the bilingual enthusiast ... and other things

• I went to the theatre to see Romeo and Juliet, done by a group from Iceland, and it was excellent! Hhe, very funny and extremely sad! They made fun of the English, kissed the audience, really involved them, etc.(I know I'm completely off the point but...ok!)
• Anyway, they spoke in English throughout (mostly) but then when it came to the real tragedy (the killings etc., dyings) they spoke in Icelandic (is that the language!!!?? hehe) and it was sooo powerful. It was so personal, honest, I felt like I was intruding because Juliet was really grieving, not acting, but really the Icelandic Juliet and I felt for her, guys, I really did.
• What I'm saying is that I think speaking in other languages when saying something really honest can be extremely powerful. I know someone said that we should use foreign languages but not for the 'important' bits (I wanna say it was Alice who blogged it??? but I dont remember... sorry!!) but, as you can see, I think that it could have a really powerful effect.
• I bought a mini slinky, by the way, so we are one slinky richer!
• I still think the cloth instead of salt would be really nice, and equally meaningful, by the way.
• I think it's cool to use music but wouldn't it be great if at one moment someone was listening to music, thinking about how happy it made them, reminiscing, and all that... then suddenly, silence, they are alone, sad, homesick.
• I think that silence can really really be effective and it would make the audiecne feel as though they are intruding...(which I remember Claire, I think, was talking about the whole .... alienating thing... right?)
• One more thing, I saw this Chinese company dance thing a couple of weeks ago and it just reminded me of it.. ok. the beginning, when we do the migration dance thing.. it could be done in complete silence. everyone going at their own pace, we could create some kind of rhythm. you know.. some kind of rhythmic migration, so we need no music, just ourselves, I dont know why, but I really like the silence, intimate, honest thing. Music sometimes seems to hide the truth, you know?

All from me, for now. Have a nice weekend,

Dana Karic

Suspect Culture's Home(page)

Hello everyone. So we have some kinda crappy rehearsal times, but I know we can all deal with that. Thank you to Alice for going and sorting that out... On another note, I went to Suspect Culture's website the other day and started looking at how they view themselves. If you have not visited the site yet, please please please do! There are reviews of past shows, explanations of what's coming up, and past shows, a description of the company.... they have even posted emails and notes from workshops that follow a play through the process - remind you of something fellow bloggers??? I read some of the entries for Lament and I am going to go look at some others.

Some quotes from the website that might spark some instances of genius: they have a "unique style of high quality original work that is accessible to the widest possible audience" We have been talking about how much we want to alienate the audience because we have often felt alienated when reading the scripts or watching the videos. How can we create this sense of alienation and also appeal to everyone in the audience? I am thinking that we may be reading into this alienation a bit too much and perhaps a lot of it is due to the fact that we have never seen a live performance. I don't know if Dan has any thoughts on this....

"A sense of internationalism is fundamental to the company's identity" we have definitely talked about this. I think that while there may be some lines that we want to be understood by the audience, I did like Dan's comment about keeping some of the good lines to ourselves. Do we find the line about forgetting where you are born important because it will get the audience to think or because we spent a lot of time talking ourselves about where we were born, etc. Maybe it is more important for us to know the line is there than for the audience?

Some of their upcoming shows deal with "attitudes towards love in a world of internet chat rooms, life coaches, and matching agencies" - to be honest I don't think I am even going to go into this one now because this blog would last forever, but clearly this quote deals so much with all that we have been discussing. Just substitute "home" for "love"....I'm sure you can see the connection.

Anyway, if you do get a chance to go onto their site and have a look around it would be very helpful. I think they also have some stuff on their use of media and it is talked about a lot along with music in the email/minutes entries. Have fun exploring! see you all on Monday.

Lauren Abend

Location and Noise

One other thing. I think the train station is probably the best way to go. Clair, maybe you could think of sounds that would go along with that. I'm thinking some kind of repetition of train announcements or something? Depends on how much that might seem to copy the flight announcements in Airport...

Lauren Abend

Rehearsal Times

Hi guys! Ok, went to the reheasal booking and we got spaces but, basically, they're poo.

• Wednesday 1st, 8pm-10pm, Rehearsal Room B
• Friday 3rd, 7pm-10pm, Mirror Room

I know, I know, but it was that or nothing! I think what Lauren and I were saying still stands: not all of you will be needed, or can come for some of the time. Keep in mind this means more small group rehearsals outside these times. However, there should be one meeting where we all come together and show the whole group what we've got. This can be at these times or at other times in commonrooms, etc.

Alice Hansen

Scene Response

I liked all the scenes especially the personal identifications we can all make with them. I think that scene 3 should definitely be performed in a completely separate style to other scenes. It seems to contrast greatly with them and is all about the future and machinery, so perhaps we could perform it in a slightly mechanic way using loads of repeated gestures or something.

I also think that the scenes with more people in and shorter lines should be spoken with different languages. Maybe even if some people can't speak a different language they could try a contrasting accent or really exaggerate their own, so no two people on that stage sound the same. I found the scene about Bristol really funny because instead of saying the tiny village of Tytherington, where I'm from, I always end up just saying Bristol.

I've been working on scene one with Annie and we came to the conclusion that the setting should be perhaps at a bar or something where the conversation is really awkward and polite, with loads of awkward silences.

Kelly Barton

Replying to Dan

With the repetition, I meant throughout every script, to have a VERY obvious repeated line to end, or hidden somewhere, just like we repeat the 'I can't go home any more' in our group scene. I was imagining something similar to Timeless repeating their evening by the lake phrase, it was just an idea that we could add which I thought would make the scenes link.

And with the narrative/linear idea, I think I meant we need to set the scripts somewhere, like someone's idea of the toilets; Like the Airport in Airport, the pub in Timeless and the hotel room in Mainstream.

I used the words linear and narrative in the wrong sense. The overall way that I view Suspect Culture's productions is to see a definite setting for them, so that in my own imagination I build up their productions and I can see them in my mind's eye, but in ours we haven't decided on a place. Although I guess this does present Suspect Culture's more disjointed and abstract use of scenes.

Annie Rook

Musical Inspiration

Hey all, (well sort of to Claire really…)

Just a quickie regarding a little hint of musical inspiration which suddenly hit me whilst I was listening to the oh-so-divine Radiohead OK Computer album. (if you don’t have it, get it…it is a must!). Anyway I have only just realised that one of the tracks could be useful for our production, track 3 is named subterranean homesick alien, and is really moving I feel. The lyrics also seem quite apt to our play (even if they are a little random!). I just thought it could work really well with any of the migration dances or even just in the background. It is a song about homesickness yet the lyrics avoid all of the conventional clichés which we were talking about trying to avoid. Just a quick thought…

See you all Monday!

Kim Varvell

Wising Up

Hey there guys! After reading the scenes (which I thoroughly enjoyed because you could see exactly where Dan had picked up on our classwork, personal touch) I just had a thought (if we wanted to incorporate our ideas of bilinguilism) from developing on our ideas when we had conversations in two languages, what the scenes would be like if we translated one half into another language? Or perhaps repeated the scens in two different languages? Just an idea, I'm off to the drama department in a jiffy to learn some sound stuff so hopefully come to Monday's lesson a much wiser person. Well sound wise...

Claire Stainer

"because the whole point of perfection is that it's unattainable"

Yo, went to london today and brought a top quality slinky for the performance. Also I'm just going to blog what I said in the meeting on Monday night which was that I felt that the performance needed a profound statement, maybe about perfection. I like the script so far, as I think it fits well with with what we are trying to achieve. For me however, most effective line of all the Suspect Culture scripts we have read, was that bit from Timeless, "bla bla bla bla bla bla". It was one of those lines which stays with you and you can't help thinking it in everyday life. I was thinking maybe we could have one about our perfect homes. Sort of "because the whole point of perfection, is that it's unattainable."

I feel that this represents what we all put in our ideas of our home in 50 years. Most people decribed this gorgeous hubby who was rich and amazing, whereas in actual fact, being with such a person would, in reality, make us feel inferior or unworthy.

Philippa Thomas

Replying to Annie

You're right that it would be silly to stage a 'jumble of scenes'. You don't want to confuse the audience for the sake of it.

But please bear in mind that it's a 20-minute performance (maximum) and any audience - particularly a group of highly intelligent drama students - can concentrate even on quite abstract material for that length of time. A plot might, in fact, seem fussy; remember that the Suspect Culture shows you have read may have narratives (though Lament and Airport certainly don't have single overarching narratives), but they aren't nearly as linear as you describe. Timeless isn't 'linear', nor is Mainstream. Some of the other shows are more so (8000m, for example), others less so (One Two, for example). I'm unsure whether you are really talking about Suspect Culture's work or your own preferences for a theatre of character and story. Suspect Culture's shows are more fragmented and conceptual; you need to take that on board.

The scenes I'm passing to you are deliberately open so that you can decide on character and situation. You shouldn't assume that they are meant to be characterless or placeless. You can create continuities by being careful about deciding which performers play which parts. I'm hoping you may find continuities between them. The things you suggest (repeated lines, etc.) are actually already there.

But as to your first point - that you should have input into them - (a) you already have had enormous input into them, and (b) I've asked you to comment on this blog, so thanks Annie and Sam for doing so. I await comments and ideas from the rest of you.

Dan Rebellato

Linking Our Scenes

Much as Dan's scenes are a super base for us I really think that we as a cast need to be putting some input into them.

I also think that we desperately need something to link the scenes in the 12 minute piece. Each of the Suspect Culture pieces we've seen have in some way had a fairly linear and narrative link and yes, we mention the puzzle, and yes they are all derived from our ideas about homesickness, but I don't feel a real story line which I think is hindering us somewhat in trying to use SC's techniques.

It also means that we are unable to work on actual characters very well.

Maybe if we repeated a line in each piece (using repetition like SC) maybe a line about a utopian home (as SC use ideals a lot) and made the characters the same few people (like in Mainstream) using costume (eg a hat or scarf over the pj's). These are two simple ideas that would make our lives a whole lot easier, and the audiences as they would then have a plot to follow instead of a jumble of scenes as it is at the moment!

Think about it, it makes sense!!

Annie Rook

Structure

The notional structure we agreed in the class in week seven was as follows:

Homesick

Opening: Migration Dance
Individual migrations, building up and layering, with video 'interviews'. Build?
3 minutes

Home sequence
The value of home; images of ideal homes; sheet and stick material.
2 minutes

Barriers to Home
Fragmentation, barriers, problems; things that get in the way of home; forced migration; wanderlust; globalization; work; etc.
12 minutes

Homesick sequence
The physical experience of homesickness; build the metaphorical, haunting associations of it. Poetic?
2 minutes

Ending: Migration Dance
All together, now migration continues beyond nineteen; endless, infinite, shuttling to and fro, never stopping. 'Feel Like Going Home' Charlie Rich. Lights slowly out on the movement.

Dan Rebellato

Scenes

I really like them everyone. I think the one that describes the home of the future is really interesting and should maybe be played at first like each character is a shopping channel salesman, you know really cheesy, tacky but eventually I think each of the characters should fall apart getting more and more emotional. I like that a lot of it has been taken from things we have said in lessons. I also think the last scene, which seems to be the most emotive, should definitely be played last before the final migration dance so the last lines can be said dramatically, with all turned to the audience with a HUGE pause. How dramatic!

Sam Wood

Translation

I just wanted to quickly state what some of us were talking about at the meeting yesterday. We were discussing the profoundness of some of the lines and "I cant go home because I've forgotten where I was born" was a really impacting one and we found it was slightly lost by being spoken in a foreign language. The idea of using different languages to slightly alienate the audience is great, I just think that this line and perhaps any other really important ones should be said in English. We could even emphasise their importance by all freezing and cutting off any music used, when they are said.

Kelly Barton

Liminal Space: Toilet

I have an idea of a “TOILET” serving as a set. I thought we might create a set of four toilets, each one with a kind of a removable matching door. When the actor enters the toilet and closes the door, then a moving board might be pulled up so that the audience would be able to watch individual inside as if spying on his/her privacy... In my opinion "the toilet" is a great idea for a set as it certainly is an example of liminal space: a sphere of everybody's intimacy which separates us from hectic daily routine - the door itself being the borderline and the entry to the "real" world, where we are ourselves, nude and stripped of the 'masks' worn in everyday reality. There in the toilet we just stop pretending and no longer play a part of, say, a beautiful loving wife or a tough businessman. I hope you know what I mean?

I also thought that we should add some extracts to our script. In the part where we talk about the reasons for which we can not come back home... We could give some real-life examples of: a prostitute, a prisoner, a gay person, an alcoholic sleeping under a bridge, a battered wife, or a rebellious teenager on the run?...I really think that the above examples explain why some people cannot or are not willing to come home. What I would also like to add is what I already mentioned in the class - I mean that in the background there could be an "inner voice" (recorded in various languages) repeating a word "HOME" - might create an effective echo effect.

Bye for now. See you all on Wednesday

Ania Nieczuja-Ostrowska

Rehearsal Times, etc.

Hi everyone! Just want to start by thanking everyone for coming to last night's meeting, wasn't too painful, was it?! Ok, so here are a couple of rehearsals/gatherings that we decided on:

- This Wednesday at 2pm, meet in Crosslands.
- Monday 29th at 4pm in Founder's (east) commonroom to watch another SC video.
- Thursday 9th, 3:30-4:30pm. This will be a group discussion and evaluation hour, where we can all voice any concerns or issues about the piece, hopefully wrinkling them all out over the weekend before the performance.

We agreed that everyone will make a commitment to check the blog as often as possible, as this is the easiest way for Lauren and I to set rehearsals and for the tech team to update the whole group on what they're doing. Please keep blogging your own feedback and ideas, but remember that we're going to have to focus on certain areas now, and obviously we can't use every idea. If you can't make a rehearsal then text Lauren or I asap. Also remember to check your e-mails regularly.

On another note, Lauren and I would like you to blog as many of Suspect Culture's main techniques and characteristics as you can think of. Also try to back them up with some evidence from a couple of sources; eg videos, scripts, Dan's essay, etc. We need these to give us a firm grounding so that we can always have SC's core principles at hand. Also, it will give you a head start with your essays!

Finally, a small note to Dan: We discussed last night how we would like there to be a strong, perhaps moral message running throughout this piece, such as in Mainstream where we realise that the more mainstream we are all becoming, the more different we realise we are. We felt this would give our piece focus, and that this was in line with SC's theatrical practices.

Thanks gang, see you on Wednesday!

Alice Hansen

The Thin (silk) White Line(s)

Teeny tiny blog...

After reading all recent blogs one major thought hit me! Maybe instead of salt we could use silk or any other soft material, ribbon, etc,) as the lines between homes... the white soft material would be beautiful, homely, and easy to clean up. plus we could use it in later sequences as one of out 'sticks' or something.. could use it as an actual physical thing... you know.

Just been thinking about little things that might help :)

Dana Karic

Media Biz

Hey everyone. I thought I'd let you know what I'm gonna be editing this week so if you have any ideas please either contact me or - easier! - blog your idea and hopefully I can use it. The first sequence, the migration dance, will consist of five people's testimonies being projected and being played around with on different parts of the screen etc. For example, one of the people who did theirs in a foreign language will be included and four others that best project our themes. Also this week I'll be editing Philippa's monologue about her ideal home that you'll be showing onstage. Does everyone think it matters too much if what Philippa says is not in time with what's being created with the sheet? It's just that to include all the ideas you've had in the small amount of time she had to talk quite fast! I think it'll be okay. I'll be calling on a few people soon to do some more camera-ing, this may be in or not in lesson time.

Take care everyone, keep the ideas rolling in!

Sam Wood

Class: Week Eight

Today was a very practical class, also the point where control of the project handed over from me to you.

You began by going over some of the stick/sheet images and briefly discussing Mainstream. You seem to have clarified how you would like the whole project to go and had some good ideas for combining gestural and verbal language. Those of you with technical responsibilities had mostly given thought to how your responsibility might be carried out.

Rachael volunteered to act as Stage Manager. Kim and Anna swapped jobs (see amended Cast and Crew list).

I brought in some sample texts, mainly to try out different kinds of speech, dialogue, voices, and juxtapositions. My feelings were that:

• The group is able to carry off a wide range of performance texts.
• Monologue work can create a serious dip in energy.
• The fragmented style works very well but it would be good to create more concrete, grounded situations to allow the audience 'in' a little more
• The fragmented style requires the performers to demand the attention of the audience more swiftly and determinedly; you have to claim the audience's attention and switch them to focus on what you were doing, or else you'll be halfway through your sequence and their attention and the theatrical atmosphere will still be hanging over from the previous section.
• The 'I can't go home any more' sequence worked very nicely. I think with Suspect Culture that minimalism is a good standing principle; don't clutter sequences, choose one or two small movements.

I shall present some bits of script by Wednesday and a full first draft on Monday. You're meeting today at 5.00 in Crosslands to plan rehearsals, technical deadlines and other meetings.

Dan Rebellato

A Few Scattered Ideas

There have been a few ideas floating around my head since last week's lesson which I thought I'd post. Firstly, I'm really interested in the physical symptoms of homesickness and travelling. And it struck me how unhealthy it is to go on the underground, as the fumes from the tunnels can (apparently) give you cancer. Then I started thinking about other methods of travel like driving, and how this is polluting our atmosphere and planet. And then it hit me! Travel is killing our planet! Our Land! OUR HOMES! Can we somehow explore this and see whether we can work it into the sickness section of our piece?

Secondly, got some belated feedback to give the group on the mobile phone exercises we did 2 weeks ago. I thought these exercises worked very well, and what was really interesting was that there were particular reccurent gestures/vocal characteristics that were being demonstrated during certain deviations of the exericise. For example, during the third exercise when you were explaining that you couldn't come home ever again:

• Lots of sitting down and closed body postures (hugging bodies)
• Starting slowly, upbeat introductions, lots of nervous laughter
• Touching of the chest (this particular gesture was used a lot, could it be that we have found the gesture for homesickness???), neck and throat
• Scratching head, rubbing eyes, touching head.

Also, while I'm really keen about the salt patterns I'm wondering how we could practically achieve this. Even in rehearsals that means having a lot of salt and needing to clean it up everytime...Is there no other, easier way of marking our tracks? But I don't want to sound like I don't love this idea because I really do!

Alice Hansen

The Perfect Image of Home

It might be a bit late (and I'm not really that sure on what has been determined so far) but just been thinking about some more ideas for our project. I was thinking about how in Airport (at least I think it's Airport!?) the characters repeat throughout their perfect image of travel, something involving a cold blue lake...really should have checked this in the play before posting this blog.....oh well! anyway to the point!!...I thought that maybe we could incorporate into our piece our perfect image of home. I think we spoke about this briefly in class and I remember some ideas were a warm log fire and the smell of bread being baked! Maybe if we discussed this a bit more we could come up with an sort of universal 'perfect' image of home and repeat it throughout the piece maybe in different languages or even sung?!? just an idea....

Nia Johnston

PS. Hotseating sounds great count me in!! :)

Slinky Queen

Hi there, just a quick blogg today.....I have a slinky!!! Yes I do indeed and it is marvellous! I bought it from the gadget shop in the week, not only is it the most beautiful slinky in the world it was also half price (student budget and all that jazz)! God bless the Gadget Shop. Amen.

I was just thinking about some sound ideas. I don't whather this would work, but I was just wondering if anyone had any sounds which reminded them of home? This is probably a bit difficult, but it could be anything like the sound of children laughing etc. I just thought that would be quite nice to have some sort of sound collage over the part with our immigration dance? I really think that part needed some sort of sound to accompany it and it worked really nicely with the music, so perhaps as a group we should narrow down some music which we feel is related to "homesickness" or most reminds us of home.

Thats all for now folks!! Bloggarama!

Claire Stainer

Mainstream

I've just finished reading Mainstream and once again I've thoroughly enjoyed one of Suspect Culture's plays! My interpretation of it, (which could be completely wrong) is that the base and the structure of the play is given right at the beginning. As the play goes on it's given flesh and substance. The conversations between A&R and Personnel are elaborated, the settings are made more clear and the feelings and emotions become more profound as you continue reading.

One thing that stands out though is the repetition used throughout. Certain things are repeated to give more connotation to it and other parts are repeated in different circumstances, so that you can make your own valid link to the situation.

This particular style runs throughout all of Suspect Culture's plays and maybe we could incorporate it into ours.

Maybe this is too late to do in the script, but the possibilities are now endless seeing that we have our lovely lighting, media and costume designers...

Julia Angeli