VERBATIM
This is my first
time being introduced to Verbatim Theatre and I have to admit when I first
heard about the concept of making a piece of theatre from a persons interview
it sounded kind of boring, but that’s because I hadn’t foreseen the possibilities
that come from making a story from a persons real story.
Verbatim meaning
‘word for word’, means that the text spoken in the play are the words of real
people, which are, “then edited,
arranged or re-contextualized to form a dramatic presentation, in which the
actors take on characters of the real individuals whose words are being used.”
When I thought
of making a piece from a persons “interview” the picture I had in my head was
an interview where the interviewee gives their opinion on particular subject
for instance immigration, politics, or economics, which I thought uninspiring. Maintaining
an interest listening or watching an actual interview I find can be a
challenge, so making an entire production out of an interview of this kind made
me ask, ‘why would someone even want to do that?’ and ‘why would that be
interesting theatre?’ At this stage this is as much as I new about Verbatim
theatre, making a production based on a persons interview, where you would use
their words for dialogue.
TOPIC FOR THE
VERBATIM PROJECT
The topic of the
verbatim project is Migration. Paul wanted us to explore stories of people who
had either come in or out of the country and their story before, after or
during their travels. He also wanted to put a food element into the piece and
if possible a meal would be cooked during the performance. My task to find a
person who had a story of migration, that I could interview and use that interview,
specifically the dialogue to create a piece of theatre.
Examples that we
discussed briefly were people who had immigrated to England from the Caribbean
in the late 1940’s, and started families in the UK, myself being a grandson of
immigrants from Jamaica, as my grandparents coming and settling here for around
40 years before emigrating back to Jamaica in the 90’s. And also immigrants
from India, and Pakistan, who arrived in the UK at a similar time as the
Caribbean’s, and settled, raised families, which has contributed to England being
the cultural melting pot it is today.
This brought the
idea to me that I could do my verbatim piece on my Grandfather, who immigrated
to England, living, raising a family and working here for 40 years before
returning home. But him being in Jamaica, and only being able to interview over
the phone would not be making the best of my resources. I have a Grandmother
living here in Birmingham who immigrated to England when she was just 20 years
old and has been here ever since which is around 50 years. I could interview my
grandma and ask her about her life back in Jamaica and her reason for coming to
England and the transition. This was a possible selection for me, but as I
would like to act as the main character in my verbatim piece myself and
wouldn’t want to play a woman, I chose not to use my grandmother.
Fortunately for
me a good percentage of my friends and people who I work, and do life with are
originally from countries outside of England, so it won’t be difficult for me
to source someone to use as my subject. The only questions are who, and why
choose them?
Still not
enthralled with the idea of Verbatim Theatre, at this point I still wondered
why it would be interesting to create theatre from a persons interview. What
was it about an interview that would make stimulating theatre for a paying
audience?
VERBATIM EXERCISE
WITH PAUL
(L.O 2.1)
Paul conducted an exercise to experiment if it would be useful in delivering a verbatim performance.
1st Video
2nd Video
The first time (1st video) because as Paul spoke
the dialogue with emotion and character, and then Eve repeated the same
dialogue with emotion it seemed pointless and the story seemed to loose it’s
meaning and impact.
The second time around (2nd video) because Eve
told the story plainly, without any sense of attachment to it. When Paul retold
it I felt that story really came to life, and it was interesting to see Paul
putting character to it.
I see this as taking a person’s written or recorded story
that can seem quite plain and bringing it to life using drama, which I think is
one of the main aims of verbatim.
3rd exercise
The next exercise we experimented with acting out the
thoughts and dialogue of others in a given situation. This is useful as in
Verbatim we are taking on the characters and words of other people then
portraying them truthfully and artistically. This was a good exercise to get us
in the frame of mind needed to produce a verbatim piece, with verbatim
characters.
Rami is a fellow performing arts student who is originally
from Afghanistan, and has his own story of immigration. Rami was forced to flee
from his homeland when the Taliban came violently into his hometown. He was
secretly smuggled out of Afghanistan, across the Middle East, Europe, and
finally to England which is now his new home. He has lost all contact with his
family apart from his brother who he recently discovered is living in Bradford.
Rami had to flee his home at the age of 13.
QUESTIONS BRING ANSWERS
The title of our verbatim project is ‘The Pursuit of
Happiness’, and one of the major themes is ‘Migration’, people moving from once
place to another and their stories. So what was going on in my head at this
time was asking people stories of their travels, this did not excite me, I
thought what about that is interesting? Then I realised that it’s not just
about their journey, but ‘why’ they had chosen to migrate, if in fact they did
have a choice in the matter, which I later came to realise was not always the
case. The reasons why a person had chosen to leave their home country for
another captured my imagination.
With this new insight and enthusiasm I already had the
perfect person in mind whose story I could tell of immigration to England, and
why.
An essential
part of the process when creating a verbatim piece is the interviewing of the
Person or people’s whose story is to be told.
As well as Verbatim Theatre being the telling of true
stories it is also theatre, and theatre needs to being engaging. To make an interesting piece of
theatre you need material that is of interest to work with, which is why the
interview process is a critical area of the verbatim theatre process. “What makes a person interesting? If they widen our
knowledge of the complexity of the human condition and bring fresh insight into
the situation we’re exploring”.
The person I have in mind to ‘verbatim’ is a man I know who
is currently sleeping rough on the streets of Birmingham. Jaime is Originally
from Portugal but came to England 5 years ago after falling out with his long
term partner, with whom he has a teenaged son. Since arriving in Birmingham he
has been sleeping rough on the streets all throughout the year, including
winter when snow has fallen. Despite many offers of help and support from many
people over the years including myself, he choses to live a life of
homelessness. From knowing and speaking to Jaime for nearly 2 years I believe
the reason why he refuses help, and continues to live rough is because he is
trying to make a menses for what went wrong with his family back in Portugal.
And he thinks by punishing himself that he can somehow rid himself of the guilt
of his past.
Jaime’s story talks of love, hate, regret, faith, fear,
punishment and anger. So many different aspects that could potentially make for
a great piece a verbatim theatre.
I will have to look for Jaime around the city centre, as he
does not own a mobile phone, and ask him if he wouldn’t mind if I used him and
his story for my project.
RAMI
(L.O 2.1)
Rami is a fellow performing arts student who is originally
from Afghanistan, and has his own story of immigration. Rami was forced to flee
from his homeland when the Taliban came violently into his hometown. He was
secretly smuggled out of Afghanistan, across the Middle East, Europe, and
finally to England which is now his new home. He has lost all contact with his
family apart from his brother who he recently discovered is living in Bradford.
Rami had to flee his home at the age of 13.
The group was given the opportunity to interview Rami and
ask him about his life and journey. We recorded the interview and also made
notes. These are a list of the questions we asked him:
1.
Where were you brought up?
2.
What was your childhood like?
3.
What did you have on your farm?
4.
Favourite food back home?
5.
School?
6.
How did you come to England?
7.
Do you miss you’re sister, old life?
8.
How did you first find England?
9.
How did you cope with being alone?
10. How
did you adjust?
11. What
items did you bring with you?
12. Was
you scared?
13. Do
you see you brother?
14. Would
you go back?
15. Do
you still have the scarf you arrived with?
16. What
do you think of England now?
17. Where
do you want to go in life?
18. What
would you like to eat from back home?
19. Is
there a particular song that is special to you?
20. What
are your aspirations?
His positive attitude and bubble character amazed me.
Considering what had happened to him, he never seemed to make it the focus of
his life, he had big dreams and was focused on moving forward. Most of all he
had a great and infectious sense of Hope, and that is what I hope the creator of this piece captures when they tell his story.
The interview demonstrated to me how as the interviewer,
creating a relaxed, open, friendly environment, and asking the right questions
is vital to allowing the interviewee to open up and tell you their story and
the different emotions behind it. Giving them time to talk, and sometimes
interjecting and asking them to give a little more detail can reveal some
interesting details that they themselves may of forgotten about.
WHY VERBATIM?
(L.O 1.1)
What makes Verbatim Theatre stand out for me is that it’s
the material in the piece is grounding on the truth of that person or persons
story. The characters that we see in a verbatim piece aren’t characters made up
by the playwright but are real people, and the dialogue spoken are the actual
words of a real person. ‘Real’ is the key word. Many theatre productions, and
characters in plays are based on real events and people. But verbatim done in
it’s purest form, is not based on an true story or event, it Is a true story. ‘Truth’. People spend
their lives looking for it. The truth about life, the truth about who they are,
and the truth about why they are here. We are trying to figure out this thing
called life, and the theatre is a place where people go to looking for truth,
or an opinion of it. Robin Soans words it,
“We want our
theatre to help us understand why the world is becoming the way it is”
As the material used to create a verbatim play are the real
words of people, about their own lives and experiences, and are not manipulated
or edited, we expect as an audience that whatever we hear and see it going to
be that person, or peoples actual truthful experience.
These are just a few images of how many perceive the “Truthfulness
of the media”
As you can see from the images the media doesn’t have the best reputation for presenting the gospel truth. Many people don’t believe that they can trust what is being shown to them through the television, magazines, newspapers, the Internet, and other means of mass communication. And when people don’t even believe they can trust what is on the News, which was once thought to be the only spot on television where you thought you could go to hear some truth, whether it be boring, or painful but it was the truth. To hear stories of how that too is being manipulated, it leaves the question of where can people go to find truth.
“It can be no
accident that, as the art of spin has become more sophisticated, leading to a
decline in standards of honesty in public life, there has been a simultaneous proliferation
of political theatre”
"Only in the arts is the study of the human condition considered more important than ambition or money, so it is left to artist to ask the relevant questions"
The theatre is one of the last places where people can go and be told truth, no matter how bleak, how ugly or raw. Verbatim is a great
technique that can be used to tell those stories.
CREATING
VERBATIM
(L.O 2.1)
Hydra Exercise
This exercise
was done to explore the possibilities of adopting characteristics of an actual
person.
There was a
group of 5 males. One person sat opposite the other 4. The 4 then asked various
questions to 1. As 1 responding, the 4 were to listen to his responses and
watching for body language, facial expressions, and speech patterns. After
about 5 minutes of questioning the roles changed and person1 had to ask questions
to the 4. At this point all 4 would take on the character of person 1.
Answering the questions how they believed person 1 would answer them, including
body language, facial expression, and speech pattern.
This exercise
worked surprising well in such a short space of time. By asking just a few
questions (some slightly personal, but not to much) you can get a really good
sense of a person and there attitude. Also you get to look at their physical
responses to the different questions and mimic them. This was a great exercise
that will be a huge help in adopting the character of the person chosen for the
verbatim piece.
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
(LO.1.3)
(L.O 2.1)
At this point I see Verbatim as a technique of telling a person or persons story truthfully through theatre. It might not be glamorous, exciting or romantic but it is true to life, and truthful representation of the people who are being portrayed. If someone were to create a verbatim piece on me I would want him or her to portray me truthfully, even if they showed aspects of me that I’ve not noticed about myself. I would be upset if a piece of theatre was created about myself, and it portrayed me to be someone who I am not.
At this point I see Verbatim as a technique of telling a person or persons story truthfully through theatre. It might not be glamorous, exciting or romantic but it is true to life, and truthful representation of the people who are being portrayed. If someone were to create a verbatim piece on me I would want him or her to portray me truthfully, even if they showed aspects of me that I’ve not noticed about myself. I would be upset if a piece of theatre was created about myself, and it portrayed me to be someone who I am not.
We did an exercise that focused on looking into a person’s
character and personality.
Each member of the group was asked to bring in a bag that
represents them, and in the bag 5 items that represent or symbolize who they
are.
I brought in a Plain black rucksack: It’s efficient, not too
stylish but handy.
Inside it were
·
NOTEBOOK: I love writing
·
TOOTHBRUSH AND TOOTHPASTE: I have travelled many
places, mostly backpacking and can leave on bare essentials
·
A GOSPEL
TRACT: I love sharing my faith
·
MOISTURIZER: Be afro-Caribbean I always need
moisturizer on hand
·
A BOTTLE OF WATER: Symbolizes my faith in Jesus
Christ- He is Living Water
WHAT'S THE AGENDA?
(LO.1.3)
(LO.1.3)
“I had walked the
fine line between honouring the subject’s integrity and serving the audiences
interests”
An exercise was carried out where we got into pairs
interviewed one another (person A – person B) for a couple minutes, making
notes on what each other said during their interview. The pairs were then split
up and put into 2 separate groups, group A and group B.
The task was then to take the information written down
from the interview and edit it with a specific ‘Agenda’, and create a short
piece with it. My agenda was to make the person I interviewed appear to be,
Incapable, Inept, and a bit stupid.
So I went through the notes I had written down from my
partners interview and I selected bits that I thought would make them sound a
bit dumb. The second group did the same task but with a different agenda. Their
agenda was to make their partner appear glamorous, exciting and fun.
What we had was two totally different performances,
both with different styles. The group whose agenda was to discredit their partner
was quite a messy and disjointed, as we portrayed our partners that way. While
the other group whose agenda was to praise their partner, that performance was
energetic and lively.
From this short exercise I saw how the agenda of the
director who is editing and creating the verbatim piece would play a huge part
in not only how the piece will look, but also the message of the piece and
representation of the person or peoples.
The Agenda determines how the story is manipulated
Verbatim is not supposed to have an agenda but just
the telling of someone’s story, presenting someone’s life. The agenda comes
from the director/producer
AGENDA – EDIT – SHAPE -
PERFORM
What are the expectations of Verbatim and the creators
of Verbatim theatre?
What do the audience expect?
What do the actors expect?
What do the subjects expect?
What does the creator expect?
THINK BEFORE YOU ACT!
(L.O 1.3)
“Never forget its someone’s
life”
We looked into some words that we needed to know the
meaning of and take into consideration when creating our pieces, in particular
the editing process.
Some words and definitions we explored were
REPRESENT
To speak, act, or be present officially for another
person or persons
VERACITY
Truth, truthfulness, accuracy
VERBATIM
Using exact same words as originally used
TESTIMONY
Formal written or spoken testament
EXPLOIT
Use or manipulate for own gain
All of these words I believe need to be seriously considered
when creating a piece of theatre where you are publically portraying an actual
person.
“The dramatist must abide by
some sort of ethical code if their work is to be taken seriously”
After looking further into the ethics involved in verbatim
theatre, and the responsibility we as dramatist have as we are creating
something from the stories of real people, I decided not to proceed to continue
my verbatim project on ‘Jamie’. Jaime’s life is in a very unstable place at
this point, and I feel it would not be helpful to ask him to dig up issues and
stories of his past then just leave him on to continue living on the street with
freshly uncovered wounds, and not be there to support him. I will find another
person whom I can do my verbatim project on. I would not of come to this
conclusion if I hadn’t looked into the ethical dimension to creating verbatim,
and making the definition between Exploring and Exploiting.
Ellie posed 2 questions that I needed to consider as I continued
with my project.
Why am I representing that person? What is my motive?
ASSISTING THE DIRECTOR
Alongside performing in the verbatim project I was
also the assistant director. I spent quite a bit of time working with the other
groups assisting them in putting their pieces together.
EVE and BETH
(L.O 3.1)
(L.O 3.1)
The pair were doing a verbatim project on each other but were
having serious problems finding ideas that they could use to create a piece. Eve
and Beth would both be playing each other and telling the stories of why Eve immigrated
from Wales to England, and why Beth wants to emigrate from England to anywhere.
Having looked at what they had so far I thought that the material they had to
work with was not compelling enough for them to be able to create a piece of
theatre, which was why they were having so many problems in developing it, even
after working on it for quiet some time.
ESCAPE was the word that I saw that both of their
stories had in common, so I arranged an exercise around that theme to help conjure
up some ideas.
In addition to this I could see what Eve and Beth were
missing in their piece in order to create a fully rounded piece of material,
were stories about themselves, and their lives that lead to them wanting to
ESCAPE. “The audiences involvement must be the
care they develop for the characters. How many times after a show have I heard
people say, ‘I didn’t enjoy it very much; I didn’t care for the any of the
characters ”
Reading and researching about the verbatim interview
process I noted how the type of questions, directing questions, and picking up
on small details can lead the interviewee to sharing stories that are great material
for working with. As Eve was interviewed I wanted her to be in a place of
openness and exploration. I was looking for opportunities to pick up on small
comments and details that were linked to significant stories about her life in
Wales leading up to her decision to move to England. “When
I put these drama’s together I’m not writing a thesis, I’m writing a play. And
unashamedly, I want the audience to care”.
Eve and Beth went on to create a good detailed piece
of verbatim theatre, were I really saw the characters in their story of
journey.
Directing Danny
“No time you
walk on stage should be directed” - Paul
Paul directing Danny’s Verbatim piece
Danny is playing a father who is leaving Ireland with
his 2 kids for prospects of a better future. In this scene the father had to
break the news to his 2 kids that they were laving and had to start packing immediately.
Paul suggests adding the physical actions to the
setting to create the realism, e.g., folding shirts, taking things out of the
school bag, eating, and the ‘sub-objective’. Which will clean the scene up and
make it more intense, while the characters objective is played.
“Nothing worse than going to the theatre and the actor not giving you everything”
Strip out what can be said with thought rather than
with words. Can a gesture or a facial expression communicate the dialogue?
Humanize the situation, show the struggle and pain, or
the joy and hope of the situation.
2 types of Brecht stepping out:
1. Is the actor stepping out as the actor and
describing the characters world?
2. The actor stepping out as the character and
describing his own world. (Soliloquy)
“The worse thing
to do is to give the impression of emotion”
Committing to the Character
(L.O 2.1)
Paul has continual drummed this home since this beginning of the year, really committing to the character and showing the character , and not "our acting".
Fully committing to the character is part of
Stanislavski’s system, but for the verbatim project Brecht is the practitioner
that we are exploring, so I am looking to include Brechtian elements within the
piece.
Paul suggests that in order to use Brecht effectively,
in particular when it comes to breaking out of character and talking directly
to the audience the actors need to first be playing Stanislavski. That is fully
committing to the character and the situation, so when the actor does ‘break
out’ and address the audience directly it will have greater effect, as it will
take the audience by surprise, catch them off guard, which will achieve Brecht’s
aim of alienating the audience so they do not get emotionally attached.
The videos show a scene first being played
Stanislavski and then Brecht.
Note how in the first video Paul directs Zoe to start again and play Stanislavski,
to play her objective, and later instructing her to play in a Brechtian style.
WHO TO VERBATIM? THAT IS THE QUESTION
(L.O 2.2)
(L.O 2.2)
As I decided no longer to use Jaime for my Verbatim
project I needed to find another subject. Not only did I need to find another
person whom to create my piece on, but someone who could fit into the extremely
tight schedule to get substantial material. I also considered the actual
performance of the piece, which was soon to arrive. The group already had so
much to organize and prepare amongst themselves, I did not want to put any
further pressure on them to perform in my piece. Looking at my circumstances
and resources available to me left me with few options. The one option I did
have that wouldn’t be met with the various challenges would be to do a Verbatim
project on myself - Autobiographical Verbatim. Thinking about the topic of the
Piece ‘Pursuit of Happiness’ and the different elements we were trying to include
such as travel, change, and pursuit I started to get ideas of how this could
actually work.
Interview myself?
I started to think about where I would get the material
to create my piece. I remember previously learning that verbatim material was
either recorded or written, writings from archives could be used to create
pieces on people who are no longer alive. Diaries? For years I kept a diary,
recording my life, thoughts and feelings. And I knew that within those books
there would be many pages that spoke of a pursuit for happiness. Some diaries I
wrote while I travelled to, and lived in different countries around the world,
I wouldn’t be short on fitting material that was for sure.
Unsure if it would work and if I could achieve my
grading criteria I posted the idea on the BMAPA Facebook wall to ask for the
opinions of the group and in particular my tutors who will be grading my
project.
- Ellie Darvill Rather than reading out everything from the diary they would construct a piece from what you offered them - they would have editorial control..
I decided to go with Ellie’s suggestion and give sections
of my diaries to the group and give then editorial control.
I got started immediately by getting my diaries
together and sharing them with the group. (Which was interesting sharing them
for the first time ever, and with a large group of people) I asked them to
highlight parts that they thought spoke to them about a pursuing happiness, a
journey, travel, and whatever else captured them.
Once I had collected all photocopied all the sections
the group had chosen form my diaries, I looked at what they had chosen to see
if how I could construct a performance out of what they had selected.
“The fact that the people in
his play actually exist and the words in his plays were actually spoken by them
in no way alters his role as a dramatist. The real world provides him with the
raw material, which as Max Stafford-Clark puts it, he leaves ‘raw’, but he must
still craft a drama from it.”
There was a variety of issues the diary sections
covered, love, anger, self-image, sex, loneliness, emptiness, hope and much more.
What I saw that tied them all together was the Pursuit
of happiness. A journey, looking for happiness, the searching for happiness,
and I the different ways that I tried to find it. This is the story that I
would tell through my piece.
My diaries spoke of success, sex, and adventure being
my perception of happiness. I made these the main themes for my piece.
“Everyone chases after happiness, not noticing that happiness is at their heels.” – Bertolt Brecht
I wanted the piece to capture my Pursuit of happiness,
the highs and lows, the searching, the panic, I wanted the audience to see
themselves in the pursuit, see familiar actions, and thoughts. I told the story
of my diary and my pursuit written in my diary through the actions of the
ensemble, as they all took on my character.
The piece continues with the ensemble finding hearts
shaped pieces of card, symbolizing that the pursuit of happiness is actually
the pursuit of love.
Written on the cards are the entries from my diary, which
each performer would read out loud so the audience would hear the verbatim text directly. I believe that due to the way the hearts were discovered and the content of the diaries that were read, the audience would recognise that they were listening to real words written by a real person. The ensemble read first one at a time and then together
creating a crescendo of noise and dramatic affect. At this point when the performance is reaching it's peak I ‘break out’ quiet naturally and address the audience directly.
My aim was to create a
short piece that would really impact the audience and intrigue them, and get
them to ask questions, about what they are seeing, and why they are seeing it.
After seeing my piece performed Paul commented that it
was good that I didn’t directly mention my faith, as it was quiet evident
within the piece. I understood what he was saying to a certain degree but not
fully. He continued to comment how he sensed that when I directly addressed the
audience he felt that I was “holding back”, which I agreed with. I knew that me holding
back, and not mentioning my faith were linked, so I questioned Paul why he
thought it best I not mention my faith within my piece.
INSERT AUDIO RECORDING OF FEEDBACK
Paul mentions that he believed that if I make a direct
link to my faith then it would alienate the audience, which I understand.
Brecht purposely alienated his audience so they would
not get caught up in the performance or with the characters but think. As I am using Brechtian alienation as part of
my project, I decided to creatively make a direct link to my faith within the
piece as a means of alienation, and encourage the audience TO THINK about what
they believe about happiness.
“The audience for a
verbatim play will expect the play to be political; they will be willing to
accept an unconventional format; they will probably expect the material to be contentious
and to challenge their opinions.”
STAGING
Grotowski said that for theatre all you need are actors and
an audience.
If you’re going to add technology to a performance it has to
be for a reason for a benefit.
“Swivel Theatre”
For the production we are seating audience on swivel
chairs in the center of the space, while the action takes place all around
them. This let’s the audience decide where they want to watch, which part the
action they want to focus on. It will also make for a different challenge in
terms of performance, especially vocally. Voice projection is going to be a key
focus performing in this space, as at some points half the audience could be
behind the actors as the speak.
Another consideration is that some audience members
view might be hindered, so finding the best angles which to stage scenes is
very important.
Semiotics
If you start using colour it makes it unreal.
Brecht says he would not use colour or colour wash as it
says semiotic things.
If we’re using colours then it has to be very precise, if
we’re using colour it has to be for a reason.
VERBATIM is Real life/True story = Newspaper type feel =
Black and White
.jpg)
“Semiotics is everything” – Paul Garnault
Technical preparations went well as the tech team were
professional and assertive.
PUTTING ALL THE PIECES TOGETHER
(L.O 3.1)
Rather than have each piece played whole one after another
the directorial decision was made to divide the pieces into sections and
interchange them throughout the performance. This idea was greeted with mixed
reactions from the group, mostly down to the feeling that we already had a
large task on our hands and this was an additional challenge. The director of
course had the final say.
Starting by dividing our piece into 3 sections, beginning,
middle, end, and writing a general summery of theme, what the scene was about,
and the content contained.
E.g. Section 1-
Hospital scene – Mental illness – Stylized movements
Section 2-
Street scene – Lost in busy city – Fast pace
Section 3-
Office scene – Pressured work environment – Vocal chorus
After all the pieces were separated we linked all the
different sections together by themes. E.g. War, Love, Escape.
So we had was different stores intertwining throughout the performance
that would keep the audience engaged and thinking.
CURTAIN UP!
CURTAIN UP!
PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
(L.O 3.3)
Exhausted was how the group and I felt by the end of the performance. It
was a long day rehearsing, tech-in, dressing, then performing with hardly a
break in between. But apart from feeling relief I was also pleased with the
show. After our one and only run we had just prior to the performance, the
major feedback note was “Pick up the pace!”, and we did that in the performance.
As an ensemble we filled in the gaps to keep it moving, and
flowing as best we could. As with most performances the audience adds intensity that causes us as performers to focus, as we feed off the audience’s
energy. There was a feeling from the dress rehearsal that the duration of show could have
been too long, but it maintained a steady momentum from start to finish.
The linking between scenes worked well as we promptly picked up cues, and cut
in on the end of scenes to get it quickly moving onto the next scene. As an ensemble we were focused and enthusiastic, and worked well as team for our common goal in delivering an impacting piece.
The entire cast performed well with individual performances that standing out, in particular Dannel and Laura. Paul has constantly pushing us to push the emotion, commit to the emotion, commit to the moment, and that is what Dannel did as he sang 'Stand by me'. I'm sure he shocked himself as well as the audience, and ensemble as we literally saw that emotion pore out of him. Laura as always displayed a committed performance, were I was impressing by the characterisation of her grandfather physically, facially, and vocally. Also her character of the daughter in Danny’s piece
was just as convincing, as she embraced the various emotions with the given
circumstances.
The pieces came together well, I felt that the stories
were told and real peoples lives were portrayed with openness and honesty to
the audience, more in some pieces than others.
My verbatim piece on myself went well apart from a
mishap in the lighting cue with was down to myself, with meant the ensemble
were attempting read in the dark. As watched the footage I could see and sense
the audiences shock and bewilderment, as I was hoping to achieve. I could that
the audience was taken on a journey where questions mounted up along the way. I
enjoyed the variance in energy, pace, and volume, and the stark contrast of
engagement as I broke out and spoke directly to the audience. As I broke out
and addressed the audience I felt bare, like I opened up my chest and told them
to look at my heart. As uncomfortable as that may be, I believe that’s the
heart of theatre.
I was very happy and pleased with the ensembles
commitment to learning and performing my piece considering how little time they
had to rehearse it.
The production on a whole was a great experience with
many lessons to learn from, and some memorable moments. I am glad I was a part
of it.
Link to video of ‘The Pursuit of Happiness’
Audience feedback audio recording
(L.O 3.2)
insert audience feedback
VERBATIM THEATRE – WHAT I THINK ABOUT IT NOW
(L.O 1.2) & (L.O 3.3)
MY NOTES ON VERBATIM
- Verbatim started by spiralling through Epic Theatre, verbatim didn’t have a specific start
Epic theatre is to focus the audience’s attention on everything on stage actors, stage, props, as a technique for alienation to get the audience to think about what’s going on rather than emoting: Truth
- Verbatim is a 'technique' to be used to create theatre
- Verbatim theatre often gets confused with Docu-theatre. Docu-theatre can be made without interviewing people. It can be done from articles etc.
- Main verbatim practitioners don’t all agree on a certain style, but they all agree it must be recorded
- Why are we so hooked on Verbatim? At a time as there is so enormous skeptical about politics media, the theatre is a place that we can go to get an element of truth
- This doesn’t mean that people who make verbatim don’t also have an agenda
- ‘Hyperbolize’ exaggerating, over emphasized
- Verbatim theatre offers us the bracing stimulus of ‘fact’
- Their own perspective is their own reality, their own truth
- The Purpose of Theatre, What is the purpose of my verbatim piece?
Why lampoon? I’d make a production to Lampoon the government or media, not just to make fun of but to get peoples attention
Should verbatim theatre all have a specific purpose?
To provide food for thought, so the audience will go on their journey from there. What sort of things will people be thinking about when they leave?
- Autobiographical verbatim is if I was interviewed, a play was produced but then I played the part of me that the director produced
- Community Verbatim piece. Going to groups in the community, interview them, create piece, ask them to be involved and show to the community
- Tribunal Verbatim is produced from trial transcripts
- Historical Verbatim piece, Old plays made on historical events, word for word
- Verbatim can be seen as more of a research tool, a technique for making theatre rather than a style of theatre
- Why Verbatim?
“To give listening ears to voices that would usual go on heard”
Mark Halsom - Talking to Terrorist
“Giving a face to something that is usually faceless”
Interviews with people who are friends with terrorist, brothers with terrorist, and parents of terrorist. That’s the power when you see that the terrorists are real people, and that’s the power of verbatim
- How do I create a verbatim piece?
(Basic guideline)
Interview (recorded audio) the starting block. (word for word)
Transcript
Running transcript by the interviewee to see if that is a representation that they approve of
Once approved, add artistic elements to the piece, you are still doing theatre so you want it to be entertaining and gripping to the audience
Editing, cutting, shaping it
Verbatim- is it? Literally just telling the Story, but why would you want to tell that particular story? What’s your agenda?
Bibliography
Will Hammond, Dan
Steward (2008). Verbatim Verbatim. London: Oberon Books Ltd. 9.
Will Hammond, Dan
Steward (2008). Verbatim Verbatim. London: Oberon Books. 17.
Will Hammond, Dan
Steward (2008). Verbatim Verbatim. London: Oberon Books. 11.
Will Hammond, Dan
Steward (2008). Verbatim Verbatim. London: Oberon Books. 10.
Will Hammond, Dan
Steward (2008). Verbatim Verbatim. London: Oberon Books. 34.
Will Hammond, Dan
Steward (2008). Verbatim Verbatim. London: Oberon Books. 36.
Will Hammond, Dan
Steward (2008). Verbatim Verbatim. London: Oberon Books. 24.
Will Hammond, Dan
Steward (2008). Verbatim Verbatim. London: Oberon Books. 39.
Will Hammond, Dan
Steward (2008). Verbatim Verbatim. London: Oberon Books. 19.
Will Hammond, Dan
Steward (2008). Verbatim Verbatim. London: Oberon Books. 41.
Robert Holden
(2005). Authentic Success. Great Britain: Hodder
and Stoughton. 109.
Will Hammond, Dan
Steward (2008). Verbatim Verbatim. London: Oberon Books. 22.
