Tell Tale Hearts

I went along to a seminar titled, ‘the abstract versus narrative in dance for young people’.  I have always been fascinated by this opposition in theatre for early years.  The way the infant brain develops makes them an ideal audience for abstract theatre – theatre which exists moment by moment rather than following a linear story or narrative.  Surely, contemporary dance has a lot in common with a more abstract approach?  It was an interesting discussion, but I found myself getting cross at times as the discussion moved to encompass the conceptual – which I see as distinctly different to the abstract in theatrical terms.  The question arose; ‘does the children’s lack of engagement with a conceptual dance piece mean it is unsuitable for young audiences?’  Some seemed to think that even though the young people clearly were rejecting the experience, they were still somehow getting something from it, and that was valid!  Personally I find this argument poppycock!  If you want to make dance or theatre for young people then you need to listen to them as an audience – not ignore them and think you know best!

play session after Me You Us

Out door art work outside dansens hus

What seems important to me is the ‘game’.  If you get the game right for the age group, then you can build your performance however abstractly you like.  If you ignore the game, I think you are missing a fundamental means of communication for a younger age group.  The game is in the theatrical conceit itself – so for me the more that children are invited into the game that is theatre -the more successful the interaction and engagement.  For me the most successful shows at the festival clearly demonstrated this;

‘Aston’s Stones’ – the game between the son and his parents as he collects more and more stones and how they impact upon the adult’s world and rituals.

‘The Imaginary Book’ – the game between the clowns – who will get the book and do they dare to open it?

‘Me you us’ – the game of you watching me, and me watching you makes us!  The game of self discovery and the world around us.

‘Berlin, 1961’ – Even though this show was for older audiences, there was still clearly the theatrical game between audience and performers as they expertly exploited theatrical conventions drawing attention to the inventiveness of the staging/dramatization whilst never losing the tragic/comic tension.

‘White’ – the game of what colour means in a white world and where it might be found next!

Not all the festival is about shows!  There are so many discussion groups, seminars, workshops, etc that it is a mammoth task to select your daily activities.  I happened to choose a great 2 day workshop with Gabriel Hernandez from Columbia now living in Spain called, ‘The Poetics of the senses’ – A sensorial theatre.

The workshop participants from across the world

I wanted to explore how promenade/multi sensory and individual interactive theatre could be used for young children – and how better than to explore this than with one of the world’s leading companies who work in this field for adults, young people and now also with children.  After spending several hours working physically, with blind folds, touch and smells the group became incredibly well bonded!  No matter the language or experience of the participants; venue programmers, academics & directors mixed with artists from far reaching parts of the world – Japan, USA, Australia, Ireland, UK and Denmark – brought together through a sensory as well as intellectual experience.

At the end of the workshop we had to create our own journey for an audience member that would culminate in the discovery of an object that we had been asked to bring in.  We would take one person at a time, and we had to:

-         1) Make them (the audience member) curious

-         2) Guide them on a journey we had planned for them

-         3) Involve some of the senses

-         4) Reveal the object we had chosen

I learnt an enormous amount from this exercise.  It was great to give the audience a role from the beginning.  Keeping them curious was about not giving them all the information at once but letting it trickle through.  Using the way in which you guided them as part of the narrative of the journey.  So that this doesn’t sound too academic here’s a practical example of what I did:

1)         Treated the audience member as if they were the most amazing person in the world.

Explained how special they were, and how everyone was so excited to see them…

2)& 3) Using a blind fold as if I were arranging their outfit for a special occasion, etc… I led them

down a long corridor to a space that I had set up as an altar.

4)         I had chosen a necklace to use as the object and the final ‘arrival’ was achieved by singing, ‘here comes the bride’ and placing the necklace around the audience member’s neck once I had removed the blind fold.

Obviously there are lots of ways I could improve this sequence but I found it so insightful – how wecan create suspense for the audience and make them the protagonist in the story.  There are lots of parallels for me with young children.  Not least because Astrid will be a bridesmaid this summer and currently loves playing the marrying game.  When adults are playing with young children on a one to one basis we are often using role pay with the child as the protagonist and director of the game.  Embellishing their game by treating it as a reality, taking them seriously when they role play the character of the bride, mother, dad, dragon, princess, etc… that’s what makes the game such fun for them to play with adults!  It has given me all sorts of ideas for our plans for ‘Inside Out’!

3^rd instalment – The power of an imaginary book

I was intrigued by the write up of ‘The Imaginary book’ – some of the ideas seemed very similar to our show, ‘Donkey Haughty’ when we used to make work for adult audiences and in the days when I used the run the company with Isabel Caballero.  Companyia de Comediants La Baldufa, however, were far more successful in their exploration of the idea of one of the characters living through the stories in the book in a 2D way – through shadow puppetry, cut outs and film.  However, the atmosphere and self -consciously theatrical devices were quite similar – so for me that was quite interesting to observe.

http://www.assitej2011.info/side.asp?lang=3&side=15&id=272

Astrid working on her own imaginary book!

The four performers were masters of clown and commedia del arte.  The boring lives of the ‘workers’ all dreaming of the same car was both funny and thought provoking.  The grey world changed into one of colour once the feared book was opened – and what a wondrous world was created.  Personally I loved the first story best – the one of the 2 boys – one royal, one peasant, both enjoying playing together was clearly really strongly connected to children – both Astrid and Otto responded fantastically to this story and it stays with them even now, the moment when the 2D queen drinks the 2D glass of poison and the 2D queen is spun around to reveal a grey version with her eyes closed got Otto to spontaneously say, ‘Dead now!”  It was great to see my 2 year old read such sophisticated theatrical language, and reminds us not to under estimate their understanding!!!  The most beautiful image of the whole show for me was when they treated the exquisite shadow puppet of the Indian elephant as if it were a piece of visual art.  The shadow puppet was puppeteered infront of the shadow screen and was lit by theatre lantern (by one of the performers) as the puppeteer manipulated the elephant in front of the audience casting it’s colourful shadow upon the theatre walls and faces of the audience! A wonderful and enriching end – literally spelling out these are your stories now, take them with you and imagine…!  I am quite sure that every child that has the chance to see this show will be inspired to hear more stories and explore more books.  I thought it would particularly resonate with young boys aged 5 – 8 years – it felt like a great show for the boys with plenty of physical action and strong male performers to identify with.  Of all the pieces Astrid saw as part of the festival – this one has stayed with her most – it has been the most talked about since returning too.

Asrid’s blog on ‘An imaginary Book’

“The third show was a Spanish show called The Imaginary Book.  The queen was killed by green poison.  I laughed a lot.” – Astrid Jensen aged 5 years.

2^nd Blog – A day of rain but an island in summer

Travelling across Copenhagen by bus I arrived at the TYA-UK breakfast meeting, where everyone agreed that the festival was too spread out – they needed to provide bars on the trains for conversation and drinking to take place!  One concern that has stayed with me since that meeting is why TYA-UK is not taken more seriously by Assitej as a whole and why the result of the well planned bid to host the world congress for 2011 received so few votes?  Plenty to discuss here!

A view from the bridge - Malmo

Setting off with Ellen from Sparks we made our way to the large arts centre venue right by the harbour for ‘Island in summer’ by Creative Association Nomadi – part of the Nordic/Baltic focus.  It was somewhat difficult to watch the show, so clearly intended for young children without any children there at all, but there was much to like in the piece as a whole – every beach strewn, seemingly random object had its place in the telling of the story – but for me it was all a bit too busy.  A one woman show with a lot of nervous energy and not enough precision started to make me doubt the skills of the performer.  I know other delegates loved this quality and felt it reflected children’s own play with such objects. For me, though, I wanted to believe in the lives of the characters created; the grand mother and the father and I am not sure the children had enough information themselves to really invest in these key characters to the story.  If there is a puppeteer on stage I do want at some time to be impressed with their puppeteering skills – just as I would expect to be impressed with the dance skills of a dancer in a piece of dance theatre for children.  I would have loved to have known what Astrid and Otto made of this show – but they were too busy in Tivoli to make time for theatre that day!

A view of Copenhagen harbour in the rain

Astrid and Otto went to Hatching Day by Taetteri Sudenenne – which they both clearly loved. It really captured Otto’s imagination and kept talking about spiders and bugs throughout the week!  For Astrid’s blog see below:

Astrid’s blog on ‘Hatching day’:

“The second show was called Hatching Day.  It was from Finland.  A little bug came alive.  It made me want to smell flowers!” – Astrid Jensen aged 5 years

Welcome to the first instalment of the Assitej world congress blog.  It’s strange to be writing about arriving at a festival when you have just returned from it, but it was impossible to write a blog whilst at the event itself partly because of all the travelling and orienteering involved.  Steve Ball from Birmingham Rep, said that this festival had been knick named the ‘orienteering festival’ and faced with 2 countries, 2 major cities and 2 very different transport networks you can see why!

Suitcases at bus stop in CopenhagenOn the train!