The Fragility of Dramaturgy: Kevin Finnan @ Surge 2015

Fragile by Motionhouse

Interview with Artistic Director Kevin Finnan

World Premiere at Surge Festival:

Saturday 25th July, 14.00 & 16.30, Candleriggs Square

Sunday 26th July, 14.00 & 16.30, Candleriggs Square

Fragile sees professional and emerging performers and JCB diggers working together in a breath-taking demonstration of strength and agility. Dancers and construction machinery interact in a poignant celebration of the relationship between movement and emotion. 

The world premiere of Fragile by Motionhouse is co-commissioned by Conflux, Merchant City Festival and Gulbenkian, University of Kent, with support support from Creative Scotland, Glasgow City Council, Arts Council England and sponsored by Scot JCB and AB 2000.

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

I began with an idea and objects. I knew I wanted to do a show about city life and the speed of city life, so I then started with the steel cubes, the JCBs, and the dancers, and I knew that those would be the elements of the performance.

Why bring your work to Surge?

We’re developing a very nice partnership with Surge – they’ve been very supportive of our work in the past. Audiences in Glasgow have been very receptive to what we do, and we feel it’s a really good relationship. We’re building on previous successes going forward, so it’s a great way to work and we as a company find it very rewarding. It was really nice that Merchant City Festival, Surge, and everybody involved were prepared to invest in us to develop a larger work, which is great. 

What can the audience expect to see and feel - or even think - of your production?
The audience can expect to see the different time experiences of being in a city. The way that sometimes the city just moves as a constant stream of luminous motion, while other times it appears to be moving in slow motion. People appear to ricochet off each other, collapse, collide, meet each other – this beautiful dance of urbanisation. The next level of that is the machines that build the city, the buildings that go up, come down, move around, as the city continually rebuilds and evolves itself. We have a movement from chaos to structure, so I think that people will find a very thrilling, emotional, and moving journey of the evolution of cities and humans.




About Dramaturgy



How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work?
The relationship to dramaturgy is very much one of looking at how the nature of what can be a narrative evolves through movement. We’re constantly exploring and developing that. It’s important for me that the audiences feel that there is a followable sense of content and that the show develops its content as it goes along, but we don’t always use a linear or straightforward narrative structure.




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 was educated in the tradition of postmodern dance – a lot of the dance practice coming out of the Judson Church in the United States and release technique. Into that, I’ve absorbed the work of a range of artists who really inspire me. I love the work of theatre director Romeo Castellucci and I’m a huge fan of Robert Lepage, a Canadian director. Movement-wise, there’s a range of people whose work I really admire and like to watch, particularly Wim Vandekeybus and Alain Platel. My major influences physically have been Steve Paxton and contact improvisation, which has always formed the basis, but as we move on we are evolving our own language. What’s very important to us now is that we’re continually developing the relationship between what were traditional dance techniques and what were circus techniques. We’ve absorbed enormous amounts of circus movement into our movement, so we feel that we’re now creating our own, while being aware of and acknowledging everybody around us who we’ve enjoyed being part of this world with.




Do you have a particular process that you could describe - where it begins, how you develop it, and whether there is any collaboration in the process?
I often work with collaboration and my primary collaboration is with my dancers. I evolve movement with them in a process of mutual exploration and then I will compose from what we have all created together. I like to work in a team of practitioners - our designer and I have worked together for 27 year, the composer and I have worked together for 13 years, some of my dancers have been with me 13 years – we’ve really evolved a long-term practice and I’m very interested in developing an ensemble with its own language and its own way forward.




What do you feel the role of the audience is, in terms of making the meaning of your work?
I compose the structure so that it is meaningful, so that the audience has the opportunity to take meaning from it. It’s not a problem if some audience members don’t take exactly the same meaning as others; it’s composed like a painting or a poem to encourage individual interpretation, but I think there is a reasonably clear overarching sense of what the show is about. But I want the work to be spectacular, exciting, and emotional.


Are there any questions that you feel I have missed out that would help me to understand how dramaturgy works for you?
I think that’s a much deeper discussion, because actually we have a very complex relationship with dramaturgy as we go forward. I’d need more time than I have now to go over it.

Dramaturgy on the Streets: Gijs van Bon

ABOUT SURGE FESTIVAL

What inspired this production: did you begin with an idea or a
script or an object?
I began with the difference between thinking something and writing something down. Once written the thought can be let go. The deed is done. The stance has been made. A bit like writing something down in a diary. You write a diary to get rid of something, not because you want to read it again. There is also a analogy with writing the names of the dead. To witness and to acknowledge the thought of their lives.

Why bring your work to Surge?Because there can not be enough poetry written in sand throughout

the world. It is a good thing to focus on silence and thoughts amidst a crowded street and a loud life.

What can the audience expect to see and feel - or even think - of your production?
Contemplation and a connection with the process of creating something and then letting it go. Next to that the autarky of the robot writing introvertly the text before revealing it to the public.

ABOUT DRAMATURGY
How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work?
Skryf writes with sand poetry in public space. For the poetry that is a dangerous thing to do. Public space is hazardous for small piles of precisely stacked sand. So in concept there is the highest goal of laying out a complete poem or text. In reality that is almost not reachable. The public is aware of that and feels for the text.


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?
Throughout the world there are many traditions involving sand and drawing something temporary with it. Skryf does it in its own fashion, as a new time robot, with texts that are most of the time site-specific.

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 process starts with a combination of concept and technological possibility and offcourse, my own interest and longing for creating something new. After that comes a long and hard tie in my workshop making, testing, remaking, retesting etc. I see that as a collaboration between me and the technology and the concept. No one of the three is really in charge. In the end if all three are equally present I am happy.

What do you feel the role of the audience is, in terms of making the meaning of your work?
I need the audience. They are there to "read" the work, understand the concept and also destroy the written texts. Without an audience there would be half a performance left. Although it would be really powerfull to lay out a text in a very remote place no one would know of.

Are there any questions that you feel I have missed out that would help me to understand how dramaturgy works for you?Best to see the machine in action. I myself will not be at Surge Festivall, Benno, the other Skryf operator will be there. Thanks for your interest!

Surging Dramaturgy: Car Men @ Surge 2015

Surge 2015
Friday 31st July, 13.00 & 17.00, Candleriggs Square

Saturday 1st August, 13.00 & 16.00, Candleriggs Square

Sunday 2nd August, 13.00 & 16.00, Candleriggs Square 

Showing up on pedestrian streets to promote their mobile garage, these bumbling mobile mechanics conceal their incompetence by turning to their hobby - opera! Led by a desperate amateur, this unlikely trio live up to their name, performing Carmen in all its greasy glory.


With: Christopher Nairne, Douglas Nairne & Alistair Digges
Music arrangement by Stephen Deazley

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

Alan Richardson: The inspiration behind the production was quite simply coming across 3 trained opera singers, who were not ‘precious' about opera and interested in performing outside. Also bringing opera to the streets, in a much more digestible way for the public at large, who would never entertain the thought of going to an opera house.

Why bring your work to Surge?

As director of Conflux, bringing work to Surge is part of my job. However in terms of the overall remit of Conflux it is important for us to engage with a wide variety of of art forms and see how they can work in the context of the development of street arts, physical theatre and circus. In therms of street arts, live music is often restricted to either brass ensembles or drumming groups, so to experiment with opera is a welcome divergence.

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

The production is designed to be comic and enjoyable. The musical arrangement (Stephen Deazley) and the opera singing itself is of an extremely high standard, so whilst the production does ridicule some of the traditions, performance style and indeed content of opera, it does not do this at the expense of music. All of the tunes are taken directly from Bizet’s Carmen and arranged for three unaccompanied male singers - the lyrics however are somewhat more flippant.


Car Men from Conflux on Vimeo.

About Dramaturgy

How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of

dramaturgy within your work?

The dramaturgy of the work - though this is somewhat a grandiose term for this kind of work - was in fact what shaped the performance as a whole. The structure of the performance was decided and clarified before any of the lyrics were written, or music was arranged. 

The arc of the performance was decided between director, composer and the three performers. Once defined the lyrics were written based on this, then arrangements were then composed and finally this completed score was rehearsed and directed. In outdoor arts, particular in static circle shows, often the dramaturgy is the only definitive structure, as scripts, such as they are for street work, and what happens in specific scenes will change each performance due to audience interaction .

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?

Clowning mostly - based on the teachings of Philippe Gaulier. But also traditions of opera, though mostly taken to enhance the humour rather than being faithful to them.

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?

See Question 1. Collaborative approach is essential for street work of this kind, as the performers need to be extremely comfortable with the material, so that the unexpected that happens on the street can be used to enhance the performance rather than it getting in the way.

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

The audience needs to engage in the work in an active way - this is true of most small scale street work - work that is made for a passive audience, is often inappropriate for street work as it doesn’t take into account where you are, which would negate the reason for being outside in a street in the first place. In the case of Car Men, the direct audience interaction is reasonable small, with a could of audience members taking part in the action for a few minutes - but an active and lively crowd will increase the quality of the experience for the audience as a whole.

Dada Dramaturgy: Jonathan Beedell @ Surge 2015

Slapstick & Slaughter

Wednesday 29th July, 13.00 & 17.30, Candleriggs Square
Thursday 30th July, 13.00 & 17.30, Candleriggs Square

About Surge Festival
What inspired this production: did you begin with an idea or a script or an object?
Jonathan Beedell : DADA dadadadadadadadada.. ! *&^%$£ !! ?

We wanted to do something that connected with WW1 commemorations but definitely not a show about soldiers or the trenches or letters home or war poets etc as we thought those subjects would reach saturation point very quickly. So we wanted to find another take on things, perhaps something about the sheer absurdity and waste of those four terrible years. 

The Dada movement historically certainly seemed to express some of that. It could certainly be argued that Dada is the most positive thing to emerge from the ashes of the conflict.. so we started with that. We read a lot, looked at odd bits of film and images and thought about the dada legacy – how to reflect its contemporary realities, we researched Duchamp and the others - and also looked at the life of Fred Karno – inventor of the custard pie ( allegedly ) – who was a practical joker and entrepreneur who took Chaplin and Stan Laurel to the USA.. The WW1 troops were often referred to as Karno’s Army.. for obvious reasons…

So we began with many ideas and lots of conversations… Then we dived into the studio and went a bit crazy. Months of pent up energy and boredom with the hum drum realities of running a company exploded in improvised lunacy. Lots of concrete poetry, bla di bla, repetitive nonsense, anger, words, stupid movements, dada delving in dirty dancing - and then a few props came to hand, including a big canvas that was knocking around. That became our main prop and backdrop and a symbol of ‘art’…

Art must tear life apart ! Action is the enemy of thought !

So we began with all three at once. A script of sorts emerged and is always changing. A lot of the text is chosen moment by moment. Objects arrive and move on. Ideas never stop.



Why bring your work to Surge?
We want lots of people to see the show. We want more bookings.

We want to enjoy Glasgow. And we want to get a sneak preview of the Ian Smith festival. Of course. We are all Vagabond Kings !

And ‘cos you asked us.

What can the audience expect to see and feel - or even think - of your production?
I hope they are shocked, provoked and amused. And entertained. I hope they laugh. A lot.

They will see two quite old blokes giving out a lot of focused energy and sublime madness, comic timing, idiocy sprinkled copiously with spittingly ranting polemical sloganeering and propaganda of the vilest kind.

And a nice abstract painting, great costumes, and fine facial hair. They might feel angry and confused by some of it, or even upset. But they’ll be happy. Eventually.



About Dramaturgy
How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work?
I think we have an instinctive feel for what works, and that’s about it. We very rarely work with dramaturgs as such, but always have outside eyes feeding in to the process of creating the work - friends, neighbours, stray performers and dogs – the odd professional or two… and they can be very odd some of these people…

Perhaps conventional dramaturgy is not that relevant to the kind of work we do – we deal with emotional, visceral narrative and with audiences who are not trapped by seating or four walls, so the motivations for dramaturgical input are so very different and there don’t seem to be many ‘dramaturgs’ that connect with or understand the street arts context that I know of…. Maybe there’s a gap in the market there…

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?
Dada certainly. The English absurdist tradition. Various eccentric artists – Vivian Stanshall, Max Wall, Ivor Cutler, Ian Smith among others. I think we were pioneers of a new tradition of street theatre, so I feel we are closely allied with all those of us who work primarily outdoors, circus included, though personally I hate red noses…but the street theatre tradition influence on me came from early work by many people, Interaction, Action Space, Welfare State, IOU, Albert Hunt, Roland Miller, Jeff Nuttall, Adrian Henri et al and right back to Joan Littlewood and community theatre – and then from later experiences in Europe with all sorts of others – with processions, street bands, improvisations, dance, fools and clowns and songs - but all about outdoors and taking work to non-theatre audiences.

 I’m inspired by people as diverse as John Berger, Keith Jarrett, Groucho, Marx and Charlie Drake… Audiences and ordinary people outdoors in the street ( public realm to you ) have been the best critics, inspirers and influencers throughout. If it doesn’t work for them and they start to drift away, then you’re not doing it right. Simple really.



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?
It begins when we start.

We develop it through play.

We never collaborate. We just bang heads together.

( Collaboration should not be confused with consensus. Collaboration is a recognition of each other’s strengths and foibles and finding a way to accommodate all points of view or offers without too much dilution of integrity or passion.. )

We do a lot of mulling and a lot of reflecting to begin with. I read voraciously and regurgitate words in random ditties, didacatics and desperations. Then we distil, argue, give in, give up, or occasionally hold dear to the things we love.

What do you feel the role of the audience is, in terms of making the meaning of your work?
They can believe whatever they want to believe, but that doesn’t make it true. They take away some emotional truths I hope - and reflect on what they’ve seen. The meaning has to lurk in their shopping bags and emerge when they get home. We often involve them in the work, but not much in this show. Their reactions to ‘stage actions’ will often determine our timing or length or focus of sections of the performance, and that will affect the meaning. Or not.

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