Meyerhold's view on directing is very much at the core of what I seek to explore in my book, it seems:
"If you asked me today where the difficulty lies in the art of the director, I would say: 'It lies in the fact that he needs to contain the in-containable'. The challenge of the art of directing is that the director needs to be a musician most of all. He in particular has to deal with on of the most difficult aspects of the art of music, he develops the scenic movements always contrapuntally. That is a very difficult matter. […] If you'd ask me: 'Which core course in a faculty of a future theatre-university, which core course should form part of its curriculum?' – I would say: 'Naturally music'. If a director isn't a musician, then he isn't capable of developing a real production. Because a real production (I don't mean the opera, the theatre of the music-drama and the musical comedy –, I even mean such dramatic theatre, where the whole performance proceeds without any musical accompaniment) can only be devised by a musician as a director."
Monday 7 November 2011
Workshop in Norway
I have just returned from giving a workshop for Master students at the Universitetet i Agder: Institutt for
visuelle og sceniske fag within a module
on Interdisciplinarity. Through theoretical debate and practical exercises we
explored a range of interplays between music, performance, and visual
art, taking inspiration from practitioners ranging from Adolphe Appia,
Vassily Kandinsky, John Cage to Heiner Goebbels, Carola Bauckholt or
Robert Wilson.
It was particularly interesting to work with students whose background was largely not in theatre, not music (with a few exceptions), but in visual art and photography. This allowed us to question and compare notions of "composition", "rhythm" or "score" between different art forms and attempt translations and transformations between the disciplines. Almost as a by-product, we also stumbled upon questions of acting and not-acting and the theatricality of executing musical instructions in a theatrical environment.
One notion that we kept returning to was that of the 'frame' within which we place an artistic practice and how influential this frame (as a mindset, a training background, an institutional set of parameters, or as a predisposition of the spectator/audience) is for how we 'read' interdisciplinary art.
It was particularly interesting to work with students whose background was largely not in theatre, not music (with a few exceptions), but in visual art and photography. This allowed us to question and compare notions of "composition", "rhythm" or "score" between different art forms and attempt translations and transformations between the disciplines. Almost as a by-product, we also stumbled upon questions of acting and not-acting and the theatricality of executing musical instructions in a theatrical environment.
One notion that we kept returning to was that of the 'frame' within which we place an artistic practice and how influential this frame (as a mindset, a training background, an institutional set of parameters, or as a predisposition of the spectator/audience) is for how we 'read' interdisciplinary art.
Monday 24 October 2011
Workshop in Berlin II
The two week-workshop I just gave together with singer and actor Christina M. Lagao as part of the 'Herbstcamp' of the Deutsches Theater was an interesting challenge; requiring me to frame my research into musicality in (the) theatre in a pedagogical context for a heterogeneous group of Berlin students between 13 and 25 years old. There were two key premises to the workshop (based on the overall theme "What do we need?" for al 6 workshops that ran parallel and were later presented together to an audience of about 250 at the Deutsches Theater on Sunday,16th October: on the one hand it was about reclaiming music as a common language which we all speak and which is not subject to record deals, talent shows, managers, producers or powerful PA systems. On the other hand, it was also about exploring the theatrical in making music; experimenting with ways of performing our multiple and multifaceted relationships with music.
All of our participants were asked to name one song they would take with them to a desert island (the eponymous BBC radio show had inspired us). This selection of songs – from inspirational to fun, from suited for dancing to chilling, from topical to mainstream – formed a basis, a rough material that we transformed into live music.
There was also a strong sense of what Christopher Small calls "musicking" there to guide our devising process: the ways in which we engage with music and participate in its creation and meaning making when we hum along to our ipods, dance in all sorts of ways to it, create it with nervously drumming fingers on our suitcases, zips, velcro flaps etc.
The desert island theme and the essentialist question "What do we need?" had suggested travelling as a theme for the overall 25-minute performance, which concluded our workshop: armed only with a suitcase and few travel items and carry-on instruments (two guitars and a clarinet) our group created a promenade performance through some of the transitional spaces a theatre offers: the front steps, they foyers and the bar; all of which invite only a fleeting presence.
The performance explored various moments of musicking and of different functions music has for us - individually and as a group, integrating and excluding others, and as a means to what Tia DeNora calls “musically composed identities” (2000, 68). When used for example as a stimulant or relaxant, a motivational or pace-making device music even becomes, again according to DeNora a “prosthetic technology of the body” (2000, 102).
The musicality of this workshop and presentation, I would argue, manifested itself in using music as a primary material for devising a theatrical performance, but also as a key focus for the individual acting and the group interaction on stage; we worked extensively on rhythm, timbre and on sensitising ourselves to layered structures: a collective 'music' of small actions, sounds and gestures, where the importance was on recognising how much or how little everyone has to contribute to a simultaneity of 10 performances, which are meant to create an interesting and varied musico-theatrical texture. Anecdotally, this also became manifest, when after carefully shaping and crafting little scenes or numbers we only introduced a small story that gave our performers more concrete situations and motivation on the last day of the workshop: much work on theatre starts with this: narrative, characters, situations, conflicts. We worked much more abstractly on musical scenarios and loosely draped a few narrative hints around these scenarios at the end. This changed, we believed, the focus and experience for the performers quite significantly and hopefully added a new leaf to their accumulating experiences on the stage.
You can see a video-podcast of the Herbstcamp as a whole here.
All of our participants were asked to name one song they would take with them to a desert island (the eponymous BBC radio show had inspired us). This selection of songs – from inspirational to fun, from suited for dancing to chilling, from topical to mainstream – formed a basis, a rough material that we transformed into live music.
There was also a strong sense of what Christopher Small calls "musicking" there to guide our devising process: the ways in which we engage with music and participate in its creation and meaning making when we hum along to our ipods, dance in all sorts of ways to it, create it with nervously drumming fingers on our suitcases, zips, velcro flaps etc.
The desert island theme and the essentialist question "What do we need?" had suggested travelling as a theme for the overall 25-minute performance, which concluded our workshop: armed only with a suitcase and few travel items and carry-on instruments (two guitars and a clarinet) our group created a promenade performance through some of the transitional spaces a theatre offers: the front steps, they foyers and the bar; all of which invite only a fleeting presence.
The performance explored various moments of musicking and of different functions music has for us - individually and as a group, integrating and excluding others, and as a means to what Tia DeNora calls “musically composed identities” (2000, 68). When used for example as a stimulant or relaxant, a motivational or pace-making device music even becomes, again according to DeNora a “prosthetic technology of the body” (2000, 102).
The musicality of this workshop and presentation, I would argue, manifested itself in using music as a primary material for devising a theatrical performance, but also as a key focus for the individual acting and the group interaction on stage; we worked extensively on rhythm, timbre and on sensitising ourselves to layered structures: a collective 'music' of small actions, sounds and gestures, where the importance was on recognising how much or how little everyone has to contribute to a simultaneity of 10 performances, which are meant to create an interesting and varied musico-theatrical texture. Anecdotally, this also became manifest, when after carefully shaping and crafting little scenes or numbers we only introduced a small story that gave our performers more concrete situations and motivation on the last day of the workshop: much work on theatre starts with this: narrative, characters, situations, conflicts. We worked much more abstractly on musical scenarios and loosely draped a few narrative hints around these scenarios at the end. This changed, we believed, the focus and experience for the performers quite significantly and hopefully added a new leaf to their accumulating experiences on the stage.
You can see a video-podcast of the Herbstcamp as a whole here.
Tuesday 4 October 2011
Workshop in Berlin
I have just arrived in Berlin where I am giving a workshop on music and theatre which in many ways is an application of my research in this direction. With the group of 11 young people between the ages of 13 and 25, we will explore how to create a performance, and the sense of musicality, with as little means as possible. The overarching idea of this two-week workshop festival, which unites six different groups working independently towards the question "What do we really need?", is about essentials. A very fitting topic, it seems, in times of austerity, cuts and an overall revaluation of what the individual and the society value and consider indispensable.
You can find more information about the project here: http://www.deutschestheater.de/junges_dt/herbstcamp/
You can find more information about the project here: http://www.deutschestheater.de/junges_dt/herbstcamp/
Sunday 25 September 2011
Progress
Slowly, a structure for the book is emerging and a number of key themes. It looks like my focus will be on the period from 1870 until today and the obvious place to start an investigation is the work and writings of Adolphe Appia. Until now, I have mostly written on relatively uncharted territories: contemporary theatre, current theatre practitioners and practices – it is both exciting and challenging to tackle this more historical and relatively well-trodden material, hoping to provide a new and original angle to it.
I am very interested in Appia's strong reliance and reference to the "score" as the central artistic and aesthetic driver and control mechanism. His continued references to Schopenhauer's notion of the "inner life" (inneres Weses), however, which music helps to express, I find less accessible - any thoughts welcome!
I am very interested in Appia's strong reliance and reference to the "score" as the central artistic and aesthetic driver and control mechanism. His continued references to Schopenhauer's notion of the "inner life" (inneres Weses), however, which music helps to express, I find less accessible - any thoughts welcome!
Friday 19 August 2011
Funding!
I was in the middle of drafting the introduction to the book, which I hope to finish before the end of the month, when I got some excellent news: from January my project will be funded through an AHRC fellowship grant for 8 months! This is of course very welcome as it provides valuable time and resources to see this project through as best I can.
I will also mean that I am committed to more activities to disseminate my findings to academics and non-academics and will have the resources to do so. I plan to devise a presentation cum workshop to capture some of the key ideas and take it to a range of audiences - from professional theatres to different institution of theatre education and training. I will post about forthcoming events as they unfold.
But there is another aspect to this funding, that I am quite grateful about: as with all these kinds of solo projects, it is always easy to become doubtful and overly self-critical about them, continuing to question one's premises, methods and the project as a whole - receiving the positive feedback from the AHRC reviewers was therefore at least as important as getting the grant itself, as it provides a collegial support and validation from people in your field.
I will also mean that I am committed to more activities to disseminate my findings to academics and non-academics and will have the resources to do so. I plan to devise a presentation cum workshop to capture some of the key ideas and take it to a range of audiences - from professional theatres to different institution of theatre education and training. I will post about forthcoming events as they unfold.
But there is another aspect to this funding, that I am quite grateful about: as with all these kinds of solo projects, it is always easy to become doubtful and overly self-critical about them, continuing to question one's premises, methods and the project as a whole - receiving the positive feedback from the AHRC reviewers was therefore at least as important as getting the grant itself, as it provides a collegial support and validation from people in your field.
Friday 15 April 2011
Some first thoughts - in form of a manifesto
A point of departure for my book project were a number of thought I first formulated for a keynote to the Bundesverband Darstellendes Spiel e.V. at their annual conference in 2008. This was first published as
„Musikalität als Paradigma für die Theaterarbeit. Zehn Thesen”, Bundesverband Theater in Schulen e.V (Hg.) Fokus Schultheater 08. Theater. Musik. Hamburg: Edition Körber Stiftung, 2009, pp. 8-16.
I have later translated and revised this paper and it has just been published here:
You can see http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-Article,id=10571/
Any comments are warmly welcome!
„Musikalität als Paradigma für die Theaterarbeit. Zehn Thesen”, Bundesverband Theater in Schulen e.V (Hg.) Fokus Schultheater 08. Theater. Musik. Hamburg: Edition Körber Stiftung, 2009, pp. 8-16.
I have later translated and revised this paper and it has just been published here:
"Musicality as a paradigm for the theatre – a kind of manifesto“, Studies in Musical Theatre, Vol 4/3: 2010, pp. 293-306.
You can see http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-Article,id=10571/
Any comments are warmly welcome!
The slow process of ideas taking shape
In the past weeks I have been reading very eclectically on theatre theories, individual practitioners and theories of music and music aesthetic. It is that phase where everything is possible but also far too complex and slightly daunting.
Yesterday, I had a very interesting conversation with Sven Bjerstedt from Sweden, who works as a jazz musician and theatre facilitator and is also very interested in the metaphor of "musicality" in theatre. For those who read Swedish (sadly, I don't) his MA thesis on the topic is online: http://www.iac.lu.se/projects.aspx#150
We discussed how notions of what practitioners refer to when they say "music" varies - culturally, but also historically. I am sure this will be a key challenge of the book: to explore what notions of music underlie the respective metaphors (or actual "techniques") employed by (or promoted by) theatre practitioners across different times.
Yesterday, I had a very interesting conversation with Sven Bjerstedt from Sweden, who works as a jazz musician and theatre facilitator and is also very interested in the metaphor of "musicality" in theatre. For those who read Swedish (sadly, I don't) his MA thesis on the topic is online: http://www.iac.lu.se/projects.aspx#150
We discussed how notions of what practitioners refer to when they say "music" varies - culturally, but also historically. I am sure this will be a key challenge of the book: to explore what notions of music underlie the respective metaphors (or actual "techniques") employed by (or promoted by) theatre practitioners across different times.
Tuesday 22 March 2011
The Musicality of Theatre - a blog to accompany a research project.
I am currently embarking on a research project that seeks to explore how music, both as an actual "entity"; (live, recorded, notated etc.) and/or activity and metaphor (the "rhythm"; of a painting etc.) has influence theatre making process in different historical and cultural contexts.
I have had a number of wonderfully helpful e-mails after I posted this project on the e-mail list of SCUDD - the Standing Conference of University Drama Departments - with all kinds of suggestions of past and present theatre practitioners (writers, directors, actors etc.) who fit this search profile.
As many people have also very kindly expressed an ongoing interest in this work, I have decided to start this blog. I aim to comment from time to time on my progress, thoughts and doubts about this project (which is ultimately meant to become a monograph) and welcome comments, queries, discussion and debate.
You can also keep up to date with my activities via http://exeter.academia.edu/Roesner
As many people have also very kindly expressed an ongoing interest in this work, I have decided to start this blog. I aim to comment from time to time on my progress, thoughts and doubts about this project (which is ultimately meant to become a monograph) and welcome comments, queries, discussion and debate.
You can also keep up to date with my activities via http://exeter.academia.edu/Roesner
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