Refract Theatre Company was recently invited to compare its work with Forefront Theatre Company’s, a fellow fledgling company. Alison Oddey articulates how ‘a planned “work in progress” is often useful, in order to consolidate the work so far, as well as identifying specific problems with the product’ (1996, 198). Forefront and ourselves performed the works we have devised thus far to each other. We in Refract accepted how it is ‘not good trying to insist that the imagination [of our company] be always correct and proper. The second stage involves accepting the imaginations of others’ (Johnson, 2005, 128). Our aim to take globally recognised images and transcend them into stories on a more personal scale, requires our audience’s imagination to closely match our own so they can follow the scene and also recognise the image we’ve ‘refacted’ the story from. Being assured that the famous images we have reframed were clearly identifiable with no alternative ideas suggested, strengthened our resolve.
There were however some areas of our work which Forefront suggested we review. They felt our ‘Selfie song’ might not be as well understood by older audience members. We thus became determined to ensure this scene would be equally appreciated by both the older and younger members of our target audience. Delgade and Svich argue how the audience are as important as the actors in making the performance work: ‘The audience…contribute their imaginations and, in concert with the actors, create the performance event’ (2002, 96). To ensure When You See It is a success, the performers will take the ‘selfie’ photos mentioned in the song prior to the performance and project these on stage for the audience to match with the ‘selfie’ titles being sung. The work in progress convinced me how invaluable a ‘second pair of eyes’ can be. It has yielded new ideas and, through constructive discussion, has helped improve our current ones.
Works Cited:
Delgade, M. and Svich, C. (2002) Theatre in Crisis?: Performance Manifestos for a New Century. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Johnson, C. (2005) House of Games: Making Theatre from Everyday Life. London: Nick Hern Books.
Oddey, A. (1996) Devising Theatre: A Practical and Theoretical Handbook. London: Routledge.
Whitfield, S. (2015).