Backwards Theatre Workshops August!!!

The Third Point of Reference
A theatre/improvisation/music workshop. (Come and have fun improvising, acting, singing, or even just observe, no pressure.)
Monday nights during August at 7:00 (3-09, 10-09,17-09,24-09.)
@
The Chisenhale Dance Space
64-84 Chisenhale road
Contact: Ian 0207 987 9678
Stella 0208 694 0197
backwards theatre

Delbert's Glasses illustration

Delbert's Glasses (Children's Story)

Once upon a time there was an elephant named Delbert Trunk who liked to look at everything. He liked to look at a tree. He liked to look at a lion. He liked to look at a river. He liked to look at a cloud. He liked to look at a flower. He liked to look at a mountain. Everything! That was all he did. The other elephants in the herd did important stuff. Banking. Book keeping. Stamping about. Inventing things. But all Delbert did was look.
But then he got ill.
He went to the herd Doctor, Dr. Tusk, who said, you have eye disease from too much looking! You must stop. So Delbert did as he was told, for he respected the medical profession, and he closed his eyes.
Forever.
The other elephants led him about by the trunk, so he was okay, but he didn’t look anymore. Not at a tree. A flower. A lion. A river. A mountain. Not at anything.
Nothing! And the Doctor was pleased. You’re cured! Yes, said Delbert. Cured. And everything seemed fine.
But then at the weekly stamp in the big clearing Delbert did a strange thing. He was supposed to stamp to the right, but he stamped, to the left! The herd was shocked. Delbert was called before the elephant council. Why did you stamp to the left? I just forgot. Forgot?! Forgot?! But an elephant never forgets! Sorry. There was much shock and outrage throughout the herd. But it didn’t stop there. Delbert now continually forgot stuff. He forgot to trumpet on hearing a lion roar. He forgot to take some flowers to the elephants’ graveyard. One time he even forgot he was an elephant! In the end it was too much. He was called again before the elephant council. Delbert! You’re banished! What?! Yes. Banished! With a capital ‘b’! but…but… but… no buts!!! Pack your trunk. So Delbert the elephant packed his trunk and said goodbye to the herd.
He wandered in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights until at last he fell in a heap on the floor, next to a cave. Oh why was I so obsessed with looking? Why? Look where it’s got me! But then he heard a noise in the cave. It was the sound of a drum going bum, bum, bum.
Oh no! Now I’m going mad and hearing drums that go bum, bum, bum! But out of the cave appeared a tiger. A tiger? In Africa? Yes. A tiger. And he was banging a drum, and there was a funny look in his eye as if he were flying high in the sky. But then he saw Delbert and he said, in tiger-ish, which luckily Delbert spoke, he said, I am the shaman tiger of the wilderness.
On my magic drum I fly to dimensions unknown, to find answers to tricky questions and stuff. Really? You bet! In Africa? Yes! What’s your tricky question? And Delbert explained.
The shaman tiger thought long and hard and then he began to bang his drum, bum, bum, bum, and that faraway look came into his eye, and it was obvious he was… and eventually he said. I have travelled to the dimension of elephant conundrums and I have it. What? The answer stupid. And he thrust out his paw. And in his right paw were a pair of glasses. These, he said, are elephant conundrum glasses! They aren’t. They are you know. And these glasses will answer your question. And then he disappeared back in his cave. So Del-boy stood there holding the glasses. What a strange tiger. He should be in a circus, or something. Then, without opening his eyes he put on the glasses, and even though his eyes were closed, HE COULD SEE! SEE! They really were magic glasses!! And in a flash he knew what to do!
40 days later he arrived back at the big clearing and there was the herd stamping around as usual. Delbert put on his magic glasses. He looked at the herd, with his magic glasses, and what did he see?
?
He saw a bunch of idiots stamping around from right to left and from left to right, trumpeting at lions, and so on, and doing stuff, simply because they had always done that. Just a bunch of socially conditioned pachyderms! engaged in a lot of absurd ritualistic behaviour patterns, thinking they were important, when in truth they were just being a bit silly. And Delbert took off the glasses and opened his eyes, for now he could see. He didn’t need to look anymore. He could see!
Yes. Delbert had seen beyond the herd mentality which, as ‘Long Trunk’ said, the famous elephant philosopher, is the beginning of wisdom and stuff! And Delbert didn’t identify with the herd anymore, and he went and to live near the waterfall, and he set up a business as an independent trunk examiner, and soon the elephants were flocking, well, not flocking, herding to him, with trunk related issues, the like of which, well, you never, no not like, ever. And he met a nice lady elephant and lived happily ever after.
　
OH! The glasses? Yes. They are in a special glass case above his desk just waiting for the day when a young elephants get tired of just looking and come to him to ask him, if they can try them on.

The Third Point of Reference!

As a performer have you ever felt that you were not getting across the footlights? That you failed to communicate in some way? Or that the production you in which seemed a good idea to begin with, now feels flat and uninspiring? Now it would be only human to deny this has ever happened. To put on a brave face. The show must go on darling! Put in another context anyone who has ever tried stand-up comedy will know just how hard it is to make people laugh. Virtually impossible. These ‘professional’ comedians really do earn their money. So. Is the situation hopeless? Are we doomed to strut and fret our hour upon the stage and all to no avail? Well. My experience does confute this. I’ve learnt, through various means, that we can, how shall I say? Communicate better. Get more personal fulfilment from performance if. big IF, we know where to begin, or how to shift the focus on this issue. And this is crucial. So often we fight the wrong battles in life and get no result as a result! Think! If you have chosen wrong battle to fight, it does not matter how much effort you put in fighting it! It still won’t yield a result you can use. So where to begin is crucial. Another thing to realise before we chose or begin, is that most problems stem from accepting the conventional thinking on a given subject. We don’t think outside the box. We don’t recognise that if we are failing, and we following what we were taught at respectable institutes of learning, then we must have been taught wrong. Or maybe no entirely wrong, but still there was some lack, or a wrong emphasis, or something. We must acknowledge we have missed something.
Having said all that I’ll explain conclusions I have come to. In performance generally speaking, despite all the theory that now exists, still, no value is put on subjective states. The performer’s own inner experience is not valued. What we have is this.
Self Projection
Self Awareness
The outer, the technique, the projected part is valued over the inner; the performer’s awareness or subjective experience. So then the new starting point, the way to shift the focus on this issue is to start with self awareness.
SELF AWARENESS
If the performer has self awareness, and by this I mean in the ’depth psychology’ sense of himself, and not just as an actor in a play, this creates two distinct poles in performance. The doer, and the awareness of doing. When the audience supplies the third point of reference, this creates a dynamic which is essentially triangular. (See my diagram!) What do we get without self awareness in performer? Answer is a straight line, as it goes straight from performer to audience. No triangle! What this means scientifically is that with two poles you have stasis. The best example is earth and moon. A predictable relationship. If a third body could be added all three bodies would start to behave erratically. Chaos would be introduced! This real science! What it means though is that with the third point of reference you get a dynamic, which does possess change. It does get across the footlights. Now how does that fit with theatre as we know it? Now think. This situation already exists. The self awareness element in theatre is the writer. Think! Shakespeare! Pinter! Wilde! Moliere! Schiller! These are very self aware individuals. So the scripts they produce provide this dynamic. The third point of reference. Hoopla! The performer, without self awareness, really is just the will-less puppet of the writer. He cannot take from a performance anything for himself. It can only ever serve the writer’s purpose. Looking at the current theatre world I think actor’s beginning to realise this. Right now, the writer is out of vogue. I should know. I am one. Now the trend is for self devised stuff. Installation type stuff. Solo stuff. Writers if they are used, must cater to current trends by being relevant, or writing about specific issues.
This means of course, if your play is about the plight of the Scandinavian sausage-makers, it will have no sub text. It will be doing the literal job of informing people about something, so there won’t be room. Put another way writer’s cannot just create from their own imagination as Pinter of Beckett would have done. People would say, but it’s not relevant! Think of the Scandinavian sausage makers!
　
　
As regards the actors, what this means for them, is that they have realised, semi-consciously, what a poor deal they have been getting. But. BUT! just to dispense with the writer, is still not a solution! unless some new way to introduce self awareness into the equation is found!
Well. It bad for me to pick on actor’s. People in general do not possess self awareness. Not just actors. But still, the fact that there has been a change of sorts is progress. Now all that’s needed is for courageous people to go a bit further in dropping the outmoded agendas which still do largely run the performance universe. How?
Do not begin with how the audience will perceive a production or performance, begin with how you as a performer experience being in something. This may sound crazy and alienate audiences to certain extent but still. That is the way forward. With this shift of focus now it doesn’t matter if the work scripted, unscripted, devised, whatever, as now self awareness is definitely part of the equation.
　

Compendium of bogus mythology!

THE COMPENDIUM OF bogus legend,folktale & MTHYOLOGY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1.in a cave,on an island under a fortress is imprisoned, the man/god. his skin covered in sores, he rages continually to see the sun. in the fortress lives an evil sorcerer with a bird's claw for a right hand.
2.a hero is born under a bush which afterwards bursts into flame.
3. once a year a town sacrifices a child by taking it to malevolent wood and throwing it down well.monster is invisible. child chosen by a sign. birthmark. which actually a transfer placed their by town holy man. father of chosen child goes to fight monster.makes monster materialise by making it angry.
shoots it with gun that has bullets of love he was given by town cripple who he befriended. takes proof to town of monster. rips off transfer. exposes holy man who jumps from top of tower.
4.mother given magical womb by a god.she gets pregnant just by imagining her child.child grows up very charismatic. attracts army of acolytes.they storm palace. he becomes tyrant.time of oppression. mother guilty. she begs for audience with him. has proof he her child. once in his prescence she kills him and then herself.forest grows up around palace and trees all turn to stone.
5. a male wizzard and a female wizzard meet at midnight in thunderstorm and fell in love. they have male child. name him seth. omens at his birth. a crow flies up a drainpipe. a man in china and a man in peru cough in unison. a pork pie shaped cloud pauses over sainsburys. but they discover seth has fault. defect. imperfection. HORROR! right hand only 4 fingers. he's one digit down! seth grows up normal way. house full of magic,spells and sorcery.then when he 10 yr old, discovers hand has mind of it's own.he can't control it but whatever it leads him to gives him power and makes him feel good. seth keeps this a deep secret but as power grows so his connection to world diminishes, until at last,a grown man,on thundery night he finds himself alone and afraid. he knows it's the hand. in that dark and terrible night he makes a decision, probably influenced by that movie, evil dead 2. so he buys strong pain killing drugs and a chain saw. in the morning, it is done. the hospital say he is lucky to live. story in paper .evil dead hand horror man alive!slowly he recovers.he leaves hospital. trains as a counsellor with the positive sunflower harmony counselling co-op in brockley, and does good work listening people talk about their probs. at co-op he meets fat janet. she a jellyfish fan. they hit it off. fall in love.they go greek islands for honeymoon. on campsite at santorini during a thunderstorm the goddess of love materialies, in the tent! they wish they'd brought the bigger one with an exterior frame. they saw it in blacks. only 130 euros! the goddess looks a lot like pamela anderson, and she says to seth. you have impressed the gods with your passion!and we grant you this gift! and a lightning bolt came out of her eye and hit seth's arm and a new hand grew! this one with 5,5! fingers!and so it was, seth was made whole, and janet was glad too, because now he could wash the dishes, grandma!

Solo Performance in Perspective

Here are a few ideas about solo performance that I’ve arrived at after doing quite a bit of it. I think there are definite things to take into consideration that will help you as a solo performer. First thing to realise is solo performance very different to being in a group work. It has a very different dynamic, obviously. It is in a sense much more dangerous so the more you understand it before you start, the better.
The first thing then to consider is to discriminate between being
A. A performer.
B. A communicator.
The Performer.
This is someone who supplies a service. They serve an audience, director, writer, etc. They very concerned with technique. Impersonation. Looking right. Sounding right. They are not interested in expressing themselves, only in serving to entertain.
The Communicator.
This is someone who fulfils a need for the truth to be told. They are performing to express themselves. They don’t provide a service because they have something to say personally, from the heart, to the audience. They not so concerned with appearance and technique. They not perfectionists.

Now. Ask yourself. Which one am I? If all you wish is to serve to entertain. You are a performer. If you personally have something to bring forth to put in front of the audience, then you are a communicator.

What I have outlined falls in line with great realisation of method school that an actor should ‘be’, rather and ‘act’. A performer ‘acts’, and a communicator just is. A performer has ‘technique’ with which he impresses people, a communicator has his passion which he hopes will carry the day.
Having tackled the main issue let’s move on to some sub issues. First. You must own your own space, as a solo performer, when on stage. One exercise that will help with this is to practise saying “I am!” very loudly in public spaces. This teaches you, owning your space to do with you only, and not the audience. Also it means being unconventional or free of public opinion. To play effectively a mass murderer you would have to go against people’s ideas of right behaviour.
Now. What to perform? Many performer’s choose to sing other people’s songs. This even demanded by the producers of shows like the X factor. And of course in straight theatre it often someone else’s script. But think. It is much easier and more effective to perform your own script, for this is your voice. For good or bad. And. Should you wish to discover more about yourself, creative writing and performance is a good way to do it. Don’t fall into trap of thinking that if you are a performer you are not, or can’t be, a writer. We all of us can do everything. The things we can’t do being merely ‘latent potential’. Or something we have just not focussed on.
Writing. All writing is performance captured on paper. It is a false perception to see it as literature, poetry, post modern fiction, or whatever. Don not get trapped into thinking that writing has anything to do with making marks on paper or typing in your computer. We are writing when we talk to a friend inasmuch as we ‘make up’ what we say. We ‘write’ it. Think!
Audience. All audience’s are the same. If you think opera audience different to football crowd you wrong surprisingly. The group-mind exists wherever people come together. And it always the same. It universal. This minor point but don’t expect the audience to vary in it’s response. It won’t.

Music. Theatre. Comedy. Do you need different approach? Answer no. There are elements of all in all. If you are trying to write any of said, remember to try and drop any kind of agenda you have. Don’t try to be funny if writing comedy. Don’t try to be theatrical for theatre, darling! Allow it to be true to itself. The agendas we have are not a product of our true selves, they are a product of ideas and beliefs thrust on us by an unfeeling social machine. Heavy.
Scripted and improvised. Only an extremely experienced performer could impro his show. You need a script. But a script is only a fossilised improvisation. As we write we improvise in a considered way. For example. “It’s true you look good”. (Consider.) “It’s true that beauty is in you.” (Consider.) “It’s true that your beauty shines like the new morning sun!” TICK! The opening idea was an impro and the considering part was writing. But it does begin with impro.
Another writing point is to begin with a concept or conceit as the Elizabethans liked to call it. This is just an idea that informs the whole thing. After that finding a structure will also help greatly. Structure greatly helps to increase meaning. These things belong to the considering part but it all does start with impro.

So! Are you ready to begin? Do you know what your are?
Well. It doesn’t really matter as the above are not firm fixed rules but merely guidelines to help you think about performing. Nothing is really set in concrete. All things overlap. Or as Stanislavsky said: “Is that my hand in the ice bucket? Help!”

dialogue on a park bench

DIALOGUE ON PARK BENCH


(Woman sitting on bench. Man enters and sits next to her.)
Man.Oh god! When are we going to admit how boring and stupid it is to live the way we do? When!?
Woman. (Pause.)What?
Man. I said. When are we going to admit how boring and stupid it is to live the way we do? When!?
Woman. (Pause. Thinking.) What? Everything is fine. We’ve got Harry Potter. The Arsenal. The Time’s Literary Supplement. What more do you want?
Man. I’ll tell you what I bleeding want.
Woman. No need to swear.
Man. I want meaning. You idiot.
Woman. Now resorting to personal abuse will not help your case. Now be more explicit.
Man. Yeah. Right. Explicit.(Pause.) Look around at our godless world completely devoid of any kind of sacred element.
Woman. Oh! It’s religion you want! What? Protestant. Catholic. Hindu?
Man. No!!!!! Not religion!!!
Woman. Not religion??
Man. No. I want a sacred element.
Woman. But we have that. Look at all the spiritual bookshops like ‘paradox’ and ‘arcane’ and the new age crystal healing centers like ‘quartz.com.’ there’s definitely a sacred atmosphere in those places.
Man. Look. That ain’t sacred. That’s our view of the sacred. We’ve turned it into something nice. Digestible. Commercial. To suit us and our tastes. We made god into a product just like everything else.
Woman. Oh you shouldn’t take god’s name in vain. He might curse you with boils, or something.
Man. That’s just what I mean. God isn’t a name. A word. God is some kind of transcendant intelligent purpose beyond words or names.
Woman. Oh. He won’t like you saying that. Oh no. Not at all.
Man. And are you a Christian?
Woman. Yes. Yes I am.
Man. And do you go to church?
Woman. Well.. not exactly to church. It’s too boring. But I believe in love thy neighbor and do unto others etcetera.
Man. Yes. But you don’t go to church.
Woman. No.
Man. Because it’s boring.
Woman. Yes.
Man. So to all intents and purposes, if you don’t bother going, you have no church, because it doesn’t work for you, so what you need is one that does. A new kind of church. A church without god.
Woman. How can you have a church without god. That’s stupid.
Man. It would be the godless church of the sacred.
Woman. No! no! That’s impossible! Sacriligeous! Awful!
Man. And it would be shaped like a giant sphere, and inside it would be zero gravity and the vicar would be a red Indian, floating round with a pair of sacred pliers pulling out people’s teeth!!!!
Woman. (Hands over ears.) Stop! Stop! That’s horrible. Crazy! Insane! And you are a bad person to say it.
Man. Well. At the moment we have a church that people don’t go to. What’s the point in that?
Woman. Are you suggesting we should scrap thousands of years of religious history?
Man. No.
Woman. Thank… god.
Man. I’m suggesting we learn from it. Adapt it. Allow it to evolve. We can keep the church, but not our idea of what should happen in it. I mean. Take sex.
Woman. I thought we’d get round to sex, sooner or later.
Man. Why is there no sex in church?
Woman. For very good reasons, which must be obvious even to someone of your dubious moral standards.
Man. No sex, despite the fact that everywhere you look in our society/culture, in every pop vid, advert, movie, you see sex sex sex, and that even though we are, quite obsessed with it, the church, in it’s infinite wisdom chooses to act as if this were not the case, taking strategy of , if we just ignore it, or pretend it is otherwise and act all pure and pious it will just go away.
Woman. I suppose you. You’d have the pope making a porno vid or something.
Man. (Pause.) Yes! What a great idea! And afterwards he could explain that a true religious attitude embraces all aspects of life and he is in favour of pornography only he hopes people could use it as a springboard to a more meaningful relationship.
Woman. Oh god! I think ive definitely heard enough of this twaddle! Sex. Springboards. Churches. The next thing is you’ll be saying mankind had his dna spliced with an alien sub space crocodile. NO! Don’t! Enough is enough! (She stands. Hands on hips.) You know it’s people like you who underminded the moral climate and created all the dissatisfaction and unrest we see in the world. You spread unsettling and un nerving ideas that infiltrate the mass psyche causing hysteria outrage and confusion. Stop it! Stop it! Keep that big gob of yours, (takes hold jaw pressing lips shut.) shut! Sealed. Closed. (Letting go.) You want a better world? Just stay like that. Do us all a favour! (She exits. He sits with his lips compressed. Curtain.)