One of the things I've asked our Creative Associates Catherine and Mathilde to look at is how we create 'theatre of debate'. In recent years there has been a fascinating movement in theatre around debate, discussion and exchange of knowledge. Well known examples include Open Space workshops, particularly the 'Devoted and Disgruntled' sessions that Improbable Theatre have run. In Berlin, one of the most fascinating companies is the Mobile Academy, which runs the 'Blackmarket of Useful and Non-Useful Knowledge' where, rather than watching a show, each audience member books a series of 15 minute one-to-one sessions with experts in every imaginable subject (and remember we are all experts in something, so this is not an academic project). In New York, Foundry Theatre has been combining some of the best experimental theatre in the world with a series of political and social 'town hall' meetings for many years - building a different kind of theatre community. I'd be really interested to hear people's ideas and experiences around theatre and debate.

Views: 303

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Yes! Theatre as a medium for psychogeography... Helping us to re-interpret (refresh) the places we live and work in. We could do worse than learn from our Canadian friends.
These are all fantastic suggestions guys - please keep them coming.

And if anyone else has any further suggestions for how to debate theatre or make theatre that debates - speak up here!

Whether you have an example of a company that encourages discussion and debate or have a fantastic brand new idea that has never existed before outside of your own head - we want to hear your ideas which can help Mathilde and I shape the Debate strand of National Theatre Wales' programme.

What would you like to debate?

How would you debate it?
Debate is vital. It is the life-blood of drama. Debate does not have to be dry, theatrically inert or self-indulgent - it can, in so many ways, be hugely entertaining and powerfully emotional.

I'm interested in asking the question 'Where do writers fit into this approach?' or maybe even 'How can writers use this approach to develop and strengthen their own voice and their own theatre language?'

It is normal for playwrights to debate and interrogate ideas and meaning inside their own heads, hearts and souls - in short, in their lives and in turn in our lives. Some do it better than others. Some are more experienced at it and find rich and subtle ways to disguise it in their writing.

There are few models, though, where writers are given the opportunity to develop their work by working with other writers within a more 'formalised' group setting. (Not the American sit-com version known as 'team writing'.) This can be an extraordinarily empowering experience for writers - especially emerging writers. I'm not talking about the standard writers' group approach either. I'm thinking about a rigorous and vigorous writers' round table where themes, ideas, framing devices, forms, structure, content and meaning can be explored and developed with other writers - facilitated by and with the NTW creative team. A forum where draft scripts can be discussed and interrogated at an early stage. An open and collaborative learning and creative process that does not diminish a playwright's single authorial voice but, instead, allows a playwright to understand their voice better and to learn from others.

I am a passionate advocate for the place and importance of story in our lives and of the power of story metaphor in performance. I am lucky to have extensive personal experience of such a writers' round table format having written for the serial television drama Brookside for eighteen years. There, our monthly story development meetings were intellectual, artistic and emotional bear-pits. Debate about politics, sex, religion, crime, corruption, the law and international perspectives etc ran alongside the most ordinary domestic crisis or deeply felt human experience. These two-day sessions were exhausting and exhaustive - our craft skills always being honed and grown. Huge differences of opinion were the norm although personal views were always respected. When we 'switched on' in those meetings we knew that argument was the order of the day and our guiding principle was that, for our audience, one thing ruled - story - and in turn, the meaning of that story both in their lives and to their lives.

When thinking of this system and what it could give to a developing theatre sector in Wales my experience tells me that it is, in essence, a form of peer-mentoring - something that emerging writers are rarely given access to. New playwrights face many challenges with few opportunities to learn alongside more experienced writers. The situation is generally less of an issue with directors, (where you can start as an assistant), actors, (where you might work within the same cast as 'old hands') or for musicians who often get the opportunity to play with more experienced musicians. The position of 'assistant playwright' is more wishful-thinking that reality. Many writers also often come from outside the established training and learning pathways through higher education which many actors, directors and musicians follow.

One example of a problem that most emerging playwrights face stems from the simple economics of staging plays. In my 28 years of writing for the stage (as well as televison, film and radio drama) the size of theatre casts has radically reduced at the same time as the number of outlets for their work diminished. (In the 1980's hundreds of theatre companies were cut by Arts Council England - a pragmatic reality that pushed me to broaden my core-skills as a dramatist writing across various forms rather than solely pursuing a career as a playwright.) Being generally able to only write for small casts can push playwrights into telling 'micro-stories' - in plays that are forced to become more intimate and can be seen, perhaps, to therefore lack scale and ambition. Writing for large casts then, in turn, becomes, a dream for playwrights but when an opportuity arises - for example writing a large cast community play or for a youth theatre, the craft skills required will not have been learned and the experience can become intimidating and possibly destructive. In the end it is likely to be the audience who potentially suffer! Something none of us want.

If our new National Theatre Wales (At last!! Resounding cheers!!!) is to find its place on a world stage, as well as at home, then the stories we tell and the ways that we find to tell them must be powerful, inspirational and passionate - on a scale we can afford, of course, but with the ambition to stake a claim for our voices that are worth hearing and our stories that are worth telling.

Whatever form our debate takes I hope that we can find a way to place writers for the stage at the heart of it.
Great thoughts Peter. The ideas you have around team writing are also ones that might apply to our Response strand where we are hoping to respond very quickly to emerging events. Also interesting to look at Exquisite Corpse - produced by a group of Welsh writers to great acclaim in Edinburgh last year and on at Southwark Playhouse in London next week.
I agree with Peters points and can offer a suggestion. Last year Bridgend Youth Theatre comissioned Gary Owen to write a play for a large cast, the resulting play was 'Mary Twice' a play based on the Welsh Mari Lywd tradition which is celebrated over the Christmas period, the play had a cast of over 200.
Therefore in response to one of Peters points could NTW commission writers to work with a selection of Youth Theaters in Wales. The work could be based on a common theme and be performed independently or the groups could come together to perform the piece.
This would also offer the opportunity for working with large casts for directors, designers, stage managers etc. All of these areas involved could also be mentored by established professionals in their field.
This would offer training at a high level for emerging practioners in their relevant artform and would also raise the status of youth theaters in Wales and enable them to be involved in the creation of new work with NTW.
This would also be cost effective as many youth theatre running costs are already met at local authority level.
Thanks Guy, it would be good to chat to you more about the structure of the Welsh youth theatres, and how they communicate with each other already.
My heart is in urgent, reactive, political theatre: a series of short, cultural and physical responses to the minutiae and news agenda of our lives and themes; a regular programme, written, rehearsed and performed before the headlines move on; encouraging audience engagement (perhaps active participation)in issues they may or may not care about. I am talking about 5, 10, 15 minute shop window theatre; funny, tragic, angry, confrontational and seductive: NTW has a splendid shop window. Let's do stuff in it. And this is not just a wish for a diet of Caryl Churchill and agit prop, this is a desire to see a crowd of passers-by and people who have made the effort gathered outside 30 Castle Arcade watching/window shopping a theatre piece that has no words but comes with an unmissable message; or inviting the audience in (perhaps one at a time) for a unique theatrical experience. This week's show (perhaps) is a puppet show: the characters are scissor cut out of the Daily Telegraph - a line of dancing dollies. How many will survive? Who will crumple? Who's got a box of matches? Instant and accessible narrative. What if the puppets are cut of the Sun or the Mail? Are Assembly Members only found in the Western Mail? Instant disposable theatre. I'd like that.
Very nice thought Terry. Bearing in mind that we have a country-wide brief though, maybe we need to identify a whole bunch of available shop windows across Wales?
Let's go window shopping...
My naive thoughts.

All fiction is a debate of some sort, even if only internal, as no one blankly accepts what's put in front of them. You seem to be suggesting making that idea more overt. Nothing wrong with that.

The examples you list blur the hard edge between performers and audience and that's the way the world is going. Most people are producers as well as consumers of media now - see garageband, blogs, facebook etc. Also everyone expects the right to speak back, in the form of comments on news stories on the web for example, or this very forum.

Theatre can do this in a way that, say, movies, never can, so it's worth investigating.


----

More generally, moving away from just debate, the word 'theatre' seems to me to mean two distinct things, namely the building and the performances that happen in it. I know NTW doesn't have a building, but it does/will have equivalent machinery, and maybe that virtual theatre (building) could maybe be used for things other than theatre (performance).
I went to see the Banksy exhibition in Bristol yesterday. The queue stretched for miles down the hill. The people in the queue reflected the street - this was no rarefied event. This is free art in a public space where you can take photographs - where form meets content philosophically. I think this massive popularity reflects a profound social hunger for the subversive, the questioning, the unexpected - felt/visceral experiences that urge us 'urgently' to reflect on our world and to make some sense of the disturbances that we feel. People have spoken about Boal's work - and I agree with John McG that social structures are enormously complex in terms of power and control. I have often been frustrated by the limitations in the application of 'forum' theatre....
I am struggling a bit here, but think I'm interested in the question of WHAT it is that we - as artists - need to be debating...and what forms our theatre needs to evolve to truly engage/give power to our audiences? Do we have a role as artists in debating how we might affect/ be a catalyst for change - or is this not the role of the artist?
To me, the idea of 'debate' is slightly off-putting...but I love the idea of involving the audience in the event. Couple this with interesting locations, and you've got a double-whammy. This afternoon, 'er indoors and I talked about what this could do for public spaces, encouraging communitites to think again about spaces and changing peoples perceptions of towns or cities. It's exciting to think that a project like this could have a positive impact on things outside its traditional boundaries....Tourism? Town planning??

RSS

image block identification

© 2024   Created by National Theatre Wales.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service