Good morning. Its 6am so on target for Blog publishing by my 7am deadline.
My fabulous Team Cinderella are now on Day 2 of our Panto Weekend. I know that everyone was looking forward to this short break. Time to do the washing, cook a proper meal, see family and friends who think we have deserted them. Out of the Jungle for a few hours. I plan to do nice things for me all day! Massage, swim, dog walk, nails and maybe pay that parking fine (not so nice thing) I got in the car park next to the theatre the other day!
So although there were no shows yesterday to talk about, I thought I would share some reflections on the whole Making of a Panto theme of my Director's blog anyway.
Its nice to have a little bit of down time and I am now turning my attention to marketing and PR to support Chris Mellor (Interim Creative Producer) and Barry Burke (Marketing Manager) as best I can. To be honest during the making process of the show its tricky to think about much else, but now that we are getting there I can start to put the word out even more so that I can help to build our audience. My wish is that we smash the box-office records for Panto at the Broadway and put it well and truly on the map.
The competition is stiff for column inches at this time of year, and after all it is "Just a Panto". I think I might just scream if I hear anyone tell me that again! The implication that really gets up my nose is that Panto is by definition a lesser art form! On second thoughts though and to be honest, if the quality of some of the pantos I have seen in the past is anything to go on, maybe occasionally this prejudice is warranted!
In the midst of swingeing cuts to the arts, we seem to overlook the hoards of ordinary people who want a bit of magic at Christmas to transport them momentarily to another world, of magic, possibility and transformation.
So there you have it. I believe that our New Musical Panto Show is up there with any other piece of art. I am very proud of what we have made with CInderella. That doesn't mean for one moment that I am ever complacent. I don't assume that we have any chance of reaching perfection!
Certainly there are bound to be those who for one reason or another don't like CInderella. And that's just fine. That's how any good piece of art should be in my book (Blog?). Something that moves people to respond from an authentic place, but which never leaves them indifferent to it.
On my way home from the Ancestral Pluckrose Estate in Tonbridge (Ok - its just a
Housing Estate!) I thought to drop in to see some very dear friends of mine. Ali and Keith have been my friends for over 30 years. Ali and I went to secondary school together, and Keith was the older guy with the sports car who swept Ali off her feet when we were in the 6th form. It was she who got picked up by this cool guy at the end of the school day while the rest of us got the bus! No green eyes there then.
Ali and Keith live in Westerham, a lovely little town near Tonbridge where we all grew up. Ali is a nurse who specialises in Tropical Medicine and Keith runs a decorative glass design company Nero Signs http://www.nerodesigns.co.uk/.
I arrived on their doorstep in the clothes I was wearing the night before at the show! My dearest Mum had leant me a most fetching grey sparkly velour tracksuit to avoid my having to put the same posh dress on again! However vanity took over and I could not quite allow myself to arrive at Ali's looking like something out of Little Britain!
Ali and Keith and their very beautiful and lovely grown up daughter Mel live in a gorgeous house right in the middle of a forest. I must admit it took me a bit of time to find it again, in spite of having been there so many times! The old compass had given up on me once again in 24 hours!
I was really delighted when Ali told me that they have booked with some other friends and Mel to come to the show on the 15th and 29th. Normally when you see friends again you share what you have been up to. The slightly unnerving thing here was that Ali knew everything about what I have been doing, as she announced that she reads the blog every morning. I was suddenly worried in case I might have said anything I shouldn't in it!
She has loved seeing the development of rehearsals, watching the videos, looking at the pics. I am quite humbled by the possibility that people not involved might find it interesting enough to bother to read it every day!
She explained that one of the things she found so interesting was that she had no idea about the work and process that goes into conceiving, developing, writing, designing, casting, set building, costume and prop making ,lighting and sound design and rehearsing a show. These are things the audience don't usually have insights into, apart from maybe in those fly on the wall documentaries.
Ali said she finds it compulsive reading. That's amazing to me too, as of course for me its business as usual however lovely that business has been and continues to be!
Her thoughts got me to thinking about directing, which is something I find myself forced to do from time to time!
In the past few blogs I have deliberated on the nature of what I do. My madness and my total immersion and passion and the overwhelming love I have for the group of individuals who have become Team Cinderella. And then the reminding myself consistently that its soon time to leave, or at the very least to sit filing my nails in the back row of the auditorium!
But I also must say that I feel quite pleased to have been able to share the process that I have been leading. Not that the audience should ever get a whiff of that.
That's the Director's secret. If you are doing your job remotely right you really must take on the Cloak of Invisibility to enable the show to speak (dance and sing!) for itself. Your hand must not be too obvious or it distracts the audience. Some may think this is scant reward for all the Director's efforts, but in fact it IS the reward!
Having said that I think there is also something to be said for demystifying the whole Director thing. And I guess that maybe this blog has gone someway to doing that. Of course my Director's journey is unique to me, and is as different to any other director's as are my finger prints. Its influenced by years of training, personal trials and tribulations, and mostly a profound curiosity and thirst for life, love and drama.
There is no formula to directing shows. Yes there is a wealth of techniques and tricks, learned over many years of doing the job, and in my case being an actor myself. But no blueprint exists that can remotely guarantee the perfect outcome. That's both scary and exciting.
You see, every time you start to conceive and make a new piece of work, you know that you cannot do it on your own. You have to have faith that the collaborators you bring together will consistently challenge you, your ideas and your practice and as such if they are the right people, they make you better as a director.
They point out things that you don't see, the flawed decisions as well as the OK ones.They bring their creative imaginations and enormous skills to the whole so that what emerges is something that one single director could not have envisioned alone. Without Olly, Phil, Owen,Ian and Chris M and then Chloe and Steve B I would not have had a chance in hell of getting this project off the ground.
My policy in working with other creatives, and by this I mean the WHOLE team, is that my primary job is to create a climate of playfulness and joy that invites others in fully.
Being given the privilege to lead a team is the most humbling of directives. I have to be prepared to open up space to allow others to shine and to show themselves fully within the creative making process. This way you get to harness all the best of people. And they consistently delight me. That doesn't mean that its a laissez-faire free for all. Believe me, if I don't like something or don't think it will work I will be the first to say so.
However equally, when someone comes up with a better idea than mine, which happens all the time I am always the first to dump my original one in favour of the better one. I really don't care who comes up with it (although I honour them of course!). What I care most passionately about is that it works and serves the whole production.
So when Coral (Team Two Captain) told me on Friday that the Young Company didn't think it was right for them to come on in the finale dressed in their ragamuffin costumes, that they should be wearing their ball gowns, of course I listened. And she was right, so ball gowns it is!
As a director I am a consumate magpie (Can you be a consumate magpie?) which means I gather my resources from wherever I need them. Its not a question of reading a "Dummie's Guide to Directing Pantos" good as such a book might be. Its about bringing your whole self to the process, warts and all. And sometimes believe me the pain can be excruciating!
In my case I have spent years in a rehearsal studio studying the non-verbal as well as verbal, spatial and emotional dynamics of relationships. I have developed a forensic eye for this over the years which can sometimes get me into trouble!
One significant piece of learning over the past couple of years has come from my mentor and guide Amari Blaize. Now she is hard core, critical and at the same time encouraging.
I know she will always tell me when I am talking rubbish! Which is quite often. She challenges me to do and think in new ways, many of which are deeply uncomfortable and make me cross. But usually the questions she asks me to think about are the most important ones. She helps me to see what it is I am and what I do. I can just about cope with her brutal observations and calls to action if I know that they are in the service of excellence and imagination. I have credited her in the programme. She is my secret weapon. Sorry Amari, it has to be said! I am most terrified of her (and my daughters Grace and Phoebe!) seeing the show than any single other person. She will see my flaws and errors and will not hold back on telling me!
Anyway - one of the most significant things she introduced me to a few years ago was something called Archetypes. Basically archetypes are: An original model or type after which other similar things are patterned; a prototype
The idea and definition of an archetype sees its contemporary genesis in the work of Carl Gustav Jung. (26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961)
Jung was a Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist who founded analytical psychology. Jung proposed and developed the concepts of the extraverted and the introverted personality, archetypes, and the collective unconscious. His work has been influential in psychiatry and in the study of religion, literature, and related fields.
I can hear you say "Carole, its just a Panto. Just a Panto!". I know, I know, but if you have stayed the course this long - bear with me for a moment longer.....please?
Amari introduced me to the work of Caroline Myss who has developed and expanded Jung's work in the area of archetypes. And although her work has a therapeutic imperative, it is fact an astonishing key and tool for a director and her actors. I haven't got time to go into it fully here, but if people are interested take a look at http://www.myss.com/library/contracts/archetypes.asp
She says of archtypes:
Although archetypes are impersonal patterns of influence that are both ancient and universal, they become personalised when they are a part of your individual psyche. They provide the foundation for your personality, drives, feelings, beliefs, motivations, and actions. But archetypes are not passive entities floating around in the psyche like old family portraits hanging in a dusty corridor of your ancestral castle. They take an active role as guardians and inner allies, alerting you when you are in danger of falling into destructive or "shadow" behaviour.
This learning has been an inspiration for my artistic practice. Armed with a box of beautifully designed Archetype cards and presenting them to the actors on day one of rehearsals, I was able to move elegantly and swiftly to the core of character.
I won't go into the detail of how I use them specifically in a rehearsal period to uncover and discover character, but I will say that these are the single most valuable element of character development that I have come across and have been using for the past four years. What they offer is a simple insight into such archetypes as the Prince, the King, the Sabateur, the Victim, the child, the Alchemist and many more - 72 more in fact.
These archetypes form the basis of myth and stories and are ageless.
I would recommend you have a look if you are interested in using them either to gain personal insights and or in your work in teams or in creative pursuits. They are mind boggling.
So that's it for today - 20 mins late, but hey ho! Nothing is perfect.
2 comments:
Oh dear....so, you have completely unmasked this Amari Blaize person!
She promises to get you back though Madam Director. With much love and admiration. GUESS WHO ?
Ah - so you are about to reveal yourself - my secret weapon! Watch this space folks, makes the Stig look like My Little Pony!
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