CPR has invited some of the most exciting and diverse Wales based and international theatre directors to Aberystwyth for an intensive participatory project that offers a rare opportunity for both experienced and emerging directors to gather and share the methods, approaches and skills of professional directing practice via laboratories and presentations, demonstrations and dialogue.
In the exploratory with Ruth Kanner we started by talking. We discussed different ways of representation, how can we represent with words. We looked at this with respect to Ruth and her company’s work. She described her theatre as a storytelling theatre. There was much discussion on how you might start to represent by the words. She described this by saying ‘the event is happening in the words, not by the words’. The important thing is to try to decipher the secret of the words. Ruth told us that for her this happens at three levels; raw materials; semantics; and pragmatics. It is the gap between the meaning of the word and the situation that opens something of interest in how to work in this way. She used the everyday as an example, every word spoken by a real person has an action, and sometimes actors flatten this. Ruth is trying not to flatten. The theatre is a communicative act, and there should be a communication between the actors and audience. We also spoke about metaphors. Here we discussed not illustrating but signifying. What are you signifying and how does this work with text. These conversations where aided a great deal by the company’s actors doing extracts of their work. This allowed those of us who participated to see examples first hand, discuss them and then watch again and recognise different aspects and slight changes. We also did some of the doing ourselves. We started by walking in the space. We then used the text of numbers. We played with how to say these numbers, starting with our phone numbers. We then had to tell others the number of our birthday, while still walking in the space. We continued this by thinking of a particular birthday, and telling someone else something about that birthday by only saying the number. Another exercise we did on the floor still involved or came from walking. We had to think of something that we would like to do to someone else in space. Then we had to go to that person and do it. If they were already with someone we simply had to wait until they were free. After this we returned to conversation and discussion, much of which I have discussed above.
In the exploratory with Ruth Kanner we started by talking. We discussed different ways of representation, how can we represent with words. We looked at this with respect to Ruth and her company’s work. She described her theatre as a storytelling theatre. There was much discussion on how you might start to represent by the words. She described this by saying ‘the event is happening in the words, not by the words’. The important thing is to try to decipher the secret of the words. Ruth told us that for her this happens at three levels; raw materials; semantics; and pragmatics. It is the gap between the meaning of the word and the situation that opens something of interest in how to work in this way. She used the everyday as an example, every word spoken by a real person has an action, and sometimes actors flatten this. Ruth is trying not to flatten. The theatre is a communicative act, and there should be a communication between the actors and audience.
ReplyDeleteWe also spoke about metaphors. Here we discussed not illustrating but signifying. What are you signifying and how does this work with text. These conversations where aided a great deal by the company’s actors doing extracts of their work. This allowed those of us who participated to see examples first hand, discuss them and then watch again and recognise different aspects and slight changes.
We also did some of the doing ourselves. We started by walking in the space. We then used the text of numbers. We played with how to say these numbers, starting with our phone numbers. We then had to tell others the number of our birthday, while still walking in the space. We continued this by thinking of a particular birthday, and telling someone else something about that birthday by only saying the number. Another exercise we did on the floor still involved or came from walking. We had to think of something that we would like to do to someone else in space. Then we had to go to that person and do it. If they were already with someone we simply had to wait until they were free.
After this we returned to conversation and discussion, much of which I have discussed above.