A week out of the space and away from rehearsing. Katie and I have tons of jobs, both related and unrelated to Treasured. This morning we had a bit of a break from the admin to meet with Gareth our stage manager who starts on the project next week. Katie talked through the performance to date – really good to go over it and discuss the practicalities of next week a bit. Good to see Gareth again too (who we worked with on ‘I am waiting’) and hear about his company (Little Earthquake)’s exploits.
In the afternoon we found time to feedback about each piece as it stood on Friday, and nab Joel for a cup of tea and chat about the performance. Some interesting stuff came up, particularly about the head piece which is proving difficult. It is such a powerful piece in itself that we seem to have been sucked into making a ritual out of it which offers more signifigance or power than we can actually deliver. It can only ever be disapointing following the current build up – having worn it you won’t rule a country or possess superhuman powers or win in a battle. We may have found a solution in focusing the experience more heavily around what happens when the piece is on the head. Perhaps moving away from loaded images of annointing, or cleansing and looking towards a narrative again.
I will think on!