All-Day Lecture Series

Liz Lacompte - Wooster Group. New York City, Wooster Street. (aha!)

-Makes aural and visual worlds, then places performances within them. Allows pieces to develop during performance, during run--challenge of not knowing how things are going to work. Never knows what the text will become in the space.
-Whole career feels like one piece she's been working on since she started
-she finishes pieces because they're due, not because she works within a framework for completion
-stages with a feel of a film performance--how does That work?
-she needs to feel that audience and performers don't know what will happen. diverts audience's attention with technology. New Naturalism?
-wants to blend the best experiences of film and theatre.
--I appreciate that she says "we" and not "I"
-Improvisational theatre a lot like good jazz--the musicians have a basic framework within which they work, but beyond that it's all about listening to each other and feeling a vibe, going with the flow you feel in your bones.
-Wants to find a new way of performing. Always.
-Some shows become a sort of dance, very trusting. Must find actors who are willing to take the risk.
-always films accident takes--the first improv is always the best.
-she doesn't want to get an idea of what it means then have the actors tell her that back--she wants to learn something every time. sits in the audience every night.
-Is she mildly religious?
-Has no memory of her time performing except extreme discomfort. Next question.
-her group has no loyalty. it is simply a collection of driven artists.
-All theatre is experimental. She sounds a little frustrated.
-likes moving parts and diagonals. What do I want to see the space do next?
-performers are fearless. Not a fuzzy trust-buildy director--it's a rough process. Those performers who need trust established don't stick around.
-anti-feminist slant. Allows herself a certain ditziness
-doesn't think of herself as a director. she's just the one with the project to get done.

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Simon McBurney

Making Theatre with Media-with Simon McBurney

he's doing Beckett at night, which is a dark place he has to go to
a photograph is a moment gradually receding into time
theatre--see and hear
place creates meaning. new media is nothing new.
digital technology is merely an extension of existing media. ritual humiliation is a big part of theatre. theatre exists in the present. we don't know what happened in the past, we only know what happens now. film is a medium of the future--it's all about what will happen next.
Devising theatre is a mess--all about human capacities to interpret. We're always looking for a simple answer.
Theatre folk. Why do we all suck at math?
Shakespeare was a collaboration from the start. never just one man.
Linear is not the only concept of time that works.
David Mamet--a theatre company can only exist in its original incarnation for up to 7 years--after that people drift off, start to hate each other, get pregnant, get married, get god, get sick of it, change careers, get famous, change ideologies, change directions, want change, need change, change everything.
muscle of the imagination--pleasing.

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Katie Mitchell--Virginia Woolf "The Waves"; devising process

First piece--Gobstopper, 1985. About rape.
text-based theatre for 20 years while she wanted to be a deviser, wanted to work fringe, hard to get out of the groove of professional theatre, money, stability
-8 weeks a year for experimentation and study of contributing fields
***The Waves--devised with video and orchestra--any relation to Berkeley Repertory Theatre's 2007 production of To The Lighthouse?***
At the top of your field, it's okay to fail
No multimedia work is being taken on in the UK--recession is bad for experimental theatre. A bit bleak.
Preparation for Rehearsal: chopped 300 page "The Waves" to 40-page structureless "Good bits" edition. Rehearsed with sound guy and composer.
How do we do Thought? How do we bring it to life?
When people are Thinking what are they Doing?
How do we transition from one person's thoughts to the nexdt?
Get actors to come up with thoughts-get everyone to think-Delegate!
Director must always watch and give intelligent feedback.
A director of devised theatre may step back, think, and delegate her genius.
Specialist Study--wants to be a Foley artist when she grows up. Looks like fun.
Jack Stew-Foley artist. Came in with a wheeled suitcase full of crisp packets and high heels.
-Stressed out sound designer.
-Composer rocked out on violins.
-Simon Allen--sound historian, specialist--knows what was played every year of the past 200.
-Cueing live Foley sounds absolutely insane.
-Why don't we have tap dancing?
-P.G. Wodehouse-style notes on the wall, being modified and moved around depending on how good they are.
-establish rules, then stick to them
-gloriously ran out of time.
-Killing fish for the sake of art, fully disheartened actors. "It's really bad direction to get actors that disheartened at that stage. I see that."
-keep the bar very high but be careful with your actors.
-distract actors into doing small tasks instead of memorizing lines
-Little fingers on screen. close ups. crap on stage. finds distortion of emotion and demonstrative action gross. unlike life, horrible, embarrassing. keep the detail without faking it. How much minutiae faking is necessary for devised theatre?
-working for money is not always exciting, but childcare is expensive.
-a Well Made Play--makes the audience believe for a moment that life really can be corralled into order. in an ideal world it all makes sense. there is no room for neat order in reality.
-enjoys studying the endocrinology of emotion.
-Audiences cannot read bodies, but narrative is artificial.
-How do we Make this Genuine?

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3 talks by people who don't normally give talks
3 good speakers
3 theatre types talking frankly to theatre types
3 honest, enjoyable presentations

practitioners like the rehearsal room, the process--not the presented product.