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STORM OPEN SPACE REPORT

The Storm Open Space Day, This is All Very Well, But What Next?, resulted in a report with some 30 issues raised, discussed and finally recorded in written format in 60 pages full of ideas, desires and possibilities in the aftermaths of the storm. Here are two of those issues (raised by me):

WHY DIVIDE BETWEEN TEXT-BASED / PHYSICAL THEATRE?
[ Emanuel de Sousa / Inogen Kischin / Colleen Campbel / Mariana Gomes / Naomi O’Kelly / Milton Lopes / Ghislaine Granger / Told By An Idiot / Framptic Assembly ]

ON LABELS
Labels are enforced on people. Labels are complete illusions! That's the problem! You have always to be in some box.
Labels stuck to companies but perhaps not in a good, because not all 'physical theatre' companies are the same or work in the same way.
Has 'physical theatre' become a default title for something that is not traditional theatre? Is physical theatre more 'open'? It (actually) seems to leave more space for you (the audience) to work it out. Maybe we just have to acknowledge the differences (Physical theatre companies didn't want to be dance but wanted to be also theatre). Labels!
Critics use these terms to describe and locate the work and outside of London these distinctions are still more pronounced. It is a vicious circle, even in founding (bureaucracy and market).
We should not get bothered by the division, not care about labels, not work on the division, push forward the division and its inherent limits and put the message out.
'This is not who I am!' should be always your statement on labels, always explore every project in every possible way. On the other hand, in your nature, you always end up labeling yourself but you can use it in you’re advantage and not as a limitation to you own work.

ON PAVING YOUR OWN PATH
A new company or an integrator?
Everybody starts doing things for free!
What we are looking is for a space where true integration can happen, where different levels of skill can mix, where different stimulations come together through a wide range of inputs. Everything is a tool!
It is rather difficult to pave your own way, because it involves a whole range of skills and different people doing different things in the structure and build a network where we become able to state our own way of doing/integrating things.
It is definitely a long run! We need a lot of courage to say that you can integrate different strands of text-based and/or physical theatre and improve the work of/in established companies. And a lot more to create a new company to work as a platform where you can create from scratch: a tabula rasa.
It starts with you, with your own curiosity, you just have to experiment and have fun while doing it! And be reassured when you do not know how to define your own work. Be responsible for continuing experimenting and be the next generation that refuses labels. It Is always about pushing the boundaries, your own limits and the limitations of others beyond.
(the work) Is always what you (the audience) want it to be! You (as a theatre maker) should always continue to learn about the 'other' strand / people / side of the coin. Explore! Explore new areas, it always releases something! (It just seems that one strand is always suspicious about the other).


ON WRITING AND PHYSICALITY
It is a constant difficulty to find a space where writing and physical creation can happen simultaneously, sometimes, the writing does not have to be about words, sometimes is all about supporting the structure of the show beyond the words.
We are always concerned about doing new stuff, and sometimes we just have to have fun with the things that are already there. Maybe we should go back to the basics, Greece and the theatre (the 'chorus' led to choreography, dance evolved from the chorus). All is theatre! So why the division? Is it fashion! What is What?
Different genres are necessary for audiences and even for founding. Many companies don't want to be in the box where they are put in. So how can we
challenge this then? (Go home and think about it, do a storm, but when you start doing it, never stop the flow!)

GOOD LUCK! ENJOY THE RIDE!
*
WHAT IS NEEDED TO SET UP AN ENSEMBLE?

EPISODE 1
I was late…
Nobody is here!
But you know what? Two people are dancing in front of me and I see and hear people discussing next to me and there are people wondering around and chatting with each other (maybe they are gossiping…).
Maybe that's all there is to it.
You just have to meet people and start doing things together.
It seems a lot like the dance I watch now. People get closer, first with fear, and then they touch, enter one another's space and without knowing, they have created something. Yes! Maybe it is just that! It is not about talking things through, or establishing the mechanics of it. Like the dancers moving, it is about chemistry, about feeling the other, touching the soul and interacting. They are already an ensemble without a predefined structure, agreed organization.
Maybe it is exactly that: inter + action.
It just seems a lot like that (I wish you were seeing what I am seeing now).
It is like STORM!
Therefore, I am going to 'storm' somewhere else.
And off I go from this Fair Isle!


EPISODE 2:
And then someone appeared (back again to Fair Isle): Naomi, and then Damian (who was dancing) and then Nesreen (who was photographing everyone)!
So how do we find people to work with? Is that the question?
Speed-dating?!
Well… (that could be an option) I think Whitechapel has something like that, where two artists meet one night and then probably those two artists collaborate in some project in the following months, maybe this could be the starting of and ensemble)
You just have to always be in every event, go to bad plays and good plays, meet your peers all the time, engage with them and other people beyond your own ground, because part of it (of keeping an ensemble alive) is about fresh blood, about always being artistically challenging! Being exciting! On another note, they become your 'professional family' (but maybe is also beyond that)
Maybe the solution (because finding your creative soul-mates could be actually a rather impossible task) is about making work (just try it!) with people you think you might work well. It doesn't have to be a success or a disappointment? And then have the freedom to work outside of your company (of your ensemble)?
Maybe ensembles are about individual creatives just working together and intoxicating others with new ideas and other perspectives.
One or two operative (or pro-actives) ways of achieving this: the Royal Haymarket Theatre Masterclass Programme, the Actor's Centre and the Artsjobs.org.uk.
Just meet People and you will easily find the ones you are looking for.

EPISODE 3:
And they lived happily ever after?
(coming soon)

1 Responses to “STORM OPEN SPACE REPORT”

  1. # Blogger mariazinha

    Inspiradores e além de tudo grandes verdades!  

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Emanuel de Sousa, arq