Ways we make plays

I’m always reminded when talking to other artists who create theatre from scratch (or other art forms for that matter) of much similarity there is in the way that we generate material, even though the end results are so radically different. Sometime people’s processes can seem totally mysterious and out of reach but as I work with more people, and learn from more processes I see how many elements reoccur. For me the main difference often lies in endurance and where the focus goes and to what elements. So the processes (and works created) end up looking radically different in the end but the parts that compose the process are similar.

I’ve recently had the chance to work with Rachel Chavkin (who artistic directs the TEAM in New York). At lot of her material generating work has been adapted from stuff she’s learnt from Anne Bogart and she cites Forced Entertainment out of the UK as a huge inspiration for her as well. When working with her she ran long improvisations that could last up to 2 hours, transcribing as we went along, garnering up the usable bits and sloughing off the excess. Now, often just the mention of the word can make my blood run cold but here I was reminded of how useful improvisations could be and given the right parameters how they could actually be totally invigorating. When I think about it, some of the best bits of writing that I’ve created with Emelia have come out of structured improvisations. There was always the safely of a very clear character or characters but I think we ought to move beyond that and I look forward to using some of what I’ve recently experienced with improvisation towards the source material in our spring rehearsal period for Kismet.