Namaste!
I caught up with our show Mullered by Clifford Oliver yesterday at Little Ilford School in Manor Park. Its always a deeply grounding experience to be out with the team at a school performance. It takes me back to the heart of what we do and why we do it. The team is out there in the London community every day with the piece, engaging with young people through performance. Its powerful stuff and I love to experience the transformation that theatre brings into a space with them.
The audience I watched yesterday were 11/12 year olds in year seven. Indeed the teacher told me that it was a less able group. I think she imagined that we might struggle with them, as she said their attention span is limited. But not so yesterday. They bought into the story, the characters, the themes and were forthcoming in their thoughts about the issues. Its a joy to see the opportunity that comes to debate and express themselves through the drama. It makes the whole at times tough endeavour worth it. We are blessed with a committed and talented team, ably led by Natalie Dacosta. She knows how to invite young people into a discussion in which their ideas and feelings are honoured and heard. I am very proud of her and the team of Karl, John and Jordan. I never have to worry about them, they are consumate performers and educators.
It was an interesting afternoon too, with a meeting back at the Malthouse with colleagues working together on how we can ensure quality experience and engagement in the arts with young people. We have to think about new and exciting ways to do this, and of course this was interesting for me having just come from one such engagement at Little Ilford.
But the evening proved to be even more interesting. I went to a seminar given by the Arts Council at the Broadway for potential applicants to their Grants For All awards. Most people attending were emerging artists looking for a source of funding to make their work. It was a good session, heated and robust at times. For me it mostly raised questions though about the nature, form and content of what work we choose to make as artists. Its easy in the pursuit of funding to get over burdened with fitting the funder's criteria which the Arts Council acknowledges. Often we can experience a pressure to simply conform and fit these essential measures, and indeed I am in agreement with many of them, not least that art should be for everyone. But in deliberating over this at times what worries me is that something of the essence of making art is also in danger of being lost. In our attention to outcomes, numbers, demand and participation, we can also lose sight of the drive that gives rise to the artistic idea and expression itself. We learn how to complete forms, give evidence of quality, but the space for exchanging and sharing ideas is scant. Ok, that's maybe not the purpose of a funding workshop, but it begs the question for me of where is the forum for artists to talk to each other informally about their projects, ideas and dreams?
Artists are generally by nature somewhat anarchic, and its this very anarchy which is both what funders want to see and are at the same time frightened by it would seem.
For me the key issue in making new work, ceaselessly generating new ideas that excite, absorb and engage is in the questions we pose. In embarking on a new piece of work, what is the compelling question? We may have an idea of the direction of travel, but the likelihood if its authentic is that we won't know the final destination until we get there. That's hard and may sound vague and may be difficult to guarantee. But all good art is like that. Funders take a leap in the dark with public or trust money in the partnership to make new work. God forbid it might fail and then who is accountable? I do not underestimate the imperative for guardianship of the public purse, but I also urge a loosening of the straightjacket!
I was exercised by the session, both frustrated by the lack of space to share ideas, but also excited about the possibility of new artistic collaborations. And those artists interested in asking the questions naturally sought each other out to make that connection.
One of the things I love about Poland is the normality of sitting with other people in a cafe or a bar to share ideas, discuss with animation the things that give rise to the motivation to make new work. How one idea gives birth to another, one person shares something you have never considered and invites you to take off in a new direction. The stuff of life is examined and we leave richer for it (if sometimes a bit worse for wear!)
So it was with this zeal (haha!) that I went to the pub with my colleague Carl to have such a discussion. He is a leader in the voluntary sector, cares passionately about justice and fairness and fights tirelessly for people's right to live their potential. I got what I deserved for having suggested at the meeting that we only need to know our question in order to motivate our creative thinking. So over a class of wine Carl asked me a fundamental question to which I had no simple answer but which cut straight to the heart of what I do and why I do it. He asked 'why do you feel the need to express yourself through your art publicly?' Inherent in this question for me is something stinging - ie; are we as artists navel gazing by nature, so wrapped up in our own biography that we have the audacity to think that anyone else might be remotely interested in what exercises us? Perhaps even a hint that we might be self indulgent?
Of course there is a truth in the navel gazing suggestion - and indeed it can't be denied that we do express ourselves through our work, where else does it come from but our unique experience? This experience isn't just about the everydayness of our lives, but the bigger themes too that impact on everyone, politics, family, education, love and loss. My tentative response is that we are simply lightening rods and channels for a collective human experience, told through our own particular lens.
In my last blog I talked about the actor's need to be curious about experience, and through friendship and love to gather understanding and to expose themselves to the contradictions of emotion and reflection. Anything at all can preoccupy an artist, a simple moment in a supermarket, something on the news or the reading of a novel. Its all material. I find that loss and grief are equally if not more powerful in their demand for attention and they are a rich source of new ideas. I seek these experiences in others and myself because they speak to us all.
My very first one woman play Fallen was born out of a curiosity from reading an article in the Sunday Times about a young woman in Ireland who had murdered her child. Her tragic story drew me and my collaborators to visit her, to get an insight into her life that had universal qualities, not disimilar to the big themes of Greek tragedy. Joanne's pain, sacrifice, motivations are the stuff of complex lives. And their truth is something hard to face, unpalatable and frightening. But ultimately rich and the source of a new show that speaks to others of experiences unknown but yet familiar. We hold up mirrors don't we?
So on a bit of a soap box this morning I will leave it here for the moment. I will talk more though in my next blog about the drive to give birth to ideas for new work that come from the darker side of our experiences as human beings!
On that note, cup of coffee and the news I think. That will cheer me up! And then off to a seminar on accessing European funding. Ah this is the life!
Have a good day.
 |
| Natalie in full swing with Year 7 |
It was an interesting afternoon too, with a meeting back at the Malthouse with colleagues working together on how we can ensure quality experience and engagement in the arts with young people. We have to think about new and exciting ways to do this, and of course this was interesting for me having just come from one such engagement at Little Ilford.
For me the key issue in making new work, ceaselessly generating new ideas that excite, absorb and engage is in the questions we pose. In embarking on a new piece of work, what is the compelling question? We may have an idea of the direction of travel, but the likelihood if its authentic is that we won't know the final destination until we get there. That's hard and may sound vague and may be difficult to guarantee. But all good art is like that. Funders take a leap in the dark with public or trust money in the partnership to make new work. God forbid it might fail and then who is accountable? I do not underestimate the imperative for guardianship of the public purse, but I also urge a loosening of the straightjacket!
I was exercised by the session, both frustrated by the lack of space to share ideas, but also excited about the possibility of new artistic collaborations. And those artists interested in asking the questions naturally sought each other out to make that connection.
One of the things I love about Poland is the normality of sitting with other people in a cafe or a bar to share ideas, discuss with animation the things that give rise to the motivation to make new work. How one idea gives birth to another, one person shares something you have never considered and invites you to take off in a new direction. The stuff of life is examined and we leave richer for it (if sometimes a bit worse for wear!)
So it was with this zeal (haha!) that I went to the pub with my colleague Carl to have such a discussion. He is a leader in the voluntary sector, cares passionately about justice and fairness and fights tirelessly for people's right to live their potential. I got what I deserved for having suggested at the meeting that we only need to know our question in order to motivate our creative thinking. So over a class of wine Carl asked me a fundamental question to which I had no simple answer but which cut straight to the heart of what I do and why I do it. He asked 'why do you feel the need to express yourself through your art publicly?' Inherent in this question for me is something stinging - ie; are we as artists navel gazing by nature, so wrapped up in our own biography that we have the audacity to think that anyone else might be remotely interested in what exercises us? Perhaps even a hint that we might be self indulgent?
Of course there is a truth in the navel gazing suggestion - and indeed it can't be denied that we do express ourselves through our work, where else does it come from but our unique experience? This experience isn't just about the everydayness of our lives, but the bigger themes too that impact on everyone, politics, family, education, love and loss. My tentative response is that we are simply lightening rods and channels for a collective human experience, told through our own particular lens. In my last blog I talked about the actor's need to be curious about experience, and through friendship and love to gather understanding and to expose themselves to the contradictions of emotion and reflection. Anything at all can preoccupy an artist, a simple moment in a supermarket, something on the news or the reading of a novel. Its all material. I find that loss and grief are equally if not more powerful in their demand for attention and they are a rich source of new ideas. I seek these experiences in others and myself because they speak to us all. My very first one woman play Fallen was born out of a curiosity from reading an article in the Sunday Times about a young woman in Ireland who had murdered her child. Her tragic story drew me and my collaborators to visit her, to get an insight into her life that had universal qualities, not disimilar to the big themes of Greek tragedy. Joanne's pain, sacrifice, motivations are the stuff of complex lives. And their truth is something hard to face, unpalatable and frightening. But ultimately rich and the source of a new show that speaks to others of experiences unknown but yet familiar. We hold up mirrors don't we?So on a bit of a soap box this morning I will leave it here for the moment. I will talk more though in my next blog about the drive to give birth to ideas for new work that come from the darker side of our experiences as human beings!
On that note, cup of coffee and the news I think. That will cheer me up! And then off to a seminar on accessing European funding. Ah this is the life!
Have a good day.
