Like this picture below
but a musing on theatre - like this picture
I was thinking, as you do, about the differences between theatre and music. The way bands happen and the way independent theatre happens. I am recently (in the last year) part of a band. And we get together, write songs and have band practice. You build up a repertoire, a set list, a collection of minute ideas and feelings collected into time brackets, say roughly 3 - 4 mins and you call them songs. And you practice these songs, over and over and then you present them, with your band, at gigs. You discover new parts of the songs - maybe a new drum fill, maybe a better holding chord and they evolve over time - but you and your bunch of rag-tag band mates stick together - write the songs, practice them, present them and then rinse and repeat.
In independent theatre though - we tend to go from show to show to show. And you collaborate with so many artists (I guess if you form a company than that is an exception) The emphasis tends to be on creating the new, rather than presenting the old. In theatre - it seems that if you practice and repeat too much you tend to be 'flogging a dead horse' unlike music in which repetition gives pleasure. Maybe its the time frame thing. 4 mins rather than an hour. So it's just an interesting experience seeing two different worlds of rehearsal. I had a colleague say that they didn't like new versions of old shows - as in the artists revisiting the work and changing it, shifting, extending, condensing. And I thought isn't that strange. The difference between a song and a theatre work - one is much more likely to be open to evolution than the other.
I don't know what these thoughts are - but they are there. Just an interesting relationship between two different ways of creating art that is dependent on the live experience (obviously theatre more so).
And now back to my contextual review. I am going to attempt to define 1. form. 2. feeling. 3. Experience.
and then talk about cognitive function and memory and its relationship to feeling and reading art.
Sarah out.
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ReplyDeleteHey Sarah (it's Stepht btw :P)
ReplyDeleteI've always had this weird dream of creating theatre like a rock band, with regular rehearsals, little ideas that you can play with, touring, theatre 'albums' etc etc
I came upon that same thought too about full length shows versus four minute songs and so then I thought I would really like to do something that was like a theatre 'album'. Basically, a series of short theatre/creative works based around an idea. The dream is that it would run over a few weeks (not really feasible) but it could be made up of lots of different types of creativity (e.g. one week you go to a venue and see a 20 minute performance, the next week you get mailed a special letter that relates to it, the next week there is an online video, there is a song, another performance at the end etc etc)
This space between these could be a week, two days whatever, but that is my idea :D
haha long winded but your post reminded me so I thought I'd share
xox
thanks Steph - I could tell it was you by your beautiful photo. I like that you have also thought about this. I LOVE the idea that it's made up of so many different forms and that it extends over time, that you get installments of a single performance - or a continuation.
ReplyDeleteThat there is a follow up of letters or a phone call or maybe it's episodic.
mmmm thank you for your musing