The Other Way Works

On Tuesday, we did an afternoon of ‘speed devising’.
It was a fun. We played with placing the jewellery in different areas
within the space to create an image or atmosphere. To further influence
our scenes we picked a word or sentance at random (eyes shut finger
pointing) from the twenty pages of lists. Two memorable ones Katie and
I had were ‘beads clacking against plastic’ and ‘getting it over with
quickly’.
Katherine and Sam did a lovely scene influenced by the word ‘mother’
and my boyfriend came up from London to discover me lying like a corpse
under a shroud, with the jewellery draped over me.

At 6pm we presented three snippets to the small, but supportive
group of people who had turned up for Up Close. They saw one small
scene for each piece of jewellery; two of which they experienced as a
group, and one that they saw on their own.
Afterwards we had a 15 minute feedback session. A lot of the words that
we’d come up with on Monday were repeated by our guests – I wonder how
much is simply inherent in the jewellery, and how much we had
communicated our ideas through the scenes we created. Interestingly the
piece they had least to say about was the one that had no performance
element to it.

Next Tuesday we are doing another Up Close, which will probably
focus more on interaction between our performers and the audience.

Apologies for the lack of blog until now, we
have one more day in our first week of devising and my head is feeling
swamped with ideas and questions.
We’ve been churning out material every day, making huge lists of
stimuli – all really exciting stuff – so many possibilities, images,
avenues to pursue, that my head is at saturation level.
We decided to start with the jewellery as a focus at the beginning on
Monday, and see what came out. Taking it in turns to sit in the room,
alone, with one piece at a time draped over the mannequin. We noted
down how being there with it felt, what images it sparked, what it
smelt like, how it was to touch. Then we fed back to each other. This
may sound a bit pretentious (sitting in a room with a piece of
jewellery), but each piece is so powerful your response to it is
immediate and strong. Comparing notes was fascinating, similar themes
cropped up again and again.
John’s (worn on the head): dominant, powerful and arrogant, some of us felt it could posses you or hold strange powers.
Mikaela’s (worn around the neck): comfortable, lived-in historic feel, feminine and delicate, links to travel and the sea.
Louise’s (worn on the arms): Suductive, beautiful but dangerous, strong links with nature and burial.

And this is only the tip of the iceberg! Throughout the week we have
been returing to our initial lists made from this exercise to use as a
starting or focusing point for other exercises. Lists are great, they
trigger your memory when it is feeling sluggish and take you down
avenues you never expected…

We start devising tomorrow in the Foyle Gallery
at mac – really lucky as this is where we’re performing initially which
makes life easier. Also mac is a nice place to be: you can escape in to
the park at lunchtime and hang out with the geese; or have a cup of tea
in the cafe; you see lots of friendly faces.

Mac has just undergone a transformation (or re-painting really). All
the staff took part in a 3 day overhaul of the downstairs area, it is
now mostly green and cream, with a bit of red and grey thrown in for
good measure.

You should come along and have a look on tuesday when we’re doing
our first UP CLOSE sharing. We’re holding two of these whilst creating
Treasured. You can come and see a bit of work we’ve done, ask questions
about it, give us suggestions, then have a drink and a chat with us.
They’re usually quite good fun, casual but hopefully interesting for
both you and us.

This week I think you’ll be in for a treat, as you might be the
first people to see the jewellery. I think it’s crazy, and extreme, and
beauitful, but i’d like to know what you think.

UP CLOSE 1
Tuesday 12th September
Foyle Gallery, mac (Birmingham)
6-7pm
Free entry

Katie has just left the office for a walk, and
I’m realising I should have gone too. There are just too many things to
fit in and think about, and at some point your brain just stops doing
anything constructive.

Talking of strange brains, since getting the mannequins I’ve been
having dreams linked to the film Return to Oz. It has a sequence in
which the scary witch/woman’s interchangable heads (kept in cases)
start screaming. So I’ve been having a recurring dream where I wake up
wearing someone else’s head.
I haven’t seen the film for ages, but that has stuck with me, and I’m
currently trying to get hold of a copy of the film to exorcise it from
my head.

You’ll be pleased to hear there will be no interchangable heads in Treasured…

It is a fine balance managing both the company
and directing the performances, this afternoon we finally got round to
doing some directing prep work.

First off was to look at the aims of the project. These have
natuarally come about as the concept evolved, but we found it really
useful with I Am Waiting to have them written down as reference for
ourselves, and also to create a joint understanding with all
collaborators.
There are about five aims altogether. As usual with our work the
audience role is key, so this time we aim to give them an experience in
which they feel chosen, connected and affirmed.

Katie and I had a lengthy discussion about how vital the role of
touch is as an aspect of the performance. This is not necessarily skin
to skin, but in placing jewellery on someone else you engage their
sense of touch. I described some moments in my life where I have been
touched by a stranger on my hands or head and felt a connection or
exhilaration because of it: recieving a blessing on my head in church;
being given a string of beads into my clasped hands. For Katie, it
seems, these moments are less dramatic, and we therefore concluded that
our audiences reactions will vary hugely too.

We have also set an exercise to bring in to the rehearsal room on
Monday: to find a story relating to a dressing ritual, and if useful to
bring in music and objects linked to the story.

I love planning, so despite heading home in the rain I felt pleased.

A few lucky people on the 10.20pm Friday train
service between London and Birmingham witnessed a mysterious exchange
on the platform at Leamington Spa. As the doors slid open a head-sized
box was handed over to girl in one of the carriages by a young man.
They exchanged a few words before the doors beeped and re-closed. She
sat back down, and peered under the bubble wrap and tissue paper.
Intrigued, a fellow passenger asked "What’s in the box? Is it an
animal?". But no, never ones to do things the easy way TOWW had
arranged a hand off of an exclusive piece of jewellery – as it turns
out a good way of promoting the show to unsuspecting public transport
users.

We now have two out of three jewellery pieces sitting in our office
space, exhibited by Mikaela’s mannequins. What is most striking is how
remarkably individual they are. Our aim in creating the performance is
to make a different audience experience according to which article of
jewellery is chosen. We hope to use the jewellery as an intial devising
stimulus, discovering tone and style for each section through it. I
have no idea if this will work for us, but looking at these today I
think we have a good chance – I feel inspired…

Also Katie found this artical in the Observer this weekend, which
seems to be talking about the type of jewellery we have encouraged from
our jewellers. I quite like the term "wearable art". I think it’s
something to get excited about – a sculpture on the body that looks
different on each person. Anyway, have a look for yourself.
Observer article