Performer’s Blog / Blog Perfformiwr: The Good Earth

The Good Earth, which opens in the Weston Studio on 16 April, originally started life when Fragments were chosen as one of our developing companies for our Incubator Project in 2013. Cast member Hanna Brunt talks about her experience of the Incubator process, from auditions, to the first showing at our Incubator Sharing evening back in Autumn 2013, to this next stage of development.

Dechreuodd bywyd The Good Earth, sy’n agor yn y Stiwdio Weston ar 16 Ebrill, pan ddewisiwyd Fragments fel un o’n cwmnïoedd datblygu ar gyfer ein Prosiect Deori yn 2013. Dyma aelod o’r cast Hanna Brunt, yn sgwrsio am ei phrofiad yn y broses Deori, o’r clyweliadau i’r ddau berfformiad cyntaf yn noson arbennig Deori nôl yn Hydref 2013, i gam nesaf y datblygiad.

In September 2013 I saw an audition notice for an R&D project that was to be performed at the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, as part of their Incubator project. The company was called Fragments, an international group of film and theatre makers and their new project was The Good Earth. They were looking for five, highly versatile actors, with a strong sense of play, to take part in the new production that was inspired by true events, which took place in the village of Troedrhiwgwair. Straightaway I applied and was lucky enough to be invited to take part in a group audition at the Wales Millennium Centre itself. Four days after the audition took place I received an email offering me a spot as one of the five to take part in the rehearsal and development of the piece.

With an old BBC news interview, from the villagers of Troedrhiwgwair, and other articles under our belt, we went on our way to begin developing a piece.  Inspired by true events, we wanted to portray the trials and traumas faced by a small Welsh village in the Sirhowy Valley, who were all asked to leave their homes as the council thought that the mountain they had lived under for decades was dangerous. 

Using the characters from the news report as an aid, we began brainstorming character traits and features we thought would best symbolize the villagers.  We then went on to create characters and relationships we felt the audience could believe and empathise with. Through improvisation we found ourselves creating scenes and discovering aspects of characters that we could expand upon, which helped to keep the rehearsals moving forward.  

The process was fantastic, but at times very difficult, as we would really go in depth on a character and realize it would not work. At this point we would have to leave all the work we had done on certain aspects to the side and start again. However, each new character brought about exciting new discoveries; whether or not we went on to use the character in the final piece.

Once we had discovered and developed characters we believed were strong enough to convey the emotions and portray the raw truth of feeling, we moved on to creating scenes that would tell the stories of our villagers. We wanted to produce a piece that conveyed a strong message of the struggles of a village who were being asked to leave their family homes by a council who could offer no real proof for the apparent danger they were in.

Being able to do this in the Wales Millennium Centre, in similar spaces to the one we would be performing in, was unbelievable. It was amazing to be able to develop ideas and bring a production to life in such a busy theatre environment, being surrounded by so many other artists, such as the Welsh National Opera, Hijinx Theatre and even Dame Edna (the show that was in the Donald Gordon Theatre at the time). The atmosphere was electric and the facilities were next to none. The staff were always friendly and welcoming and the producers in charge of the Incubator project were always popping in and out of rehearsals to show their support and see how things were going on. 

After our two week rehearsal and development period we moved into the Weston Studio, the performance space, where we were now in the hands of the Technical staff. From start to finish they were very professional and helpful, bowing to our every lighting and technical need. Their support was integral in the final stages of the piece and their collaboration with us, especially with our director’s ideas, helped form an atmospheric setting for our piece.

To have been able to rehearse, develop ideas and perform at the Wales Millennium Centre was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and an opportunity I am pleased to have the chance to do again. 

Our project from the Incubator sharing has been accepted to receive funding from the Arts Council of Wales with support from the Wales Millennium Centre, National Lottery and RCT Cultural Services. We will be rehearsing and developing for a further 15 days before performing in the Weston Studio in April.

By Hanna Brunt, cast member.

See The Good Earth in the Weston Studio on 16 & 17 April, 8pm.

Incubator is a platform for artists and companies to develop new work in partnership with Wales Millennium Centre. The project is open for applications throughout the year from artists and companies with an idea that they would like to develop further. Click here to find out more about how you can get involved, or email our producer Fern: fern.george@wmc.org.uk

Dewch i fwynhau The Good Earth yn y Stiwdio Weston ar 16 ac 17 Ebrill am 8pm.

Mae Deori yn llwyfan i artistiaid a chwmnïau ddatblygu gwaith newydd mewn partneriaeth â Chanolfan Mileniwm Cymru. Mae’n bosibl gwneud cais i’r prosiect trwy gydol y flwyddyn ac mae’n agored i gwmnïau sydd â syniad yr hoffent ei ddatblygu ymhellach. I ddysgu mwy am sut allwch chi gymryd rhan a bod yn un o gwmnïau Deori, anfonwch e-bost at at ein cynhyrchydd fern.george@wmc.org.uk

Performer’s Blog / Blog Perfformiwr: It’s Dark Outside

Arielle Gray, creator of and performer in It’s Dark Outside, shares a little about the process behind the show, from playing with puppets and the creative uses of puppet stuffing, to researching dementia. Catch It’s Dark Outside in the Weston Studio on 6 April, 7.30pm. 

Dyma Arielle Gray, crëwr a pherfformiwr yn It’s Dark Outside, yn rhannu’r broses â ni o greu’r sioe, gan chwarae â phypedau a’r gwaith ymchwil i ddementia. Bydd It’s Dark Outside yn ein Stiwdio Weston ar 6 Ebrill, 7.30pm

 

 

Hi everyone!

We have just started our UK tour of It’s Dark Outside and we are already enjoying the beautiful green countryside, the old buildings and the mist! The great thing about touring here (being from Australia) is how close everything is. We can go from one town to another every single day (in our van, driven by the lovely Oz). It’s all so close! When we tour in Australia, it’s a flight or a fairly hefty drive to get from one place to another.

It’s Dark Outside is a theatre show commissioned by Perth Theatre Company created and performed by Tim Watts, Chris Isaacs and myself. It also has a beautiful original score by the incredibly talented Rachael Dease. I’m going to write a little something about the process we went through to create it!
 

We started with the idea of wildness. In the beginning we were playing with all sorts of things: gorillas, the Wild West, a tarzan-esque child, an old man. Some ideas stayed, some didn’t. When we generate content for the shows we do it by getting into a space, bringing a whole bunch of stuff and playing. We had gorilla puppets, cowboy boots, we made a crude wild boy puppet, and we got an old man mask off the Internet, heaps of stuff.

Eventually we realised we were creating two different storylines, one was the gorilla and the wild boy and the other was the Wild West and the old man. We chose the old man.

We had been looking into dementia and the effects it had on sufferers and we came across a fascinating phenomenon called ‘sundowners syndrome’. Boiled down: As the sun sets (and shadows lengthen) Alzheimer’s patients can become more agitated and the instances of wandering increase. The idea that someone who has lost parts of themselves could have this natural urge to escape into the world (wild) at sunset really captured our imagination. It became our central image (which the whole show revolves around): An old man wanders into the wild at sunset.

From there we played with shadows, the old man, westerns, a tent and much more. One day, we were in the middle of making an old man puppet body and there was some stuffing in the space. We often end up playing with pretty much anything that’s in the space. So lo and behold the stuffing ended up in the show, but not only that, it ended up being a fairly central image. An image for thoughts, memories and all that came with that.

From the stage where we generate ideas and play with things we moved onto the editing stage. This is where we string the ideas together into a narrative and find ways to transition from one scene to another. Throughout the whole process we also have consistent showings, where we show scenes and ideas to a variety of people (other theatre-makers, Tim’s parents, friends, sometimes general public) and get feedback. Showings give you several gifts.

1.      You aren’t precious about ideas, images or scenes that you are creating.

2.      You get to constantly check what the audience is reading from the ideas meaning you know exactly what the show is saying.

3.      You know if something is a bit naff!

4.      Sometimes audience give you new ideas of what direction something should go in.

Eventually we had the show and have now done several seasons around the world and in our hometown of Perth in Western Australia. We still chat to audiences after the show and have made tweaks based on feedback we have received and also little changes based on things we weren’t 100% happy with.

If you do come and see the show, please come say hi afterwards, we’d love to hear what you think!

Arielle

Don’t miss It’s Dark Outside, showing in the Weston Studio on 6 April, 7.30pm. Click here for full details and to book.

 

Peidiwch â cholli It’s Dark Outside, sydd yn ein Stiwdio Weston ar 6 Ebrill am 7.30pm. Cliciwch yma am ragor o wybodaeth ac i archebu eich tocynnau.

Director’s Blog \ Blog Cyfarwyddwr: The Good Earth

Written by Rachael Boulton, National Theatre Wales emerging director. 
See The Good Earth in the Weston Studio, 16 & 17 April, 8pm.

Wedi’i ysgrifennu gan Rachael Boulton, cyfarwyddwraig newydd National Theatre Wales.

Dewch i weld The Good Earth yn ein Stiwdio Weston ar 16 a 17 Ebrill, am 8pm.

The development of our piece first started last November, when I submitted an idea to the centre’s Incubator programme. If you don’t know too much about Incubator, it’s a programme that nurtures new work, giving emerging artists a safe environment to try out and develop their ideas.I didn’t quite know what the outcome of the piece would be at the time, but I definitely knew that I needed five exceptional actors with a passion for play and improvisation to work with me, and help bring this story to life.

The story is inspired by true events that took place in Wales back in the seventies. Nestled in a small ex mining community near Tredegar, a group of villagers fought to save their homes and mountain against outside forces for almost twenty years.Using this as a springboard for our story, we worked as an ensemble for ten days to create fictional characters, improvising dozens of scenes each day before discovering the plot.

Since then, Wales Millennium Centre partnered up with us to coproduce the next stage of development, while RCT theatre’s, Arts Council Wales and the National Lottery Fund also came on board to support our development. We’re thrilled, to say the very least!

We’re now embarking on our second stage of R&D, devising for 15 days, before presenting our work in the Weston Studio on the 16th and 17th of April. I can’t wait to get back in the rehearsal room with such a brave, generous and talented ensemble, and while working from scratch with no script is beyond challenging, it’s possibly the most rewarding.

The Good Earth combines Welsh song, physical theatre and new writing, resulting in an hour of explosive and moving new theatre. Well, that’s what we’re saying on the tin, but, we’d love to get your feedback on the piece, so please come on down and chat to us after the show. Or, if that’s not your thing, you can tweet your thoughts to #thegoodearth.

We’ll be posting updates, footage and photo’s from the rehearsal room over the next few weeks, so ‘til then I’ll say, “Ta’ra for now then.”

Read more here... http://fragments.ie/people/rachael

The Good Earth is a new play in development by National Theatre Wales’ emerging director Rachael Boulton, co produced by Wales Millennium Centre. Devised by Fragments and directed by National Theatre Wales’ emerging director Rachael Boulton.



“Moving on every level”
Audience Feedback from Incubator 2013 / Adborth Gan Gynulleidfa Deori  2013

Darn newydd sydd wedi ei gynhyrchu a’i ddatblygu ar y cyd â Chanolfan Mileniwm Cymru yw The Good Earth. Mewn cydweithrediad â Gwasanaethau Diwylliannol RCT ac wedi ei gefnogi gan Gyngor Celfyddydau Cymru. Wedi’i greu gan Fragments a’i gyfarwyddo gan gyfarwyddwr addawol National Theatre Wales Rachael Boulton.

Q & A / Cwestiwn ac Ateb: Clerke & Joy

We caught up with Clerke & Joy to find out more about ‘part performance, part lecture and part school science experiment’, Volcano. The show comes to the Weston Studio on 4 April.

Aethon ni am sgwrs gyda Clerke a Joy er mwyn darganfod mwy am ‘y perfformiad, darlith ac arbrawf gwyddonol’ y cynhyrchiad, Volcano. Bydd y sioe yma yn ein Stiwdio Weston ar 4 Ebrill.

What’s your inspiration behind the show?
This is a nice story. Volcano comes from a few different points, which were somehow combined over a pizza called ‘Etna’ at a London Pizza Express sometime in December 2011, and made sense of in many rehearsals between then and May 2013 when we premiered the show at Brighton Festival.

1. Rachael is notoriously difficult to buy presents for. When her family visited Iceland they didn’t know what to get her, so brought back some ash scooped up from the base of Eyjafjallajokull. It’s the show’s magic ingredient.

2. Around the same time Jojo sat opposite a man on the train to Hither Green. He was wearing a suit and listening to music on his headphones, and crying. His music was turned up loud - he was listening to Jennifer Hudson’s And I’m Telling You, which is a really epic love ballad. He became our pilot.

3. There is a really great book by the Glasgow based artist Ilana Halperin, called Physical Geology, which is about the relationship between human time and geological time, and also about geological processes that happen within the body, like the forming of kidney or gall stones. This was our inspiration and excuse to use humans & volcanoes as parallels, with equal importance. It’s also where the show’s original title - A Volcano Perpetually Erases Its Own History - comes from.

The show is described as ‘part performance, part lecture, part science experiment’. What can we expect to discover from watching the show?
Well, we hope that different audience members will have different experiences. The show has a lot of contrasting elements within it, so we tend to find that some people come out understanding how volcanoes work for the first time since primary school, whereas others will be moved by the story of the pilot, or excited by the visual effects created on stage (we’re constantly amazed by how much you can do with talcum powder and a desk fan.)

You’ve been described as ‘bending all the rules’, can you give us a taster of how you do this in Volcano?
That’s a hard question. We’re never totally sure what the rules are, so you can only ever be about 50% sure you are bending them. We studied together at Dartington College of Arts (before and during it’s merger with Falmouth University) - an institution that is pretty renowned for doing away with a lot of rules altogether. We like to think that gave us a very open attitude to what we can and can’t do in our work.

In Volcano we worked with Dr Mike Cassidy, who is a volcanologist, and have an actual volcanology lecture in the show. We also work with Adrian Spring, (who plays the pilot) and have him standing on stage almost totally still for the whole show. It works because he’s an amazing performer - you’d never expect anyone to be so engaging whilst doing nothing, and we think it really makes the show. That’s probably the bravest thing we’ve done. There must be a rule against having someone doing nothing on stage for so long! It feels like something very much borrowed from the live art world, that we don’t see so much of in theatre.

Where do the Righteous Brothers fit in?
They are the eruption… you’ll have to come and see.

What do you want audiences take away from the show?
A connection with the pilot. The karaoke version of Unchained Melody stuck in their heads. The smell of talcum powder and vinegar. An understanding of volcanoes. A lump in their throat.

Describe Volcano in three words.
Tragicomic, naive and… oh go on, explosive.

Catch Clerke & Joy: Volcano in the Weston Studio on Friday 4 April, 8pm. Click here for full details and to book.

Dewch draw i fwynhau cynhyrchiad Clerke & Joy: Volcano yn ein Stiwdio Weston ar nos Wener 4 Ebrill, 8pm. Cliciwch yma am ragor o fanylion ac i archebu eich tocynnau.

 

Q & A / Cwestiwn ac Ateb: Dan Canham

We caught up with choreographer Dan Canham to find out more about the creation of dance-documentary piece, Ours Was The Fen Country, which comes to the Weston Studio on 30 March.

Rydyn ni wedi bod am sgwrs gyda’r coreograffydd Dan Canham i ddarganfod mwy am y gwaith sydd y tu ôl i greu cynhyrchiad dawns-ddogfennol, Ours Was The Fen Country, bydd yn ymweld â Stiwdio Weston ar 30 Mawrth.

What was it about the Fens that captured your imagination and inspired you to base your production on them?
Ours Was the Fen Country is an ensemble piece of dance-theatre built from a series of interviews I’ve conducted with people of the fens in East Anglia. The fens are a unique landscape – mile upon mile of unbroken fields with precious little to distinguish any of it. In the past, I’ve walked there for hours on end and seen no one. On a good day it is a stunningly peaceful place and on a bad day it’s bleak as the end of the world. Many of the people who live there are the sort of people you don’t really find anywhere else – with ways of life on the edge of existence.

And so, without really knowing why, I responded to this evocative place by riding my bike and walking around the fens, seeking rare and uncommon characters with whom to discuss the place, their lives, their thoughts on the world and pretty much anything in between. It took around two years to shape the resulting audio material into a piece of theatre. In the show, we use some of the words and interviews I’ve collected alongside music, dance, lighting and sound design to articulate some of the strong feelings and atmospheres you find out there. It’s a show about a specific landscape but that landscape has become the frame for a far wider ranging piece of work about rural ways of life, transience, loss, the power of nature, the disappearance of small things and the nervous system of the eel (among other things).


You worked closely with the people of the Fens, using their stories as a basis for the show. Who was your favourite person that you interviewed?
I was so privileged to speak with many of the people I met and to be given a brief glimpse into their lives. It’s hard to pick a favourite but Peter Carter from Outwell was particularly good to speak with. He is an eel-catcher and when it came to trying to actually get an interview he was as slippery as his catch.

He’s a bit of a local legend as his family’s been catching eels on the fens since 1475, and he’s the last of the line. He was a hard man to pin down and it took many missed calls, facebook messages, emails and about 40 miles on my bike until I managed to get to speak with him. I reached his shop in a last ditch attempt to meet with him, only to find it closed. I staked it out for a while before he happened to emerge - at which point I jumped him for an interview and having admired my persistence, he willingly obliged. He actually came to see the show when we toured to Ely (of all places) and it was a great experience – the first time he’d ever been to a theatre.

I’ve also spoken with pedigree horse, cattle and bantam-cock breeders, young farmers and a wonderful fenwoman of 92 years among others. The process of meeting and talking with people with whom I would never normally come into contact with, has been both a humbling and amazing experience in and of itself.


How did the piece change and evolve through the development process? Did you discover anything unexpected along the way?
We use dance in the show to help tease out and expand upon some of the atmospheres and feelings the words suggest. The challenge of turning the words of quite practical people into something that might suggest the poetic and artistic was an exciting one that led to some beautiful surprises.

With one man, Ralph Sargeant – a nature reserve warden for 35 years – I’d sat and spoken to him on the fen for a hour or so and not felt particularly happy with what was coming up in the interview – where I was looking for poetic meditations on the power of nature he would give me lists of animal species. It wasn’t until I listened back to the interview that I realised there was a poetry in and of itself in the way he spoke about animals. Adding music to the interview unveiled a whole other element to it and finally adding choreography and movement to that music deepened it even further.

On the whole that has been our approach – to honour the words of the interviewees and seek theatrical ways to enhance the words, without getting in their way.

Ours Was the Fen Country looks at ways of life that are dying out. What do you hope audiences will take away from this performance?
It’s a piece about the world and our place within it and so it’ll act as a mirror in some way to some of those wider thoughts we all have. It’s also been designed for any audiences to appreciate – including those that might not have ever heard of the fens – and so I hope there is some overlapping of the themes with rural communities all over the country. It’s also got some funny bits, and beautiful dancing.

Three words to describe the performance...
"An exquisite evocation".  (Lyn Gardner)

See Ours Was The Fen Country in the Weston Studio on Sunday 30 March, 8pm. Click here for full details, and to watch a short video with more details on the research and development of the piece.

Dewch draw i fwynhau’r perfformiad Ours Was The Fen Country yn ein Stiwdio Weston, ar nos Sul 30 Mawrth am 8pm. Cliciwch yma am ragor o wybodaeth, ac i wylio clip fideo sy'n sôn am y gwaith ymchwil a datblygu.

Q & A / Cwestiwn ac Ateb: Victoria Melody

Ahead of Major Tom on 18 March, we caught up with Victoria Melody to find out more about the true story behind her hilarious new show.

Cyn Major Tom ar 18 Mawrth, rydyn ni wedi sgwrsio â Victoria Melody i glywed am y stori wir y tu ôl i’r sioe newydd ddifyr yma.

What inspired you to make this show?
In Major Tom I immersed myself into the worlds of championship dog show handling and beauty pageantry. I became an active participant and a physical embodiment of the people I was hanging around with in order to take part in their rituals as research for my work. Rather than recording, documenting and commenting on Britain's clubs and tribes, I actively participate by becoming a member and metamorphasising myself in the process.

The idea for Major Tom originally started when I got a dog and was instantly given membership to an exclusive members only club of basset hound owners. Dog owners, especially the obsessive ones that participate in dog shows, were a tribe that fascinated me and I wanted to make work about them. During fieldwork for Major Tom I was driving back from a dog show after Major Tom (my basset hound) had just come last, and the judge told me I should buy a new dog. I was annoyed because Major's personality wasn't taken into consideration; it was purely about him measuring up to a breed standard, anything unique about him was seen as a flaw, an imperfection that lost him points. It didn't count that he is so absurd and loving that he has earned the name "walking Prozac" from my friends because he makes everybody happy. It was on that journey home from the dog show that I came up with the idea to enter beauty pageants. That was the moment when the whole project made sense. The show manifesto wrote itself - it had gone from a show about in-group behavior and Little England to a show more about the beauty myth and its oppressive function.

What is it like to be a beauty pageant participant? Did you feel exposed or vulnerable at all?

The competitive beauty world is not a scene I have ever had the desire to be involved in, I certainly never envisioned that one day I would actively compete in an attempt to become Mrs UK. In my youth I was a Goth and did everything to avoid the gaze. I would have laughed in your face if you told me that in my mid-thirties I would wear a swimsuit on stage in front of a panel of judges.

Obviously I enjoyed having a team of specialists fussing around me with the sole purpose of making me look good. But I started to lose my identity, I didn't look like me anymore and a strict diet/exercise/beauty regime meant that I rarely socialized. One particular time sticks out - when I had spent 4 x hours getting ready for Brighton's gay pride parade. I was participating in the parade as Mrs Brighton (my beauty queen title). Mitch (husband) was waiting for me, after his patience had waned - he looked at me with my big fake tanned, made up face and huge bleached blonde hair and shouted, "This isn't you!" But that was the point.

  

What's your opinion of beauty pageants? Obviously they objectify, but do you personally see this as a problem?

Participating in beauty pageants was an extreme way of experimenting to see how closely I could get to a universal physical ideal. There's been reams written on beauty being an ugly business that makes billions out of women's insecurities. It's in the media's interest to promote images of tall, skinny, young homogenised stereotypes to make normal women and men feel insecure in them selves so that we will buy into the diet, cosmetics and cosmetic surgery industries. Throughout the preparation for the beauty pageant, I became a "project" for many people including plastic surgeons and hairdressers. The show proves that physical beauty is a currency system and I was being sold the skills and products that would enable me to become the "ideal" me.

But I created Major Tom to be purposely ambiguous. The audience is left to do their own thinking. The only criticism is of myself in other people's worlds. Of course I have opinions, I have strong ones or else I wouldn't be making the work that I do. But I would rather let the work speak for itself.  In the shows I use humour as a tool to get to those difficult and taboo places. I like this quote from Rosemary Wagg of Exeunt magazine "Major Tom proves something I had always suspected: that the best politics come heavily coated in humour and everything is better if a dog is involved."

How easy is it to perform with a dog?  Is Major Tom well behaved on stage? 

Major Tom does exactly as he pleases on stage which is mainly sabotage the punch lines of my stories by looking at the audience and yawning or walking off stage. He is very comedic and every performance is different because you never know what he's going to do. 


Has all the fame gone to Major Tom's head? 

He wags his tail when he hears applause he thinks it's for him, even if it's coming from the radio.

What can we expect from you next?

My next project is called Hair Peace. I am attempting to trace the real human hair extensions on my head back to the humans who grew them. A well-meaning hairdresser applied the extensions when I was competing as a beauty queen. It's a show about global trade, traceability and the search for the story behind my (well - someone else's) long flowing locks. 


Describe Major Tom (the show!) in three words.

Funny, political, under-dogs

See Major Tom in the Weston Studio on Tuesday 18 March, 8pm. Click here for full details, and to see the trailer.

Dewch i weld Major Tom yn Stiwdio Weston nos Fawrth 18 Mawrth. Cliciwch fan hyn am y manylion llawn ac i weld hysbyslun.