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Comment by Kevin Johnson on March 12, 2014 at 2:17

New Age Mutant Ninja Turges?

 

Tim and Greg, I now pronounce you writer and writer. 

Comment by Kaite O'Reilly on March 11, 2014 at 23:23

Continuing with the pendantry (silly word invented for pedantry specifically of writers) - OED definition of story is 'An account of imaginary or real people and events told for entertainment:'  There can be other interpretations, and I would encourage them, for this generally accepted definition I think can be presumptive of certain processes, structures and styles. It may privilege certain assumptions of aesthetics, processes, and performative modes.  What do we mean by 'story'? The structure, content, 'meaning', texturing of an experience? You may be making an experience for an audience that doesn't have a formal 'narrative', or is without a chronology, whether linear or otherwise. 

What if you're creating a performance event which isn't character-led, or with a 'centre' or narrative, but is structured around dramaturgical principles? Some of the immersive performative events since the 1960's haven't necessarily had a 'story' element - perhaps something more akin to a jazz ensemble.

Greg of course is right - our brains, neuropsychologists have proved, are hardwired for story - we seek patterns and order in even the most fragmented of things. I know from the piece I made with the Llanarth Group 'Told by the Wind' that the audience will project story onto whatever they see - in fact, the Aesthetics of Quietude, what we used, encourages that - but is that word 'story' the right word to be used to describe this additional figure in a creative process?

Part of the joy of the discussions we had here was the opening up of process and how the advisor/provocateur/animateur might be, say, a scenographer, or a designer, or a composer/musician, etc..  There was the sense this presence might be someone - depending on the individual project and what's needed - who provokes, advises, supports, shakes up the lead artist/writer - or assists in aspects perhaps other than content or storyline (if indeed there is one). By keeping 'story' in a title I feel we may be closing down possibilities rather than slinging the door wide open in a wondrously creative broadening of what this process and result might be.

And I like 'animateur' and 'provocateur' or even the old Enrique Pardo phrase 'disturbing angel'.

I'm off to do some work.

x

Comment by Tim Price on March 11, 2014 at 13:44

Greg Cullen let's get married.

Comment by Greg Cullen on March 11, 2014 at 13:40

Oh well, why not, as Kaite is being pedantic, I'll offer a counter-thought, as long as it's taken in the way intended; with playfulness not challenge. Even in the most abstract and apparently random pieces of theatrical performance, I find the human mind searches for connections in order to extract meaning. In so doing aren't we looking for an explanation, or to use another term, a narrative? If we are not story tellers, even when encouraging individuals within an audience to create their own, then I'm not sure what we're doing? Personally, I don't give a damn what anyone calls John's project but the word "story" is not limiting because it encompasses our extraordinary, human ability, to make whole for ourselves the disparate and contradictory phenomena of our interactions with things and others. Other than, "empathy" I can't think of a more remarkable word to describe what makes us human. In fact, right now at least, (tomorrow I might think differently) perhaps, "Story" is within the genesis, if not realisation, of all Art. Now I really should go to bed... perchance to dream. 

Comment by Tim Price on March 11, 2014 at 12:32

Yes Tracy Harris.

Comment by Tim Price on March 11, 2014 at 12:29

NINJADURG?

Comment by tracy harris on March 11, 2014 at 12:29

This sounds a very good step in the right direction

ninjaturgs!

Comment by Ailsa Richardson on March 11, 2014 at 12:26

something involving inter? interlocutors  or respondeurs or creative respondurgs,  inter-inventors ... !

really great the 'whatever it'll be called' is happening!

Comment by Alex Murdoch on March 11, 2014 at 12:07

I think Mark Rylance used to have at the Globe a 'Master of the Words' - so you could go for something fanciful like that...

the word Histrionic is due a come back...

Comment by National Theatre Wales on March 11, 2014 at 12:01

I love this thread. It is making me bizarrely happy!  Ninja Shapers of the Play!

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