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 artistic 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 understanding 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 participation - 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 prevent 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. I have the eyes of a bird, one on each side, allowing me to see the entire world. And when the world comes to an end at the end of the performance, this world disinte- grates as well and I find myself back in the chair, the same chair number two in row thirteen left that has been creaking meekly under my weight the entire time. I haven’t left the chair but I have nevertheless just returned from far away. That is what happens when I go to the theatre. Meta Hočevar 2

2 Meta Hočevar, Prostori igre (Ljubljana: Mestno gledališče ljubljansko, 1998), p. 24. (Translated by Živa Petkovšek)

15 Imagine a great actress, like Sarah Bernhardt, graciously coming on stage.

The audience holding its breath awaiting her gentle presence, a beam of light hungry to catch her pale hand, stage boards kissing her feet as she walks weightlessly wrapped into a mist of the black- ness of the theatre, bringing a whole world of ambiguous emotions and unfulfilled desires on stage. Each tiny movement of her eyelashes creating a tsunami in the hearts of her spectators.

16 And now, imagine her walking into a bar or a fish market or a...

Even with the same gestures, the same gracious hand and eyelashes, the same emotional charge, but without the pedestal – the stage, the lights and the fans – a tragedy can easily turn into a comedy.

17 “The sky, the absence of a roof there above my head was a bit of a surprise when first performing outdoors. We danced in a completely flat field with horizon all around us. You couldn’t get much more sky than that! If you tell anyone in England, you’re making a show outdoors, you will be asked, “But what if it rains?” Never have I been asked, “But what about the im- mensity of the sky?” Helen Aldrich, performer3

not final illustration EXERCISE Dear reader, before moving on to the next chapter try a simple exercise. (I know it sounds silly, but doing it is surprisingly rewarding!)

1. Take the front cover of the book and look through the hole. 2. Close one eye and start moving slowly, observing different pictures appearing inside the frame. 3. Move around and play with compositions, contrasts, sizes, colours, motives, light...

3 Helen Aldrich is a performer and artistic director of Broken Spectacle, a physical theatre ensemble, based in Somerset, UK (member of RIOTE partnership).

18 Chapter 2: Leaving the box

Before I can delve deeper into circles it seems necessary to share a bit more about my background.

When I was a young student of theatre directing at the Academy in Ljubljana I had a feeling that theatre was no longer a topical social phenomenon: »...a place where people would gather, where ideas would be formulated and debated«, a place that would make it »possible for people to be part of something that ex- presses the different paradoxes and controversies of the society they live in.« 4

I was told by my dad that in his youth in 1970’s in ex-Yugoslavia everybody talked about certain theatre performances. I have found piles of critiques and letters to the editor in the basement of our school that validated his claims.

4 Sonja Vilč, Collective Improvisation: From Theatre to Film and Beyond (Ljubljana: Kolektiv Narobov, Zavod Federacija in Zavod Maska, 2015), p. 154.

19 But »WOW, that happened just like in a theatre play!« was not a sentence my friends would use to describing an extraordinary string of coincidences that life sometimes magically serves us with.

I could imagine, in times of Shake- ...like I could imagine people in the speare, an Elizabethan teenager Victorian era saying... shouting out...

...but my friends would of course use the phrase that is common nowadays: »WOW, that happened just like in the movies!« Which gave me the impression that film was THE media of our times.

If I go to the cinema, the fourth wall is replaced by the screen onto which “Titanic” is being projected. I watch and immerse myself, forgetting where I am, allowing the story on the screen to become my story. I travel at the speed of a cut from the deck of the Titanic to Kate Winslet’s cabin, from a close-up of Leonardo’s face to the sea - vast and endless, from the ex- terior to the interior, from 1912 to 1996. I travel far but I don’t move at all.

20 Since film managed to take over some of the key ideas and concepts of black- box theatre so successfully, many theatre reformists of the 20th century (Artaud, Appia, Brecht, Weill, The Living Theatre, to only list a few) asked themselves:

What is it that film cannot do but theatre can?

Theatre always happens HERE and NOW. Spec- tators and performers share the same time in the same space, therefore every performance is unique and both sides are able to interact live.

This is how me and my like-minded friends articulated the advantages of theatre compared to film. To »(re)discover« theatre’s potential we invested our hearts and minds into establishing theatre as a game, a ritual and a social event.

To be able to interact with audiences from all walks of life and at the same time free ourselves from the formal restrains of cultural institutions we decided to »hit the road«. We founded an artistic collective and called it Ljud. Not knowing much about performing outdoors, driven by youthful enthusiasm and idealism, we started to tour around the globe with our first street act The INVASION.

21 “It all started when we got together for a coffee and somebody floated the idea of an invasion of pink aliens – asylum seekers from outer space who want to establish contact with earthlings and assimilate into our society even though they don’t have a clue how to behave on this planet. Nobody had any idea that the act would flourish as it did, that we would take it on tour all over the world and engage in interaction with such different people like the Belorussians, Australians, Israelis, Iranians and even Koreans. Doesn’t it all sound awesome? Well, it is…but you also need to figure out how to survive the chaos of various cultures and unexpected reactions, flights, constant packing, early mornings, endless paint jobs, tensions in the group and the long absences from the “real” life in Ljubljana. And most of all, you need to figure out why you are doing all this.” 5 DAVID KRAŠEVEC, member of the Invasion expedition 6

Invasions were my first step from the black box »laboratory« into the »jungle« of chaotic, noisy, unforeseeable and overwhelming public space. As a director as well as a performer I was confronted time and time again with my preliminary plans and ideas crumbling down in the face of what life had to offer. So I let go of fixing the “mise en scene”, chasing the subtle undertones and other perfection- ist’s drills from the indoors. A completely different logic of communication had to be comprehended, by us all – we were learning how to listen.comprehended, by us all – we were learning how to listen.

5 Taken from an early draft of an article later published as: 'Invazije 2011', Ana glasnica: Časopis za ulično umetnost, December 2011, p. 3. 6 Some of the pink aliens are still on the move today, 11 years later.

22 23 Dear reader, at this point, I would like to take you back to the metaphor of the square and the circle. So in situations that I associate with squares and frames I imagine there being a flow of information running in a single direction from one side of the frame to the other (as illustrated below).

Whatever is happening inside of the frame is providing information to the observer who is outside.

Like a scientist looking at an experiment in a controlled environment. A student listening to a lecture at the university. A spectator looking at a theatre piece in a classical theatre setting.

To simplify we can call such a setting:

PRESENTATION / black-box theatre

22 23 Venturing out on the street, we were faced with a situation that was significantly different from the one indoors. With no box around us protecting us from the environment, our control over what the spectators see and hear was drasti- cally reduced. In the absence of the fourth wall the border between us and the spectators was blurred – the audience was active, their reactions were the most precious and interesting part of what was happening. In other words many spectators were curious not only to see us but to see other spectators reacting to the aliens and their provocations.

As it turned out in The Invasion, a variety of different groups were involved in the performance: the pink aliens, surprised passers-by, festival audience, excited teenagers asking whether aliens have capitalism on their planet and how they mate, a drunk guy feeding them beer, a little girl teaching them how to read a newspaper, city drifters and eccentrics identifying with the aliens as fellow weirdoes »not belonging to the crowd«, at least one angry xenophobe occasion- ally calling the police...

This new and complex situation did not fit to the “square” logic of “presentation” (described above). Therefore me and my colleagues made up a schematic draw- ing depicting what we referred to as:

INTERACTION & »out-of-the-box« theatre

24 Contrary to the square the “target” diagram illustrates a flow of information (visual, verbal, audio, etc.) which is:

1. multiple (includes many separate flows of information simultaneously given that more than two groups are involved) 2. bi-directional (in each interaction information is flowing in both directions)

Like planets in their different orbits, some groups are closer to the »core of what is happening« and others are more distant. The understanding of what is happening may differ from group to group and so does the level of involvement, yet they all interact with one another.

Information flow in interactions can be difficult to trace and the content that is being communicated impossible to control. Yet a common core of communication – symbolized by the bullseye of the target in the illustration – is automatically formed whenever a group of people is involved in doing something imaginative, emotional or physical together.

25 here is additional page - it is too much text for CH2,

26 here is additional page - it is too much text for CH2 1 page should be enough, but 2 are needed because of next pages....

27 In the early stages, Ljud as a collective focused primarily on interactive physical theatre in public space. Much of our work drew inspiration from the ritualis- tic origins of European theatre as well as from the theatre traditions of Korean Pansori, Bali theatre and Japanese Butoh. The concentric circles we were trying to build around our performances were inspired by these traditions and techniques.

Ancient Greek theatre  PROTAGONIST & ANTAGONIST (representing two conflicting forces)  OTHER CHARACTERS  CHORUS (representing the inhabitants of the Polis, probably played by the audience itself in earlier stages of the development of Greek theatre)  THE AUDIENCE

not final illustration

28 Bali theatre / dance 7  SOLISTS, PRIEST (sometimes acting out an episode from the Hindu mythol- ogy)  CHORUS (group of 50-150 men, young boys or girls – depending on the dance)  LOCAL AUDIENCE (accustomed to local stories and traditions, chanting along at some parts of the performance, etc.)  TURISTS

illustration missing

7 The many different dancing and theatre traditions of Bali have served as an inspiration to a number of Western artists of the last century. Among the first was Antonin Artaud who described it in his Le Théâtre et son Double (The Theatre and its Double). In Ljud, we were fascinated by the role of the (amateur) chorus and the audience actively participating in the performances. A similar form of active participation, albeit very different in content and atmosphere, can also be found in our Western tradition, namely the Roman Catholic mass. There, the congregation has an active role that is similar in form to that of the Chorus: they stand up, pray and say "Amen!" at the appropriate points. An occasional tourist who only came to have a look at the church, on the other hand, may not have this knowledge and observes the mass from a very different perspective.

29 not final illustration

30 The INVASION

1 The alien core group necessary to pull off an Invasion 2 The so-called »satellite aliens« joined us on tours whenever they could 3 Workshop participants – on tours we held free workshops engaging locals to perform with us 4 »secret agents« – we asked some inhabitants to blend in with our audience and create a surprise with a pre-arranged action at a specific moment 5 Friends and relatives of the workshop participants came to watch their loved ones perform 6 The festival audience that came at an announced time to see the act 7 Passers-by, like the tourist in Bali, had no idea about what was going on

31 The final artistic impact as well as the final »message« of each edition of The Invasion depended on a synergy of various factors: ourselves, the local participants, the type of festival or venue where the performance took place, the media coverage, the local socio-political climate etc.

In Belarus aliens hanging from the nose of the statue of Lenin were regarded as heroes; in Szeget (Hungary) they provoked xeno- and homophobic reactions, dividing the public into two; in some Italian and French towns they were viewed as merely another carnival spectacle; when locked up in Ljubljana ZOO, they raised issues about imprisonment; in Norway kids tried to teach aliens not to shoplift; in Graz (Austria) individual spectators opened up to the pink creatures allowing them to touch and even kiss them, disclosing loneliness – an older gentle- men took an alien home and showed “it” his family photo albums.

But if artistic content unfolds through interaction instead of presentation, if the reactions and proposals of active spectators are the most interesting part of it, who is in fact the actual creator of such an artwork, the artist or the audience?

Let us assume for the sake of argument that they are both responsible for and contribute to the final outcome – the message or the content of the artwork – and that the contribution is shared fifty-fifty between both parties. As op- posed to the hundred-zero ratio of the “presentation” in a conventional black- box theatre.

32 Of course this is too vast a simplification to be valid. There is – and must be – a difference in the degree of responsibility borne by the artist who initiated an event and the spectators who were invited by the artist to participate in it. Even in a very open interaction where the audience is far from being mere “voyeurs” and they can directly influence the outcome of an interaction, thereby deter- mining the direction of the performance, the burden of responsibility still lies more on the shoulders of the performer.

There are other factors to be taken into account: Even in the classical context, a viewer, a reader or a listener surely influences the reception of an artwork through his interpretation, prior knowledge and experience as well as through his physical presence (at least in the case of theatre). 8 Fact is also that even in indoor theatre, information also flows in the opposite direction rather than only flowing in a single direction from the stage to the auditorium; actors on stage will perceive the atmosphere in the auditorium, sometimes they will wait for laughter to recede before continuing with their lines and they will be annoyed by loud snoring or coughing just like the spectators.

Taking all this into account, we could modify the responsibility ratio. For example: Or like this:

8 Some theorists of (performative) arts would go much further and claim not only that the audience “influences” the reception but that the audience “is” the reception. In this regard the content communicated to the recipient is in any case impossible to control.

33 But regardless of the exact number, it is clear that there is a difference in the degree of direct influence that the artist wishes and allows his audience and other external factors to have on building the final artwork in these two cases. This influence encompasses both the level of reception as well as the level of (co-)creation of artistic content.

In the case of participatory art, the artist’s role is no longer only to present a certain content (to analyse, judge, show, express, explain and teach), but to facilitate an experience that both the audience as well as the artist him/herself can participate in.

??? In the context of this book when referring to a black-box theatre I have in mind the conventional dramatic theatre frequently performed in the national theatre houses. There are many other performative traditions happening in the same or in other buildings: improvisational theatre, contemporary dance, clowning, nouveau cirque, puppet theatre, if I name just a few. Many of those one could most certainly categorize as “out-of-the-box-theatre", doesn’t matter if they take place indoors. As of course on the other hand one can find quite “box-like” shows being performed outdoors (sometimes teleported directly from the opera house onto a huge stage in the central city square). Not to mention quite some existing street performances that are build in a very fixed way, having none or little space for improvisation or interaction. It would be as well possible to draw a line in-between black-box and out-of-the-box theatre on the basis of other criteria than where the performance is being played, out or inside. By “measuring” how much a performance is improvised, or how much its course depends on the active audience participation for example. However, for the needs of the present writing a simplified division will serve best / do.

34 Chapter 3: The art oF Being together (co-written with Samo OLEAMI)9

“As a spectator in indoor theatre you always watch the performers from either the bird’s or the worm’s eye view.” These words by Goro Osojnik can be taken literally, since indoor theatres are built in a way that enhances the view from above (balcony) or below (stalls), but also metaphorically. Like a Gulliver you never belong to the world of the actors’ play. You view it as something smaller or larger than yourself. You are either a critic or an admirer, either a distant God dissecting other people’s destinies or a slug worshiping the actors as gods and wishing to be in their skin. “Whereas on the street you always meet the performer eye to eye, at a human level,« as Goro would put it. 10

9 Samo Oleami is a theatre critic, artist and dramaturg. His original domicile is “contemporary performing arts”, but in his Trust me, I’m a critic blog he writes about all kinds of theatre from improv, street, devised theatre, drama theatre to dance performances, live art, intermedia and even board games - so “everything except opera” as Samo would put it. Significant part of the following chapter is taken and adopted from his articles on... 10 Quoted from memory. Goro Osojnik is one of the pioneers of street performing in Slovenia, active as a performer, author and director; he is a founding member of Ana Monro theatre and a director of the street theatre festival Ana Desetnica.

35 On the street the stage doesn't end where the audience begins; rather it ends where the audience ends.

Artistic strategies of the black-box theatre put a barrier between the performers and the audience, creating a separation instead of togetherness. If street performers create a fourth wall that is too strong they isolate themselves from the audience as you can see below ...

36 … when they should in fact isolate the audience from the street environment, bringing the spectators inside the organism of the performance instead:

Street performers don’t have to pretend that they are not on the street, like a drama actor would try to pretend he is not an actor on a stage. They don’t have to pretend that the audience is not there either; what they need to do is invite them in.

37 The longer people watch the act, the more they invest in it; the more they willingly immerse themselves in the act's narrative, the funnier the clashes with the environment seem to them. Shared knowledge creates a temporary community of audience members during the performance – they are the ones “in on the joke”.

While a cyclist crossing the city will not attract much attention ...

38 ...the same cyclist crossing the same spot after it has been turned into an improvised stage and a temporary community of audience has been established can cause quite a riot.

39 VECER NEWSPAPER p

Nori performance ustavil promet’, “Sila nenavaden performance, ki je med gledalci in naključnimi mimoidočimi sprožal salve smeha, med vozniki, tarčami satirične, na trenutke pa celo absurdne predstave, pa tudi kakšen izbruh jeze ali vsaj nejevoljo, sta si ... privoščila čilska klovnska lika Murmuyo in Metrayeta. Ne le da sta povzročila zastoje v vsem središču mesta, zaradi uro trajajočih norčij, med katerimi sta v krožišču na Glavnem trgu valjala in skakala po cestišču, ustavljala avtomobile, skakala vanje, iz kakšnega avta za trenutek celo kaj “ukradla” ali izvlekla kakšnega so- potnika, prisedala k mopedistom in se z njimi vozila v krogu, kakšnega tudi mahnila po čeladi, osvajala dekleta, plezala na avtobuse in še kaj, sta si prislužila tudi prijavo policiji. Med- tem ko si je nestrpni voznik, ki so se mu njune šale očitno zdele neslane, prislužil masovni “bu” občinstva, sta enak spre- jem doživela tudi policist in policistka, ki sta se na prizorišču znašla neverjetno hitro, a kljub kaosu v rondoju po pogovoru z vodilnimi ... nista ukrepala. ... Šokantno, smešno, noro in ne- predstavljivo.” 11

11 Quoted from a newspaper article: ‘Nori performance ustavil promet’, Večer, 4. July 2013, p. 24.

40 Outside of the black box the audience and the performers are interdependent – they both need one another to be able to move from the street into the space of (street) theatre.

Performers guide the audience and the audience needs to follow actively and willingly, so particular attention should be paid to ensure that the audience actually does follow, giving it time to catch up and stay together.

TRAP Too much textual/narrative information delivered too fast can leave the audience confused or alienated. In the street environment the audience is often unable to understand every word being said, let alone have the luxury of mulling over what they have heard without being distracted. It is also common for spectators to join the audience or and leave a street performance mid-act which makes detailed storylines even harder to follow.

On the street the focus is on what is going on and where it is going rather than why something is going on (backstory, inner motivation of protagonists). Or, as Craig Weston said:

41 “On the street you’re not a doctor because your character has a backstory including a middle class background, a degree, an office and a nurse with whom he is cheating on his wife; on the street you’re a doctor because you’re wearing a white coat.” 12

Since public space is not primarily intended for artistic purposes, street artists must “negotiate« its temporary use as an art venue (or simply as a set for a fictional plot) with all of its users. In order to tempt passers-by into seeing the world from a different perspective, they must establish a relationship with them. The unpredictability of the public environment pushes artists into responding and adapting to it, taking things as they come, and breathing with their surroundings. Therefore the artistic tools crucial to any street performer are those of improvisation and interaction.

What the performers and the spectators have in common is the »here and now« – they share the same space in the same time. They may share other things like language, cultural values, type of humour, but what is certain is that if they come close enough, there will inevitably be a touch and if they look into each other's eyes, there will inevitably be eye contact.

12 Quoted from memory. Craig Weston is a street performer, pedagogue and author, co-founder of The Primitives (Belgium), theatre company devoted to bringing theatre to a wider audience than the theater elite, that in the last 20 years played in every land of Europe, as well as North America, Israel and Palestine, Australia, Korea and Japan.

42 Eye contact is one of the most powerful tools of interaction. Maintaining eye contact with someone can be an extraordinarily intimate, revealing, reassuring, trust building and connecting experience. A feeling of togetherness - not necessarily at the level of sharing a mutual vision, agreeing or having feelings for each other, but merely in terms of co-existing with others in the same time and space seems to be a prerequisite for a street act to unfold successfully within a busy street environment.

I personally would even go so far as to say that this basic human contact between performers and spectators is a pre- condition and at the same time the universal deeper message of any street act.

EXERCISE Walk down a busy street and try to make eye contact with everybody walking towards you. Keep going so it doesn’t happen that you are staring at some person for so long that it would make him/her feel uncomfortable. Still, try not to look away first. Observe your own feelings and the people’s reactions. Try smiling while doing it. Try to get across a friendly, reassuring message, letting people know that your intention is harmless and that you are merely playful, not crazy. Try adding words or a gesture to the eye contact (»Hello!«, »Good day!«, waving or taking your hat off are the classics but if you have another impulse go ahead).

43 “You find yourself on a sort of ground Zero with the audience – what is in front of you is a pure human experience. If we use Eliot’s words, audience knows that ‘human beings get born, live and love each other’ which is the basic knowledge of emotions. /.../ Background cultural knowledge is not necessary because there are elementary feelings that speak with innocence and straight to the hearts of the audience.” RENZO VESCOVI, theatre director13

13 Quoted from an interview with Renzo Vescovi, published in: ??? (Translated by ???). Renzo Vescovi was the founder and artistic director of TTB - Teatro tascabile di Bergamo from ? until his death in ?. TTB is a theatre group situated in Bergamo, Italy, performing in public spaces all around the world (member of RIOTE partnership)

44 Chapter 4: Who is playing the audience?

In black-box theatre the distinction between play and reality is very clear. But when we leave the theatre box the distinction between fiction and everyday life becomes blurred. So how can performers make sure that the audience will be “on board” and play along with the story or the fictional context they are proposing? What is more, how can the performers make the audience adopt the role that has been assigned to them?

Even though a street performer, let’s name him John, does not pretend during an act that he is not on the street and that there is no audience around him he nevertheless does not behave like he would in his everyday life and does not cross the city like his usual self. He interprets the street situation in an imaginative way and brings into it a special kind of reality. This shift of reality is often achieved through a character that the performer is playing, so simply put he

45 pretends that he is not John but “a pirate looking for his lost ship”. But the shift of reality can also be done in another way, by pretending that the street is not a street but something else. In the case of Streetwalker14 art gallery John does not pretend that he is somebody else but he does pretend that he is in a contemporary art gallery and that all the different elements of the street environment around him are artworks.

In this way a theatrical intervention in public space does not always take a form of a theatre performance. It can also take a form of an invasion of aliens, a film set, a promotional campaign for a nonexisting product, a demonstration for the rights of rain deers, a funeral ceremony or a wedding.

While visiting an outdoor art festival some years ago I ran into an improvised 'chapel' that had been erected in the middle of the field. I was curious by the sign Chapel of Love written above the entrance and all the people pouring. I was the last person in. When I entered I had a wedding dress put over my head and I was going to be the bride of the day. They gave me flowers and said congratulations and I just walked forward – completely oblivious to what was going to be happening. There was audience in each side and everybody was playing the part. There was a groom waiting at the end of the aisle – he was as innocent to the whole thing as I was – and we were married by a vicar. There was singing, there was celebration, everybody was entering in the spirit together. This is how I got 'married' to a complete stranger in the Chapel of Love. Sarah Peterkin, audience member15

46 In this regard I find it useful to look at a street act as if it would be a play in the sense of "a game" rather than a theatre play. Therefore the audience must obtain knowledge on what this game is about and what its “rules” are in order to be able to play along. For easier understanding let me call this knowledge, this “set of rules” the “key to the game”. By passing on this “key” the performer gives the audience a possibility to interpret the street environment around them from a new perspective. With the “key” they can open the doors to a parallel reality and join the “magical circle of play”. 16 The “key” replaces the known dramatic convention of what is perceived to us as part of the theatre play and what not. It gives a new meaning to the performers, their actions and surroundings and also defines the spectators in a new way.

14 Streetwalker open air ready-made gallery is a Ljud project turning everyday city elements (trash bins, wall cracks, traffic signs, even passers-by, the sky and dog excrements) into contemporary works of art by a simple feature of naming them, equipping them with artistic concepts and creating a gallery context around them. The project was first performed in 2010 and has toured worldwide since.

15 Sarah Peterkin on visiting the Chapel of Love as part of Lost Vagueness cabaret theatre at Glastonbury festival. Sarah Peterkin is the director of the Rural Touring Service and co- director of Take Art, based in Somerset, UK (member of RIOTE partnership).

16 “The magical circle of play” is a term from Homo Ludens, written in 1938 by Dutch historian and cultural theorist Johan Huizinga. The book discusses the importance of the play element of culture and society and is a significant part of the history of game studies.

47 In the Invasion act, outlined in the 2nd chapter, the key to the play could be described as »Let's play aliens and earthlings!« The aliens in this case are friendly but unfamiliar with rules of behaviour on the planet Earth. They want to learn and assimilate. The role of the audience – as earthlings – is to teach and accept them.

A clearly defined and communicated key allows the audience to enter the game.

The passers-by that join the spectators at a later stage might first wonder what is going on, but as soon as they figure out the key they will be able to understand what is happening. They will be absorbed in the play and become one with the rest of the group. At some point some spectators might even take the initiative (and the key) in their own hands and support the »parallel reality of the game played« with their own ideas, comments and made-up stories, inhabiting the role that was given to them.

48 49 There can be many different keys, many ideas popping out when improvising on the street or when preparing a new street act. But if multi-layered keys are welcomed in the black-box theatre situation, where they can enrich the performance and allow multiple possible readings of the play, in a street environment a bunch of different keys will most likely only cause confusion.

Bare in mind that the audience on the street might not plan to run into a street act. And even more bumping into one they are left without a clear convention of how to behave. Offering an unclear key or multiple keys to the audience on the street will most likely lead to an alienation of the performer and a confused audience. So deciding for only one key and the right one at that is halfway to success.

TRAP Have you ever found yourself in front of a locked door with a huge bundle of keys in you hand not knowing which key is the right one? This is how the audience of an interactive street act feels, if a performer leads them into interaction but does not give them enough information about the game he is proposing or the information is unclear, confusing or, even worse, parts of it contradict each other.

50 51 One of the recipes for finding a simple key to a street act comes from Sergi Estebanell17, performer, director and mentor who often crossed paths with Ljud. As Sergi suggests: “performers in search for a key might get one by an- swering the following questions:

1. Who are we? 2. What is our mission? (3. How are we organized?)”

The answers to the first and second question are the ones guiding the decisions on costumes, props and the basic at- titude of actors towards the environment. These are also the questions that audience members and passers-by will be asking themselves as soon as they start watching a street act.

In the case of Kamchatka18, a well-known street act that Sergi is a part of, the answers could be: Who are they? Foreigners from Kamchatka. What is their mission? Looking for a new home.

52 Such a key implies that the audience is “playing the role” of the local population reacting to the newcomers who are pointlessly wandering around with suitcases containing all their be- longings and searching for lost relatives, not knowing who to turn to.

It is possible to imagine a street act in which the street audience would actually “play the role” of "an indoor audience": they might become "a theatre audience", "an opera audience", "a circus audience" or "a cabaret audience".

In such cases, the answers to the question above could be (for example):

Who are they? Two retired fakirs. What is their mission? To earn for a new elephant.

In any case, as soon as accidental passers-by stop on their everyday routes and start to form an audience for a street act, their role, focus and status in the street environment changes – they take on the role of the audience bestowed upon them by the performance.

17 Sergi Estebanell is a director, producer and actor, active in several companies specializing in street theatre and site-specific performances. He is as well an experienced clown trainer and street theatre mentor active all around Europe. 18 Kamchàtka is an artist collective of diverse nationalities and disciplines who’s members first met in Barcelona in 2006. Under the artistic direction of Adrian Schvarzstein, they started training intensely in group improvisation on the streets and researched the subject of immigration. In March 2007 they performed their show “Kamchàtka” for the first time, a show which after became an international success, hosted more than 400 times in 30 different countries.

53 EXERCISE: Find at least 3 potential answers to Sergi’s questions and imagine how such a street act would look like.

1. We are our mission is 2. We are our mission is 3. We are our mission is

Now choose one, go out and play!

PS: Nerds and advanced readers might want to do an additional part of the exercise and find 3 more answers to Sergi’s questions that you think will NOT work well in public space.

As I am sure you have already noticed some missions make it harder for performers to establish contact with passers-by than others. For example, hiding from people, being aggressive towards them or (probably the most difficult one) being indifferent to the people around you runs counter to the performer’s goal of forming an audience with a common quest. Neverthe- less, I am convinced that using the right amount of humour, clear virtuoso acting and clever “double play” directing even these could be pulled off somehow.

54 The third of Sergi’s questions How are we organized? refers to an issue that is perhaps mainly of interest to the performers, since this is not something the audience will be thinking about when watching an act. How the performers communicate and work together during a show (as well as before and after it) is a crucial question that has to be answered by any performing arts collective, particularly since this question has practical, strategic and sometimes even political implications.

Two basic answers to that question can be found in the political history of the 20th century: democracy and dictatorship. In the case of a dictatorship, one of the performers decides for the whole group and signalizes his decisions to the others so that everyone’s action can continue in a common direction. Di- rect democracy, on the other hand, is a rare model not only in real life but also in the theatre. Still, there are certain groups, Kamchatka for instance, that practice it. It means that all performers have equal rights when it comes to starting or finishing an action during a performance; it also means that the responsibility for decision making is equally shared among the group.

55 Of course, a wide array of possible inner organisations exists in between those two extremes; there are probably as many as there are acts. However, some kind of rules or guidelines must be agreed upon before going out to play. Through years of practice, a successful street group usually develops its own authentic »mode of functioning« on the street that takes into account the individual per- sonalities and potentials of all of its members.

Even though the audience may not be consciously aware of it, inner organisation will be noticed and will significantly influence the atmosphere, content and even the final “message” of the performance; some ideas, contents and missions will be brought to life more successfully in one or the other inner organisation model.

56 One of the most important elements of street theatre actions, in my experience, is the group and the dynamics of it. The way the people can work together without institutional background, just following their own rules and capacity of collaboration. One of the biggest challenges of human being, in my opinion, is the ability to collaborate in small groups. GÉZA PINTÉR, performer19

not final illustration

19 GEZA

57 Chapter 5: FOUR STEPS TO A STREET ACT

In the previous chapter, we introduced the metaphor of a special key allowing the audience to enter the so-called »magical circle of play«; a key that should be clear and easy to communicate. We could call this key the WHAT of the performance – as in: What is the game we are playing? We would now like to focus on the HOW - the way this game is being played with the audience.

To be able to »disseminate« the key efficiently in a turbulent street environment, me and my co-workers in Ljud have designed a basic protocol. That is of course just one of many options:

4 STEPS TO A STREET ACT: 1. GET ATTENTION!!! 2. INTRODUCE THE GAME 3. PLAY WITH THE AUDIENCE 4. LET TH E AUDIENCE TAKE OVER

Given that there is no universal convention specifying how performances can appropriate public space and since public space is normally used for other purposes (such as moving from A to B, shopping, working, strolling, etc.) establishing an act must somehow be negotiated with other users of the space. If you are a street performer, you will first have to make people realize that you are there.

58 Step no.1: GET ATTENTION!!! a. One way of getting attention in a busy, chaotic environment is to surprise people by appearing where you are least expected (on the roof of a skyscraper, out of a trash bin or jumping from a helicopter).

The element of surprise also makes people react spontaneously, outside of their established behaviour patterns and expectations about what art is or should be and how one should react to it.

Transferring this technique to a book you could perhaps surprise the reader by the sudden appearance of a ...

59 60 61

not final illustration B. As an attentive reader may have guessed (after having examined the pink alien) another way of standing out in a busy street environment would be through a visual appearance that is in extreme contrast to everything else around it. So through a distinctive, unexpected shape and/or colour.

Standing out by appearing as a concerted and uniform group -– e.g. having several performers wear the same or similar uniform-like costumes of more ordinary shape and colour is another option (like in the case of Kamchatka – the people with the suitcases).

Some say that matters, but having seen street acts using giant puppets hardly managing to cross the Champs size20 Elysees in Paris I couldn’t agree more .

20 Royal de Luxe is an iconic French street theater company led by Jean-Luc Courcoult, started in 1979. In May 2006 their huge moving mechanical elephant and a giant marionette of a girl attracted a million people audience as the biggest piece of free theatre ever staged in London. Many lampposts and traffic lights in the city were removed to allow the elephant through.

62 C. Another way of getting attention would be to have a different tempo than all other public space users – so by moving at a sloweror faster pace than the environment. A uniform group moving in slow motion or standing still and suddenly starting to move very quickly with an outburst of energy are two of the many »rhythm strategies« frequently used by street performers.

d. Of course, being very loud can also do the trick, as street orchestras can tell you. e. Being incorrect is another strategy that I and my Ljud co-workers always find amusing and cannot resist using on a regular basis. Jogging in the city naked, »stealing« a policeman’s cap, blocking traffic, licking someone’s ice cream are harmless provocations which, done in the right way, can provoke laughter, relax tension around taboos or simply make passers-by snap out of their everyday “zombie routine”. Transferred to a book, getting attention from a semi-conscious reader by being incorrect would probably take something like...

63 64 65 not final illustration EXERCISE: Go to a public space and get attention. 1. First try moving faster than everyone else and notice people’s heads automatically turning your way. 2. Than try a slow motion action (keep it going for a while, don’t give up immediately). 3. Invite friends to join you and try to do both of the above exercises again as a bigger group.

66 Step no.2: INTRODUCE THE GAME – let the audience in!

Once you have everyone’s attention, the next step is to introduce the »game being played«, to reveal your »offer« to the audience. It is crucial that you do this as part of the game without stepping out and explaining, but rather by simply playing the game with your co-performers (or by yourself) until the audience catches on to what the “rules” are.

Give the audience some time to see what you are doing, do not worry and just keep going. After a while the audience will understand what kind of world you are in. However, this does not mean that you should avoid interactions and pretend that passers-by do not exist. As explained in the 3rd chapter, that would put up a wall between you and your potential audience. If possible, refrain from initiating interactions yourself or if you do have to take initiative, be subtle in doing so.

To give you an idea of how this can be done, let me describe how we went about it in The Invasion: the aliens appear one by one at a safe distance from the audience, giving spectators enough time and space for observation and allowing

67 them to figure out what the game is all about. Meanwhile, the aliens are inves- tigating earthly objects: benches, city lights, an empty coca-cola bottle, dealing with gravity, touch, getting to know the smells and textures of their surroundings. After a while, the audience figures out the different inner motives and ways of behaviour of each alien: one wants to smell everything, another enjoys rub- bing itself against objects or people, a third one is very short-sighted and wants to inspect things from up close... Only after they have introduced themselves to the audience in this way do they start to actively seek interactions with the spectators.

TRAP: Dear reader, you can surely imagine how skipping any of these steps could cause a street action to fail. However, leaving out the second step is the most common mistake. Trying to rush things is a normal human reaction to the nervousness that will typically arise after successfully getting the attention of a crowd. But proceed- ing to a very intensive interactive part of your performance as soon as you have got everyone’s attention can make people feel attacked and confused, having no clear understanding of what you want them to do and what kind of game they are being asked to participate in.

68 Step no.3: PLAY WITH THE AUDIENCE

Once the audience has discovered the »key« and is familiar with their role in the game, they can be encouraged to play this role more and more actively. Having a member of the audience volunteer to perform simple tasks or play minor parts to support the performance, thereby acting as a spokesperson for the audience, is a technique often used at this stage of the act. Obviously, people should not be forced to do something they are not ready for. But if they take initiative and become proactive, they should be rewarded and actively offered possibilities to go further. If successful, step 3 will make the audience “open up” so spectators will become more and more responsive and communicative, also making them less shy and restrained in applying the basic principles of the game to their environment. This is the aspect in which the out-of-the-box theatre differs the most from a conventional dramatic performance. There even on the picks of dramatic tension nobody expects the audience to stand up from their chairs, make comments from the darkness of the auditorium or even chant loudly.

69 “I felt the heat of a burning torch in the “piazza,” as part of our scenery, when the performance started in the moment of sunset. The scene was about burning a “witch” to be sacrificed for a goddess in the middle age atmosphere of an old, South-Italian town. There was a beautiful, young Brazilian actress chained to a couch and carried to the place of sacrifice. In the beginning, the situation seemed real scandalous, as the people were excited and some of them were screaming: 'Let’s burn her!'. The passion of the people were so close to us, I felt like being in a war suddenly.” GÉZA PINTÉR, street performer

70 not final illustration Step no.4: LET THE AUDIENCE TAKE OVER

The fourth and final step of the protocol is an optional one. Street performers often do not go that far or it sometimes simply cannot be achieved. However, I find this part to be the most interesting of all and in Ljud we usually put a lot of effort into making sure it happens.

By way of illustration, Ljud has a project entitled “Streetwalker - open air ready- made gallery” where the whole ending is dedicated to the audience taking over the game. What actually happens is that some audience members even take the »key« of the play home and enter the parallel world themselves or they pass the “key” on to others. So we were very happy to hear that some of them later even prepared their own Streetwalker tour for their family and friends.

In any case, performing outdoors interferes with the energy and the memory of the public space you intervene with. This is why your “key” leaves traces, especially in smaller communities, and gives a new meaning to a place that stays even long after you are gone. As Helen Aldrich would put it: “When Bob is walking his dog and passes that open space, his memory and imagination reconstructs the performance he saw. His imagination gives the piece an infinite trajectory.”

71 Chapter 6: Becoming street ninja

As we saw in the case of Sarah Bernhard in the first chapter one should not assume that the skills needed on stage are the same as the ones required for con- quering the street. To have any chance of success, a street theatre act first needs to establish its space within the street environment and this takes building a community. To achieve that an actor has to be open to the space and people around him and not focused primarily on himself, as is implicit of drama acting.

72 Ravil Sultanov, a Russian performing artist and inventor, once gave me the following advice: "When immersing yourself in an interaction with an audience member your head must be empty!" Unlike the head of a drama actor that should be full so that he can »bring a whole world on stage«, embody a role, »radiate« an emotion to the extent that we forget that he is (just) an actor on stage.

At first his advice seemed simple, even a bit trivial, but over the years of observing, directing and performing on the street his sentence kept coming back to me like a boomerang. And each time it came back another layer of the depth of his statement was revealed.

21 Ravil Sultanov is a graduate of the Moscow Circus Academy who runs the Bufeto Institute together with Nataša Sultanov. The Bufeto Institute is an artistic and educational NGO that organises the annual Klovnbuf International Contemporary Clown Theatre Festival in Ljubljana.

73 Why empty? Empty so that it can be filled with genuine thoughts, ideas, emotions triggered by the unique contact between the performer and the actual person in front of him. So that together, they can create something out of nothing in a way that has never been done before, which is a magical thing that sadly cannot happen if there is already something there to begin with.

How empty? As any Buddhist monk will tell you, freeing oneself of expectations, assumptions, worries about how the future will be and regrets about how the past has turned out is not an easy task. How to be mindful and present in the moment? is a question on many people’s minds and as it turns out it also lies in the heart of street performing and philosophy (which is probably why the nickname we use in Ljud for a street performer has a distinct East Asian flavour: »street ninja«). The state a street ninja should be in is the state of »relaxed concentration« as we like to call it in Ljud, even though it sounds like a contradiction in terms. Mastering the right balance between the two extremes: being completely relaxed (like right before falling asleep) and being so intently focused that you do not notice anything around you (like during an exam) is the best foundation for coping with the street flow.

In a way, street interactions aim to make the spectators’ heads empty as well, helping them to experience a shift in perception that is often accompanied by a feeling of inner relief, gratitude and amazement, allowing spontaneous playfulness to be awakened.

EXERCISE: To practice the state of »relaxed concentration« I strongly recommend playing all types of games (team sports, parlour games, board games) and doing any kind of meditation (mindfulness, active meditation, yoga, Gurdjieff Movements, etc.).

74 somewhere here is additional page - it is too much text for CH6

75 While the state of ultimate alertness, readiness and openness to whatever happens is the desired state of mind for a street ninja, improvisation and interaction are two of his basic artistic tools.

In everyday language, the word improvisation is associated with a »quick solution to an unexpected problem« or »an action without a preconceived plan«, which might imply negative connotations in the sense of a solution or action that is less than ideal. But in the universe of street art and many other arts, improvisation is a good word.

The general public is probably the most familiar with improvisation as an artistic technique in jazz music. However, in various ways and to a varying extent, improvisation is also a part of many if not all theatre and dance traditions. It is frequently used during rehearsal for developing ideas, brainstorming on how a scene should unfold or what physical manifestations should be given to a character, or simply as a way of making the group bond and get in sync with one another.

Certain schools of contemporary dance consider improvisation to be the only means of expression, as does improvisational theatre - a contemporary “theatre-making tradition with an elaborate set of acting, storytelling and directing techniques” where, as Sonja Vilč22 puts it, the quality “is not a matter of pre- meditated action but of complete commitment to and immersion into what one is doing here and now.

Nevertheless, in a street environment using at least some degree of improvisation is not only an artistic choice but a necessity. Which is why any practical exercise, principle or technique taught by improvisational theatre schools is a

22 Sonja Vilč is part of the Narobov collective76 of creators of living and live arts from Ljubljana, which roots go back to classical theatre improvisation. She is a long term performer, pedagogue and thinker, as well as a regular co-worker or the Ljud group, performing as a guide in numerous Streetwalker tours around the globe among other. precious resource to a street ninja, regardless if he is a beginner or a master. Furthermore, improvisation goes hand in hand with interaction. It is an essential ingredient of any genuine interaction, provided that the interaction is truly open rather than based on audience reactions devised beforehand that the performer tries to force out of the audience.

Unlike improvisation, interaction is rarely methodically taught. Just like horse-riding, the only way to truly master it is by practicing it. Interaction is anything but a mechanical skill and mainly operates on “expert intuition”. Even though it is a complex phenomenon, its basic principles are easy to understand. The two major things one should keep in mind when trying to understand it are sharing and experience.

Interaction can be regarded as not only a means to an end, but rather as an end in itself. In this perspective, interaction is not merely an attempt to be liked by the audience or to entertain the audience (as is perhaps the case in animation); interaction at its full potential is an open invitation to the other as a human being, as an equal.

Eye contact allows the performer to establish a relationship of trust with the spectator involved in an interaction. In addition to the eye contact, other starting points for such a shared experience are listening and observing. Through interaction the game is communicated to the audience, turning unsuspecting strangers into fellow players and forming a temporary community.

77 “Doing a one-on-one interaction involving a performer and an audience member feels like creating a common bubble of “the two of us” in the crowd of many. Eye contact is the starting point of that bubble, the seed that later on provides the energy to keep the bubble alive. Eyes are windows to the soul allowing me to reveal myself to the other and vice-versa. Then we continue together step by step – my action, his or her reaction, my reaction, our common action. Any pre-meditated plan of mine would destroy the balance. Given that we are equals, I am able to challenge but also show respect to the other. The person I interact with is all for me in that moment and I for him. Interacting is the most intimate way of performing.” GREGA MOČIVNIK, performer

Performing on the street calls for a shift of focus from a pre- meditated plan to the present moment (which requires the performer to improvise) and from the self to the other (which drives the performer to interact with the audience).

22 Quoted from memory. Grega Močivnik is the most prominent performer of the Ljud collective since its beginnings.

78 EXERCISE 1. To ease your way into interactions in public space, begin with a quick, easy task. One that is familiar to passers-by, but can be developed in a surprising way. Take a prop to help you. For example a photo camera or a mobile phone. 2. Go out and address a group of people, asking a stranger to take a photo of you (do that in a playful way, rehearsing the reassuring eye contact). As long as it looks like the chosen volunteer has the time and is relaxed, go further. Put on a funny accessory (a bag over your head, a clown’s nose or whatever you like) while he is looking at the camera to find the click button or... Freeze the moment the photo is taken and stay frozen to see what will happen or... Invite him/her to join you in the picture for a selfie. Then surprise him/her in the moment of taking the picture by lifting him/her in the air or doing whatever small, harmless act or gesture you find exciting. Keep in mind that it is not the gesture that is the point; your ultimate goal is to establish a genuine contact in a playful way, getting better at it every time you try. 3. Now think of another similar prop or situation and try that one out.

PS: Be careful, alert and grateful to passers-by for their cooperation and respectful of their free will. PPS: Right before starting an interaction remind yourself of the following tips:

Empty your head (but don’t lose it)! Less is more. Eye contact! When something goes wrong, consider it a gift! Don't panic and when you do panic… don't panic about it!24

24 Quoted from memory by Jurij Konjar, a Slovene contemporary dancer.

79 Chapter 7: Tom's advice

The second and most precious piece of advice about street performing I ever got came from a Swiss-Australian performer, director and pedagogue Tom 25 Grader . Over a cup of coffee, he explained a theory of his about the so-called CHARACTER/DIRECTOR/PERSON trinity.

place of balance = where one should be during performing

25 Tom Grader, also known as Oscar, is an itinerant artist focused on object manipulation and interactive contextual physical comedy. He writes for, contributes to and performs in numerous contemporary circus, theatre and street productions. As a director and teacher he is known internationally for his innovative approach to creativity and physical comedy. He is currently a teacher at the Zicologik Circus School in Biel, Switzerland, the Noveau Clown Institute in Barcelona and at the SUGLA - Street theatre academy in Ljubljana. In his original teachings Tom calls the 3 inner voices: Person, Character and Artist.

80 »Try viewing yourself in the moment of performing in front of a live audience not as one but as three individuals: the Char- acter, the Director and the Person cooperating, fighting or just hanging together. Reaching a balance between the three is the key to success!«

Again, it took me some time to understand the value of his thought which is indeed useful in so many ways. It helped me understand not only the schizo- phrenic emotions and cacophony of thoughts that stir in me when I perform outdoors but also what goes on in other performers, our group dynamic, relationships and personal growth issues.

I believe that Tom’s trinity is so useful partly because it is an open system – it is a springboard from which you can start analysing what goes on in you at any moment of performing. It may not lead you to a definitive final answer but it will surely shed some additional light onto the dynamic and complexity of your own inner motivations, struggles, fears, blockages and impulses.

This is basically how I understand Tom’s tool after having used it in practice for a number of years:

81 The CHARACTER is the one that is being performed. It can be seen as the role that the actor is playing (a theatrical or a social role). The Character relates to your inner »player«, a child, a clown, an inner alien or a freak – driven by a universal human desire to be seen, to be in the centre of attention, to be part of the game, to identify with a role, body, mask or emotional state, to play, to perform. It is the Character that is (or should be) seen on the outside, perceived by the audience. The Character is in charge of welcoming the audience and guiding them deeper into the show.

Taking into account the typical characterisation of animals in the European tradition my il- lustrator gave it the face of a cock.

82 The DIRECTOR represents the outside view and therefore needs to have. the ability to mentally lift himself from his’s own body and look at the situation from a distance, »from above«. The Director, also known as the Artist, is also a creative force but his creative potential as well as his stream of thoughts are dramatically different from the Character’s. Thinking about relations is deeply rooted in the Director’s mentality, including relations in space (compo- sition, visibility), time (rhythm), dramaturgy, human relationships, objects and events, dramatic plot, story, relations between meanings – associative links, po- etics, the absurd, lucid leaps. The message or the so-called artistic content is in the domain of the Director.

83 The PERSON consists of one’s own personal memories, prefer- ences, dreams, experiences, needs, values, beliefs which are crucial building blocks of artistic creation (to put it simply, it could be said that the material and motivation for artistic creation comes from the Person, is digested by the Director and performed by the Character). The Person is also the element of the trinity that is capable of empathy and responds to human emotions. In a sense, it is the Person’s responsibility to stay in contact with reality and be attuned to »the real life« that art is separated from but rooted in. The audience is eager to see the Person shine through the Character, especially when a performer lets down their guard and allows a bit of their personal motives or subconscious instincts to break the surface in spite of the Person’s best efforts to prevent this from happening. The Person also makes sure that nothing goes seriously wrong (that nobody gets hurt or injured) and acts as the responsible adult keeping the other two in check. If too strong, however, the Person can become a party breaker and ruin the game in moments when taking more risk or time for the play to evolve would have been better.

84 ILUSTRATIONS OF COCK-FOX-BEAR CREATURE IN ACTION*

* Dear test readers, On this and next two pages, there will be three full page drawings of the three- headed creature in different moments of it performing in public space. The drawings will feature the inner thoughts (presented in comic bubbles) of all three "heads" of the street performer. Through the dialogue that the three will have among themselves we will try to demonstrate how the trinity works in action and what are the strengths and weaknesses of each of them (the scenes are yet to be drawn).

85 not final illustration ILUSTRATIONS OF COCK-FOX-BEAR CREATURE IN ACTION*

* Dear test readers, On this page, there will be three full page drawings of the three-headed creature in different moments of it performing in public space. The drawings will feature the inner thoughts (presented in comic bubbles) of all three "heads" of the street performer. Through the dialogue that the three will have among themselves we will try to demonstrate how the trinity works in action and what are the strengths and weaknesses of each of them (the scenes are yet to be drawn).

not final illustration ILUSTRATIONS OF COCK-FOX-BEAR CREATURE IN ACTION*

87 not final illustration not final illustration In the context of black box theatre or dance, the inner Director and the Person inside the actor on stage are not as important. The inner Director is replaced by an external author, director or choreographer. The Person is important in the creative process but not while performing since there is conventionally no interaction with the audience, no risk-taking (unlike buses on the street, the swords and poison on stage are not lethal). Plus there is a clear division between the stage and the off-stage area so the Bear can be left waiting in the backstage while the Cock performs.

When performing outside, on the other hand, a mature person and a clever director are needed to juggle the diverse atmospheres, weather conditions, passers-by, dogs, children, drunks, church bells, police and other elements of public space.

TRAP According to Tom’s explanations, the key to success is not being the best in all three aspects but reaching a point of balance. So if one of the three inner voices is weak, the other two must adjust and not take over but rather be on low volume and wait for the weak one to build more muscle. Otherwise, the effect will be »out of joint« and, what is worse, the weak part will always be overruled by the strong ones and will have no chance to learn from its mistakes – and the vicious cycle is closed.

Let us speculate...

88 We can all imagine how a weak Character can result in a bad performance, especially if a strong Person and Director push it to take on the main role instead of letting it play a minor part until it grows stronger.

Typically, a weak Person with a strong Character and Director can get caught up in their own ego, becoming arrogant, big headed and a lousy team player with a reduced capacity for genuine interactions. Such a weak Person is a poor judge of what kind of provocation is still effective and not merely insulting. Rather than moving their hearts, the audience’s intellects will be bombarded with random phil- osophical, social or political messages.

A weak director is doomed to burn out on the street, wasting too much energy for too little effect. He or she may appear promising at first glance but will have difficulty holding the audience’s attention. Lacking the necessary cues and context to follow the development, the audience is most likely to feel alienated and respond with patronizing looks and bored faces.

EXERCISE: Ask yourself which of the three elements is the weakest in your case and work on making it stronger so that you can improve your overall performance level as a street performer. If you need to enhance your Director, you can go and watch shows by other artists, analyse them (the audience’s reactions, why something is funny or touching) and reflect on your own work; discuss your impressions and read books on art. The Person grows through life experiences and other means of personal growth. The Character is strengthened through theatre rehearsals (of any school, style or method) and even more so by performing, performing and performing.

89 Chapter 8: Go home and practice, Go out and play!

Rehearsing street theatre alone is a bit like rehearsing kissing alone. As Samo Oleami puts it: »...it takes touring and performing on the street for a street theatre act to fully develop its potential, as its performers get to understand the audience-performers dynamics specific to their show.« 26

I would nevertheless like to devote the following chapter to some practical tools and useful guidelines for anyone embarking on putting on a street act.

Of course, there are many things a street ninja can and should do before going out and performing. Getting an idea for an act, inventing a situation or a plot, defining the “key”, building a character, preparing costumes, music, props ... There are helpful drills like vocal training, physical exercise, juggling, acrobat- ics etc. one can do at home. But the most interesting and meaningful things are those limited to a single moment, occurring like a short circuit running from the performance to its environment, from the performers to the audience. »When the plan goes wrong, the adventure begins!«

26 CITAT FROM SAMO OLEAMI

90 My friend Jango Edwards – one of the greatest clowns of our times – would go as far as to call all pre-planned plots, characters, tricks, and skills »just arm- bands, useful only as long as you are still learning how to swim«. According to Jango, the final goal would theoretically be to get rid of all prearranged content and simply go out totally open and willing to play – which he actually does.

Still, not everyone can be Jango Edwards, so although a fixed script is out of the question, having some kind of a plan or at least a map or a compass somewhere in the back pocket is recommended.

A to B line

One way to create a script that is useful in a public space setting is to define the so called »A to B line« of the performance (explained to me by Jango Edwards).

An »A to B line« marks a straight, clear path from point A - the start of the performance to point B - the end of it.

27 Jango Edwards is an American clown and entertainer who has spent most of his career in »When the plan goes wrong, the adventure begins!« Europe. Edwards performances are mainly one-man shows in the European cabaret tradition, in which he combines traditional clowning with countercultural and political references. Edwards built up a cult following over more than three decades of touring Europe with his shows. In 2009 Edwards opened the "Nouveau Clown Institute" (NCI) in Granollers, Barcelona, a training center specializing in the world of clowning.91 The task of a performer is to allow himself to be inspired by the surrounding (the NOW), move away from the safety of the straight line and improvise. Still, every time the performer senses that the improvisation is not leading anywhere and the atmosphere is deflating, he simply returns back to the »A-B line« and stays there until the next impulse for improvising emerges.

This principle enables the performer to stay open (try new things, react to the developments, take risks) while at the same time offering a reasonable amount of safety (avoiding the risk that on a bad day the whole performance would be senseless, chaotic, missing a proper ending, provoking the audience to boo and throw rotten vegetables at the performer).

Depending on the style and structure of the performance there might be other fixed points (C, D, E, F...), so other fixed acts, scenes, gags, actions will be marked between the starting point and the end of the performance, as shown in the diagram below.

92 somewhere here is additional page - it is too much text for first 3 pages of CH8

93 not final illustration

94 An »A to B, C, D... line« can also be very useful for a bigger group of performers, enabling them to follow the same master plan. At certain points during the performance, individual group member have the discretion to act independently and move in their own direction, only to later re-connect before moving to the next stage. This is particularly useful when the performers are not in the same physical space all the time. Here are two examples from the Invasion to illustrate how this can work: One of the versions of the performance started with individual aliens operating independently at various points of the city. After having attracted a crowd at their initial location, they would then converge at a pre-arranged spot on the main square, bringing their audience with them. In another version, the aliens would start out as a group and then disperse to engage in individual interactions. Upon a cue (sound signal) triggered by an interesting development in the street, they would all come together again.

95 THE »IF-TREE«

not final illustration

The If-Tree is based on conditional thinking and deals with the possibilities of what might have happen. It serves as a decision-making flowchart, allowing the performer to quickly respond to developments based on past experience and the expected potential outcomes. In my experience, it can be most useful as a plan for a single interaction but can also be applied to a performance as a whole.

96 *Dear test reader, this is just a sketch. The final illustrated If-tree will feature an example of an improvised interactive scene. On each branch there will be written an action that a performer can take in such a scene, while each splitting of a branch will represent a choice he has according to the reaction of an audience member he is interacting with. So moving from the bottom up, the performer will for example decide to give an audience member a banana -> an action that has two possible reactions: (a) IF the person takes the banana ... (left branch), (b) IF the person does not take the banana ... (right branch). Each of these reactions give him again more options how to react ... and so in this small IF-tree one will be able to follow choices that a performer has to make in a simple interactive scene.

97 An If-Tree is basically built using two types of information:

1. unique ideas derived from the basic “key” or the WHAT? of the performance (discussed in the 4th chapter) and 2. the so called general »public space logic«.

»Public space logic« refers to all the things one might expect to happen or be happening in the public space. It has to do with the physical space and the public in it.

With practice, a performer will notice that some reactions of the public tend to repeat themselves. No matter how unusual, provocative or unconventional your proposal may be, the passers-by will react with:

- surprise, that might be followed by ...

- laughter (regardless of whether what you do is funny or not – we often react with laughter when something what is out of reach of our expectations),

- excited overwhelmed approval (usually expressed by teenagers, city drifters, eccentrics and other minorities that might identify with you as »somebody not belonging to the crowd«) - modest approval and slight interest (usually expressed with a smile by many passers-by, especially on a sunny day)

- anger (there is always somebody who will not like what you are doing).

98 Just like he reactions of by-passers, the architecture of any given public space is usually also never a total surprise to a seasoned street ninja: benches, garbage containers, flower basins, bus stops, city lights, statues, traffic signs, shops, bars, billboards, houses, balconies, windows (please feel free to finish the list).

After years of juggling with all the space-people-play elements mentioned above one develops a so-called »expert intuition«, an instinct allowing one to react before knowing why and do exactly the right thing at the right moment in order to create poetry out of everyday street life.

POTENTIAL TRAPS OF THE IF-TREE:

When considering the logic of public space it is important not to take generali- sations too far; otherwise you run the risk of no longer being truly attentive and running over the uniqueness of each moment due to hasty conclusions. So make sure you do not resort to stereotypes and overlook what is happening beneath the surface!

Solo or group interactions and/or improvisations based on an If-Tree plan can become mechanical, dull, lifeless and uninspiring if the plan is followed too strictly. Following the plan is not the goal; the plan is there for support as a tool that can help us achieve something else. Make sure not to lose the playfulness and have trust in the moment.

99 “When we manage to blend in our surroundings and create the illusion for the spectators that it is really part of the developing story, of the performance, as if it was its organic, natural setting. In these moments it feels like there is some kind of a unity between the actors, the natural setting which is behind, in- between and around them (castles, parks, statues, churches, forests, courtyards, graveyards… it can be anything!), and the spectators, who see something unfold in real space, and therefore feel part of it. When theatre goes out on the street and directly to the audience something magical happens.”

Csongor Köllő, theatre director

28 CHONGOR

100 EXERCISE 1 Go out to a busy public space, sit down and observe!

1. Pay attention to the architecture – imagine what this place looked like a few decades or even a hundred years ago. What are the elements of the space that are subject to most frequent change? What is the main focus – the most noticeable thing in this space? Has this changed recently?

2. Now notice all the people – who are they, what they are doing there. Notice their paths and activities in the space. How are the different groups interacting, do they bother each other, do they notice each other at all? How would you describe the general atmosphere there?

3. Take a pen and some paper and draw the place (not only the walls, but also the life happening there).

4. Now free your imagination and think of an unusual action that could take place there to capture the people’s attention, change the atmosphere. What kind of visual, sound, performative or other intervention comes to mind? Enjoy imagining!

101 EXERCISE2: Find at least two friends (in an ideal universe there would be four), go out and make compositions with your bodies in public space.

102 Tips: In case you have even more friends who are willing to participate, make two groups so one group can watch the other. Exchange your comments and observations afterwards. If passers-by start casting puzzled looks at you, try making reassuring eye contact and smiling. If you are at a busy location or just cannot handle the recurring questions and comments from people, take a camera or a mobile phone and pretend that you are making a »crazy« photo.

103 Before moving on to the final chapter, I would like to point out two more traps that often happen at the stage of preparing and rehearsing for a street act. These traps also apply to the creative processes of making indoor theatre performances as well as art in general. But they are particularly noteworthy in the context of outdoor theatre since falling into one of them might result not only in a bad performance but a failed performance, which outdoors virtually equals no performance at all.

ADDITIONAL TRAPS:

»Kill your babies!« means you need to make a selection. At a certain point in the creative process you have to throw away the ideas that might be original, even brilliant, but do not support the main idea (key) of the performance as a whole or even contradict it.

»Never start at the beginning!« Sounds like a paradox? It means that when planning a performance or a scene, the question of how it should start should never be the starting point. Think about the climax and where you want to take things. Figure out what it is you want to achieve and when; work out the implemen- tation of that peak moment. Once you know the answer to these questions, everything else is likely to simply fall into place. The only thing that you will still have to do is find the simplest and most efficient way of building your storyline up to that moment and of »climbing back down« – so finding a conclusion and an ending.

104 Chapter 9: Street theater and beyond

Dear reader!

First of all let me say that I am glad that you are still with me after 98 pages! Secondly, I would humbly ask you to bare with me for 9 more pages of somewhat speculative thinking as an epilogue to our conversation.

Let us come back to the question raised in the 2nd chapter: who is in fact the author of an artwork when this artwork is a piece of interactive art in which the responses and proposals of actively participating spectators are the most interesting aspect? Who is the carrier of the message when we are talking about an interaction rather than a presentation?

Please, make yourself a cup of tea, get comfortable and let me take you back to the beginning of our journey…

105 ...to the circle.

The magical circle of play, the ring of trust, the wheel of fortune.

106 And of course to it’s inseparable opposite the square! T h e

! d ” r e i l l l c r s i q c u

a e r e h t .

T e h r e a

m u q a s r “ k

e o t t

q y u r t a

e o

. e m a r f e h T . w o d n i w e h T . x o b e h T

T .

107 One could say that the prevailing image of an artist in Western society has been one of a unique, exceptionally gifted individual; a genius whose ideas are (must be) original. Much like a monotheistic deity (the creator of all things), the artist creates parallel worlds, turning chaos into cosmos. His masterpieces are comprehensive, well-ordered systems in their own right that must not be interfered with.

It is not difficult to imagine that 20th century postmodernism mischievously knocked this GRAND ARTIST off his pedestal (stage) and roguishly added his pa- triarchal moustache to the eternal smile of the Mona Lisa. Cultural institutions designed to safekeep and preserve the grand artist’s ingenious creations also re- ceived a similar treatment. In 1917, Duchamp put them on a par with a urinal. He was not necessarily trying to equate an exhibition to a toilet but nevertheless, a re-evaluation of the basic concepts of art has been looming on the horizon for more than a hundred years. And even though it may seem that permutations and mockery of »obsolete« values have come to a dead end, 20th century art made a not so subtle hint that the concept of the artist that had been in place since the renaissance was well past its prime.

In our context, the artist can be seen as the initiator of an artistic event; as the one doing the groundwork, laying down the rules and launching a process that everyone else is invited to join. It is his responsibility to welcome us, familiarize us with the proceedings and encourage us, as well as to set limits or intervene, if need be.

We could picture our artist as a good host throwing a party at his home: he or she will move the tables to the side, blow dust off the old record player and

108 decide which cocktails to serve. Perhaps each guest will bring a bite to eat, one of the guests may spontaneously take on the role of a DJ, someone else will lift everyone’s spirits with a witty anecdote. How the party will turn out may not depend on the host alone, but he will be the one to prevent cigarettes from being stubbed out in flower pots. Should one of the neighbours call the police, he will be talking to the officers.

This view of the artist changes the artist’s role in relation to society. The artist is no longer someone criticising or singing praise to society from a distance, from outside. The artist becomes an active part of society and his role is not only to bring societal issues into view but to offer solutions or establish conditions under which both problems and solution will be easier to articulate. The contemporary artist acts as a facilitator creating situations in which the audience can express itself in an intimate or public way.

As one of the founders of Ljud, theatre director and street performer Jaša Jenull, would put it,

»the potential of street art is not to put a mirror up to the audience like Chekhov and his contemporaries, nor to press a hammer in the audience’s hands as imagined by Brecht; i t is first and foremost to provide spectators with a megaphone so that they can express themselves.«

109 I like imagining that the future role of the artist and artistic institutions will consist in establishing »spaces or zones that a person will enter as a stranger and exit as a friend.«29 In creating an environment that will allow for experiences outside the normal reach of experiencing, encounters outside of the usual bonds of conventions, social roles and expectations. I like imagining that art will transcend the shackles of consumerism in this way. That artists will regard their audience as their partners, view artistic products as experiences, see prices in terms of barter, consider space as an environment and promotion as participation. That thinking in categories of »they«, »for them« and »by us« will be replaced by thinking in terms of »we« and »together«.

Perhaps this potential of art to turn the audience into a partner for the artist rather than a consumer of his art is nowhere greater than on the street. On the street, the artist does not sell tickets but mobilises the spectator to come

28 Quoted by memory from Dr. Ben Walmsley’s lecture at the BE SpecACTive! conference in Barcelona in 2016. Dr. Ben Walmsley is a lecturer and researcher at the University of Leeds in areas related to arts management, arts marketing, audience research and cultural policy, with a particular focus on audience engagement and enrichment, change management in the arts, and cultural value and leadership. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, an Academic Advisor for CultureCase, a trustee of The Audience Agency and Vice-Chair of Transform theatre festival in Leeds. He is also the Co-Editor of the peer reviewed journal Arts and the Market, an editor of the acclaimed book Key Issues in the Arts & Entertainment Industry (Goodfellow, 2011) and have published widely on cultural value, arts marketing, arts & entertainment management and cultural policy in a number of leading arts management and cultural policy journals.

110 aboard and join him for a shared experience, making the spectator his guest, co-creator, friend. In most cases, the author and performer is one and the same person who directly accosts passers-by to gather an audience, with no assis- tance from intermediaries such as a PR department, the media or a manager. (Except in the case of street festivals, but that is a topic for another book). The street is not, never has been and never will be reserved to an elite. It belongs to everyone; it is a meeting point where people of all ages and backgrounds converge. Art in public space can therefore reach everyone, including people who never seen the inside of a cultural institution and they are many.

In addition to the accessibility and the ability to merge diverse spectators into a unified audience, there is a third aspect to art in public spaces that I find even more interesting. It is the element of surprise. Walking the fine line between the mundane and art, reality and fiction, what is for real and what is just a joke. Art has the capacity to surprise us where we least expect it, prompting the most genuine of responses: astonishment over beauty, being moved by human contact, enthusiasm over a skill, all unhampered by conceptual thinking.

But there is a prerequisite for all this to happen: it takes a profound shift of focus from the individual to the community, from the result to the process, from following a prearranged plan to acting in the moment. This shift requires both the artist and the spectator to undergo a »personal transformation«. Relinquishing control, allowing things to run their course, acting on impulse, putting the other before yourself, openness to something that is beyond us. All this is contrary to society’s expectations of how we should live and how we should always know what we want, where we are headed and what we need to do to pursue our goals. As Sonja Vilč would say, “when we imagine it as a group of individuals (a

111 collective) just reacting to and interacting with each other, without having a plan and without even having the need to have a plan, it is nothing less than a cultural shock”, invoking fears of the unknown future and frustrations for not being able to control the final outcome.

Much like a scientist trying to establish a controlled environment where an experiment can be replicated to the last detail, it could be said that black-box theatre endeavours to put on a performance that can be repeated as consist- ently as possible after the opening night. Fixed roles, lines and the mise-en- scene, even the length of the pauses between individual words (micro-mise-en- scene); everything should be as predetermined and as reproducible as possible. In such circumstances, concerns over any of the above risks become redundant. However, what may well happen is that the routine of repeating again and again something that was once created out of nothing deprives the performance of its authenticity and kills the joy of performing.

A wave of playful excitement comes over me every time I make my way to the city, on the street or to a park in order to share something that does not yet exist with people I have not yet met. Seeing the shocked faces of passers-by gets my blood pumping every time: the shriek and giggling of a young woman who has just been jumped by a pink alien lurking behind the corner; concealed smirks brought on by a public campaign to sell dog poo; boisterous uncensored com- mentary; delighted cheers of children – it all makes me feel like we are finally all here again. And that the invisible walls between us have disintegrated.

112

Before we part ways, let me address you one last time… Let us all leave our laboratories and venture into the jungle, equipped with the advice of those who came before us.

Make sure to bring a snack and have a good trip, my friend!

113 blank? or blank at the end

114 About the authors

VIDA nekinkei

SAMO nekinkei

Robin) nekinkei

115 About LJUD

nekinkei

About RIOTE

RIOTE2 involves seven European partners. Funded by Erasmus+ the project brings together outdoor theatre companies in a skills sharing programme and has a focus on developing rural touring networks. The partners are Broken Spectacles/Dartington Arts (UK), Control Studio Association (HU), Kid Ljud (SI), Shoshin Theatre (RO), Teatro Tascabile Di Bergamo (IT), Take Art (UK) and Utca- Szak (HU). Visit www.riote.org for more information and useful documents: Why Don’t We Do It On The Road (a guide to understanding and making performance in public spaces); the Rural Touring Handbook; and links to RIOTE2 documen- tary films.

116 Acknowledgements

nekinkei nekinkei Page 120: Colophon (Impressum)

117 IMPRESSUM

nekinkei nekinkei Page 120: Colophon (Impressum)

118