Wednesday, February 27, 2013

A Laboratory of Self Discovery

My school... Helikos International School of Theatre Creation in Florence Italy, has just released a wonderful video - made by the fabulous Elena Day who spend hours filming for these fab moments... featuring all the truly amazing work of the school and the ever brilliant Giovanni Fusetti.  Helikos is now offering a one-year course... and you should go.  It will change your work.  And your life.  This... 'laboratory of self discovery.'

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Nominated!

Much to our surprise and delight we have been nominated for 5 Naledi Theatre Awards... Best writer, actor, director, play... and best lighting!  ...which James and I are particularly pleased about as with our somewhat limited budget to make the show the two of us did the lighting and we rather like it as well :) We have also been nominated in the Fleur du Cap Awards for best actor and writer!  Clever guys our James Cuningham and Nick Warren ...it's great to be counted amongst other wonderful theatre makers... check out the Naledi nominations full list here.  Rock on.   Also shot to the key people who have pushed this play further and further... namely The Goethe Institut, The National Arts Festival and of course Daphne Kuhn and Theatre on the Square...  Looking forward to the awards events next month.

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Kumba ...Live!

Event Company: Mann Made Media
Corporate Client:  Kumba Mines
Event:  Envision Share Options Roadshow (internal audience)
My roles:  Concept Development, Script Writer

Here is the video of the Kumba Roadshow script I did a little while back... check out my previous post for more on it...

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Kicking up Dirt in Perth

James as the ever slimy obnoxious 'Sam'
Photo by Helena Waldmann

James has been in Perth for the past week shaking it up with with Dirt and The Three Little Pigs at the Fringe World Festival... as part of a selection of South African theatre sent over by our National Arts Festival.  Which is so exciting.  I just wish we (Nick and I) could be there too.  For me it is my first international outing with a piece of work.  If I look at the pics below for long enough I can teleport myself there and for a moment I can feel the bustle of a ticket tent.  The distant sounds of a local band. The laugher pouring out from under an umbrella.  The faint taste of cold beer.  Nice.  And then add to that cafe lights and a whole lot of great theatre.  Love.  Envy.  Sigh.  So yes there is a lot of buzz emanating from the heatwave in West Australia on the South African theatre that is there at the moment.... Rob Van Vuuren had something to say about it being hotter than hot...

So what's up with James down under...

'The Three Little Pigs'... which I was lucky enough to catch again in Cape Town a few weeks ago is rocking...  A great review here.  What original brave theatre.  I loved it the first time.  And more still the second time.  And then Dirt has been called by one reviewer 'the performance of the festival.'  And both shows have been nominated for an Artrage Theatre Award.  Check it out.  It's exciting.

James and I spent many hours and days re-rehearsing Dirt, getting it back up on its feet and then taking it further... to be ready to head to Australia.  We spent the first part of our rehearsals remembering the blocking and then about three days in, it got exciting...  When you move beyond the words and the basic blocking and into the intricacies of each characters rhythm, speech pattern, vibration, physical state...  When you can think of the three lead characters playing in a jazz band trio.  Wayne... the unpredictable wind instrument bouncing all over the place... on a tangent of his own.  The comic foil.  Sam... the trombone drawing out his words in his inward self satisfying drawl.  The one we love to hate.  Grant... the drum beat... the constant... the fixed point... the voice of reason holding it together.  The guy you trust.  So, from voice to the minute detail of theatrical space... creating the illusion through carefully plotted reactions, eye-line, transitions.  I thought so very many times how schizophrenic it all was... he talks to himself so very well.  The magic of theatre.

The festival hub.  How pretty.
Photo by Cam Campbell
Throngs of theatre goers... makes me want to go too.
Photo from World Fringe facebook page

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Expressive Mono-Directional Masks

Mono-directional expressive masks by Matteo Destro, played by Puja Sarup and Vicky Wright
Photo by Stefano Borghi

My heart swooned when I saw these pics on the Helikos facebook page... I how I wish we had a professional photographer when we were playing these truly spectacular masks.  Totally wonderful.  But in these pics are are the masks we were lucky enough to play.  In the pic below on the right is the mask that I played, to the right left the one Andrea played and above to the left is the one Justin payed in a delightful fire-fighting scene of spontaneous love.  Memories.

I hear via the Helikos grapevine that the scenes photographed here were wonderful... suicide and legal papers.  Like clowns these masks can talk about very deep subjects... through laughter.    

Mono-directional expressive masks by Matteo Destro, played by Kevin Casey and Anja Zavrsnik.
Photo by Stefano Borghi

A Neutral Exit.

In the end my exit was not very neutral at all.
In my very last movement class, Helikos 2012, third year... we worked on the hero and the chorus and returned to neutral mask.  A cycle.  A reminder.  A spiral.  And it is so amazing what a mask does to ones play.  Suddenly so much more is possible.  As Matteo said... I can see your body has a souvenir.  Brilliant.  And it's true we should all have a neutral mask locked in a small suitcase ready to come out and remind one on a regular basis of the necessity of play.  The necessity to move forward.  The importance of the space.  The space!  A little souvenir the body carries but can sometimes forget.  I shall keep this souvenir close... and try to remember that the story is bigger than you.  And the audience wants to dream.  

And with that Helikos is over.  A complete circle perhaps.  With an impact that will last for ever.  

It was a complex goodbye.  Where everything I want to say... how much I want to thank the people... Giovanni Fusetti, the teaching staff, the students... turns very quickly in melodramatic gushing which somehow diminishes the absolute gratitude and love I have for these important people and the journey we have shared together.  Somehow 'Thanks' is just not enough - and somehow it is all one can say.  

So thank you.

Thank you Giovanni Fusetti for planting the school.  For the teaching staff you have chosen.  For the pedagogy that has changed mine, and every students life lucky enough to study under you.  For the rigor.  For the play.  Ultimately, for the flow.

Thank you Matteo Destro for describing complex idea's through simple poetry.  For mask.  For chorus.  For material.  For honesty.

Thank you Liz Baron for voice.  For resonance.  For rhythm.  For vulnerability.  For depth.  For your unbelievably acute ear.

Thank you Sarah Foster for trust.  For compassion.  For the complexities of a group dynamic disguised in seemingly simple games.  For bravery.  

Thank you Bruno... for the grounding.  

Thank you classmates for the friendships and play and learning and struggle and triumph and conflict and laughter and tears.  Till we meet again.

All of us. x  
Neural masks.  Things of great beauty.
Justin.  I miss you.
No longer teacher and student.  For now anyway.


This - of course - shall not be my last post on Helikos.  We are about to get professional photo's of our 2012 final show - where I shall talk about the work the process the tears the love... But somehow it was time for this post.


Friday, February 8, 2013

Dirt revisited.

A week in Cape Town of re-rehearsing Dirt for the Perth Fringe Festival next week... is coming to an end.  What a lovely thing to revisit the show after quite a long time... Taking it further and further... Defining the characters more and more... Making it clearer and clearer.  What fun.  Rhythm.  Resonance. Vibration.  Physicality.  Six characters, two dogs... and go.  Yesterday we went to visit Simon and Helen from the Kalk Bay Theatre to chat about our new project.  Here is James making the short steep trek up the hill to their home with the most wonderful view of the sea.

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