6 years ago
PARTY by Beaches - Flare Festival 2017
During this year’s Flare Festival, myself and nine others were given the opportunity to perform in an immersive dance performance called PARTY by Beaches.
I found it to be one of the most beautiful shows I have performed in to date, finding myself deeply touched by the content and it’s message.
Below are some thoughts I had put together about my overall experience at Flare:
As a Contemporary Theatre and Performance student, I personally found being a part the Flare Festival 2017 to be an invaluable experience.
As well as being able to perform with one of my favourite theatre companies (one that we learnt a lot about during one of the modules in our first year), I was also able to take on other logistical roles within the festival, giving me a real insight into how this all works in the real world.
I have made more connections and close friendships with both artistes and producers than I could have imagined, which I believe is essential on a course like this. We are very much not taught in a bubble, but rather, are always given the opportunities to partake in what could be called placements, to find a more well-known term. Even within the lessons on campus, a lot of outside artistes/directors are brought in to teach us, which is one of the big reasons I originally fell in love with the idea of this specific course. To be able to watch/be a part of a weeks’ worth of theatre created by these people and others is incredible. It has also shown me first-hand, how massive the contemporary theatre scene is in Manchester, and increasingly how quickly this new and exciting way of working has been spreading to the rest of the country! I wholeheartedly believe that it would be a major mistake, having seen what I have seen, for the university to lose this.
This festival specifically, has been one of the many things that have assisted in not only keeping my passion for theatre growing, but also allowing me not to go out into the working world blind after what will be my three years at university.
I had a wonderful time and would not hesitate to keep going back again and again, even just to watch and support the work that is on if nothing else.
6 years ago
To end the week we were invited to watch two performances.
The first was a rehearsal for a piece the second years are performing tomorrow, as we leave. I enjoyed the piece but came to the realisation that it was because I couldn’t understand any of it. The masses of text spoken in Portuguese meant nothing to me, but paired with the actions and expressions I could then begin to understand what they were trying to put across. It was great to see them work after them watching us.
The second piece was ‘Necrose’ performed by Apollo Neiva. He was one of the students we had gotten to know and he had invited us especially. It was not a piece for university but something he was doing in his own time. He even made us a booklet with the translation of his text which was incredibly thoughtful. In this huge empty factory space there was set up a table with some pill bottles and a bottle of Martini, also a chair and a wash basin. We were sat gathered on the floor around him. He had taken text from 4.48 Pschosis, Sarah Kane and The Hamletmachine, Heiner Muller. The piece began as he crossed the space, shaving his head. It explored gender, he was both feminine and masculine in equal part and it was stunning to watch. The sheer strength and courage that he had really shone through.
It was incredible to watch such an intense piece. I feel that sometimes in our course we steer clear of creating really shocking work because it is stigmatised as being ‘for the mark’. But this work was just real, it wasn’t for a grade it was just something he had wanted to create. I think that is something I should learn. Theatre for theatres sake rather than theatre to get a first.
This trip has been incredibly humbling, because although we came over to perform our work, we have actually learnt so much from our new friends. It stopped being about us putting on a show and actually about the bond we now have with the students here. And a new bond with each other. I think the turning point was the workshop, sharing energy with all these people and creating something together made this trip about so much more than just my own solo.
It was difficult to say goodbye. We couldn’t have asked for more welcoming, charming and funny people to spend our time with. But hopefully it’s only goodbye for now.
via ctp-portugal
6 years ago
We were invited to a workshop with some
of the Portuguese first years, led by Maria a graduate we had met at our shows. We went out to this massive old factory which is their work space, it’s incredible with so much scope for being an amazing performance space, but they say although it looks interesting it is rather impractical. The floors make noise, and their black box studio isn’t a black box as the floor is blue. The workshop didn’t start until 21:30 because before that the heat is far too much. There were four first years from the university and four of us so it was a good mix. A lot of the work we did was similar to work we have previously done with Leentje, feeling each other’s energy, moving in time with each other but there was something special about it. At the end Maria talked about how beautiful it was that we were all sharing energy despite being from different places.What really struck us was the difference in how they interacted with each other. They were all touching each other, and being close and affectionate with no sexual connotations. At one point Maria took off her top, and later told us normally they all stripped down to the bare minimum but the others had kept clothes on because we were there. It was so interesting to see the difference in how the body is viewed. For the students in Évora being naked isn’t seen as a sexual thing. Even if in a piece of theatre we make in Manchester the nudity is not meant to be sexualised, in our culture it is shocking and almost always leads to the assumption of sex. Or baring skin is an issue because of people’s insecurities. The students said they do a lot of work on nudity so it isn’t an issue to them, I guess it’s something they overcome quickly. It would be brilliant to work with them more to see how comfortable we could become in our own skins, and how much more we would trust each other.
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6 years ago
Sunday nights performance came incredibly quickly not leaving me with much time to mentally prepare myself. Because of this, once we had rushed about getting everything set up, I took five minutes to myself to remind myself of why I’d wanted to make this piece in the first place. This was something that had also worked for me a lot during the process of the creation.
I felt as if the night went incredibly well compared to the rehearsal we’d had the day before. Like many of the group, I had been worried about the messages within my piece not quite landing with the Portuguese audience due to the fact that I play on a lot of double meanings within language or I would shy away from saying things too directly. However, from the feedback/post performance discussion, this wasn’t the case. The students were very connected with each one, speaking to us in depth about the pieces. They said to me that they really loved the structure of the piece and thought that the calmness of the surroundings juxtaposing the shocking language took them on a journey, also making them think about how desensitised we all are to these issues nowadays.
Having worked in the space and performed it to an audience now, I feel that the changes I made such as slowing it down and coming on with the ice cream rather than producing it from my bag at the end worked. For next time however, I would like to find areas where I could pause more and allow the audience to hear the waves.
via ctp-portugal
We got into the space at 10:30am today so that we could run the whole showcase as if it were the actual thing. This was done with all of the props in place and in full costume.
During this rehearsal, we also sorted out any of the previous technical difficulties.We left with a generally good feeling, having been given the time to put into practice all of the previous notes we had been given. The tech run also went without a hitch due to a new projector replacing the previously faulty one.
The one thing we need to make sure is in place and working tonight is the sound system. This is simply because we will be setting up the machinery elsewhere and would need to reconnect everything in an unfamiliar setting. However, José has assured us that all will be working by this evening. We have also made the decision to adjust the lighting rig slightly for our second performance on Wednesday. Tonight however we’ll just adjust ourselves.The running order for tonight is as follows:
Holly Mumford- Orthology
Heidi Henders - Norma Jean’s Gone
Gabrielle Benna - The Hand of Fatima (or The Process as it has been marketed as in Évora)
Grace Knowles - He, She and Me
via ctp-portugal
6 years ago
Our first full day in Evora began with a well needed lie in and half a day to explore the city! We decided to become typical tourists and head towards the ruins of the old city as seen in the photos! The Public Library and Museum of Evora were really interesting for us to learn about the culture and history of the place we were in. They provided cooler alternatives to the 40° weather!
Before long it was 3 o'clock and it was time to begin working in the space and working through our pieces with Jane, Leentje and José as well as feedback from each other. We spent about 30-45 mins on each piece and worked through spacing arrangements and the technical difficulties. Each piece was given notes and the overall theme being to relax into the role of who we are trying to play and become familiar with the space. Below are the notes that had been given later after the rehearsals.Heidi - A clearer definition between herself and Marilyn Monroe.
- Trying not to hover around the space, making more use of the walls for poses!Gabby - Not to “perform” the piece
- Slow down and allow moments for the audience to enjoy the peformance
- Bringing ice cream on at the beginning
- Holding signs up at the beginning to show the audience.Grace - Use of the microphone
Holly - Not to “perform” the piece
- Slow down the text and spend time on specific words. Elongating words and shortening words.
via ctp-portugal
With a brutal 4 o clock alarm, and a taxi that didn’t come you could say we were stressed as we began our journey to Portugal.
But soon, without too much more hassle, we were up in the air leaving Manchester!
As we arrived in Evora the heat hit us. We later found out it was hotter here than it was in Africa. Heidi was absolutely baffled that that could be possible!
In Evora, we met José and his son. He showed us around the town, to the church we will be performing in (Church of São Vicente) and around the arts building in the university.
Over a drink we talked to José about our course, the work we will be putting on and fidget spinners.
In our free time in the evening we explored more of Evora.
via ctp-portugal
6 years ago
OUR TRIP TO ÉVORA «
Watch this space here for blog posts about taking our solos (including, The Hand of Fatima) to Portugal!
6 years ago
Comments on Congleton
Congleton was an amazing opportunity and I’m very happy to have been a part of it. It has allowed me to both improve my solo work (due to the changes I had to make with it being site specific), and make some very valuable connections. The Electric Picture House have already told myself and the group I was with that if we ever wanted to tour any other work that we could always book a slot with them. Everything, was extremely well organised and went by without a hitch. I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say that we are incredibly privileged to have been able to go.
6 years ago
Congleton
As part of Electric Picture House’s, “Hidden Spaces” event, I am set to perform, The Hand of Fatima.
There are a few changes that I am needing to make, due to the fact of this performance being site specific, therefore not allowing me to use anything majorly technical.
At the moment I am thinking of:
- Cutting the voice over section about conspiracy theories at the beginning.
- Either, starting with the signs on the ground, or having them strategically placed in areas of the garden, leading up to where I will be.
- I’ve bought spare cards for the signs in case in rains in this performance, as I will also be taking the show to Portugal in June.
- Changing the second to last line to, “do you hear it?” or “do you hear that?” as I was never comfortable with that line anyway and it is a moment in which the audience can just listen to the nature around them. This would hopefully have the same effect as my original showing of this piece was supposed to have with that bit in silence, but unfortunately it didn’t happen on the night.
- I will be slowing the piece down in general.
- I may be altering the ice cream section near the end of the script, adding in bits from the old story I wrote, without making the whole section completely obvious to the audience. This is because Calum suggested to all of us, that some of the audience may not have ever seen a piece of theatre before and won’t be as inclined to dig deep and analyse everything as the contemporary scene do. He says we can afford to help them a little bit, so that what we’re doing has the time and space to allow them to process it all.