Somehow or other, I have managed to become involved in a project without really having any reason for being there. This is slightly different than my usual habit of sticking my nose in where I am not wanted.
As many of you know, I have spent the year investigating Vorticism as a performance making technique. As part of that investigation, I gathered a group of actors, a dramaturg, and a designer to engage in some workshops. It went well and I have almost finished my second play. You can read Entropia, the first short play by clicking on that page at the side of the screen.
The designer who was working with me on the project was El Lindberg, who was the devisor and producer of Self Contained Spaces - details of which can also been seen by clicking on the page at the side of the screen. El contacted me a few weeks ago and told me she was about to undertake the creative development of a new project, and would I be willing to come in and direct a few rehearsals from a Vorticist perspective.
This sounded very exciting and I agreed. I didn't hear anything more for a while, but then we suddenly kept running into each other at random places like on the tram.
Anyway, she invited me to a rehearsal where I could see what they had been doing, but when I got there, nothing was achieved because one of the performers was late (this is a very small ensemble). When he finally got there, the last hour ended up being a discussion about content. Apparently no concept or content had been explored yet. They had spent the last couple of sessions just exploring physically, and creating pretty 'pictures'.
I should point out that I don't think there is anything wrong with that, and in many ways, that is what a creative development is for. The difficulty is that a showing is planned for the 15th November and they are only rehearsing/exploring for a few hours every Sunday. I did the math and that is only 8 working hours before showing this to people - I assume people of some significance. The other complication is that El won't be there for the Sunday prior to presentation.
Another complication is that I am unavailable that Sunday too, because I am doing audio describer training at Vision Australia that day. I actually haven't told El that yet. I lost my diary and wasn't entirely sure. I have only reconstructed my November commitments this afternoon.
The way I figure it, in this time frame there is no point in even beginning a discussion about Vorticism because the performers are starting to freak out about structure and content. El seems either unable or unwilling to really take any leadership in this regard which is not really helping.
I attended rehearsals today, thinking I was going to see some of the physical stuff they had been playing with, but one of the actors has decided to take charge and drive a narrative for performance. Today I ended up spending a lot of time speaking on behalf of El to try and keep the project in line with what I am hearing her saying.
We had a chat on the phone last week and I suggested that really my best role for this project would be dramaturgical, so I tried to focus on that today. Of course, it's not as simple as that, because the show revolves around 4 people. and El only has three.
We started with El playing one of the characters, but halfway through the session I swapped with her because it was becoming a bit too much like I was directing, and if anyone should be doing that it should be her. Now my big fear is that I will have to end up performing.
This is problematic on a number of levels. The first is the rehearsal I can't attend. The second is a concern about the physical demands as the others are working quite strenuously. The final one is that if they call a rehearsal before the showing on the 15th, I won't be able to attend until late because I have audio describer training on that day too.
So here I am, not working with Vorticism and having an ambiguous role within a project I have no background for and questionable right to inform. How did I get myself into this mess???
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