When I first embarked on this MA I was quite frankly a bit of a mess. I had been out of education for over a year, and although I knew the kind of area my ideal career would be in, I was sure of how to get there.
This MA has taught me how to look at things differently, how to approach and handle new situations, how to throw myself in at the deep end and really go for things that I want to achieve. I have learnt a number of things which I initially thought might not apply to me:
- Personal Branding
- How to blog!
- Business Planning
- How to give a good project and presentation
- How to look for opportunities
When I look back now I realise how much I have achieved through this process, I have been given the motivation to go into situations I never thought of before, such as the Creative Minds Festival. It has provided me with a number of different ways of approaching tasks and projects, and all the lectures we have had have been useful and thought provoking, especially the one about ideas generation. It has also been a brilliant learning curve to surround myself with like minded individuals both from the course, and through contacts I have made during my time on this module, as I now have a network of creative people around me which gives me confidence and which I'm sure will be beneficial to my future work.
The Project:
With regards to the project brief, I felt that although I haven't achieved quite as much as I would have liked to, all the research and planning has led me to a good place to start pushing ideas further.
The initial brief was to use creative ways to find out about communities and how they work so I would have a greater understanding to relate back to my work in the sector. I feel that I have accomplished this as through surveys and interviews I have been able to gain a wide variety of views on the subject of communities, and I now feel like I would be able to more easily interpret the identities of a new group I was to work with, and this work will help me be more confident when going into new situations.
I said initially that I would have like to have a small exhibition of work presented, or a possible performance, and I said from the start that this maybe over ambitious and a little difficult depending on where my research took me and groups that I was able to work with. I would in the future possibly like to progress this project into something like and exhibition or performance as a follow on from the work I was doing. It has forced me to set deadlines for myself, and goals to achieve so I could better myself and my research, and obviously I will keep researching this topic, as there are always new things to discover. I now also have workshops ready which I will hope to test out at the Fringe Festival, and getting feedback from that will also be a important point in helping with the choices I make as I continue on this MA.
Towards the end of my research I discovered an article about the term 'Applied Theatre', its uses, its ideas and whether this kind of theatre has an impact on society.
Now for my I truly believe that Creative Arts cant definitely make a difference to peoples lives. From the early days when I was in my community drama group and was able to build on my confidence, to what I have seen most recently, Theatre definitely has a place as a way to let people express themselves, learn skills and life skills, explore themselves within a safe and secure environment and ultimately create somewhere they can escape and be themselves and not be judged by society. I feel it is so essential and important especially in the lives of those considered to be hard to reach communities, those kind of groups I have had the privilege of working with, the youngsters with difficulties and issues, and the adults with different needs in particular really benefit from having somewhere in their life where they can go and show off their uniqueness and be among friends. That is why letting people have theatre and the arts in their lives is something I am so passionate about as I see how rewarding it is for everyone involved.
As I start to round up and reflect upon what seems like a massive journey since this MA began, I now want to blog about the first book I began to read on this subject. I actually got this book out of the library in September when I first enrolled on the course, before it got put back for a January start. I think this book is inspiring, its intellectually stimulating and it gives a good whole image of the Applied Theatre sector.
Through my research I have tried to research as much as I can that links with Applied Theatre, and explore different mediums of theatre that I am interested in.
Applied Theatre: Applying 'theatre' to any situation, community, group or environment. Taking theatre to a place that it is not usually seen.
Community Theatre: Giving theatre to the masses, working with groups or for groups to tell stories, using drama to teach life skills and deal with issues that maybe effecting groups.
Theatre in Education: Educational, curriculum driven drama.
Verbatim/Documentary Theatre: Theatre derived from 'truth' and reality, facts and testimony to make theatre.
These are the four forms of theatre that are most linked together I believe, and this book gave such depth into what Applied Theatre is, how it came about, and all these books I've been trying to read cover many of the same ideas and issues but all provide me with more knowledge and greater understanding of the subject as they cover a wide perspective of views and opinions.
I have been meaning to blog about this book for a while now. In one of my earlier blogs I discussed the book by Petra Kuppers, Community Performance an Introduction, which had a lot of useful reflective exercises that I had been working on.
A follow on from that also by Kuppers is The Community Performance Reader which gives a more detailed insight into Community Performance practitioners such as my favourite, Augusto Boal, and some other names which I have come across before. It also gives insight into relations, environments for learning, challenges and practices. This is again another book I shall fully be getting to grips with over the summer! I just think if I can get my head around all the different practitioners, noted ones, and more local ones, and immerse myself in readings about the subject then my work will really grow.
Another book which I really think will help to make my work and research concrete together is 'Building the Successful Theater Company' by Lisa Mulcahy Although it is based mainly on American Theatre companies, I think it will help frame my ideas about what it would be like to form a theatre company, and how I would go about this, it would help me to identify key points which I have already begin to discuss further so I could make action plans on everything I would need and possibly start to put these into practice throughout the rest of this MA.
During the course of this module I have learnt some very important things which are relevant to me, which before starting this course I probably wouldn't have thought I would of needed to know.
This has made me re-evaluate the way that I look into my work, and the way I tackle projects. From several of the talks we have had it has prepared me to give everything 110%, and go for every opportunity like you truly believe you are the best person for the job. I think I have grown in both my personal and professional life.
This idea of being fully prepared for everything I am to tackle has led me onto not only fully researching the sector of Applied Theatre, the funding, the venues, but also the production management side of things. I feel that if I was to ever have my own company I would need to have enough knowledge about the production side to, and although I have some experience of costume, set and props and make-up, it is not enough. I feel like I should know more about this subject, including directing, lights, setting the scene. So to help me with these things I have got a beginners book on production management which should give me a good base to go off when researching this area that I'm not so sure of.
Peter Cheeseman is a name I probably should have come across whilst doing my degree at Winchester on a module about Verbatim and Documentary theatre ( making theatre from reality, interviews and the 'truth') but I didn't learn about this person who was so influential to this kind of theatre until I undertook a module with the second year students at Staffordshire University whilst waiting for the MA to start.
Peter Cheeseman is probably the most influential figure in the development of modern documentary theatre, which to me closely links to community theatre. Verbatim and Documentary theatre is the idea of devising a show based on real events, real people, and testimony and interviews about the subject. Probably one of the most famous documentary plays is The Colour of Justice by Richard Norton-Taylor, which is a documentary entirely factual about the Stephen Lawrence enquiry. One of the reasons why Cheeseman is the focal point of the module that they do here is because he developed a substantial amount of work in the area, he also opened the performance centre at the university, and received an honour degree here because of his contribution to the making of British theatre in this area.
One of the reasons I am so intrigued by Cheeseman is that fact that is credited with having pioneered the idea of 'theatre in the round' which is what the New Vic Theatre is known for. Cheeseman set up the original Victoria Theatre in old cinema in Hartshill in 1962, a theatre in the round which is where the audience watching from all sides of the stage, instead of the typical 'procineamah arch' end on theatre where there is an imaginary fourth wall between actor and audience. In 1986 he masterminded the move to the now well known, purposely built in the round, New Vic Theatre,
where I undertake my work placement. I have to say I have never worked 'in the round' before, but the New Vic Theatre is a brilliant space, backstage is like a rabbit warren of props and sets and costumes, and the atmosphere itself on the main stage is astounding, even when watching things in rehearsals stages, and in the grounds there is a separate workspace for community groups, it is very easy to see why Cheeseman was so passionate about this kind of theatre, and why he pioneered the 'theatre in the round', and so became such an influential figure in the theatre world, and in this area in particular.
Guardian Peter Cheeseman Obituary
Staffordshire University Tribute to Cheeseman
Making of the New Vic and Cheeseman
