The Vile Blog: storytelling

Showing posts with label storytelling. Show all posts

Monday, 11 July 2016

Warrior Dramaturgy: Mara Menzies @ Edfringe 2016

NZINGA WARRIOR QUEEN DEFIES THE NORM IN
EDINBURGH

· Feminine Rule in a Time of Patriarchy

· Spirituality & Sibling Rivalry

· Surmounting Impossible Odds

· Thin Line Between Right and Wrong

· Storytelling

· Dance and Poetry

In a world where women over the age of 50 are considered past their best, and where political apathy reigns supreme, storyteller Mara Menzies explores the life of one of the world's most intriguing yet little known female rulers, exemplifying the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2016’s core

message to Defy the Norm.

NZINGA Born in ancient Angola, into a patriarchal society, Nzinga defied tradition to become a 17th-century queen at the age of 50, fearlessly and cleverly fighting for the freedom and stature of her people against the technologically superior Portuguese and the marauding Imbangala slave traders.

Despite over 350 years having passed since Nzinga's death, this true story of unrivalled determination is relevant to women in all societies today, as we explore her incredible wit, intelligence and resilience, examining the challenges she faced as a woman, questioning femininity, spirituality and the thin line between right and wrong.

What was the inspiration for this performance?Quite simply there are not enough female role models out there, especially African role models, and when I discovered Nzinga's story, I was fascinated by the sheer strength of character she must have had to endure what would have been a difficult and extraordinary life.

As a woman, she had incredible strengths and equally tremendous flaws and the show explores all elements of her character, the decisions she made, the key people in her life, her attitude to overcoming obstacles. It's not about placing her on a pedestal, but exploring the unique role she played in history and discovering how we might be inspired by her story to live our lives better.

How did you go about gathering the team for it?
For the performance, I had seen Yamil perform in a number of shows and knew that he would make a great addition to this production. He possesses great grace and strength and is the perfect balance to Nzinga's fire.

Flavia is someone who I have known for many years ad there has been a willingness to work together but there was never the right time and then suddenly the opportunity presented itself. For everything else, costumes, set, graphics, the staff of the Storytelling Centre, they have simply manifested in ways that I can't explain, giving far more than I expected and surprising me at every turn.

How did you become interested in making performance?
I fell into performing accidentally when I started telling stories to children to try and promote a childrens book I had written for my daughter. The light in their eyes encouraged me to create a puppet, then sew a backdrop and things moved from there. It hasn't changed much from those early days as the thing that still encourages me to keep creating is seeing that light in the eyes of the audience.

Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?
I don't have a typical process that I follow. Each show is unique and will be created differently. Because my background is more storytelling than theatre, the most important element to consider is

the audience and how I interact with them. Everything stems from that.

I'm an organic creator, with shows and stories emerging in various ways. I admire people who know exactly what they want and then can work towards it, but I'm not made that way. Things always work out and often far better than expected.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?
I hope the audience will leave feeling that the show was performed specifically for them. That they will be pleased that we spent that hour together and it was an hour well spent. That they will take away something from the story- whether that is something that inspires them, angers them, satisfies them or raises questions that they had never considered before.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?
The Storytelling Centre has a lovely quote that 'a story is told eye to eye, mind to mind and heart to heart' and so remaining faithful to that, the audience will be part of the story rather than passive spectators. I shall be borrowing liberally from the African storytelling tradition, helping them step into different cultural shoes and finally borrowing from the world of theatre, I shall be using some techniques gifted to me by directors Annie George and Isla Menzies to engage in different ways,

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?
I am first and foremost a Storyteller and we are found in every culture in the world. I am lucky to live in Scotland where there is such a rich tradition of storytelling and I grew up at the Kenyan coast surrounded by stories.

In Scotland I find that we do not have a strong presence of multicultural performances throughout the year and as I would like my children to grow up as aware and proud of their African culture as they are of their Scottish culture, then I find myself inspired to create productions more from an African perspective and then share that with audiences in Scotland, the UK and beyond.

WARRIOR QUEEN

This passionate, witty, thought provoking theatrical storytelling piece tells a tale of intense sibling rivalry, political triumphs and complex spiritual dilemmas; witnessing Nzinga's rise from slave's daughter to one of Africa's greatest leaders.

Performed by storyteller Mara Menzies, with extraordinary poetic music and dance accompaniment by Yamil Ferrer, previously of Ballet Folklorique de Cuba, this powerful piece is never overtly political, self-righteous or moralistic.

It simply presents the issues as a backdrop to the compelling story of Nzinga's love for her nation and desperate quest to protect her people.

Thursday 4^th – Friday 19^th August (NOT 10^th) at 15:00 (1hr)

Scottish Storytelling Centre (Venue 30a)

Friday, 1 July 2016

Exactly like Dramaturgy: Lotte @ Edfringe 2016

Joe Brown and Matt Whayman present

Exactly Like You

August 4th-28th

15:10 (1 hr)

Underbelly, Cowgate (Venue 61)

Spoken word artist and actress Lotte Rice presents her debut one-woman show Exactly Like You, combining her gifts as a performer and a poet to present a modern story drawing on the electrifying songs of Nina Simone, directed by Fringe First Award winner Kirsty Patrick Ward (CHEF, by Sabrina Mahfouz).

A girl wakes to find a strange man in her bed and spends the day piecing together what happened the night before. Lost in a lonely city, she summons one of the twentieth century’s most inspiring figures, Nina Simone. This brand new show from Lotte Rice is driven by poetry and bubbling with wit.

What was the inspiration for this performance?

Good question! There are quite a few actually. Needless to say Nina Simone was a huge influence- I have always listened to her music but got particularly absorbed by her work just before I had the idea for this piece. I wrote a short play first- a spoken word performance piece really – which is what this play is based on. But also, I came to Edinburgh in 2014 and saw so many amazing female performers. Lady Rizo was one. The most fabulous woman with the most sensational voice just DOING HER THING. Also, Jessie Cave, an incredibly honest, observant and hilarious comedian commenting so brutally on the anxieties and neurosis that so many women share. Basically, lots of women doing their thing.

How did you go about gathering the team for it?

Beautiful serendipity really, and with help. My producers have been incredible at getting me into gear for making decisions, and my director has a fantastic network of brilliant creatives who she has admired or worked with before – lighting, sound and set designers.

How did you become interested in making performance?

I trained as an actor at RADA, which involved largely script based acting. Which I love! But I’d always secretly written poetry and short stories, and harboured dreams of singing and a few years ago I started tentatively putting some of my own work out. It was partly due to wanting to challenge myself. As an actor you never know how long the periods of thumb twiddling between jobs are going to last, so it became a sort of side hobby. But then when it was suggested I write a play, I thought the challenge would be a really great way of developing new skills and learning new things.

Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?

No. As I said, I am used to working collaboratively, bouncing off of other peoples ideas. This has been a very novel experience for me, a lot of time alone with my ideas, but luckily I have some fantastic producers who have been supporting me from the start, so it hasn’t been lonely!

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

I hope that they are uplifted and inspired. I hope that they are entertained. I hope that they are encouraged to take the time to listen to the music that they love more often!

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

I’m not sure I completely understand the question, but I will answer as best as I can! I was keen to create an intimate cabaret experience blending theatre, singing and spoken word for an audience who like to be taken on a journey and entertained.

I am working closely with a sound engineer, who is doing some fantastic work with sampling bits of music and creating effects to help the audience understand time passing and the internal life of the character.

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?
I suppose storytelling and spoken word.

Lotte Rice graduated from RADA in 2011. She has since been taking the spoken word circuit by storm, regularly performing at scratch nights across London.

Exactly like Dramaturgy: Lotte @ Edfringe 2016

Joe Brown and Matt Whayman present

Exactly Like You

August 4th-28th

15:10 (1 hr)

Underbelly, Cowgate (Venue 61)

Thursday, 30 June 2016

Dramaturgy by Niggle: Richard Medrington @ Edfringe 2016

PUPPET STATE THEATRE COMPANY presents

JRR Tolkien’s

Leaf by Niggle

At the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2016 and part of the Made in Scotland Showcase 2016

Scottish Storytelling Centre, Venue 30

Aug 4 Preview 17:00 Aug 5 -28 (not 10, 15, 22, 23) 17:00 (75mins)

Aug 17 17:00 BSL interpreted performance

Performed by Richard Medrington
Soundtrack composed by Karine Polwart and Michael John McCarthy
Directed by Andy Cannon; Lighting by Gerron Stewart; Design Support by Ailie Cohen; Movement support by Janice Parker; Stage Management by Elspeth Murray

Puppet State Theatre Company returns to the

Credit Brian Hartley

Scottish Storytelling Centre for this year’s Festival Fringe, as part of Made in Scotland, with its acclaimed new production of JRR Tolkien’s little-known short story, Leaf by Niggle.

This solo storytelling show, created and performed by Richard Medrington, draws on Richard’s personal family history as an introduction to Tolkien’s original story.

Surrounded by ladders, bicycles and heirlooms, Richard Medrington (Jean from The Man Who Planted Trees) recounts Tolkien’s miniature masterpiece with a beautiful soundtrack composed by Karine Polwart and Michael John McCarthy.

What was the inspiration for this performance?
I first read the story Leaf by Niggle back in 1992 and was so struck by it that I approached the Tolkien Trust and asked for permission to turn it into a puppet show. At that time the answer was a polite no. Over the next twenty years or so the story stayed with me, even seemed to pursue me at times, so in 2013 I approached the Trust again and this time they said Yes! In short the inspiration was a fascinating story with as yet unplumbed depths that I have enjoyed swimming in.

How did you go about gathering the team for it?
Some old collaborators from previous shows, a friend whose work I had long admired but with whom I had never worked, a musician whom I had worshipped from afar, a producer who was just great and who brought on board other fine people she had worked with in the past, and a beautiful woman who for some reason doesn’t totally object to being a company manager and my wife.

How did you become interested in making performance?
Started when I was five and was given the starring role in Peter and the Wolf. I remember the teacher saying “now Richard is going to play the part of Peter because he likes acting”. Not sure where she got that from but it’s true. Well, I like telling stories anyway. And framing them in interesting ways.

Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?
No. A much bigger team was involved. I have done a lot of one-man shows in the past, with minimal assistance, and then ten years of collaboration on The Man Who Planted Trees with Rick Conte where I played the straight man to his comic creation Dog. This was partly going it alone again, and partly having the reassurance of a large and capable team.

Then there was the surprising stage in development when we realised that this wasn’t going to be a puppet show after all! Somehow, we just couldn’t make it work with puppets. We tried to adapt the story – to cut down the word count, move scenes around - but in the end it seemed that the best thing to do was to keep every word, in the same order and trust Tolkien’s skill as a storyteller. (We did change one word that’s no longer in common usage and removed four words that reflected 1930’s gender inequalities.)

The “adaptation” now mainly consists in the framing of the story. There is a prologue, during which I talk about the set elements and props, most of which are objects from the family attic. All these elements turn up later in the telling of the story and “earn their keep”.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?
A stimulated imagination. A challenge to think. A feeling of safety.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?
Lovely music, interesting visual and aural elements, without overwhelming the eye or the mind.

We considered and rejected ideas of a walk-through installation, although in a sense the set does turn into that at the end of the show, when people are keen to look at the props and talk about the story. (Probably haven’t answered your question).

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?
Story theatre? Is that a tradition?

Leaf by Niggle is considered by some to be Tolkien’s most autobiographical work, springing from his fear of not finishing The Lord of the Rings. In 1939, as war clouds were darkening, he woke up one morning with the story almost complete in his mind and wrote it down.

Niggle is a struggling artist who is trying to complete his magnum opus, a painting of a curious tree. He isn’t sure when he will need to set out on his journey, but he is worried that he won’t be able to finish the painting before it’s time to leave.

Leaf by Niggle is often seen as an allegory of Tolkien's own creative process, and, to an extent, of his life. It is a tale of transformation, which examines the relationship between an artist, his creation and his community.

Richard Medrington is the artistic director of Puppet State Theatre Company and for the past nine years the company has been touring the world with its much lauded production of Jean Giono’s The Man Who Planted Trees.

This new adaptation of Leaf by Niggle is a reflection of Richard’s long held ambition to perform a staged version of the story. In 1993, Richard gave an acclaimed one-off storytelling performance of the piece at the Carberry Festival and has nurtured hopes of performing it to a wider audience ever since.

Friday, 25 March 2016

Circumnavigating Dramaturgy: Ian Stephen @ CCA

‘This pursuit of the optimal way-speed was, I came to realise, in keeping with all that Ian does. In action and speech, he is formidably exact. He exemplifies what Robert Lowell once called ‘the grace of accuracy’, and his poetry too, is distinguished by its precision. Minimalist but not gnomic, it extends his commitments both to exactitude and communication. There is no surfeit to it. His poems are short and taut as well-set sails. Poetry represents to him not a form of suggestive vagueness, but a medium which permits him to to speak in ways otherwise unavailable.’

Robert Macfarlane, The Old Ways, Hamish Hamilton and Penguin, 2012-13

What was the inspiration for this performance?
Starting point was the chance to get immersed in the Morrison manuscript - transcriptions of oral stories – held at Stornoway Public Library and the printed version in the National Library of Scotland when I was 'Reader in Residence', Western Isles Libraries, in 2011.

But I could not have imagined the journeys suggested without the experience of navigating the waters described. I'm very fortunate to be able to have sailed often to St Kilda, once in my own sloop El Vigo, once in Song of the Whale with the Cape Farewell project and many times as professional crew on a charter yacht, which also took me to North Rona. I have sailed to the Shiant Islands and to Sula Sgeir and Orkney in traditional Lewis open boats.

I can relive aspects of these adventures as the stories unfold and see the spectacular geography in the mind's eye with the hope of sharing the experience.

How did you go about gathering the team for it?
I knew Peter Urpeth first of all as a writer. Once he saw a short video I made and said, 'I could play to that.' That's when I learned he also had a career as a pianist, both in improvisation and in composing to film.

Our collaboration in poetry and piano combinations led to an appearance at the 'Without Borders' festival in the Czech Republic and at 'The Read Bed', Belladrum. It was natural to extend this relationship to storytelling with piano.

Christine happens to be my wife but we also have an ongoing collaboration as the artist known as Stephen Morrison. That 'artist' often makes visual and text-based work in response to voyages. We met when I took the Masters students in Art, Space and Nature (Edinburgh University) sailing, as a volunteer skipper with traditional Lewis vessels.

Our voyages together in our own classic wooden sloop have taken us to residencies in Shetland and the Rathlin Sound Festival in Northern Ireland. We have also shared residencies in Saskatchewan and in Tasmania, though we didn't sail to either of these places.

How did you become interested in making performance?
Storytelling was in my family background, on both sides. My mother and her brothers were a major influence, passing on a tradition from my Lewis grandfather Murchadh Iain Fionnlagh Mac a Gobhan. I met Hamish Henderson and Stanley Robertson when I went to Aberdeen as a student. Both of these friends encouraged me to tell Lewis stories in public.

I would go to the TMSA festivals, at Keith and Kinross but I also went with a group of performing poets to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as early as 1979. Since then I've alternated between the lonely craft of making poems and prose and the stimulating act of performing poems or stories, often in combination with music or visual elements. My poetry has also been set to music by two different composers.

Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?
Yes. It was an open dialogue between three equal artists although in this case, the shape of the linked stories was already in place -
given a form by the narrative which joins them. Rehearsals have been informal dialogues. The stories must remain improvised and not fixed as a script but the timing has to be secure.

Certain elements cannot be missed (like way points in navigation). A slip on these would present problems for both Peter, on his variations, some based on melodies from Gaelic songs and Christine, who has edited and arranged the images. Both of these elements will further the narrative as well as build-in mood and detail.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?
I hope we will travel time together as well as move from land to sea and back. But I hope no-one gets seasick. It will be great if those who have not yet experienced the geography first-hand, gain a sense of it. Like a novel, the aim is to share a human experience that might not be physically possible for all the audience.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?
I would say it's more about trust than strategies. Both between the performers and between us and the audience. The three of us hope to make something that is more than the sum of the three elements. If we are sensitive to each other's art then we can hope that the audience is fully engaged and so plays a part also.

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?
Yes. Although in this case contemporary elements are included – digital projection and electric piano – I hope that the storytelling has the same intimate ethos as that of my eloquent grandfather.

Other questions that would bring out the role of the dramaturgy?
I would always ask myself a question as I attempt to splice strands of stories together:
Will the process really result in something that is more than the individual elements?

My novel, A Book of Death and Fish has been described by Robert Macfarlane as 'stories within stories' as well as 'a celebration of the oral tradition' (Donald Smith). But I have to keep asking if the over-arching story can distort the character of the common currency of the stories within it.

The dramaturgy is really nothing more than a sniffing and sensing for the shape that is already suggested by the timeless chosen stories. These are only slightly arranged, helped by music and image, to emphasise the route they describe, when placed together.

Thursday, 24 March 2016

Clockwork Dramaturgy: Katrice Horsley @ CCA

Clockwork
A 90 minute show that explores the corsetry of social constructs upon the human form. Meet the Wordsmiths who each night chant their words of power and enchant our dreams as a consequence. Meet Nousha, a young girl who experiences sound in a different way to others and meet Edna, a woman so old she has a pubic comb-over but who knows the importance of belly laughter in our development as human beings.

What was the inspiration for this performance
My main inspiration was working with young people who saw themselves as lacking due to the social narratives that exist with regards to beauty, success and status. I wanted to do something to redress. One of the main themes in my work as a narrative consultant is to do with becoming the narrator of your own life. This performance is very much about that.

Also I have a form of synaesthesia, that I thought would be interesting to include. The last inspiration was all of the older woman who were around to help shape me into the woman I am now. This show is very much a celebration of their ribald humour and infinite wisdom.

How did you go about gathering the team for it?
There is not team - just me.

How did you become interested in making performance?
I was looking a lot at Rabelaisian humour and linking that to the Goddess Baubo - I wanted to explore what that means to us as a connection point in a world where we are supposed to be ‘sophisticated,’ and how that was seen as better than crudity.

Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?
I call myself a percolator - I have one little idea/concept float up from the depths of my unconscious and into my imagination - I put it onto the the shore of possible working island - then I wait and another idea floats, and I place it on the the shore, and another and another, until I start to piece the fragments into whole structure. Then I start to add the poetry, the links, the sensual language.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?
I want them to feel. I want them to resonate with the plight of the characters, to laugh, to feel despair, to recognise themselves within it all, to start to question how they came to believe what they think is true about themselves.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?
I wanted an emotional palette to work with. Quite often, if you have laughter you can then plunge deeper into despair, people know they will come up for air so they are willing to plunge fully in with you.

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?
There are 3 very traditional stories within the main frame narrative, so I would see this piece as traditional storytelling.

Once called the 'soul-diva' of storytelling, Katrice is a captivating performer who has a range of specific one-woman shows as well as a repertoire of over 300 traditional stories from all across the globe.

In her performances she enjoys taking people out of their comfort zones - just for a while - before returning them into the safety of being an audience member again!

Some of her work can challenge assumptions made about fairy tales - you will never look at Beauty and the Beast in the same way again! She has performed around the U.K. and overseas in theatres, schools, Literature Festivals and National Parks.

Wednesday, 23 March 2016

Four Chambers of Dramaturgy: Cat Gerrard and Tim Ralphs @ Village Storytelling

Village Storytelling / Cat Gerrard, Tim Ralphs

VSF16: Four Chambers of the Heart

Thu 24 March 2016

7pm, £10 (£8), Theatre

Ages: 14+ accompanied by an adult

The Village Storytelling Festival

Tue 22 March — Sat 26 March 2016

The heart has its own strange and wonderful ways. Some are well known: the regular beat of your everyday love stories, tales told so often their patterns becomes ingrained in the imagination. But the heart has other rhythms - it sends some down paths that have been kept secret by society, by collectors of stories, by the subjects of these complicated loves.

Storytellers Cat Gerrard and Tim Ralphs are pilgrims on these hidden pathways to passion and heartache. Listen as these wordsmiths bring you an evening of exquisite lesser-known tales from around the world that will make your heart thump, break, beat and flutter.

What was the inspiration for this performance?
Cat Gerrard and Tim Ralphs both say:
The Four Chambers of the Heart began as a conversation about our sense that traditional storytelling - the telling of myths, legends, folktales - was profoundly heteronormative - and that this lead to an omission in content and themes. We were telling stories that did not reflect the diversity in our audiences or our identities and this left us with a sense of injustice.

We're often saying that traditional storytelling has to reflect the needs of society today, and The Four Chambers became a project to radically expand the shared repertoire and to put queer themes front and centre in our work.

How did you become interested in making performance?
Cat: As a child I was entranced by theatre and art, from a performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream I saw at the age of 7

which made me fall off my seat, crying with laughter, to the puppets and stories in Jim Henson's The Storyteller. I started making performance at school and continued, fitting it around my studies until I decided to put it at the centre of my life.

I tried to do other things but creating is a vocation and I couldn't really do anything else. More here:

Tim: As a child, I was taken to lots of folk festivals and fell deeply in love with storytelling as an art-form. I started my first storytelling club in my school library. My interest in performance is born of a love of stories as something shared, created between teller and listener, and a passionate love of traditional material.

Was your process typical of the way you make performance?
Cat: I don't have a typical process in any piece that I make so this is typical in being atypical! Working with Tim in a first collaboration means we are finding our own way of working together and our own process.

How I make performance depends so much on who I'm making it with and what it is that we are/ I am making. The few things that always feature for me though are: play and improvisation; construction; reflection; and going into and staying in the unknown for as long as possible.

What do you hope that the audience with experience?
Cat and Tim: We're both fascinated by ritual, and we'll be looking for ways for the audience to participate in the show. Our hope is that our audience will be delighted with these stories, that they'll feel a sense of opening up - both internally and externally- and that they'll touch a sense of wonder.

Wednesday, 18 November 2015

THEN dramaturgy: Laura Lindow @ Ovalhouse

LAURA LINDOW, THE LOWRY AND OVALHOUSE PRESENT

then LEAP by Laura Lindow

The clock ticks, the years pass, and 39 year old Ottilie Dundee finally goes home to unearth some long-buried truths. There she meets the largest obstacle of all, and true to form, this old friend never forgot.

Wed 25 Nov – Sat 28 Nov, 7:30pm
£12.00 (£7.00)
RUNNING TIME: 50 MINUTES
VENUE: DOWNSTAIRS, OVALHOUSE
BOOK / BOX OFFICE: 020 7582 7680

What was the inspiration for this performance?

Credit: Alex Brennar

Laura Lindow: This is the first of my work that I have performed. I wanted to explore the impact of sharing my own actual words with actual people in a shared space. The impact on the room. On the tone and quality of the communication.

I was also interested in developing a landscape which felt quite personal (although Ottilie’s story is not my own). I call it a shonky

love song to family life. And that is what it feels like. A slightly misshapen tribute to the foundations upon which we build. The hurt that we build around. That we ALL build around.

How did you go about the gathering a team for the show?
I was lucky to work with a fantastic team of makers, both in the development and in the realization of this stage of the work. All felt very organic. And such a joyful opportunity to grow in understanding of different practitioners’ styles and interests. This process has had many champions.

What made you decide to work with Ovalhouse?
I heard so many wonderful things about Ovalhouse. Their ethos of supporting work in its developmental stages very much chimed with where this project is at. Additionally they made me feel so completely welcome throughout the time I have been with them. It’s also worth saying that I also have huge admiration for some of the artists with whom they collaborate regularly.

I'm aware that this may answer the previous question, but contact with audiences, both in the rural settings where we toured, but also around Lambeth, felt like a key collaboration, absorbing reactions, questions, concerns. It meant that we could make informed decisions in response. That Ovalhouse views this as an important element of progressing work that is engaged and engaging felt like a shared value.

element of progressing work that is engaged and engaging felt like a shared value.

Was your process typical of the way you make a performance?
I'm not sure that I have identified a typical process in my work. What is always present is a feeling of exploration. And play. I always start with play at the very heart, whether this is through words or action. This piece was commissioned as an attempt to create work which could play in both studio theatres and in less formal rural venues.

I think this is reflected in the voice of the piece. It’s not just ‘can we move the set with 2 people’, it’s the heart and soul of what you hear and see. The temperature of our room if you will.

What do you hope the audience will experience?
Landscapes. Emotional and physical landscapes. I equip everyone with a travel sweet as a welcome present and/or to bribe them to come with me. I want them to travel in their mind’s eye.

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?
I suppose the piece falls within the storytelling tradition. Although I'm looking for a word/phrase which communicates something that sounds a little less… chair-based. Think Horlicks with a Malt whiskey trim. Story-jazzle? Leave it with me!

Are there any other questions that might help me to understand the meaning of dramaturgy to you in your work?

Erm… I wonder about my sense of your definition of ‘dramaturgy’. I wonder if I'm going to answer this question adequately. In fact.. do you know… I wonder that a lot when it comes to discussing work! Is that common do you think? The fear of revealing one’s idiocy?

I can tell you where I have stumbled! I can tell you where the analysis of the term autobiographical has led me to steer away from narrative directions as though they were wrapped in electric fencing!

I can tell you about the beautiful truths that have revealed themselves through arming the piece with fiction. And how physical interventions have unleashed words from the page with ambition and roar. But the meaning of dramaturgy… let me think on.

The clock ticks, the years pass, and 39 year old Ottilie Dundee finally goes home to unearth some long-buried truths. There she meets the largest obstacle of all, and true to form this old friend never forgot.

Join writer/performer Laura Lindow as she

takes us on a fantastical journey into the bizarre world of Ottilie Dundee, part-time disappointment, unintentional heroine.

This is a world where the smallest sound becomes a symphony. Where what you thought was trash becomes true-life treasure. Watch as this buttoned up heroine gets ready to cut loose…. and then LEAP!

Including originally composed sound and music, this is a shadowy tale with a contemporary sting.

Tuesday, 14 July 2015

Damsel of Dramaturgy: Kate Stephenson @ Edfringe 2015

DAMSELS IN SUCCESS: FAIRYTALES RETOLD
By Kate Stephenson

‘How is it that fairytale characters just randomly start speaking in rhyme? Do they make it up as they go along or are they prepared poems that they’ve been thinking about for ages and just looking for an opportunity to use?’

Jeremy, Rose and Alex's parents are going to a ball and they leave the children in the charge of a babysitter. When she reads them The Princess and the Pea, Rose takes exception to the story and its inconsistencies. They consequently set out to retell famous fairytales including Hansel and Gretel and Sleeping Beauty in their own way, with help from the audience and whatever items are to hand. An ideal show for 5-7year olds, which is fun, funny and just a little bit silly.

Venue: C Venues, C Nova (Venue 145) Dates: Performances: 5th-31st (excluding 18th) August

Time: 11.30am (50mins)

Tickets: £350-£9.50

The Fringe

What inspired this production: did you begin with an idea or a script or an object?Kate Stephenson: This concept has been brewing for a couple of years and probably originates in my frustration as a child with two things in fairytales. One that there was a lack of competent heroines, and two that so much of them didn't make any logical sense - why didn't the gingerbread house crumble in the rain, how on earth does a child ride on a duck and doesn't being asleep for 100 years mean that eveything, both technological and social, has moved on in the world outside, resulting in a need for some serious readjustment upon waking up?

The idea has come to fruition recently as my friends have started to sprog liberally and I've learnt that it is essentially impossible to buy congratulations cards, or baby clothes and toys that are not heavily gendered and this must have an impact on the outdated expectations that we place on the different genders. This made me realise that instead of whinging about the situation I should do something positive and Damsels is the result - in it (in a very silly way) a group of children question all the stereotypes and inconsistencies in fairy-tales and go about righting them, whilst also doing some old fashioned storytelling.

So, I guess the upshot is that I started with an idea..

Why bring your work to Edinburgh?

The Fringe is like nothing else that I have experienced, as an environment it's so exciting, challenging and rewarding that why wouldn't you want to be a part of it? You should hear me down the pub - EdFringe really should employ me the amount I encourage people to get to Edinburgh in August. And if we can pick up some touring dates as well, so much the better.

What can the audience expect to see and feel - or even think - of your production?
I hope, mostly enjoyment. If audiences leave with a big grin on their face, we're doing something right. I'd also like to think that somewhere down the line it might just encourage one or two of the kids to question something they're told about what boys and girls should and shouldn't be doing.

The Dramaturgy Questions

How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work?
I must confess that I find the concept of dramaturgy a little bit confusing - everyone seems to have a slightly different definition of what it is and what a dramaturg does, and I do think that it occasionally gets bandied about as a term when people are trying to sound impressive, but are not quite sure what they're talking about.

As a piece of new writing set in the present, the context of Damsels is a very modern one, but it is clearly rooted in (and references) the much older traditions of spoken folk tales. In terms of the script itself, a lot of our constraints are those placed on us by the Fringe and it's worth acknowledging these as external and uncontrollable influences. We are based in an installation venue with a permanant set which has to work for all three of our productions and limited exits and entrances and so the script and action has been written and structured with the practical requirements of the location in mind.

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?
The stories we use are based on the Grimm collection, but the script sets out to update, adapt and subvert the traditional stories to make them applicable and give meaning to modern audiences, whilst acknowledging their place within a genre. The brothers Grimm might be turning in their graves.

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?Once written the script is work-shopped with the cast - in Damsels (as with much children's theatre) the performance needs to be high energy and fast-paced and if phrases are hard to say or interchanges don't flow this lets the pace drop and so the script is adapted and rewritten during the rehearsal process.

What do you feel the role of the audience is, in terms of making the meaning of your work?
This is a tough question - audiences obviously play a critical role in creating meaning for any performance and if there is isn't an understanding of the genre, style of performance or the references made in it, the meaning created can be different from the intended one.

In children's theatre, however, the aim is to consciously produce something that is understandable to the age group that it is aimed at and, therefore, contexts and references are reduced to those most likely to be understood and interpreted in the intended way.

5. Are there any questions that you feel I have missed out that would help me to understand how dramaturgy works for you?

I've never thought of younger children's theatre and dramaturgy in this way before as many practices are different to those in adult theatre - themes need to be simplified and the primary emphasis needs to be on entertainment, but it's been a good brain work-out for me - I hope some of my answers are useful

Not Cricket Productions are a young, not-for-profit theatre company who are rapidly gaining a reputation for producing engaging and innovative shows. They aim to provide high quality entertainment with an emphasis on classic texts and tales.

This year will mark the company’s fourth appearance at the Edinburgh Fringe, having previously produced ‘The Reluctant Dragon’, ‘The Wolves of Willoughby Chase’ and ‘The Wind in the Willows’. Not Cricket strive to encourage participation in theatre and engagement with literature, particularly amongst the young and are running outreach opportunities alongside this production.

‘Damsels in Success’ forms part of a programme of three shows that Not Cricket Productions are performing in the same installation venue. ‘The Secret Garden’, a faithful adaptation of the well known book and ‘Waking Beauty’, a non-traditional fairytale for older audiences complete the set.

Monday, 13 July 2015

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....

Subscribe to: Posts ( Atom )