Why-Dont-We-Do-It-On

only illustration? CIP - KATALOŽNI ZAPIS O PUBLIKACIJI Narodna in univerzitetna knjižnica, Ljubljana 467.66.08522 Vida Cerkvenik Bren, Oleami Samo, Klengel Robin: WHY DON'T WE DO IT ON THE ROAD, A PERSONAL GUIDE TO INTERACTIVE THEATRE OUTDOORS (prevod....) ISBN: WHY DON'T WE DO IT ON THE ROAD A PERSONAL GUIDE TO INTERACTIVE THEATRE OUTDOORS by VIDA CERKVENIK BREN 3rd chapter co-written by Samo Oleami, illustrations by Robin Klengel, edited by Jurij Bobič CONTENTS 5— PREFACE 1— Chapter 1: BOx VS. STREET 19— Chapter 2: Leaving THE BOx 33— Chapter 3: THE ART of being TOGETHER (co-written with Samo OLEAMI)9 43— Chapter 4: WHO IS playing THE audience? 56— Chapter 5: FOUR STEPS TO A STREET ACT 70— Chapter 6: Becoming STREET ninja 77— Chapter 7: Tom'S advice 87— Chapter 8: GO home AND practice, GO out AND play! 101— Chapter 9: STREET theater AND beyond 110— About the authors 111— About LJUD 111— About RIOTE 112— Acknowledgements 113— IMPRESSUM PREFACE Why don’t we do it on the road is a book for anyone: ... who likes to do theatre outdoors, ... who is interested in learning about it, ... who is interested in the mechanism that lie behind it, ... and for anyone who is ... well ... just generally interested in things. The book has been born out of a personal experience of creating theatre on the streets, squares, parks, villages, buses, hospitals, churches and even mountains. The author, Vida Cerkvenik Bren, has in the last 13 years been at the core of many such collective creative processes. After graduating from theatre directing at the University of Ljubljana she in 2006 co-founded Ljud – an international ar- tistic collective exploring interactive and site-specific performances. Since then she has toured with the collective around the globe, directing, performing and teaching in more than 30 countries on 3 continents. On this road she crossed path with many fellow minded artists: performers, directors and pedagogues as well as theatre critics, festival directors and academ- ics. Their ideas and advices have enriched her views on making and understand- ing theatre outdoors and some of them can also be found in this book. And what kind of theatre does Vida write about? There are many names for it: theatre in public spaces, street theatre, theatre outdoors, in Italy they call it ‘teatro negli spazi aperti’, in German it is ‘Theater im Öffentlichen Raum’, in Slovene ‘gledališče v javnem prostoru’. And there are other labels you can give it: ‘interactive’, ‘participatory’ and one that Vida likes to use: ‘out-of-the-box’. But rather than being focused on the labels Vida writes about the theatre that she strives for. It is a theatre that: 1. happens outside of spaces that have been built for theatre and that 2. comes to live in interaction with the audience. Her aim is to write for such a theatre not against any other. Why don’t we do it on the road is not intended as a comprehensive guide to theatre outdoors. It cannot and does not wish to cover all the forms, practices, aspects or potentials of such a theatre. Quite the opposite it is a personal guide and it sheds a light on the subject from a certain standpoint. It’s aim is to inspire the reader and to encourage his or her critical thinking. The idea to put down the thoughts and practical exercises that have been gath- ered in more than a decade of being ‘on the road’ has been up in the air for some time. But the final push to write the book came two years ago when Ljud was invited by the RIOTE (Rural inclusive outdoor theatre education) partnership to prepare a ‘guide to making theatre outdoors’. Vida took this opportunity to exchange her knowledge and teaching methods with RIOTE partners – fellow theatre groups from Italy, Hungary, Romania and UK who share her passion for performing outdoors. Out of this process came the book you are holding in your hands. Take it on the road with you and maybe we will meet you there. Jurij Bobič, editor “For Zoran and Suri” blank 8 CHAPTER 1: BOX VS. STREET Dear reader, I would like to start our conversation by presenting two simple characters that will be reappearing throughout this book: the square & the circle. 1 A square for me is a window through which I perceive the world that I am not a part of. It draws attention to what is inside but excludes everything else. A square can represent a frame through which we conventionally look at art – the frame of a painting, the screen of your lap top, a book, a cinema or the frame around the theatre stage. Our civilisation invented elaborate frames, both ana- logue and digital. We are used to perceiving not only art but also life itself through frames: photos, videos, selfies, social media. 2 3 B u t this book should be about circles! 4 5 However, before we get to the circles there are a few more things to be said about squares. Squares are useful for many different things. If I want to draw a box, I draw a square. If I want to draw a robot, I draw a few squares. If I want to draw a fishing net, I draw a lot of squares. Any time I need to frame something or seg- regate things or make order I use squares. Squares are good for rooms, a square means I am inside. 6 not final illustration 7 8 9 To me, the square and the circle primarily stand for two different ways of doing theatre: indoors & outdoors. 10 They also stand for two different ways of perceiving the world around me. Two different ways of trying to understand it. The first way is through passive observation from a safe distance, analysing it and trying to comprehend it mentally. The second is through active participa- tion - through direct engagement including physical experience, so making sense of the world by letting myself go and becoming part of it. It all boils down to two sets of key words: LETTING go, Control, voyeur, participant, identification, hierarchy, engagement, horizontal monologue,presentation, organisation, dialogue, clarity, interaction, chaos, improvisa- plan, repetition, tion, HERE AND now!, spontaneity, intention, result, process, involvement, promotion, product, exchange, temporary individual spectator. community. 11 The first approach illustrated by the square represents the concept of theatre originating in the 18th and 19th centu- ries that is still alive today in contemporary national theatre houses. Performances take place in purpose-built buildings also referred to as »Italian or black boxes«. Any of these boxes is used by two sets of people: the actors and the spectators who come together in a slightly unusual way. They do not want to face one another, so everything in the box comes in twos - identical pairs to be used by either the actors or the spectators, with visible and invisible walls in between. If you are a spectator, you walk into the box through the main enterance; if you are an actor, you go in through the service enterance. At the main enterance, spectators are taken past the box office to the spectator cloakroom, while the service enterance takes actors past the doorkeeper to their dressing rooms backstage. As a spectator, you are required to pay to visit the thea- 12 not final illustration tre; as an actor, you get a salary at the end of the month. Spectators drink wine at the visitors’ bar, while actors treat themselves to the same wine at half the price in the in-house bar. The signs »left«, »right«, »stalls«, »balcony«, etc. help spectators find their seats. To pre- vent actors from getting lost, the maze of corridors and staircases in the other part of the building is equipped with flashing arrows and signs like »stage« and »quiet, please«. A curtain separates the stage from the auditorium. Once everyone is in their places – at a time given in advance – the lights go out and the curtain is lifted to reveal a gaping hole. That is where the fourth wall is. The fourth wall is invisible and is emphasised by the frame around it known as the proscenium arch – the window into the world of the theatre performance.1 1 I find it interesting that the development of this type of theatre was fostered by the invention and expansion of gas lighting in the 19th century. Before that time, the auditorium was illuminated throughout the performance. Spectators would flirt, talk, and even eat and drink during the play. 13 All this is part of the dramatic convention. It allows the artist to have better control over the artwork. It allows the spectator to sink into the darkness, settle in a comfortable seat and forget that he is physically present in the auditorium. He becomes a voyeur. Just as if you were sitting at home watching the street through a square window without being seen by the people in the street. 14 I am peering at the stage. The distance between myself and the event on stage remains unchanged. The outline of the proscenium arch makes sure of that, acting as a window through which I observe the landscape on stage which appears endless pre- cisely due to this window function. The longer I peer through this window from a safe distance, the more this distance fades away, dissipating until it has completely disappeared. All of a sudden, I find myself in the midst of the developments, invisible and hovering mid-air right in the middle of the space, enjoying myself or suffering.

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