The Journey of my Journey

Wow this is hard. Why did I think taking an audience for a walk in the park would be such a walk in the park? I am realising that creating an imersive audience experience with just an mp3 player is a tough challenge.

At first I tried to be clever. I tried to tackle big themes of life and death, love and loss. Imagine an mp3 tour which lectures you about the human condition while you saunter down a leafy path - pretentious or what.

After days of soul searching, historical research and reading I made a crucial breakthrough. This performance is not about me. It's not about my journey or ideas. It's all about you, the 'audience' or participant. So instead of telling I am asking. Guiding my traveler along their own path, with their own unique response to the place in which they find themselves. To help them to do this I will use music and simple questions interspersed with instructions, allowing each journey a different route, emotional response and outcome.

So now the practicalities of timing and clarity come into play. Each part of the journey has to be timed and each instruction must be easy to follow. The real test will be when I let my participants loose. Let's just hope no one gets lost!

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We've set ourselves quite a challenge here at Standby Theatre. Site-specific theatre. Oh yes, nothing like throwing ourselves at the theatrical deep end. But we love a challenge, and that's exactly what it will be. Our first production, 'Lovers and Madmen' was a tremendous amount of fun. We played with some of Shakepeare's best loved characters in a new, fun context, and despite cramming it in alongside our full time jobs, we achieved a lot in a few short months.

But we can't rest on our successes. We all agreed that we want to take it that stumble further and create something totally new that compliments the many talented people in the group. If someone wants to play the spoons or sing a Haiku, let them! It's all about letting our creativity blossom and shine.

After exploring an amazing derelictish space, we sadly realised that the floor resembling jelly really wasn't going to be conducive with a safe, lively theatre experience. Thinking hats firmly back in place, Lotty and I explored Holy Trinity Churchyard and the paths leading towards it. We may have looked crackers scribbling down names from Victorian Gravestones and hiding in dens of trees, but we realised that something as simple as an everyday pathway could be used to great dramatic purpose. Throw in an mp3 player, some carefully crafted directions and a few unsuspecting audience members and bam! That's theatre, right? Well, kind of.

The prickle with the term 'site-specific' is that it is often bandied about without any real thought- a 'trendy' term that will entice a younger audience away from twitter for a few hours. But here at Standby we want to create a site-specific piece in the purest sense- a play born from a direct response to a place. The place informs the action, not the other way round.

So, that sounds like fun, but how to we start? To ease ourselves into what is quite a daunting task, we're developing some simple directions. I'm currently asking myself odd questions such as 'What is the abstract emotion for this place?' and 'What visual images develop from the weather of this environment?' in order to create something. Who knows if this piece will be used as anything more than valuable practice but what the process will hopefully demonstrate is that the audience will be taken on a unique journey, using mixed media but keeping it simple, allowing the heart of the place and its inhabitants to tell the story. For a writer, this is the most exciting stage of the process, facing a brand new project that is inscribed with a huge sense of freedom. People respond to environments in a variety of ways, and it's my job to explore one interpretation of that.

Practically, we are also giving ourselves more time to develop this piece, but we hope to see it all coming together beautifully very soon.

Now, back to the pen and paper (I like my traditional methods.) I'm determined to get the name Eustace in there somewhere...

A Little Adventure... Exploring Promenade and Site Specific Performance.

Before we start planning our next project we want to play! We need to have fun and experiment so we can discover new ways of working together. 
So, a group of us have begun to create a promenade adventure for the rest of the team. We have mp3 players, a phone box, a church yard and our imaginations... We will post our results and even put the mp3 files online so you can experience the journey for yourself. 

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Newsflash!

Things have been quiet in Standby HQ for the last couple of months, but it all looks set to heat up again soon! We've worked out a plan for our next project: a site-specific piece, devised by the company and based in a building in Stratford.

It's going to be a unique challenge - some of us have never really devised before, and some have never worked in promenade - but we can't wait to start. There's also the thorny issue of using that term 'site-specific'.

Here at Standby, we don't think it's enough to take a play set in 'a park' and stage it in the Swan Gardens. We don't want to look at a script set in 'a cinema', and place it in the local Picture House.

We want to start with a space and work up. Take a building with its own layout, its own history, and create some theatre which can't be performed anywhere else.

Wish us luck!

Lovers and Madmen

Our RSC Open Stages performance 'Lovers and Madmen' is done and dusted!

You can see the results as part of an Interview with Ian Wainwright on the RSC Website - just click here

Plus you can also check out our photo gallery, courtesy of the lovely and talented Emily Showell!

Busy, busy, busy!

As you may be able to tell from the lack of blog posts over the last few weeks, we here at Standby have been rushed off our feet getting everything ready - and so far, we're on track!

The actors are off-script, and have really started getting into their roles. So far, so good, and everyone had really started rising to the challenge of getting those lines properly down, working out how to fight without concussing anyone (Ben's bruises are a sight to behold, and we fear that we will not be able to say that 'no actors were harmed in the making of this production'!), and the most pressing challenge of all: getting into the mind of a butterfly. Yes, ladies and gentelmen, we have the best butterflies in Stratford Upon Avon. Method acting, eat your heart out.

On the production side of things, it's all systems go. We're lucky enough to have some arty-minded members of the team, who have been able to rustle up everything from a popcorn tub to an ice cream - the only thing we're still working on finding is a skull! Costumes are sorted, and our stage manager can't wait to start rehearsing with everything she's found.

We have a beautiful poster in the works, to be unveiled soon, and we can't wait for the world to see it: professional designer Anniek Olsder has outdone herself on this one, and we know it's going to look wonderful around the town.

'Lonely hearts' videos and snippets of rehearsal footage should be up on Facebook soon, so keep one eye on our page there - you can find the link to it here, in the sidebar. Remember, 3rd July is the day to watch - and any donations of suncream are very welcome!

Signing off now, as we need to go and figure out a Richard III costume - we'll leave you with this question:

If you were a biscuit, what kind of biscuit would you be - and why?

Rehearsal #1: 'Try not to walk into each other...'

This evening, we were kindly allowed to gatecrash the RSC’s Clore Learning Space, where we embarked on our first official read-through.

But, of course, we indulged in a few silly games first! Alex had us all hugging, shaking hands and trying not to laugh, while Lotty introduced us to ‘Whop!’ which ended in a chorus of ‘Killer Shark’ (lyrics can be provided on request). The cast have been left wondering if this crazy pair are going to make them sing any more songs...

The read -through was fun and interesting for all of us; especially for writers Lynsey and Laura. Hearing their words (and the words of Shakespeare) read aloud for the first time was daunting, but all of the actors brilliantly brought the script to life and our two lady writers were really pleased with the result (they may have even cracked a smile). The play has now taken its first Bambi steps out into the world, and we can’t wait to reach more steady ground with each rehearsal that will follow.

Our performance date (the 3^rd of July, in case you were wondering) is going to coincide with the Stratford River Festival . We’re looking forward to being a part of a big crowd of happy people enjoying the sunshine, as long as we don’t get drowned out by Morris dancers!

Next weekend we’re working a busy Sunday (The RSC Open Day), and how will we reward our tired selves? With more rehearsals, of course! The clock has started to tick gently in the background and we’re all buzzing with ideas and enthusiasm.

We shall leave you for now, but please drop us a comment here, and remember to check out our Facebook page for more pictures and updates.

Repeat after me: 'explore the potential of the space!'

Over yesterday and today, our actors and directors attended workshops run by the RSC. At first, we didn’t know whether to be excited or intimidated – but they really were fantastic opportunities to really get to grips with what we’re doing, and also to meet some of the other people involved in Open Stages.

Ellie, Karen and Dan attended the actors’ workshop, and they had a ball. If there’s one thing the RSC can really teach, it’s attention to detail within the text – our three were worked hard, and have come back full of techniques for really getting the most out of Shakespeare’s speeches.

They also played plenty of games. Who says actors don’t take theatre seriously?

Lotty, Lynsey and Alex were the three ladies lucky enough to go to the directors’ workshop – which included a masterclass with an RSC assistant director and two professional actors. They also received some invaluable tips on theatre design, and did two hours of text work with another director.

The buzz in the workshops was brilliant, and we’ve all come away filled with enthusiasm for what we’re doing. There are 51 groups in our Open Stages region, and until today none of us had realised how much talent there is in the West Midlands! We made friends, learned new things, and will never look at Romeo’s ‘Banished’ speech in quite the same way again.

Rehearsals begin soon…

It begins...

We members of Standby are shaking in our boots at the moment – partly from nerves, mostly from excitement. The reason? We’re about to embark on our first project as a company.

As part of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Open Stages initiative, we’re going to be out in the open air performing Lovers & Madmen: a comedy piece for all the family, based on the works of William Shakespeare. We have a cast, we have a script, and we have until the 3^rd of July to bring the two together.

Over the next six weeks we’ll be rehearsing, devising, fundraising, struggling with photoshop, and having (we hope) enormous amounts of fun. And all while working full-time jobs. One thing’s for sure: it’s going to be an interesting month!

We’ll keep you posted!