Tutorials with Former Teachers! Blog 62

Namaste!

My great weekend in Exeter is almost over and I am catching the coach back to London this morning. The light in the west is always so beautiful and the sunrises spectacular. Yesterday was sunny and crisp for most of the day.

I find it wonderful to come back to my roots from time to time, because it reminds me of things often largely unconscious now. I guess like with any skill its easy to forget that you ever learned it because it becomes so much a part of your identity that its akin to breathing. 

Hulton HQ

Sitting with Dorinda and Peter in their dining room talking about last night's show and what projects we are doing intermingled with inevitable silliness, reminded me that this was one of a thousand such conversations around this table over the past 30 years or so. 

Peter and I got to talking about his original Theatre Papers project and I mentioned that I often reference them here in my blog. I now have the correct website for people who are interested in the digitised versions of the papers going back to 1977. I highly recommend the series which captures interviews and practice with many theatre makers throughout this period. They give personal and creative insights into practitioners' work that we rarely get access to elsewhere.

Peter Hulton

A R T S A R C H I V E S - An international digital moving image resource for performance practice research – is a Council of Europe initiated not-for-profit project with copyright held on behalf of the contributors.  http://www.arts-archives.org/cat.htm

The conversations with Peter and Dorinda are always wide ranging, funny and inquisitive. Peter regales me with funny moments from his wanderings and conversations with artists.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Presence-Actor-Joseph-Chaikin/dp/1559360305

He tells me a story about interviewing Joe Chaikin in Paris in the seventies. Chaikin (1935-2003) is another luminary of theatre direction and his legacy is woven into much contemporary american performance work. His work at the Open Theater is chronicled in his book 'The Presence of the Actor' another essential read for any student of drama. There are many connecting elements in Chaikin's work and that of Peter Brook.


Open Theater allowed Chaikin and his colleagues the space to experiment with unconventional and organic drama techniques. They embraced dance and musical performance practices and encouraged actors to be more expressive in the body. When asked in a 1999 interview why he was compelled to start Open Theater, Chaikin responded, "I’m not crazy about naturalism on stage. An actor is an interpretive artist. They can take their talent further. I wanted them to stretch, be creative." (Wikipedia)

Peter (not Brook!) and I had actually been talking about the problems in the catholic church and what our initial impressions were of the new pope. This led to talking about the connections between religion and theatre - that old chestnut! And this in turn led to Peter telling me about his conversation with Chaikin. Apparently Joe Chaikin was never a well man and Peter found himself sitting by his bed in Paris for this interview. 

According to Peter,Chaikin had a long and robust correspondence with Samuel Beckett in the sixties, and was curious about how this vehement atheist would always sign off his letters with God Bless.  He told Peter that this had exercised him for many years, as it seemed to fly in the face of Beckett's avowed faithlessness as most of his plays, and in particular Waiting For Godot are testament to. Chaikin told Peter that he eventually plucked up the courage to confront Beckett on this and Beckett waved it off as inconsequential, and simply a platitude spoken unconsciously by most Irish people in passing the day.

We didn't attempt to draw any conclusions from this - but it prompted a further discussion about the power of unconscious language in shaping culture and performance. 

Our conversation paused with the arrival of Dorinda with her delicious home made broccoli and yogurt soup (to die for!). 

Peter T and Dorinda: Tutorial!

In the afternoon we wandered up to see my old Professor of Drama Peter Thomson - and again over a coffee we had another conversation about the Alibi show Old Curiosity which Peter had seen last week. 

Its funny but however many years have passed since I was a student, Peter is still my teacher and I find myself feeling just as I did in a tutorial with the two of them! Its great fun. The conversation doesn't run out even after 30 years and I don't have to pay any student fees either! (not that we did then - sore point for our younger colleagues, sorry!)

Peter is widely published on theatre practice with his work on Brecht probably his best known. Again a must for drama students. 

Dorinda and I stayed with Peter for about an hour, of which most discussion was centred on Old Curiosity shop, Dan's script and the nature of melodrama!

A lovely walk in the sunshine culminated in tea and biscuits back at Hulton HQ.

What a great weekend! 

Have a lovely week all.