First though, some very sad news - we didnt' get the Awards for All funding we had put in for. I'm kicking myself now, because it does clearly state on the form that they won't fund arts projects. Duh. Anyway, hopefully we can just jig the application about a bit and send off to somewhere more appropriate - Arts Council maybe.
In the meantime, we have a performance in 3 weeks, and no money whatsoever, so it's off to the market for big sheets and dressing gowns again. Lol.
About this performance. How different from the last one. We are still using the narrator-drum/sculpt pattern, but this one incorporates a lot of comedy - slapstick style of the old English clowns such as the Marx Brothers, and Laurel and Hardy. This is turn originates in the Italian style of Commedia dell Arte, the attention seeking madcap clown routines that were performed for pennies (or the equivalent) in crowded16th Century Italian markets. So you may get the idea of just how crazy and fast these productions were. So, we have mixed the ancient ritualistic, slow, meditative Japanese style, with the fast and funny Italian Commedia and brought it nearly into the modern age with a silent movie English twist. Anyway, "It's all an experiment!", as we often say in rehearsals and workshops.
Monday 24th October
The pictures are of the last big drama game before the performance. It was one of those that puzzles the group members, as I have a tendency to make glib throwaway comments that have no true meaning, but get people wondering what the heck we are doing. We had some new members, and so I thought we'd do a quick "getting to know each other" game. People often think we "get to know each other" in a very literal, verbal and material way. I'm not sure. I think we get to know each other in a way that consists of an exchange of verbal, but importantly, non-verbal, cues and energies, and in which we find balances and patterns to interact with the other person. Too much physical and verbal "knowing", and not enough of the other ("interpersonal"?) may make for very boring, predictable relationships in which there is no room for change or adaptation.
So, when I said that we would make up a picture of each others lives, out of sculpts that began with the same letter as the persons name, then I meant, and possibly should have spelled out more clearly, that it was the dramatic and interpersonal interactive lives that we are getting to know, not the literal, autobiographical, physical and verbal. Anyway, they group found some laughs, some enlightenments, and the occasional bit of disturbance, in the game. Maybe they would have not got all of this if I had been very literal.
Each person began their own group sculpt, which gave them the opportunity to lead, by the dramatic power of physical suggestion, how the sculpt would be completed.
As each sculpt was completed, I took someones position, and this was passed around, so everyone got a chance to look at the final sculpt
We didn't deliberately discuss the sculpts, though comments we made throughout the game. Each person engaged in their own way with it, thus enabling them to make their own interpretations, and find their own meaning
Getting to know people involved familiarising ourselves to the way people responded to particular elements of what was presented. Where they flattered? insulted? did they agree with the groups interpretation? if not, how did they voice this?
At some point I asked the group members to make contact with each other, when creating the sculpt. Looking back, I wish I had done that more, because physical contact, in a safe and consenting environment, is a good way to become more intimately acquainted with each other. Drama necessitates physical contact. In our society, we don't make a lot of everyday physical contact. This may be one way that we tend to block our dramatic selves from our social interactions.
I got a lot of food for thought from this game, which went on for far too long, as there was a big group on this occasion, and we were supposed to be rehearsing. From now on, and until after the performance, there will be no more games.
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