The Other Way Works

Feedback Friday

October 2, 2006 by katie

On Friday Joel and Katie came in to watch the pieces we had been working on during Thursday and that morning.

I hadn’t been able to sleep much on Thursday night – falling asleep late and waking up at 6.30 too alert. Coming into the Foyle Gallery I was on an excited evening pace rather then morning speed, and buzzing with things to try out. Fortunately Katherine and Sam responded well, and didn’t send me to the mad house.

The result was a huge amount of headway on the arms, which had suffered from lack of attention/understanding. The piece of jewellery is really loaded, with a dark beauty that has begun to come through in shadowy images and song. The jewellery also suggests the power of nature and the inevitablitiy of life and death – a huge concept to try and distill into 5 minutes, but a good challenge! When Joel watched them in the afternoon this was his favourite, I guess it probably has the most complete shape now, and is therefore the most tranformative experience.

Finding the hook

September 28, 2006 by katie

We’re beginning to make some real headway with the audiences journey within the jewellery rituals. This morning we looked at the head piece. Yesterday I was concerned it had no clear hook into it, however reading over the notes again before walking in I began to see some shapes of movement and things begin to shift into an order.

As we worked through the morning we found elements that worked, others that don’t and I can’t always find the way through. It’s funny, there is no panic, I know we’ll find them soon and it would be wrong if they appreared instantly. This part of the process is a gradual shaping and enhancing of all the best bits from the last 2 weeks. Along the way we’ll discover new moments too, whose presence will influence everything that’s already there. Its where you begin to realise just how much material you’ve generated.We are working with bright sounds and a narrow, long performance space to create a greater feeling of height and distance for this one.

In the afternoon Katie came in and saw the head piece and the neck piece from yesterday. She made notes and fed back to us. She commented that now she is further removed from the process she gets more nervous taking part in the performance – a bit more like a real audience member. This is extremely helpful as she helped to spot when things were confusing or too unsettling.

Mostly in the rehearsal room I am taking the role of audience member, swapping occasionally with the girls so they can experience the effect. Being so involved continuously in such a multi-sensory world I find I gradually begin to lose my sharpness and judgement. Today it was great to have Katie confirm lines of thought i’d also been going down myself as well as helping re-focus my mind by asking questions and making suggestions.

I’m looking forward to working a bit more on the head and arms tomorrow.

The buzz kicks in

September 27, 2006 by katie

Yesterday we did an exercise where we all picked 3 things for each piece and also the outside space that we liked best. These are kind of key moments or themes to work from, and are really helpful in highlighting which images, sounds, movements and interactions are most potent. In the afternoon Katie and I did a lot of walking around the park thinking and talking – kind of rambling whilst rambling.

As directors we’re trying a new thing, attempting to play to our individual strengths, with Katie leading the first part (generating material) and me the second part (editing and fine-tuning). During this week we are transitioning into me leading rehearsals – freeing Katie to talk to our designers and think about the broader picture.

Today was my first day. We looked at the arm piece in the morning and the neck piece in the afternoon using some of our key moments list as a guide.

The morning was hard work partly because I had left the ‘set’ up from the previous days impro, which although very helpful yesterday was quite contraining today. In the afternoon I totally cleared the space, so we could look at our use of space with fresh eyes. We enjoyed ourselves, found some interesting things and I felt quite emotional after taking part in the dressing.

Poor Katie ended up doing boring financial stuff to keep the company running. Hopefully tomorrow she’ll get to communicate with Rania, Alexandra and Ben.

Now my head is buzzing with images and words and shapes and possibilities. I’m going to do a bit more work in preparation for tomorrow and then watch and engrossing film. I find it really exciting when it gets to this stage in the process, my head seems to kick in again, like it does in the very early conceptual stages, or the first week in devising. The only problem is stopping it when you need to get some rest!

Friday fun

September 24, 2006 by katie

Thursday evening saw Sam and I collecting long strands of ivy from my overgrown garden to hang up in in the outside space. We also enjoyed some tea in my kitchen to find the most appropriate taste (Lemon Verberna). On Friday morning we created a den, which included a hint of each piece of jewellery in it. We had everyone sitting on the floor on cushions, choosing between smells, textures, body parts and numbers. The conclusion was that there were too many influences within the space (childhood, ethnic, celtic, japanese tea ceremony), but the ivy made amazing shadows and the tea was ace.

Lou Platt (who we’ve worked with most recently on I Am Waiting) came along on Friday to help us out. She did two days devising on Treasured in May, but being a drama therapist ment she could only give us a few days at this stage. It was so good to have her expertise on ritual (used in drama therapy) as well as her fresh eye on the material and enthusiasm.

Particularly enjoyed by Lou, and the rest of us, was the poetical brilliance of Katherine Maxwell-Cook, who wrote a delicious poem for the neck piece – looks like this one’s here to stay.

A film script

by katie

On Thursday afternoon Sam and I wrote a film script from a story Katherine wrote last week – very complex as we were thinking it through shot by shot. We ended up creating a visually heavy text, that has a dramatic distancing effect on the audience member. It worked best when combined with an action – for instance getting the audience member to step over a body on the floor at the same time as a character in the film does – they then become this person for a moment.

Potentially this is an interesting way of drawing a person in and out of the action. So sometimes you are a charcter in the film, sometimes you are seeing the action as though watching the film. Don’t know whether it will make it to Treasured, but an interesting notion.

Making spaces – an old house

by katie

We had some fun at the end of this week making suggestions for the outside ‘chill-out’ space. Katie and I are really keen to create a transition space between the real world and the dressing chamber of Treasured.
In our last two productions we’ve been very aware that through creating a convincing, theatrical world within our performances we left our audiences with a potentially unnerving transition back to the outside again. We want to make a space that is not a highly charged, theatrical holding pen for the dressing chamber, but is somewhere where people can relax and return to having been dressed in the jewellery.

On Thursday Katie and Katherine did one around the theme of an ‘old house’. The seats were covered in dust sheets. There was a tea set on a side table, and books covered in talcum powder. Best of all were the Viennese Whirls Katie had brought in, that not only fitted the space perfectly, but tasted very good!

Part of the idea of this space is that while you’re in it you get to chose which piece of jewellery you wear. However, we don’t want to reveal the actual jewellery, so on Wednesday Katie set the perforers the task of coming up with a selection process that would related to and led to the jewellery.

Katherine had made three pictures that were hung on the walls of the ‘old house’. These included images, textures, colours, words and things to touch. While you were in the space you decided which you were most drawn to, and this is your jewellery choice. I liked that it was so hands off – you could choose at your own pace and view from a distacne or close to.

Up Close 2

by katie

A very different experience from the last week as we had 13 people turn up. Some new faces including the girls from Breathe, whose work we’d seen in Edinburgh this year and are also part of the Encounters season at mac.

We showed a short section for each piece of jewellery. The aim was to test how many of the senses people could process simultaniously, so I picked some impros with fewer and some with many. Each one included being dressed in the jewellery, but as there were quite a few people (as many as we’ll get through in 2 hours of performance) they did only one each.

Then we went downstairs for a chat over coffee. The biggest find was that touch is such a strong sensation on its own it wants to be the sole focus. People really couldn’t focus on anything else when the jewellery was being put on them, or at least wanted to be allowed to experience only that sensation.

Another interesting thing we did was elevating the people who wore the head piece by making them stand on a step stool. This seemed to give the wearer greater importance – Abi felt like a Queen. The head piece in particular has an upwards feel to it – many of the narratives that have come out of it include flying. Interestingly the arms piece is very earthy and ground level, perhaps the neck is a middle ground piece – we’ll see.

Thanks to Dan too for bringing up the question of comedy, and whether there was a place for it in Treasured – that made us think! Is Treasured taking itself too seriously? Have we been blocking comedy, or will it crop up later in the process? Is Treasured simply not funny?

Struggling on Monday

September 18, 2006 by katie

Having just emerged from a very hot bath where I steamed with a glass of wine and some Rufus Wainwright songs I feel delirious enough to write about today. Ok, it wasn’t THAT bad, I think I was just struggling – having one of those days.

The morning started pretty well. Katie brought in an interesting book called Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels. Sam read the prologue – a fascinatingly poetic narrative about the ‘bog boy’ with so many amazing images and wonderful words it leaves you reeling.
Katherine did some research on the coronation of our current Queen. Elizabeth apparently took the whole thing very seriously, practicing in the ballroom which she marked out in tape, and joining sheets together to make her train. Having done this work and watched ‘The Queen'(a new film), Katherine seems to be worryingly obsessed with our monarch, or perhaps, as Katie fears, she has turned into a royalist!

Anyway, after that things just didn’t connect. Katherine and I (in a pair) found it hard to create a new ritual, even after incorporating the eating of some cake that my Mum had made. We looked at instructing the audience member on the experience before they took part in it. This was better, but the room was very hot and stuffy today, and my focus still drifted more than usual.

Lastly today we sat in the bar at mac and wrote for 3 minutes at a time about the history (discovery/making) of each item of jewellery. This was great, and not only because I could have a beer, but everyone came out with unique stories. It was really interesting hearing everyone’s differing styles: Katherine always writes intricate, descriptive text that uses repetition; Katie’s are focused and emotional; and Sam’s imaginative and surreal. Don’t know that I can characterise my own, but the general feeling seemed to be that it got better with editing – so maybe I should take a hint, and end this blog…

A child’s eye view

September 17, 2006 by katie

Late introductions

September 14, 2006 by katie