Creating Theatre

Looking at performance now, I’m exercised by what the world of performance is about. It feels as if it’s changing – witness Mark Lawson’s recent comments in “The Guardian” where he discusses the relationship between TV and stage acting. But it’s not just about the relationship with TV but all of the mediated world. The extent to which young people (in particular) use mobile technology to interact with the world. The use of the IPod (and before it the Walkman) to create a soundtrack to lived experience, and by implication subjecting it to alteration.

Modern performance has a tendency to blur distinctions between actor and audience; performer and technician; scenographer and scenographee (to coin a neologism). The impact of opening out the culture of British arts allows in carnival, street performance, music festivals, rock and gospel into the canon of performance. the role of the writer is challenged by devising; Forum theatre subtly undermines authority in other ways.

The debate started by Tessa Jowell’s 2004 essay and the Arts Council centres round a dichotomy between aesthetic and instrumental views of the arts. The response from Demos is a little more nuanced.

However, it might be useful to regard theatre now as a number of projects. These might be an approach to defining contemporary genres. Here is a suggestion (the list isn’t meant to be complete):

• exploration and transmission of a heritage
• new writing that explores the state of the nation; or the human condition (what Aleks Siertz famously referred to a “Me and my mates theatre” – New Theatre Quarterly (2004), 20: 79-83 Cambridge University Press
  Copyright © 2004 Cambridge University Press)
• Theatre for young people, and theatre by young people.
• Theatre from communities (whether geographic, ethnic, of gender attitude or sexuality)
• Music-based theatre and opera
• Dance theatre and physical theatre

Further thoughts

• Theatre event as an expression of culture
• Theatre and reality
• Changing definitions of quality

Since the site went live, it seems to have become quite popular – in March 08 it was Google rank No 3 – after Amazon’s review of my mate Chris Baldwin’s book on Collaborative Theatre, and a link to the Canada National Arts Centre. This is rather flattering, but more down to the name than the content, I suspect. Since then – July – it has now at No1; with views from around the world. However, like Chris and the Canadian team, I am trying to create a resource that is of practical use in making theatre, particularly theatre which may deviate from the traditional, text/end stage/dark auditorium / tell them how it is, model.

The premise that informs the site is that drama and theatre are not the same, though they may overlap. Drama is centred in a set of representations; the act of theatre is a more or less ritualised activity, that involves either a passive or active interaction between a performance and spectator/participants. Creating theatre, therefore, becomes an act of stage management – both in the sense of direction, and in the more modern sense of managing the activity. There may be a hint of my background as a tutor in stage management here – to quote in a different context, “He would say that wouldn’t he?”

The link in the blogroll to the Learning Zone takes you through to the site’s Moodle access. Here you will find courses and resources I’ve been using at Rose Bruford College. At present these include a second-year course in theatre industry; and a discussion group for stage managers about Cultural Theory. More material is being added all the time, and this is the main repository for both practical and more philosophic material. I had thought that I’dd migrate material from the learning site to the main site, but I’m coming to the conclusion that actually, the blog is a place to try ideas which eventually become teaching resources.

Taken all together, I’m trying to create a more postmodern approach to theatre creation that is organic; rooted in praxis; and that recognises modes both of production and of reception (consumption) of meanings: whether intended, unexpected but welcomed, or completely accidental.