Author: Amy Houchin

The past two weeks have seen Refract’s performers heavily experimenting with our primary stimuli, images. Our company’s decision to devise our own performance makes such experimentation vital as this will help influence and shape the content and framework of our show. Addressing our aim to ‘reframe stories that consider notions of identity and communication’ (Refract, 2015), Laura, Refract’s director, has been presenting us with various iconic images and set us the task of focusing on one person in an image. Next we have composed alternative, personal stories about them. These workshops reflect the elementary process of devising and how it ‘enables a group of performers to be physically and practically creative in the sharing and shaping of an original product…’ (Oddey, 1996, 1). We, as performers, have an active role in the development of our piece and will collaborate with our director in devising ways of reframing iconic images into original narratives.

One image which has remained in use is Banksy’s A Girl With a Balloon. This well known graffiti image is often considered to depict a political narrative. The quote next to the image, ‘there is always hope’, triggered our ideas for a ‘refracted’, personal story. An alternative connotation could be that the girl is holding onto the balloon because her happiness and emotional stability depends on it. It metaphorically symbolises hope. The way Laura translated this idea into a possible scene was through movement. As a group, we worked to physically represent the girls situation. To show how our bodies collectively represented the girl, enabling an audience to distinguish the image we were ‘reframing’, we stayed close together, moving as one. Laura devised a narrative involving extremely windy conditions, making it difficult to keep hold of the balloon. The balloon was repeatedly taken from us and we were directed to run and catch it before it blew away. What became evident was how successfully global images can transcend into personal, emotive stories. This has motivated us to continue devising more ‘refracted’ narratives.

 

Works Cited:

Girl With a Balloon by Banksy (2015) [photograph] Available from: http://www.stencilrevolution.com/banksy-art-prints/girl-with-a-balloon/ [Accessed 10 March 2015].

Lancashire, A. (2015).

Oddey, A. (1996) Devising Theatre: A Practical and Theoretical Handbook. London: Routledge.

Refract Theatre Company (2015) Manifesto. [online] Available from https://refracttheatrecompany.dev.lincoln.ac.uk/our-manifesto [Accessed 10 March 2015].

It has been a turbulent few weeks since our theatre company formed with ideas busily discussed and formulated regarding what to present to an audience. When starting a theatre company, Alison Oddey states its members must first ‘organise a power infrastructure’ (1996, 9). This, she advises, can be achieved through the organisation of a company’s members’ roles and was our first plan of action. We realised the importance of doing this promptly to aid a smoother running devising process. It was decided that my primary role will be as a performer with costume designer my secondary role.

After deliberation, we have also chosen the name of our theatre company; we are ‘Refract Theatre Company’. This decision was made thoughtfully to reflect our mission statement. With our ambition being to depict ‘real stories in an alternative light’ (Refract, 2015), the name ‘Refract’ complements this criterion. We have developed an interest in using widely recognised, iconic images as our stimuli and are beginning to explore how these can be transformed from ‘a global scale to a personal scale’ (Refract 2015). We want to portray alternative narratives to these images, ones that from a first viewing will not be readily conceivable. I am excited by setting ourselves this challenge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited:

Hitchen, T. (2015).

Lancashire, A. (2015).

Oddey, A. (1996) Devising Theatre: A Practical and Theoretical Handbook. London: Routledge.

Refract Theatre Company (2015) Manifesto. [online] Available from https://refracttheatrecompany.dev.lincoln.ac.uk/our-manifesto [Accessed 1 March 2015].