MIGRATING TO WORDPRESS

I am migrating my current blog to wordpress and although this will be active for the next several weeks, please see latest posts here:

www.longdistanceideas.wordpress.com

Thanks,

Rob.

Collisions, Colloquium Day at CSSD

Last week saw the culmination of months of work and design, curatorial work and detailed communications for the Collisions Festival Colloquium, which was held on Saturday 9th October, at Central School of Speech and Drama. The Brief for the day was to explore: Merging Interactions, exploring new approaches to Dramaturgy, Now and for the Future and involved academic panels alongside practical workshops and installations / performances.

The work of the day was fascinating and built a conversation which I hope will inform the work of the participants over the coming months, both Luis and I admittedly were thrilled to be able to test the brief that we wrote so many months ago now.

The day was documented in part, by the participants, myself and Luis and I have included some of that here, in photographic, youtube and written form.

Dr Fred McVitie's Conference Report Youtube Channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/conferencereport

The day, selfishly was a way of opening up conversations of dramaturgy, sometimes explicitly and sometimes just by experiencing or hearing of the work of our speakers. Dramaturgy in the UK is a concept that due to its lack of history and heritage in our theatre tradition can feel in-accessible, not taught or discussed openly. This is not satisfactory, for me personally, as so much work now more than ever is beginning to push the boundaries of what is performance and in this muddy territory of the deconstruction of performance and the opening up and out towards new audiences and new technologies, who is shaping meaning, controlling understanding?

We have a tradition of the director, the leader of the creative process, however where does the director go when there is no obvious text, no obvious performer and the audience are dispersed, listening on headphones and allowed to roam? Here is where our conversations began to get interesting, Dr McVitie, exposed us to how YouTube is a platform for discussion and performance, the creation of a video of his presentation was part performance, part documentation. Cara Davies took this further by taking us through her various projects that are in themselves part installation, performance, documentation and archive, leading us in with a beautiful presentation of her work.

There is a lot to pick up on and I will be feeding this in via twitter and here on the blog but what I am interested in now is one conversation with Luis whilst waiting for an installation and before closing the day down. We were discussing the nature of the conference vs. the nature of performance - how can a performance conference be performed and how can the content of an academic paper be less performance as research and more research as performance?! I am reminded of the talk given at the CPR Directors Forum with relation to the:

PERFORMANCE STUDIES iNTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE # 15 (HERE)

I then want to explore these propositions / aims of that conference in a new format, to open up a discussion of how academies can inspire the participants and speakers, leaders and performance makers to contribute academic work that is not just the retelling or re framing of practice as academic research but rather extend the performance into the presentation, something like Dr Fred McVitie's work but something that pushes ever further, here is what I am left considering, (taken from the PSi Website for #15)

What determines the success and what is the role of “mistake” as an unavoidable (demystifying) element, not only in the realization of a performance but also in its being perceived, appreciated, understood, and interpreted as performance?

Are there “good” and “bad”, humorous and tragic, ethically and/or aesthetically “acceptable” and “unacceptable” performance mistakes?

The misconstrued, the misinterpreted, the misread, the misunderstood – are these culturally fertile or a threat, a pernicious vehicle of ideological distortions and abuses of power, or a royal road to new perspectives and even to resistance to power?

How do bodies fail to perform not only the heterosexual norms of sex/gender identity, but also their very humanity (malformed, sick and disabled bodies, for instance) in art and life?

How do misapplications of forms hybridize cultural gaps (for instance, in the westernization of the post-socialist East and vice versa)?

How to treat revolution as a performative: hence, what could be termed as a failed revolution – a mis-revolution or a missed revolution?

If we take into consideration Virillio’s idea that “new technologies convey a certain kind of accident, one that is no longer local and precisely situated [...] but general and affecting the entire world,” can we look at new global technologies of power in the light of accident? What is the role of accident and mishap in the new notion of war?

In what ways are previously misfit, liminal, resistant, or counter-performances being appropriated by the art market and institutions, as well as by the academy and the discursive power of theory?

How does misreading contribute to the queering and, moreover, the “evaporation” of a theory?

Performance is intimately related to humor precisely though misperformance. Bergson defined the comic as the effect of mistake, failure, and quite literally, of slippage. What is the place of the comic in contemporary performance practice?

Rob is interviewed by the London Fringe at the August Horseplay

Much Ado About Shakespeare and Devising

It has bee a long time indeed since I have made the time to sit here and write what it is that I am doing right now with concern to theatre. The truth is it is the theatre, the experiences of developing new work, spending time with the RSC and attempting to sincerely approach the art of storytelling that has blocked my reflection here, in this way. Where to begin then when there are so many thoughts? Perhaps I will begin with the most recent, work backwards, (in a fashion) and leave a lot out for now.

To begin then, the RSC and a recent trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon to form a group of emerging directors being treated to tours workshops and discussions with the RSC, meetings with Greg Doran and seeing the current production of Morte d'Arthur. What a whirlwind of Shakespeare and theatre it was. Firstly, I am hugely indebted to the hospitality and the openness, the passion and commitment to Shakespeare that the various staff of the RSC expressed. Being amongst peers and fellow directing students was a rare treat and encouraged conversations within and without the room that felt utterly relevant for now. For example it became quickly apparent that there is an urgent need for a form of storytelling that speaks to a new audience, an audience emerging with me as I develop a practice. My director comrades expressed similar thoughts and were in their own experiences of Shakespeare posing fascinating questions as to the way we approach these so often performed, historic texts.


It is hard to not be impressed by the machinery of the RSC, not the actual metal forming machines but the departments that constitute the behemoth that is an institution at the top of the theatrical funding pile. Does the RSC deserve this place? Does the RSC encounter new work and encourage new approaches? Absolutely, to both. I myself felt that I was singled out by my peers as being on a course, from a school such as Central that seemed at odds with Shakespeare and yet I have this hunch that time spent devising is time well spent indeed. I have a passion for the grand narrative, for the text and yes for Shakespeare and believe that work with debunked may just be the best way to approach these stories.

My time, although brief essentially was a marvellous test of my interest in these stories, in these traditions and also allowed the RSC to position themselves, to encourage passion in me for the benefits the RSC can afford, a theatrical powerhouse indeed but not one that is big enough it is not doing the best work to support artists who are keen to explore what it is that Shakespeare does so well, even when his plays are placed before a contemporary audience.

______________

Then I must naturally move on to the work of debunked, the company I am currently exploring the work of Whose Cloud is it Anyway? with and will be rehearsing for a further month before we show at the People Show Theatre at the end of July 2010.

Take a break and look here: http://www.youtube.com/user/DebunkedTheatre





It is the work in progress showings of Whose Cloud is it Anyway that have taken a lot of my and the free time of debunked away and it is now as we begin to embark upon the next stage of our development that we must take some time to reflect on the work.

The production:

Whose Cloud is it Anyway? is an attempt to comprehend the digital

landscape that exists above our heads. Vast amounts of our data, our

social interactions and information increasingly exist in digital clouds.

Even our books, films and art are being transferred and uploaded by

Google and Apple, who now seek our trust in them as custodians to

the future of our culture. The work in its structure invites the

unknown as much of the material is born out of our play,

improvisation, and constant remixing and questioning of fragmented

narratives. The work exists in multiple spaces, each with its own

character, purpose, and function. Our audiences author the work in

much the same way they navigate the internet.

In one space, we attempt an adaptation of a classical narrative. In

another, we expose the process of the birth of a new work, using the

html coding that is hidden behind a website’s design as an analogy

from which we draw upon. Finally, we look honestly at the design of

the internet itself full of multiple narratives exploring the necessity

for human traces in this digital age, and its impact on our

relationships.

The Company:

Debunked is a diverse collective of performance makers established

out of the MA Advanced Theatre Practice course at Central School of

Speech and Drama. Debunked build work from a sustained open and

shared dialogue. We engage with contemporary debates from the

world we exist in, and our performances evolve constantly, finding

the mode, which can communicate meaning. We question, stretch

and push traditional rehearsal methods in an attempt to debunk how

a devised collective works. The theatre we make poses our own

questions about our collective contemporary existence for an

audience who are invited into the work itself. Our performance

events exist within a context of our digital age, framed by company

relationships and our own experiences.

Rob Drummer Director

Sirichana Prae Homsilpakul Producer

Lauren Irving Scenographer

Jon Mcleod Sound Design

Hyun‐Hwa Oh Video Design

Sian Rees Performer

Elizabeth West Performer

Arezou Ali Performer

Taghrid Choucair‐Vizoso Performer

Whose Cloud is it Anyway? will be

presented at the People Show Theatre

in Bethnal Green on July 28th and 29th.

Please email the company fur further

information.

debunkedtheatre@gmail.com

Co-Authorship Conference Presentation Documentation

Open publication - Free publishing - More theatre

Point of View

I walk past this view every morning, most evenings and stop frequently. I stand where instructed and look at the "Point of View". Something about this incursion into the public space of the pavement in West Hampstead catches my attention always. The labelling of what is an ordinary view, the backs of terraced houses intrigues me. More than this though, I always stop and think, what is the point of view, who does it belong to and who is instructing me to consider the view to be noteworthy?

Is this work, (no 1.1) part of a series, are there more points of view, should I have a reaction and be compelled to consider what it is that is being mapped for me? Further removed from this is the impact such a view and an instruction to view has on my day. I am sat here considering the point of view of a company of individual artists, considering my own point of view within the context of creating performance and my point of view on much else, my own context my own biography. The image above has become a fixed point for much of this thought.

The point of view of the artist, the viewer, the receiver, the spectator, the audience is the centre of my work right now and also focusses a lot of my research into notions of co-authorship and collaboration - which I will try and publish here later in the week. There is also something brilliantly engaging about making a mark on the pavement, in the same was as I can spend a lot of time watching pavement artists on the south bank or in Manchester. Above all of this though it is an attempt to promote the city, to encourage active engagement through looking that sparks my imagination.

This viewing or spectatorship - perhaps only observation is important. This week I travelled to the BAC for the Forest Fringe Microfestival and was expecting to see a lot - to have an opportunity to experience the unique spaces at the BAC in a new way - to view stories and witness performances that have been welcomed in to the many nooks and crannies of the vast building. However, there was something disappointing about the waiting, the looking at the space and wanting it to be filled. The lasting impression I had was the success of the installations, the emails on walls and clothes on hangers with note cards. Beyond this though, due to the organisation of the night and my lack of exposure to multiple works, it was the audience, the crowd that became the fascination. There was an energy in the air, an appetite for performance that was captivating. Many people became familiar faces throughout the three hours or so I spent there and although they all moved on into the night I am reminded of the importance of bringing people together and sharing a point of view.

Whose Cloud is it Anyway?