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Comment by Rebecca Ball on October 21, 2011 at 3:46

Thank you - really interesting thoughts. Kenneth, I think that experience of a creative team 'closing in' in the last stages is fascinating and certainly seems to happen a lot.  From a personal perspective, it does feel easier to share ideas at either the very early stages (when you can label them very clearly as drafts or work in progress) or at the end (when you have to!). I wonder, however, if that is the case solely because that is what we are used to, or if there is something more fundemental about how we feel able to take risks? Risk is so important but it is scary to take risks in public! How do we protect risk taking and share process?

Comment by Kenneth Griffin on October 21, 2011 at 1:17

As a pre-digital example of opening up the creative project and baring experimentation-in-progress to curious eyes, I remember Brith Gof's Hafod project directed by Cliff McLucas in the late '90s in a redundant inpatient building at Ely Hospital, Cardiff West. A regular audience attended monthly performance presentations at the ends of weeks 4, 8 and 12 in the context of shared source materials, explanatory introductions and discussions, etc. A public production was staged in the building at the end of week 13 and I think there was at least one later public production, also based on this exploratory period, possibly around the national eisteddfod.

The monthly presentations and associated materials were fascinating. The public performance was enriched by our earlier access to some of the experimental process. However, as an audience member, I was very aware of a huge discontinuity between the explained presentations and the eventual production. Major decisions had clearly been made, of necessity, in the last stages of making a final show, and it would have been most interesting and informative to have also understood that final stage of the process.

The project members were Jenny Livsey, Eddie Ladd, Richard Huw Morgan, John Rowley and Gerald Tyler.

Comment by National Theatre Wales on October 20, 2011 at 6:35

I think one of the biggest challenges we face is sharing our creative processes.  The rehearsal room can sometimes need to be quite private and protected, and yet so much is to be gained by sharing that process with people. I wonder whether, as privacy becomes a rarer thing in all areas of life we will become more comfortable opening up the creative process - and baring our half-made performances to curious eyes.  A question linked to this is the best way to use digital to share creative process.  I wonder what examples people have of where and when this has worked and not worked.