So today I want to write about the tricky notion of collaboration and creativity with other people. In the course I am currently on, there are four of us and so far we seem to get on well. There is a little tension due to something which would be better expressed in it's own post but suffice it to say that this has arisen from a fundamental misunderstanding, one which underpins most of the failings of this course - i.e.; that every person is the same and difference is not largely tolerated.
So creation in a group for us has been troublesome so far. A number of times now we have been left to our own devices by our tutor, with little instruction as to what we should be doing. The result has been all of us sitting aimlessly in the rehearsal space with no clue as to how to proceed and no apparent willingness to play. This, for me, has been a very uncomfortable situation and I find it very difficult to instigate any work myself even when an idea does arise in my mind as to how to proceed.
It's at times like this that I detest devising and the importance that it's given on this course. I wish that we had something already written down that would just get us up and working and doing something. The reason I wanted to do this course was to learn how to be a better performer, as well as increasing my confidence and to me learning how to originate new material on the spot is an entirely different kind of skill set that is just assumed (by the tutor) that we each possess. Now, as a skill I realise that it is learnable, I just wish that there was some systematic way, either in the structure of the course or outside of it, that could allow me to develop this skill - of thinking creatively in the moment with other people.
So yesterday's session (Tuesday), our last before breaking up for Christmas, was by far the best that we've yet had in terms of productivity. We were one "man" down but what transpired was a brief (20 mins) research task which gave us a text to work with and a structure for how the initial opening of our project would play out. From this, we could play around with the details and although we butted up against the limits of that structure (the tutor/director knew what she wanted to happen and was not all that open to suggestions), we actually got SOMETHING done for a change and felt like we had the tutor's attention for the whole session!
Perhaps this avoids the issue of cultivating a sense of play and creativity with the others, but it does what I wanted to be on this course for; to get back into the routine of working out dramatic problems with others in the theatre space and therefore gaining some social 'skills' along the way.
I've got a quote here from a the late Polish director and actor trainer Jerzy Grotowski that encapsulates my feelings about this:
?I want to advise you never in the performance to seek for spontaneity without a score. ... During a performance no real spontaneity is possible without a score. It would only be an imitation of spontaneity since you would destroy your spontaneity by chaos.? - From "Towards A Poor Theatre" (1968: p192)
I think Grotowski here is referring to the destructive kind of chaos which negates all significance, rather than that neutral kind of chaos which stands as the potential to become anything you want.
So creation in a group for us has been troublesome so far. A number of times now we have been left to our own devices by our tutor, with little instruction as to what we should be doing. The result has been all of us sitting aimlessly in the rehearsal space with no clue as to how to proceed and no apparent willingness to play. This, for me, has been a very uncomfortable situation and I find it very difficult to instigate any work myself even when an idea does arise in my mind as to how to proceed.
It's at times like this that I detest devising and the importance that it's given on this course. I wish that we had something already written down that would just get us up and working and doing something. The reason I wanted to do this course was to learn how to be a better performer, as well as increasing my confidence and to me learning how to originate new material on the spot is an entirely different kind of skill set that is just assumed (by the tutor) that we each possess. Now, as a skill I realise that it is learnable, I just wish that there was some systematic way, either in the structure of the course or outside of it, that could allow me to develop this skill - of thinking creatively in the moment with other people.
So yesterday's session (Tuesday), our last before breaking up for Christmas, was by far the best that we've yet had in terms of productivity. We were one "man" down but what transpired was a brief (20 mins) research task which gave us a text to work with and a structure for how the initial opening of our project would play out. From this, we could play around with the details and although we butted up against the limits of that structure (the tutor/director knew what she wanted to happen and was not all that open to suggestions), we actually got SOMETHING done for a change and felt like we had the tutor's attention for the whole session!
Perhaps this avoids the issue of cultivating a sense of play and creativity with the others, but it does what I wanted to be on this course for; to get back into the routine of working out dramatic problems with others in the theatre space and therefore gaining some social 'skills' along the way.
I've got a quote here from a the late Polish director and actor trainer Jerzy Grotowski that encapsulates my feelings about this:
?I want to advise you never in the performance to seek for spontaneity without a score. ... During a performance no real spontaneity is possible without a score. It would only be an imitation of spontaneity since you would destroy your spontaneity by chaos.? - From "Towards A Poor Theatre" (1968: p192)
I think Grotowski here is referring to the destructive kind of chaos which negates all significance, rather than that neutral kind of chaos which stands as the potential to become anything you want.
