Fusing disciplines
As mentioned, I am fascinated by what happens when you bring dance and theatre together, so many possibilities! The first few days were spent looking at the fusion of these two disciplines and, to add to that exciting synthesis, the music!
North based actor Carys Gwilym, and composer David Westcott, also joined us in the first week, and I can honestly say we had the most amazing few days. It was a hugely productive and creative time and just lovely. Everyone gelled so well, and for me having a team that are supportive, creative and just brilliant is when the magic happens.
Carys and I have worked together a lot over the years, she is such a fantastic performer, really versatile and absolutely ready to give anything a go. During the course of the R&D we spent a lot of time working on a monologue, this was…challenging!
I began by writing two versions, and one thing I am good at is writing reams, but to find the exact feel that I was after was pretty difficult to be honest, partly because of knowing what I wanted the piece to achieve, but not being wholly sure how to achieve it! Carys was amazing and worked tirelessly on this, it was important for me that she found her own voice within it, and we reduced, reduced, reduced and got very close by the end of the R&D to what I was hoping for, which is somewhere between a monologue and stand up, not an easy ask. Plus, then add in adapting it to be bilingual, all the credit here goes to Carys!
The R&D process is fascinating, knowing what you want and then the creative process of trying to bring it to fruition. With the monologue I was definitely after something that the audience can connect to, that resonates, but also with a comic element.
Depending which way you look at it the idea of overload, the stress, the physical and mental impact could be interpreted as being a heavy subject to take on, therefore humour was definitely the key, and we worked really hard to find the right feel. Performance has to have those moments of upsurge, the shift in energy, the dips, then the rise again, for me this is what pulls people in and keeps it interesting and engaging.
I also wanted to bring the three performers together, so we spent time looking at the movement sections and narrative, in a fairly abstract form at this point, but with very clear intention, bringing Carys’s character into the movement sections (something else she is also incredibly good at!). As ever in an R&D there is never enough time, so plenty to develop and look at again, but in such a short space of time we achieved so much, and it’s all really exciting.
Betsan Llwyd Artistic Director of Theatr Bara Caws also joined us on the Friday, it was really helpful having an outside eye, and a different perspective and approach to creating work. Betsan did a great job of asking me a million questions, which made me consider different things. There’s something really interesting, which I think goes back to training, about the difference in approach when creating work in dance and theatre. When I begin to create, the sense comes out of the doing, and sometimes I think you don’t need to know the answer to every question, you’re also allowing the audience to discover their own meaning within the layers. Whereas if you are starting with a script the focus initially is on understanding the characters, their motivation, the narrative, and you're trying to communicate something incredibly specific. So, this was a real pull together of finding a sense of character and narrative but also working within a more abstract choreographic framework. For me it goes back again to what you want the audience to feel, to experience.
As I said I’m very good at writing reams! So much to say and I haven’t even got on to the music and David Westcott’s amazing work, so that will be the next post. I am looking forward to sharing more, and more about the whole creative team!
That’s it for now…
