Weekend 1 of Research and Development

We began research for our Dance and Puppetry Collaboration today 18 of Feb 2012. We are carrying out r&d over three days every weekend starting Saturday and ending Monday.


In the room we had:
Miranda Cromwell- director
Lizzie Wescott- musician, composer/ performer
Chris Farish- performer
Corina Bona- puppeteer/ performer
Liesel Corp- Set & Costume Designer

We are devising and discovering what can be done with dance and puppetry

We set up certain rules:

Our location for the ideas is an eastern setting, it is a one room environment, we are keen on Extracts of Trespass book influencing our discovery of narrative.

We are developing stories and journeys in a space that has a living room, dining room, sleeping room, washroom feel. There are sheets, pillows and other object.

We are playing with the puppets movements, us moving as the puppet, being a person and engaging with the puppet.

 Day1: BOVT basement space
We began work at 10 am warming up and playing improve games to discover
How we could manipulate each others bodies as puppets, without using hands, contact movement.
improvisation in the space with objects entering and interacting with a person already in the space with an element.
Object puppets began to emerge through this improvisation, changing the layout of the space offered different landscapes for events.
Read the story of Princess Budhur and from Extract of Dreams of Trespass
Used discovered objects to illustrate the tale above with  no dialogue.
Developed ideas around the more adult gaze of a puppet character

Day 2: Bridewell Dance Space
Started with a warm up, relayed out the set, discovered interesting use of string systems to change between settings and give the space depth.
Devised a dance sequence, improvised a routine turing the dance into a scene between neighbors in a romantic tryst. Put puppets into dance sequence and discovered the movements in them and the removing or adding of their presence to a person.
Played with making a child puppet and improvisations around them journeying and paying in the space. Moving under fabric as a piece of changing landscape, rivers mountains, magic carpets
Mixed the child sequence in with the neighbors dance.
Lizzie devising music and sounds to accompany the dances and movements

Day 3: BOVT basement space
Warm ups, laying out the space again, finding an area that is a musical kitchen.
Devising an improvisation around a narrative: Finding our characters Sultan, Dancer, ladies of the Harem. How far does it go, if we are violent and then loose our puppet characters and experience the story as the a person being the character of the puppet and then as ourselves. We devised and developed a dance sequence and movement sequence              for the narrative. Played with different movements we could achieve with the puppets and remain in the dance.
Devised around the child character and her journey, introducing other characters, animals etc.
Played with sounds and using set elements to create theses.

Artists feedback about the three days so far:

Cori: Wonderful opportunity to be working with artist from other fields and engaging with new ways to produce material and discover character and narrative. Its been great sharing our skills and learning new ones. I am very excited by the combinations of object puppets and their flexibility in movement.

Liesel: It was so exciting to finally get started on this project. In a previous brainstorm we made some decisions about the setting and laid down some loose ideas around narrative so I was able to start the research process and give the company relevant set and props to play with from day one. By Monday they had some brilliant ideas and some lovely moments were emerging. I could easily spend all of my time on this project, somehow we seem to have struck a harmony with each other, we've got different individual skill sets that seem to be working together brilliantly. I can't wait till next weekend!!


Miranda:During the last few rehearsals we began with joints, manipulating each others bodies with ours joint to joint. It was interesting to notice the differences between Cori a puppeteer and Farish a dancer. The most noticeable differences were that Farish was expecting the body he was moving to hold its own wieght and control momentum wheras Corri was fixing feet in case they slipped and holding onto the body as though it had no control. They are moving together in a playful way, often at a slow pace but with confidence and communication. We have improvised with found objects as puppets and then continued thier stories as though we are the puppets created. We have also used the body as landscape and facilitator of the imagination. This language of physical reaction to imagined characters and shifting narratives is exciting particuarly the switching between different modes of storytelling. 

Questions

How does the physical conversation interact with the puppets? How many people do we see? 

What is the frame of the piece, who is imagining what?

What do we want to say about the story emerging? 

Lizzie:I am so excited by the style and cohesive manner of working we have developed in just two days. For me, the prospect of performing as one of the physical company alongside the music is particularly inspiring, especially as working with puppets has always been an ambition of mine. We explored several different physical techniques and I don't think anything in the room escaped being turned into a puppet at some point or other...not even us!"