Helooooooooooooooooooo 2011

Well its a new year, start of the 20teens... a whole world of possibilities are opening up... well actually, they were all there in the first place, but some how the sense of a new year, a clean slate is invigorating...

We At collective HQ have been biiiiiiiiiiiiizeeeeeeee... where to start...

Pablo is on the cusp of finishing his Phd... soon it'll be Dr Pablo thank you very much. Rick's been poorly and Daisy's been keeping us all together. isnt that nice...

Now i know you dont read this blog to hear about the social, medical and academic comings and going of AC but there we are, its nice to let you know.

There have also been some quite exciting happenings in the world of the company too... would you like to hear about those..? (If not you might want to skip this next bit)

Firstly, we had a nice trip up The Basement in Brighton. The folks there are helping us to continue developing our piece "Everone's looking for someone..." which began life as a scratch performance there last year.

Last week we had a day down there. We had a long chat about ideas for developing the piece....

(Fot those of you with a short term memory, or if you're new to this blog - The piece comes in two parts. Te first is a collosal game of hide and seek around a town or sity centre where two besuited figures engage with passers-by, strangers, in a bid to find one another. They leave notes around the place and ask [eople to call if they see their opposite number around. The second part entails an evening performance in a venue where the days journeying and hunting is recounted, text messages and voicemails broadcast. Lots of storytelling, sidelines into the meaning of looks and looking, losing and finding and the reasons we are all, in our own way, looking for someone ensues...)

There are a few things we're trying to iron out though...

When we scratched the event back in summer last year, the sun was shining and all the beautiful people of Brighton we eager to help... These two odd looking characters werent really defined, their aim (apartr from looking) was abit limp and seemed to develop over ther day. That was ok as it was abit of a trial. Fast forward a few months... Its January, its cold and rainy... Brighton's beautiful people ar eall tucked up in cafes, homes and wherever else they take their beautiful selves. But we're still trying to nail down the approach and aims of this search... How do we get people involved..?

Much conversation.

What if they were supposed to meet... if they have to give a presentation but they cant be there and are searching to find the other to tell them BEFORE the event starts..? What if we give them a story for people to invest in..? what if we give them a purpose people can relate to... inject a sense of urgency..?

Well... Apparently all that does is scare people.

We took this new sense of purpose and fiction onto the streets for a trial.

People are very sweet. One girl almost cried, such was her depth of feeling for this lost and desperate figure's (my) plight.

Not quite the type of engagement we were looking for. Sympathy enlists sentiments of hopefulness, charity... somehow there was some fun missing...

Back to the drawing board for that part... So we high-tailed it back to the studio for some brainwork...

I mean, really... what's it all about?

is this whole thing about human relationships? Is it about loss and memory? is it about this inate sense of incompleteness most of us feel when we are bereft of human contact..?

I hate my own company... but then i'm bloody minded, opinionated and pedantic... i manage to hide it around other people (mostly) but there's no hiding that from yourself.

Yes, there's something in the joy of other people... Even ET had the urge to phone home, right?

There's nothing so good for the soul as a heart to heart with someone, being honest and open with someone, loving someone, being appreciated by someone, just sitting with someone, sharing a joke with some one... someone, someone, someone....

So in someways our trip to Brighton was a failure (street trials didnt work...) BUT... knowing what you're thinking about iss a good starting point and we managed to spend some time working that out.



In other news....

We're still pushing on with our most ambitious project to date "i am small, the world is BIG" the big final celebratory event of which is scheduled for May... We're still on the hunt for potential ready made communities to take part in a short workshop where they get to re-imagine the world and stitch a new world map along their own whimsical lines, sao if you're in the WI, a school, youth group, The Army, The Church, work in an office... then we could come and work with you for just a couple of short hours and you'd get to be part of this exciting, Kent wide project.

The website is in process and the aesthetic and design stuff is pulling together nicely... cant wait.

There's more exciting stuff in the pipeling with Accidental Collective premiering a new and as yet un-named piece as part of "Scratch-interract" currated by Glue and to be held on the 5th of Feb at the Jarman Building on t=the Kent Unicersity campus. its between 3 and 6 and free to attend. However, some of the performances within the event are limited capacity and places are gonna be first come first served... but if you wanna get in there early then you can always book (its FREE) here.. http://scratchinteract.wordpress.com/2011/01/17/free-tickets-kent/
Its gonna be a mindblowing Saturday afternoon of interactive performance from some really amazing theatre makers! So dont miss out!!!

And finally!!!

Worldfest is here again and the Gulbenkian and University of Kent is once again playing host to all sorts of international related and themed events 23rd-26th of Feb. We'll post more info as and when we get it but Accidental Collective are performing and trying out some innovative games and entertainments in the big marquee outside the library on friday 25th between 6 and 8 and you should def come see us!!!!

ok, i bet your eyes are tired!! my fingers certainly are... mammoth post... next one will be more meat and less catch up... i promise!!

So we are back, we are landed, and we are taking stock.
We’ve had a little post-pause; pause… as it were.
I have overseen workmen coming and insulating my flat, walked around Strood on a sprained ankle, and spent time working on events production and planning with teens in Maidstone.

Pause over.
So lets reflect…
…We think we can call the weekend we spent at Derby Festé a nice, big, juicy success.

It went like this… (Excuse me while I shake my brain to make sure it comes out in the right order…)

Friday - Rick, Daisy and Laura head up to Derby with 4 large wheeled suitcases, 1 box of flat-pack shelving, two large holdalls and an umbrella.

Saturday - Two gazebos, deep pink in colour and carpeted inside, are erected on Market Place opposite an enormous green blow up slide featuring The Hulk and charging £1.50 for 5 goes. (Apparently 27 makes you too old to have a go)
5 jars in each gazebo
1 bookcase in each gazebo,
2 chairs in each gazebo,
1 rug in each gazebo,
1 performer in each gazebo…
11 o’clock rolls around and it begins:
In couples and alone people start to book in and fill up our 5 minute sessions up.
Allowing for 12 sessions an hour (6 apiece for the 2 performers) bookings overtake walk-ins very quickly… we were kind of anticipating a warm up period, maybe some dips and lulls in audience attendance throughout the day… Nope…
In fact, so popular did Audio Treatment, Complimentary Therapy, Burden loss Treatment, Transportative therapy and Achievement treatment appear to be… that we stayed open for nearly an extra hour at the end of the day.
I’d call that successful.

Sunday - More of the same… though this time in the pleasant park land in front of Derby Cathedral… fittingly named Cathedral Green.
Oh, and for 2 hours less into the evening. We had to pack up the various cases, bags, boxes and brollies and hot foot it to the train station for the trawl home.

In all we saw 170 people, giving away as many happy endings. Our hands were feeling a bit drunk from all the alcohol-based antiseptic hand wash, our eyes needed some time to adjust to a world that was not pink. We turned away nearly 150 people as we just couldn’t fit them in… next time it’ll be 3 gazebos…

BUT…..
Lists and flippant descriptions aside though, that’s only half the story.
Statistics, timings, bookings, gazebos, rugs and jars…
There’s some video to be posted on good ol’ YouTube and we’ll keep you posted on its posting… as it were…

In the mean time, I have yen to explain how magical, sweet, bizarre and soothing the whole experience was…

During a ’group session’ of Complimentary Therapy I saw an 8 year old boy burst into tears when his Dad paid him the compliment that “I really love spending time with you and love how great it feels to be with you…”
This was not about exploitation, nor was it about encouraging big emotive gestures (though it did not actively discourage them either). This was about offering clients a chance to remember how it feels to hear nice things said to them. This was about offering a client a chance to remember how it feels to say nice things about someone close to them.
“I love the backs of you knees..” (giggles from both)
“I love that you make me try new things”
“I like your domestic pottering, cos I like domestic pottering too”

As with happy endings, a compliment for one person can mean nothing to another.

Watching people smile as their burdens were swallowed up and taken away was warming. I never knew what people wrote on their little slip of paper. The paper had a line, a word, an image that summed up their burden, the one they wanted to be rid of. This was burden loss…
Watching someone go from concentration on their most burdensome of burdens to a smile, a giggle, a full on laugh… seeing how somebody, everybody, changes they way they sit, move, emote once they have laughed or smiled. That’s a nice thing to witness.
This was probably, and maybe unsurprisingly, the most popular of treatments. By the end of the weekend I almost felt I owed those clients something. A thank you for sharing that moment with me.

I don’t really want to talk through all the therapies here. I need to balance my literary drive with theatrical mystique and avoid further descriptions…

I will say though, that simply sitting in a tent with a person, sharing a lose proximity, even for 5 minutes, seems to offer surprises and shocks and even those dangerous warm fuzzy feelings we’ve mostly learnt to be suspicious of… maybe it was the pinkness of it all…

R

everyONE's looked in Brighton

So picture this...

It is midday...

The sun is at its peak...

At the zenith of the mornings sojourn into the afternoon...

Two identically dressed figures figures exit a small stationers on a street in Brighton. Their bowler hats and plain black suits speak of business, intention, sobriety... except from the dinnerplate sized, apparently spray-painted, targets emblazoned high up on their backs.

Their simple black briefcases and air of purpose means that as they part on the steps of the stationers with scarcely a word and nothing so unnecessary as a pause, you hardly notice.

But it, in its silent and covert way, has begun.

For the following five hours these two characters saught only one thing... To re-unite.

But how easy is such a task? In days of mobile phones and internet surely finding OneAnother should be easy.

The other thing those identical costumes scream of is an older world (minus the painted targets, obviously), a world of Victorian Bankers, Pre-war Politicians...

As such these two, who are ONE to ONE another, have no mobile phones, GPS and only a shaky outline of the geography of the city by the sein in which they find themselves.

In fact... The only things these characters have are: a biro, a notebook, camera, blank postcards, red envelopes, string, chalk and a clipboard bearing a picture of their opposite number.

In short - Nothing of use.

So 5 hours, limited resources and noticable fashion sense (even in Brighton on a hot Saturday afternoon in June) collude to create a basis for an evening performance these two are appointed to present... but before they get to this, they must look for one another. How hard can that be?

One started by strolling towards the sea front. One thought that One might have been drawn there by the crowds, the noise, the cool breeze...

No luck.

In the exposed midday heat One did get a little warm.

Turning inland and threading back towards the place One lost another, crossing the face of a shopping centre it happened.

Unexpectedly, One was there.

A photo

a chalked date/time marked on the floor

a picture, taken by a passer-by

Few words

Gone again...

meandering downhill One spoke to a street vendor. Sat by his wares in a deckchair... he hadnt seen One. He took a card and promised to get in touch if he saw One.

He's looking for noONE... I told him EveryONE's looking for SomeONE.

One repeated the same with Kat on Gardener Street. She worried i was a weirdo.
She took a card though and said she'd get in touch if she saw One...
I'm not sure she was committed.

Wandering, marking times, noting turns, Street names, people One spoke to.

One Left a message for One on a bicycle in Meeting house Lane.

"I waited here for you...

You didnt show up...

I smoked a cigarette...

in Vain..."

Sealed in a red envelope with a number to call, tied on with plain, grey, string.

One wandered.

One met another once more that day.

Same process as before complete with a stranger taking their picture. It was outside The Bath Store.

The dozen or so people One spoke to were polite, engaged and helpful.

One baked in a black suit with a target painted on One's back.

...

As the afternoon turned into evening One found One and they took to a Pit in a Basement venue on Kensington Street...

Anarchic attempts at relaying their experiences, spread across an urban environment, a mini-sea-shore-city unfold.

One is factual, pedantic, plodding.

One in procative, easily distracted, forgetful.

Reviewing photos, notes and concepts, Reviewing experiences, messages people had text and voice-mailed... trying to let them understand how one felt, how one thought, how one survived, got noticed or ignored...

Whether anyone was any the wiser by the time these two One's had finished did not seem to matter... with splatter marked pockets of information, thoughts and ideas sprayed all over the audience... with an example of the simple un-defined way in which EveryOne's looking for SomeONE presented and exposed to the world... Everyone applauded, said nice things...

One and One's brains were already ticking onwards...