Playing a Villain! Blog 31

Iago: Othello

Good morning,

I was still musing about the Stanislavksi questions when I woke up this morning. And it led me to thinking about the actor's approach to playing heroines and villains. Yesterday I was talking about motivation and of course there are as many motivations as their are people! But the good/evil. yin/yang, Satan/God duality is what gives any of our drama (and often our lives!) the possibility of unleashed conflict, which in drama often turns to tragedy. Without conflict we would have no theatre.

Actors always particularly like playing villains in my experience. There is something deeply satisfying about being booed in a panto, or vilified by an audience when playing Caliban or Iago! And you can really let rip on the 'dark' side of the character's personality, relish in the plotting and deceiving motivations and all that goes with it. I suspect we like that as its a great release from being good, but with permission to be bad.  

In pursuing this and any other character research an actor could benefit from a look at the work of  Carl Jung. (26 July 1875 - 6 June 1961). His work is another great resource for actors and directors . He was a Swiss psychotherapist and psychiatrist who founded analytical psychology.He proposed and developed the concepts of the extraverted and introverted personality, and 
argued that all humanity inherits shared unconscious ideas and archetypes about roles. His work has been influential in psychiatry and in the study of religion, literature and related fields. 

I use archetypes extensively in my work as another entry point for character, and find it powerful in enabling the actor to locate the core shape and qualities that might be attributed to the character they are to play. 

Thinking about villains in particular I always come back to Iago, who is arguably Shakespeare's best villain. I have always found him fascinating, attractive at the same time as riven with a corrupt heart.

One role that Jung studied in particular is that of the Trickster. The Trickster is the archetype of a character that continuously breaks rules and tests boundaries through trickery and stealing. Human activities, even in the modern world, have archetypal correspondences in myth. Shakespeare’s character Iago is the Elizabethan trickster. He has uncontrollable expressions and crosses boundaries with his cunning actions and ability to weave stories together.

Although Iago is human and doesn’t have the mystical power of shape-shifting, he transforms himself through words depending on his agenda and his audience.  Iago’s obscurity comes from his motives. Although he gives many potential options, the audience can never fully understand his reasons for wanting to destroy Othello. Although adapted by cultures, the Jungian archetype of the trickster transcends time and Iago inherits ancient trickster attributes centuries after they were first introduced.

Iago: 

I am not what I am

Othello Act I.1.59-66

Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago;

In following him, I follow but myself.

Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,

But seeming so for my peculiar end.

For when my outward action doth demonstrate

The native act and figure of my heart

In complement extern, ‘tis not long after

But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve

For daws to peck at. I am not what I am.

Using the Trickster archetype to explore Iago enables the actor to access rapidly a huge resource of data and experience that he can bring immediately to bear in his deepening excavation of the role.

By making the attributes of this explicit the actor quickly internalises most of Iago's motivations. He believes that honesty and weakness walk hand in hand. To him, individuals who “demonstrate / The native act and figure of my [their] heart / In complement extern” leave their heart for “daws to peck at”. 

In stating this, Iago reveals his fear of honesty. If Iago were to communicate his truthful, honest, “native” feelings to Othello, he would be opening himself to criticism. After all, Iago has been disappointed by the appointment of Cassio. 

To Iago, this is devastating. For Iago, telling Othello of this truthful emotion would be exposing himself to harsh reprimand, and embarrassment. In his mind, honesty would require him to put his heart’s desires in the open where they could be wounded and “pecked at” by those around him. Therefore, instead of honesty, Iago will veil his true nature with a disguise. He claims that “I am not what I am”. When offered the opportunity for honest, open discussion, Iago will choose lies, deceit and corruption. He will hide his heart, and present his companions with a false Iago, not what he truly is. Ultimately he will do whatever it takes to protect himself through deception.

Its great fun working with archetypes on finding character. Thanks to my friend Amari Blaize whose in-depth work on archetypes has helped me to develop ways of working with them with actors to find and develop character. What actors find through these are invariably fascinating.

Have a good day - don't get into mischief or spend too much time on the dark side! 

Stanislavski's Seven Questions For Actors... And business?: Blog 30

Good morning.

Its been a week of talking about Eastern Europe, and Eastern European directors. So it shouldn't have really come as any surprise when a dear friend and colleague left me a message yesterday saying that the answer to a puzzle we are trying to solve lay in Stanislavski's seven questions for an actor!  This isn't the sort of message I normally get, and I must admit it made me chuckle. The places we go to find answers eh!

But in terms of a business challenge it was an imaginative insight to suggest we return to a master of human motivation. Life is art and art is life and all that.


But theatre and life have one thing in common, they both have people at their centre in our infinite variety, full of ambition, motivation, love, envy, passion, fear, anger, revenge...........you name it. I spent some time last week talking about the actor's job to elicit emotion. But these seven questions for the actor are focused on motivation. And motivation sits just under the surface of everything we do. What do we want to get out of this? Why do I want to win this so much? What is the other person's objective? etc; etc;



I think my friend may have hit on a useful tool for business leaders! Its all there if you just look for it.

So here are the questions: Maybe have a go with them yourselves today, and notice what you notice, there may be hidden gems there for you!


1. Who am I?


Here you must think of the 3 aspects of your character, physically, sociologically and psychologically. Also, for each scene you write, think of the current state of being of this character. If a guy has just found out his girl is cheating on him, he's not going to be exactly the same person as in the scene before. The writer must be specific enough about who and what the character is.


2. Where am I?

And what is the relation of the character to this place - a familiar place, first time there, doesn't fit, etc.

3. When?

Day, year, weather. Why now? What happened before? It relates to what we we decided on the first question: the time of the scene creates the specific state of our character. If I just arrived for a date after a sweaty bike ride, I won't act the same, I won't sound the same.

4. What do I want?

This changes from scene to scene and even inside the scene. Each unit in the scene has its goals and actions of the characters inside it. Say I want to kill a spider. But then I look up closely and I'm amazed by its beauty. Now I don't want to kill it, I just want to catch it. so I do what's needs to be done, gets a nice jar and all, only to find out the spider is not so beautiful from inside the jar. So I want to let it go. But not in my house. So I go downstairs and let it free in the garden. Then I see this really attractive man. And again, I have a new goal...you get the point.

5. Why do I want this?

You always need to know the Why, which is by far more important than the What of the action. It gives the action the life it needed. Say your character needs a coffee in the morning. She really needs it because she hasn't been sleeping and she has a very important meeting in an hour. (Sound like anyone you know?!) Now she finds out the there's none left. She reacts differently from a person whose not bothered and may display all sorts of agitation.

6. How will I achieve my goal?

Simply put, the actions I need to perform to get what I want. Open the cupboard and get out the cafetiere, to make myself the coffee I want.

7. What must I overcome?

So we have run out of coffee. I must go out to buy some more. But it's too early and the the nearest corner shop is near a rough estate. I must overcome my hesitations first, then think about the walk and what I might encounter on the way - muggers etc?


And there we have a way of ordering our thinking in order to create character. As actors and directors of course we have the script, life is a little more variable! Maybe fun to apply the questions too to a real life business challenge today?

Let me now how you get on!

My Cinderella Blog and Majority Polish Readers? Why? Blog 29

Tadeuz Kantor directs

Good morning.

Now there's something I really don't get! I deliberately finished blogging daily on my Cinderella blog on January 3rd which was the day after the last performance.  http://broadwaypantocarolepluckrose.blogspot.co.uk/

Much to my delight that blog continues to get between 100-200 hits a day but here's the thing - the highest readership is in Poland! I am keen to know why? Why does an obscure blog about a regional pantomime in East London get attention from so many Poles now? They're not on this one in any numbers. I wonder if they read it in English or press the translation button? My guess is they probably speak English!           

The thing is that there is very little about Poland in there and that's why it provokes my curiosity. Having spent a good bit of time doing theatre in Poland in the eighties I might have put it down to that maybe? - The plot thins

I also know that the Poles are some of the best theatre makers out there. They had to be. Times of severe state bullying and oppression through the communist years and then the military take-over time meant that the imaginations of artists were given an ever bigger invitation to expand. If you can't say something directly for fear of imprisonment you are forced to find unique and new ways to express the human condition, both its universality and its personal manifestation in the drama of your own life. That's what artists do, but in a state of fear their work is even more edgy and urgent as an expression of  soul, self, politics, love, war, loss, liberty, intellect and much more. 

Tadeuz Kantor

This oppression and limits on the freedom of speech led to some of the most amazing work by artists across all the art forms. In a strange way the restrictions are of course a gift.  I will never forget being at a performance of Dead Class by Tadeuz Kantor at the Riverside Studios in London in about 1985. I was mesmorised by this then ancient man with a walking stick directing about 20 actors in their late 60s,70s and 80s on the stage. He was a performance in himself, marching around the stage as the actors performed this soul baring show about age and death. If he thought they weren't serving the play,or simply didn't like a particular moment, he would bang his walking stick on the floor or tap them on the back of the legs, stopping the action to make them do it again the way he wanted it! I'd never get away with that with my actors....... maybe I could give it a go sometime? 

A bit about the man:

Born in Wielopole Skrzyńskie, Galicia (then in Austria-Hungary), Kantor graduated from the Cracow Academy in 1939. During the Nazi occupation of Poland, he founded the Independent Theatre, and served as a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków as well as a director of experimental theatre inKraków from 1942 to 1944. After the war, he became known for his avant-garde work in stage design including designs for Saint Joan (1956) and Measure for Measure (1956). Specific examples of such changes to standard theatre were stages that extended out into the audience, and the use of mannequins as real-life actors.

Disenchanted with the growing institutionalisation of avant-garde, in 1955 he with a group of visual artists formed a new theatre ensemble called Cricot 2. In the 1960s, Cricot 2 gave performances in many theatres in Poland and abroad, gaining recognition for their stage happenings. His interest was mainly with the absurdists and Polish writer and playwright Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (also known as "Witkacy"). Stage productions of Witkacy's plays The Cuttlefish(1956) and The Water Hen (1969) were regarded as his best achievements during this time. A 1972 performance of The Water Hen was described as "the least-publicised, most talked-about event at the Edinburgh festival".

Dead Class (1975) was the most famous of his theatre pieces of the 1970s. In the play, Kantor himself played the role of a teacher who presided over a class of apparently dead characters who are confronted by mannequins which represented their younger selves. He had begun experimenting with the juxtaposition of mannequins and live actors in the 1950s.

His later works of the 1980s were very personal reflections. As in Dead Class, he would sometimes represent himself on stage. In the 1990s, his works became well known in the United States due to presentations at Ellen Stewart's La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club which inspired Lower East Side cultural leaders such as theNuyorican poet Giannina Braschi.[1]

Throughout his life, Kantor had an interesting and unique relationship with Jewish culture, despite being a nominal Catholic and having a father with anti-Semitic tendencies, Kantor incorporated many elements of what was known as "Jewish theatre" into his works. Kantor died in Kraków in 1990.

I have spoken often on this and my other blog about the influence of Peter Brook on my practice. Well here's another! I feel very privileged to have seen this show. It was deeply affecting and in fact very shocking. It was authentic and shot through with a real quality and sense of Polish culture and history. The ensemble of actors had worked together for many years and it showed. They had gone from being young to old, and with that all the physical and emotional toil. They were inspiring. Young actors could do worse to look up Kantor's work. If it were to be performed today it would be as fresh, intriguing and disturbing as it was 25 years ago! 

I'd love to see those Poles visiting this site, but maybe its just that the Cinderella blog is more interesting to them for reasons I fail to fathom! I hope to be enlighted! I have published a version of this post on there today too in the spirit of collaboration! 

Miłego dnia! 

Meeting and Working with Neville Lawrence: Blog 28

Namaste!

The thing I most enjoy about blogging is that there is no structural imperative! So whereas if you are writing a book, there is a plan and an unfolding that means a progression through a narrative, or chronology or whatever shape you have determined in advance. The blog thing has a different set of rules it seems to me. I am still a relative newcomer to this medium, having only properly dipped my toe in last November.

I was chatting about this with my friend Amari Blaize, who recently took to blogging herself. You can find her blog at amariblaize.blogspot.co.uk/, its called 
The Personal is Planetary. If you are concerned with climate change its a must read. Anyway we were discussing the fact that the blog as a form is very flexible, its not bound by the conventions of publishing as we have known them. By definition its democratic, and given the plethora of blogs out there, people will let you know if they are interested simply by pitching up. But the thing I enjoy most about it, is that each day you can choose to write about what is central for you at that moment. In my case its a miscellany of posts, in no particular order. Its affected hugely of course by the things that are happening in my life on a daily basis, by politics and news, by what I happen to be reading, or the piece I am making. The fun is too that when I get up to write it, I usually have no idea what today's will be about! 

This morning, for some reason I found myself thinking about our relationship with Neville Lawrence OBE, which goes back to 1999. Its probably because I was updating my Linked-In profile about our work in the field of prejudice and injustice. I'd like to share a bit about it today - because its been significant over the past 14 years. 

It was early in the spring of 1999 when Olly and I were invited to  a meeting at the HQ of HSBC, then located on Lower Thames Street in the City. We were sponsored by the bank to the tune of approximately £3 million over a period from 1994-2001. It was an unusual and committed sponsorship for the kind of work we do. It centred on the commissioning of our Football Plays written by Olly. The first of these Kicking Out had been originally commissioned by Leyton Orient FC, a lovely synergy given that this is the club that Olly has supported since he was a kid (and I mean supported! He is a real fan). 

The meeting was with Anne Watts CBE, a great friend to this day. She had consistently championed our work and secured the significant funding to enable the plays to be performed in schools, football clubs and indeed at the House of Commons. She invited us to meet Neville with Beverley Bernard, who had worked to set up the Stephen Lawrence Trust with him and his wife Doreen. Beverley had a long history of working in the field of race and had set up the successful Windsor Fellowship to develop and promote young people of African-Carribean heritage into top jobs and to break through the glass ceiling that has historically prevented talented people from reaching the top of their professions, and sadly still does so often.

Beverley wanted to bring Neville to meet Anne, to see if the bank might support his work in schools. Following the dreadful botched police investigation of his son's murder Neville had lived with the impact of the miscarriage of justice that meant Stephen's murderers had got off scott free. One way of living his life with this pain and injustice was to go into schools to talk to young people about the evils of racism. However in his zeal to do this he had ended up travelling the length and breadth of the country visiting hundreds of schools, and often for no money. When we finally sat down in Anne's office that February morning, we saw an exhausted man in front of us. 

Anne in her wisdom had put two and two together and thought that maybe there was a way in which we could join forces with our work in schools through the Football Plays.

It was a seminal meeting that would impact on how we worked as a company from that day. I remember how we squished into Anne's tiny office, full of plants and beautiful pictures, and how within moments we were all transported into a different space. We listened attentively as Neville talked about his experiences, I remember being moved to tears as he talked about what it is like to be a parent whose child is murdered, and how his entire life had fallen apart. And yet his tremendous strength shone through his eyes. I was struck by his lack of self-pity and his commitment to make a difference with young people, as he said to make them conscious of the ingrained racism that pervaded our society at that time, and still does. 

It was a deeply emotional experience, and it changed me. Together and quite quickly we came up with an idea that would work for all of us. We were touring My England at that point, the final play in the trilogy. Money was getting tighter all round and there would eventually be an end to the amount the bank could continue to sponsor. We hadn't reached that point yet but it was imminent. The demand for the show from schools was at the same time increasing, and it was clear that much as we would have liked to, we were never going to reach all 5,000 secondary schools in the country. So I suddenly saw a solution. What if we were to make an educational resource for schools? We could film the show, Neville could speak directly to children on this, and we could write materials that would support teachers in delivering the film as part of the curriculum. The deal was quickly done and we left Anne's office with the funding to make the film and write the resource. 

This all happened within six months and the film was launched with Neville at the elegant Lutyens room at the HSBC HQ. The making of the film was extraordinary, not least because we hadn't made one before, so it was a steep learning curve. But mostly of course because we spent so much intensive time working with Neville to support him telling his story on film. It was a charged time in my life. My own daughters were 10 and 13, and the thought of losing them was unbearable, so my point of connection with Neville was firstly as a parent who had lost a child. It took two days to film the piece with him, as we constantly all broke down in tears, including the crew. Eventually we got there after 38 takes!

The resource was made and we found a great publisher in Carel Press, who distributed over 5,000 packs over the next couple of years. Its been used widely in schools and we continue to be asked for it. Sadly its now out of print, but you can see a little bit on our website here: 

http://www.arctheatre.com/education_video_myengland.html

This was to be the beginning of a powerful 14 years when we worked with Neville on many other projects and which culminated early in 2012 with the final conviction and sentencing of Gary Dobson and David Norris at the Old Bailey for Stephen's murder. I was privileged to go to court for some of the trial, and witnessed the monumental moment when the jury returned the guilty verdict. 

Jan 3rd 2011: Sentencing day: The Old Bailey

Working with Neville over those years was a special thing, and we were pleased that our work supported and helped to sustain him too during that time.

So that's it for today. I wonder what today will bring?

Have a good start to your week.

The Beginnings: Starting Arc 1984: Blog 27

Westbury Centre Barking

Good morning,

Its good to be back writing this post at 6.15 am with a coffee in hand and my headphones on listening to the Cranberries. The focus of my last few days has been on the next five-year business plan for Arc. I need to have it in draft form ready for our Board meeting next week. Planning is always ongoing, we can never afford to stand still, especially not in a tough climate. 

We have to be prepared to review our own work critically and to assess how we move forward artistically and economically. We have had to do this for the past 29 years since Olly and I started Arc. There can never be space for complacency, and we need to take a hard look at what we do well and what we could do better. In doing so I find myself reflecting on where we have been, where we are now and where we want to go next.

So this brings me to ponder the very beginning of this lifetime project and how much has changed in the years since we began the company in 1984. So much is different now, not least the revolution that the internet has brought to the world. Back in 1984 we were still using typewriters and carbon paper, and there wasn't a mobile phone in sight. I do wonder how we ever got anything done! But we did.

Olly and I met in 1983 and got married that same year. From the start we knew that we wanted to make our own work. Both of us had been working as actors and we met at the Theatre Royal Stratford in the spring of '83 on an exciting young people's International Theatre Festival, NIFTIE which was being hosted by Ian Bowater at the theatre. We worked extensively with a company (Network) from New York run by Laurie Meadoff and Dexter Locke. Laurie has set up and run a number of successful companies, including her NYC based Citykids foundation which has done some amazing work using the arts with disadvantaged young people. 

That experience was the starting point for Olly and I to imagine and set up our own company. It meant that we had to put all our energy and focus into making it a reality. We were totally inexperienced, in our very early twenties and full of hope and excitement. Its probably a good thing that we didn't know what we didn't know or maybe we would never have started Arc!  But that's the joy of being young and whilst we may be a bit long in the tooth now we still retain the curiosity and passion in spite of and probably because of the many extraordinary times we have had making theatre over those years. 

Getting anything started is a challenge, especially when you have no money! There was a scheme at that time called the Enterprise Allowance Scheme. It was a bit of a ruse to get people off income support, but it worked really well for us. We had to put down £1000 and it was matched by the government. We then got £40 per week each as a basis wage. It really got us off the ground. And the generous food parcels from our parents too! 

Olly got started as a storyteller in schools. We literally scoured the yellow pages for all the names and addresses of the local primary schools in Waltham Forest Newham and Redbridge. We lived in a tiny flat in Forest Gate. I called the headteachers, and Olly put his guitar on his back and we got the bus to the different schools. Our marketing tactics were pretty time consuming. We would pitch up in a Head's office and Olly would get out his guitar and tell them a story with original songs. He was pretty good at wowing them, and 99% of the time we walked out with a commitment to a day of storytelling. Olly developed an excellent interactive format for creating stories with children and we called his project Oliver's Tales. A good friend designed a logo for us  - Olly has it currently on his Facebook page. I remember that we charged £60 a day which was a lot of money in 1984!  

Oliver's Tales was really critical in getting Arc off the ground and it was a hugely successful project for about 8 years. Olly was booked pretty much every day in schools and at festivals in London and around the UK and early on a big tour in Dubai. For my part I was a visiting theatre lecturer at the then named Leicester Polytechnic (now De Montford University) on their Performing Arts degree. I got much of my directorial experience making work with students there. This and Oliver's Tales funded the company. Thanks to that income I was in a position to make a new piece of solo performance which was written by Polly Teale and directed by Julia Bardsley. I had met them both through the National Student Drama Festival for which I was a judge.  

We rehearsed it in Barking way back then, at the Westbury Centre in Ripple Road which was then used at the Teacher's Centre for the Council. At that time I was still acting and the show was a fantastic collaboration with Polly and Julia. Julia was an extremely talented director and went on to have great success with her work with Phelim McDermott and much since. She is primarily a visual artist and this talent informed her direction in a unique way.


We made the show Fallen about a young Irish woman who was accused of murdering her baby in county Kerry. I had read the story in the Sunday Times and was fascinated about it, the catholic backdrop, the moral issues of sexual infidelity and the emotional experience of this 24 year old young woman - Joanne Hayes. She was vilified for having firstly had an affair with a married man, getting pregnant and then allegedly murdering their child. She had had to go into hiding, and Polly and I went off to a secret location in Dublin where we met her with the guy who was to write her book. The case was to become known as the Kerry Babies Case. Its a painful and fascinating case that made a big legal shift in Ireland following a tribunal into her treatment.

We took the show to the Edinburgh Festival, and had a rubbish slot at 10am at St Mary's Church Hall. As we were on a shoestring and self-funded as most shows are, we camped just outside the city! Much to our delight we got great houses and reviews and ended up with a Fringe First. 

This opened up a whole new world for us. The show was picked up by Julie Parker and Mavis Seamen from the Drill Hall Arts Centre (now no longer) in Camden. We were given a three week run, a PR company and money. It was amazing. The London run got good reviews and we took on a management company to book a national small scale theatre tour. It was the most fabulous experience, and such a huge learning curve. 

The company, with its mix of education, storytelling and solo performance was off the ground! 

Heady days. I feel quite nostalgic as I think of them now - and of course look back at how life unfolds magically, with one thing leading to the next. And here we are again at the next crossroad as we relentlessly reinvent ourselves. Its been a blast so far!

Have a lovely Sunday.

Good friend and independent galleries in Cambridge: Blog 26

Evening all!

Its very unusual for me to find myself writing a post on this blog in an evening, not least a Saturday evening.  If I am honest it feels a little wrong. The tv is blaring in the living room, and there's a lot of activity around the house. Of course I love that, both girls are back for the weekend, one with boyfriend in tow. So the house is full of life! But I must admit it just isn't my best blog time. I really like the early morning silence, quiet cuppa and music on my headphones, and the feeling like its secret stolen time. 

I went away on a mini 24-hour retreat on Thursday evening through to Friday at Abbotswick in Brentwood for a bit of uninterrupted thinking about our business plan for the next 3 years. It was very good to be in a different space with no phones. They have 14 acres of lovely grounds to wander in too and you get very well looked after, including being served with three home made meals. The best thing too is that whilst everyone is very kind - you are just left to get on with whatever you are there to do, and no one bothers you or intrudes. Its very peaceful.

I have had lots of  fun today too so thought I would have a go at an evening blog! 

I spent the morning into the early afternoon with my friend Louisa in Cambridge. We had a lovely lunch at the Chop House opposite King's College, caught up on all our news. We don't get to see each other very often as she lives in Norfolk now. We used to meet for coffee every Saturday morning and she was a great supporter of Arc and was on the Board of the company for over 12 years. As a Primary  Education Adviser for Essex County Council, she was invaluable as a guide to the primary curriculum, especially as she specialises in the arts. She has helped us many times over the years in developing our under 11 storytelling and performance work. Indeed we often trialled new pieces at her school, which was of great mutual benefit. She was always one of our very helpful Critical Friends.

After we got waylaid by the best and most sinful sticky toffee pudding we moseyed around some little independent galleries including BYARD Arts on King's Parade where I bought a small piece by artist - Jennifer Collier http://jennifercollier.co.uk/ 
A pair of red shoes in a small frame, reminiscent of Cinderella shoes!



Of her work Jennifer Collier says:

My practice focuses on creating work from paper; by bonding, waxing, trapping and stitching I produce unusual paper ‘fabrics’, which are used to explore the ‘remaking’ of household objects. The papers are treated as if cloth, with the main technique employed being stitch; a contemporary twist on traditional textiles. The papers themselves serve as both the inspiration and the media for my work, with the narrative of the books and papers suggesting the forms. I tend to find items then investigate a way in which they can be reused and transformed; giving new life to things that would otherwise go unloved or be thrown away.

Jennifer Collier

I like her work. She takes the ordinary things around her and recasts them so you see them in a new light. Its the kind of transformation of the apparently ordinary that's a joy here. There is a domesticity about it too, but with an ironic take and a cock a snoop attitude. 

Nice friend day, relaxing and fun! And on top of that, the break from the business plan meant that when I got home the numbers I had been pouring over for hours suddenly became clear! So bonus all round.

Accidental Conversation with Director Tim Major: Blog 25

Yesterday was a funny day!

I would like to say that I was very productive. Instead of which I ended up spending a couple of hours having fun, drinking too much coffee, chatting and watching people coming and going at the theatre. There was a lot going on - I had a meeting with Chris Mellor, the Creative Producer to talk about ideas for co-producing and closer working relationships between the Broadway and Arc.

The theatre was hosting a workshop for a new musical, and there was a team of about 10 people working in the auditorium to come up with some new songs for it. It looked like they were enjoying themselves experimenting and I think the event may even have been streamed.

I also met Phil and Tim there who were dismantling the door they borrowed from us  for their latest Finch show. Tim packed it into the back of his car and headed back to the Malthouse. The building works make access a bit of a challenge at the moment, the whole of the front car park is a big hole. So I met Tim back there and we got the door back into the studio.

Tim Major

Tim (Major) http://www.timmajor.co.uk/

I don't know Tim very well, although our paths have crossed many times as Tim and his partner Mel produced the pantomime for the Broadway Theatre from 2004-2009. He and his team rehearsed at the Malthouse a few times. And indeed our MD Phil was composer and MD for Tim over those years. Tim's productions at the Broadway were the bread and butter of the theatre in those years and I was just checking out some reviews from those times and read this on the British Theatre Guide in 2010 (the year it was taken back in-house).

The key difference between this year's pantomime and last year's is that Tim Major and Melissa Waudby are nowhere to be seen. They really were the Broadway panto; producing, designing, writing, choreographing and directing the annual festive treat between them for six years on the trot. Major's Dame had become an audience favourite and it seems that his high heeled shoes have proved too difficult to fill. This year, they are sadly missed.

Tim is a bit of a renaissance man, writer, producer, director and actor and is successfully producing feature films as well now! I hesitate to call him a wheeler-dealer - but he is definitely a canny one!  I had only had snatched conversations with Tim until yesterday.  I was really pleased that he had come to our panto, as I imagined that can't have been easy with 6 years of building it behind him. 

We started chatting as we were taking the door through, about empty spaces, directing and panto - so I suggested Tim leave the door and we grab a coffee and have an impromptu chat. I had mentioned to him about this blog and that led us to talk about how paranoid directors are sometimes about other directors coming into rehearsals. We are not brilliant at sharing practice generally. We talked about how its probably because we know that if we are in the making process things are going to look awful and not work as well as the magic moments when things come together. It can become very self-conscious if someone comes in we don't really know or trust. I have one very trusted peer director, our Associate Director Joss Bennathan. We can be helpful to each other as critical friends and it always prompts new ideas and thoughts. 

Tim and I found ourselves talking about Peter Brook - sitting in the 'gap' on the comfy sofas and chatting about all things panto and theatre. Tim is a panto officianado, unlike me! He is also an accomplished dame ( I have seen him in action!).  I had been quite nervous about him coming to see our Cinderella, as he could have been rightly bitter. He admitted that he was worried too, not from bitterness but in case he didn't like it and as we now shared an MD that could be quite tricky!  He's like me when it comes to feeding back on a show - just can't lie. I can lie about someone's cooking, but a show -no. 

Fortunately he liked the show. But the thing that touched me most in his feedback was that he said he could feel the love in the show, which had been missing for the past couple of years. Of course that's true. Whatever the differences might be in our individual signatures and visions, the process is driven by the same shared values of love, co-creation, collaboration, generosity and fun. That doesn't mean that Tim, like me doesn't crack the whip - we agreed that we most certainly do!

I loved the unexpected hour I spent talking to Tim, and began to wonder whether we might find ways to work with each other in the future. I am really looking forward to more chats with him and to share practice. Its been a great couple of weeks in terms of talking to other directors.

My relaxed and funny day ended with watching Natalie's rehearsal of Crossing Over. It was lovely to have Letitia and TJ back. I had to say to TJ - that his time away at the National and the Riverside has really sharpened his acting - its very noticeable, and very exciting. They're doing a good job with one more day left (today). I made notes and need to write them up now and send to Natalie for the start of her rehearsal day today. 

I went off then to stay at Abbotswick in Brentwood  for a bit of a retreat - and to do some thinking and writing for 24 hours. 

I think I might also go for a lovely long walk in the 14 acre grounds.