Day 44 - All around and up and down - Aberystwyth
I went running three times today. Progressively shorter distances each time. I also did more thinking. I decided to return to John's article, Rapid Response to find some answers to yesterdays questions. The last time I read it the first show hadn't happened. Neither had the assembly project. It was interesting to reflect upon the aims with reference to the work so far.
I have pulled out a number of quotes that seemed relevant. In what way I'm not yet sure. But I need to write 1000 words this week explaining what I have been doing and what I intend to do. They come from the aforementioned article by John Mcgrat in the New Welsh Review in 2009
"to make English language theatre in Wales is, among other things, to put the language itself under scrutiny, to perform the question of language. And such questioning rather than assertion of identity, is what art does well." p.9
"And if one of the jobs of theatre is to make the words coming out of mouths unexpected, extraordinary, Welsh writers have very direct access to the strangeness of language." p.10
"If there is anything that everyone with stakes in National Theatre Wales seems keen to avoid, It's the use of theatre to prop up or propose some statue of National Identity. Everyone knows what happens to such statues; they are overshadowed by the pigeons of daily life, perching on their heads and shitting on their dignity." p.10
"Theatre is better at the pigeon's role than the stonemason's: there's no drama in a worthy ideal" p.10
"In the first year's programme of the National Theatre Wales we will focus on a 'theatrical mapping' of the country." p.10
"Each piece will be developed out of, and in response to, it's location."p.10
"Location isn't just about site, it's about how our memories live in geography and space." p.10
"The whole will be a work in itself, our theatre map, a guide to future possibilities." p.10
There is more to come. Question. How successful is NTW in allowing/enabling our memories to live in geography and space, both locally in relation to each performance and also as a whole, through the mapping as a work in itself?
Ok there is a starting point.
In answering this we need to look at the three strands separately.
"a space where we take our concerns, our passions, our hopes and fears, to see them reflected back to us in new and invigorating ways" p.12
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