Sharing the devising projects

 art, creativity, Ireland 2012  No Responses »
Aug 122012
 

One of the main assignments for the applied theatre course requires that two groups of students work with facilitators on a devising process that could be used to create a community-engaged theatre project. Our facilitators, Declan Gorman and Jenny Macdonald, each take a group and spend about five days modeling their individual devising processes in a concentrated experience. It’s important to note that these processes usually occur over weeks or months, but because of the short duration of the course, Declan and Jenny find ways to telescope their processes so that students achieve strong results in an extraordinarily short period of time. It helps that these students are talented and game to be working in this fashion, but it’s still a superhuman undertaking.

The final sharings of these projects occurred on Wednesday, August 8, in the Beckett Centre Theatre at Trinity College. We were happy that many of our facilitators from the Abbey Theatre, Upstate Theatre, and ANU Productions were able to attend the sharing. We were also joined by a group of young people from Tallaght, who are working with Jenny on another long term community project. This support from our friends and colleagues meant a lot to all of us, and we’re grateful for their attendance.

Sharing new work or work in development requires that the audience understands the context in which the work was created. In this case, we wanted to be clear that the students were learning a process rather than trying to create a finished product. After discussion with Jenny and Declan, we decided to frame the sharing as “evidence of a learning process.” Declan used this phrase to describe the potential of the experience, and I think it aptly represented the purpose and result of the devising process. Jenny’s work with the students focused on devising a performance piece beginning with their own personal stories, whereas Declan’s work focused on devising a fictional script that was then animated through a staged reading.

Each time I experience this devising process in Ireland, I’m appreciative of the opportunity to re-see the students as artists and to see many of them defy my expectations. From the very first day of our work together, I asked the students to experience the course work as artists and fully engage in all of the processes, rather than getting too engrossed in observing the processes from a meta perspective. This particular group really took my charge to heart, and I’m appreciative of their commitment to explore the art form through this creative devising process.

Applied theatre pedigree with Chrissie Poulter

 art, creativity, culture, Ireland 2012  No Responses »
Aug 112012
 

The final week of the Ireland applied theatre course began on Monday with some input from Chrissie Poulter. Chrissie has served as an academic tutor and a devising facilitator for the program in years past, and after a three-year career break, she is back as a faculty member at Trinity College. She offered to share some of her thoughts about the longer history of applied theatre and community arts in Ireland, and I thought that her experience and expertise could provide valuable insights for students as they began to consider their final project for the course: a prospectus for an applied theatre project partnering with an organization in the United States.

Chrissie met with the students on Monday morning, a bank holiday in Ireland, and I was most appreciative of her willingness to come in and speak with the students. Chrissie spent her time introducing some of her past projects as a way to illuminate the history of community arts and the development of applied theatre practice in Ireland on both sides of the border. She then transitioned into a discussion of how the prospectus for a new project needed to contain enough information and background for a potential partner without becoming too academic. This point really grounded the expectation for the prospectus assignment, as students will need to make sure that their projects are nested within the larger field of applied theatre without alienating the prospective partner by using too much “insider,” academic terminology. Chrissie summed it up by suggesting that students think about representing the body of applied theatre work in their own proposals and communicating their pedigree to the prospective partner. This language helps to clarify that the facilitator need not be a full-on expert in the given area that the prospectus suggests to address, but that s/he needs to understand the ancestry of the practice. By illustrating this understanding, even an early career applied theatre facilitator/practitioner can gain the confidence and support of a potential partner. Chrissie made the distinction between being an academic and a well-informed practitioner. The two do not necessarily need to be mutually exclusive, but it sometimes it can be useful to isolate the strengths and nuances of each identity, particularly when the practitioner is working in an academic environment.

As I’ve said on this blog before, Chrissie Poulter is one of the strongest and most nuanced facilitators that I’ve seen at work. I’m grateful for her time and presence on the course, and I know the students felt the same. I look forward to seeing how her input influences the final prospectus assignments that I receive on August 22.

Back to devising in an urban context: on the ground in Belfast

 art, creativity, Ireland 2012  No Responses »
Aug 072012
 

Our third and final day in Northern Ireland featured a fair amount of rain. No downpours per se, but quite a bit of misting and drizzle.

We started with a trip to Victoria Square, a new, ultra modern, high-end shopping mall in Belfast. At the top of the mall stands a large, plexiglass dome offering a 360 view of the city. We took the lift to the top, had some input from our tour guide Jerry, and then Jonathan set the group to work on another collection of tasks. He asked the students to work in groups of four and to consider the following questions:

How do we come to know a place? How do we penetrate its histories?
How do we account for a place or help other to access it?
How can a creative process and/or performance help us claim/reclaim a space?
What/who qualifies insider/outsider?

These questions have been at the heart of our inquiry throughout the course, but I think the rich history of Belfast actually helped to clarify the importance of these questions in an applied theatre context.

With these questions in mind, Jonathan then asked the group to engage in what termed a cultural treasure hunt. He sent the students out into the area surrounding Victoria Square and asked them to gather information from people they met on the street. Here’s the list that he provided for students to consider:

PLACES REMEMBERED:
i.e. a place…
- where you bumped into a friend
- that reminds you of someone else
- that you know a story about
- where you used to go
- that you visited only once
- where you have never been
- that reminds you of somewhere else

PLACES LIVED:
i.e. a place…
- that I last visited
- where I meet people
- that I’m on my way to now
- where I always go
- that’s hard to find
- where I always meant to go

… and a PLACE NOT YET COMPLETED.

Jonathan asked students to collect the person’s name, the place, and the significance of that place. He also emphasized that these did not need to be extraordinary or historically significant places. This exercise was about mapping the experience of the everyday life of a place.

After 45 minutes, the students returned, and Jonathan gave them the following set of instructions and parameters for their compositions:

- In sight of/reference your PLACE NOT YET COMPLETED
- Re-imagine this space as one of the significant places captured in the first exercise that has been destroyed/demolished and is now being rebuilt with a new purpose
- Include two ‘characters’ you encountered in Part 1, one of which must be identifiably outside of the narrative (looking on)

- No spoken words
- 1 still image
- 1 slow motion section
- Clear beginning, middle, and end
- Be respectful/mindful of the life of the space
- Ensure you select a safe place to perform/spectate.

Twenty minutes later, traipsing through a light rain, we witnessed four original pieces on the streets of Belfast. A few people stopped to see what was happening, but most people just kept walking, more interested in staying dry than what some street performance. After the showings, I was struck by how much closer I felt to Belfast. I’ve been to the city five times now, but this fifth time was really “on the ground” in a way that I hadn’t experienced before. “Knowing” a place really demands a deeper level of interaction with that place and more importantly the people in that place. It’s a lesson learned, one that can carry into locations that I “think” I already know.

Following a lunch break, the group moved into the afternoon session with Jonathan at The MAC, a brand new arts venue in Belfast. We received a tour of the space, which features state-of-the-art theatres, galleries, and rehearsal spaces. It opened in May and is a beautiful example of how alive the arts appear to be in Belfast. Jonathan broke the group down into smaller working groups, and then each group was asked to create a verbal pitch for an applied theatre project that would pull from the work completed in the morning and be appropriate for the MAC spaces. I also asked the groups to consider articulating a question that they might be trying to answer through the creation of this new piece, while also making some kind of offering to the community that they might work with. Again, this focuses on the idea that we can’t just swoop in and take stories. What are we offering in return?

After the pitches, we made our way to a boat cruise on the Lagan River, offering another view of Belfast from yet another perspective. This cruise was followed by a short reception on the Belfast Barge, a floating restaurant-performance space-museum. Jonathan arranged for a community artist to join us, Conor Shields, the director for Community Arts Partnership. Conor spoke with our group about his experiences running this large community arts organization. He talked about obtaining funding from large government agencies, working with artists in communities, and making sure that the art-making is of the highest level. Here are some key points that Conor made in his comments to us:

- Conor spoke a bit about the history of the term “community arts,” and how it is having a resurgence. “Community arts” is an ancestor of the terms “applied theatre” and “community-engaged theatre.”

- the idea that in Northern Ireland, he was looking at “non-confrontational ways to support contention.” I love this idea that contention is allowed to exist, and that it can be supported rather than smothered.

- “Quality processes with well-compensated and supported artists will yield strong products.” Slightly paraphrased, but Amen!

- He talked about how community arts can offer people a way to represent themselves in alternative ways.

- Conor also made a clear delineation between the artist working in a community vs community arts. The way I interpreted his comments, I came to understand the artist working in the community as someone enters and uses the stories of a community in some way, but might not be interested in or concerned with the community being fully involved in the art-making process. Community arts would actually be focused on how the art-making is embedded with the people of that particular community and how they are involved in the process and product. These terms are still coming into focus for me, and I need more time to sit with the differences. I’m grateful to Conor for making the distinction between the two approaches, as it’s been weaving in and out of our discussions throughout the course.

After that lovely time on the Belfast Barge, we boarded our bus back to Dublin. We may have experienced Belfast and Northern Ireland through a bit of a whirlwind tour, but ultimately, I think I came out with a stronger connection to an amazing city that’s growing and changing quite quickly.

Please see below for some images from our final day in Belfast.

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Devising an original framework play

 creativity  1 Response »
Feb 042011
 

In working on Plays from the Provincetown Players, the company has spent ample time in a devising process to create the framework play that holds the three shorter one-act plays.  As described in last week’s post, five NYU students break into a fictional construction site of the Provincetown Playhouse.  Throughout the devising process, we’ve had to consider who these students are and come up with reasons why they might be there.  I wanted the situation to feel as realistic as possible, so I’ve relied on the assistance of our dramaturg, Jenni Werner, the assistant director, Sarah Misch, and our cast members to provide input and guide the process.

Jenni and I discussed the danger of given circumstances that would not be believable, so I turned to one of our cast members, Tyler Grimes, for his assistance.  Tyler is a known movie aficionado, with an IMDB-like brain, and I thought that he might be able to provide some valuable insight into our “adventure.”  I asked him to consider some of his favorite adventure story scenarios, and here’s a bit of what Tyler had to say:

You asked me why people go on adventures. I’ve been wracking my mind, watching movies, trying to figure out various concepts. I have thought of a few, there certainly are more, but if you like one of these let me know and I can do more research.

Reasons:

Perhaps one or two of our characters have a recently deceased relative who somehow was involved with our theater and they are bringing his ashes to rest here. (Perhaps not that extreme but I think you see the point.)

To sabotage. Perhaps a character or two doesn’t want this theater here anymore, but when they find the “box” they are persuaded.

The classic, “running from the police so let’s hide anywhere” scenario. Basically stumbling upon the theater and having to stay to avoid the police (or something similar).

Treasure! Build up some folklore about the place and have our characters come looking for the “Provincetown Millions” or something a lot less corny.

The antithesis of the sabotage would be a group just trying to preserve the place. Perhaps they’ve traveled a long distance to get here and want to just hole up there so they can’t demolish the place.

Tyler also provided us with some stock character types that might populate whatever “adventure” we decided to use:

The hero/heroine: brave, sometimes reluctant leader of a group.

The brain: able to answer any question or solve any puzzle fast. Usually has a lot of information handy at all times. Sometimes wears glasses.

The skeptic: often questions everything. Not always the most fun in the group.

The joker: just there to lighten the mood. More recently the joker becomes a sentimental character with the audience, and they expect an “emotional” moment from them. Thanks, Judd Apatow.

The muscle: simply there to bust things open.

The love interest: there to make our hero/heroine doubt themselves.

The person there by mistake: arguably my favorite. Someone who just fell in with the crowd at the last minute.

The dead body: sometimes characters on an adventure will come across a dead body (more often than not just the skeleton), and it lets them know that they are now going farther than anyone else has.  Sometimes maybe they’ll carry the bones around with them.

These are just a few, obviously, and while they seem uninteresting on their own, the best use of these is when they are combined. The joker/skeptic is a great combination for example. When they combine, they sometimes negate their “downsides.” Ultimately, however, the most interesting group dynamic could come from the actors themselves.

Thinking of different types of characters that I always find interesting when groups are gathered, my first thought goes to how to create tension within the group. Siblings can sometimes cause this. Brother/Sister, Brother/Brother, Sister/Sister. Anytime that dynamic is present in a group, especially a group of adventurers, tension can arise. Arguments can occur, the need to protect one another (especially in a scary, new place)… all of these can be useful.
Tyler’s input on this proved to be very helpful for Jenni and I when we sat down to begin the preliminary outline for the adventure in the Provincetown construction site.  We generated several possibilities and then entered the rehearsal process on January 17 with some ways to “prime the creative writing pump.”

After an initial read through of each of the three one-acts, Tyler introduced his research.  We all went home to sleep on it and came back the next day, ready to create.

Our first step was to identify the five characters that would populate the adventure.  Identifying them actually meant creating them, literally “from scratch.”  Jenni and I had selected possible archetypes for each of the actors based on the roles that they would play in the three one-act plays, and then I set to work on a character devising process pulled from playwriting workshops that I’ve had with Pearl Cleage and C. Denby Swanson and from Sande Shurin’s book, Transformational Acting.  Each actor received a large piece of post-it paper and a marker, and I asked them to complete the following tasks and answer the following questions (thanks to stage manager Talia Krispel for capturing these prompts):

  • Write down ideas that are becoming clear to you within the framework of this piece – things you’ve already verbalized about your character that you know.
    • Think about how you want this person to be different from  – how do you want them to be different, how do you know they’re different?
    • Think about attributes about yourself that you want to bring into this character – what about you do you want to play within this character? Can be physical, emotional, mental, etc.
    • What is the character’s favorite color?
    • Favorite food?
    • Drink of choice? (alcoholic optional)
    • Relationship status?
    • What do you know about family background, history?
    • Why is this student at NYU – what is the character studying?
    • Where will the character be and what would the character like to be doing in 10 years?
    • What is the character’s greatest dream?  Worst nightmare?
    • Political affiliation?
    • Age of character? (17-22 age span)
    • Where does the character come from?  Where is home?
    • What is the character’s secret that no one else knows? (Generated by a different actor after reading the other answers above.)
    • Read the secret that NO ONE knows – then write down a secret that the character has told to one other person.
  • Give the character a name.

After the exercise, each actor was asked to introduce her/his character to the other members of the company, and out of these introductions, relationships emerged and the beginning of the adventure presented itself.  Each actor typed up her/his notes that night and sent them to me, and I’ve been using them throughout the devising process as a way to justify character choices and provide a foundation for the narrative throughline of the framing play.  Improvisations have been key to this process as well, and the use of audio recordings, transcriptions, and frantic notetaking during the individual improvs have all been invaluable methods for honing each character’s voice.
Stay tuned for a future blog post that will provide information about how we are using primary and secondary source materials to give voice to our three playwrights: Edna St. Vincent Millay, Eugene O’Neill, and Susan Glaspell.  In the meantime, click on the image below to see the show poster, designed by Chris Cantley of Cantley Art+Design.