There are areas of knowledge that can only be accessed via experience. As an artist and as a part of who I am I needed to find a living form in which I could learn, create, test and pass on knowledge. This form had to have the capacity to deliver answers to very subtle questions. I am unsatisfied with the gallery as a place for art. On many levels, for my work, the gallery space is limited by its static space, its time delay and the indirect nature of its interactions with the world. It's suitable for many types of work but for me it lacked the dimensions necessary to pursue my questions. Like the scientists that build fantastic devises in which to test their theories of the physical universe, so the artist who is testing and exploring the inner universe must likewise have a suitable medium though which to divine its mysteries.
And so I have come to the theatre. But not just any theatre but rather an organism created by two strong artists who have an extraordinary grasp upon the nature of the artistic life as a vehicle of discovery and spiritual trial. Frank Theatre's co-founders
Jacqui Carroll (Director) and
John Nobbs (Actor, Trainer, Theorist) have invited me into the sanctum of their practice to interact with them and the organism they call
Frank Theatre to synergize their work, bringing in a force to raise the ensembles cohesive power and imaginative capabilities.
The position of Design Dramaturge was named especially for me to recognise my function within the ensemble. The role of the dramaturge is one that has over time taken many forms and has recently been described as follows:
"A dramaturg’s role is exciting and multifaceted depending on the context and type of production process. The dramaturg works closely with the director and/or playwright, the company and sometimes the producer. S/he looks after the analysis and ideas of the production, making sure that the director’s, company’s or writer’s vision and production concept translate and communicate through design, light, sound and costume for that particular audience and venue. Dramaturgs are readers of texts and performances, sounding boards and an additional resource for all involved. The dramaturg is a collaborative role and can be seen as a critical collaborator." Dramaturgs' Network
However, as it is a collaborative role its functioning is not limited to this definition. The reason why my position is described as a Design Dramaturge is that I bring with me the skills of an artist/creator in my own right and as a maker of things. I have the physical capabilities to bring into being imaginative tools that aid the creative development process, and open the vision of the actors to the vision of the Director and the Trainer. So the nature of the design dramaturge is not the imposed will of the typical theatre designer dressing a play but rather of an experimenter in human psychic interactions developing means of capturing and eliciting a raised state of comprehension and inner vision through artistic tools and means.
I have yet to discuss what the questions are that I wish to pursue, but this will be the site for recording them, my work and the discoveries I make as a Design Dramaturge.
Images and Notes:1.
Ingwas, the runic symbol of the god
Frayr from Norse Mythology and represents the sound "ing" in the runic alphabet. Frayr is described as being one of the three most important gods. He is the phallic fertility god bestowing "peace and pleasure on mortals". He rules the rain, the shining of the sun and the produce of the fields. (See the link above for more details.)
2. "Photomultiplier Tubes - More than 9,500 of them - on a geodesic sphere 18 metres in diameter act as the eyes of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. The tubes surround and monitor a 12-metre-diameter acrylic sphere that contains 1,000 tonnes of heavy water. Each tube can detect a single photo of light. The entire assembly is suspended in ordinary water. All the materials that make up the detector must be extraordinarily free of natural traces of radioactive elements to avoid overwhelming the tubes with false solar neutrino counts." This observatory is used to detect the by-product of solar nuclear fusion reactions called neutrinos, interestingly this 10 story high detector used to study an aspect of the sun is located two kilometres underground.
Source article:
Solving the Solar Neutrino Problem, Arther B. McDonald, Joshua R. Klein and David L. Wark,
Scientific American: Special Edition, Volume 15, Number 3
3. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth
wanga bottles and
pwen beads, based on the mutual research by Jacqui Carrol and I into the religious practices and theology of voodoo for the current work in progress "Voodoo Macbeth."
Voodoo
wanga bottles are made via a ritual called a
travail (or labour) where in supernatural forces or spirits are enclosed/bound in the bottle sometimes to prevent the soul being used in sorcery other times to be used in spells.
Pwen (or Points) beads are worn on the body or draped around objects for protection from evil spells.
Source:
Voodoo: Truth and Fantasy, Laennec Hurbon, New Horizons, Thames and Hudson, London, 1995
Here is a comparison picture of Katie, OzFrank Actress and her Selfer. Each of the six witches in Voodoo Macbeth have a life size doll of themselves. The actors' Selfers will be dressed like their real life counterpart. The Selfers are featured in the banquet scene of Voodoo Macbeth.
This is the latest incarnation of the magic rattle (anson) that the witches will use to bring the dead Macbeth back to life with. I've made the rattle with four separate rattle compartments inside so as to get a complex sound. The bells on the outside will also add an extra sound dimension to play with.
Here is a quick collage of just some of the images that have been inspirational to the development of Voodoo Macbeth.
The quote above is meant to mark a form of development that is often forgotten. The rehearsal space is no more immune to preconceived ideas of how things should be done than any other. Do you imagine that a rehearsal should be a bunch of actors walking through their lines at the spots the director marks out for them and that this is done until it is learnt? I'm sure you do. This is the straight road of improvement that Blake speaks of in the proverb above. But it is a road that goes somewhere very pedestrian and well trodden. How does one proceed when one seeks the eagle's nest?
The Ozfrank actor has to know all of the lines of the speeches. They will not know what their specific lines will be until much later into the play's development and due to unexpected losses of people they will be required to substitute for their peers.
But this too is a place for experiment.
There is a lot of concentration needed to say lines, catch and throw a head and maintain and develop a character all at the same time. Removing the catch and throw to a more grounded push and pass along the floor allowed the actors some more psychic energy to develop the way they would deal with tormenting the head of Macbeth.
Here we saw more expressive body shapes and character nuances and development than before. It was also much more fun :)
Then to the rolling Heav'n itself I cried,
Here I am making the plaster mask base of Jane Barber - the last one in the series...for now ;) I've used plaster infused bandages cut into strips and applied much like one would paper mache. This way I could make sure I could get into all the little sensitive nooks and allow the nostrils to be left open without the use of straws which were very uncomfortable and caused a bad reaction in one of the actors. Otherwise all the actors took to the process very well.
" What fog descends the brow of Macbeth,
"...the amygdala may play a leading role in establishing what consciousness researchers call "salience" - choosing which stimuli we prioritize and therefore of what we are conscious. This Oz-behind-the-curtain has LeDoux convinced that the amygdala and its subcortical allies, rather than our consciousness, define who we are. "Consciousness may get all the focus," LeDoux notes, "but consciousness is a small part of what a brain does, and it's a slave to everything that works beneath it.""
And so I have come to the theatre. But not just any theatre but rather an organism created by two strong artists who have an extraordinary grasp upon the nature of the artistic life as a vehicle of discovery and spiritual trial. Frank Theatre's co-founders Jacqui Carroll (Director) and John Nobbs (Actor, Trainer, Theorist) have invited me into the sanctum of their practice to interact with them and the organism they call Frank Theatre to synergize their work, bringing in a force to raise the ensembles cohesive power and imaginative capabilities.
However, as it is a collaborative role its functioning is not limited to this definition. The reason why my position is described as a Design Dramaturge is that I bring with me the skills of an artist/creator in my own right and as a maker of things. I have the physical capabilities to bring into being imaginative tools that aid the creative development process, and open the vision of the actors to the vision of the Director and the Trainer. So the nature of the design dramaturge is not the imposed will of the typical theatre designer dressing a play but rather of an experimenter in human psychic interactions developing means of capturing and eliciting a raised state of comprehension and inner vision through artistic tools and means.
