"I'm scared to have this much power!" (audience member, when given the opportunity to rotate the actors herself)
"This is really neat--I mean, I've given these people relationships. I don't know if they're supposed to have them, but I've given them to them, and they make sense. See, the singing girl is this guy's brain, and the girl with the whistle is this girl's brain, but you can switch them...but if you switch them this way, it doesn't make sense to me. But I guess it might make sense to you..." (off-duty Shunt light crew member)
"Really, really fun." (overheard regularly)
"You know, I've never been asked to do this before...not to give you a big head, but I've never gotten to affect the performance in this way." (Ayse)
"Well, see, my friend showed me how this works--you can come up, you use these things [faders], and you can change the way they act. See, (demonstrates) you can make her disappointed, (slides fader up) and now she's really happy!" (dancer from another Shunt piece)
"You can make connections in your head... I don't know what she's saying, but she could be complaining about [this guy] her lousy boyfriend!" "and the look on his face is priceless--it's like "shall I deign to perform for you?" Catherine W.
Audience member on board faded a speaker out with a finger to his lips as though to say "shh, I'm quieting you."
Audience members eyeballing each other when the board is free. Who gets to go next?
"My ego forces me to conform to the rules of the system. I would feel silly, embarrassed to step out, even when I did feel like I couldn't take it any more." Jenny O. (performer)
Even when the performers are saying something you don't agree with, or which offends you, frequently audience members will let them speak their peace, then turn them off and grumble about disagreeing with them--when they could have turned them off the whole time. "It's like we're all drawn to the macabre for some reason." (Jenny O.)
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Lautes Licht
Just to let any reader know, I have a show opening up on Thursday entitled "Lautes Licht" at the Shunt Lounge, London Bridge Station. (quite literally, it is directly under London Bridge Station, in these neat old vaults) It requires audience participation to work--you, the emancipated spectators you are, get to set the light levels, thereby telling the characters how to play! Make them run! Make them dance! Make them create beautiful music! You may have fun, you may feel cruel...you may step back and see that somehow all these separate performances seem to relate to each other, and tell you a very individual story. Take a moment to set the action and enjoy your show, then let another guest take a turn. Be sure to watch while your friends conduct their own pieces--you might see something new.
It runs Thursday through Saturday, May 27-29 and June 3-5. All shows start at 8pm but will have a variety of performance times and durations (at least 2 1-hour runs each night, as it relates to concurrent pieces in the space). Tickets to the Lounge are £10, £5 concession for students, the elderly, and the unemployed on Thursday and Friday. There will be loads of other performances, art installations, demonstrations, and opportunities to drink and be merry all through the night.
----
As with most of the work I'm up to these days, Licht is a proposition. An experiment, both for me and for you. It is an opportunity for you to see exactly what you want to see, and an opportunity for me to see if you enjoy that. Does the power to control the action excite you? Scare you? Disappoint you? Why?
Lautes Licht (in English, Loud Light) is also a study of the musicality of language. Our multi-national cast will be speaking and singing in a variety of tongues, playing instruments, and communicating visually, each performer on his and her own. I'm excited to see if you find narrative and meaning emerging from the juxtaposition of their actions the way I have. The performers in the space will change regularly throughout the night, so be sure to come back often to try new configurations, new levels, and new stories!
It runs Thursday through Saturday, May 27-29 and June 3-5. All shows start at 8pm but will have a variety of performance times and durations (at least 2 1-hour runs each night, as it relates to concurrent pieces in the space). Tickets to the Lounge are £10, £5 concession for students, the elderly, and the unemployed on Thursday and Friday. There will be loads of other performances, art installations, demonstrations, and opportunities to drink and be merry all through the night.
----
As with most of the work I'm up to these days, Licht is a proposition. An experiment, both for me and for you. It is an opportunity for you to see exactly what you want to see, and an opportunity for me to see if you enjoy that. Does the power to control the action excite you? Scare you? Disappoint you? Why?
Lautes Licht (in English, Loud Light) is also a study of the musicality of language. Our multi-national cast will be speaking and singing in a variety of tongues, playing instruments, and communicating visually, each performer on his and her own. I'm excited to see if you find narrative and meaning emerging from the juxtaposition of their actions the way I have. The performers in the space will change regularly throughout the night, so be sure to come back often to try new configurations, new levels, and new stories!
Monday, May 3, 2010
Matt Adams, Blast Theory
since 1991
new interactive art, game play, digital media.
Moment of graduation is a moment of truth: transition into professional practice is a rough 12 months.
Blast theory started with a diverse group of people working in a cinema. they realized that they had a niche to fill when club culture and raving were at their pre-corporate peak--it was a good setting for new work.
study giving up control: being kidnapped. observe how well people actually handle loss of control, when in so many instances we give it up freely (religion, politics, government)
Permeable boundaries between Real and Virtual space: mist screens, walk-through-able
What is virtual space? How do soldiers feel okay killing images on screens and not having to deal with feeling like they've actually killed people?
Can You See Me Now? First mixed-reality game.
Day of the Figurines: halfway through the game the town is invaded by Arabic-speaking soldiers
You Get Me? creating a dialogue between artist and audience is vital for participatory work
Logistics:
Charity status--Free money!
take on freelancers, assistants, and transient staff
Practice needs to be central or you'll get used to money. Very hard to make that pay cut willingly.
Touring, Arts Council, grants, and occasional "juicy ones" pay the bills--filled a very specific niche at a specific time. Be pragmatic about what AC wants, how you can prove that you fulfill their needs. Ask for advice from people who can give you things. Funding may come in the form of "We'll buy some equipment for ourselves and let you use it"-don't turn up your nose! partner with companies who are receiving funding. leech off of industrial Funding Bodies, universities, scientific researching bodies--but they will constrain creative input.
now that we have internet we don't need tv companies to act as the gate-keepers to broadcast.
no product may come out of some ventures but taking a year (and a grant) to learn can be valuable too.
Find a community that supports you--not just the arts. (gamers have money and love Blast Theory--useful) connect with research branches of big companies (not marketing, manufacturing, or sales--the research team at Nokia is filled with academics, not cell-phone salesmen)
-if companies let the artists lead research, art will happen in your technology. scientists and computer types generate the technology, artists figure out how to use it in cool ways.
Integrated Project on Pervasive Gaming: games as culture. not just platforms, but pervasive forms, things which influence society and technology by Being Themselves.
Get involved with projects which may put you in touch with organizations that may take you on. be prepared to diversify. It is hard to reach an audience that doesn't go to the theatre. Blast Theory is not even recognized as theatre--but it is seductive and engaging without being trashy.
social networking sites are not just useful for marketing--they're good for figuring out who your audience could be.
(what is marketing's obsession with grabbing 14-year old boys? It's kinda creepy how much effort and money is put into nabbing children when they're young--you still have mommy's money and you'll pitch a fit if you don't get it...great. i f'ing hate kids. religions, political parties, patriotism, toys...get 'em while they're young. sick.)
In Rider Spoke, is there an anti-climactic experience? Do people feel disappointed or frustrated because there's no boss level which we have come to expect in organized, led activity? Do we simply expect a narrative, or at least some linear flow? IS this something that is innate? Even people who don't 'do' theatre play video games and watch movies. We expect a boss--a final challenge. That means we've WON. That's the problem with endurance pieces. That's why we find social networking gaming dissatisfying. Small worlds, as a platform, Grand Theft Auto as just an open world is boring. If there's no objective it just feels like daily life. Mere interaction with a platform is stagnation. Experience for experience's sake feels, if not empty, incomplete. Audiences need to win in order to feel as though they spent their time wisely. The maze is only over once you've figured your way out. If you must be led out, you've lost. Make it something you can interact with until a point, at which point it explodes. If it blows up, you win. When it's over, make it Over. Take it away conclusively, but only after it has achieved its objective, provided satisfaction.
Is Rider Spoke cathartic or experiential? Should audiences be trusted to make their own experiences? Are they audiences anymore? What is at stake for the creator? If nothing is risked, nothing is created.
Conferences aren't a bad thing. Learn how other people work, how they research.
Embedded video, virtual working tvs...magpie approach. pick and take others' technologies, research, staff, stuff.
Researchers don't get out much--express interest in them. offer to give them publicity. Talk to people you come across in your research, if they're alive. Be honest and specific: you don't have to know what you're doing. They're the experts.
remember that politically charged groups have agendas which probably don't align with yours.
be thinking about logistics of developing projects: how wold you, who would you, not a specific show. First steps of engagement. Figure out what practicalities might be. What is your concept? Here is my theoretical idea, what I'm excited about--what is my next practical step toward exploring that idea?
new interactive art, game play, digital media.
Moment of graduation is a moment of truth: transition into professional practice is a rough 12 months.
Blast theory started with a diverse group of people working in a cinema. they realized that they had a niche to fill when club culture and raving were at their pre-corporate peak--it was a good setting for new work.
study giving up control: being kidnapped. observe how well people actually handle loss of control, when in so many instances we give it up freely (religion, politics, government)
Permeable boundaries between Real and Virtual space: mist screens, walk-through-able
What is virtual space? How do soldiers feel okay killing images on screens and not having to deal with feeling like they've actually killed people?
Can You See Me Now? First mixed-reality game.
Day of the Figurines: halfway through the game the town is invaded by Arabic-speaking soldiers
You Get Me? creating a dialogue between artist and audience is vital for participatory work
Logistics:
Charity status--Free money!
take on freelancers, assistants, and transient staff
Practice needs to be central or you'll get used to money. Very hard to make that pay cut willingly.
Touring, Arts Council, grants, and occasional "juicy ones" pay the bills--filled a very specific niche at a specific time. Be pragmatic about what AC wants, how you can prove that you fulfill their needs. Ask for advice from people who can give you things. Funding may come in the form of "We'll buy some equipment for ourselves and let you use it"-don't turn up your nose! partner with companies who are receiving funding. leech off of industrial Funding Bodies, universities, scientific researching bodies--but they will constrain creative input.
now that we have internet we don't need tv companies to act as the gate-keepers to broadcast.
no product may come out of some ventures but taking a year (and a grant) to learn can be valuable too.
Find a community that supports you--not just the arts. (gamers have money and love Blast Theory--useful) connect with research branches of big companies (not marketing, manufacturing, or sales--the research team at Nokia is filled with academics, not cell-phone salesmen)
-if companies let the artists lead research, art will happen in your technology. scientists and computer types generate the technology, artists figure out how to use it in cool ways.
Integrated Project on Pervasive Gaming: games as culture. not just platforms, but pervasive forms, things which influence society and technology by Being Themselves.
Get involved with projects which may put you in touch with organizations that may take you on. be prepared to diversify. It is hard to reach an audience that doesn't go to the theatre. Blast Theory is not even recognized as theatre--but it is seductive and engaging without being trashy.
social networking sites are not just useful for marketing--they're good for figuring out who your audience could be.
(what is marketing's obsession with grabbing 14-year old boys? It's kinda creepy how much effort and money is put into nabbing children when they're young--you still have mommy's money and you'll pitch a fit if you don't get it...great. i f'ing hate kids. religions, political parties, patriotism, toys...get 'em while they're young. sick.)
In Rider Spoke, is there an anti-climactic experience? Do people feel disappointed or frustrated because there's no boss level which we have come to expect in organized, led activity? Do we simply expect a narrative, or at least some linear flow? IS this something that is innate? Even people who don't 'do' theatre play video games and watch movies. We expect a boss--a final challenge. That means we've WON. That's the problem with endurance pieces. That's why we find social networking gaming dissatisfying. Small worlds, as a platform, Grand Theft Auto as just an open world is boring. If there's no objective it just feels like daily life. Mere interaction with a platform is stagnation. Experience for experience's sake feels, if not empty, incomplete. Audiences need to win in order to feel as though they spent their time wisely. The maze is only over once you've figured your way out. If you must be led out, you've lost. Make it something you can interact with until a point, at which point it explodes. If it blows up, you win. When it's over, make it Over. Take it away conclusively, but only after it has achieved its objective, provided satisfaction.
Is Rider Spoke cathartic or experiential? Should audiences be trusted to make their own experiences? Are they audiences anymore? What is at stake for the creator? If nothing is risked, nothing is created.
Conferences aren't a bad thing. Learn how other people work, how they research.
Embedded video, virtual working tvs...magpie approach. pick and take others' technologies, research, staff, stuff.
Researchers don't get out much--express interest in them. offer to give them publicity. Talk to people you come across in your research, if they're alive. Be honest and specific: you don't have to know what you're doing. They're the experts.
remember that politically charged groups have agendas which probably don't align with yours.
be thinking about logistics of developing projects: how wold you, who would you, not a specific show. First steps of engagement. Figure out what practicalities might be. What is your concept? Here is my theoretical idea, what I'm excited about--what is my next practical step toward exploring that idea?
Research Notes, Semester 2: January (A)
Research Project Meeting 1
Audience reaction based on background
Classical Theatre:
Do audiences need particular education or background to "Get" classical theatre? It used to be for the people.
Baz Luhrman: Bringing people into Shakespeare, or bringing people into action movies with a Shakey twist?
Are we constantly developing Shakespeare, adapting it to relate to people?
In-Yer-Face: no escape if you're surrounded by the show, you can't avoid being involved. You can't check out. Trapped. Punch Drunk: very involved, actors touch you, feel like you're part of the show.
Average Theatre-goer vs Practitioner theatre-goer?
There should always be something in the show that keeps your attention which is Relevant to the Intended Experience.
What is the story behind clapping? Do we do so because we think we should or because we genuinely appreciated the show? How does this relate to the Forest Fringe donation scheme, whereby the audience is asked to give as much money at the end of the show as they think the performance was worth? Does that make audiences more honest? Is it more accurate than applause?
Wanting to Be Here makes the experience more enriching. Feel the dynamic of the area, not just the academic landscape.
----
Creating Stuff: What is the discrepancy between focusing on the process versus the product? Process without product...disappointing? Unfulfilling.
Street Clowns in Mexico--theatre of not being noticed.
The Ethics of Stepping into People's Lives (we should run away from this topic!)
I'm just going to go there and do it--what ever happens, happens. In applied theatre, baseline probable reaction goes out the window. There is no common ground--you're dealing with the mentally disturbed, prisoners, the poor, children, the theatrically disinclined...
What are our strengths/focal areas?
--working with disadvantaged groups
--immersive theatre
--classical theatre, Shakespeare for everyone
--Hamlet in Tower Hamlets
--Seek patterns of interest within a practical framework
--Concept of Hope: introduction in to the high theatre experience?
--Transformational theatre: materiality transforms performer and audience at the same time
--The Transformative Power of Performance: Maria Brenointch: Boa Constrictors (?)
Blast Theory: games as theatre? Do we even call it theatre anymore?
Sally Mackey: Thea Care Lian Trilogy: Site-Specific, how do you go back to your project after you've had a year to grow and change?
-Reception based on culture: if you know snakes, would you jump onstage to help Maria? Do you analyze with more depth? Does that inhibit self-expression?
If you have to plant a tree of study, where do you put it in relation to everyone's starting point?
(study one specific reaction to one specific stimulus in a variety of communities. But what's the control group?)
Why does theatre make you cry?
Filming the audience opens a whole new can of worms: how do they behave if they know they're being watched?
Difference between Reaction and Perception: ensure you focus on one and avoid language which could stimulate crossover. Identify "key concepts" which the subject typically suggests and establish straight-away whether or not you'll be addressing them in this instance.
(Make sure other people hear your idea before you choose to study it)
How do we get the Same reaction in different communities?
Can we create a universal language or effect can impact everyone the same way?
Different audience reactions to the same stimulus?
(We must acknowledge that there is no universal effect, no universal reaction)
What about "two girls/one cup": same idea of varying reactions to the same stimulus. add music, different forms: classical vs grunge-core music...vs silence.
People's reactions to naked human form?
Willing vs unwilling audience? Changes intensity of reaction, direction of reaction...
Aesop's fables: ubiquitous? actual universal themes: tyrants will always justify their tyranny, honesty triumphs over corruption...
Before/After: Can we find universality? Reaction study. Use one specific example.
Sudden reflexive reactions: valid? Not really.
Most Dangerous: US serial, real events when people die or get badly injured.
Find an effect that encourages Engagement rather than Escape. Effect that encourages participation rather than simple revulsion or flight reflexes.
Contrast what you see on faces against what participants say they felt.
----
Dang, the game has changed: more and more people are studying audiences than in the past few weeks. We are all acknowledging the role of the audience in understanding: the show is the impact of the piece on the audience in the context of their minds, their collective set of experiences. The show is in the interpretation.
The Metaphysical Shiver: (Taghrid?)
-Alienation through raising awareness. (can i fit this in?)
The attempt to identify problems to the general public. How does this impact people who just don't want to engage?
Claire: On MAATP 9 years ago, found it a time to disprove her own theories.
6 Core emotions at the heart of neurology that are recognizable across all cultures.
Duncan: playwright: command a sense of attention. How do you dictate specific types of attention? different ways of achieving it? Process does not dictate success.
Abstraction complicates things: truth is the most relevant.
What are the 10 things I want right now? (in 30 seconds)
Feminine Equality, Safety/Liberty, warmth/comfort, cleanliness, freedom from vermin, personal space, good food, friends, Ben, family.
(Funny those came out in a weird order, didn't they? Edit in hindsight, not in the process: find the sudden, uncensored self.)
What are 10 things I'm upset about right now? (in 30 seconds)
America, mindless entertainment, my tendency to sleep all day, my tendency to rant, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Chinese manufacturing takeover, travel and privacy infringement under the guise of safety, paranoia culture, institutionalized hatred
Theatre is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an unmovable object. (really? are you suggesting that the space between a rock and a hard place is filled with complaints?)
the power of pulling unpleasant information out of an audience: asking for secrets--what gives you the right to ask? Why are people complicit? Moreover, why am I complicit? In toda's study we have been the "Them" in the theatre: the recipients of the experience. the Audience.
Standaway Dance: IRA Bombings. Incredibly offensive play, groundbreaking.
Seven Jewish Children
Stockwell: Controversial, poorly researched dramatization of Brazilian man shot by police on the tube after 7/7
Non-Theatre audience: no clue-ers
Teenagers (Adrian) A-level age, East Londoners, 2nd generation British, no background in experimental theatre
Club Crowd @ Proud
Logistics:
Permission forms from parents for public display of kids' interviews, group audience filming.
Smart kids from rough neighborhoods, capable and talented kids from poverty
Tight communities: people who'd rather be poor than work for a stranger, or for a regular paycheck for helping achieve someone else's goals. Difficult to gather like-minded people without a name or a reputation.
What kind of show do we want to put on? Something enjoyable for both kids and adults?
(Ignorant audiences of theatre rarely express opinions, even if they have them, whereas everyone has an opinion about film, even if they don't know what went into it. Because people are used to the format. In theatre people are more likely to assume that they just don't get it. )
Do stories have to include some element of hope?
Are we studying gut reactions or thoughts over time?
Clowning: Effect without Content. Your audience should not be trying to intellectualize your actions or intent. How do clowns relate to kids vs adults?
Moments of universality:
Are they useful? DO we Want moments that Everyone can relate to? Is that too Hollywood?
Concept of Universality: assumption that on some level you can please everyone. Fascist?
Audience Research:
Why do you respond the way you do?
Visual/Physical/Sound based (Not Text!)
Movement: A universal language? (what about the blind?)
Sweeping generalizations about everyone: Imperial mindset. There is no one essential truth.
Postmodernism: Introductory material: Derrida
Theatre and Universality
Hans Lehmann: Post-Dramatic Theatre
Patrice Pavis
What are the possibilities and problematics of universality?
----
Laban: universality of movements: big moments in life, birth, death, eating, excreting, sleeping and waking. Relationship of universality to movement/theatre/multiculturalism
gesture reactions cross-cultural audience
study of gesture in painting?
what is my culture?
American culture may be too big an undertaking.
Audience reaction based on background
Classical Theatre:
Do audiences need particular education or background to "Get" classical theatre? It used to be for the people.
Baz Luhrman: Bringing people into Shakespeare, or bringing people into action movies with a Shakey twist?
Are we constantly developing Shakespeare, adapting it to relate to people?
In-Yer-Face: no escape if you're surrounded by the show, you can't avoid being involved. You can't check out. Trapped. Punch Drunk: very involved, actors touch you, feel like you're part of the show.
Average Theatre-goer vs Practitioner theatre-goer?
There should always be something in the show that keeps your attention which is Relevant to the Intended Experience.
What is the story behind clapping? Do we do so because we think we should or because we genuinely appreciated the show? How does this relate to the Forest Fringe donation scheme, whereby the audience is asked to give as much money at the end of the show as they think the performance was worth? Does that make audiences more honest? Is it more accurate than applause?
Wanting to Be Here makes the experience more enriching. Feel the dynamic of the area, not just the academic landscape.
----
Creating Stuff: What is the discrepancy between focusing on the process versus the product? Process without product...disappointing? Unfulfilling.
Street Clowns in Mexico--theatre of not being noticed.
The Ethics of Stepping into People's Lives (we should run away from this topic!)
I'm just going to go there and do it--what ever happens, happens. In applied theatre, baseline probable reaction goes out the window. There is no common ground--you're dealing with the mentally disturbed, prisoners, the poor, children, the theatrically disinclined...
What are our strengths/focal areas?
--working with disadvantaged groups
--immersive theatre
--classical theatre, Shakespeare for everyone
--Hamlet in Tower Hamlets
--Seek patterns of interest within a practical framework
--Concept of Hope: introduction in to the high theatre experience?
--Transformational theatre: materiality transforms performer and audience at the same time
--The Transformative Power of Performance: Maria Brenointch: Boa Constrictors (?)
Blast Theory: games as theatre? Do we even call it theatre anymore?
Sally Mackey: Thea Care Lian Trilogy: Site-Specific, how do you go back to your project after you've had a year to grow and change?
-Reception based on culture: if you know snakes, would you jump onstage to help Maria? Do you analyze with more depth? Does that inhibit self-expression?
If you have to plant a tree of study, where do you put it in relation to everyone's starting point?
(study one specific reaction to one specific stimulus in a variety of communities. But what's the control group?)
Why does theatre make you cry?
Filming the audience opens a whole new can of worms: how do they behave if they know they're being watched?
Difference between Reaction and Perception: ensure you focus on one and avoid language which could stimulate crossover. Identify "key concepts" which the subject typically suggests and establish straight-away whether or not you'll be addressing them in this instance.
(Make sure other people hear your idea before you choose to study it)
How do we get the Same reaction in different communities?
Can we create a universal language or effect can impact everyone the same way?
Different audience reactions to the same stimulus?
(We must acknowledge that there is no universal effect, no universal reaction)
What about "two girls/one cup": same idea of varying reactions to the same stimulus. add music, different forms: classical vs grunge-core music...vs silence.
People's reactions to naked human form?
Willing vs unwilling audience? Changes intensity of reaction, direction of reaction...
Aesop's fables: ubiquitous? actual universal themes: tyrants will always justify their tyranny, honesty triumphs over corruption...
Before/After: Can we find universality? Reaction study. Use one specific example.
Sudden reflexive reactions: valid? Not really.
Most Dangerous: US serial, real events when people die or get badly injured.
Find an effect that encourages Engagement rather than Escape. Effect that encourages participation rather than simple revulsion or flight reflexes.
Contrast what you see on faces against what participants say they felt.
----
Dang, the game has changed: more and more people are studying audiences than in the past few weeks. We are all acknowledging the role of the audience in understanding: the show is the impact of the piece on the audience in the context of their minds, their collective set of experiences. The show is in the interpretation.
The Metaphysical Shiver: (Taghrid?)
-Alienation through raising awareness. (can i fit this in?)
The attempt to identify problems to the general public. How does this impact people who just don't want to engage?
Claire: On MAATP 9 years ago, found it a time to disprove her own theories.
6 Core emotions at the heart of neurology that are recognizable across all cultures.
Duncan: playwright: command a sense of attention. How do you dictate specific types of attention? different ways of achieving it? Process does not dictate success.
Abstraction complicates things: truth is the most relevant.
What are the 10 things I want right now? (in 30 seconds)
Feminine Equality, Safety/Liberty, warmth/comfort, cleanliness, freedom from vermin, personal space, good food, friends, Ben, family.
(Funny those came out in a weird order, didn't they? Edit in hindsight, not in the process: find the sudden, uncensored self.)
What are 10 things I'm upset about right now? (in 30 seconds)
America, mindless entertainment, my tendency to sleep all day, my tendency to rant, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Chinese manufacturing takeover, travel and privacy infringement under the guise of safety, paranoia culture, institutionalized hatred
Theatre is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an unmovable object. (really? are you suggesting that the space between a rock and a hard place is filled with complaints?)
the power of pulling unpleasant information out of an audience: asking for secrets--what gives you the right to ask? Why are people complicit? Moreover, why am I complicit? In toda's study we have been the "Them" in the theatre: the recipients of the experience. the Audience.
Standaway Dance: IRA Bombings. Incredibly offensive play, groundbreaking.
Seven Jewish Children
Stockwell: Controversial, poorly researched dramatization of Brazilian man shot by police on the tube after 7/7
Non-Theatre audience: no clue-ers
Teenagers (Adrian) A-level age, East Londoners, 2nd generation British, no background in experimental theatre
Club Crowd @ Proud
Logistics:
Permission forms from parents for public display of kids' interviews, group audience filming.
Smart kids from rough neighborhoods, capable and talented kids from poverty
Tight communities: people who'd rather be poor than work for a stranger, or for a regular paycheck for helping achieve someone else's goals. Difficult to gather like-minded people without a name or a reputation.
What kind of show do we want to put on? Something enjoyable for both kids and adults?
(Ignorant audiences of theatre rarely express opinions, even if they have them, whereas everyone has an opinion about film, even if they don't know what went into it. Because people are used to the format. In theatre people are more likely to assume that they just don't get it. )
Do stories have to include some element of hope?
Are we studying gut reactions or thoughts over time?
Clowning: Effect without Content. Your audience should not be trying to intellectualize your actions or intent. How do clowns relate to kids vs adults?
Moments of universality:
Are they useful? DO we Want moments that Everyone can relate to? Is that too Hollywood?
Concept of Universality: assumption that on some level you can please everyone. Fascist?
Audience Research:
Why do you respond the way you do?
Visual/Physical/Sound based (Not Text!)
Movement: A universal language? (what about the blind?)
Sweeping generalizations about everyone: Imperial mindset. There is no one essential truth.
Postmodernism: Introductory material: Derrida
Theatre and Universality
Hans Lehmann: Post-Dramatic Theatre
Patrice Pavis
What are the possibilities and problematics of universality?
----
Laban: universality of movements: big moments in life, birth, death, eating, excreting, sleeping and waking. Relationship of universality to movement/theatre/multiculturalism
gesture reactions cross-cultural audience
study of gesture in painting?
what is my culture?
American culture may be too big an undertaking.
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