Archive for the ‘The Play House’ Category

I’m often asked “How do you come up with your programmes?”, “Where do you get your ideas?” The answer is with big bits of paper, marker pens and tea, lots and lots of tea. Oh! And sometimes biscuits too. (Actually the biscuits feature quite heavily.)

I found myself thinking about this as I unloaded the car at our rehearsal room at the start of term. We were beginning to devise On the Edge, our new PSHE programme about community cohesion and the effects of violent extremism. Clutched in my arms were the aforementioned large bits of paper, marker pens and most crucially a kettle.

The importance of tea cannot and must not be underestimated in the creative process. Soon the walls of the rehearsal room would be adorned with the large sheets of paper, held precariously in place with Blu-tack, and covered in brightly coloured scrawling. Aims and outcomes on one sheet, possible characters on another, a timeline with the key events in the gun powder plot here, symbols, graffiti and slogans over there. These are all fundamental in the creation of a programme but it is at the small table in the corner, its legs bowing under the weight of tea, mugs, milk and if we are very lucky some biscuits, that much of the inspiration strikes.

It is at this table we gather when there is a pause in our strutting and fretting to re-fuel and alongside the slurping and munching much reflecting takes place. It may be thoughtful musings on a film or TV programme or it may be indignant ranting about a news story but it all feeds in and connects.

Coffee does not lubricate the wheels of invention to such a degree and it keeps us up all night when we should be dreaming up great programmes.

Of course the process of developing a new programme starts well before arriving at the rehearsal room and curiously enough tea also plays a prominent role. It goes something like this. The whole team from The Play House  get together and put the kettle on and we talk about all sorts of ideas for programmes. They might be a suggestion from a teacher, stories we have read, an opportunity or request to use a specific place or building, something in the zeitgeist, an invitation or a commission to address a particular issue, a curriculum area that we feel has been under represented or an art form we would like to explore. We sound out the nooks and crannies for educational and participatory opportunities, sometimes with members of our teachers group. (I even noticed Jaffa cakes on the table at the last meeting. Is no expense spared? Not when it comes to our teachers group.) And of course the wheels of invention need lubrication, quite a lot of lubrication it turns out.

(How these projects get funded is of course a different story. Deb wrote a blog on this earlier this year if you want to find out more detail, but I should warn you it doesn’t contain nearly the right amount of references to tea as its importance warrants. )

Meetings are set up and held, speculations had, some practical trying out of ideas takes place in which the whole team work together for a day or half day to figure out things like is it possible to replicate the blowing up the Houses of Parliament in a school hall twice daily? Details get thrashed out and thirst gets quenched.

Once the possible parameters of a programme have been wrangled into some sort of shape a “long list” of possible programmes is sent to school and teachers comment on which ones they are most interested in, and of course licking all those stamps is thirsty work. A final short list is drawn up and sent to schools (more stamp licking) and the bookings are made. Our trusty administrator Gavin then pieces together the complex jigsaw that makes up the tour schedules and, oddly enough, needs to be almost constantly refreshed. It’s usually about this time we consider getting an urn. We already have the largest teapot we could find, a fairly recent acquisition, as its predecessor wore out. (You can imagine the anxiety when that news was broken at staff meeting and the frenzied subsequent search for a replacement big enough. Does this give the impression that our staff meetings are like a mad hatter’s tea party? Well I couldn’t possibly comment.)

But if you are passing anytime, drop in, say hello, especially if you have a great idea for a programme. We’d be happy to talk about it with you - the kettle’s always on, and I do mean always. Or you could contact us via the web site, but then you won’t get a biscuit with that, just a cookie!!

Brew anyone?

Whilst we sit here in Brum trying to predict the vagaries of the British summer, some of our colleagues are half-way around the world in Belem, Brazil, for IDEA 2010: the International Drama/Theatre and Education Association World Congress.

The IDEA Congress takes place every three years, and The Play House has been represented at all of them in recent years. Last time in Hong Kong we were successful in an Arts Council bid to mount a tour there and send the whole team out for the Congress itself.

This time representatives from 3 applied theatre companies – Deborah Hull, our Artistic & Educational Director, and Artistic Directors Andy Watson from Geese and Johnny O’Hanlon from HamFisted! – came together to participate.

Contact with the team has been a bit sporadic, but Johnny sent his impressions of Belem itself

What can be said of Belem – aside from the heat ‘cos it’s hot, damn hot…

Belem- once a rich city based on gold and rubber, but now a city of contrasts – beautiful buildings butt up against rotting cement shells of buildings – richer middle class shopping malls the like of which you get the world over next to run down markets -and all the while the amazon river flows its way to the sea…

The smells of the city are pungent and human – and indeed the local population are helpful and friendly – though the crime rate is extremely high – pickpockets and muggings at gunpoint have been reported by people attending this conference…

The team don’t seem to be particularly impressed with the organisation of the conference though, with Deborah reporting it was

poorly organised and [there was] a distinct lack of rigour to much of the conference content

…a view echoed by Johnny. So a bit of a mixed bag, a real shame given that Hong Kong proved a fantastic experience for the company. Then we reported…

IDEA provided a fantastic opportunity for the whole company to take the time to both share and celebrate the considerable achievements of the company as well as to be inspired to continue to develop our collective practice into several new and exciting areas.

Part of the benefit of this type of event is meeting new people, engaging with different companies, and becoming more aware of international developments. And as well as attending Deborah has also presented a paper

 … things [have] been pretty full on during the conference… managed to have several interesting conversations/contacts and the paper went really well. 

The contradictory nature of the event is summed up well by Andy…

Ilana, a Brazilian theatre practitioner currently working in London and working as an interpreter at the IDEA Conference, succinctly summed my experience of the 10 day congress – “Brazil is a country of massive contradictions.” This goes some way to explaining my astonishment at the final, closing celebratory dinner, in which the Bahia Military Police performed the most audacious and spectacular drumming and dance performance I have ever witnessed. Serving police officers singing and dancing a range of classic Portugese songs, African drumming, Afro Brazilian caporera demonstrations, and finally encouraging the whole audience to join them in an extended and energetic Carimbo dance. If this had been presented by professional theatre and dance practitioners it would have been spectacular. The fact that it was presented by serving police officers, and according to Ilana, officers serving in a police force which is notoriously corrupt and alledgedly brutal made the whole experience that much stranger.
 
It served as a good conclusion to a congress that has been incredibly contradictory: in equal parts frustrating and rewarding; confusing and inspiring.

A bit closer to home they’ll be legacy too, as The Play House, Geese and HamFisted! will continue to meet, forming a mini Applied Theatre network. Longer term we hope this will grow and extend networking opportunities provided by the mini-network to include other applied theatre companies based in the West Midlands.

You might have noticed it’s gone a bit quiet recently here on the blog. That’s because we’re working feverishly behind the scenes to create a new improved online experience.

About four months ago I blogged about our success with some Arts Council Digitial Content Development funding (Digital Potentials). The result of that R&D was a new bid to completely change the way we offer resources. No more pdfs hidden behind passwords. All our projects will have their own mini-websites with activities, free to access and use. Interactive resources created for each project. Routes through for teachers, young people and other clients. The ability to comment on resources, and submit your own to make the sites a real collaboration.

We’re happy to report the Arts Council shared our enthusiasm for this project, and have provided the rest of the funding we needed. We’re working with web design company Substrakt and social media consultant Pete Ashton, so over the next few months our resources will be changing, becoming more interactive, responsive and free to use. We’ve been trying out some of these ideas over at our pilot site at http://theplayhouse.schools.officelive.com, where you can find out about the layers of the rainforest, explore the history of Sarehole Mill, or listen to podcasts created by participants in The Home Children.

The plan is that over the years more and more project ‘micro-sites’ will be created to accompany our tours and projects, creating a rich resource of free-to-use activities and information.  After the initial launch the next step will be bringing online activities developed especially for Promethean and SmartBoard Interactive White Boards. We’d really like many of the activities to be suggested or submitted by teachers or students taking part in our projects.

Watch this space!