Today, straight to it. No show and tell; no talking; get up and go. Our shared need to ‘do’ perhaps arising from slight aches and pains. It is humbling to realise our bodies are somewhat out of practice, and even better to discover a desire to warm-up property. Oh, the absolute joy of feeling the machinery moving again, of being back in the studio.
We take the morning and early afternoon to revisit the material generated yesterday. Whilst working on the previous version of Postscript I remember Daisy looking to explore ways of layering and texturing: movement, voice, text… Back then this was a sort of afterthought to our initial rehearsals; now, somehow, it is here from the beginning: gestures we used in the work-in-progress, a tut, a cry, a laugh, get up, sit down, fragmentary stories told in 15 lines. What is special about our work today is the process of testing and re-testing endless permutations. Not only are we polishing and clarifying the material, but we are also trying to explore the possible rhythms within it as if it were a musical coda (build, climax, unexpected pause, slow decline towards the end). It is not merely a question of movement and voice, but a conceptual one too. As we move between gestures, getting up to delivering our broken stories, the narratives collide, chase each other, and depart.
In the afternoon we unpack. Funny how the basics for a show can neatly fit into a suitcase and a few bags. In front of us, a collection of familiar objects: the dog mask, the rose, the wine glass, the knife, the cards… We also unpack, metaphorically speaking. I must confess that I was somewhat nervous about returning to the work-in-progress. Perhaps due to the uncertainty of how we would feel about after all this time, perhaps due to a misconstrued lack of confidence in having the right tools to interrogate this old material. However, these apprehensions evaporate, and seem rather petty, as soon as we get to work. It feels right. Whilst revisiting the work-in-progress’ table-actions we find ourselves thinking, again, of archetypes and the most basic plots. It seems that after all they will not be relegated to a hinterland. We are finding our way towards a fully formed question (something which we now understand to be of utmost importance for the work). Something - something… how we read fragments to make up a story… something – something… the power of recognisable symbols… From the start we were aware that the piece had to be tidied up, conceptually speaking. However, it is exciting to be able to take our time: treading gently, investigating every nook and cranny, considering alternative options, trying out every possibility. Somehow, as we sat in the darkness picking apart our table-actions, something at the very back of my mind pondered the differences between our process now and when we created our work-in-progress. This time it is more measured. We are looking closer; digging deeper. Cut, paste, rewind, slow play, pause, fast forward… With this comes an awareness of our creative mechanisms in pulling stories apart or extracting their most basic components. For instance, during our previous phase of rehearsals we found it difficult to generate material under the rubric of a defined story or even a genre. We simply could not operate as freely under such weight. Now, with the help of an understanding of the seven basic plots, we are able to think more associatively. We seem to prefer broader brush strokes; a more impressionistic performance mode. As for our methodology, the quasi-mathematical yet instinctual approach we began exploring last autumn is slowly taking shape. This is our practice. And it rocks!
We take the morning and early afternoon to revisit the material generated yesterday. Whilst working on the previous version of Postscript I remember Daisy looking to explore ways of layering and texturing: movement, voice, text… Back then this was a sort of afterthought to our initial rehearsals; now, somehow, it is here from the beginning: gestures we used in the work-in-progress, a tut, a cry, a laugh, get up, sit down, fragmentary stories told in 15 lines. What is special about our work today is the process of testing and re-testing endless permutations. Not only are we polishing and clarifying the material, but we are also trying to explore the possible rhythms within it as if it were a musical coda (build, climax, unexpected pause, slow decline towards the end). It is not merely a question of movement and voice, but a conceptual one too. As we move between gestures, getting up to delivering our broken stories, the narratives collide, chase each other, and depart.
In the afternoon we unpack. Funny how the basics for a show can neatly fit into a suitcase and a few bags. In front of us, a collection of familiar objects: the dog mask, the rose, the wine glass, the knife, the cards… We also unpack, metaphorically speaking. I must confess that I was somewhat nervous about returning to the work-in-progress. Perhaps due to the uncertainty of how we would feel about after all this time, perhaps due to a misconstrued lack of confidence in having the right tools to interrogate this old material. However, these apprehensions evaporate, and seem rather petty, as soon as we get to work. It feels right. Whilst revisiting the work-in-progress’ table-actions we find ourselves thinking, again, of archetypes and the most basic plots. It seems that after all they will not be relegated to a hinterland. We are finding our way towards a fully formed question (something which we now understand to be of utmost importance for the work). Something - something… how we read fragments to make up a story… something – something… the power of recognisable symbols… From the start we were aware that the piece had to be tidied up, conceptually speaking. However, it is exciting to be able to take our time: treading gently, investigating every nook and cranny, considering alternative options, trying out every possibility. Somehow, as we sat in the darkness picking apart our table-actions, something at the very back of my mind pondered the differences between our process now and when we created our work-in-progress. This time it is more measured. We are looking closer; digging deeper. Cut, paste, rewind, slow play, pause, fast forward… With this comes an awareness of our creative mechanisms in pulling stories apart or extracting their most basic components. For instance, during our previous phase of rehearsals we found it difficult to generate material under the rubric of a defined story or even a genre. We simply could not operate as freely under such weight. Now, with the help of an understanding of the seven basic plots, we are able to think more associatively. We seem to prefer broader brush strokes; a more impressionistic performance mode. As for our methodology, the quasi-mathematical yet instinctual approach we began exploring last autumn is slowly taking shape. This is our practice. And it rocks!
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