The Balancing Act

When it comes to contemporary performance, just how easy is it to ensure a coherent piece is created when so many people are relying on the performance for their marking schemes?

In our production I am doing contemporary performance practice (CPP) Hannah and Georgina are directors, Ursula is a dramaurg and Sue and Ade are designers. Each of us have to ensure that our input and mark is made on the piece in order to hopefully receive similar, if not the same marks for the process and piece, as this is our final piece of work for our entire degree. However, how similar is this in the 'real world,' how do companies working today ensure that everybodys voice is heard or is there a hierarchy? For instance, in Forced Entertainment each company member has a tremendous input into the piece of work, but in the end it is Tim Etchells who decides what is put in front of the audience. How collaborative can collaborative work be?

At the moment I am thoroughly enjoying the process and working with a text such as Pornography, but I do at times find it difficult to ensure my mark on the text is being made. Does the process of collaboration become more difficult when a text is involved? As a 'CPP-er' i would assume that I should be ripping apart the text and reforming it or using it as a starting point but eventually ending up at what would be quite a different end product. However, is that what it means to create contemporary performance? Can contemporary performance only be devised? We describe our approach to the text as devising how each scene is being presented, does this count as devising?

Furthermore, there are so many discussions regarding the power of the writer. Writers are not necessarily viewed in the same way that they once were, the primacy of writers has been challenged. Yet sometimes, especially with a text such as Pornography considering its contexts, it is difficult to even think about playing with the text too much. Would the piece send the intended messages if we were to create something from the text? Should we serve the writer or care about their intended messages? Is our job to do what many directors do when they take a text and focus on those elements of the text we would like the audience to pick up on? Or do we let the text speak for itself?

I for one have always been on the fence when it comes to authenticity and puritanism of text. I have to admit that I actually like pieces I have seen which have kept as faithful to the text as they see that they can and others which have created entirely new pieces of work. Although a text of a production may stand the test of time, each time it is performed it will be different. Therefore, can a text ever be performed faithfully or in keeping with the writers intentions? This is the nature of performance as a live act. Personally, I have always liked the idea that a pre-existing text or script is part of the process, a continuous act of creation through the performance of it and in turn the reception of it by the audience. That I am just coming into the process part of the way through and becoming part of the end product.

Pornography is a relatively open text, allowing for any interpretation and presentation. In fact, Sephens wrote it in mind that it could be played with. Among other reasons, one of the key reasons for the play first being performed in Germany was because he knew it would become an entirely different entity as a european performance, Nevertheless, in terms of our production, some of the scenes really do lend themselves to a more naturalistic presentation than others. Is that when we are getting into the borders of contemporary theatre rather than contemporary performance? Is contemporary theatre a form of contemporary performance? I have to admit i do become somewhat frustrated at times when some of the scenes I visualised as quite open in terms of presentation are slowly become more naturalistic than any of us had first intended. I also do not know how, in the short amount of time that we have had for this process, anything could be done differently.

Sometimes I have ideas which would be more along a contemporary performance route but they would jar with the elements we have already created. At other times my ideas are taken on and developed. Is this the case because I am working with two directors, both with distinct voices in how they want the piece to be presented vocally, aesthetically and artistically? A sad thought is that perhaps my ideas are not strong enough, something that has begun to affect me when I am working due to the knock back the process was last term. However, I feel that all three of us are taking elements of each other's roles, all putting in the same effort, taking each other's marking criteria into account to attempt to make sure that we are covering our backs but most of all to create our vision for the text. But if i have to fulfil certain criterion, how do I know if I am even accomplishing anything?

I have learnt much from this process already, especially being in the performance as well as creating it (but that's for another blog!) I suppose my worries are not that we will put on a bad performance because I know that we wont and I know this piece is already better than anything I have done this year. My worries lie in how much contribution I am making to the piece as a contemporary performance practice person and although less important, inevitably the marks I will receive at the end of it. I do not mind that some of the scenes are naturalistic, or that others are more stylised. I have also enjoyed experimenting with how acting techniques and physical techniques can actually inform each other. Even using the word acting in this blog makes me feel like i should be shot by my fellow CPP-ers! It has been an extremely different process to that of my last two pieces and to that of anything I have done before.

These are just some of the the questions that i constantly ask myself throughout this process. Some of them may be answered, some are more rhetorical. I want to put a piece in front of an audience that will make them think and make them feel, does it matter how I go about doing that just because my specialism last term was CPP? There are times in this process when i feel more like a director than a CPP-er and there are times when I am in my element. There are other times I lack confidence in any skill whatsoever.

Although our specialisms label us CPP, Directing, Dramaturgy and Design, we are supposed to be a company. Yes, we may have certain roles that we are each capable of fulfilling but we are also able to cross specialise. Is that not the point? This term I am collaborating. Collaboration, to me, means taking the skills base that you have and putting it together to create a performance which is balanced and which has integrity. Hopefully, the end product will illustrate that this process so far and hopefully in the last two weeks has been a well balanced act and that we have each put something into the process.

I guess we shall see.

Ellie