Ragnhild Dale - A Retrospective Bird's Eye View

A Retrospective Bird's Eye View




After ten intensive days of laboratories, exploratories, discussions, talks, blog posts and coffee breaks, the Director's Forum is over and we have all set off in our separate directions, back to our homes or new destinations. An isoteric crystal of experiences has emerged from the forum, where a number of different directors and theatremakers have presented their work through talks, demonstrations, participation and exploration. I feel fairly confident stating that this has marked a shifting point in several people's work and lives. The thin threads tied are so easily forgotten as distance in time and space grows, so what follows is to be a quick review of who presented and worked, as an aid for memory in a time when life moves and images blur.



To clarify a few things before we begin: The structure of the forum was intended to allow for the greatest exchange and multitude of experiences possible, and was a combination of plenaries, laboratories, exploratories and evening presentations. Whilst the exploratories were short, two-hour sessions that gave a small taster of the practitioner's work (or in some cases became attempts at mini-laboratories), the laboratories were five hours sessions for three afternoons, to allow time for work to grow. The instructions to the leaders had been to “do something new”; not to deliver a standard workshop where one learns certain techniques and goes away, but to treat it as a laboratory situation. In other words, a place to test and develop ideas, where the leader could learn just as much as the participants.



The first weekend was dominated by four very different laboratories. Natalie Hennedige (Cake Theatre) threw her participants into an exploration of characters from her theatrical work, experimenting with improvisation and group work. Ralf Richardt Strøbech (formerly Hotel Pro Forma) tested Darwinian and evolutionary theories on the working process of the theatre, allowing for natural selection but aiming for survival of the fittest genes for performance. Julian Maynard Smith (Station House Opera) started a backwards revolution, whilst Richard Gregory (Quarantine) revealed some of his groups' working methods and ideologies, in addition to inviting unknowing Aberystwythians to an afternoon tea party.



Three different exploratories were run every day – some as a taster of the laboratory, others as one-off events. In addition to the laboratory leaders, Olya Petrakova and Bryan Brown (ARTEL) played around with surrealist games and a physical technique they call “Bodystorming” - brainstorming only with the body in place of the metaphor. Richard Gough dug out his game of “the Chairs”, which for some was a welcome return, and for others a completely new experience. Peader Kirk (MKultra) invited a peek into some of his working methods, as did Sally Sussman (Australian Performance Exchange) with an anthropological experiment of intercultural exchanges and the difficulties it brought out. The choice was tough and the programme could easily have covered a full year, so the evenings were devoted to presentations from the workshop leaders and discussion of what had gone on in each one. Plenaries were also a chance to learn more about what each of the directors or theatremakers did and had done in their professional life.



The second round of laboratories presented different, but equally exciting opportunities to learn and develop both for leaders and participants. Veenapani Chawla (Adishakti) brought the Ramayana with her to examine from a directorial perspective, giving her group an insight into Indian myth and her own thought process. Adrian Jackson (Cardboard Citizens) also laid parts of his working methods bare, presenting a problem of vast amounts of material for his new performance, where he asked the group to act as consultants to begin the editing process. The director of Das Beckwerk explored his new writing on the theatre of humiliation and the performer as medium, and Ruth Kanner brought not just words and texts, but a large part of her ensemble to work alongside with the participants. They explored written material, words, and numbers as means of expression, and the forum participants were also privileged to see extracts from several of their performances in the evenings.



The exploratories were going strong all the way through, with tasters of several as Mike Pearson , Bill Hamblett (Small World Theatre), and Marnie Orr (ROCKface) got the chance to test, talk about, and demonstrate some of their work. Coming from very different backgrounds, the themes were the “in all languages”-work, theatre as part of international aid, and an introduction to Bodyweather training, respectively. Much of this was repercussioned in discussions and presentations, and once again the desire to split oneself in three (or more) to be part of everything was inevitable.



The final weekend took a more discursive format with presentations and discussions, and was to see more directors coming and a great deal from the first weekend returning. However, due to nature's unforeseen events (which will also be remembered as the Icelandic volcano no one could pronounce), some were forced to remain in their home countries (and others again forced to remain behind in the UK afterwards). Ralf Strøbech could not return for the gathering to further discuss his ideas, and was forced to give a presentation over Skype instead, to share his work with those who had not been present and answer questions from those who had saved them for his return. Tore Vagn Lid (Transiteatret) from Norway suffered the same fate, but delivered an interesting talk on his work and theories of merging music and theatre to orchestrate and interweave elements of the performance on several levels. Their presence was sorely missed, as their work was highly relevant to the discussions that took place, and they would have contributed both original views and strong opinions.



Of those who did make it over for the final weekend, Anders Paulin was a new addition, talking about his work at the Royal National Theatre in Copenhagen. He is using the space to question what a national theatre is and can be, and his project on the temporary national theatre within the structures of the permanent one, was both challenging and thought-provoking. Lines can be drawn from this back to the presentation on the first day by John McGrath from National Theatre Wales, together with Mike Pearson who will be directing a production for them later this year. Moving the theatre out of its traditional building, they aim to bring it to the people of Wales instead, and engage with all the valleys and remote places over the next couple of years. An insight into contemporary Croatian theatre, as well as a discussion on the relationship between directing and dramaturgy, was given by Marin Blazevic (University of Zagreb).



Between presentations, laboratories and exploratories, there were plenary sessions that took the form either of talks or of more interactive exchanges, facilitated by Richard Gough and Peader Kirk who took turns to get the talk going. They kicked off valuable exchanges of information, broken by more intimate moments and genuine time to ponder, raise questions and attempts to trace old tracks and stake out new directions. The forum became a group of distinct practitioners, directors, theatre-makers, performers and scholars, but also a group of colleagues within theatre. This was, perhaps, the greatest achievement of the conference: to create an environment of reciprocity and respect, where all were able to contribute and have a real say in the debates. We leave with no clearer definitions or working agendas than we had as we set out, but with new questions and perplexities about the heart of our practice, as well as the certainty that somewhere out there are others who are facing difficult and exiting challenges that may or may not be similar to our own, but are connected to the very roots of our craft – and with that affirmation, we set out on our quest for further discoveries.