Right so we've been off the radar for a short while, but things have been slowly ticking over. I've spoken to a lot of people and been absorbing as much advice and as many ideas as possible. We've had really positive responses from a variety of theatre practioners around Sheffield, and I'm looking forward to meeting several of them with a view to setting up some externally-led workshops in the new year.
But, to return to the main point of this post, I just wanted to quickly (and rather lastminutedly) let you all know that we are doing a 'preview' workshop today at 3pm, just to test out Collaboratory 2 (our swanky new rehearsal space). This will just be an initial session with a limited number of people to test out the space, to try out some of the games and techniques we'll be using, and to plan for the series of workshops we'll be running between now and Xmas. Don't panic if you want to be involved and can't make it today or have found out about it too late, it is more for the benefit of planning (and for Kieron's TV spot) than anything else.
Once the workshops start up for real, they will probably run weekly, taking place every Wednesday, and we're hoping to supplement these meetings in the IC with one or two workshops out in the residences. If you'd like to take part today, please come along to the Information Commons Café - meet us at the back (on or near the sofas) at 14:45, to head up to the space for 3pm.
Wednesday 28 November 2007
Sunday 18 November 2007
Coffee & (CC)TV
Today I had an informal meeting in The Interval with the previously mentioned Kieron Bryan. I've made an mp3 recording that I'm planning on editing down and posting up as soon as I've handed in the essay I'm currently working on, but will briefly go through some of the things we talked about (before getting back to the mountainous pile of books and depressingly slow-rising word-count in front of me).
Kieron is making a short, news-style TV piece as part of his broadcast journalism MA, and would like to do a feature on theatre two point oh #, focussing on our first workshop. This is something I'll have to devote more time to in a later post, but we're planning on holding the first of a series of workshops from next weekend. First of all though, we have to wait for confirmation from specific venues, and I can't really organise any of the other elements until my piece of assessed work has decided to finish itself and be handed in; we will be giving at least 48 hours notice though, and it won't matter if those wishing to be involved can't make it along to the first public workshop - there will be plenty more!
Back to our conversation; we talked more about the production, the workshops, the selection method, and a lot of stuff I haven't yet gone into on here (yet!) and agreed that it would be great for Kieron to continue documenting the process as it progresses to its culmination, producing a short documentary at the end to be released on Al Gore's Current TV.
We talked about some of the concepts that might be explored and I suppose it's at this point that I might as well reveal one of the core themes for the initial workshops: surveillance. Given that the whole creative process will be viewable through (selected) video clips, images, and audio recordings, the spread of CCTV and being watched anonymously, could be quite an intriguing idea with which to spark off improvisation and creation.
Anyway, you won't hear from me now until a certain 3,000 words are written, printed out, and safely in the posession of the Dept. of French, but please let us know what you think about the possibilities for the workshops, and watch this space.
Kieron is making a short, news-style TV piece as part of his broadcast journalism MA, and would like to do a feature on theatre two point oh #, focussing on our first workshop. This is something I'll have to devote more time to in a later post, but we're planning on holding the first of a series of workshops from next weekend. First of all though, we have to wait for confirmation from specific venues, and I can't really organise any of the other elements until my piece of assessed work has decided to finish itself and be handed in; we will be giving at least 48 hours notice though, and it won't matter if those wishing to be involved can't make it along to the first public workshop - there will be plenty more!
Back to our conversation; we talked more about the production, the workshops, the selection method, and a lot of stuff I haven't yet gone into on here (yet!) and agreed that it would be great for Kieron to continue documenting the process as it progresses to its culmination, producing a short documentary at the end to be released on Al Gore's Current TV.
We talked about some of the concepts that might be explored and I suppose it's at this point that I might as well reveal one of the core themes for the initial workshops: surveillance. Given that the whole creative process will be viewable through (selected) video clips, images, and audio recordings, the spread of CCTV and being watched anonymously, could be quite an intriguing idea with which to spark off improvisation and creation.
Anyway, you won't hear from me now until a certain 3,000 words are written, printed out, and safely in the posession of the Dept. of French, but please let us know what you think about the possibilities for the workshops, and watch this space.
Friday 16 November 2007
Thursday 15 November 2007
Coming Together
The last couple of days have seen a few developments, and some very promising links are starting to emerge. First of all, I've been contacted by Kieron Bryan, who's currently doing an MA in Broadcast Journalism; he's going to be producing a 2 minute TV spot, featuring some of the initial meetings and workshops, and an outline of the project and who's involved. He's also expressed an interest in continuing to document the process, so I'm definitely looking forward to chatting with him and upping the ante regarding documenting what we're doing.
I also had a meeting today with both Laura and Mark Morely , currently part of the core team for the aforementioned CILASS. It felt like a really positive meeting, and it was really good to see such an initially positive response from the group. This is not to say that they can necessarily help us out to the fullest extent (there are a lot of complicated issues that come into play, won't bore you with them here), but it seems like there's a real will to see what they can do, and so we'll have to see what comes of this. At any rate, it was good to hear more positive feedback and more ideas - such as to start recording even these early meetings as mp3s or even on video.
I then moved on with Laura to meet with Jamie Wood, another member of the team, as I'm going to apply to become a member of the Student Ambassador Network for my Department. We also had a little time to discuss ttpo# and it was really good to hear Laura able to condense my waffled cluster of ideas down into a meaningful series of concise statements...
A little screen has popped up on this PC telling me I've only got 5 more mins, so I better leave it there, but I will leave you with this:
"Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand." Courtesy of thirteen.org
I also had a meeting today with both Laura and Mark Morely , currently part of the core team for the aforementioned CILASS. It felt like a really positive meeting, and it was really good to see such an initially positive response from the group. This is not to say that they can necessarily help us out to the fullest extent (there are a lot of complicated issues that come into play, won't bore you with them here), but it seems like there's a real will to see what they can do, and so we'll have to see what comes of this. At any rate, it was good to hear more positive feedback and more ideas - such as to start recording even these early meetings as mp3s or even on video.
I then moved on with Laura to meet with Jamie Wood, another member of the team, as I'm going to apply to become a member of the Student Ambassador Network for my Department. We also had a little time to discuss ttpo# and it was really good to hear Laura able to condense my waffled cluster of ideas down into a meaningful series of concise statements...
A little screen has popped up on this PC telling me I've only got 5 more mins, so I better leave it there, but I will leave you with this:
"Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand." Courtesy of thirteen.org
Monday 12 November 2007
The ball starts rolling...
"A collective is not the negation of the individuals of which it's composed. It would be dangerous to think that a collective can exist without eyes, without mouths, without hands." - Ariane Mnouchkine (interview, Théâtre/Public)
I've had a really productive day so far - had a really good meeting with Scott and Reuben at the Drama Studio, and a nice, relaxed, informal meeting with Laura Jenkins who is currently Stage Manager for The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus and (more importantly concerning t2.0#) Student Coordinator for CILASS. I also made real inroads into a piece of work due in for next Monday on, quelle surprise, collective creation and the Théâtre du Soleil, which was a bit of a two birds, one stone choice of essay, taking into account the fact that the work of this company is one of the major influences for this project (thanks to Danielle for nudging me into make this clear!).
Anyway, for those of you who don't know, the Drama Studio is managed by the aforementioned Scott and Reuben, who generally let companies get up to whatever the hell they want on stage and in rehearsals (as long as it's legal and safe).
The meeting felt pretty good as there were very few 'no's and a lot of good ideas/feedback coming from both of them. Given that they see things from a very different angle from your usual theatre-types, and, particularly in Reuben's case, with the advantage of a great deal of experience behind them, they are essential both in terms of their knowledge of the workings of the theatre and in finding the holes in what you're suggesting; they are able to point out potential problems that would otherwise have escaped under the radar, then suggest work-arounds that again would never have occurred to you in a million years.
This meeting was swiftly followed by a quick panini at Lunch Stop (pancetta and braised pear on wholemeal, possibly the most middle-class toastie this side of Islington), then off to the I.C. for an informal chat with Laura.
One of the aims of this project (and there are, unapologetically, a fair few) is educational in nature: encouraging interdisciplinary knowledge transfer (e.g. between students taking theatre modules with the School of English, and those such as myself taking the final-year theatre module within the Department of French), and using the rehearsal process to put into practice ideas from a variety of different academic disciplines.
This, to me, fits in rather well with the process of Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL), for which the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL - acronyms galore in this post!) just happens to be at the University of Sheffield. The thought occurred to me a while ago: why not approach CILASS (the Centre for IbL in the Arts and Social Sciences for those who aren't sick of initialisms) regarding use of facilities and/or funding? I made initial contact with them a little before the proposals, and mentioned a little about this in our official proposal document (read it here - excuse the fact that it was written in the early hours the morning last Thursday) - this then caught Laura's eye and she very kindly got in contact to let me know a little more of what to expect.
Further to our chat today it looks like we'll have a proper meeting with the dudes from CILASS, and I hope we'll be able to make use of some of the facilities available.We may also look at applying for funding, but it doesn't initially look like this project falls into any of the usual categories. Coincidentally though, immediately after chatting to Laura I bumped into a friend who works at the Alumni Foundation, from whom we might be applying for a seperate grant, but we'll have to see as it looks like the deadline for applications was Friday. Typical!
Anyway, I'd better get back to my essay as I find it always helps when you finish reading the actual primary text...
Saturday 10 November 2007
Success.
Ok, so here starts theatre two point oh. We've now been officially selected to take a slot at the University of Sheffield Drama Studio, although we're still not sure exactly when (but probably either the week 8 slot (Wed 23rd to Sat 26th April 2008) or, as I'm starting to think more likely, the slot for week 10 (Wed 7th to Sat 10th May 2008). Of course I could be completely wrong and they'll have chosen to give us the beginning of February, but that would just be a tiny bit sadistic.
So who is "they"? Well, this project is a development within Sheffield University Theatre Company, aka suTCo. We aim to be a collective within the wider company, but in a way that'll include as many people as possible from both inside and outside. This is a big part of what we aim to do with this project, to involve the audience, the people who will come to see this production, from right now.
This means that you, the potential audience (because even if you can't make the final performance, you'll be able to watch it on t'internet when it's all completed), will be able to see what we're getting up to in rehearsals, and both comment on what we're doing, and tell us what we should be doing. You can give us new ideas, and comment on our what we're doing already, all through the medium of this wonderful thing we like to call the web.
These are the first of hopefully many, many posts, and as soon as we have added new people to the collective you'll be hearing from more people than just "us" (in truth there is currently just me, Tom Szekeres, at present).
Right well anyway, I'm going to finish my first proper text-based post with a little quote, that gives you some hint of where the inspiration for all of this comes from...
"The director has already achieved the greatest degree of power he has ever had in history. And our aim is to move beyond that situation by creating a form of theatre where it will be possible for everyone to collaborate without there being directors, technicians, and so on, in the old sense." - Ariane Mnouchkine, June 1991
Sound.
So who is "they"? Well, this project is a development within Sheffield University Theatre Company, aka suTCo. We aim to be a collective within the wider company, but in a way that'll include as many people as possible from both inside and outside. This is a big part of what we aim to do with this project, to involve the audience, the people who will come to see this production, from right now.
This means that you, the potential audience (because even if you can't make the final performance, you'll be able to watch it on t'internet when it's all completed), will be able to see what we're getting up to in rehearsals, and both comment on what we're doing, and tell us what we should be doing. You can give us new ideas, and comment on our what we're doing already, all through the medium of this wonderful thing we like to call the web.
These are the first of hopefully many, many posts, and as soon as we have added new people to the collective you'll be hearing from more people than just "us" (in truth there is currently just me, Tom Szekeres, at present).
Right well anyway, I'm going to finish my first proper text-based post with a little quote, that gives you some hint of where the inspiration for all of this comes from...
"The director has already achieved the greatest degree of power he has ever had in history. And our aim is to move beyond that situation by creating a form of theatre where it will be possible for everyone to collaborate without there being directors, technicians, and so on, in the old sense." - Ariane Mnouchkine, June 1991
Sound.
Wednesday 7 November 2007
Our suTCo proposal
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