Citizen Dramaturgy: Mark Down @ Edfringe 2015

Citizen Puppet, written and directed by Artistic Director Mark Down, is the new production from Blind Summit, the makers of sell-out show and multi-award winning The Table (EdFringe 2011 & 13).


Award winning puppetry innovators, Blind Summit, present the world premiere of Citizen Puppet, a verbatim ‘true crime’ puppet docu-drama that tells the real story of Jack and The Beanstalk, at the Pleasance Courtyard (venue 33) from 5 - 30 August (not 17) as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2015,


What inspired this production: did you begin with an idea or a script or an object?
WE DECIDED TO DO A TRADITIONAL EPIC BUNRAKU PLAY. THAT TOTALLY DIDN’T WORK BUT WE LIKED THE PUPPETS WITH MOVING MOUTHS, THE SCENERY AND THE "INVISIBLE" PUPETEERS. IT MORPHED OVER A TWO YEAR PERIOD OF R+D INTO THIS! A SORT OF VERBATIM-MURDER-MYSTERY-DISASTER-PUPPET-DOCUDRAMA VERSION OF JACK AND THE BEANSTALK.


What can the audience expect to see and feel - or even think - of your production?
A SORT OF VERBATIM TRUE CRIME MURDER MYSTERY PUPPET DOCUDRAMA…

PUPPET CHARACTERS FROM THE VILLAGE OF MASSIVEVILLE RELIVE THE EVENTS FOLLOWING THE CRASHING DOWN OF THE GIANT BEANSTALK: THE DEATH OF THE GIANT, THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE BOY BILLIONAIRE “JACK" AND THE FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS THAT IT HAD FOR ALL OF THEM. THE SHOW LAYS OUT THE EVENTS OF THE DAY OF THE CRASH.

I HOPE THEY WILL BE AMUSED AND MOVED BY THE CHARACTER’S STORIES.

THEY SHOULD THINK ABOUT THE POWER AND THE CURSE OF LANGUAGE AND THE STORIES/ FAIRYTALES WE DELUDE OURSELVES WITH. THAT WE ARE “GOOD”. THAT WE DESERVE WHAT WE HAVE. THAT MONEY EXISTS.




The Dramaturgy Questions

How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work?
ALL OF OUR WORK BEGINS WITH THE PUPPETS AND ASKS WHAT IS UNIQUE ABOUT THEM. IT IS A KIND OF PRACTICAL INQUIRY INTO THE DRAMATURGY OF PUPPETS. OUR DRAMATURGICAL PROCESS INVOLVES ASKING THE QUESTION - WHAT CAN TELLING A STORY WITH PUPPETS REVEAL THAT DOING IT WITHOUT PUPPETS WOULD NOT?

SOMETIMES - AS IN THIS CASE - WE START FROM THE OTHER END - WHAT WILL MAKE THESE PUPPETS WORK? IT COMES TO THE SAME THING IN THE END - SOONER OR LATER IN REHEARSALS WE ARE ASKING WHY ARE WE USING PUPPETS?

PUPPETS ARE BY NATURE DEMONSTRATIVE AND THEREFORE CONTRADICTORY. THEY ARE LIKE A PRISM OR A LENS - THEY FLIP THE WORLD ON ITS HEAD. WE SPEND A LOT OF TIME WORKING OUT HOW TO TELL A STORY FROM THEIR POINT OF VIEW - WHCIH IS A BIT LIKE PERFORMING UPSIDE DOWN! ONE OF THE THINGS WE HAVE NOTICED IN THIS PROJECT IS THAT THEY CAN RESTORE TRUTH TO CLICHES. THEY MAKE CHARICATURES INTO CHARACTERS. AT LEAST I HOPE SO - WE HAVEN’T SHOWN IT TO AN AUDIENCE YET!

PUPPETRY IS SOMETIMES A KIND OF INVESTIGATION INTO FORM - IN THIS CASE VERBATIM THEATRE.



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?
WE HAVE BEEN VERY INSPIRED BY JAPANESE BUNRAKU AND ESPECIALLY THE WAY IT HAS BEEN UPDATED AND USED BY PHILIPPE GENTY. I SAW HIS PRODUCTION “DERIVES” IN EDINBURGH FESTIVAL 25 YEARS AGO AND I HAVE NEVER FORGOTTEN IT. MOST OF OUR OTHER INSPIRATIONS ARE PEOPLE WHO REBEL - WOOSTER GROUP, SEX PISTOLS… IT’S HARDER TO SEE THEIR DIRECT INFLUENCE.


MAKING THIS SHOW WE HAVE WATCHED BLACK WATCH A LOT FOR INSPIRATION ABOUT HOW VERBATIM THEATRE WORKS. AND I AM ALSO INSPIRED BY MY MEMORY OF SEEING THE GRASSMARKET PROJECTS MANY YEARS AGO.


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?
WE BEGIN WITH A LONG PERIOD OF R+D WHICH WE DO SOMETIMES ON THE ROAD WITH ANOTHER SHOW. DURING THIS PERIOD WE MAKE PUPPETS AND EXPERIMENT WITH COSTUMES AND SETS. BUILD THINGS OUT OF CARDBOARD AND TRY TO DISCOVER A "PUPPETRY CONCEIT”. 

THAT IS A REASON TO TELL THE STORY WE WANT TO TELL WITH PUPPETS. THIS MAY BE A FEW DAYS A MONTH OVER A COUPLE OF YEARS. WE ALSO TRY SOME BITS OUT WITH AUDIENCES AND FIND OUT WHAT THEY THINK. WE GET SOME PEOPLE TOGETHER IN A ROOM AND WE IMPROVISE. WE TRY TO REPEAT THE IMPROVISATIONS. WE AGONISE AND ARGUE OVER WHAT THE PLOT COULD BE. WE TRY AND RUN VERSIONS AND SEE HOW IT FEELS TO BE IN THE AUDIENCE. WE MAKE SOME MORE PUPPETS. THEN WE CHANGE OUR MINDS AND DO THAT ALL OVER AGAIN. WE MAKE LOTS AND LOTS OF THINGS AND THEN WE REMAKE THEM AND MOVE FORWARD IN SMALL INCREMENTS. 

IT’S VERY SLOW AND QUITE PEDANTIC. A LOT OF TRIAL AND ERROR. A LOT OF BLIND ALLEYS. ALL THE TIME WE ARE LOOKING FOR WHEN THE PUPPETS SEEM TO BE MOST ALIVE AND FOR THINGS THAT MAKE PUPPETRY TRULY NECESSARY. SCENES THAT WOULD NOT BE AS GOOD WITH JUST “PEOPLE". AND THINGS THAT MAKE US LAUGH. WE HOPE TO HAVE A SCRIPT OF SOME SORT BY THE TIME WE FINISH, BUT WE WILL GO ON CHANGING AND IMPROVING IT LONG AFTER WE OPEN THE SHOW, ALWAYS LEARNING FROM AUDIENCES. OUR WORK IS BASED ON IMPROVISATION AND WE TRY TO LEAVE AN ELEMENT OF THAT IN THE SHOW SO THAT THE PERFORMERS CAN RESPOND TO AUDIENCE REACTIONS IN THE SHOW.


What do you feel the role of the audience is, in terms of making the meaning of your work?
THE AUDIENCE IS EVERYTHING. OUR MISSION AS A COMPANY IS TO MAKE POPULAR PUPPETRY THAT SUBVERTS PEOPLE’S EXPECTATIONS OF PUPPETRY. AUDIENCES ARE CRUCIAL TO HELP US DO THAT. AND EDINBURGH AUDIENCES ARE THE MOST SUBVERSIVE AUDIENCES OF ALL.

I SEE MY ROLE AS DIRECTOR AS A STAND IN FOR THE AUDIENCE. MY JOB IS NOT TO BE FOOLED BY THE SHOW WE ARE MAKING AND TO TRY AND SEE IT LIKE AUDIENCES WILL SEE IT. BUT WE ARE NEVER SURE BECAUSE PART OF WHAT I AM ALWAYS LOOKING FOR IS SOMETHING I HAVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE. 


ALWAYS WHEN WE ARE WORKING I ASK THE PERFORMERS - DO YOU WANT THAT IN THE SHOW? DO YOU WANT TO DO THAT IN FRONT OF AN AUDIENCE? IT’S PRETTY TOUGH QUESTION BUT I HAVE GOT ON STAGE MANY TIMES, OFTEN HOLDING A PUPPET, AND REALISED AT THAT MOMENT - I WISH I HAD SOMETHING ELSE TO DO!

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

I LOVE TO TALK ABOUT DRAMATURGY BUT IT’S HARDER TO WRITE ABOUT! THESE ARE GREAT QUESTIONS. 

ONE THOUGHT FROM TODAY IN REHEARSALS THINKING ABOUT VERBATIM. WE REALISED THAT IN VERBATIM THEATRE ONE OF THE PLEASURES IS THAT BOTH THE TELLER AND THE INTERVIEWER KNOW THE ENDING OF THE STORY WHEN THEY ARE TELLING IT. THIS MEANS THAT IT IS IMPLICITLY ABOUT THE JOURNEY AND NOT THE DESTINATION. AND THAT IS WHAT I LOVE ABOUT IT!
Show Name: Blind Summit present Citizen Puppet
Synposis: Once upon a time in a far off imaginary place... a giant fell out of the sky. 'There were roofs down, windows blown in,' says Puppet Granny, Tina Henderson. 'It wasnae funny.' Blind Summit, the makers of Fringe First Award-winning show The Table, return to Edinburgh with a puppet-docudrama which tells the true story of Jack and the Beanstalk. They look behind the scenes and uncover a dark tale of gambling, greed, theft and murder. Written and directed by Marc Down.

Venue: Pleasance Beyond (Pleasance Courtyard) - Venue 33 – 60 Pleasance EH8 9TJ

Dates: 5 - 30 August 2015 (no show 17 August)

Time: 17:00 – 18:00 (60 mins)

Ticket Prices:

Previews – 5, 6 & 7 August - £6

17, 18, 24, 25, 31 August - £9 / £8 Concession

10, 11, A12, 13, 19, 20, 26, A27 August - £10 / £9 Concession

8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 30 August - £11 / £10 Concession

Box Office: Pleasance – T: 0131 556 6550

Scripting Dramaturgy: Paul Lucas @ Edfringe 2015

What inspired this production: did you begin with an idea or a script or an object?
Transgender rights is the human rights issue of our generation in Western culture. I began my research four years ago because I sensed that this was an issue that deserved deep exploration.

Although my research and writing is ongoing, I sensed that this might be the year to do this piece. Since making that decision, I have come to know that it is.

The material gathered during my interviews is what inspired the script.

Why bring your work to Edinburgh?
Edinburgh is the largest and most important performing arts event in the world. Promoters and producers from all over the world come to find new, exciting and relevant work. I have been extremely fortunate in the past with my productions and promoters have come to expect new and challenging work from me.

Trans Scripts is an honest look into the real lives of trans people.

What can the audience expect to see and feel - or even think - of your production?
They can expect to be entertained, informed, surprised, amused, touched and ultimately feel connected to the transgender experience.



The Dramaturgy Questions

How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work?
Intelligent, inventive, supportive, creative and unifying dramaturgy is a huge part of what made this piece possible. My extraordinary dramaturg, Morgan Jenness, who just received a Doris Duke Impact Award for Dramaturgy was able to suggest a basic thematic structure on which to hang excerpts from the hundreds of hundreds of interviews I conducted. After I selected my major characters and the stories on which I wanted to focus, we came together again for intense meetings and work sessions that centred on structure, narrative arcs, balance, tone, etc.

Throughout the rehearsal and editing process, Morgan continued to check in and help me further shape and structure the material. It has been an extraordinary collaboration.

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?
Certainly plays like The Exonerated, The Laramie Project and The Vagina Monologues, as well as What I Heard About Iraq, which I co-produced in 2006, have influenced Trans Scripts. Eve Ensler, who wrote The Vagina Monologues, is also an activist, or artivist, combining her art with both a political message and a mission of change. Her work, onstage and off, continues to inspire me.

In terms of structural influences, I followed Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, but following several characters instead of just one hero.

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?
With this piece, I began by listening. I could have done a lot of research into academic writing on the subject of gender identity, but I chose not to. Rather, I spoke to many, many people (over 75 and counting in six countries) and I just let them tell me their stories.

I feel a tremendous responsibility to my interview subjects to honor them and their stories. They were so open and honest with me and I want to honour their trust.


I began to sew the stories together, trying to include as wide a variety as possible, and then I realized that it was impossible to capture all of the wonderful stories, so I cut the piece back and focused on six transgender women. I hope to focus on the transgender men in a sequel.

What do you feel the role of the audience is, in terms of making the meaning of your work?
People will come to my show with very different levels of experience with transgender people. I have to assume that they are at least open-minded and curious enough to want to buy a ticket, but they may come with a blank slate.

I therefore need to make certain that I am not speaking at too high a level that I lose them, but I don’t want to spoon feed them either. There will also be people who will criticize me because I am not including specific transgender voices in this piece. But there is only so much that can be included in one play. I could write six very different plays about different subsets of the trans community.

Are there any questions that you feel I have missed out that would help me to understand how dramaturgy works for you?
I feel as though imposing a structure on the material better enabled me to decide what to keep and what not to keep, ad where to put the things that I decided were important enough to make it into the play.

Trans Scripts is a verbatim play that centres on the lives of six trans women. Their true stories, told in their own words, are honest, funny, moving, insightful and inspiring. But most of all, they are human, shedding light not on our differences, but on what all people share, regardless of gender identity, sexual orientation or physical sex.

In the past several years, transgender visibility around the world has exploded.  Actresses like Laverne Cox (Orange Is The New Black), models like Andreja Pejic, celebrities like Chaz Bono, directors like Lana Wachowski (The Matrix), and Olympians like Bruce Jenner are entering the public consciousness, popping up in film, on television and even mainstream comic books.

But what does the average person actually know about the true, lived experience of transgender women? Not the life of someone in the public eye, but the day-to-day reality of being trans in Western culture. As transgender actress and activist, Laverne Cox, said in her interview for the cover of Time Magazine last year:

A lot of it is just about listening to transgender people and taking the lead from trans folk… I don’t represent the entirety of the trans community. There’s multiple experiences and multiple relationships to one’s identity, and so it’s really about listening to individuals in terms of how they define themselves and describe themselves and taking people at their word – being willing to let go of what preconceptions we may might have about people who are different form us and taking people on their own terms.

Two time Fringe First-winner Linda Ames Key directs a powerhouse cast of transgender and cisgender* actors from three continents, including transgender icon, actress and activist Calpernia Addams; Broadway veteran, Starla Benford; highly-respected Australian actress and festival director, Catherine Fitzgerald; actress and celebrity stylist Jay Knowles; New York performing legend, Bianca Leigh; star of the forthcoming BBC Two comedy Boy Meets Girl, Rebecca Root; and original cast member of the Fringe First Award-winning What I Heard About Iraq, Gail Winar.

Author Paul Lucas is best known in Edinburgh as the award-winning producer of What I Heard About Iraq (Fringe First Award), The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac (Herald Angel Award), Woody Sez (Helen Hayes Awards), and Dai (Lucille Lortel Award). Trans Scripts is the culmination of four years of research, travelling around the world to interview over 75 people who identify as transgender, and weaving their stories into a work of documentary theatre. Trans Scripts, Part II, The Men, focussing on the trans male experience, is planned for 2016.

Trans Scripts will be performed daily @ 15.00 (90 minutes) from 5 – 31 August (not 18) in the Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh. Ticket prices: Previews (5 & 6 Aug) all tickets £6; Early Week £7.50/(£6.5 concs), Mid Week, £9/(£8 concs); Weekends £10/£9 (concs).

* A person who identifies as the gender/sex they were assigned at birth.

My Name Is.. @The Tron

My Name Is by Gareth K Vile on Mixcloud

Max Stafford Clark recently said that the verbatim play is the most important development in theatre over the past few decades: suggesting that performance can learn a great deal from newspapers, he points to theatre's speedy response and public engagement as great ways for issues to become part of a broader debate.

It is worth mentioning that the verbatim play has no greater claim to 'truth' than any other play. Although it is based on the words of the participants (in the case of My Name Is..., the family involved in the 'tug-of-love' over a teenage girl), the very fact of its being transformed into a performance undermines its 'essential' truth. The format of theatre, the polishing by writer, actor and directors, the demands of production: all of these shift the meaning away from a faithful reproduction of 'what happened' to a more digestible, suitable for the stage.

This doesn't impact on a show's value, but does demand a particular sensitivity. In the case of My Name Is..., it means remembering that the family on stage are not identical to the family behind the story, and behind the headlines.

That family were the source that launched a thousand tabloid pontifications. When a young Scottish woman left her mother to live with her father in Pakistan, the newspaper managed to simplify this personal drama into different shades of misrepresentation. At first, dad was an Islamic fundamentalist who had nabbed her daughter. Then mum was a nut-job. George Galloway got involved (I am willing to take the complaints about his opportunism by the mother in the play at face value, because Gorgeous George is someone I do not respect anyway).

Sudha Bhuchar spent over five years talking to the family members, and the time and respect spent is evident. Each of the three are given the chance to explain their version, and the conflict between Islam and the West (made into a tedious clash of cultures by the press) takes on a more personal detail. The grand idealism of religious belief - and the idealism of young love - are given respect, but ultimately exposed as unrealistic. All of the characters retain dignity: while the daughter is innocent and naive, the parents attempt to pay respect to each other and their own integrity.

Bhuchar's concern is to see how the personal shaped the political, how the headlines hide a more sophisticated (and irresolvable) tapestry of life and faith. The mother tries to be a good Muslim, the father is more worried about how he appears than his wife's welfare and the pressures of racial abuse (from within and without the Islamic community) erode their efforts to grow together and raise their children.

My Name Is... has no answers, but sketches the territory with economical yet precise strokes. It lives up to Stafford Clark's maxim that verbatim theatre can learn from the newspapers, and present a topic for public debate. It goes beyond this, with a warm, humanistic compassion for the characters, and refusing to forget the intimate detail, even as it draws back to reveal the broader complexities. By giving all of the family members enough of a voice to either hang or save themselves, there is a balance of opinion, leaving plenty of space for discussion.

جاؤ اور اسے دیکھنے کے