New Term start date, Sept 5th 2012

The new Konnektiv term starts on Wednesday 5th Sept at Staffs Performing Arts building on Eastgate St, Stafford at 6.30pm.  These will be along the lines of drama and wellbeing workshops with a long term agenda of performance with Ellie Davies composer at the Gladstone Pottery Museum in Stoke on Trent

Anyone with a twitter account please retweet the Konnektiv tweet re their Sept start date as seen on their Twitter account.


Web: http://konnektiv.co.cc
Blog: http://konnektive.blogspot.co.uk/ NB E added on the end!
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Konnektiv
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/185290328168082/
Nicky Barron: http://www.d-list.co.uk/2012/04/spotlight-nicky-barron.html

The Gatehouse Performance, the AGM, and Wellington Drive Festival

A very overdue blog, just incase anyone is chewing their fingers to the bone wondering how our performance at Stafford Gatehouse theatre went - it was fantastic!!  It was amazing for us to perform in a proper theatre, although as luck would have it we booked the place on the same night as the annual performance of Shakespeare play at Stafford Castle, which had taken up nearly all the Gatehouse resources. 

Needless to say we did not get a discount, however I voiced our feelings to one of the workers and we did get to use the MET (small theatre) for about 7 hours on the night and only got charged for 3.  
This meant that we managed to make a small amount of money from the performance, which will be used to buy equipment for a fire juggling show we are doing at Wellington Drive Music Festival on the 28th June.


The idea of having a colourful backdrop for Badger Kettle really worked, and this was the most popular piece of the evening.  We put this energetic comedy on last, to surprise the audience, who had just been treated to two quite moody, slow, dark performances. 

I was really pleased with the confidence of the actors - even when they felt nervous, the audience feedback was that the group were polished and professional looking.  There was a great variety of characters, and this is due, I think, to the fact that as with the exception of the narrator, 

all of the actors communicate through movement, they were able to dig further into themselves to come up with their character.  
Words can be so restrictive, I realise more and more.  I can see why much of the work that we do through dramatherapy aims to focus on the non-verbal, it gives a quality of meaning that words cannot describe. 

There is some confusion, which has always been the case, about what Konnektiv actually are about - drama?  drama for health?  dramatherapy?  
experimental drama?  performance?  I share the confusion.  This will be the hot topic of the AGM which is coming up on the 13th. 
 What will our direction be in 2012/13?
How we promote ourselves influences how people view us - for instance audiences may not turn out to see a drama for health performance, or it may not be supported by arts funders, as they may not see the performance as being 'art'.  However, if we want to gain interest and network with health organisations and funders, we do need to demonstrate our commitment to investigating health factors.  This, to me, is crucial.  

So, all in all, there is a lot to think about.  My own personal vision is of an arts and health centre in Stafford.  Resources are limited, a workshop space of our own would be great, and enable us to put on many more different kinds of group, some more performance based, some more arts and health. Some may be more health than arts; especially around lifestyle, but always with some focus on the arts, and specifically, the performance arts.


In the meantime, there will be no more regular workshops until September, as the Performing Arts Centre is being used for sorting musical instruments for the summer.  Our practice sessions for the fire show will take place at the fire station community room, or the park.  And when we use real fire, not sure...  

Anyway, here's some pics of me and Merv practicing poi and juggling balls without fire, at the Community Room...

A very useful rehearsal

Yesterday was a very useful rehearsal in many ways.

At last we got to work out the ending to Good Thunder, which has been changed in order to make more of the relationship between Rai Taro, the Son of the Thunder, and the peasant husband and wife who foster him while he is on earth.  The words are no different, but we have added some movement and changed some of the sculpts, and we are very pleased with the result. 

In doing this, we also finally managed to recreate some of the beautiful, powerful energy of the story.  The Thunder Dance, with it's roaring drum beating music, is powerful in itself, yet this is not the only place of power in the story.  The way the moves are played out - slowly, controlled, purposeful and careful, gives a feeling of intense inner power.  The actors got this tension level very well when we first performed this piece, but a lot of time, and two other very different performances, diluted the effect that we had achieved.
We also got to see the beautiful dress that Becky has made for the narrator.  It is absolutely gorgeous.

We aim to produce excellent drama that carries itself as an art form, but if a talented person is able and willing to create some pieces of costume or scenery to add to our production, we are of course extremely happy and grateful.  In my own mind, this is when drama becomes theatre.


We also managed to have a run through of the Badger Tea Kettle - and made some more good progress.  Sara, who plays the narrator in this one, has adapted her characters movements because of the fact that we are performing in the round.  This brings her closer to the audience, and thus the narrator will more effectively bring the audience into the place of the story.

I've told everyone that they must be responsible for their own costumes and props, as I will forget things and lose things if it is all down to me to gather and remember things.  I still managed to get back to Konnektiv hq with about 4 sets of random costumes.  Never mind.

More Backdrops and Masks

Met up with Sam and Suzanned at the fire station and once again Sam had loads of colours - cloth and paints, and some fab ideas about how we can create the picture we are looking for.  She has decided to take on a more directive approach than she has previously, with the performance now looming so close.  There is still much to be done and seems little time to do it.  

We have cut out and painted so many leaves that It seems impossible to count them.  I spent most of the time wrapping red cloth around a wire bridge structure.  I find repetitive tasks therapeutic, and got quite relaxed sitting, cutting cloth and wrapping and tyeing for about 

two hours.  Saying that, it was quite a relief when it was done and I could draw leaf shapes onto green sparkly material and cut them out instead.  Sam and Suzanne painted some green squares in jazzy streaks of green and pink.  

These were hung around the place to dry and will make up the walls of the temple, and some may also hang separately to the main backdrop, as there is far more of this cloth than will be needed for the temple.  Then Suzanne spent the rest of the time sewing the leaves individually onto the gauze material overlaying the backdrop, whilst Sam worked on the panels for the bridge section.

Time goes really fast when you are doing this sort of thing.  We got quite a lot done, but looks like there is still a long way to go.

Masks

On a separate issue from the backdrops, whilst we are very pleased with how the masks have come out, I have had a realisation tonight, speaking with Mervyn, that we really don't know what we are doing re: working with the masks, and the whole doing Urashima masked is very experimental, as we have no idea how it will turn out.  We haven't practiced with masks, and we have barely touched on the theory of mask work.  We have made these masks as novices, not quite knowing how they will turn out.  

One of the main things I think may be problematic is the fact that our masks are barely larger than our own faces.  When I think of masks in performance, they are usually larger than life, so the audience can see all the odd features and get the feeling of the mask.  

I'm not sure ours do this, and from the audience seats, the masks may lose their effect on the audience.  Also, we will be physically moving not much different from if we were performing without masks.  Ideally, the masks should change the way that we move.  I will be doing a group enrolment, and as much as possible, and enrolment with each individual.  

However how much this will translate into the mask and actor becoming one in performance, remains to be seen.

We will, of course let the audience know some of this, and they are very much participants in this experiment.  we don't know what will happen, we hope it will be effective and enjoyable theatre.  We don't know precicely how the masks will come across, we do know that we are learning constantly and this ongoing process is one of our trademarks.

 God I'm so knackered!  When will it all end?  There is so much to do and no time to do it!  People are there one minute and gone the next.  We are half way through everything and it's all chaos!


And then something beautiful happens - a detail on a backdrop, 
a child loves the mask you thought they would hate, a moment of complicite, a silence that sings.


Going slightly mad?  I think so...


Who's idea was it to do 3 performances on one night?  The fool! Ok each one is only 20 minutes, but is so much to think of, and I have trouble keeping thoughts in my head at the best of times.  And I've lost my diary.  


And to anyone who thinks that as director I should be holding it together with a calm and confident demeanour - I say "bugger off!"


I have this theory that if I hide my panic by acting calm and confident, then I will transfer, by Freudian psychological processes, my panic and chaos, to the actors, then they will have to try to deal with it, but it will be unspoken, out of sight but squeaking incessantly like an injured mouse under the claws of a silent, but very hungry cat.
Anyway, I am confident.  I have great confidence that we have done our very utmost best, and that 
on the day, we will pull together some excellent 
performances.  In all of our previous shows, there was something extra in the performance, something that I didn't imagine or plan for.  Something chrystalised, all the last minute stuff, the final inspiration, the moment of clarity.


It's the final countdown.  We are in the middle of the jungle.  We are surrounded by the sounds of strange animals, exotic creatures, beautiful and deadly, with teeth and venom and huge rainbow coloured feathers, translucent wings, and eyes that dart about toungues that flicker.


We cut our way through the thorny, tangled undergrowth, finding treasures on the way, hands held tightly, then let go suddenly.


All this, all of this, and at the end of the day - it's just a performance.  Just another performance.  And it isn't event set in a jungle.

Backdrops and Badger Kettles

We had a wonderfully busy afternoon at the fire station today, with the artists painting up the backdrops and the rehearsal of the Badger Kettle going on simultaneously. 

Sam took advantage of breaks in the dismal rain to get some touching up done on the Good Thunder Backdrops, and Suzanne and Becky got to work adding colour and texture to the white base picture that Sam had painted onto the pink Badger Kettle Backdrop. 

Meanwhile, in the main room, we finally got a chance to rehearse the chase scene, which turned out to be much easier with just two novices.  Three had been very challenging for us, but with two it was easier to remember who does what, and also the falls, trips and important moments of reaction to the mishaps that occur during the chase were so much easier to co-ordinate. 

 It was great having the whole cast there, as Wednesday's rehearsal had been very difficult, with no narrator, and Mervyn away at the SDAC meeting. 

Chris was there with the sound and music, helping to create the comedic feel that the story offers.  Between us all we managed to recall the timing and placings of the original performance, as well as embellishing it by adding details to the movement that will make this upcoming performance even better. 

This is not a time for complacency.  I've asked the cast to go through the script, and remind themselves regularly of their individual contributions to the performance, and practicing the moves to eliminate any wobbles or uncomfortable moments when they have not prepared a move as well as they could.  By going through the moves at home at least once a day, everyone will be able to give a really good performance by the time we finally show our stories at the Gatehouse Theatre on the 30th. 

Nonny came for the first time, and we discussed as a group what she will say in the speech that I will write for her, to give as much information as we want the audience to have, including telling about the AGM on 13th July, where it would be great to have as many people as possible, and hopefully some new faces to join us for our next years projects, whatever shape they will take. 

It is fantastic to see so many people working so hard on these stories, all contributing their time and talents very generously and in good spirits.  This is an essential part of the way Konnektiv works.  We need people to have generous spirits, but for this to happen, they need to be enjoying the processes that they are engaging with, and today I think that is exactly what happened.