Treves, Lizzy Walcott, Becky Haines

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

General Advice and Comments

Importance of networking, generating contacts, leads. A surprising amount of new opportunities will arise through just being willing to talk to other people in the industry.

‘Write to Your Heroes’ – Aim high, don’t exclusively communicate with people you feel are in the same situation as you. The more successful members of the artistic community may well be flattered by your interest in, and appreciation of their work.

There’s a certain wariness and lack of confidence within new companies over booking venues outside of the Fringe. The Fringe is made very accessible, will other venues be similarly so?

Venues will be interested in hearing that you are new and emerging, as it will help them to appear fresh and exciting.

Explore the ideas of outdoor/street theatre, as they avoid some of the more complex organizational aspects of booking venues.

Do research on venues, making sure that you do a few thorough applications to ones that suit you, as opposed to many underdeveloped applications to venues of varying suitability.

Find someone to act as a mentor, who you can meet with every month or so, so it doesn’t feel like you are working in an isolated environment for most of the year.

Stage Edinburgh Fringe shows in London, or other cities after the festival.

Specific Opportunities

Empty Spaces (?) – Some local councils/authorities offer empty shops as performance spaces.

Residence – A collection of disused spaces in Bristol that are offered as performance spaces.

Latitude Festival – Showcases theatrical works, and is earlier in the summer than Edinburgh.

Other Fringe Festivals – e.g. Brighton, Camden. Also on at different times from Edinburgh, and less competitive.

Scratch Nights – Currently very popular, a good way to showcase work you are developing.

ISSUE 49: SITE-SPECIFIC THEATRE AND THEATRE IN NON- STANDARD SPACES - PRACTICALITIES

2011-02-04T05:58:00.000-08:00

Issue: Site-Specific theatre and theatre in non-standard spaces - Practicalities

Convener(s): Mike Knowlden (mike@blanchandshock.com)

Participants: Sadly unrecorded…

Mark Stevenson
Kate Neall(?)

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

Divisions

Site-specific | Non-standard | Immersive/interactive

Venues

General

Ex-industrial/ex retail | shopping centres, dockyards, toilets, museums

Council, commercial estate agent, private agreement or other arrangement?

Council – get them on your side early on. Develop a genuine relationship and ensure that they can trust you. Presentation, courtesy, timing. Don’t treat it as an economic blag, but a relationship worthy of respect.

Estate agent - Is there an exchange/in kind economy – what can you do for them?

Budget

Talk of a difficulty in getting funders to commit in advance if a venue is not certain to still be there/available. Sometimes best to brazen it out – secure your funding and cross that bridge when you come to it… Fortune favours the brave.

How well set up is your space in the first place? The worse, the more contingency you will need to build in to your budget. Expect surprises. Think about what you don’t have in terms of infrastructure that other standard spaces do.

One unexpected thought is that some costs are incurred when doing more than a one-night show, such as building security – could it (although unlikely) be cheaper to tour your show as one-offs in non-standard spaces? One participant to the group had found this.

Equally is it best for you to do two shows per day?

Infrastructure

Normal provisions in standard spaces: toilets, a roof, refreshments, insurance, ticketing service, security, stewarding, electricity, water, fire marshalling, stewarding, marketing department, press, risk assessment…

You will have to work out how to replace all or much of this, and often how to do it for a harsher environment than a modern building.

Expect the unexpected!

Insurance essential as always – public liability but perhaps also product and employees.

Accessibility

This is often a greatly increased problem in non-standard venues. Do a full assessment and be clear in communicating specifics when people need to know.

Disabled access advice charity – Attitude is Everything (mostly working with music venues).

Licensing and authority, Health & Safety

Licenses are totally inflexible. Be aware of this and operate accordingly.

Do you need a Temporary Event Notice? If there is no problem with your application the lead time on this may still be at least 28 working days. These seem easier to get in public buildings. General concerns from those working in Camden!

You need to risk assess everything. Bear in mind if you are using a public space, the poor maintenance of e.g. the pavement by the council becomes your problem whilst you are performing there.

Crew

Are you looking after your cast and crew adequately in a harsh environment? Thermal underwear often needed. How and when are people travelling around?

Marketing and Audience

It is crucial that your audience understands what they are coming to, if not the specifics of the experience they will have.

- Adequate directions to the venue.
- Explanation of transport provision/laying on transport as part of ticket price. Cabs, last trains, coaches…
- Maps
- Parking
- Timings
- Facilities
- Start early getting your audience to trust you.

Performers and audience – behaviour

How do the actions of the performers set the expectations of the audience and how do they give them permission to act in certain ways? What culture/community are you creating in your venue. The importance of this in immersive/interactive work.

How big should/can your audience be? How are the sightlines in a building not designed for showing work?

Movement – getting audiences to stand takes longer than getting them to move… Who manages your crowd – actors or stewards. Actor as steward a rich proposal but gives audiences certain permissions. What is your mode of ‘controlling’ the audience?

Timing – does everyone arrive at once? How do you deal with the staggering if not, can they move back through the set? Are people arriving at different times but need to end up in the same place for a denouement? How will you achieve that? How do you deal with people moving at very different paces?

Trust – how do you get the audience’s trust. Do you want it?! As a performer it is a demanding task assessing how ‘far’ you can go with audience memebers.

Devices – do you need a piece of e.g. costume for each audience member to set a tone for their involvement in immersive/interactive work?

Festivals

Increased audience numbers, ability to piggyback on their infrastructure, especially marketing. Check on the licensing requirements in urban festivals.

Resources

Empty Shops Workbook (online)
Toolkit for adapting empty shops as galleries/performance spaces/pop-up shops

Repurpose: Space for the Arts
Forthcoming toolkit distributed free online (end Feb 2010) for makers of all sorts working in non-standard and repurposed venues – email mike@blanchandshock.com to stay in the loop.

ITC (used to?) run a course on site-specific theatre.

ISSUE 50: ARTIST AND ORGANISER OVER 60 - HOW DOES IT WORK?

2011-02-04T05:55:00.000-08:00

Issue: Artist and organizer over 60- how does it work

Convener(s): Deborah Paige

Participants: Poppy Burton Miller, Alan Escott, Kath Burlinson, Sue Frumina, Regina

Summary of discussion.

After a life-time of working in organizations and of organizing, I have the opportunity to fill my time with another job or explore my work as a director and artist. But somehow the question arises: if I’m not ‘in work’ am I retired? Why is that so scary? Should I put my home and my creative life all in one place, or would that mean I would never get back into work into the work place. How to change my work pattern and make space for myself to work as a theatre artist in isolation?

The group discussed their needs and found validation for individuals as well as thinking about wider questions and responses. Here are some:

Retirement isn’t an appropriate word: ‘if you’ve spent a life time doing something you love, why stop?’

Maybe just stop and see what happens. Why are we frightened of stopping? (challenge the idea that at our age you won’t have the chance of going back.) Maybe ‘there’s no going back’ can be exciting!

In response to what is different about the work you want to make no and the work you have always made:

‘It’s about exploring BEING not DOING’

‘When I was young I loved the short sharp energy of writing episodes. Now I long to close the curtains and write the long story’.

How to wear yourself as an artist on your sleeve. Don’t hide it behind ‘going to work’ which is easier for non-theatre people to understand.

What is the creative visibility of 60+ artists. Not honoured by our society, which is profligate with it’s senors’ work and experience

As you get older everything gets harder. You feel more invisible. Your need for enjoying the confidence other people have in you is be greater.

‘I want to run workshops but my confidence is ‘down there’ ‘

‘ I want to be on the course and not running it’

‘I want to be creating theatre not doing the jobs I have to do to stay alive.’

‘How do you keep going if you’re not perceived to be successful?’

Older artists don’t want to make work about remeniscences, they want to make work about now. Why are older people always on the receiving end of art, condemned to participate as audiences only?

But we don’t want it to be about older people teaching younger people – we want it to be about an exchange.

We like ourselves as the age we are. We need to accept we have a different sort of energy, and to find ways of exploring that in our work. To explore, to welcome this new quality of energy. All we need to know is how to slow down, not how to stop.

Collectively the group gave each other a present: Looking at each other and saying (in response to a feeling of ‘non-validity’) YOU ARE STILL HERE. YOU ARE STILL IMPORTANT.

The possibilities are here.

‘We’re the front line. We’ve got time that previous generations didn’t have, we’ve had resources that future generations may not have. We’re the special people on the planet at the moment.’

Kath told us about her work in Bury St Edmunds bringing young and old artists and participants together in a project backed by the Theatre Royal.

DP 30.1.11

ISSUE 51: IS BLOCKING THE EQUIVALENT OF MATCH-FIXING? DO WE ROOT IT OUT? HOW?

2011-02-04T05:51:00.000-08:00

Issue: is blocking the equivalent of match-fixing? Do we root it out? How?

Convener(s): Conor Short

Participants: Amelia Bird, Shakera Ahad, Claudia Jefferies, Rod from Red Ladder, Lee Simpson from Improbable, Fiona Drummond, Ewan Downie and others

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

-the connection between 2 definitions of blocking.
1: planning all the moves and setting them in stone. (mainly the definition used throughout session)
2. In improv, where a participant puts up a wall to an offer by an other participant.
-The Whelan tape technique: blacking out the stage directions, recording the dialogue “flat”, playing it during rehearsals for actors to move to then pausing the tape with actors having to keep the scene going without the dialogue.
-Where does blocking emerge from?
*From actors’ impulse and experience (partly their experience of working within the pros-arch space)
*From wanting to create meaning through movement (and potential meanings are lost as possibilities are closed down by set-in-stone blocking)
*From a manifestation of the attitude that the director somehow knows more than the actor.
-But what about technical concerns like getting actors to stand in the light?
Give the actor the choice to stand in the light or out of it. What will actor do?
-The beauty of letting it go wrong, being able to let it go wrong.
-Fits into a (long?) tradition of co-dependency between actors and directors and infantilisation of artists in general.
-The safety of always being told what to do- you can always blame the director: “Did you see what he made me do in scene 3? But what you gonna do, ey?”
-A writer finding the director got in the way between her and the actors. But do you then take on the role of director by replacing him?
- remind ourselves that the director is a role, not a person. A lot of covert directing actually takes place.
-The actor who complains to the dir: “We’re not getting enough notes!” We need to “notice the process”, be aware of it and explore what the actor really wants the note for- perhaps address by saying ok, everyone will get five notes each now, that’s the rule (eve if you have to make them up)
-A lot of it is about training actors to be responsible for decisions. In drama school or in the company.
- The dir as facilitator, the one who starts the dialogue, opens the space, holds the space where people are allowed to take responsibility.
-How to facilitate that?
-KneeHigh’s Madame Giles exercise: Madame Giles is asleep, the servant is washing up, the postman cycles past the window, delivers a package which is take to Madame Giles, who refuses it, the servant must get back the kitchen to throw the package back to the postman before he has cycled past the window.
About developing a feeling for the organics of the scene.
-yet you have to move a sofa at some point- does that kill everything? No, a million ways to move a sofa, just like scoring a goal- you know your objective, you don’t need to plan how you are going to achieve it.
-blocking is a way of making something look natural
-How do we still feel safe within this? Don’t actors need to feel safe in order not to close down? We have to get to a stage where we feel safe within danger, safe feeling vulnerable, because fear makes you close down- which is opposite to being awake.
-Lecoq’s “naughty energy”.
-Commedia del Arte game (?) fighting for the central square
-Brecht and his designer, Casper Meher (sp?) working with Gestus (sp?)
-tottering bipeds, the idea of constantly stumbling
-the possibility and perhaps danger of valuing the disturbance to the extent that we replace one autocratic system with another
-to the actor who wants some blocking, perhaps say ok, I will block you and no one else: the actor speaking to an empty space with other actors behind him.
-it essentially boils down to being Asleep or Awake. But aren’t you always doing something anyway, whether you’re doing it Asleep or Awake?
-So is the question: How do we wake actors up?
-A musician: “How dare you be asleep? You’ve got this brilliant job, there’s the bloody door if you want to be asleep.”
-How working in the round affects a sense of truth and freedom: doe sit make this more truthful because we’re not angling ourselves towards our audience.
-Performing outdoors sending all blocking out the window anyway: flies, horses etc.
- Shakespeare and company not rehearsing-just doing it with cue-scripts. Makes you listen, makes you very f.ing awake. How it goes wrong once in The Merchant of Venice.
- Irish director Jo Dowling who now never blocks since one of his actors broke a leg and a brand-new sort of blocking just happened and worked as well.
-Can blocking be the game? How can I find truth and life within the confines of set movement
-Emma Rice: asking you to do something which feels nonsensical (eg jump 3 times) without explanation. Feeling wrong and struggling with it and eventually finding why it made sense to do. How much explanation do we need, is it what we need?
-viewpoint technique (Ann Bogart)-giving lots of suggestions, throwing actions in (eg, 20 seconds of looking up, looking down, speaking fast)

ISSUE 52: HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE PETERBOROUGH?

2011-02-04T05:50:00.000-08:00

Issue: ‘How do you solve a problem like Peterborough’? Ode to Peterborough: Not in the South, not in the North, Not in the East, not in the West. Not in the fucking Midlands

Convener(s): Keely Mills

Participants:

Mark Smith, Roddy Equeld, Sally Christopher, Chris Grady, Kate Hall, Hannah Clarke-Stamp

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:
How to inspire existing artists in the city? How to develop an audience that seems to not be ‘there’? How to produce work with no alternative arts venue?

Most people’s experiences of Peterborough is in transit on the train a place on their normal journey, they may have stopped at the station and got a train, bus or taxi somewhere else. Sometimes it feels like the people that live and work in the city have done the same! How can we change this?

Find and tailor your work to those audiences that are hungry for Theatre and the performance arts, be relevant to them and their lives, show them what makes them distinctive from other cities or towns. ‘Eastern Angles’ are already producing work that is touring the rural parts of Ptown and are also producing and devising new work which is about Peterborough with great success. Nurture the huge amateur theatre scene and aspire those performers to create more work.

Nurture the new and old communities that are co-habiting in the city but are not interacting on a cultural level by bringing in the work that may bring them together. EA have asked Rifco arts to come into the city in the future and this will be beneficial to the huge Asian community. Ptown has a huge Polish community so we need to be engaging with those groups more, Theatre companies that were suggested for this: David Lane based in Bristol and the Polish work he programmes. (Other suggestions greatly received please email me at ‘platformpeterborough@yahoo.co.uk’). I realise now that EA and other artists need to be doing more of this and working with those community groups to develop their audience and address their needs. We cannot expect to do this over night either.

P’Bronx has three performance spaces, but they offer work which are normally programmed such as Blood Brothers… and sometimes it is hard for new work to get a platform, so the EA approach of rural and community venue touring is great because it brings the work to the audience who find it hard to get into the city centre late at night. The idea of street theatre was suggested and one company that would was suggested to be good to research was ‘Street Diversion’ and ‘Walk the Plank’. (Other suggestions greatly received please email me at ‘platformpeterborough@yahoo.co.uk’).
Also it was suggested that using disused shops would be good and ‘Changing Spaces’ in Cambridge was suggested. (Other suggestions greatly received please email me at ‘platformpeterborough@yahoo.co.uk’).

How to develop P’bronx’s audience?
• Ripple effect, concentrate on and build on those already there.
• Offer ourselves to a school with a theatre space, create work for the whole family
• Viral marketing so for example: capture those people travelling in and out of Peterborough on the train platform with clever and unusual marketing
• Take an opportunity to build a hub in a local library
• Explore the idea of a carnival- suggestion ‘Carnival Arts’ Luton

How to inspire the other local artists that are in the city? Many other local artists are either lacking aspiration due to thinking that another city has it sorted so why bloody bother. They don’t seem to have good links with the local council, cultural trust or arts council as well as other funding bodies. Maybe if those artists get out of the city and experience new things and understand that other towns and artists are facing the same dilemmas as they are, it will stop the moaning and also they can pass on any knowledge gained onto others. Join together and act as a collective to create a power that can be heard in and out of the city and thank goodness we have the RSA and the ‘Citizen Power’ scheme at the moment so they are definitely helping us to do this!! Hold events which raise the national profile of the local councillors and invite them! Have our own regular ‘open space’ events which uses a venue regularly to galvanise us and we can pass on knowledge, Invite D&D to P’bronx!

I have to admit I had a huge and difficult question to ask of everyone and thanks to all the peeps that helped me with this, what I have realised is that we are now on the right path to solving the problem that is Peterborough.

The moral if there is one is: Be proud of your place and where your from in the here and now and you may not be in the prettiest city but it can be yours!

ISSUE 53: HOW DO SMALL ORGANISATIONS GET BIG ORGANISATIONS TO PLAY WITH THEM?

2011-02-04T05:42:00.000-08:00

Issue: How do small organisations get big organisations to play with them?

Convener(s): Mark Stevenson (Teatro Vivo)

Participants: Jenny Harris, Louise mai Newbury, Kas Darley, Deirdre Mclaughlin, Tanja, matt, Monica, Derek, Kate Hall, Lyn Gardner, John, Julia Sandiford, Dan, Ben, Matt Rogers, Alan Sharpington, Sam Worboys, Simon, Sian Rees, Poppy, MNKelly, and lots of others

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

This question arose out of finding ways into and working in collaboration larger companies.

• Don’t always just aim at the really big organisations. Look to those just a little above your level, and ask for smaller things to begin with: use of equipment, space, email lists.
• If you go in just asking for a huge monetary collaboration from Day 1 then it is unlikely to happen.
• Think of things that the larger organisation may see as low value to them (a resource they take for granted or has little cost implications)
• Some companies found it difficult getting people to see work and then when they did get a relationship it was with individuals and when there were staff changes in the larger organisations then the whole relationship became problematic.
• In the current funding climate large organisations will be needing to and wanting to collaborate with smaller organisations.
• The onus is on the smaller companies to make those big organisations feel guilty and make them work with us! The big organisations are so well funded that they should be helping – BUT do think about what you can get from them that isn’t just monetary.
• NT and Old Vic, etc should be taking on small companies to nurture (like the NT did with Shunt)
• Whilst there is the uncertainty about NPO funding everyone is talking about collaboration so now is the moment to be approaching large organisations.
• As artists we should look at how we approach organisations. They aren’t just ‘venues’ to host our work – it’s the relationship that you build up. Rather than looking for the space. What can you offer them?
• Large organisations have a massive resource of experienced people – Going and asking for advice is the best way to start a relationship. But be quite direct about what you want advice about.
• Rule of 3 was discussed – some people advocating if you hadn’t had a response from an organisation after three goes then move on (although Jenny said that when she received things sometimes it took a bit longer)
• Don’t just base your relationship on feeling a debt of gratitude. It’s a relationship. You don’t need to compromise. If a company takes you on they want you for what it is you do.
• It was suggested that 3 minute videos or other documentation of work is just as useful – one programmer saying she generally used youtube to programme nowadays
• RESEARCH. RESEARCH. RESEARCH. Find out about the people you want to contact – what they are interested in – what kind of theatre the tend to work on. Find the right person and the right company for you and your work
• Smaller venues offer spaces and creative hubs. If you are linked to a small venue it’ll help in your funding applications, as it will also help the larger organisations to get funding if they are helping you.
• Smaller venues often need quality work but don’t have the budget to create it. They need companies to provide that and lead with work.
• Derek from 503 talked about how they needed companies who could provide a couple of shows a year, so that they could help develop audiences.
• Are there things you can do that won’t cost the larger organisation.
• Lyn gardener was surprised how passive we all are. Why are we all so cowed by the larger companies. Get their attention – if you aren’t getting a response – go and perform a 3 minute guerrilla show in the stairwell of their theatre, people will know who you are then!
• Lyn also talked about seeing things around festivals. She went to BAC One-on-One festival and saw lots of non-official shows happening around the building.
• BUT always make sure it is still quality work you are showing.
• We assume there is a model of growth in theatre that means moving up through to large buildings, maybe that’s not right for your company.
• People talked about approaching other companies (for instance IKEA who supplied £3500 worth of furniture for a site-specific set).
• We need a culture when those above mentor and help those below. That means that even if you’re on your second show you should be haelping the people who are trying to get their first on.
• Producers said that people don’t come and ask them about stuff. Just call – it’s the start of a relationship.
• People found that in the regions it was easier to build relationships with other organisations. It was suggested that companies move out of London to access this.
• People found that being in dialogue with younger companies asking questions is brilliant and helps you define how you do things yourself.
• If there is something that is missing that you need then become it yourself, as a younger company probably need it too.
• Gather round people just above you and just below you and rise up like a ring of fire.
• Improbable run a mentoring fete once a year and look to help people – it makes them stronger as an organisation (nick@improbable.co.uk – if you want advice)
• Erica from Northern stage talked about the fact they don’t have closed doors – they want people to come and talk to them. They have free space and a yearly award – but very few companies from outside the North east apply for these
• Find out what makes the organisation you want to approach tick – if you can’t find out – go and ask them.
• Everyone started somewhere. They are all approachable – just don’t be scared.
• Ask people who you should be talking to if you don’t know

ISSUE 54: LULLABY FOR OUR DARK TIME

2011-02-04T05:32:00.000-08:00

Issue: Lullaby for our Dark Time

Convener(s): Lewis and Zoë

Participants:
Mary O’Connor, Karin Verbrugger, Steven Winnery, Lucy Oliver-Harrison, Kath Burlinson, Elis Kerhoven

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

With the inspiration of a Icelandic Lament called The Seal Woman, and a Dutch lullaby about a sleeping child and a kitten drinking milk:

Slaap Kindje Slaap
Daarbuiten loopt een shaap
Een schaap met witte voetjes
Die drinkt zyn melk zo zoetjes
Slaap kindje Slaap
Daarbuiten loopt een schaap

We have created our own lullaby for the dark times. With conceptual images from Steven and lyrical contributions from Ellis we have a three verse lullaby:

Who turned out the Light?
Be not afraid of the Dark
Sleep well my dear, creativity’s here
Hold on – there’s no time to fear.

Who turned out the Light?
Be not afraid of the Dark.
We’ll wade through the sand, so take hold of my hand,
Tell a tale, set sail on the arc.

Who turned out the Light?
Be not afraid of the Dark.
Recharging is best, when our eyes are at rest
Awake bright with the light of the lark.
Awake bright with the light of the lark.
Awake bright with the light of the lark.

Audioboos of the two songs created at D and D 6

The song we're singing: http://audioboo.fm/boos/265390-dandd-this-is-the-song-we-are-singing

Lullaby for the dark times : http://audioboo.fm/boos/265962-dandd6-lullaby-for-the-dark-times

ISSUE 55: TOURING TO BOSNIA AND THE BALKANS

2011-02-04T05:31:00.000-08:00

Issue: Touring to Bosnia and the Balkans

Convener(s): Clara Giraud (PanicLab)

Participants: Alex Einsenberg, Sasha Dauren

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

Touring a show about the war in Yougoslavia from a Bosnian point of view to Serbia and Croatia might be tricky politically. The young and open artists are keen, but don’t necessarily want to talk about the war.

However, being an outsider in this context can be a positive point.

Best to contact theatres and festivals with a printed and posted info pack in Cyrillic, rather than email.

A few places to look up:
National Theatre Belgrade
ATELJE 212
JDP
ZVEZDARA
…

ISSUE 56: IS THERE ANYONE ELSE HERE FROM CARDIFF?

2011-02-04T05:29:00.000-08:00

Issue: Is there anyone else here from Cardiff?

Convener(s): Catriona James – catriona.james@gmail.com

Participants:

Catriona James
Lisa Turner
Rachael Spence

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

I’ve lived in Cardiff for just over a year, having moved there from London. Lisa is originally from Cardiff, has lived in London for a number of years, and is now based in Cardiff but studying in London (and so dividing her time between both places). Rachael’s sister lives in Cardiff, though she herself has never lived there and is based in London.

There don’t appear to be many Cardiff-based theatre-makers and performers here! I’d like to know why, as there is definitely a lot of performing arts being made in Cardiff. Obviously we could only make suppositions about this, but I may try to answer the question as I meet more people in Wales. I’m also trying to build a network in Cardiff comparable to the one I have in London, and finding it challenging – Lisa and I agreed on this. While the community in Cardiff is very friendly, it also appears (from the outside) to be quite closed. We both agreed that we can probably create that network, but it will take time.

Rachael joined us, and we talked a bit about whether living in Cardiff gives you any advantage when it comes to the work being produced by BBC Wales. Our conclusion was probably not. They likely cast out of London, you need an agent etc… the usual TV story. It probably doesn’t hurt to be in Cardiff, as they may try to use local talent where possible.

We discussed the National Theatre Wales and “Welshness”. The NTW is doing generally great work in its first year, and trying to engage many different parts of Wales. Because their work has mostly been quite local in orientation, we have the feeling that we are “not Welsh enough” to be a part of it (though John McGrath isn’t Welsh). I’ve got Welsh ancestry, but am here 100 years later via Scotland, Canada and Malaysia. None of us speaks Welsh. Conclusion was that it’s probably good for NTW to do this in its first year, but we hope it becomes more outward looking down the road.

We also touched on the general aspects of being an artist living in Cardiff. Cost of living is low, but it is very difficult to find secondary work. What work exists is low-paid. On the upside, the Welsh are bloody friendly and there is a real community feeling! And that’s a pretty big plus for Cardiff.

ISSUE 57: IT’S NOT ALL CHEESE, WHY DO PEOPLE LOOK DOWN ON MUSICAL THEATRE?

2011-02-04T05:00:00.001-08:00

Issue: IT’S NOT ALL CHEESE, Why do people look down on musical theatre?

Convener(s) Simon Pollard (@simonwithaz)

Participants: Jennifer Tan, Jamie Rocha Allan, Malcolm Rippeth, Andrew Scullin, Sam Pallis, Bill Bankes-Jones, Johanna Mulholland, Chris Grady, Maddy Costa, Sam Hoyle, Dan Baker & more!

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

General Thoughts & Questions:

- Frequently (and even at #DandD6), people have turned their noses up at those who say they work in musical theatre – why?
- As a director, some of the best and worst experiences have been working in musical theatre.
- When MT is great, it’s really great – when it’s bad, it’s really bad.
- Where to draw the line between opera & musical theatre?
- Should be a huge amount of respect for MT artists as a triple threat.
- An issue of labeling ‘MT’ covers so many different sub-genres.
- What is MT?! How can we define such a broad genre in one term? Musicals are like books – there’s a whole range!
- The West End is seen as a ‘closed shop’.
- Is the ‘manipulation of emotions’ of MT a positive or negative thing?
- The USA seem to nurture MT more than UK – is this because they are more open emotionally?
- Is ‘cheese’ a bad thing?!

Problems:

- ‘Mainstream’ audiences can feel let down by bad experiences (e.g. Dirty Dancing ‘cheating’ the audience)
- General assumption made that just because one show is ‘bad’, then they all are (e.g. Dirty Dancing & Legally Blonde – the latter is actually very well written, directed etc!)
- Division set out from training point onwards inside drama schools. Sense of ‘us vs. them’ between ‘serious actors’ and MT performers.
- Idea of MT being cheap/lazy. Take a film and add ‘The Musical’ after it, or jukebox musicals.
- MT seen as ‘soulless’ – if someone is ‘too MT’ they are a polished performer but lacking in honesty.
- No drama schools are churning people out as true triple threats – acting training plays a poor third to singing and dancing. Australian Academy of Dramatic Arts trains all first years in acting before splitting off for MT specialisation in 2nd year. Why not in UK?
- There is a stigma attached to jukebox musicals (eg We Will Rock You – bad book, but good songs. Lack of consistency)
- MT is only seen as ‘successful’ if it hits the West End. We don’t see it like that with other theatre genres.
- There is no venue (like the Royal Court does for new writing) which creates an environment to foster audiences and creators for new MT.
- Plays advertised on the name of the writer, MT more often advertised by actor or producer (eg ‘Cameron Mackintosh’s Betty Blue Eyes’) –the writers are nameless & faceless. Element of press responsibility.
- New stars aren’t being nurtured. In the case of long running shows, the names of performers are no longer advertised (eg Phantom, Les Mis)
- Spring Awakening = great success in Lyric Hammersmith, but flopped in West End – why? Inappropriate venues being used?
- MT seen as ‘jazz hands’ etc but a lot of new musical theatre doesn’t require actors to dance. However, lots require dancing to a very high standard – difficult to train an ‘all round’ performer in 3 years.
- Some of the best pieces of MT last year were deliberately not billed as such (eg Earthquakes in London @ NT, Posh @ Royal Court) – theatremakers admitting that music pulls an audience in and helps take them on a journey but refusing to take the stigma of being a piece of musical theatre. But this is also a positive thing!
- By the sheer amount of people it needs to involve, and rehearsal time required, it is more expensive to produce MT so is not happening enough on the fringe.
- Influence of USA very prevalent. 4 musicals based on films on Drury Lane – only 1 = British film. Recent British successful musicals ‘Billy Elliott’ – basd on a film, and ‘Jerry Springer’ based on US culture.
- Cameron Macintosh has an obligation to close Les Mis in the West End – it’s now stale and soulless and a poor representation of what was once a brilliant show.
- People are stuck in a rut of seeing MT in the model of the American Book musical – not enough working towards finding a British MT voice.

Positives:

- Tete a tete run a festival for new operas and MT
- The Arts Council is gradually beginning to accept Musical Theatre as an art form in its own right.
- There are over 400 festivals in the UK – Glastonbury, Latitude, Secret garden Party etc Showing a huge desire for live music – the cast of Hair performed at Latitude – let’s build on this!
- Musical Theatre is a way in to theatre for many young people. May see ‘Wicked’ or siilar, then see DV8/Improbable etc on the back of a positive experience (like drugs, once you’ve had your first hit, you’re hooked, and ready to experiment!)
- Menier Chocolate Factory aim for small shows rather than big ones, giving a sense of intimacy.
- Arts Council London – MT went on the agenda, and on the back of this, Perfect Pitch and Mercury Musical Development have been funded – this has developed into Portfolio pitches from musical theatre creators.
- Regional repertory theatres tend to have at least one MT piece each season eg Dundee Rep, Traverse etc.
- Very strong Musical theatre societies within the UK – as in Australia.
- Arts Ed shifted tutors from acting course over to MT course to ensure an equal training, and to change actors’ perceptions of MT performers.
- LAMDA doesn’t run a separate MT course but trains actors in MT and commissions a new musical every year.
- Music being increasingly used in theatre (eg Earthquakes @ NT) – almost tricking the audience into seeing a piece of MT by coming in ‘under the wire’ – but this is also a problem! (See above)
- Collaboration! Music = very important to composers, Text = very important to playwrights. The two together creates something very special.
- Brockley Jack had never had a new musical before, and when it did, audiences responded very positively.
- There are ways of doing MT on a smaller, more cost effective scale e.g. youth musical theatre.
- Small scale intimate productions created specifically for smaller venues can be a far more rwarding experience for audience and creatives than those for big houses & audiences (eg Off Broadway vs. Broadway ‘The Wild Party)

Possible solutions:

- Popular musical artists (eg Plan B, The Streets) are increasingly creating narrative driven concept albums. Perhaps if these can be harnessed theatrically, it could be another way in for new audiences?
- Let it be what it will be! Create shows which are specifically for a space, or time period, and remove the idea that they are only successful if they transfer or extend.
- Fin d a way of nurturing young musical theatre creatives by giving them platforms to explore by experimentation – in a similar model to Old Vic New Voices.
- Establish a venue following the Royal Court model, fostering new audiences and creatives working within the industry of new musical theatre.
- Begin to see and celebrate the diversity within the genre of MT!

ISSUE 58: WHAT DOES PUNK THEATRE LOOK LIKE NOW?

2011-02-04T04:57:00.000-08:00

Issue: What does Punk Theatre look like now?

Convener(s): Mary O’Connor

Participants:
Lizzy , Scott, Kelly, Olya Jamie, Sarah, Tyrone, Lawrence

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

Punk. Rebellious and Alternative
Buchinger’s Boot Armiture of the Absolute.(Puppets. Anarchic )Jubilee (Jarman)

The following words that came up in discussion :- Outrageous captivating Shocking rebellion loud.subversion Anger

Punk Theatre exists under an umbrella of personal experiences, a shared ideology a rebellion against what society expects.Olya’s husband is writing an article about Punk Theatre for PUNK.

Theatre Laboratories /Process sense of individual within a collective. A sense of anarchy but not with a purpose of revolution starts with the self and the expression of the self.Touched by/with freedom.Free not linked start with the individual. Improbable as Punk theatre there is an acceptance of failures. Humour . Lie down if you have to.

Performance art.

A response to tradition create own tradition, signature style. Break as and when.
Also ‘How do we/I play Hamlet?’ as a starting point.
Punk theatre is a Family of individuals within a collective.’we’re making work’ we have a common thread we are authentic/true to work and the page.The audience is the testing ground.struggle with convention. Dialogue to work out. Dialogue with audience.
Punk bands = three friends who did stuff punk theatre serendipity, enough people to do it. Churning and Christillisation. .trust yourself not to know anything mu strength is a weakness. You and how you learn . non-negation.Showmanship overt self expression.

Tyrone spoke about the Impact Theatre cooperative, he left Leeds uni in ’79 total sense of community. Living in each others pockets, whoever had the money for the round of drinks bought the round.
Crash Theatre.
Tension within the cooperative ‘director couldn’t direct us we wouldn’t let him.sound/design was done by those who could. D.I.Y. Theatre. Where you developed your craft (all day discussion about whether graham should buy a wasp synthesizer for £200) negotiation and sharing.
NOT to change society but anarchic archetype. No sense of being a punk alone but collective and shared with anyone who shares our passion. It does effect society. It can’t help but have an effect.
Shunt Vaults shakespeare’s theatre was full of energy excitement and was Punk theatre. Know the tradition to subvert it. The craft comes. Alain Platel Choreographer mathematician. Punkness.

Ethics of we are here/ honest. We stand in for whoever chooses to walk away. Childishness sense of exploring possibility and boundaries. Punch and Judy =punk. How political can it/we be? Theatre exiled for being too political.
Archetypes Punch and Judy Theatre Laboratories subvert, revolution –small-
Impact were plagerised by a company that took work further sense of heritage translation ,. 2003 contemporary aesthetic for punk theatre developed.
Akhe space always open. Between.
Money? D.I.Y. share/pool (impact did) we want to do something who has the money for a round we will start doing it …………………

ISSUE 59: HOW DO WE RECLAIM A SPACE IN SOCIETY FOR ART FOR ITS OWN SAKE?

2011-02-04T04:56:00.000-08:00

Issue: How do we reclaim a space in society for art for its own sake?

Convener(s): Tanja Raaste

Participants: Shakera Louise Ahad, Amber, Chrissy Jay, Jonny Liron, Martyn Duffy.

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:
There were several strands this discussion, including arts funding, public and private spaces and the value of art.

The financial aspect is that the Arts Council has to justify how it uses state money. This will necessarily bias it towards social projects. Other funders and society take their cue from this.

Currently art is coming out of buildings and into social spaces, which is exciting. Commercial is being turned public through schemes to use disused shops, and also through squatting. The former is being encouraged because of the arts’ proven ‘regenerative effect’. Artists are embracing this because venues have become too expensive.

There was some debate on the purpose of art. Art only for arts’ sake was seen to be a lovely experiment, but self-indulgent. It is ultimately for the audience. It does have a purpose, but that purpose can be very flexible, from health to political commentary, from community to new relationships.

‘Anti social’ work was discussed – in the sense of work that is either not following or against current political agendas. This will be seen as threatening, even revolutionary, and has never been funded. The job of artists in this case is just to keep pushing those boundaries like they always have done.

One way of getting funding for something ‘off agenda’ is to produce an excellent body of work, which does eventually get recognized.

The problem of site-specific theatre was raised where, instead of working in allocated shops, an artist falls in love with a specific space and cannot get access. This comes back to the expensiveness of venues – anyone owning interesting venues is aware of their interest, and therefore monetary value. An idea was proposed that, especially in the case of public sites, some access and time could be reserved for artists that are not able to pay ‘the going rate’.

Society is used to the arts having an agenda. It is also the perception that science advances society, whereas art is optional. Yet art often leads science, and the current strict separation is pure perception anyway.

Government is utilitarian, and artists have learned very successfully to adopt the language of government and business since Thatcher, and are now good at proving ourselves in terms of monetary worth: art regenerates areas, tourism, wealth generation etc. However, the current government still seems to be ignoring us speaking in their own language.

The notion of arts being the soul of society, and also of arts creating a joint national identity, is something that would only be missed if arts were removed for a long period – say 30 years. And since artists have learnt to survive, this wouldn’t happen. Artists are resilient, which is a catch-22 situation. The current government is relying on this and expects artists to create big society through subsidising our own work, which has always happened anyway.

The knock-on effect of lots of small cuts to small organizations was discussed. Larger organizations are better equipped to cope with cuts, and the government could make more money by one large cut to a large organization, but since the smaller organizations lack a collective voice and cutting funding from large organizations is bound to generate large headlines, government has chosen the utilitarian option.

The arts are in a difficult situation when faced with this mindset which has league tables for everything and a very short-termist view. Coupled with artists’ desire to create, even by self-subsiding, it would seem there is no easy way of proving the value of arts for their own sake.

ISSUE 60: IS IT FAIR TO ASK PEOPLE TO WORK FOR FREE?

2011-02-04T04:54:00.000-08:00

Issue: Is it fair to ask people to work for free?

Convener(s): Kelly Lovelady

Participants: Rebecca Manson Jones
Conor Short
Tom Mansfield
Sarah Corbett
Emma Adams
Gabrielle Beasley
Louie Whitemore
Alex Brown
Deborah Paige
Jennifer Tan
Antonio Ferrara

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

• Unpaid work implicitly relative to career stage and nature of ensemble

• Not so much a decision as a realism and an urgent practicality

• Semantic problem exists in defining amateurs and professionals, neither finances nor quality are necessarily the differentiating factor

Industry Standards
• How must the style of direction / leadership / company structure adapt?
o Increased sharing of trust and confidence may require more directorial compromise in collaborations
o New model of intellectual property comes into play in devising and directing
o Us-and-them mentality between performers and directors requires new consideration
o Work without pay needs to be universal throughout the organizational structure

• How do we retain the same work ethos and level of commitment, can we secure contractual agreements?
o Clarify why the project’s important regardless of money
o Insist that no compromise will be made on quality
o Refer to Equity Fringe Agreement and/or various Volunteer Agreements

• The Fringe model is broken and needs restructuring
o Small companies are not trying to emulate the West End
o Fringe theatre succeeds according to different criteria
o Organizations which began as and continue to subscribe to the spirit of student collectives can behave professionally; applying organizational structure, mission statement, and equity code and expectations within an autonomous financial setting

• Can the performing arts be considered according to the practice and principles of volunteering? Is performance a service?

Work for free, but not for nothing
• Most artists have made a life choice and are not motivated by money so elimination of this factor doesn’t have to be automatically negative

• Exchange incentives might include
o Exposure to media and audience
o Company affiliation
o Job title or specialized role
o Ethical internships
o Corporate or further training
o Shareholder infrastructure
o Access to career moves
o Interim work and artistic engagement
o Training in professional etiquette
o Peer mentorship
o Pooling of resources
o Long-term company development
o Beer and friendship

• Companies must offer complete transparency through open access to all financial data

• Artists might be potentially reluctant to commit to unpaid work based on past experiences
o Underling treatment
o Attraction of insecure people
o Exploitation by the pilot
o Inter|viewing needs to be a decision-making process on equal footing

ISSUE 61: HACKNEY EMPIRE - NOT JUST FOR PANTOS?

2011-02-04T04:53:00.000-08:00

Issue: Hackney Empire – not just for pantos?

Convener(s): Nicola Stanhope

Participants: Louise, Gary, Mark, Ed, Jo , Hugh

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

HACKNEY EMPIRE JUST DOES PANTOMIMES
Oh no it doesn’t!
Oh yes it does!
OH NO IT DOESN’T!

Issue: How to use keep the Empire alive and relevant in the 21st Century
• 1300 seat Frank Matcham theatre
• Proscenium staging/orchestra pit
• In Central Hackney

Ideas/thoughts:
• Arts Council support has not in the past forced HE to shoe-horn the wrong sort of programming in – but what is the right sort of programming?
• Keep the theatre open as much as possible and maximise use of the space around it:
o Open every Sunday night for variety/cabaret/comedy – that’s the type of work that the space best lends itself to
o Explore opportunities for regular televised shows (e.g. Russell Brand at Hackney Empire is STILL shown on TV all the time)
o Use the space for what is looks best there:
• Comedy/variety (see above)
• Dance
• Musicals (e.g. bring in shows with a following – “Dreamboats and Petticoats” mentioned as an example
• Recession programming – people just want to have fun
o The Empire Café – all day food and drink offering – all about creating a buzz
o Encourage use of Town Hall square for events (e.g. tie in with Street Dance Festival in theatre itself)
o Ocean – over the road – re-opening – an opportunity not a threat

• Complement other local arts offerings – bring them into the space and/or share marketing but don’t do stuff that others do better (e.g. complement don’t imitate the Arcola offering)
• Is this now Hackney Central’s time to come good? Stoke Newington-Liverpool Street corridor is working but Hackney Central-Clapton regeneration just not getting there. Can HE make this happen or just wait to be beneficiary if it does?
• What became of the studio space? Can that be re-opened? For what sort of work?
• Take a leaf out of Theatre Royal Stratford East’s book and perform on the stage area as a studio – i.e. audience on stage
• How to harness the energy of local creatives? Hackney is cheap enough for them to be able to live there – make a virtue of that!
• Community plays/youth theatre/TIE/local interests groups – all on HE’s agenda
• Call on support from the network of theatre professionals who have a fondness for HE for any reason
• Grow the concept of Seasons – lots of niche ideas; need some sort of linking
• Speak to LOCOG – get something out of 2012!

ISSUE 62: HOW DO YOU SURVIVE?

2011-02-04T04:37:00.000-08:00

Issue: Marrying an artist: HOW DO YOU SURVIVE?

Convener(s): Anna P

Participants: Ben Cutler, Sarah Punshon, Dan Copeland, Elizabeth Johnson, Li E Chen, Anna P

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

SURVIVAL: economic / love / sanity
FINDING A BALANCE: between stability and artistic integrity

What kind of compromises do you have to make?
Personal compromises, compromises between the couple

Extra income:
Through real estate
Leading workshops
Finding jobs that don’t compromise your artistic integrity
Finding jobs that help feed your artistic work
Temp – and be sure to tell yourself why you are doing it, and what its for

Working together? [examples: Proper Job Theatre Company; Unlimited Theatre]
-do you want your lives to be so intertwined?
-important to maintain independent projects that are supported by each partner
-designate a “safe zone” in the house, i.e. no talking shop in the bedroom

How do you find balance when partners are not associated with the arts?
-need to find a common language so that you can talk about work, about the compromises that both need to make, about why one partner has to be away for x number of months a year…

It helps to have:
PATIENCE
PERSEVERANCE
HUMOUR

Be creative about how to stay in touch when apart for so long
Take photographs of yourself in the places you are ‘Amelie and the garden-gnome style
Have skype dinners

Economic stress can affect artistic work
Combatting anxiety:
-check the savings account and know that you’re going to be able to get through the next month okay.
-“Acceptance and Commitment Therapy” that teaches you to observe, name, and accept your fears instead of fighting against them.

Developing a ‘second skill’ – takes time and investment, but may be worth it.

Self-investment: know that the sacrifices you make help in your own further artistic development.

Acting jobs just for money? Does that compromise artistic integrity?

What are we willing to compromise?

Accepted, expected way a life should be – home, kids, some version of stability. But why can’t you turn it on its head and find a way that it works for you. We’re artists, why not be creative about how we live our lives?

Conclusion:
Ultimately, it helps to remember that “I CHOSE THIS” …and hopefully:
“We CHOSE THIS”.

Finding a balance that works for you and your partner. Making the compromises you are willing to make without selling your soul. Listen to each other. Know that it’s not going to be easy. Power on!

ISSUE 63: HOW CAN WE SUPPORT THE NEXT GENERATION OF THEATRE MAKERS?

2011-02-04T04:36:00.000-08:00

Issue: How can we support the next generation of theatre makers?

Convener(s): Amy Letman

Participants: Kate Yedigaroff, Matt Ban, Jennifer Tan, Lisa Turner, Lucy Oliver-Harrison, Ben Cutter, Dan Baker, Julia Sandiford

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:
- The term ‘young’ or ‘emerging’ can sometimes be a tyranny – we need to find a more generous way of communicating this.
- We must promote a healthy culture in theatre where there is a mix of age bands in theatres and organisations.
- Perhaps there should be more opportunities or ‘ways in’ for people who are starting out in theatre – which aren’t distributed because of financial background or age-band but because of talent and potential (we recognise that there are some opportunities which exist but we would like to promote more).
- Unpaid internships: organisations need to be honest about what they are providing and we must recognise more that many, many people cannot afford to work for free.
- The new generation of theatre makers (and this also spans producers and administrators) must know what they are about, stop apologising for being young, appreciate their value and feel positive about voicing their trade.
- There needs to be more dialogue between the older generation with the newer about how to cope with anxiety and surviving with having no money.

Our advice for the new generation:
- Don’t diversify yourself for the sake of it, do what you’re brilliant at.
- Don’t be apologetic – be what you believe you are.
- Be a mentor and seek to mentor (at any level)
- Communicate and share with others.
- Share resources!
- Talk about your ideas with others.
- Get on with it!

ISSUE 64: WHAT IS YOUR ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM?

2011-02-04T04:33:00.000-08:00

Issue: What is your elephant in the room? & “We’re not talking about what really matters.” Well, come on then.

Convener(s): Annie Rigby & Stella Duffy

Participants: Tom Martin, Simon Bowes, Rhiannon Armstrong, Matthew Austin, Matt Trueman, Poppy Burton-Morgan, David Luff, Alice Massey, Karin Verbruggen, Roddy Gauld, John, Amber, and many other people.

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

BELOW IS A COLLECTION OF OUR ELEPHANTS IN THE ROOM.

IF YOUR ELEPHANT ISN’T HERE, PLEASE ADD IT.

ELEPHANT – Gender inequality
The person who brought this elephant said she felt too shy and insecure to call this as a session yesterday.
Response – Lots of people agree that this needs to be talked about. Why in 2011 do we still have such an unequal landscape? Can the NPO process change this and make organizations and the Arts Council more accountable in addressing gender inequality?
Result – The person who brought this elephant doesn’t feel shy and insecure now, so she’s called this session for 3pm today.

ELEPHANT – It’s tough to be a session convener.
Hard to manage it and have the conversation you want to have.
Response - Just do it. Don’t feel like you need to manage it. Just be there.

ELEPHANT – There’s a sense of people not taking responsibility. We’re waiting for someone else to sort it out for us / find the answers / ask the questions.
Response – There is an issue about confidence in our community that we need to address.
Someone said “I came today because I’m scared. I hoped that someone would be here – an elder, a mentor – who could help.” We need to make connections. We are all the community.
We need to stop seeing ourselves as separate. We need to reject the notion that we have to defend the arts on the terms set by someone else. The government will form policy around us. That’s the only thing they can do.
We need to engage with politics. If we can’t we’re going nowhere.

ELEPHANT – We’re in the eye of the storm, waiting for the NPO decisions. So we can’t talk about the things we need to talk about.
Response – We should call a post-NPO D&D for April. Or perhaps once the dust has settled.
Our elders have been through this all before. We can learn from them now. An elder said “It’s career stopping. But you’re still an artist. I’m returning now. Keep starting again.”
Not all of us are part of the NPO process.

ELEPHANT – We aren’t saying which organizations we think should be cut.
Response – Togetherness vs division. We say we’re all together and a community, but we want the Arts Council to cut “them” and not “us”.
Should we say what should be cut?
If the cuts are an opportunity, what do we want?
We need to address the issue of solidarity. And who are we communicating to?
We need to increase our audience’s confidence as well as our own. They need to feel able to talk about what is shit art, because there’s going to be a lot. One of the successes of modern art is that people feel the confidence to say that it’s shit. Perhaps free entry to museums and galleries made this possible.
We need to keep experimenting with the monetary value of theatre. We assume the £6 show must be worse than the £10 show. It’s like we’re choosing wine at the supermarket. Forest Fringe have opened this up at the Edinburgh Festival. People are willing to spend £50 on a West End show. Maybe we should picket ‘Legally Blonde’ because we think it’s shit art.
But we need to recognise the value people get from that experience, rather than complaining that we don’t like ‘Legally Blonde’.

ELEPHANT – The big organisations are a milelstone around our necks.
Response – They cost so much to run, they aren’t environmentally sustainable. There’s a sense of rave culture coming back – making theatre in backstreets in Scarborough.
We want art with teeth.

ELEPHANT – People don’t believe the arts will go away, so our campaigns have no teeth.
Response – Could we have a great arts strike? It’s not possible. Is it?
Four times as many people signed the Save our Forests petition in one week as signed the Save the Arts petition.

ELEPHANT – How much space is there for real change?
Response – What does change mean? We’re too protective of what we think we are.

ELEPHANT – I don’t know if theatre is important to people who don’t make theatre.
Response – Theatre isn’t coal. We need to stop talking and thinking about it as if it’s a commodity.
It’s a mirror. It’s crucial in showing us (as society) who we are.
We’re too inexperienced and under-confident in making the case for the importance of what we do. We’re hampered by a sense of being lucky / feeling blessed to be in a position to make theatre.
We make theatre because we want to change the world. Whether that means changing people’s perspectives, bringing joy, bringing people together. We should stop being embarrassed about stating this.
When is there too much art? Thinking there could be too much art is as stupid as the Conservative party trying to set a cap on immigration. There isn’t a finite amount of space. The more art we make, the more space it creates. But there is a cap on money.
Apparently all the RFOs cost the same as a Chinook helicopter.

ELEPHANT – Time and time again people talk about how they can’t make a living out of theatre at D&D.
Response – There’s a sense of entitlement which isn’t helpful or interesting. We keep finding ways, so let’s just get on with it.

ELEPHANT – D&D is not good for our confidence.
Response – We’re just looking in on ourselves which isn’t helping. We’re better when we’re looking outside. We need to bring in more diversity. “Normal” people.

ELEPHANT – Cameron Mackintosh
Response – Cameron Mackintosh isn’t in the room. We need people from commercial theatre here. Why aren’t they? We’re not making them feel very welcome. We’re attacking ourselves? It’s not helping.

ISSUE 65: ARE CORRESPONDENCE COURSES THAT PROMISE TO HELP YOU BECOME A SUCCESSFUL WRITER ANY GOOD OR ARE THEY A WASTE OF TIME?

2011-02-04T04:32:00.001-08:00

Issue: Are correspondence courses that promise to help you become a successful writer any good or are they a waste of time?

Convener(s): Paul Whitlock

Participants: Paul Whitlock, Li, Steven, plus a white-haired man who “bumblebeed” by.

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

Li mentioned the importance of getting feedback about your own work and only accepting feedback that you feel comfortable with. Negative feedback can also be useful. It is important to find a course that is right for you.

A passerby suggested the Open University as a possibility, but said that no course could deliver personal success: “No-one can help you become a successful writer.”

Steven shared his experience of doing a cartooning course and how he had been impressed by the personal touch shown by his tutor, including handwritten comments and drawings. We briefly discussed the home-study courses offered by the Writers Bureau website.

Convener’s conclusion:
The response to this issue was rather limited. I had hoped to speak to people with first-hand experience of these writing courses, who could advise me of any pitfalls. However, I need to do further research and make my own decision.

ISSUE 66: THEATRE AND OUTER SPACE

2011-02-04T04:29:00.000-08:00

Issue: Theatre and Outer Space

Convener(s): Fionn Gill

Participants: Sarah Chew, Bill Banks-Jones, Ellan Parry, Mia Flodquest, Sarah Grange, Chris Graby, James, Tom

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

- Fionn is making a show about space and wants to hear what other people think about outer space, and making theatre about outer space. He is fascinated by its vastness and how we get so wrapped up in our daily lives yet we are in comparison so insignificant.
- Space has no edges, infinity, humans can’t fathom it.
- James climbed to space on a ladder at the Edinburgh Fringe last year. We all gave him a lot of respect.
- Someone’s dad has cycled a lot and he wonders if that distance might be enough to reach Mars for example – he cycled 3 times around the world.
- The Space Industry is the biggest and fastest growing industry in the world.
- The Mian’s predicted for 2012 that the poles will change round and this will cause huge natural disasters and most civilizations. Or humanity will reach a higher plane of spirituality.
- Q – are there many space shows out there (The Cosmonaut’s Last Message to the Woman He Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union, by David Greig- beautiful play set both down here and up there…) . One guy used a flyer saucer in a show.
- ‘Sci-Fi Theatre’ where is it? Lets make some.
- Someone wrote a domestic drama set in a space station.
- Someone did a one man show about ‘Astrophysics and String’ theory using cardboard and bits of paper – DIY.
- Apparently there used to be a ‘Science Fiction Theatre of Liverpool’
- Q - Is Sci-Fi Theatre Inherently retro? Because space and space travel feels so in the past. The Apollo series. And you can only make space stuff using poor theatre techniques – the cardboard and bits of string technique.
- NO! people says. You can do Space effectively in theatre – that’s why its theatre!!
- Twins can be used to do space travel. Beem me up Scotty sort of thing.
- A group in NYC do things like a repeated argument in Startbucks, or in a crowded space everyone goes slow-mo.
- How do we get to another planet that might have life? Real thing is to send an embryo frozen and unfreeze when nearly there and robots will bring them up.
- Someone said in Kenya in the country side it is truly black and the stars and very bright. Then she feels aware of her place in the universe.
- ‘Makes me think, Fuck it. Nothing is important on earth when you realize that’
- Working with the Scale of the earth in the universe as an interesting idea.
- There is a scale model in England of the solar system. The earth is in London and some planets are in Manchester.
- The deep ocean is more unknown to humanity than space
- In space it feels like you falling all of the time and it is an umpleasant feeling. Ansuman Bisswaz has done it. He is a musician..
- Tom from Barometric Theatre is making a show about space and wanting to get into space.
- If you have a creative mind you will not be picked as an astronaut because you will immediately start to think about the higher being when you see the earth as a whole and go mad.
- Most astraunauts become gardeners when the come back to earth – a reconnection with earth, the groung, nature again.
- Amber’s gardening point:

- There is an inherent reference to past and future when you take a rocket into space.
- The voyager is someone’s favourite space craft. It has a record in it of music from earth and drawings of humans beings that are outlines.
- ‘Pale Blue dot’ is a good book.
- Getting to another planet is impossible. When and if we get there humanity will have changed so much that it will be worthless.
- Space give existentialist angst.
- Space as everyday now. There is no space heros any more. Its commercial. Space tourism now happening.
- Having a similar experience on a mountain as being in space – seeing the coveture of the earth, putting things into perspective.
- Pilon photographs. Google satalitte video.
- Joseph Titinger – Balloon trip to space and dive off. Takes 4 mins to fall back to earth.
- If the sun where to end we’re die in 4 mins. It takes 4 mins for the sun’s rays top travel to us.
- Failure as a theme of making work about space. Trying to get there but failing.
- There is a cultural difference in understanding space. The Japenese understand it in a very different way to the west.
- We can’t understand space in our terms. So the feelings that it produces is what we try to communicate in theatre about space. Like the Stan’s Café rice piece.
- Phillip Glass made something about Space
- So has Robert Lepage
- Lots of Shakespeare references to space

ISSUE 67: THEATRE IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE: ARE WE MAKING A GOOD ACCOUNT AND COULD WE DO MORE?

2011-02-04T04:26:00.000-08:00

Issue: Theatre in the public sphere: are we making a good account and could we do more?

Convener(s): Amber Massie-Blomfield

Participants: Sorry I didn’t write it down!

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

- Does the man on the street ‘get’ theatre?
- Is theatre ingrained in people’s every day life like TV/ Cinema is? ie is going to theatre ‘natural’ for people? How does it become so?
- It’s absurd to talk about the value of the arts in terms of numbers, educational value, economic value etc, as its true value is distinct from this. It’s like religion- you can offer countless rational arguments for the existence of God, but ultimately it comes down to- either you ‘get it’, or you don’t.
- The only way to understand the value of the arts is to have a transformational experience of it yourself. Maybe we should have a crack group of artists we dispatch to people who don’t get it, to give them a transformational artistic experience in their front room and then leave. Lock MPs in their offices and ‘send in the clowns’.
- We must avoid the danger of the commodification of the arts.
- What kind of artists do we want to be?
*Forming sustainable communities around art
*Theatres as community hubs- more than just places where theatre happens
- Why are people so up in arms about libraries closing as opposed to theatre? And why have so many more people signed the save the forests petition than save the arts?
- Do we devalue theatre by making it other than theatre?
- How do we translate the value of theatre without de-valuing it?
- Why do people go to the West End?
- We need to normalise the act of theatre going at a young age. We need to ensure children have more and better theatre experiences.
- Cutting of creative partnerships etc- we are returning to a regressive, Victorian form of education.
- Theatre can teach particular skills:
* thinking critically
* being decent
- ‘You’re not allowed to use your brain anymore’.
-Arts stimulate critical thinking.
- How many people came to professional theatre through experience in amateur companies as a child?
- People aren’t going to be able to work full time as an artist anymore.
- Does the fact we don’t pay ourselves properly reflect poorly on our professionalism- mean people don’t view us as professionals?
- Can we make good experiences of theatre for children happen?
* We should look to international examples such as Sweden, where they take both children and theatre for children seriously.
- What is our first experience of theatre? It is so often meant to be ‘educational’, issues based theatre, it is hard work- or it is watching our friends in bad amateur theatre. This is the associations theatre holds.
- Michael Gove’s educational strategy is scary. We should have ‘art for arts sake’ for children.
- There is a danger in ‘socially helpful’ art
- Theatre is many things to many people- we don’t need to try and define it.
- We should ask people what they want their theatre to be
- “I should go to the theatre”- the idea being that theatre is good for you rather than enjoyable.
-Do we set up too many barriers/ conflicts between ourselves in the theatre community? – we should champion musicals more!
- Theatre standing alone and accounting for itself on its own terms.
- Is it an inherited habit/ passion?
- Do we only talk to our own community? How do we have conversations beyond the realms of theatre?
- ‘A form of creative practice that asks people what they want and give them the means to do something about it’
- Our plight is in the context of a larger plight- we don’t contextualise it
- We need to be more knowledgeable about politics in general- more access to information will enable us to articulate arguments
- Do artists have too much of a sense of entitlement?
- Big society is getting into people’s consciousness.
- When the question is posed: ‘Yes the arts is important, but what if there were less hospital beds and someone died because of it’- how do we respond? It is impossible to engage with the question- because weighing the value of art and a human life is inherently absurd. It’s a non argument- and yet it is the discussion we are forced to have.
- The arts are going to be stronger and better thanks to the funding cuts.
- We will find a model that will work better than government funding.
- Art is a ‘feeling’ that can’t be explained.
- We should be annoyed about the economy as a whole being fucked up not just arts funding.
- Funding is a form of commercialization
- Is it a false idea that depression/ bleak circumstances make for better art?
- “The arts is life: the cake not the icing on the cake.” We need to burst people’s bubbles and draw people’s attention to creativity.
- Busking as a means of bursting the bubble. Street theatre is a great means of bursting the bubble. ‘Watch this space’
- Britain has an insecurity about making experimental theatre- we should look to other cultures where it is acceptable- the way things are curated.
- The European ‘theatre of ideas’ can be stifling- it is dangerous to set up a sense of entertainment vs serious.

ISSUE 68: CALLING ALL THE DREAMERS

2011-02-04T04:20:00.000-08:00

Issue: Calling all the Dreamers

Convener(s): Alex Eisenberg

Participants: Annie Amber Holmes, Stella Duffy, Alex Eisenberg, Mary, Matt Trueman, John Pinder, Lizzie Crarer, Tom Martin, Ellis Kerkhoven, Amy Letman, Jamie Zubairr, Ed

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

DREAMS are unconscious, an unplugging. Different ways of tapping into unconscious. Surrealists. Ways to explore. Ed is making a show about dreaming with support from the Welcome Trust. Dreams as sorting out. Freud and dreams. Interpretation – there are so many ways. Can’t be put any other way. Dreams as the creative frame. A Disney Exercise: There are three places in a room – 1. Dreamer, 2. Critic, 3. Realist – you visit each place and speak from that place about a particular idea and then you visit them again and see what might have changed. Working from the place (not Palace) of your dreams to get things done. There is nothing wrong with dreaming. Time and dreaming. Dreaming as about presence. The idea of being trapped in a dream. Good theatre is like a dream. Like a dream you don’t want to leave. Content versus form of dreams. Premonition dreams. Déjà vu. The dream where you almost died. Almost died dreams. Sleep paralysis – when your physical and mental capabilities are out of sync. Going back into your dreams. Trying to tell stories in dreams. Dream diaries. Controlling your dreams. Thirty seconds within a dream where you are absolutely able to control what happens – anything can happen – you can do anything. Changing the consciousness of an audience. Goat Island. Lulling people – but not to sleep? Flow states. Dreaming together. Sleeping together. The dark sides of your dreams. Dark dreams. Everyone’s dreams. Being a very good rapper in your dream, being a musical prodigy in your dream but not having any of these skills when you wake up. Dreams as having their own language. Language as not applicable to dreams. Shamanic dreaming workshops with Manda Scott. Using other people’s practices in your own way. Finding your own way. Can you die in your dream? If you die in your dream do you die? Almost died. Doing an impression of an arts administrator. The Palace as a dream. The dream as a palace. Putting your dreams out there. People you can dream with. Dreaming with – when you are awake. Practical Dreamers. Collaborative Dreamers. I a critic because I don’t dream. Critics as dreamers. An impression of a dreamer. Devoted and Disgruntled as a dream space. Saying dreams – shouting dreams. Karl Jung. Dreams as NOT. All people dream. Answers and questions. Dreams as questions. Dreams in sleep, dreams when awake. Sometimes you are not ready to make your dream a reality. Sometime your dream is not ready to be made a reality. Is your dream yours? How can we stay as dreamers? Do we want to be dreaming all the time? Are we dreaming all the time? Day dreaming. Dreamtime – a session from last year led by Andy. The Chaos Baby Project. Pushing the thinking out. Engaging other people in your dream. Fear of saying dreams out aloud. Showing the housekeeping of our minds. Dreams a taboo. Dreams don’t make sense. Unknown dreaming – impossible dreaming. Dreams as impossible. Censoring our senses. The limitations of language (again) to describe dreams. Dreams and OUR DREAMS. “Dreaming” and “lets dream about…”. A Midsummer Nights Dream. Quantum Physics, Parallel Worlds, String Theory. A scientist. What do scientists dream? Certain dream moments that access parallel worlds and other dimensions. Dream can do that. Can dreams do that? The BRAIN – dreams happen in the BRAIN. The BRAIN. Electric. Wet. Are we all dreaming? Is this a dream? Giving permission to say DREAMS.

ISSUE 69: THE BURNING MAN FESTIVAL: IMMERSIVE THEATRE FOR 50,000 PEOPLE?

2011-02-04T04:16:00.001-08:00

Convener(s): Nicholas McInerny

Participants:

Easytiger
Analogue
Atticus
Nerfertiti
Googlemaps

(These are all Playa names)

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

Description – Burning Man is an annual Festival which takes place at the end of August/Beginning of September, on a desert lake bed called a Playa, nr Gerlach, 270 Miles north East from Sanfrancisco, in Nevada. 50,000 people gather and create BLACK ROCK CITY – the 4th largest town in Nevada for that week.

It is a LEAVE NO TRACE festival to which attendees bring all their own food and water. It is also a gift culture – you bring gifts to give others and there is no commerce allowed at the Festival, other than a coffee/ice concession in centre camp, the proceeds from which are given to local charities. Other major principles include RADICAL TOLERANCE and RADICAL INCLUSION, the idea being that whatever event/performance/interaction you plan, theoretically it must be able to involve anyone.

On the Saturday the climax of the Festival happens when the Man – a huge wooden structure which sits at 12 O’clock of the Festival Site, is burnt. On the Sunday the Temple of Remembrance – which represents the collective memory of the is burnt. Throughout the week there is a continual stream of events, happenings and small theatrical moments that start to weave themselves into the daily life and self expression of those who attend. Examples include:

1. The Pantichrist. A man dressed as Jesus who distributes fresh white underwear to the women. He is very popular.
2. Pizza Sluts. BLACK ROCK City’s very own pizza parlour that delivers pizzas randomly.
3. The Critical Tits parade. One of the major events, where the women in BLACK ROCK CITY paint their breasts and ride through the city on bikes, being cheered on by the men.
4. The Temple of Atonement. They hold regular auctions where you can be sold as a sex slave.
5. Adopt a gnome. Go for an interview and earn the right to adopt a garden gnome.
6. The Deep End. BLACK ROCK CITY’s very own purveyor of the finest House Music and Tea Time dancing, everyday 4 to 7pm.
7. Heebejeebies – experience everything from Reiki to Tantric Massage.
8. A Thunderdome from Mad Max 2, complete with regular ‘fights’ and audience participation.
9. The Flaming Lotus Girls’ amazing steel and flame creations.

This is just a tiny example.

I have always seen BURNING MAN as an experiment in Utopia and Utopian living – but one that contains it’s own darker side, as indeed all Utopia’s must. I have often described it as a religious festival for a secular age, in which hedonism is pursued with a puritanical zeal.

It is also a piece of theatre for 50,000 – in which you are both participant and spectator.

Other issues we discussed.

1. The Apollonian v Dionysian principle in BM. With ref to Barbara Eirenbach’s (?) fascinating book, DANCING IN THE STREETS.
2. The role of the Situationists and Merry Pranksters from San Franciscon – how overtly political is BM?
3. Accessing the potential within us all – how we gradually move towards greater self-realisation.
4. SAFETY THIRD! – the idea of a culture in which you are allowed to make decisions that allow you to really take responsibility for your actions.
5. If you were in an environment that said, you can do anything you want? Now what do you want to do? What would you choose? And is it always a good idea to turn a fantasy into reality?
6. A growing sense of Community and how that impacts on your self of self.
7. Bad experiences on the Playa – too much consumption?
8. Ideas of sacred space and spiritual dimensions.
9. The gift culture. How significantly that affects your relationships with others.
10. Sustainability of the vision of BM.
11. Carrying that vision back into the default world. THE REAL CHALLENGE.

We then related some of those ideas back to the idea of Theatre and of what we want/expect/hope from the theatrical experience. BM – for a week – allows us as individuals to expand that theatrical experience which we reserve for allocated times into the whole of our daily existence. Whilst this is undoubtedly exciting and liberating on a personal basis, how does it affect our ability to make theatre? Moreover, is there a relationship between the BM experience and rise in Immersive Theatre which draws on other arts forms – Clubs, Burlesque, Video Games, the Fetish World, Festivals (over 400 in the UK at the moment!).

We ended the session with some participants expressing a desire to go to the Festival – or to renew their passion to go. Maybe a small spark has been lit.

ISSUE 70: AUDIENCE AS AGENT - WHAT CAN THEATRE LEARN FROM VIDEO GAMES?

2011-02-04T04:12:00.000-08:00

Issue: Audience as Agent - What can theatre learn from video games?

Convener: Hannah Nicklin

Participants: Flavia Fraser-Cannon, Max Allsup, vanessasmithuk@gmail.com, paul.Sutton@candt.org, rob_darcy@Hotmail.com, Paul Whitlock, honourjane@googlemail.com, francesca.Hyde@gmail.com, emmaHForster@gmail.com, Trish Parry trish@actingtrish.com, william.Glenn@cssd.ac.uk, ben@invisibleflock.co.uk, rich@invisibleflock.co.uk, WillBourdillon@hotmail.com mike@blanchandshock.com, jacquelinecoombs@Hotmail.com, Pat Ashe patrickashe@gmail.com, Tom Mansfield tompmansfield@gmail.com Claire Thill claire.thill@gmail.com

The discussion began by highlighting examples of what people though crossover between video games and theatre might be, Blast Theory's work was a focal point, and Improv Everywhere in the US were mentions; in particular a piece where a large group of people (200ish) descend on a Best Buy shop wearing khaki trousers and a blue shirt - also the uniform of Best Buy Workers. The participants (agents as IE term them) did not deceive customers, or ever explicitly say that they were employees of the store, but it was suggested by our group that this was an interestingly playful way of playing with the rules of social space. Coney's A Small Town Anywhere was touched briefly upon but a person who had taken part in it described it as slightly too complicated for her, and perhaps the simplicity of some games, or indeed the factoring in of a difficulty curve as you might get in a trad gaming experience.

A question was raised about the difference between getting gamers into a theatre vs getting theatre goers to play games but it was also suggested that generalised ideas of 'theatre goer' and 'gamer' were too reductive to be useful.

The aesthetic and aim of a video game was explored slightly, and the idea of aesthetics over story in popular FPS authoring, and player achievement as a motivating force, the masking quality of an avatar was mentioned, as too the anonymity of a virtual environment, but it was countered with a sense of the entire disappearance of a traditional theatre audience's body in the darkness.

In the same way as with the mooted immersive qualities of video games, problems with immersive theatre were raised, with the example of a common negative reaction to punch-drunk shows as having to fit in to their authored vision, could the sandbox game model help here? Is there such thing as too much, or unmanageable freedom? You can always find the edge of a sandbox world.

Coney were talked about as a more game oriented company, and the question of it being 'theatre', rather than performance, or performative experience was briefly tackled, with people falling on either side, suggesting that it was performance only, or that it was reductive to deny theatre new forms.

The root of both gaming and theatre being play was mentioned, and indeed it's role in how we learn, but also the historically dim view of pleasurable ways of learning. Why are we told to stop playing? And how is it now considered viable in certain spheres; theatre, consoles. Again it was mentioned that care needed to be taken not to generalise types of performance or games.
Ben and Rich of Invisible Flock talked about (physical) game creation, the meta narratives, rule sets, and world creation. It was emphasised how games are fully authored and curated environments, aesthetic experiences. The fact that sandbox games (is Minecraft the purest example of this, or not a game, but something more akin to a 'paint' program?) always still have linear routes through them was discussed, as well as there being nothing necessarily not-game like about a well made linear experience.

The concept of emergence was brought up by Ben of Invisible Flock - interaction that brings unpredictability. This moved on to ideas about MMORPGs (massive multiplayer online role playing games) and online play in games like Call of Duty - what is the root of their appeal? Hannah asked if X Factor etc could be considered a massive multiplayer game, and was that which is at the heart of the success of that and things like CoD online, WoW (World of Warcraft) an urge to collectively affect a world?

LARPs (live action role playing) were discussed in their similarity to pervasive gaming, and the question raised as to why the latter is more socially acceptable than the former.

Game design was touched on, and the need to think carefully about the 'tutorial' aspect of participatory theatre/performance. And at the same time as discussing things the audience can bring as agent, emphasis was placed on the delight of discovering something that someone has left for us, in a novel, a play, a LARP, or a piece of authored pervasive performance.

Why, then, if so much cross over exists, are video games so much more culturally popular, garnering in the UK more spend than music and film combined. Again discussion touched on the ability to play with other people, and immersive narrative, as well as the amount of game play people actually get for their money and the pick up, put-down-ability*, but people were also to discuss what video games don't do that theatre can/does - looking at how video games fetishises cinematic storytelling, and actually collaborations with theatre folk (think Papa Sangre) can often be much more productive to their storytelling. Likewise the ephemerality of theatre is something quite specific to live or part-live experience.

Can theatrical processes learn anything from video games? The testing model of games is certainly interesting in this context - scratch culture is a nod to this, but content is rarely revised with an audience in mind, rather the effectiveness for the author. scratch is more like R&D than real testing.

Hide and Seek's work was used as an example of a testing model, but also the focus on mechanics over experience that this sometimes results in. Do they test stories or mechanics? How separate are/should be these things.

Then, the act of inviting someone into rather than to watch a world you have created was highlighted as a much greater act of trust, which tends to make an audience (agent) more invested - games can perhaps teach theatres about longer, fuller audience relationships.

The role of the performer in this world of audience as player was emphasised as an important one to think about - and although the journey of a performer is a playful one, what happens in a world which is cutting out the 'middle man' be it news, record labels, to the deliverers of performance? New forms don't always mark the old as obsolete.

The projection of oneself in theatre or masking of video games was compared to the power of the first-person performative experience, what theatre can offer games, is a body. in a world where our bodies become (capitalist?) battlegrounds, what a weapon might bodied theatrical experiences be? And because this work is so contingent upon people's bodies, is a greater duty of care necessary? Video games are a young form, old can learn from young, just as young can learn from experience, perhaps there should be more direct dialogue between the theatre and video gaming disciplines?

A session of useful questions.

Thanks for reading!

@hannahnicklin

* perhaps only rivalled by something like the Edinburgh Festival

ISSUE 71: I HAVE THE PROJECTS - AS A YOUNG PRODUCER, HOW DO I MAKE THEM HAPPEN?

2011-02-04T04:05:00.000-08:00

Issue: I have the projects – as a young producer, how do I make them happen?

Convener(s): Lucy Oliver-Harrison

Participants:

Lucy Oliver-Harrison - mail@lucyoliverharrison.com
Vanessa Smith – vanessasmithuk@gmail.com
Sasha Milaire Davia
Chris Grady – chris@chrisgrady.org
Mark Smith – mail@spiketheatre.com
Amber Homes – a.homes84@gmail.com
Katie Roberts
Lisa Turner – lisa.turner@blueyonder.co.uk
Laura Hayes – laurafhayes:gmail.com
Trisha Lee
John Roberts – johngarfieldroberts@gmail.com
Sylvia Harrison – sylvia.harrison@roundhouse.org.uk
Nicole Charles – nicolecharles1@hotmail.com
mrantonioferrara@gmail.com
Shakera Louise Ahad – shakeralouiseahad@hotmail.co.uk
Holly Conneely – hollyconneely@gmail.com
Jo – jo@19-27.co.uk
Simon – simon@rebeltheatre.com (twitter@simonwithaz)
Sam – sam@gomito.co.uk

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

Questions raised/discussed:

What is a producer? Financial, creative, problem solver, fundraiser (difficulty of finding yourself becoming a full time fundraiser)

Is there such a thing as a ‘Creative Producer’?

Do we spend too much time trying to define what a producer is rather than actually just doing?

When can you call yourself a producer? Not a point when you can call yourself a producer, just the scale on which you are working.

Artistic Directors as producers
Everyone’s role ends up overlapping.
Not over defining everyone’s role.
We are all having to be more like producers whether as an actor, director or a producer.

Making it happen:

Managing projects – how to charge for projects that aren’t in theatres? Asking people for donations instead – will probably find you get more money than you would have dreamed of charging for.

Making projects happen in your living room – working outside venues to make them happen – cheaper and sometimes more exciting.

Developing a core group of people of whom none of you get paid. Development essential in order to have that trust and relationship to run a successful unpaid process

Not just about building your network of theatre people but friends who have gone into well-paid jobs (!)

Warwick University group – asking people for small investments – they sent people envelopes with goose feathers inside. Became instantly memorable

Fundraising events as audience builders – shouldn’t just be seen as money-making

Club nights combined with theatre – building an audience database and making theatre “cool”.

London Bubble – the audience voted on a theme of what they wanted the play to be about – involving your audience, making it for them.

Pay before you play – working with money in advance. Getting the space for free and covering your costs instantly.

Institutions such as “We Fund This” who help with fundraising. However, being aware of hidden costs that these may have

Difference between Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Cameron Mackintosh – Cameron will still invite anyone who has invested in a show of his – how important it is to maintain those relationships

Working with restrictions can be the best part

Who are the six people you want in the front row? Identifying who you want and using that.

Sharing knowledge

Sharing knowledge – essential to work with your peers and share knowledge, not be too precious.

Not being frightened to ask e.g. Going to a touring company and asking them the basics of how to book a tour

In the future, remembering where you’ve come from and who helped you and passing this information on

Chris Grady runs monthly surgeries with Tom Atkins at the National Theatre. Go to www.chrisgrady.org

Making bigger projects happen – collaborating with regional theatres/other producers to make it happen

Imparting knowledge when you have the experience and not being afraid to ask for this experience.

Everyone recognises how important it is not to lose the independent sector so should work together to share what we know and ensure the its future.

Survival

Essential to always be passionate about your projects

Working as an usher to allow yourself time during the day to do your projects

Working within theatres (e.g. administratively) and building a relationship with them over time to the point where they might be interested for you to produce your show there

Patience

Having ideas and recognising that it can take a long time to make them happen.

9 year cycles from initial thought.

Pushing a project to happen prematurely can be detrimental. Can come across as being forced

Where to find these people/the work

Finding regional theatres that are making work which you find exciting, seeing the work and meeting the people afterwards who made it and telling them what you thought. Flattery gets you everywhere!

Going to readings and picking things up new work there.

Building relationships with Regional Theatres and asking to be “based” within their building e.g. office space, postal address

Seeing as much unusual work as possible. You never know what it might bring

Commercial vs subsidised – can work to bring the two together on one project but requires careful management.

Becoming more inventive about how we work together.

Apprenticeships vs. Experience

Mentoring/Apprenticeships – part time maybe works best in order to allow young producers to keep working on their own projects around it

Subsidised theatres needing producers more than ever – maximising on this

Stage One – useful for commercial producing but not so much for touring theatre

Being able to do everything makes you stronger as a producer. Do as many things as possible.

Teaching yourself.

Edinburgh

Going to Edinburgh and seeing who’s popular/award winning and getting in touch with them

Having a project and going to Edinburgh the year before with that project in mind and sussing out the venue etc.

Best time to talk to a venue is the year before and approaching the venue managers during the festival – might seem the worst time but they are there all day and will have a fair amount of time.

Financial drain vs. platform

It can bring opportunities – Bright is a Ring of Words started at Edinburgh last year. From all the people they invited one person from Wilton’s Music Hall picked it up and now they are producing the tour. IT CAN HAPPEN!

Investment in PR companies – the best PR is yourself. Getting the right PR is so important – being the best company doesn’t always mean they’ll work for you. Important to try and put names to faces – being remembered.

Diligence!

Escalator East to Edinburgh for those based in the Eastern Region

Useful Sites

Rehearsal Space London
Need to make the most of your rehearsal space? Join Rehearsal Space London.

Rehearsal Space London is a unique virtual marketing space for theatre companies, arts establishments and community sector groups.

It’s a space for you to advertise your rehearsal rooms, get the word out to prospective hirers, and increase your bookings.

For a flat yearly membership fee of £30 we will input your listing and maintain it on your behalf.

No hidden fees, no commissions. We look after the site and your listing, and you look after the bookings they bring.

To find out more information, request an information pack, or to join contact Fiona Campbell at Make Believe Arts.

T: 0208 691 3803
E: info@makebelievearts.co.uk
www.rehearsalspacelondon.co.uk

Camden Theatres Project
They have 22 fringe spaces
You can do workshops in the community in return for rehearsal space
Online application
Platforms for new work

Roundhouse
‘Space to Create’
Pitching for a space

JMK Award
Director Award – gives directors a space at the Young Vic for August
Using awards for other disciplines to build work with directors etc that you have a relationship and want to make worth with

Independent Article on Friday 28th January about Betty Blue Eyes - how Cameron Mackintosh challenges the artists

ISSUE 72: "OUR IDEAS ARE IN EVERYONE'S HEADS": PERFORMANCE AND DESTROYING CAPITALISM

2011-02-04T03:54:00.000-08:00

Issue: ‘Our ideas are in everyone’s heads’: performance and destroying capitalism

Convener(s): Francesca Lisette

Participants: Aliki Chapple, Jonny Liron, Chris Goode, Kieron Hughes, Julia, Emma, Alex, Rod Dixon, Dan Bye (+ many more)

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

We began by outlining the centrality of FORM and its connection to exchange, participation and sustainability/ duration. We briefly considered the issue of funding as a central question in other discussions, and observed that despite our anti-capitalist resistance to that, money and energy operate in relation to one another because both are kinds of fuel. The will to do isn’t always enough. A related problem is whether theatre becomes – or at least acknowledges – its dependence on a system it is trying to climb out of.

It was suggested that a helpful objective for practitioners was to ‘be exemplary’ and to ‘be the change we want to see’. Out of this arose the question of how to present this work inside or outside of the structures of private space and public space, performer and audience. A fissure opens up between the work that is being made, and the privilege or access to resources required to make it. An example of this was a privately rented but autonomous space in which new work could be rehearsed, tested and shown. It was also suggested that we attempt to bypass capitalism by living in co-operative artistic communities or squatting. Some felt that this was an opting-out, which still didn’t solve the wider issue of privacy. Squatting for example still used buildings, which were privately owned, and therefore operated as part of capitalist infrastructure. We felt that the way to get around this was by focusing on nuance and divergence – by maintaining respect for each other, the audience and the encounter.

With relation to the issue of participation, Alex shared his view that ‘theatre is a place we live with strangers best’, rather than a space for utilitarian, enforced unity. Chris then talked about the revival of the idea of the theatre building as a civic space, in which citizens came to listen, learn and speak – of theatre as a secular church. The point was raised that cinema, which has elsewhere been assumed to be supreme to theatre as a tool for raising political awareness, often allows the continuation of a passive form of spectatorship. This led on to further discussion of the audience/ performer relationship, whereby exemplary performance enables the audience to recognize their own aspirations. Equally, dissident forms of performance as protest were discussed as forms of ‘performative terrorism’, which forced an encounter or engagement upon the audience and thus risked alienating them, though perhaps productively. It was suggested that it was important to foreground the permeability of the membrane between audience and performer.

We spoke about scale, and how to subvert capitalism’s reliance on growth, and established that a resistant theatre practice would be anti-growth. ‘Our anger is fuel for the fight, but our optimism is how we win’; using a ‘roots’ approach which encourages all to assume individual and collective responsibility. Support and affirmation would be sought and provided to each other, rather than focusing on career aspirations such as financial endorsement or critical acclaim. We spoke about this affirmation, and how that manifests itself in the work as a gift, the effects of which might not be immediately realised, but which did invisible work. The gift, as opposed to the transaction, led to the suggestion that theatre aim to reclaim the concept of ‘value’ from capitalist exchange. Quantitative governmental measures were deemed not to understand theatre’s endeavour, and it was observed that it is part of system in which ‘the right to fail is reserved for science’. Artists revise reality. We need to demand respect by taking ourselves seriously, and also by insisting on the importance of play, laughter, and ‘delight’ – creating a poetic subversion.

ISSUE 73: DO YOU MISS YOUR PET? LIVING OR ALIVE? WOULD YOU LIKE TO TALK TO ME ABOUT IT?

2011-02-04T03:28:00.000-08:00

Issue: Do you miss your pet? Living or alive?
Would you like to talk to me about it?

Convener(s): Emma Adams

Participants: Daniel Bye, Hannah Nicklin, Julia Taudevin, Carol Parker, Rose Biggin, Mandy Fenton, Sue Frumin, Henrietta Leysir

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

Just to make sense of this – I convened this discussion for a few reasons. One -because I miss my cat Frank and wanted to talk about it. Two - because I’m very interested in the difference between sentimental responses and empathic ones. This is something that I’m thinking about a lot. Three - because however intellectually appalled I may be by sentimental reactions, emotionally I find that I am very sentimental all the same. Sometimes. Particularly around pet stories. I love hearing about people’s pets. So there is a conundrum here then… which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but there it still is.

As such the conversation ranged from beautiful pet stories right through to philosophical fandango and back again quite freely.

We reached one conclusion.

Below I will try and represent the stories / ideas that we discussed.

I will also draw people’s pets as they appeared in my mind as they were talking about them.

Rose – Rose has several chickens and a rooster. They are leghorn chickens (which is a specific breed, with particular traits. Leghorn chickens for example are quite nervous though they do not often get broody – something that other breeds of chicken often do). Rose misses her chickens who live with her family. She has a favorite called ‘Twitter’ who she has reared from being an egg in an incubator. All the eggs are incubated because (as before mentioned) Leghorn chickens are not very broody.

Rose’s chickens lay eggs which her family eats, but she has always thought of them as pets and they are very tame and they all have personalities of their own. Twitter is Rose’s favorite. She allows Rose to pick her up. Because Rose feels this way about her chickens she doesn’t eat chicken though she does eat meat. For her chickens are pet animals. So as many of us with cats and dogs would not dream of eating a cat or dog, she can not dream of eating a chicken, which is annoying sometimes as chicken is a very convenient thing to eat.

Here is a picture of Twitter the Hen:

The only chicken that lives with Rose’s family that does not come from the incubator is called Lucky. Lucky is called Lucky because one day Rose’s Dad was driving along and looked up and he saw a lorry. One of those big lorries’s where the cab is separate to the big trailer at the back. In between the cab and the trailer is a connector thing. Sitting on the connector thing was a chicken. Rose’s Dad managed to get the lorry driver to pull over. He asked him if he was aware that he had a chicken sitting on the connector thing. The lorry driver said no. That’s when Lucky got her name and went to live at Rose’s house.

Here is a picture of Lucky Hen’s lucky escape:

Hannah – Hannah also had a cat called Lucky. Lucky was the third cat that her family had had. The first two died (hence 3rd time lucky) in a carbon monoxide leak at her family’s home. The cats alerted the family to the problem and saved their lives. Hannah also had a dog called Blue. She got Blue when the dog was 2 years old. I think she said it came from a rescue home, but I may be mistaken. I may have made that bit up. Hannah dreams about Blue. Sometimes she worries that she didn’t walk her enough. She got Blue when she was 7 years old and she lived until Hannah was in her 2nd year at university. Which is 14 years. Hannah loved her. Blue didn’t like men and being with them would make her wee on the floor.

Hannah also had a goat and chickens when she was growing up. They were kept for milk and eggs. She never thought of them as pets. She was used to seeing her parents kill the chickens at the end of their laying lives for example.

Here is a picture of Blue wagging her tail at the rescue home just after Hannah has picked her to take home.

Julia – Grew up in Indonesia. She had a cat called Manice. Because it was hot there were a lot of cockroaches and rats. Because of this, there was always a lot of poison around to try and keep control of these vermin. One day Manice licked the end of the poison bottle tube and began to die. Julia remembers holding Manice knowing that the cat was dying and being heartbroken. She remembers crying. She also remembers that many of her Indonesian friends on seeing this began to laugh. She was horrified that they were laughing but also remembers that this was the first time that she began to realize that sometimes people react to events differently and that there is a close relationship between crying and laughing. A release of tension. She does not think that her Indonesian friends were ‘glad’ that the cat was poisoned but expressing their tension seeing her hold her dying cat. She is still good friends with many of these people today.

Here is a picture of Julia and Manice in happier times before the poisoning took place.

Caro – Grew up in the countryside. She had a rabbit, 3 cats, 2 goldfish, 2 mice, a budgie, her granny had a dog and her sister had a pony. Looking back, she now feels that her parents clearly wanted her to learn from having pets. She feels that they were trying to expose her to ideas about respect for other living things. Having pets gave Caro her first introduction to death that she feels was important. A life lesson.

I – Had a cat called Frank. I and a former girlfriend had Frank from being a kitten. When we split up, we agreed that I would take Frank. I looked and looked for a new place to live that would allow me to take a cat with me. Everywhere I looked they said ‘no pets’. I got desperate. I changed tack and tried begging a landlord. He told me that cats spray. Frank does many unpleasant things, but he does not spray. They said I was wrong, Frank did spray I just didn’t notice. I said that I am very aware of what cat’s spray smells like. They said no. They said if you want the flat you can have it but you can’t bring the cat. I chose the flat. My exgirlfriend kept Frank. I miss him and think about him most days. I still feel guilty. This was 4 years ago. Sometimes my exgirlfriend who is now just my very good friend invites me to dinner so that I can spend time with Frank. I give her a hard time because she feeds him too much and he is getting fat.

Mandy – Has a cat. I didn’t catch the cats name but she is 2 and a half years old. She has never been ill before. Last night after getting back from the first day of #DandD6, Mandy found her cat using the cat litter a lot. Its wee was pinkish. Mandy panicked and rang the vet. The vet thought it must be cystitis and suggested that Mandy bring the cat into the surgery the next day.

This morning, Mandy tried for 20 minutes to get her cat into the cat carrier. She couldn’t get her in as the cat just refused to be put in the box and in the end Mandy had to give up. She rang the vet and the vet said it would be safe to leave the cat at home and try again tomorrow, so Mandy left the cat and came here today. She felt bad. Caro at this point shared a top tip which I think will be of real use to anyone who ever has to get their cat into a cat basket in the future. Caro suggested that Mandy try wrapping her cat in a towel before putting it into the cat carrier. Mandy said she’s going to try it.

Here is Mandy on her way to the vet’s tomorrow morning with her cat safely in the cat carrier.

Henrietta – Had chickens but did not think of them as pets. She really doesn’t like to anthramophise animals. However she had one chicken, known as Hen, which anthramorphised its self. At one time Henrietta had more than one chicken but several were killed by a fox. Hen was the only survivor of these attacks. Subsequently, Hen began to do things like come into the house via the cat flap. She would drink people’s cups of tea. She liked to be stroked. She was a gentle chicken but later on she began to become broody. When she got broody she became quite aggressive. They solved this problem by getting some fertilized eggs and allowing Hen to sit on them until they hatched. This is quite normal. After this Hen returned to her former self.

Here is Hen surviving the Fox attack.

Sue – Describes herself as the ‘Mrs Sloakham of South Tottenham’ because she loves her pussies. She has two cats Milly Moo and Venus. Her cats do not like each other. She got Milly Moo and then began to worry about her because she was out at work, so got Venus as a kitten, to be a companion. She assumed that Milly Moo would look after Venus, but Milly Moo was livid with jealousy when she saw Venus. Her eyes turned green. They have never got along since. Venus is a show off who demands love. Both cats have many adventures. They are a source of inspiration and they never say go away. Both Venus and Milly Moo’s life are made hell by the local stray tom called Big Ginge. Big Ginge is a bastard and the size of a lion. He makes a lot of noise outside at night because he shags all the girls. Sue has had to put a lock onto the cat flap. Big Ginge is still trying to break in.

Here is Milly Moo attempting to kill Venus with a huge carving knife.

While we were telling each other these stories, we also discussed some of the things below:

Dan – wondered how many vegetarians there were amongst us? He wondered what kind of difference that might make to our relationship with animals. If so are we here because we sentimentalize our relationship with animals? It turned out that there was only one vegetarian present (out of those who were present at the time of this comment) but everyone else ate restricted diets (Hannah has five meat eating days a year only. Dan eats meat about once a month. I eat meat occasionally – all for environmental reasons).

Julia – Who is a vegetarian – said on one occasion she was feeling very run down and so tried eating some haddock. It was delicious but she cried all the way through the meal.

I – Talked a little bit about the various reasons why I’d called this session (the love of pet stories and my interest in sentimentalism v empathaism (if there are such things).

Caro – Talked about having acted in a show once with a dog. It was in a show called ‘Pirates of Atlantis’ in the story the dog was put into a machine and turned into gold. Thankfully by the end of the story, the dog is turned back and all ends happily. Caro says that the dog loved being in the show and stole scenes.

Dan – Said that in a show of the wizard of oz that he saw, there was a real dog. When it ate the sausages the audience loved it in a way that they wouldn’t have responded if they’d seen a puppet dog eating sausages. He said it was arresting and felt ‘more real’ because the dog wasn’t acting. He also says that it added an element of disruption to the show, which was / is interesting. Similarly, Rose and I had seen Jerusalem which had real chickens on stage and had felt similar things. We talked a bit about how that might be a good and bad thing. Dan talked about a play called Innish Moor which has two cats in it. At one point a black cat dies and a ginger cat is used as a replacement. In the script the characters discuss how to make the ginger cat look like the original cat and decide to cover it in boot polish. Dan said he’d never seen the play staged but imagined that would cause a real problem in production. I said I thought that would be horrible. It might kill the cat. It has made me interested to read the play however. Dan also mentioned Peter Brook’s U/S (we think it is this play but it may be another one, all corrections welcome) which appeared to have a butterfly burnt alive on stage. This caused great controversy. Brook was asked whether the butterfly was real. He told people he would tell them, but if he did this (whether the butterfly burnt on stage was real or not) he would burn a real one on stage the next night if they insisted that he tell them the truth. Everyone when faced with this dilemma decided to leave it.

Here is a picture of Peter Brook mythering his room of terrified butterflies. Who will be next tonight my pretties?

Caro / Dan and I – Discussed the idea that cruelty by humans towards animals is the first sign of a sociopathic character. We discussed the lady who threw a cat in a bin and also another woman who threw a kitten to its death from an 11th floor. Apparently Caro had also read that there had been some research into cats jumping from buildings. If they jump from any floor above the 5th floor they are more likely to survive because they turn their bodies into parachutes, while jumping from anything below the 5th floor usually means a cat will die as it doesn’t have time to arch its back and make the parachute shape. We wondered about the kitten falling from the 11th floor. It obviously didn’t form a parachute to save its own life. We wondered if being thrown from the 11th floor was not quite the same thing as jumping. We also wondered if the kitten was very young, then perhaps it had not learnt to make the parachute shape before it was thrown. Which led me to be quite angry with the world and they way people treat animals (despite the fact that I’m happy to eat them occasionally) which led Dan to say, yes but animals are still afforded more respect in our world than at any other time ( in terms of us accepting that they should have agency) other than perhaps ancient Egyptians who gave cats a good deal of respect.

Here is a picture of a cat flying to safety from the 11th floor and a less fortunate kitten being thrown from the same window.

Which led to…

Dan – Discussed Kant an ethical philosopher who argued that we must treat people as an end in themselves not as a means to an end.

Here is a picture of Kant thinking

Henrietta – Said she had been discussing with a friend the reason why some people like animals and others don’t. She said that there didn’t seem to be any definite reason. It didn’t appear to be anything to do with growing up with animals, or being an only child or anything. We discussed this. I said that this was surprising to me as I always thought that I liked animals because I grew up with them, but on reflection this didn’t seem to hold true.

Sue – Talked about finding sympathy pathetic and revolting. She said that when she was younger she looked for sympathy (and noticed this tendency in the kids she used to teach) and then realised that in fact what she didn’t want people to feel sorry for her, she wanted people’s respect. For her, this is the difference between sympathy and empathy.

Rose – Talked about how we distort our stories sometimes to get sympathy. Something that rang true for everyone present at that point of the conversation.

We talked about the idea that indulging in sympathy makes other’s pain something that is about yourself, while engaging with empathy is about dealing the reality of that person’s pain. Which might be a really hard / distressing thing to do.

This also led us to discuss the idea of that giving to charity can be an act of self interest.

Which led us to conclude that human beings are extremely complex creatures.