CTP was great – there was lots of stuff to do, I felt stimulated all the time, in fact it was an extremely valuable time for me. On CTP we had access to everything different rehearsal spaces, technical equipment and support, costume, props – it was a real hands on experience of theatre making. It meant that when I left I was more ready practically and academically for my training and work as an actor, like I had a wider vocabulary to work with in the field. Now, when I step onto a stage or a set I have a greater sense of how I contribute to it all. I almost think of the set as an art installation, as a space that can tell a story on its own, and I’m aware of what it is doing and where there might be shortcomings.

And there’s the element of critical thinking as well, and the general experience of being in a theatre making situation, and particularly the emphasis on collaboration. On CTP I really developed an appreciation of the value of listening and trying everyone’s ideas, that even if an idea on its own doesn’t work, that other discoveries and ideas will come up. I really felt we were fearless to try anything, to value the skills and individuality of each member of the group and to work with so many different forms of theatre.

And when it comes to creating work now, I come across many people who feel that they can’t do anything without just being given a script, where as collaborating in other ways and with other people can take you so much further.

I really benefitted from Jane Turner’s CTP Issues (Critical Contexts) classes too, something that still helps me now when developing an understanding of the social issues around a script or a scene I’m working on.

Overall it was such a valuable theatre course – there are too many old hat and stale ideas in theatre still. Theatre is a contemporary art form, it should always be forward thinking, and my time on CTP really helped me to appreciate that.

As a front of house volunteer I had regular contact with the artists. This meant I was able  to seek their advice on how they approach making work and how their work can be adapted to festival contexts. The experience of working so closely with the artists and members of the marketing, box office, stage management team gave me a greater insight into what it is to like to work within a large international festival environment and also the challenges of working in different venues.

As a member of the Front of House team I routinely helped the audience members with their tickets, directions and answering any of their queries about the performances, which made me realise the importance of ensuring a positive and welcoming environment . The regular contact with the audience forced me to reflect as an aspiring theatre maker on how I position the audience within my own work and how that can change my own performances content.

Overall volunteering at Flare Festival 2015 challenged my own perceptions around how to make theatre and opened my eyes to how I might reconsider my work from a different cultural perspective. It has given me a greater knowledge and appreciation of how a theatre festival is run, as well as the importance of teamwork, communication dedication and having lots of fun !

My involvement with Flare15 started long before the festival week. I had agreed to assist the production manager and this meant lots of emails to volunteers, scheduling and the organising of lots of loose ends. I had agreed to be the technical representative at the Royal Exchange theatre, which was a massive task with lots of responsibilities ranging from liaising with artists to being the technical operator of actual performances. Flare15 has given me an opportunity to demonstrate a range of skills and responsibilities, building a platform for myself on which I can build a reputation and a confidence to apply for paid roles in other art/theatre festivals.

What surprised me most about Flare15 was the amount of ground breaking theatre I was able to see. Knowing the schedule often clashed with events and knowing what hard work will be involved, I wasn’t expecting to be able to see much of the work but in fact I saw a huge amount. These pieces of theatre have not only inspired me but also helped open my mind and change my viewpoints, this is helped by the constant conversation about the work that seemed omnipresent at Flare15. The festivals ability to create such a friendly environment in which intellectual, intelligent conversation amongst the artists themselves and fellow volunteers made the week truly special. I also got the chance to perform some of my own work at the festival which was incredible. I really don’t have enough nice things to say about Flare15.

Arriving in Brussels I proceeded to get the bus into Ghent to find my hotel. On the way we passed KASK and saw that Reckless were rehearsing already. After dropping off our luggage at our hotel not too far from the school of arts, we headed straight over to greet the company.

As a third year university student at Manchester Metropolitan University, studying Contemporary Theatre and Performance, I found this opportunity extremely exciting. I had experienced Reckless Sleepers’ previous piece of work pre-Negative Space (2014): Schrödinger (2012) and felt grateful to be invited to observe the company during their creative process.

What I did:

During these few days with Reckless Sleepers I observed. I was present to the hours and hours of rehearsals and the process of a working day for the company. On the Tuesday I observed rehearsals based on the first 5 minutes of Negative Space (2014). There were a few people close to the company also observing and dramaturging. Lots of feedback was given and it was a true insight into how an established professional theatre company runs.

Each time the company were at work I saw the effort and the craft that was driving them through the hours. It was evident all performers knew the piece incredibly well and it showed me firsthand how important it is for everyone to step out and take a dramaturgical role. It helped anybody struggling with what was being asked of them on stage, for them to be shown by another person.

Feedback in general seemed to be something the company wanted. They often asked us to shadow the movements of one performer and note down everything exactly. We would then feed what we had written back to the performers. I performed this task for both Mole and Leentje. The one-to-one moments with the performers were a useful experience because it drew my attention to the importance of precision while making a piece. There were many informal chats with members of the company about the piece and great opportunities for networking.

As well as observing, we helped build the exciting Negative Space (2014) set! Power tools, wood, sweeps, step ladders and plasterboards were used to create the huge structure. With the building of the set came the set-down. As it is such a huge structure it is a process that must be done in good time with lots of hands on deck. I was pleased to be able to contribute and experience the construction of the set during these rehearsals.

Overall I developed a good sense of the piece ready to watch the performance in Leeds at the Compass Live Art Festival the following week. I was able to compare and contrast the experiences and the differences… The Leeds show held lots of pleasing moments that I hadn’t picked up on while watching them in development during Ghent rehearsals.

Visual references brought up by Mole:

• Gurnica
• Route to San Marino

This is one of my favourite images because of the floor lighting used. It did not make the final piece but I loved the shadowy images created during this family portrait imagery.

Points of interest:

There was an increasing sense of dependency on the plaster boards from the performers: e.g. they were relied upon to make spectacular imagery when they were hammered through, yet they were also relied on to be strong enough to allow someone to climb up it. The material itself became intriguing. It was weak when given pressure directly towards the board, yet the material had strong foundations allowing it to hold someone’s weight when stepped through.

Below are some notes I took during a rehearsal. These notes reflect aspects of the piece I found interesting and present between the materials and the performers:

Relevance to my Extended Essay, discovered only when I went to Ghent:

As part of my university course I am studying multimedial performances and audience perception while receiving performance. A section of this focuses on intermedial performances. In a discussion with Mole and Kevin during a break from rehearsal, I talked about my essay. Mole asked me ‘would you class Negative Space as intermedial?’ I thought carefully about my answer and replied ‘yes’… We discussed the idea that Negative Space (2014) could be seen as intermedial if one were to argue from the perspective of Peter M. Boenisch and his perspective of ‘mediums’ [as seen within his article in the book Intermediality in Theatre and Performance, 2006]. There may not be very complex technology in Negative Space (2014), however there are many ‘mediums’ in play, with complexity and interrelationships. This became increasingly intriguing for me and I will write a section about this performance in my essay. It is a piece full of multi-mediums. Mole agreed that ‘everything in a space is a medium’, and this relates to the relationship between bodies and plasterboard, structure, props, costume, bodies… The scenographic elements also came into play in terms of my extended essay. The idea of the misconception that an intermedial performance has to involve technology became a topic of conversation.

This was a fantastic experience for me and I would not hesitate to do this again! Thank you Reckless Sleepers for the opportunity and experience.

Reference:  Boenisch, P. M. (2006) ‘Aesthetic Art to Aisthetic Act: Theatre, Media, Intermedial Performance.’ In Chapple, F. and Kattenbelt, C. (eds.) Intermediality in Theatre and Performance. Amsterdam: Rodopi.

http://www.reckless-sleepers.eu/

The second year students will be lucky enough to perform twice a night in front of a selected audience, at The University of Evora, Portugal. This is the fifth year running students from the campus have been chosen. Hannah, Lucas, Naomi, Natalie and Miray have all been selected this year to perform at the end of July….read more>>

Doing a degree in Contemporary Theatre and Performance at MMU was the best experience of education I have had. The amount of things I have learnt from this course, not just in theory and practical work but in terms of developing some key life skills too, has been great for me. The course at first may seem a little strange to individuals who haven’t come across contemporary theatre before but in all honestly I think it was the best decision I have ever made. My view on the course was that it was something new and challenging from a standard drama degree.  I had studied Drama and Theatre Studies at GCSE and A Level, so I wanted to do something different, and after 3 years I have gained lots of experience in contemporary arts as well as creating some exciting and innovative pieces of theatre.  This is Fantastic!

The lecturers on this course are all really helpful and extremely talented themselves. Don’t be afraid to ask questions or ask for help because I know from experience they go out of their way to help you in every way possible.  I have always struggled with theory and writing, on top of being dyslexic, and at first I found it hard to get my head around the material we studied, but the course and the tutors have helped me improve my reading and writing skills to the point of me coming out with a 2.1 in a dissertation in my final year!

There are so many amazing memories and amazing performances I have watched, created, and been a part of. I feel like I have benefited so much from thinking outside the box and have a completely different outlook on what theatre and drama can be.  I have worked with some wonderful people over these 3 years including my friends, tutors and professional artists, and I have really enjoyed my time and my learning on this course.  It’s been great!

My recent trip to the town of Evora in Portugal was an incredibly rewarding one. I was there to perform my solo performance In My World, along with Phillipa Colley and Daniel Craddock’s Framed and Paul O’Donnell’s So Far West as part of a trio of contemporary theatre pieces. I had previously visited Evora last year performing in Pants! directed by Peter Petralia, although I found my trip this year was an altogether different experience.

Several aspects of this trip were different: For a start, I was taking a piece that I had written and directed myself, so there was more personal pressure on me to do well. Secondly, I was working with a translator (a fantastic performer named Vivi Chambel) whereas last year we had performed our piece in English with no translation. And thirdly, I was no longer performing as part of an official arts festival, due to the Portuguese government’s cuts to arts funding. This third aspect of the trip was very saddening. In the previous year we had performed Pants! as part of the Guia de Semana festival, which was self-financed by a man named Jose (who was also organising this current trip). But Jose had been unable to afford a full arts festival this year, so the three pieces of theatre that we were taking to Evora were the only theatre attractions being performed. It was interesting to discover that government funding to the arts is not only affecting the British arts scene; arts funding cuts are affecting the arts all over Europe as well.

But apart from that unfortunate aspect, the rest of the trip was filled with high spirits and equally high nerves. There is always a massive pressure when performing to a foreign audience. Will they understand the context of the piece? Will they respond well to the translation or will the translation distract from the performance? And will they understand the British cultural element of the performance? This last question was especially pertinent to my piece, since In My World’s narrative is completely structured through irony, and I was not sure if the Portuguese culture was familiar with ironic humour.

However, we knew that whatever happened, we were in very safe hands. Jose had organised the entire trip perfectly. Not only did we have affordable and relaxing accommodation, but we also had plenty of rehearsal time. Rehearsals were especially needed, because although we were familiar with our pieces, none of us knew how it would work with live translation. But Vivi Chambel, who was the translator for all three of our pieces, was absolutely brilliant to work with. I had already sent a transcript of my piece over to Jose, so my script had been pre-translated by him. But as I worked through the piece with Vivi, I found a natural rhythm with her very easily. Once I found out how the piece flowed, I made some alterations to the script, including some minor cuts, all of which Vivi kept up with.

Vivi’s translation also added to the performances. Instead of delivering a basic, neutral translation, Vivi would copy exactly how the performer delivered the lines. So if I delivered a line differently than I had in rehearsal, she would instantly mimic how I had delivered it in performance. Vivi’s spontaneity was most apparent in Paul’s performance. In Framed she only had to translate a few lines, and in my piece she was hidden from view whilst translating, but Paul’s piece, So Far West, involved direct interaction with the audience. So instead of shying away from the intimacy of Paul’s performance, Vivi threw herself straight into the action. She rehearsed alongside Paul for hours whilst Paul taught her all his movements for her to copy. So by the time Paul came to perform his piece, Vivi was performing alongside him, effectively turning the piece into a double-act. And because Paul’s piece required on-the-spot improvisation with audience members, Vivi would very frequently have to translate exactly what Paul had said after hearing it for the very first time. Because of her energy, spontaneity and presence as a performer, I believe that Vivi was definitely one of the main reasons why all three pieces were a success.

What was also interesting about the performances was how they had evolved since their original performances. I had decided to take a more casual approach to the performance of my piece, so I abandoned the stiff, distanced persona I had used in the original performance (which had been used to highlight the self-importance of the performer) and instead performed using my natural persona. This gave the piece a lot more humour, but also made the final moments of the piece, where I genuinely try to connect with the audience, much more effective and accessible. I believe that my piece became more fluid, more ironic, more natural and more meaningful because of that one simple change in the performance.

Paul’s piece changed most obviously because it was in a completely different setting. Instead of being in a bar, the piece was performed in a small square outside the church we had been performing in, although there were still plenty of chairs and tables for the audience to sit at. Because his performance was out in the open, a lot of passers-by would occasionally stop and watch for a few minutes, and then walk off again, which ensured that Paul always got a big audience. And because of the different dynamic of the piece due to Vivi’s cooperation, the piece gained a lot more momentum and energy, and gave Paul someone to bounce his own energy off.

But the piece that evolved the most in my opinion was Dan and Pip’s piece. On the first night their performance seemed very short and rushed, which was because they only had a small amount of translation, whereas mine and Paul’s pieces were translated in their entirety. This meant that mine and Paul’s pieces were extended to 30 minutes in running time, when Dan and Pip’s lasted for only 15 minutes. I think that they were also put off by the fact that audience members would simply walk in to watch the performance at random (the Portuguese culture is a lot more relaxed, so anyone could walk in to see a piece at any time) which may have affected how they performed on the night.

However, the second performance of Framed was the best performance I have ever seen them give. Instead of starting the piece when the first audience members arrived, Dan started to prepare the piece as the audience were entering. He did this by drawing the performance space out in chalk outlines, which took about 10 minutes in itself. After the set-up was finished and the audience had settled, the piece officially began with Pip’s entrance. But because the audience had had this build-up from the start, the tone of the piece changed significantly. The pace of the piece was a lot slower, and a lot more relaxed, which made the experience of watching the piece almost meditative. Dan and Pip also took more time with their delivery, which somehow made their interaction seem a lot more poignant and moving. At the end of the piece, when Dan delivered his final speech, I was in tears. I had been moved by the piece in a way that I hadn’t before, and I had been able to understand some of the more complex subtleties of their piece that I hadn’t even noticed before. For me, their piece went through the most profound transformation, and became possibly the most impressive performance of the entire festival.

After describing the experiences of the performances, I feel that I should mention the experience I had of performing in front of the audience. I have already said that the Portuguese culture was a lot more relaxed, both in terms of time and formality. The first performance of the trio started at 9.30pm, which meant that we would usually be finished by around midnight. However, because of the siesta culture, a 9.30 performance is their equivalent of a 7.30 performance for us. It was perfectly acceptable for someone to come in and watch a performance half-way through (all the performances were free-entry) so it would be perfectly normal to have some audience members shuffling around and finding somewhere to sit whilst you were in the middle of performing. And for me personally, I was incredibly surprised by just how relaxed attitudes were in Evora. My piece contains full-frontal nudity for the majority of the piece, and a parental guidance warning had been given before the performance began. Nevertheless, during my first performance, while I was standing completely naked on stage, I looked into the audience and saw a six-year-old boy sitting on his mother’s lap. Both the boy and the mother were completely relaxed. I didn’t really know what to make of this. In Britain I would probably have been arrested for exposing myself in front of a minor. But in Evora they were perfectly happy for their children to watch a fully-grown naked man on stage. I should also add that this was not the only child who came to see my performance. Jose’s 12 year old son was present at the second performance, and there were also a couple of adolescent girls present that night (I noticed them because of the giggling on the back row). This relaxed attitude seemed bizarre to me, but nobody in Evora seemed to mind.

I was also struck by the intelligence of the Portuguese audience. Their English was so fluent that 90% of the audience understood what I was saying without the translation, which was surprising. But what was most surprising to me was how quickly the audience realised that my piece was ironic. They started to laugh at what I was saying from the very start of the piece, before I had said anything particularly funny. They had instantly recognised the ironic tone of the piece, and this made the piece a lot more humorous than it had originally been intended. They were probably the most perceptive and intelligent audience I have ever performed for.

Overall, I would say that this trip to Evora has been a personal success for all of us, and has also enlightened me as a performer. Before this festival, all the work I had made was made for a university assessment, which meant that I had to meet both the marking tutor’s approval and the examination criteria. Even though my piece has not drastically changed since that assessment, the small changes that have been made have been significant. I have altered the ending of my piece to make a more personal connection with the audience. I do this by explaining the meaning of an apple by relating it to one of my childhood memories. I had not done this in my assessment as I was worried that it would make the piece too ‘open’. However, because of the altered ending, and because of my decision to drop the persona and perform the piece with my natural personality, I feel that the piece now has a much more personal resonance, and I have found that the audiences I have performed too have found more meaning in the piece, and have been more profoundly moved by the content of the performance.

All of these changes have been made possible because I am now able to take ownership of my performance. Beforehand my work, whilst still mine and including my own personal input, had also been for the purpose of obtaining a university degree, therefore certain compromises had to be made to fit a marking criteria. But now that I am out in the real world I feel more free and more confident as an artist to shape my work in my own way. This is not to say that I am ungrateful of the help my tutors have given me. On the contrary, my piece would not have been half as intelligent or insightful without the help of my supervising tutors, since they often see opportunities in your performance that you are too close to see. The intelligence of our teachers benefits our work a lot more than we are aware of. But it is worth any CTP student bearing in mind that once you have graduated, and once you have passed your degree and are able to make work in the real world, you are able to take more ownership of your work, and many more possibilities will open up for you. And once that happens, you’ll start to feel like a true artist.

Having recently graduated, I was in that position, which every graduate faces, of facing that black hole of existence. Luckily for me, an opportunity to perform internationally in Evora, Portugal, arose in connection to MMU Contemporary Theatre and Performance. Me, and four of my fellow recent graduates, were invited to perform for two nights on the 7^th and 8^th August there. I just couldn’t turn it down, having missed the opportunity to perform there the previous year.

The Dean of MMU Cheshire was very generous indeed, paying a large contribution towards our travel and accommodation expenses, which sure made it more accessible with my diminished student bank balance/lack thereof. We were all very appreciative of this assistance; it made the opportunity reachable for us all.

Before boarding the flight I knew very little about what to expect there, having not been before. All I knew was that I would be performing my solo performance of ‘So Far West’ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjVvprWnG0U), in which I perform as a ‘real’ life cowboy in a bar environment. I had devised this performance earlier in the year for an assessment project, but bringing it to Portugal and facing a language barrier, was most definitely a new and exciting challenge.

So, I packed up my cowboy hats, my chaps and my hobby horse and rode off into the sunset heading west to Evora. When I finally got there, the real work began… after we tested the pool water out of course… priorities!!

That evening, after a meal at Papa Pizza’s we made our way to the theatre space and I finally got to see the terraced area in which I was performing, which was a great relief for me. We met with Jose, who ran the event in Evora (to which he does a fantastic job) and we talked about the requirements of each of our performances.

At this point, we also met with Vivi Chambel, a theatre student from Evora who was an incredibly talented performer, and English speaker, who would work as our translator over the next few days. I began working with her the following morning, integrating her and her translations into the piece. I had never worked with a translator before so this was a very new and exciting challenge for me, one that made me feel important… important enough to be multilingually understood.

We spent this rehearsal as a time to plot through the performance together and weave Vivi and her translations into the world of the piece. We faced a couple of initially problems, the main being the difficulty to wait for the translation. It is harder than it sounds, ‘say a line then wait for the translation’… but after a while of rehearsing with Vivi it became second nature.

In the evening, our Technical Director, Grace, also a recent graduate of CTP, set up the technical equipment outside with Jose. This helped me to visualise the show at the approximate time of day in which I would be performing it. I was at this point a bit of a ‘diva’, making sure the space looked as good as possible, but hey, in the words of Fairground Attraction, ‘too many people take second best, but I won’t take anything less, it’s got to be-e-e-e-e-e-e perfect!’.

Wednesday soon flew around and next thing you know, show one was upon us. I put on my cowboy costume, picked up my hobby horse and headed out to the streets around the corner in a busy Evorian district where I awkwardly waited for my music que to ride in to. I waited on the corner for a good fifteen minutes looking like some elaborately dressed and overly eccentric prostitute.

The embarrassment at least distracted me from the nerves, I even started to play upon it; striking stereotypical cowboy poses. Innocent Portuguese passers by didn’t know what had hit them when they turned the corner to find a cowboy saying ‘yeehaw’ or playing his harmonica, I enjoyed it though.

The show, which was a real surprise to me, went swimmingly and seemed to be very well received. Through the performance I had managed to gather a substantial crowd of passers by/holiday makers who were intrigued by what this cowboy had to say. They took a short while to warm up but soon began enjoying themselves and playing along with the interaction in the performance. It was also great to have close friends there supporting me too.

My fondest moment of this performance came from the strip tease section, in which I gave a grumpy Portuguese lady, sat on a table of her own, a lap dance. She didn’t seem to be as enthused as the rest of the audience was, but, rumour has it, even she poked a little smile out after I moved on from her.

So, show one seemed to be a success, all I had to do was repeat it. But with a piece such as ‘So Far West’ which is dependent upon audience interaction, repetition isn’t so simple. The Thursday audience were much more troublesome and cheeky, which was stimulating for me in the moment. I had to fall back on some of that ‘improvisation’ stuff!!

Luckily, I had some of that stored up and ready to fire, so in fact the problems the audience threw at me just added to the humour of the piece. For example, when one man called out ‘I’m the only cowboy here’, I turned around to him and said ‘This town aint big enough for the both of us’… and he knew there and then that this cowboy wasn’t to be messed with.

The two performances came at a fantastic time for me and each of the students involved. Bringing work, which we hope to continue to tour in England, to this event, gave us a lot of faith in our performances. We know now that it can work to an audience outside of our group of friends whom we had only performed it to before. From the success of our work in Evora we know that the performances translate to a ‘foreign’ audience… and in this case it was to an audience as ‘foreign’ to us as ‘foreign’ could be.

On top of this, it was an incredibly fun holiday, shared with great friends, with memories that will last a life time. Special thanks to all those who made it possible and all who I shared this experience with.

Adios Amigos Adios,

Paul

When I started my job as a Teaching Assistant in September, I was very fortunate that my Head of Department arranged my timetable so that I supported SEN pupils in quite a lot of Drama lessons. I didn’t have very much training at all and I have been thrown into the deep end with the pupils, but to be honest I think this is the best way to learn!

I feel like I’ve learnt so much about working in secondary schools already, having only being employed for one half term! Having the opportunity to observe teaching styles across the school and across a variety of different subjects is really interesting and I hope this helps to make me an outstanding teacher.

In school, I take every day as it comes. I have a timetable and routines to follow and I can prepare for certain situations to happen but you never know, especially when working with young vulnerable children, what unknown factor is going to blow this preparation out of the water! I think that this attitude has come from my experiences of CTP. Whilst making theatre, we had to embrace the unprepared and improvise with the unexpected. This is something that I think strong teachers definitely need to have an ability to do; improvise with the unexpected. A teacher could plan an outstanding lesson, with objectives and outcomes and differentiation but then some unknown factor could blow up that plan which leaves the teacher to have to deal with the situation and try to get back on track. I learnt in CTP that you have a shared responsibility as a group to overcome the problem and produce an outcome and this is true for my role as the teacher’s assistant; I must help to restore order in the classroom and help the teacher to continue with the lesson plan.

Similarly in my job, I am having to make decisions on the spot all the time and sometimes they prove to be better than the ones I have prepared for. In being able to help the pupil have access to their work, I must use different strategies and methods to allow them to understand it. Some of these strategies and decisions are made impulsively and I have had to use my professional judgement to decide whether or not it was the right action to take. If this was the correct decision, then I must follow through and monitor how the pupil develops with the work. I feel that my ability to make quick, informed decisions and then ‘ride out’ the outcome is something that has come from my experience on CTP of having to let pieces of material develop and then ‘go with the flow’.

Throughout my observations I think that some teachers are too quick to shut down new ideas/strategies/methods without letting them develop and be tested. This practise is something that I learnt in the very beginning of CTP; that the best way to make work was to experiment. In my job, one method may work very well with one pupil but may be a total disaster with another. The only way the teacher will be able to gain a full picture of how well that pupil is working is by trying out different teaching styles. If one method doesn’t go down well then the teacher and I must deal with the consequences and revert back to a more secure method.

As the cliche goes, I am learning something new about this job everyday. I am trying to take in and remember as much as possible but what I am really keen to do is maintain a very open mind and keep experimenting with new approaches.