Serious gaps have appeared in this record. I need to learn to make entries even when fully occupied with pressing deadlines. One place for reflection in everyone's daily life is the tube - something like Matins and Evensong might be for a monk.  Although my journey is quite a short one, Shepherds Bush to Swiss Cottage, the whole journey, including a short bus trip takes about 45 minutes. Usually it's a time for reading and thought. A kind of performance is also constantly taking place, if needed, as each person on the tube becomes by turn audience or performer, or often a combination of both. Carrying an unusual object, for example, such as a large bunch of flowers, immediately makes someone a performer - as does wearing unusual clothes. A Father Christmas, who is not in role as Father Christmas, but is clearly destined to be so, or has just been so,  carries an unusual sort of perfoprmance energy, acutely aware of his Father Christmasness, of course, but wishing to detach himself from it, if he possibly can.  This Father Christmas, seen on the Jubilee Line,  was at pains to enact his detachment and relative youth compared with the generally accepted character of Father Christmas by swinging with both hands from the hand rail, and chatting nonchalantly to his friend.

Recieved as a present a brilliant new(ish) book - Seven Days in the Art World by Sarah Thornton. I'm really excited by this book for a number of reasons. 1. I find its form quite inspriring. It does in effect survey the 'art world' through seven in-depth accounts of seven key days in the art world's calendar. These are written as minute-by-minute accounts. 2. Although this book is essentially journalistic, a lightening survey, I love the subject, and just to be briefly reminded of it for a few minutes at a time fulfils a need, and sets the mind sparking. The Museum of Modern Art in New York is the centre of its universe - and mine. 3. It's fast and furious - easy to read on the tube. A real page-turner. Essentially light reading. A kind of written TV documentary - if you can imagine such a thing - with glamorous locations and rapid cuts. 4. It bears (lightly) on the Practitioner Study Unit - the subject of this journal. Here are a few quotes which have stood out and seemed strangely relevant:

"Quite often when I thought I was brilliant, I wasn't. Then when I was really teaching, I wasn't aware of it. You never know what students will pick up on." Baldesari believes that the most important function of art education is to demystify artists. " Students need to see that art is made by human beings just like them." (p.52)

and further on:

Finally, art students need to understand their motivations deeply, because in grad school it's imperative to discover which parts of their practice are expendable. As Jones explains, "You have to find something that is true to yourself as a person - some non-negotiable core that will get you though a forty-year artisitc practice." (p.56)

and finally:

"If you look at the history of art," he (Michael Craig-Martin) maintains, "all the Renaissance artists knew their contemporaries. So did the impressionsists. There was a moment in their lives when they were all friends and acquaintances. The cubists were not simply individual geniuses. Their greatest works happened in conjunction. Who was van Gogh's best friend? Gaugin."

This reminded me of an experience I had the other day while taking part in a new work made by one of my students. Instructed, by letter,  to move from the room for a time to sit outside I was given a small bag containing among other things Vasari's 'Lives of the Artists' to keep myself amused. Opening it at random, in the first sentence I read,  Vasari spoke of something Michaelangelo had said to him the other day.  I will have to find the quote. Suddenly the whole history of art changed from something recorded in books, to something which actually happens - between friends.

Went to see 'Present Attempt’s' new work yesterday - Networks 2.0-Walking (s)miles – starting at Stoke Newington International Airport. Interesting new venue (to me). Noticed they were appearing in good company too – 'Action Hero' playing later in the evening.
Networks 2.0- Walking (s)miles is a one hour walk in which each member of the audience attempts to elicit as many smiles from complete strangers as possible. The walk is preceded by a photograph of each individual audience member (not smiling and smiling) and a general briefing on how to proceed.
It was enjoyable. At least it was enjoyable some of the time – when not sinking into moody depression. These mood swings were of course linked to the endevour – some success, a couple of smiles, you were on a high; a couple of rejections and you were wanting to go home.
Through this task, as an audience member, I gained considerable insights. Positioned as a kind of desperate outsider, looking for approval, the world is a different and rather difficult place.  As an audience, we experienced a great many transactions of many different kinds. It was noted that where merchandise was involved – walking into a shop for example – smiles were more readily acquired. Another sly walker took to admiring babies in their prams – another sure fire winner where their mothers were concerned.
It was great to be out and about on the streets of Stoke Newington, with a secret mission, making new friends, and generally startling the inhabitants. Each smile returned was marked by sending a text back to headquarters - where two members of the group were keeping elaborate charts and records, shown to the walkers on their return, with the group's usual blend of charm and serious concern.

A good example of contemporary practice - making work in and of the world around us, and heightening our experience of it in new ways.  In terms of finding new links between people - making new connections - the work links with Present Attempt's earlier work Networks 1.0, an inspiring odyssey through the UK climaxing in a 2.0 am visit to the Forest Fringe at the Edinburgh Festival, recorded below.

Networks 2.0- Walking (s)miles travels to Manchester next weekend.
Meanwhile, since returning from Canada on Thursday, have managed to catch up with Tom Espiner's Sound&Fury workshop in the Top Floor Performance Studio in the Top Floor Performance Studio at Central, ans see something of the work which is going on.

The room has the slightly chaotic feel of work in the early stages of rehearsal as Tom explores some early ideas for a new show in a brilliantly open and inclusive way.  The image above is a moving swirling one, created by a group working with some basic materials and light to create an image of the evolving universe. More about this will follow I feel sure. 

By an odd coincidence, I was able to see the North American Premiere of Deborah Pearson's Table Talk  in Toronto tonight, only days after sitting huddled in a tent with her at Central to share her more intimate piece – Music Ruined by Dating - part of our first Forest Fringe Friday evening.

Tonight's performance was an awe-inspiring event, made on a large and ambitious scale, which tells us much about the individual contemporary practitioner, and the place of writing in contemporary practice.

I first knew of Deborah as one of the directors of the Forest Fringe at Edinburgh - a calm presence enabling other artists to produce their work in the best possible circumstances. I also saw a miniature work she created this year in a small second-hand bookshop - quiet, intimate, involving total audence immersion in finding and reading extracts from a series of books, following clues, and writing a particular message at the end.

..Something Very Quiet is About to Happen 20 August, 10.30pm, secret location (meet

First afternoon of workshop led by Tom Espiner of Sound&Fury hopefully happened earlier today. I hope it went well. As I'm 3548 miles away, I haven't heard yet if it happened or what happened.

I know this is what he intended:

Initially I am keen simply to explore playing with poetic text and sound loosely associated with the subject of cosmology and astronomy, stars and darkness and I am looking forward to sharing this with you and getting your ideas and responses too!

Has anyone written anything yet about what unfolded this afternoon? Please use the comments box below to copy in comments or indicate any useful links. For me, this will need to be an exercise in filling in the pieces of information from a distance. Useful test of rapid documentation - from multiple sources? We can see.

Heavy week for the Convenor of the Practitioner Study Unit leading up to last Thursday's Exam Board  (for last year’s MA Advanced Theatre Practice). Rapid mental switches required between the work of last year and this year sometimes creating interesting juxtapositions and fresh insights.  The Exam Board is a kind of performance in itself  – full of nervous anxiety associated with performance. Is every detail properly prepared? Will the voice work properly? Will I be capable of pronouncing difficult names?  The good thing is that the Board is chaired by practitioner Ross Brown – sympathetic to the idea of External Examiners (Teresa Brayshaw and Joe Kelleher) and me bunking off to see see the work produced on the course this week. So in no time we’ve done our bit and we’re off to see the work produced with Julian Maynard Smith ... thanks Ross. And we’re not disappointed. There’s a great range of work demonstrating various takes on the telematic theme  – exploring different ways of creating performance outside the performance space and bringing this work to an audience within. And there are some sharp juxtapositions placed within this work as well – action skyped from McDonalds in the Finchley Road; a performance relayed by radio mikes from distant points just visible from the large window in the New Studio; a cunning arrangement of mirrors relaying action from a small room next door; and a live video feed from the corridor, with a breathless messenger rushing back and forth delivering instructions to one performer within the space and one outside it.  These were clever theatrical machines, showing enormous invention and potential. Perfect exercises for the year group to start flexing their muscles – working in new partnerships in new ways.  Afterwards, have a drink with Julian, Teresa and Joe and discover Julian’s father was a Professor - while discussing a show Teresa is planning on the subject of this unusual breed of complex living communication machines.

Julian Maynard Smith starts his workshop this afternoon by showing images of some of the extraordinary range of work he has achieved with Station House Opera over the last twenty-five years.  It's a wonderful archive which ranges the world - large works, small works, indoor works, monumental works outside. It's a staggering display of one man's intellect - made visual and concrete - a series of moving images, with their own complex inner logic and rules. The audience does not seem particularly interested or impressed, when I go in, and I wonder if they are picking up their mood to some extent from Julian himself. He projects a mood of boredom and disdain about his own work - none of which is quite what he would like it to be, and which always falls short in some respect, of what he would wish for. In speaking about it, he does tend to emphasise the enormous difficulties he has encountered in making the work.  This is not what people necessarily want to hear. This can be the physical difficulty of arranging  a mountain of breeze blocks, the communication difficulties of working across time zones and various cultural expectations, or the intellectual difficulty of following a set of challenging instructions in a performance situation. He sets himself these difficulties of course deliberately as almost impossible obstacles to overcome, and labours intensely  to come close to achieving what he hoped for - which is usually an impossible task. None of this makes for easy listening but I do find myself getting a little irritated at times with the way the group is apparently taking Julian's own critical and detached opionion of himself at face-value. So why don't they give him something back? Applaud or exclaim when another  breathtaking image fills the screen? A sharp intake of breath might give him some encouragement. We are fortunate enough to be dealing here with one of the major artists of our time.

Next week's workshop will be run by Julian Maynard Smith of Station House Opera. The subject he will be exploring is telematic theatre. This is the start of his introduction to the project:

Telematic theatre employs some method of sending and receiving theatrical information over a distance.  Telematics usually implies the use of telecommunication devices, but there is no reason specifically why this should be the case. 
If theatre is viewed to have the use of present performance as its primary means, and if that means the audience needs to be physically in the same space as the performance, telemetry would seem to have a limited role in theatre.  If by telematic theatre we do not mean theatre that has telemetry as merely one of its elements, the notion becomes rather paradoxical. 
There are many uses of new media that engage an audience, in a greater or lesser extent, in a performance, but its theatre potential has not been adequately explored.

Images from the Garrick Club. Also Red Ladder performing in the New Studio at 6.0.































Below, Liam and Hannah preparing for debrief of Thursday's memorable Analogue/MAATP showing.
So what was it all about? Suddenly I get pangs of feeling restrained and protective, just as I criticised others for feeling earlier in the week - the difference being maybe I'm feeling protective about the experiences and achievements of a whole group of people - who have been on a journey together. I have that feeling that some of what the group arrived at with Liam and Hannah this week is still in a delicate newborn state, needing to be nurtured a little longer, within a kind of protective bubble of shared experience, without too much exposure all at once. It does seem to me that a little of what I saw could - in its own small way - make its own contribution to the way we see and experience contemporary performance in the future.
Difficult in these circumstances for Red Ladder Theatre to enter this bubble of shared of experience with the show they were kind enough to bring to Central at 6.0. This was full of energy and commitment - of another kind.
Andy Field called in to see the space and begin to plan his Forest Fringe event next Friday. We need to start planning this, and making sure it finds its audience.
And the day ended for me with a formal dinner at the Garrick Club - the Shunt Lounge of its day. Of course the absolutely fascinating thing here is the emphasis which its theatre-loving inhabitants of the past placed on documentation of live theatre - within the constraints of their day - covering every inch of the walls with paintings, as well as filling the place with letters, objects and even sculptures of actors' heads - attempting to penetrate the mystery of what live performance might be. The whole place is a kind of temple of documentation. I found a drawing of Henry Irving in the Gents. And Garrick's Chair sits potently empty on the stairs.

Showing of work 4.0 PM. What an absolutely brilliant and exciting 45 minutes of immersive theatre. It seems to me that this combination of Analogue and this yeargroup has worked like a dream. And the the work they've produced together in just four afternoons is a bit like a dream. Will write more about it tomorrow.

Thinking of conversations in the Hampstead Theatre, and since I haven’t been consulted on the matter in any shape or form, I would like to take this opportunity of putting forward my ideas for the future of the Hampstead Theatre – at this time of change. What is needed in North London, it seems to me, is a centre for theatre-making. The whole world is popping with theatre and performance-makers – some of whom have already appeared in this column. We spend enough time in the bar – why not allow us into the rest of the building? Nothing wrong with this notion of putting on plays of course - (should it be this sort of play, that sort of play, or the other sort of play?) – but by and large that period of literary management of theatre spaces has served its time. Nobody wants it any more. Why try to hold on to it against the torrent of other kinds of work? Why not let it at least be infected, stirred up and modulated by what is happening in the world? The best plays have in any case often been born out of intensely theatrical situations (early days of the Royal Court) – in which all sorts of other aspects of the work (design, approaches to acting, relation to work in mainland Europe) were being re-considered at the same time. I shall return to this subject, in due course, as time allows!

In the morning, meet up with Hannah and Liam over in the Hampstead Theatre to discuss the questions which have arisen. Liam is busy writing his address to the MA Advanced Theatre course about the issue of authorship which has come up - offering alternatives about how to proceed. In fact, we've all cooled down a bit by this stage and appreciate how important an issue it is that's been raised. Those who brought the subject up were quite right do so, as it's the kind of issue that any devising company does well to face up to when they start to work together. In the event, everyone listens respectfully to Liam's thoughts on the matter, and offer of various alternative ways forward, and vote more or less unanimously to continue with the workshop as originally planned. But the good thing is that the subject has been aired, and everyone's a little bit clearer about where they stand. Thanks for your supportive comments about the Practitioner Unit - those that made them. And thanks for your questioning - those that questioned this approach. I have the feeling we're all in a slightly stronger and better informed place as a result of the discussion.
Found Tom Espiner (Sound&Fury) at a neighboring table and talked about the possibility of his working with us. We talked about research and development and how this is perhaps becoming an increasingly important part of the contemporary scene. We thought this might be partly to do with funding - the funding opportunities which exist for developing a new work; and partly audience driven - audiences looking for and encouraging this kind of work.

Start of Analogue residency in the New Studio. It's a start which in its way is surprisingly controversial. Hannah Barker and Liam Jarvis begin by telling the assembled company something about their work and show a promotional DVD of 'Mile End' to give an idea of the work. They talk about their most recent show ' Beachy Head' and the work they are currently making. It's around this - the involvement of the participants in the work they are making - that the issue arises. We have briefed the companies involved in this Unit to see these workshops as opportunities, where possible, to share with the students the research and development they are currently undertaking - rather than simply running a straightforward workshop in the more conventional way. Hannah and Liam have entered into the spirit of this idea in a very positive manner and spent a good deal of time creating an exercise or brief - which could conceivably help them in the development of their next piece of work. Obviously the contribution which anyone else is likely to be able to make to this development is likely to be quite marginal - a greater understanding of a particular part of the work, perhaps, and the possibilities which exist around it - but I would like to think that the student group could contribute in some small way to Hannah and Liam's thinking and make a modest contribution to the work they are making. But apparently some of the participants have voiced a concern about this - that their ideas may be taken and used, in this way - and feel some sense of grievance around this. Well, I must say I feel quite shocked and surprised to hear this objection - which in a way undermines the whole idea of the Unit (that companies will be willing to come and share their ideas with the participants and invite the participants in some small way to share their ideas with them). I feel quite shocked and surprised to find that this issue has arisen - and so not surprisingly does Liam, who calls me later and leaves a couple of messages on my phone. Although he doesn't spell this out, in so many words, I can tell that he's concerned now about the ideas he is bringing to the workshop - if this is the way the participants are thinking. If the participants are concerned about their ideas being 'taken', it somehow suggests that this is their frame of mind - and they would have fewer qualms about 'taking' Liam and Hannah's. Feels like a bit of a breakdown of trust, quite frankly, or is that being melodramatic? So what's to be done? Talk about it tomorrow I guess. Please post your comments.

In response to a request from Gail Hunt, I spend a bit of time writing a kind of press release on the forthcoming Forest Fringe residency for the plasma screens at Central - typical job for the conscientious convenor I suppose, and surprisingly difficult to try to encapsulate what you are doing (and attempting to achieve) in just a few eye-catching words. Here it is:

Forest Fringe Residency

Fridays November 13, November 27, December 4th

Following their success at the Edinburgh Festival, MA Advanced Theatre Practice has invited Forest Fringe to curate three evenings at Central. Spread over three separate Fridays, directors Andy Field and Deborah Pearson will present a programme of performances giving a sense of the full spectrum of the work they support and develop at this innovative venue.

This initiative has been supported by the Centre of Excellence in Theatre Training.

With a short notice of this kind, every word seems to be crucial and telling a story - so I spend a ridiculous amount of time crossing words out and swapping them around. Is it a 'residency'? Should I qualify 'success'? Has the word 'innovative' been worn out by over-use? What's the point of doing all this heart-searching anyway?

What I realise, as I write, is that this humble notice is one of constituent parts of the frame for the event, and that framing the event is somehow an (increasingly?) important ingredient of what the event will be. We want to be prepared for what we will experience - as what we will experience becomes wider and wider in its range of possibilites. Reading about the event, hearing about the event, wondering about the event - becomes as important as experiencing the event - or rather becomes part of experiencing the event. I look forward to seeing my notice (in some shape or form) on the plasma screens! And what I realise now - imagining it there, as I glance up from the queue for coffee at some future date - is that it needs an image. I'll write to Debbie and Andy and ask for one - either pictures of themselves, or better still, a picture of (or from) the Forest Fringe.

On Friday, to conclude our week with Shunt, Mischa Twitchin presented four films of his performances: “Is Art Lighthearted?” (a dialogue between Theodor Adorno and Joseph Beuys); “The Piano Tuners” & “Eye Lust” (texts by Samuel Beckett and Paul Virilio, with music by György Kurtág); and, “The Children’s Emperor” & “The Pianist” (texts by Janusz Korczack and Wladislaw Szpilman). The presentation aimed to address the question: “why film, rather than ‘live’?” and invited discussion.
I may be wrong, but I believe all of these works were created as live performances at the Shunt vaults. Mischa's live works that I've seen have been short intricate tightly focused works, densely layered and constructed, with an emphasis on music, and close attention to painstaking construction of image - a face pressed against a sheet of glass, or a carefully lit and arranged pair of hands. The last I saw - I Wonder Sometimes Who I Am - in Edinburgh at the Forest Fringe.
In my opinion, Mischa is one of the great unsung geniuses of our time and I have a quick drink and discussion with him after the showing - over at the Hampstead Theatre. Like Dr. Johnson - you feel someone should be writing down every word he says. I did try but the scraps of phrases and sentences I put into the back of my academic diary hardly measure up to the event. In essence, he said that he had originally set out to record the live performances he had made, but quickly realised that every decision pertaining to the live performances needed to be reconsidered in the light of this separate and different form - 'something has to move within the static frame.' He had a quick stab at conventional approaches to acting - 'they try to make me feel something, through their presentation of feeling - it's just vulgar or kitsch.' His great aim, as always, is to make something 'that has autonomy' - not dependent, or constantly referring, to something outside itself. These films are not easy to watch. They are hard. They move slowly. They grind down your daily (more flippant) sense of yourself. But they grip your attention. And offer some kind of charged energy, or release, carefully enfolded within the layers of visual and aural material - suggesting something more wholesome and worthwhile. They take the time that they need, and engage you with their attention to detail - the knowledge that every decision has been carefully considered, and considered again. They are wrought out of time (and often darkness). I suppose the work in the theatre with which Mischa's work would most obviously invite comparison would be Castellucci's.

A stirring sense of provocation in the Webber Douglas Studio as Hannah and Gemma continue to show the work made by students in response to their opening workshop. I know they've been insisting on questions - the question which each detail of each work puts in the mind of the audience. On entering the studio for one work we even find a huge question mark on the floor. Closer examination of the question mark reveals it's made up of many cards, each card bearing the name of a member of the audience. Instinctively, as members if the audience, we look for our own name, and shuffle towards it. Soon the whole audience is standing in the shape of a question mark, wondering what will happen next. For the last part of their workshop, Hannah and Gemma examine in detail a part of one of the first works to be shown on the previous day - in which the performer pulls on huge surgical gloves, and approaches a carefully selected member of the audience. During the afternoon, I am struck by how the spirit of Shunt has entered the Webber Douglas Studio - a little anarchic - with big bold brush-strokes filling the space of the Studio, challenging our notion of what a performance in such a space might be. One of the participants writes to Hannah and Gemma (hope you don't mind my quoting you - I forwarded the email ) 'Just wanted to thank you for your leading us through a wonderful workshop this past week. Everyone in the group is still buzzing about the work and the ideas.'

This afternoon, Hannah was joined by fellow Shunt founder-member Gemma Brockis, another great force for good in the world. Like Hannah, Gemma appears rooted in the Shunt collective, but is often to be found working with other companies - recently, for example, in Rotozaza's car-based work Pinnochio, and in Chris Goode's Sisters at the Gate. I just have time to introduce her to the group in glowing terms when I'm off, cursing my fate, to various necessary School committees and events - and miss all the exciting performance work of the afternoon. I need to read about this in someone else's blog. Please recommend. All I get for now is a tantalising glimpse from the newly elected student rep Julia when she arrives at the last of these events, and whispers a report. A bomb attached to a stripper? Julia looks pityingly, and says I should have been there. Scattered personal possessions? Wire cutters? Another feature of contemporary practice perhaps: that it exists as much in the telling (in the imagining) as in its original manifestation. A small disruption which can set waves in motion.

Introduce Shunt founder-member Hannah Ringham to the group, fresh from curating the last two weeks in the Shunt lounge. She talks to the group about her work with Shunt (such as Dance Bear Dance) 'we have always been interested in exploring different ways to work with an audence'; and recently with Tim Crouch (work such as England) - 'also interested in working with an audence in a very different way.' During the next few days she's going to be exploring with the group 'concept' and how this can work with 'narrative.' An example of this for her would be the connection between the concept for England, that it would take place in an art gallery, and the narrative which Tim wrote, involving an organ transplantation and a lover who is an art dealer. This has to be one of the emerging themes in considering the field of contemporary practice so far: that is, the impulse, which exists, one way or another, for the contemporary practitioner to make work which is integrated - of a piece with - elements of the moment in which it is made and the surroundings in which it is performed.

Stressed out by the first two weeks of term I'm reading Small Acts of Repair: Performance, Ecology and Goat Island on the Central line - an oasis of calm and decency in the headlong rush. It's an assemblage of short essays and reflections partly authored by members of Goat Island and partly by others others responding to them. Come across this:

There is, Virilio suggests, a 'grey ecology' at work here, as opposed to a green one; grey because, when colours spin past us at speed, they all blur into that one (non-) colour. (p.93)

And further on:

How then, to retrieve and repair time from this terminal acceleration? Another impossible cause, perhaps, but one which Goat Island pursue nonetheless, by insisting on what Virilio calls 'life-size presence' (rather than the shrunken sped-up presence of the small screen), and by obstinately exposing the awkward progression of time itself (Hughes, David 1996. 'Dying Memories.' Dance Theatre Journal 13.1 (Summer), pp 32-33.

I practically jump out of my seat. Or might have done - if I'd had a seat - and hadn't been crammed into the tube with a thousand other hurrying citizens. There's a lot more here in this article which it would take too long to write down. But this is exactly how I'm thinking about live work at the moment. How to slow time down? Not that I feel such a strong objection to the sped-up presence of the small screen. It's just that it leaves a great space of slowed-down time to explore and mine in live performance.

Action-packed afternoon starting with group presentations by the participants - responding to Ross' workshop. These are clever, inventive, full of ideas - like enacted sketchbooks - showing how the participants have been taking on board ideas from the workshops and letting them pile up and feed into their work.



During the afternoon Ross is working on his own presentation - 16 Essays on Composing - which takes place at 6.0, with a larger audience from across the School. Although this DVD is mainly a documentation of a touring production of the Third Man, for which Ross wrote the music, it is also a testament to the power of live theatre, since the 16th Essay is always different, and relates to the particular circumstances in which the DVD is shown. Acknowledging the presence of the audience, and the particular circumstances in which any showing of the work is made, the 16th essay deliberately heightens these, and draws attention to this element of the performance. Entering for what we expected to be a more or less straightforward research presentation, the audience found the studio in darkness, and felt their way forward to find a place to sit down. At the back of the studio, a hooded figure (Ross), seated in a small pool of light, mumbled into a microphone, and continued to speak quietly throughout the showing of the work. Gradually becoming accustomed to the dark, a trail of dead leaves and debris from the afternoon showings could be seen leading between the seated audience, from the hooded figure to the projector, positioned closer to the screen. Ross offered a further insight into his work at the end of the session when he explained how his approach to the work had been influenced by his father's medical condition, and diminishing memory, at the time - how the themes which he had pursued in his composition correlated with the limited number of topics he was able to discuss with his father at the time. The cascading individual words which had been a feature of the DVD artefact suddenly acquired a new meaning. It feels to me absolutely right for a practitioner to be so clearly influenced in his decision-making process by such strong emotional and familial events.

First visit of Andy Field to discuss Forest Fringe evenings at Central later in the term. With me and Andy were Jessica Bowles (Director of Centre of Excellence in Theatre Training), Laura Douglas (Jessica's assistant) and two students on the MA Advanced Theatre Practice course - Prae Sirichana Homsilpakul and Julia Burke. Discuss very exciting plans for Andy and Debbie - Directors of the Forest Fringe at Edinburgh Festival - to curate three evenings of performances at Central on November 13, November 27, December 4. This innovative project - building a bridge between Central and a large group of young practitioners - will be supported by CETT. I'll be writing more about this project I'm sure. So what stands out most from this meeting with Andy at Central? First off, I'd say it's Andy himself. A dynamo. Full of life. Full of plans. In Edinburgh Phelim McDermott was concerned he would burn himself out - in the cause of Forest Fringe - and urged him to gather more support systems about him. Now he seems rested and restored. Practitioners need these sympathetic activators - enthusiasts, capable of drawing a community of practitioners together - and helping them to show and develop their work.

A couple of visits to the studio yesterday. At the first, Ross is discussing the difference between sounds we perceive as separate objects and sounds we perceive as part of the environment. Percussive sounds, for example, like the striking of a drum, he places in the first category; while the resonant sounds of a drum, after it has been struck, 'spread out,' and become part of the environment. Later, when I visit, he's discussing the Greek theatre, where it's been suggested that certain masks may have been tuned to certain tones, corresponding with receptor jars tuned to particular frequencies, suggesting a heightened aural experience separate from the straightforward communication of language - an ongoing theme of this workshop, from what I've seen. Not a 'masterclass,' by the way ... clearly wrong about that! More of a collective experience. I'd be interested in hearing from workshop participants on any point of learning or insight which are occurring for them. What's being discovered? What's becoming clearer as the workshop moves along?
I also managed to talk with Hannah Ringham about her Shunt workshop with us next week. Pleased to hear Gemma Brockis will work with her for two days as well. Hannah is currently curating the Shunt Lounge, so sounded hard-pressed. Also planning their departure from London Bridge. Difficult time. We all feel for them after their tremendous contribution to the London cultural scene in recent years. Hopefully the Webber Douglas Studio at Central will be a bit of a relief.

Email from Ross. Will get this up as fast as I can so it's visible over lunchtime:

How do I post a reply -- doesn't seem to allow me to.
I wanted to say, by way of reply to your blog today:
...actually a rather atypical point in the afternoon which had otherwise been far from tidily thought through! My methodology in this workshop (for such it is, rather than a masterclass) is a bit like one of Ronnie Corbett's monologues (there's one for the international students!)
I'm using a prolonged and practical dramaturgical interrogation of the sound-text of L'Intruse by Maeterlinck as Ronnie might have used one of his shaggy-dog stories: as the spine, for a series of digressions into some of the philosophical conundrums and perceptual paradoxes of aurality. As a practitioner currently in a phase of reflecting on and thinking about his former practice this is actually rather a 'selfish' exercise, you'll be pleased to hear. I'm enjoying the opportunity of sounding out and discussing some things I have spent a couple of years writing and thinking about in preparing my forthcoming book on the subject.

Photo by Alex Eisenberg


Call in to the Studio about 4.0. A large circle of students engaged. Ross is leading a discussion about how each element of a performance interplays with each other element. In composing an underscore for a piece of theatre he discusses the importance of leaving a space for the tonality of the voice - what sounded good in the studio may not work in the rehearsal room in combination with voices and other sounds. Even the presence of a figure on stage can make a piece of work seem cluttered.
Before finishing for the day, Ross asks the group for feedback on his approach to the workshops. A few report that they found breaking into smaller task-driven groups on the first day useful. Ross agrees to do more of this in the next couple of days.
From what I can see, Ross is leading a seminar on the subject of sound in the theatre - spread over five afternoons - a great opportunity for the students to learn from his experience and research, and become immersed in his subject. If I'm right, this a reasonably well tried and tested learning and teaching technique, in which the responses of the participants can influence the thinking of the seminar leader, but are unlikely to change it fundamentally. Nothing wrong with this excellent 'masterclass' approach, and I'm grateful to Ross for giving so much of himself and his time to it, but I would also be interested in inviting the practitioners to take a more radical and possibly more 'selfish' approach - if they wished - that is, to lead a more open-minded enquiry alongside the students, in which the outcome of the research would be less clearly known or determined in advance. Could this have the potential to be an equally exciting and stimulating way of engaging with the students - though at the same time arguably a riskier one? One of the few lectures I remember from my own university days occurred when the (well-known) philosopher lecturer became lost and confused in the logical argument he was proposing on a blackboard. Suddenly the students became genuinely engaged in the drama and interest of the situation, and began to appreciate more clearly how original thinking sometimes takes place - untidily.

The Practitioner Study started today at 2.0 - Ross Brown with thirty-six MA Advanced Theatre Practice course and a small group of BA Theatre Practice students - with the subject for their enquiry 'How do Audiences hear in the Theatre?' Signs for a successful workshop not too good this morning, with very loud drilling from builders all about the studio. But call in to the Webber Douglas Studio at 4.0 and it's quiet, if rather cold (the builders have possibly drilled through a cable somewhere, putting the thermostat out of action). The students are in small groups - looking cold but reasonably happy - Ross having given them the task of discussing and arriving at a sound that suggests silence. Take a photo in the studio on my phone which I'll try to put on this blog. I think one thing they'll be learning about is the intensely difficult task of doing anything in the theatre - how events always conspire against the best-laid plans.

Have a brief chat with Ross about his performance on Friday - which will be about documentation. We decide to ask all MA students at Central. Readers of this blog are welcome as well!

At the ANTI Festival in Kuopio Finland at the moment. The highlights so far for me have been Stephen Hodge's Artists Statement at the Seminar yesterday morning, introducing the work of Wrights and Sites; and taking part in Tim Knowles' extraordinary inventive piece Live Windwalks. For this last work, a group of us set off from the centre of the Market Square, guided by wind veins ingeniously fixed with helmets on our heads. We were then pushed and blown around the city like urban flotsam and jetsam - finding ourselves in strange eddies and cross-currents - endlessly circling and bumping in to each other, sometimes holding up the traffic at cross roads, as we followed our contrary wind-directed patterns. Thinking in terms of the Practitioner Study, the subject of this journal, this is one of the ways the contemporary practitoners practices - taking part in Festivals of this kind - enlivening a city (out-of-season), and providing an unusual probing kind of entertainment.

Email correspondence with Ross Brown today, regarding my opening up some Friday evenings for performances. Very pleased to say he's responded immediately with an expression of interest:

Regarding the Friday evening (16th), I would quite like to project my DVD artefact 16 Essays on Composing for Theatre with a live, improvised performative accompaniment. It's something I've wanted to do for a while now -- take the documentary artefact of a process forward into a new phase where it becomes the text for a new live event. This would require a DVD projection onto a screen and a table with a standard lamp. For the sound part I would just need the equipment i have already booked, but with the addition of a powerful data projector. Might this be possible? Its about 40 minutes long.

He's also keen to take use every afternoon Monday - Friday for his research workshop with the students.

I'm actually going to have them do a mini production of an excerpt from Maeterlinck's The Intruder (which is a wonderfully sonorous text.) So I'll take every afternoon if that's ok -- including Friday.

At least the first week of the Unit seems to be shaping up!

The core of the new Practioner Study Unit involves inviting practioners and theatre-making companies to undertake R & D at Central, drawing MAATP students in the work where practicable, but also seeing this as an opportunity to carry out research work which they feel will in any case be useful to them. In the first week, for example, the Sound Designer Ross Brown will be considering 'How Audiences Hear in the Theatre'. We've also had the idea of offering a number of evening slots to practitioners who would like to show some work to an invited audience. I'm not sure if this idea will take off or not. If you have a suitable piece of work you would like to show - do please get in touch.

This blog will set out to be a professional journal or account of my work as Course Leader of the MA Advanced Theatre Practice at the Central School of Speech and Drama. Its main purpose will be to reflect on the learning of students on this new version of a well-established course. I have applied to the Centre for Excellence in Theatre Training at the Central School of Speech and Drama for support with a new Unit in the first term - the Practioner Study - and this journal is particularly designed to reflect on the effectiveness of this Unit, which will be starting on October 12th. Up until that point I will be considering our thoughts and preparations for the work ahead. This is quite a dry start to a blog. I imagine as it gets going it will find its own voice and approach. And the contact with practioners and students will liven it up a bit. But it is designed to serve a serious documenting purpose.