Magdalen Dramaturgy: Erin Layton @ Edfringe 2015

Magdalen
The little known stories of the women and girls who were sent to wash away their sins in commercial laundries run by orders of nuns in mid twentieth-century Ireland are revealed in a singular, compelling, multi-character performance. Erin Layton swiftly transitions in and out of time periods, voices and images that ‘breed anger, compassion, sorrow and mistrust’ (TheatreReviews.com), ‘embodying with ease all of these many disparate characters and making them all flesh and blood people. The performance of the festival’ (HuffingtonPost.com). Magdalen was the recipient of the Best Documentary Script at the United Solo Festival in 2013.


Paradise in The Vault (Venue 29) ​  
Aug 7-15, 17-22, 24-30 
Uncompromising Artistry Productions 



The Fringe

What inspired this production: did you begin with an idea or a script or an object?
Erin Layton: The inspiration behind my production started with American singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell’s Magdalene Laundries. I heard the song ages ago and was haunted by Joni’s lyrics about the ‘prostitutes and destitutes and temptresses like me. Fallen women sentenced into dreamless drudgery’. 

Years later, after I knew who and what Joni’s song was about,  I felt inspired to create a play about the women and girls of the Magdalene Laundries and, like Joni, I wanted to perform the piece by myself.

2.Why bring your work to Edinburgh?
The Edinburgh Festival provides artists from all over the world access to international audiences, opportunities to witness the work of artistic peers from all disciplines - dance, music, theatre. I’m looking forward to drawing inspiration from many experiences while in Edinburgh. It’s not often, if ever, that I have the opportunity to be an artist 24 hours a day. Edinburgh is fulfilling a dream. 

What can the audience expect to see and feel - or even think - of your production?
My hope is that audiences won’t expect to experience a dark and somber afternoon of theatre. Certainly the history of the play and its story are awful and tragic but my hope is that audiences are able to engage with the moments of humor, light and hope that I’ve deliberately built into the performance. I hope the piece will educate, entertain and enlighten the Edinburgh audiences. 


The Dramaturgy Questions
How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work?
With a historical drama like MAGDALEN, the dramaturgical research is paramount. It must be prioritised above the writing. I was able to create and devise the world of my play only after I combed through every inch of material about the Laundries. 

It was more than about just wanting to sound smart. I felt morally responsible. There are people out there, survivors, who experienced the Laundries first hand and their truth, the truth of what really happened behind closed doors, must be honored above all.

What particular traditions and influences would you acknowledge on your work -  have any particular artists, or genres inspired you and do you see yourself within their tradition?
I’m inspired by many different genres and modes of artistic expression, lately in the world of dance and music. I’ve recently been following a group of street dancers from East New York. There is something refreshing and pure about their passion for dance that lacks pretension. 

To them, dance is a necessity - it’s about surviving in a rough, dangerous, urban environment. It isn’t about fame or audience recognition - at least not exclusively. I often feel limited in the world of New York City theatre because so much of what I experience and see often seems tightly prescribed. 

If your work doesn’t fit into a particular model, you aren’t considered ‘relevant’ or ‘unique’ - or worse, ‘produce-able’. And yet, the most ‘relevant’ work that I see is being performed on the concrete slabs of street blocks in Brooklyn, NY. Like these dancers, I’m interested in the freedom to express and celebrate my truth as an artist - not in following the crowd.

Do you have a particular process of making that you could describe - where it begins, how you develop it, and whether there is any collaboration in the process?
My work begins with imagery. I see the characters and their environment(s) very clearly. Then they speak. It’s when I’m ready to start piecing together their individual voices and how they interact with one another that I bring in the collaborative element. 

My director, Julie Kline was pivotal in the stringing together of the many disparate monologues from my eight (and more) characters in MAGDALEN. With solo performance, I believe that it’s vital to have someone assisting you with narrative structure all along the way because you, as the actor, are literally living inside of the characters and their world.

What do you feel the role of the audience is, in terms of making the meaning of your work?
I don’t think you can fully realize the impact of your work without the audience. It’s because of the audience and their response - anger, sadness, shock - that I’ve come to understand the true message of my play and its relevance as a work of theatre and of my voice as an artist choosing to write about this little known and controversial period of Irish history. So much of play development is done in a vacuum, hours alone or with a collaborator in a studio. The outside eye is paramount for the work and its purpose in the world. 

Tracking Dramaturgy: Kristien De Proost @ Edfringe 2015

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O N T R A C K

K R I S T I E N D E P R O O S T  
T R I S T E R O B I G I N B E L G I U M

_______________________________________________

E D I N B U R G H F R I N G E 2015 

S U M M E R H A L L

A U G U S T 7-8-11-12-14-15-18-19-21-22-25-26-28-29-30 A T 20:30

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The Fringe 
What inspired this production: did you begin with an idea or a script or an object? 
It started with a fascination for self-portraits. I realized that I had never seen a real self-portrait in theatre so far. That is: a self-portrait in the sense of a momentary snap-shot of oneself, not a story or memoir or history. I took it as a challenge to try to summarize my present state live on stage, as objective as possible and within the time-limit of, let’s say, an hour and half. At the same time I wanted to make visible the impossibility of this attempt. The moment you start to describe yourself, time is already passing by, and you have lost track. You always run behind. 

And how do you measure objectivity when you are talking about yourself? Quite early in the process of making On Track I decided to go for an extreme physical performance to make this idea clear and also to have the opportunity to create the greatest possible change of look during a show of an hour and something. It turned out to be running during the whole show, costume changes included.
 
Why bring your work to Edinburgh? 
We were invited to Edinburgh in the Big in Belgium program curated by David Bauwens, general manager of Ontroerend Goed and Richard Jordan Productions, who for 3 years now have presented some of the finest Belgian companies and artists in Summerhall and Traverse Theatre during the Edinburgh Fringe. 

We accepted the invitation because it seemed a good opportunity to present On Track on the international stage of Edinburgh Fringe, to meet new audiences and, if possible, to be picked up by theatre professionals present in the festival.

What can the audience expect to see and feel - or even think - of your production? 
The performance expresses in a way that we are all as unique as we are not. One might think that a self-portrait only concerns the one portrayed, but that is not at all true. Because of its straightforwardness, its humor and sincerity, the show be- comes universal and puts plodding mankind into perspective. The performance works as a mirror and gives food for thought . And there is of course the ‘tour de force’ of an actress running while speaking du- ring 70 minutes. That’s quite an experience, as people in the audience in Belgium and France often expressed.

The Dramaturgy Questions

How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work? 
That depends on how you define dramaturgy. In our company we don’t see dramaturgy as a separate function. We don’t have ‘a’ dramaturg for example. We take care of dramaturgy ourselves, which means that in the period between creations we read al lot of repertoire, fiction, non-fiction, we attend exhibitions, we discuss themes that interest us. 

During a creation we continue to do this, focusing more now on the themes that are part of the creation we are working on. However, these periods mingle of course. Dramaturgy is for our company a kind of continuous reflection. Always trying to see things from different angles and enlarging our views.
 
What particular traditions and influences would you acknowledge on your work - have any particular artists, or genres inspired you and do you see yourself within their tradition? 
One could say that Tristero is influenced by the, quite new, tradition of collectives in Belgian and Dutch theatre, which emerged in the 1980s. Every step in the process of creating theatre is taken care of by all members of the company. We rarely work with separate functions as a director, for example. 

Every individual has his own for- te of course, but every member is equally responsible for the result. Sometimes however, a member can set up a project separately, in which he is responsible for the decisions. Then the other members function more as an outside eye, as was the case for On Track. The performance On Track specifically was influenced by the self-portraits of Lucian Freud and the written self-portrait of François de Larochefoucauld, a French writer and thinker from the 17th century.
 
Do you have a particular process of making that you could describe - where it begins, how you develop it, and whether there is any collaboration in the process? 
For On Track everything started with the fascination mentioned above. Then the idea ripened in my mind during some time, while creating other performances. Which means I brainstormed on form and content slowly. Next I started to write the text. To feed the writing I used the list of Max Frisch’s challenging questions and I organized interviews: I asked several people - from friends to colleagues to more objective journalists- to ask me questions I would perhaps forget or fear to ask my- self. Then I tried out parts of the text on stage for my colleagues while running, re- wrote, re-tried, etc. until the show became what it is now, although things keep on changing.
 
What do you feel the role of the audience is, in terms of making the meaning of your work? 
For me, a performance is always a moment of communication. We pass on ideas and images, and the interpretation of these by every member of the audience is part of meaning the of the work. Even a highly personal work as On Track doesn’t mean anything without an audience listening, watching and thinking together with me. 
Tristero has the tradition to set up shows in which the relation with the audience is challenged in a gentle way. We like to play with the convention of us performers in the lights on stage and you audience in seats in the dark. But at the same time we also make fourth wall theatre. Maybe just because people don’t expect us to do it.

Are there any questions that you feel I have missed out that would help me to understand how dramaturgy works for you?
As a consequence of what I just described above: Tristero doesn’t have one particular way of working. We always try to find the way of creating that fits the theme we are working on. In that sense, thinking about form is an important part of the Tristero dramaturgy.

Kristien De Proost (Tristero)

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B I O G R A PH Y

Kristien De Proost (Belgium, 1972) studied English and Dutch at the University of Leuven and Dramatic Arts at the Studio Herman Teirlinck in Antwerp. As a freelancer she performed with Toneelhuis, HetPaleis, LOD, Crew and KVS. Since 2004 she has been a permanent member of the artistic core of Tristero, for which she performs, creates and writes plays.

by Kristien De Proost in collaboration with Youri Dirkx & Peter Vandenbempt text Kristien De Proost english translation Gregory Ball performance Kristien De Proost & Mark De Proost scenography & costumes Marie Szersnovicz lightdesign Harry Cole make-up & hairdress design Marie Messien technical support Tom Bruwier & Bart Luypaert set construction Bart Luypaert, Wout Janssens & Koen Raes teaser, trailer & videocaptation Mathias Ruelle photography (front page) Youri Dirkx & Kristien De Proost photography (others) Mirjam Devriendt production Tristero (Belgium) coproduction Kaaitheater (Belgium), Campo (Belgium), Big in Belgium, Richard Jordan Productions (UK) & Theatre Royal Plymouth

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T R I S T E R O

Tristero is a Brussels-based theatre company, the artistic core being Kristien De Proost, Youri Dirkx and Peter Vandenbempt. Manu Devriendt is the company manager. Each member of the artistic core is equally involved with the creative process: looking for or creating new texts, dramaturgy, develop and play. If you take all their productions, you will find them very diverse. Often it’s new or unknown repertoire: incisive comedies or intriguing ‘well made plays’ (including work by Mike Leigh, David Hare and Martin Crimp), own creative writing or adaptations of prose, but also movement theatre or a mix of one or more of the above mentioned. Humour is an important asset: intelligent, but not intellectual, accessible but not vulgar, now again crude, then subtle, gloomy, but never cynical, sometimes absurd.

Tristero is subsidised by the Flemish Community and by the Brussels Capital Region’s Flemish Community Commission.

adress Tristero

O.L.V. Van Vaakstraat 83 B - 1000 Brussels info@tristero.be

website www.tristero.be

management Manu Devriendt & bookings manu@tristero.be

mobile +32 475 730 861

follow us facebook & twitter (@TristeroBXL)

B I G I N B E L G I U M

In 2013 Ontroerend Goed General Manager David Bauwens and Richard Jordan Productions embarked on a project entitled Big in Belgium to present some of the finest Belgian companies and artists who may be less familiar to audiences outside of Belgium and the Netherlands on the international stage of the Edinburgh Fringe and on tour beyond it.

2015 is the third edition of Big in Belgium and will feature seven of Belgium’s most exciting theatre and performance companies for audiences to discover this year at Summerhall and the Traverse.

The Theatre Royal Plymouth is a coproducer of Big in Belgium.

R I C H A R D J O R D A N P R O D U C T I O N S

Richard Jordan Productions is an Olivier and TONY Award- winning production company based in London under the artistic leadership of producer Richard Jordan. Founded in 1998, his company has produced over 190 productions in the UK as well as 21 other countries, including 70 world premieres and 81 European, Australian or US premieres enjoying associations with many of the world’s leading theatres, arts organisations and a long relationship with the Edinburgh Fringe.

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T H E A T R E R O Y A L P L Y M O U T H

The Theatre Royal Plymouth is the largest and best attended regional producing theatre in the UK and the leading promoter of theatre in the South West. We produce and present a broad range of theatre in our three distinctive performance spaces - The Lyric, The Drum and The Lab - including classic and contemporary drama, musicals, opera, ballet and dance. We specialise in the production of new plays and have built a national reputation for the quality and innovation of our programme.

The Theatre Royal Plymouth collaborates with some of the best artists and theatre makers in the UK and beyond. We have regularly co-produced with Ontroerend Goed (Fight Night, Sirens, All That is Wrong) from Belgium.

Cellular Dramaturgy: Molly Freeman and William Aubrey Jones @ Edfringe 2015

Following sold out premieres in London, a 16 date UK tour and a Peter Brook Award nomination, Smoking Apples and Dogfish are bringing their smash hit, CELL, to Underbelly this Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

CELL is the story of Ted who, after being diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease, goes on a trip of a lifetime with his pet fish. Humorous, heart-warming and uplifting, CELL uses puppetry, visual theatre and an original score to explore a man's loss of movement through this degenerative disease.



What inspired this production: did you begin with an idea or a

script or an object?
Molly: As two puppetry companies, we wanted to create a show which challenged our skills as puppeteers. Our basic seedling of an idea was a man, going on a journey and overcoming an obstacle - very vague and not very special! We began to think about what the obstacle could be leading us to explore medical diseases.

Will: Initially, we explored Alzheimers but struggled to portray this visually - hugely important in puppetry. Movement often sustains the illusion of life for the audience so it's a vital component. So, we began to explore Motor Neurone Disease which completely affects the body. This created a brilliant but huge challenge for us; MND causes degeneration of mobility so it was fascinating to work with a puppet losing it's animation without losing the audience's belief that it still lived. We also have a personal connection to as both my and another member of the cast's Grandad died from MND.

Why bring your work to Edinburgh?
Molly: As the largest arts festival in the world it provides the ultimate platform to show your work on. There is no other place that brings together so many artists, styles, programmers and venues. The opportunity to get your work seen by all of those people, create momentum and further the reputation of your company are driving forces behind our trip to Edinburgh. Both companies have performed at the Fringe before but there's been a few years since then. This year, we're raring to go.

What can the audience expect to see and feel - or even think - of your production?
Molly: Although MND is a key factor in the narrative, it was never our intention to make an issue based show, the story is still very human and about how our central character Ted lives his life. It's very human. Whilst researching for CELL, the overwhelming emotion we noticed meeting people who have MND was positivity and the show reflects that. It is humorous, uplifting and shows Ted living his life to the full.

Will:The story is told in a visceral way, using striking shadow puppetry and a stunning original score, alongside our 4’ puppet Ted. It takes the audience on his journey interrailing across Europe with his pet fish, as he experiences a world outside of his comfort zone; from Lille to Venice, Gondolas to stale croissants, Bill Bryson to the Berlin Cinema, the audiences are taken on his final adventure.


The Dramaturgy Questions

How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work?
Will: Dramaturgy is hugely important in our work. For CELL, we worked with Gemma from Red Threaders Dramaturgy. All three cast members created, produce and perform in the show. Therefore, it was essential for us to have someone as an outside eye of who could see the piece as a whole. 

Making a show about MND involved a lot of research and Gemma took on a lot of this work. This allowed us to devise freely whilst she directed us towards more medical accuracy.This role is also hugely important when creating non verbal work as you need someone on the outside of your thought process, to represent the audience and ensure that what you are showing is interpreted in the way you intend.

What particular traditions and influences would you acknowledge on your work - have any particular artists, or genres inspired you and do you see yourself within their tradition?
Molly: As a puppetry company, a lot of our inspiration comes from visual sources. This can be films, photos, materials, music or people watching in Waterloo station. We work a lot with an adapted Japanese style of puppetry called Bunraku. We also use a lot of shadow puppetry, which originates from Asia but again, we’ve adapted the style to suit our own work. Overall, we work with puppetry in a fairly modern way, incorporating a strong movement style across our pieces and we often have actors alongside puppet characters. I do not think we are a very ‘traditional’ puppetry company but our practice is certainly informed by those who have gone before .

Do you have a particular process of making that you could describe - where it begins, how you develop it, and whether there is any collaboration in the process?
Molly: CELL was a collaborative process between two companies. Although we don't always collaborate with other companies like this, devising as an ensemble is characteristic of our creative process. We are a very practical company and tend to work physically for a couple of days to explore new ideas and usually one of those will strike a chord and then we're off. Our processes are very stop/start, going between working on creative content for the show and then pausing to build the set/puppets/props we need to bring an idea to life. There is sometimes even a make corner in our rehearsal room so that both things can happen at the same time.

What do you feel the role of the audience is, in terms of making the meaning of your work?
Will: Working with puppetry can be tricky as there is an immediate gap caused. Not only do the audience have to believe in the story you are telling (as with any other show), they also have to accept that there is an object through with you are projecting that story. This is really important and something that we have tested out at regular intervals throughout the creation of CELL.
 
This interview was conducted with Molly Freeman, co-artistic director of Smoking Apples and William Aubrey Jones (Artistic Director, Dogfish) who are bringing CELL to Underbelly Cowgate this August. 


This show is a new collaboration between two celebrated puppetry companies, Smoking Apples and Dogfish. Smoking Apples are acquiring a reputation for re-defining puppetry and visual theatre, creating accessible, enjoyable shows about challenging subject matter. Dogfish, fronted by William Aubrey Jones (former co-artistic director of Edinburgh Fringe Festival favourites and co-devisors, Little Cauliflower) create innovative, design led, visual theatre.




There has been a recent surge in awareness of MND over the last few years with the Ice Bucket Challenge and the release of the film, The Theory of Everything. MND is very high in the public interest currently and although CELL is a narrative story of one man's final journey, we have used puppetry and visual theatre to highlight the physical and emotional strain of the disease.


In addition to the above, we also have a personal connection to this story with two member's of the cast losing family members to MND.

Dramaturgical Alchemy: Wil Pickvance @ Edfringe 2015

Alchemy of the Piano 
Summerhall, 
Anatomy Lecture Theatre Venue 26
Dates: 7-30 Aug (not 17, 24)
Time: 20.20 (60 mins)


Anatomy of the Piano (for Beginners)
Summerhall, Main Hall Venue 26
Dates: 7-30 Aug (not 17, 24)
Time: 10am (50 mins)

The Fringe


What inspired the shows: did you begin with an idea or a script or an object?  
Will Pickvance : Alchemy of the Piano

The object is the piano of course. But obviously, even if the piano remains at the centre of my performances as a musical instrument, it doesn’t have to as the topic of my shows. That said, with my life having revolved around pianos, it’s a rich source of conversation. Following on from my Anatomy of the Piano I wanted to look more at my relationship specifically with the piano and ask how did I become this kind of pianist. I draw parallels between events in my life and the stuff spills out of my hands onto the piano.

Anatomy of the Piano (for beginners)

Many people suggested that I adapt my Anatomy of the Piano show for children. I started by reading through my Roald Dahl collection for inspiration. I kept the premise the same (a piano delivered for Christmas instead of a spaceship and the ending), but the story is completely new, featuring my heroes Bach, Beethoven and Fats Waller.


Why bring them to Edinburgh?
Because It is Edinburgh (as per all other artists featured here, I imagine).


What can the audience expect to see and feel - or even think - of your production?
Alchemy of the Piano 

As an improvising musician, I hope to give non-musical members of the audience insight into the process of improvisation. How it emerges and develops as a skill and why one person might be more susceptible to attempting it than another. I hope that more musical audience members will enjoy the connections and comparisons between mine and their own methods of practice. Ultimately, I hope people come away having enjoyed an hour of piano music with some stories that provoke conversation. 

Anatomy of the Piano (for beginners)
Though I set out to make a performance for children, having performed this already in Australia and Malaysia, this show particularly appeals to children over the age of 18 as well. Presenting Bach, Beethoven and Fats Waller as being my heroes, responsible for the evolution of the piano, I hope audiences will learn a bit about the history of the instrument whilst being inspired by seeing how it is put together and what it can do. The story moves quickly and the music and animations keep children aged 4+ captivated for the 50 minutes.

The Dramaturgy Questions

How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work?
Dramaturgy is important at every stage of what I do, from the very seed of an idea through to tweaking performances. Improvisation is central to my work both as both a musician and performer and I find it relatively easy to come up with lots of short bursts of material. 

But I need dramaturgy to order things a bit, find emerging themes and start to develop these and build a narrative. Once I have this more substantial body of work, dramaturgy again helps me to breathe life back into the performance, so that something can feel like it flows whilst maintaining a natural, spontaneous feel.

What particular traditions and influences would you

acknowledge on your work - have any particular artists, or genres inspired you and do you see yourself within their tradition?
There’s a long tradition of piano players who don’t just play the piano. Maybe they tell stories, sing songs or fall off the stool. But once you take away the piano, these acts can vary enormously. I was inspired to play the piano by hearing jazz of 1920’s and 30’s. and Fats Waller in particular caught my attention, not just because of his vibrant playing but also his charisma and personality. Victor Borge, despite being a tremendous pianist, would often talk for half a show before actually playing a note. Ivor Cutler conjured up surreal worlds with his harmonium-accompanied stories and Tom Lehrer had witty songs and repartee. 

Keith Jarrett improvises a whole musical narrative on stage without saying a word. I take something from all these very different performers. Of course I’m also influenced by non-piano players. Jim Henson’s puppetry mayhem and Tom and Jerry spring to mind. A few years ago I was inspired by at the Fringe by New York comedian Demetri Martin.

Do you have a particular process of making that you could describe - where it begins, how you develop it, and whether there is any collaboration in the process?
The first thing I do is to get rid of the blank canvas. I write a bunch of anecdotes and ideas down, from a sentence to a page. I then show these to someone. For my latest show the Canadian singer-songwriter Wyckham Porteous has helped me in the role of dramaturg. He makes two piles. Stories he likes and stories for the bin. By talking through what we have, we spot themes and make connections, often unusual ones. We put them in a rough order and I go away and flesh it out and try to make it flow. Improvising at the piano, I then read the script to the next dramaturg, in this case filmmaker Magda Dragan. She prunes and suggests structural problems, as well as encouraging me to nurture an idea that has cropped up spontaneously. This can be a painstaking period, with breakthroughs coming sporadically. 

Once I have a basic rough draft, I then perform in front of Wyckham and Magda and we ratchet it up, perform again and so on. I work on the music on my own and try to develop motifs. I like to also try work-in-progress performances in front of small audiences. Once I have real audience of course the show continues to evolve on a consensus of what works and what doesn’t.



What do you feel the role of the audience is, in terms of making the meaning of your work?
Piano playing is something I have always loved but when I recognised that I could involve other people with my playing, this was the thing that made me perform. I started with trying to get people to tap their foot and went from there. I’ve always wanted to engage an audience and that feeling hasn’t gone away. Speaking in between playing has developed as I’ve gone along. 
If I attempt something new (at least new to me), I’m extra sensitive to trying to keep the audience with me. Sometimes things don’t work and I have to go back re-work them, sometimes I just have to cast them aside for good. My end game is always to engage the audience and the only way I can know I’m doing that is to let them tell me what they think and then respond.

Are there any questions that you feel I have missed out that would help me to understand how dramaturgy works for you?
Perhaps the way dramaturgy can be used to capture spontaneity and reproduce it night after night, in a show that has the same beginning and ending.

My People Dramaturgy: Gwyn Emberton @ Edfringe 2015

Gwyn Emberton Dance presents:
My People 
PART OF COREO CYMRU AND CHAPTER’S WELSH DANCE STRAND 

The damning short stories that earned Caradoc Evans the title of Wales’ ‘best-hated man’ are recreated by six dancers through compelling dance theatre

Choreographed by Gwyn Emberton and dancers

ZOO, The Sanctuary, Venue 124, 24 – 29 August, 1pm (2pm)

“Emberton’s narrative impulse is compelling… My People is a mature work… that deserves to be widely seen.” Jann Parry, Dance Tabs 2015 

In the centenary year of one of the most controversial books written in and about Wales and its people, Caradoc Evans’ My People, choreographer Gwyn Emberton presents the first dance exploration of this divisive work. Gwyn Emberton joined by five exceptional international dancers delves into the dark and turbulent fictional village of Evans’ Manteg. They give heartbreaking and affecting performances as they collide with the short stories of Wales’ ‘best hated man’ (Western Mail). 


The Fringe
What inspired this production: did you begin with an idea or a script or an object?
The piece is inspired by one of the most controversial books, My People, to be written in Wales and about the Welsh people by Caradoc Evans. 

It is an incredibly visual book and it just jumped off the page into the studio so to speak.

Why bring your work to Edinburgh?
We have been trying to get the work out there as much as possible and Edinburgh is always a good way of reaching new audiences and programmers. It is also a great opportunity for the company to perform the work for a week of performances rather than a night or two in one venue, this really develops work in a completely different way. 

What can the audience expect to see and feel - or even think - of your production?
When making the piece I was always aware that I didn’t want it to be literal retelling of the book. To start with it would have been impossible as their are 15 complex short stories. My aim was to capture the essence of the book, the overarching sense of a community struggling with how it behaves and how each level of its society treats each other. 

Although the book was written 100 years ago this year, its themes of suppression and control by those in positions of power, particularly from a religious stand point and the way women are treated and abused are still significant and incredibly relevant issues today. 



The Dramaturgy Questions

How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work?
I see this as how the work connected as a whole then how the work is received. What the structure presents, how the characters are perceived and if what I am trying to get across does so. 


Do you have a particular process of making that you could describe - where it begins, how you develop it, and whether there is any collaboration in the process?
I’ve combined two and three. 

Up to this point my main mode of creation has primarily been through task based propositions inspired by and responding to the source material, either through improvisation or contact work. I then use elements of Meisner and other acting principles/approaches to develop the performance/character level. I am becoming increasing interested in archetypes (Jung) and I am currently in the process of developing some new approaches to creating based on these. 

My creations are collaborations, with the dancers, composers, designers and lighting designers. 

I admire the work of Crystal Pite and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui for craft, scale and design, Alain Platel for being brave enough to show that thing deep within us all and Matthew Bourne’s ability to tell stories though movement. 

I am inspired by other art forms, particularly ones which are based around words, whether it’s novels, plays, films or poems. Everything gets thrown in to the work, even the colour of cover of the book can feature in some way.

What do you feel the role of the audience is, in terms of making the meaning of your work? 
I don’t want to spoon feed the audience by making the work too linear whilst still giving it a sense of narrative. I hope that the audience feel that they have the freedom and the joy to respond to the work in any way they want, they complete the relationship with all the other elements. My job is to offer an atmosphere that gives them the potential for them to do that. 

An award winner at the Wales Dance Platform, the production combines a cinematic score with the haunting world of Evans’ most memorable characters, including Achsah, thought to be a madwoman, who is locked in the attic and taken out at night by her husband on a cow’s harness and Nanni, who sacrifices herself for a respected Minister and is left to have her face eaten by rats. The Edinburgh 2015 production will be performed in a former church – the ideal setting for a work based on a conflicted chapel community. 
Early twentieth century writer Caradoc Evans is one of the most contentious figures in Welsh literary history, although admired for his writing style he was also despised for his unflattering portrayal of his own people. Attempts were made to ban the book and his portrait, in the national gallery in Cardiff, was slashed twice across the neck. The book deals with issues including religious hierarchy, the treatment of women, a depraved and troubled society, all of which remain relevant today. 
Speaking about the production, Gwyn Emberton said, “In making My People I was able to bring together an incredible group of international and exceptional dancers and the work of two of Wales’ brightest musical talents, Tic Ashfield and Benjamin Talbott, who are currently co-composing for BBC Wales’ Hinterland. Together we bring the dark world of Caradoc Evans’ My People to the stage. Whilst the book is a very critical portrayal of his, our, own people, I admire him for questioning the community that he felt treated him and his mother so unfairly and for using his art to do so. The stories are dark but it is the beauty found in this darkness that attracted me to make the work. It is incredibly visual and lends itself to dance theatre effortlessly.” 
Gwyn Emberton’s My People is part of the Welsh Dance Strand presented by Coreo Cymru. Taking place during the final week of Edinburgh Fringe it also showcases the work of three other Wales’ based choreographers; Sally Marie’s I loved you and I loved you, Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru’s Dawns Ysbrydion and CAITLIN, directed by Deborah Light, which Gwyn Emberton also co-devised and performs with Eddie Ladd. Coreo Cymru is an initiative set up to encourage and manage the creation and production of new dance activity, and to support the development of Wales based artists and companies.
Gwyn Emberton Dance is the company of award winning Welsh choreographer Gwyn Emberton who has worked with many of the UK’s and Israel’s major choreographers and companies, such as Akram Khan, Matthew Bourne, Jasmin Vardimon, Scottish Dance Theatre and Inbal Pinto Dance Company. Gwyn Emberton’s work has toured the UK, Europe and the Middle East and he has also choreographed for theatre, TV and music videos. This will be the second year Gwyn Emberton’s work will be at the festival. 

Gwyn Emberton is an associate artist of Aberystwyth Arts Centre and Chapter's Creative Producer Programme, Coreo Cymru. My People and CAITLIN were both nominated for Wales Theatre Awards, with CAITLIN winning the Best Dance Production award.

Dramaturgy by Night: Emily Adams @ Edfringe 2015

Collaborative Yanks bring theatrical family

 

fun to Edinburgh Fringe Festival


C’TAIT LA NUIT

Mid-West America favourites GreenHouse Theatre Project are invading the UK! This dynamic company will perform their hugely popular original production C’tait la Nuit at Paradise in Augustines.

This Anglo/American company has had five years of success in Columbia Missouri and are thrilled to launch the start of its sister company in Stoke-On-Trent at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.



C’tait la Nuit
Welcome to 1930s Paris, the city of love, wine and creative inspiration! Here we find Sebastian, a young man from the mountains of Tennessee, determined to be reunited with his mother and father and discover his true bohemian roots. 

But with tight lipped nuns, snooty maître d’s and mysterious book sellers, will he ever get the information he needs? Who is the illustrious singer La LadyBird he hears so much of? And what surprises await him in the famous cabaret, Moulin de la Galette? Join us as we venture with Sebastian in this coming of age tale about identity, family and most importantly, love.

The Fringe

What inspired this production: did you begin with an idea or a script or an object?Emily Adams: We actually started with a location. We really wanted to create a whimsical piece based in Paris. Co-artistic director Elizabeth Braaten Palmieri then took a trip to the Blue Mountains in Tennessee and on seeing its beauty, we decided to combine the two locations in our story.


Why bring your work to Edinburgh?
GreenHouse is based in the States and was co-founded by british Emily Adams and American Elizabeth Braaten Palmieri. In the summer of 2014, Emily moved back to the UK and is due to launch a sister company of GreenHouse in Stoke-On-Trent. Both artistic leaders though the fringe would be the perfect platform to launch this.

What can the audience expect to see and feel - or even think - of your production?
It's a beautiful, light hearted coming of age tale with plenty of vibrant characters and fun music so I hope they will feel energised, joyful and having laughed a lot!


The Dramaturgy Questions


How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work?
I think the way that Elizabeth and myself, (Emily) work is that we write the piece and have a vision for it and a style we are aiming for, but almost let the actors be the dramaturges. We allow them to shape the piece, make it fit, do away with bits that don't work on stage or words/lines that need adapting to fit the work once it is on its feet. We love the actors to play and have creative input and in that sense, we all become the dramaturge. Ownership of an ensemble piece is key to the fluidity of a production.


What particular traditions and influences would you acknowledge on your work - have any particular artists, or genres inspired you and do you see yourself within their tradition?
Elizabeth and myself are very influenced by very visual and physical theatre makers such as KneeHigh Theatre Company, Matthew Bourne, Propella Theatre Company, Punchdrunk and Jeune Lune to name a few. All of our performances back home in Missouri are site specific - Romeo and Juliet in an urban amphitheatre, Macbeth in a yoga studio, A Christmas Carol in an art gallery; and all the spaces are part of the performance - another character helping to tell the story. 

I'm launching a sister company in Stoke-on-Trent that will follow the same model, using local spaces as the back drop of performances. Companies like Dream Think Speak and Punchdrunk are definitely an inspiration for us in this.


Do you have a particular process of making that you could describe - where it begins, how you develop it, and whether there is any collaboration in the process?
At GreenHouse we love to collaborate. It is one of the key elements in our process. Elizabeth and myself will come up with construct and the play, but each performance has a different collaborator using their creative input. This could be in terms of space/venue but we have also had live DJs in our performances curating the music for the show, local artists and local produce makers; farm foods, yarn makers and Ariel silks artists to name a few!


What do you feel the role of the audience is, in terms of making the meaning of your work?
I think live theatre does well to remember that it works purely down to the relationship you create with the audience. This doesn't mean they (the audience) have to like everything you do or say, but you do want it to make them feel something; joy, disgust, shock, peace - all of the huge range of human emotions. Without them there, engaging, your work doesn't have any meaning. You can write the most amazing script and hire fantastic performers, but if no one sees your work - or wants to come back, it's just a rehearsal. The audience make your piece come alive and that is a very important, but also at times, rather complicated relationship to foster.

Paradise in Augustines (Venue 152) 17th-22nd Aug @ 14:10 (50mins)


DIRECTED BY: Emily Adams and Elizabeth Braaten Palmieri

WRITTEN BY: Emily Adams and Elizabeth Braaten Palmieri

DESIGNED BY: Emily Adams, Elizabeth Braaten Palmieri and Rob Glauz

LIGHTING BY: Rob Glauz

CAST: Emily Adams, Elizabeth Braaten Palmieri, Rob Glauz, Matt Ingram, Rhian Mclean, Ian SobuleThis enchanting family show with its poetic storytelling, beautiful imagery and colourful characters will be sure to entertain children and adults alike. A perfect ‘pick-me-up’ performance to ease into the afternoons of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Vaulted Dramaturgy: Marty Ross @ Edfringe 2015

Vampires in the VaultA dramatic storytelling show by MARTY ROSS
Paradise In The Vault (venue 29)
11 Merchant St. EH1 2QD
8 – 15 August 17.55
Tickets £8 / £6 (2for1 on 10th. & 11th.)

After his acclaimed 21st. Century Poe shows at 2013 & 2014's Edfringe, live storyteller and playwright Marty Ross (BBC Radio drama; Doctor Who & Dark Shadows audio) descends once again into the Vault with a themed show alternating two vampire tales – dare you see them both?

His radically updated Poe shows saw him acclaimed as “a compelling onstage presence”, “a master craftsman who never turns down the pressure” with a gift for “insanely good storytelling” and “a great aptitude for suspense & terror”. Now he descends deeper into the dark with stories of vampirism, historic and modern, supernatural and disturbingly real.

In THE GORBALS VAMPIRE, Glasgow's very own urban legend of an
iron-toothed vampire in the city's Southern Necropolis inspires a
disturbing tale of innocence lost. Twenty years ago, Timmy disappeared in the graveyard, victim of a schoolkid prank. Now he's back, to tell the tale of where he's been... and how close he came to being trapped there forever.

In BLOOD & STONE: Lullaby For A Vampire Countess, Ross again draws on a true tale, in this case that of the Hungarian Bloody Countess Elizabeth Bathory, aka “Countess Dracula”, who in the early 1600s was imprisoned in her castle for bathing in the blood of her victims. This fictional sequel to the historical story imagines a servant listening to the Countess' protestations of innocence and being tempted to set her free.... (Marty Ross' audio drama version of this story was nominated for a 2012 Rondo Award – the horror world's Oscars)
*The Fringe*What inspired this production: did you begin with an idea or a script or an object?Marty Ross: My Poe shows at the previous two Fringes had been well received, so
I wanted to do another show, but wanted to take a break from Poe, so
vampire stories seemed a natural progression and very suitable for a
setting in a church vault, plus I wanted to revisit the format I'd had
in 2013, of not just doing the same show every night but alternating
different stories, in this case two stories, The Gorbals Vampire and
Blood And Stone. Blood And Stone was already a well established piece
in my repertoire (and my audio drama version had been nominated for a
Rondo - the horror world's Oscars!) and it was inevitable I'd bring it
to Edinburgh - I just needed another story to go alongside it. And I'd
been obsessed by the urban legend of the Gorbals Vampire for a long
time - the Southern Necropolis, where the belief that an iron toothed
vampire was devouring children prompted an honest to goodness outburst
of mass hysteria in the early 50s, was just round the corner from the
tenement where I used to live with my Grandmother, the person who
inspired me to tell stories in the first place, so it just seemed a
perfect opportunity.

Why bring your work to Edinburgh?As a Scot, Edinburgh is close to home - I can go home to my own
family at nights and don't have to pay an extortionate rent - and
though far more brilliant performers than myself have lost their
shirts there, I did pretty well the last two fringes, broke even and
got a bit of recognition, and was established at a supportive venue,
so I thought 'why not?' And I'm haunted by the vague possibility that
there might be folk in the vicinity who enjoyed the last two shows and
might actually be in the mood for more.

What can the audience expect to see and feel - or even think - of your production?
What I'm hoping for, as with all my storytelling shows, is that
there in the darkened theatre there'll be a kind of imaginative,
intimate compact between myself and each individual audience member --
that I'll put on a vivid show that's worth watching and listening to
as a spectacle in itself, but also that there'll also be another show
simultaneously created in every viewer and listener's mind's eye, a
private visualisation of the story unique to each audience member,
that they can carry home and dream about afterwards. I think
theatrical storytelling can carry to an ultimate point of finesse that
game with the audience's imagination that's so crucial in theatre
generally (and so lacking in media like movies or TV where, as it
were, all the imagining is done for you). I'm not out for overt
screams or folk jumping out of their seats (in that respect
storytelling theatre can hardly compete with the quick-edit visual
shocks and "Vwhwoom" soundtrack noises of cinema), but I think I can
play an intimate game with people's imaginations in a manner genuinely
'haunting'. The two stories themselves combine Gothic horror with what
I hope is real, resonant complex human drama - 'pure' horror just
isn't enough, I'm interested in the points where horror intersects
with a kind of terrible, tragic beauty. I think I'm evoking some
complex, troubled, troubling characters here to help me do that.

*The Dramaturgy Questions*
How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work?Dramaturgy is a big question for me. Some storytellers are keen to
distance their storytelling from being seen as any kind of theatre or
drama, but for me storytelling is attractive as a medium precisely to
the point where I can make drama, and theatrical drama at that, out of
it. Which raises the whole question: at what point does a 'story'
cross over into being a 'drama' - where does the borderline lie? Like
a lot of practitioners, I suppose, I work my way through the process
by blind instinct and theorize about it afterwards, but I think of
'drama' as 'story' with a kind of gas mark 6 gathering heat under it:
a lot of traditional storytellers are very light hearted and laid back
and anecdotal in the way they tell even the most macabre stories,
keeping to the persona of 'your mate down the pub casually spinning a
yarn between sips of real ale', but I'm instinctively drawn to a
certain full tilt emotional intensity, and an expressionist way of
conveying it. And as part and parcel of that I often abandon the
traditional objective third-person perspective of traditional
storytelling for telling the story 'first person' through a character
in the story, and then directly portraying the other characters with
similar intensity. I did that with the Poe shows, taking my cue from
the fact that Poe's stories tend to be told first person - and by the
craziest character in the story: they're almost dramatic monologues.
And "The Gorbals Vampire" here is done first person, from the point of
view of its most traumatized character. On the other hand Blood &
Stone begins third person (it even starts with "Once upon a time"),
but even there, as the storytelling 'heats up', more and more of the
narrative is communicated through me speaking directly as the
characters: that third person voice discreetly shrinks back to a very
minimalist connecting tissue. So the real borderline between 'story'
and 'drama' might lie at the point that story allows itself to be told
by the characters within it. How can that be achieved? - that's where
'dramaturgy' lies in the storytelling medium.

What particular traditions and influences would you acknowledge on your work - have any particular artists, or genres inspired you and do you see yourself within their tradition?
Even though I can only know it at one remove (at least), German
Expressionist theatre is a big reference point. Of course, I can only
know it indirectly, through play scripts, manifestos and critical
texts... and of course through things like the German silent cinema
and the later, somewhat watered down, version of that aesthetic in the
30s horror cinema: the work of people like Conrad Veidt and Peter
Lorre, films like 'Caligari', 'Orlacs Hande', 'The Black Cat' & 'Mad
Love': I love the extreme stylisation of things like that, a
stylisation that makes those productions belong to theatre as much as
to cinema. I'm a sucker for a good Hammer Horror and the best of the
more modernist horror films, but they're relentlessly moving towards a
more 'realistic' style (with the startling exception of Nicholson's
Kabuki performance in The Shining), and that aesthetic isn't as
applicable to the kind of thing I'm trying to do: so Veidt and Lorre
(who would do one man Poe shows - and said he found it more fulfilling
than virtually anything else he did in Hollywood!) are my heroes,
certainly by way of my fantasy of what they were like in those 20s
theatre shows I'll never actually be able to see.

More broadly, I suppose any form of theatre in which big, grand-scale
fantastical narratives are communicated by what in practical terms are
very simple resources is an influence, as for example Yeats' Celtic
reinventions of Noh drama: I know the dominant realist aesthetic
condemns Yeats' plays as a disastrous dead end, but that basic idea -
that you go into some draughty community hall in County Sligo, unroll
a rug on the floor and that rug becomes a whole fantastical world of
mortal and supernatural forces clashing is obviously more relevant to
what I'm doing than anything in the realist tradition.

Likewise, Greek tragedy is a big guiding light. I know that sounds
pretentious coming from a guy doing little penny ante horror shows,
but in simple pragmatic nuts and bolts terms the way Greek tragedy
uses a very small cast (certainly if you accept the Greek distinction
that chorus and actors are two different things), very simple ABC
narrative lines (as opposed to the baroque structures and subplots of
Elizabethan drama) and very elementary staging to convey narratives
that are grand scale in their passions and their clash of the human
and supernatural. And of course the Greek convention of having the
most violent action take place off-stage means that at its most crucial
hinge-points Greek drama becomes quite a straightforward storytelling
theatre. We don't literally see the King and his daughter being burned
to death by the poisoned dress in 'Medea', we don't see Pentheus being
caught and ripped apart by the Maenads, we don't see Jocasta hanging
herself or Oedipus gouging his eyes out: rather, some horror-struck
intermediary runs on-stage, says 'you'll never guess what happened' and
for the next five minutes the play becomes a piece of purest
storytelling as the off-stage scene is simply, powerfully, described
to us... and those are among the towering moments of western drama.

Another influence - and I keep this to last, because I have to be
careful about my terminology - is the theatre of melodrama. Careful,
of course, because in modern usage 'melodrama' is used as a synonym
for bad drama, fake drama, hokey drama. But if you do any research
into melodrama as a genuine theatre tradition, it's much more
interesting than that: whether embodied by the plays of Gothic writers
like Lewis and Maturin, or by the 19th century 'fit up' companies who
would perform what must have been largely improvised reenactments of
contemporary crimes in spaces 'fitted up' in market stalls etc., or
Dickens performing the murder of Nancy so vividly he took years of his
own life and (probably) the lives of his audiences, or Henry Irving
performing Eugene Aram so vividly he sent Bram Stoker (of all people)
into a fainting fit, or of course the French Grand Guignol.... --
you're talking about a genuinely popular, immediately communicative
form of theatre, stylised of course but valid in its stylisations...
and the theatre genuinely lost something when the academic
haute-bourgoisie, all those Court Theatre Granville Barker types,
kicked it out of the theatre so the realist aesthetic could reign
unopposed.

Do you have a particular process of making that you could describe - where it begins, how you develop it, and whether there is any collaboration in the process?
People tend to assume, because I'm also a playwright, that I write
a script, memorize it, and then that's what I perform: people often
compliment me on the 'writing' in, or the 'text' of, my shows. But the
way in which I'm closest to the oral storytelling tradition is that
there's no script - what I do is work out in my head the broad outline
of the story and then I get up on my feet and start improvising, day
after day after day, and when the improvisations start to slowly
cohere, I repeat and repeat and repeat until the improvisations are
memorised (I think of it as being like sculpture, wheras writing is
like painting: the hard work of being on your feet, battering away at
something very physically present in the room, rather than the
restfulness of looking at a blank canvas / page and filling it up at a
fairly relaxed pace)... but even then, in actual performance, the
words and gestures are never 'fixed', they never come out exactly the
same way two shows running, every show remains improvised to an
extent. In the latter stages, I'll work with a technician for the
final realisation, but this is the one place I can work in a very
uncompromised fashion - in radio drama, it's very collaborative - an
idea that's 'mine' will go through all kinds of reshaping in
collaboration with my director before it even gets commissioned and if
it is, then the actual writing involves a lot of give and take between
myself and the director, and then when it's produced I have to take a
back seat while the director and actors make it theirs. That can be a
rich and fruitful process, but it does mean that the finished play is
'by Marty Ross' only to a limited extent. Storytelling, on the other
hand, is my 'fuck you' medium, where I can realise what I have to say
and express it in a very uncompromised fashion: for better or worse,
you're getting what I have to say as a dramatist in a very undiluted
form - and the crucial collaboration becomes that aforementioned
collaboration with the individual imaginations of the punters who've
shown up.

What do you feel the role of the audience is, in terms of making the meaning of your work?

I've covered the essence of this above, but essentially the show is
nothing if the audience doesn't bring their own imaginations and help
me create the story. The story is not just my words and gestures...
the other half of the equation is the way their imaginations seize on
these as prompts for a show that's taking place in their own heads as
much as on the stage. A subtler, more complex interaction, maybe, than
straightforwardly making people laugh or scream... but that's the real
'collaboration' in this form of theatre.


Are there any questions that you feel I have missed out that would help?

Your relating of dramaturgy to comics is interesting to me. For one
thing, the real life Gorbals Vampire mass hysteria was blamed at the
time on the gory US horror comics of the 50s (and helped get them
banned for a time in this country) and my play starts with the main
character reading one of the great horror comics of my youth, House Of
Hammer, but more broadly I was a great comics reader in my youth and
have found my way back to certainly the ones in the horror genre in
recent years: the very tight-focused way the short stories in
something like the old DC House Of Mystery are told, and through a
sequence of vivid images, is an example to a storyteller.

I was actually chatting with a friend who's a professional comics
artist a couple of months back. I was talking about how 19th century
researchers into the old school Scots storytellers marveled at how
these crofters and fishermen could hold in their heads a repertoire of
maybe 60 or more stories, some of them saga-length... when in fact
they were often illiterate. And what the researchers worked out was
that the storytellers didn't memorize words - they memorized a string
of images, almost like a silent film before silent films existed and
essentially just improvised the words to describe those images in the
act of performance... although of course words that worked well would
inevitably stick in their memories over several 'tellings'.

And as a storyteller, I instinctively work in exactly the same way. In
the initial formative stages, I don't worry about words at all - I
work the story out in my mind's eye as a sequence of images, memorize
those, and then in at least the initial stages of rehearsal just use
whatever words pop into my head to evoke those images, although if you
rehearse it often enough the words stick too. But a story for me is,
first and foremost, a sequence of images. If you have those, you've
got a story.

And my comics drawing friend related that to the way good comics are
produced....