Week 9 (21 November 2019) focussed on ‘Running Workshops and Sharing Your Practice - How best to construct and run a workshop’ Deborah Pearson based our workshop demonstration on devising work she had done with Frantic Assembly. We all had to share something we had noticed that morning. As usual even though there are only four of us in the room we report back a wonderful range of stimuli: Deborah’s ‘invisible writing on the door’, Bim noticing people smiling on the tube, Dee’s comments on the oiliness of pesto and my shiny city at the end of Mile End Rd. Gradually revealing the structure of the workshop as a practical demonstration of not giving “all the info at once”, we went through three more steps devising a performance piece: initially with an infinite budget and resources so we had ‘weirdly low stakes’, then a £50,000 budget and FADS as a site, then only £50 and a site to be negotiated with QMUL. My sketchbook records the process more vividly: By integrating participation in the workshop with a meta-description of the process we were reminded of some of the original advice Deborah had given us about ‘not showing all your teeth’ - by drip feeding the instructions the workshop facilitator can structure the day to build like a satisfying narrative, enhance collaboration and dispel anxiety about building something from nothing. Week 10 (28 November 2019) was a chance to meet with Jay Miller, artistic director of The Yard. A brilliant opportunity to not only discuss the most recent play he had directed there, Clare Barron’s, Dirty Crusty but also talk about local engagement and the way the theatre and its rehearsal space are used community. I had been very impressed with The Yard when I made my first visit there to see Dirty Crusty so it was a privilege to be able to speak with Jay about the production and how to make a small socially engaged space work artistically and ethically.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Viv HarrisNotes from FADS sessions Archives
January 2020
QMUL Perf Lab
|