Beginning our process as an ensemble of nine members, it was inevitable that devising a production would entail a collaborative process, much like the works of Forced Entertainment and the likes. Yet being the Director of Hand Me Down Theatre, it is my role to co-ordinate our developing productions into the direction we ultimately want it go in, gathering research from ourselves as performers yet ‘taking the reigns’ myself to mould our research and development processes into performance. I feel I can concur with Tim Etchells’ approach to directing when developing a project, as he writes that in the Forced Entertainment process they have

this unspoken agreement that no one would bring anything too completed to the process- a few scraps of fragments of text, an idea or two for action, a costume, an idea about space, a sketched-out piece of music- everything unfinished, distinctly incomplete- so there’d be more spaces for other things to fill in… more dots to join. (Etchells 1999, p. 51)

And so it is the literal bringing of ‘fragments of text’ to rehearsals that is the formation of our initial process as a company. It is starting each performance piece with this approach that I feel results in the most effective and imaginative development. Stephen Unwin states that ‘You shouldn’t try to work as a theatre director if you lack in instinct to entertain others… You’re creating a show, and self-expression lies at its heart.’ (2004, p. 16) This is not me referring to myself as a hilarious individual so to speak, but it is having the confidence to bring out the creative and expressive elements of my performers that enables our projects to come together. One of the elements of expressiveness I recently incorporated into my workshops was getting my performers to experiment with one liners from classic texts in a ‘stand up’ like style to experiment with comic timing and the fine line between satire and comedy. I drew inspiration from the ‘Mock the Week’ programme that deals with various topics and is delivered to the audience, as seen below:

Relating back to our Mission Statement as a company, it is my role to ensure that our development is in sync with our overall aim to ‘create culturally accessible theatre that looks closely at the meaning of text and the spoken word’. (Hand Me Down Theatre 2014) Thus it is using ‘text and the spoken word’ as a catalyst for our projects in our company that is the foundation of how we re-interpret, perceive and therefore perform. Although our process of piecing together selections of texts is arguably not a completely ‘devised’ performance starting from scratch, as we create a kind of ‘cut and paste’ approach to theatre, we are fundamentally devising re-interpretations of performance. In our debut production of ‘Take Me by the Tongue’ this is at the very heart of what we are portraying as we have analysed notorious speeches, monologues, lyrics and literature, and presented them with the underlining theme of feminism. However not every performance created will have the same underscoring message throughout as, relating back to our manifesto of creating ‘theatre that is relatable for a variety of audiences’ (Hand Me Down Theatre 2014), it is essential that our projects remain diverse in political messages conveyed, yet accessible to all.

To narrow down the texts looked at in our company it is dependent upon the theme of the performance we are creating, and therefore incorporating all of the texts together is ultimately my responsibility as I take on the role of Dramaturg. Bert Cardullo writes that the role of the Dramaturg is

(1)  to select and prepare play-texts for performance; (2) to advise directors and actors; and (3) to educate the audience. (Cardullo 1995, pp. 3-4)

Analysing the most notorious of texts entices me most as a Director; the most practiced being the works of William Shakespeare. And so it is re-contextualising Shakespeare’s works and making them adaptable and therefore relatable for a modern day audience that I find most challenging as an artist. This is achievable however, through finding modern issues within his work that may not at first be recognisable at face value, yet once heightened is apparent. For example Lady MacBeth’s monologue of ‘Come, you spirits/ That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here…’ (Shakespeare 1962, pp. 29-30) is referring to her wanting the capability to commit murder, however the overall tone of her speech can be interpreted as addressing feminist issues, apparent still 400 years from its publication. As Dramaturg I have experimented with Shakespeare’s monologues, finding themes relatable between female monologues especially, and then workshopping these scenes during rehearsals.

Sonnet 18 and Phoebe’s monologue from ‘As You Like It’, 3/4/14, photo by Stephanie Alcock

I refer to this work of Shakespeare’s as it is present in our debut performance as a company, yet is an element I look to apply to most of our future productions as his themes are so universally applicable. It is the bricolage of all kinds of texts that is at the heart of my practice as a Dramaturg in this company. Cathy Turner and Synne K. Behrndt wrote that

In devised performances it is not uncommon to see a structure where different episodes or blocks of material have been loosely linked or collaged together. It is the ‘links’ or the ‘bridges’ between events that are, in fact, key to understanding the ‘inner logic’ of the piece. (2008, p. 33)

This description of the complexity of Dramaturgy that Synne and Behrndt refer to sums up our company’s intention as a whole as we hope to reflect within our performances ‘inner logics’ that include social, political or modern issues relatable to all audiences.

Works Cited:

Cardullo, Bert (1995) What is Dramaturgy? New York: American University Studies.

Etchells, Tim (1999) Certain Fragments, New York: Routledge.

Soldier, James (2008) Mock the Week Stand Up, Online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZRKr85kABk&feature=youtu.be (accessed: 20 April 2014)

Shakespeare, William (1951) MacBeth, ed. Kenneth Muir, Surrey: Methuen & Co. Ltd.

Turner, Cathy and Synne K. Behrndt (2008) Dramaturgy and Performance, London: Palgrave MacMillan

Unwin, Stephen (2004) So You Want to be a Theatre Director? London: Nick Hern Books Ltd.