2012 High

As 2012 quietly draws to a close... Our yearly family tradition is to reflect on our highs and lows of the year we are about to leave behind... And our dreams for one that lies ahead. Right up there on my list of the very best of 2012 is performing as my clown 'Fiona van der Walt' with 'Andromeda' ...Barbara's clown. However the universe colluded for these two unusual friends to meet and share what they think of the world... I am delighted. And very grateful. Here we are in our secret underground rehearsal room with The Harp preparing our song for the crescendo of our show. How lucky we are.

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Fun Fearless and Female

An early christmas present... I am in this months Cosmo South Africa as a Fun Fearless Female... check it out... and vote if you like.  How exciting... I had my shoot with Olympic Kayaker, Bridgette Hartley and Chartered Accountant, Kashveera Chanderjith.  I'm reminded of the questions they asked and here are my full answers... for even more fearless fun.  Of course I said way too much.  

1.   What do you think makes a woman awesome?

Earrings.  Painted toenails. Fabulous shoes.  And a career she’s passionate about.

2.   What’s your personal motto?

Get up.  If you wait for divine inspiration you never will.  We’re all improvising.  And it starts by getting up.

3.   What has been your greatest career highlight?

It’s a small story that really impacted me and has stayed with me…  My very first play ‘Weekend Special’ had a performance at Northcliff High School.  This was the first public school we’d managed to get into… each student had paid their fee and we were on.  Yay.  So we arrived and set up and they swarmed in.  Loads of them.  As usual I went to the front to introduce the play to this sea of school kids who simply would not keep quiet.  Eventually I just stood there while the teachers tried to get them to pipe down… no luck.  So I thought oh well here we go, and we just started the play in all the noise.  Within about five minutes you could hear a pin drop in the hall and at the end when they clapped it sounded like rain.  One of the teachers came up to me and said she’d never seen that before in all her years of being a teacher.  And I thought… that’s theatre.  Then of course all the brilliant people I have worked with over the years... Nick Warren, James Cuningham, Helen Iskander, James Cairns, Janni Younge, Deborah Da Cruz, Roberto Pombo, Toni Morkel, Hamilton Dhlamini,  James Borthwick, Yule Mabhena, Ellis Pearson... and the list goes on.

4.   What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learnt in your business so far?

Collaborate with people you think are brilliant.  For me there are many people to mention… but my main collaborator is Nick Warren.  He is the best scriptwriter I know – and I happen to be married to him. What a luck.  He’s written two of the plays I’ve directed, ‘Dirt’ and ‘Sunday Morning’ and we are working on our third one ‘The River Rope.’  He also edited the plays I have written myself.  We fight quite a lot… but the work is better for it.  And that’s really all that matters.  That and being right of course!

5.   Who are some of your idols?

The directors Julie Taymor and Baz Luhrmann - their theatre is cinematic and their cinema is theatrical…  Across the Universe, Frida, Romeo & Juliet, Moulin Rouge… that’s all I’m saying.

6.   What couldn’t you live without?

A hair band around my wrist.  A red clown nose in my bag.  A café latte in the morning.

7.   If your house was burning, what three things would you rescue first?

Besides my cats who would no doubt have long ago hot footed through the cat flap yelling ‘everyone for themselves.’  It would be my Hasbeens mint green 50’s style high heel shoes.  They rock.  My bag full of theatre masks which I made whist studying theatre in Italy earlier this year.  They’re not just masks – they are like my friends – characters I’ve gotten to know.  And then, my wedding dress.  Lame.  But it’s true.  I love it.  Luckily it’s not a meringue special – it’s an Abigail Betz antique pink tulle tutu dress, which is patiently waiting in my cupboard for the next Mrs Havisham dress up party.

8.   Do you have any celebrity style icons?

I’d say Zooey Deschanel.  She’s cool.  But this is mostly based on the characters she plays.  I love the mad quirkiness of their style.

9.   Who / what inspires you the most?

Right now… Matteo Destro.  He is an Italian theatre director and mask-maker. He is also currently my teacher in Florence.  He is a creative genius.  He talks about theatre through the process of mask making…  The idea that there are poetic landscapes waiting to be revealed if you are brave enough to go there.  It is not enough to simply say your lines and execute the blocking.  You have to push further and go deeper.  ‘…It’s good.  But it’s not enough.’  He says in his brilliant broken English.  He makes me want to be a better artist.

10.                 What advice do you have for young women in SA?

My art teacher used to say on a regular basis… ‘Ladies in life you can be anything but boring.’  And also, ‘If you want to take a photograph use a camera not a paintbrush.’  Two pieces of advise I’ve kept close.

Chorus of witnesses

Today we had the most wonderful class exploring the tragic chorus... Dynamic, rhythm, text, space!  And on my way home from the grocery shop I passed my own special chorus of witnesses.  Hi Ho.

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A backdrop for a kitchen floor

Our kitchen floor has been possesed by a brand new portable backdrop for 'Sunday Morning'... The newspaper pixelated Johannesburg skyline. With which we open today at the Mzansi Fela Festival at the Pretoria State Theatre.  Thank you Deborah da Cruz Meyer for your hard work completing it.  Here's to a rocking run.

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A life time walking

Matteo said in a recent movement class that you can see family in the touch. In the way two hands come together a whole history is revealed. A vibration in the background. Simple. Beautiful. True. Like in the way these two old ladies... in perfect unison, arm in arm, sisters perhaps... cross Piazza della Repubblica. And off they go. Not for the first time today. A life time of walking together.  Right there, in the background.

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The bee thief

Unlikely friends, Fiona van der Walt and Andromeda Andromeda have began secret meetings to discover brand new things about the world. Clown philosophy... Exciting... A special place where anything is possible.  So something begins... We know not yet what... But we are excited for what I'll call for now 'The Bee Thief.'

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Silent Sunday

A stop motion video of our Newspaper Guy ... a little something for a quiet Sunday...

Newspaper Guy from Jenine Collocott on Vimeo.

Pinocchio and the Old Goat

This is a pic of the postcard i'm about to post home... and it captures my week rather well... namely, Pinocchio [as seen swimming away from the shark], and the little goat [as seen peering down from the rock].  Yes...  Our storytelling adventures continue.  The week started out with Pinocchio, which sadly did not work... When telling a classic epic tale [or any story for that matter] it becomes very important that you know what you want to say and that you develop a common language to say it... both of which we did not manage this time around.  We have promised a glass of wine and a dinner in honour of our wooden friend whose soul we did not capture... this time.  Perhaps there will be a next time... with more time.  We shall make it up to you Pinocchio.

The week ended on Saturday with a public performance of a selection of stories from the previous two weeks... for me it was the Grimms Tale... 'Wolf and the Seven Goats.'  I know.  Who's heard of that one!?  I hadn't.  After the horror of doing another solo wore off it was rather fun playing an old goat and her 7 kids who get eaten by the wolf.

So, this week has been a major reminder of...  Crescendo.  What doesn't go up necessarily goes down.  Momentum.  Pace.  Rhythm.  The driving force... the push and pull of story.  Know what you want to say.  Ahhh.  And then say it.  Once upon a time...  Preferably in Italian... C'era una volta...

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Through the streets of Florence

We have started running.  No.  I'm not even kidding.  Through the streets of Florence.  Once a week.  Besides the stitches and the faint taste of blood ... and the majority of the group who find it easy! ... it is actually fun.  Yes.  It's true.  Ready steady go.

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Knock knock.

As winter slowly begins to stretch her arms and pull us in close...  and low cloud hangs heavy over Florence threatening rain.  I ventured out for a Saturday afternoon walk to clear my head, and two artists ventured out to paint two lions head door knockers... It made me think of the mime walk argument... that goes something like 'Its all very well to have brilliant walking technique, but where are you going?'  ...Its all very well to accurately paint identical door kockers but where do they lead?  As Barbara says...  Knock knock.  Who's there?  ...we'll see.

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Once upon a time...

A week of story telling.  I cannot help being reminded of the work of oh-so-brilliant Ellis Pearson in this week...  The 'neutral' storyteller holding a piece together as it flows from action and character back to the storyteller.  Ahh.  I miss Ellis.

We started the week with Grimms fairy tales.  Little Red Ridinghood... Hansel and Gretel... Snow White... the stuff of childhood.  The studio was filled with talking donkey's, and wolves, and dwarfs and mirror's and goats and and and... shape shifting between characters... creating different imagined spaces... changing rhythm all the time... looking for the crescendo... vocal resonance gymnastics... I think my favourite moment was when Justin telling the story of 'The Brementown Musicians' did the chain reaction of each animal as they jumped one on top of the other to look into the window of the house... a donkey, a dog, a cat and a rooster...  A stunning little explosion of technique and play.  It was fantastic.  Suddenly right there before us was a totem pole of creatures... what one person can do.

The process has also been fascinating... many times we have returned to the mimodynamic movement of the first year... materials, elements, animals... to find the dynamic of the story or to find the voice of a character.  Totally brilliant.  For example.  Finding the abstract movement of a herd of goats [in the tale 'Wolf and the Seven Goats'].  Then adding the sound, any sound.  Then letting go of the abstract physical movement and rather finding the same 'movement' in breath... from there adding sound... and from there shifting it to the voice of the goats.  The result was totally surprising and completely right.  So clever.  Liz... our voice teacher... so clever.

Because story is beneath everything we do always, the story has to be important... and 'who will tell it, if not you?'  To quote Giovanni Fusetti.  So the creation for this week was a solo performance of a story from your country, your culture... a legend, or a fairytale, or an historic story.  After much 'what to do, I don't actually have any culture' panic I settled on the story of Saartjie Baartman.  Scary.  For me.  For obvious reasons.  But there you go... after breaking down with Freya and Vika thinking how can I actually do this.  I could not 'change groups' - being the only person in my group - and I had no other story.  So I forged ahead... trying to apply some of the schools pedagogy... if it makes you cry you should go further into it.  This story is not only a wound for South Africa and England and France but for humanity.  Actually.  Vika and I have had many a cup of tea discussing culture and when it is yours and who can tell what stories and the human condition generally... and one of her many interesting conclusions is that reality TV shows are modern day circus freak shows.  I agree.  It's interesting.  Yip.  It's been pretty full on.  There were several moments this week where I - and I think all of us - felt so challenged I didn't think I'd get through it.  But you do.  Of course.  Aaaah.  And I'm glad I didn't change stories... and the pedagogy I believe works.  What a luck I'm here.

The solo's rocked... it was so fantastic to see all the different voices in the room... from the Danish Snow Queen and her swarm of white bees for snow flakes... to the Norwegian Polar Bear who is in fact a bewitched handsome prince... to the German man Brandner Kaspar and his brilliant death dodging... and so many many more.

Moving on.  We are getting a bigger studio!  Very exciting... so today we went to help get it ready for a couple of hours...

Vika warming her hands by the gentle flicker of a working light

Vika, Giovanni and Barbara being demented workers

Me sweeping with a dust mask... to try and preserve my disappearing voice

Ciao Newspaper Man

Last night our movement studio was turned into a little puppet theatre.  Visiting Australian puppeteer Jenny Ellis took us through her wonderful work and then we made our own newspaper puppets...  Trying as best we could to apply a few puppetry principals - giving the figure weight, breath and articulation.  It was such fun...  It was a short workshop so the work we did for each other was totally improvised and totally funny.  These crazy little figures coming suddenly to life.  This is Vika, me and Barbara and our little dude... Ciao Newspaper Man.

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A loud gesture

Two weeks.  Bang.  Gone.  Already... And we are one performance down.  Aaaah.  Amazing.  Third year Helikos in full swing.  We have began this year with Pantomime as our first theatrical territory... when I first heard that I had images of men wearing stax of stage make up dressing up as girls and so on... I am pleased to say that the whole thing is kind of over the top but it is not quite what I expected.  It never is.  Luckily.

A very quick background blurb >>>  Pantomime started back in the day when performers were forbidden to publicly criticize or poke fun at the authorities... it started with not allowing actors to speak on stage...  And boink enter the beginnings of pantomime with an off-stage translator... that was quickly abolished... now you may not speak at all!  And ta-daaa enter full-on pantomime.  Never underestimate the artists need to say something.  Pantomime...  Speaking through gesture >>>

So we returned to the silence...  How to turn sound into gesture so that it is in fact not silent at all.  If the margin for misunderstandings when you can speak is big - it is way bigger when you can't.  It's like everything we have learnt till now coming together to as simply and clearly as possible tell a story, with all the theatre ingredients you need... like a crescendo and a dynamic use of theatrical space - to name but two...

Theatrical space.  Yes.  I never spoke about our 'Trateau' project at the end of first year as I ran out of time and when I came back to it, somehow too much time had passed.  So - a trateau is a trestle sized stage that is raised on which five actors performed.  The physical space is squeezed so that theatrical space becomes infinite...  "When you have no space you have all the space in the world."  Ahh.  And that is what theatre should do shouldn't it... create imagined space.  Duh.  Obvious.  But not really.  We did a piece about a girl stolen from her village by a three headed dragon... Suddenly everything is possible.  Creating images.  Chorus work.  Changing perspectives.  Zooming in.  Miniaturisation.   Soundscapes... How theatre takes on cinema.

...So yes.  In these past two weeks we had to choose a popular film and transpose it for theatre using everything we have learnt.  Although we were not a trateau the principals are the same.  We did Pirates of the Caribbean and the others did Ghost Busters.  Hey?  Remember Ghost Busters!?

In our first performance our silence was too silent.  As we have learnt through the journey full masks and so on... the silence can be (and should be) very very loud.  So yes.  Only after being in the silence of gesture did we begin to add voice... which is actually tricky rather than instantly helpful as one might think.  The voice too needs to be transposed.  Of course.  Hectic.  So whilst it was a ton of fun it was confusing for the audience in parts - better play of space and cleaning up the use of voice will take it to the next level.  Hopefully.  We'll see.  Next time.  For now we're moving on.

In celebration of the journey of theatrical territories... and because i'm missing home...  Here are a few recent pics of Nick and I 'in the state' of different movie genres.  Photography by a friend of mine Bronwyn Stewart...  oh how we laugh.  Ha ha.

Melodrama 

Romantic comedy

Comedy

Horror... eeeeeee.

A puppet and a ping pong ball

Choreography with ping pong rackets ping pong balls a mini ping pong table and a puppet... The most wonderful lighting design... Great music... And a bit of philosophy made for a rocking night out to the theatre this weekend in Florence.  A Dance Tribute to Ping Pong. Rocking.  My best bit was the glow in the dark ball choreography.  Also the theatre hosting the festival was brilliant... A ting hole in the wall door that lead to a secret garden with lush green grass for a starlit pre show drink.  The theatre itself somehow had a perminant festival theatre feeling. I loved it.  I want one.

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Blue sky backdrop

The sun is shining in Florence... And we (Vika and I) ate Gelato (from Grom - rocking!) on the steps opposite Il Duomo (as eating on Il Duomo steps is illegal - for real) ...to celebrate being back in this amazing city.  Back at Helikos.  Back to being students.  Back generally.  For the last time... In this way at least.  There is something so exciting about that...  A feeling that you really have to take everything in.  Like this church.  For example.  And we have began in full swing with theatrical territories... starting with Pantomime.  More on that soon.  Yay.

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Hello Italy

Joburg to Rome via Addis Abbaba.  And finally Firenze.  The old man sitting on the pavement outside the corner cafe is still there.  A continuous fixed point.  The old woman with the pink hair, the fur coat, the lace gloves and the gold takkies passes me. On her way to anywhere.  I lug my now very heavy suitcase to our apartment past the Madonna and child painting which three years ago, at the beginning of this massive journey, I stood beneath crying.  24 hours later and I'm back in my old room.  The familiar sound of wheels on wet tar.  A church bell tolls.  A distant dog barks.  Third year has began.  Hello Italy.  Ciao Firenze.

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On the front porch

Nick has been complaining recently that we never take pics anymore... So as a gift I booked a Spring shoot with the wonderful Browyn Stewart from Heart and Soul Photography... This was amoung the sneak peak pics she sent in the middle of the night.  Ah.

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The road is long

Pinch and a punch it's the first of the month.  The month in which from around the world we descend upon Florence... for our third and final year at Helikos International School of Theatre Creation.  But sadly not all of us.  Helena will remain tucked away in her newly formed studio creating theatre masks in Helsinki, Finland.  And I shall miss her desperately.  So as I think of the beginning of the next part of our journey I have a heavy heart... knowing that Helena - such a brave and brilliant player - will not be there.  For now life has other plans for her.  I shall miss her.  Very much.  But hopefully the road really is long... and we shall meet again.  Till next time.  Till then.

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The mask of theatre

Towards the end of my second year at Helikos earlier this year... I made a mask.  An old woman.  So that I could learn the negative mould technique of mask-making. (I had missed this lesson due to a day spent at some grimy governmental business building organizing another piece of bureaucratic what-not for temporary residency in Italy) Matteo took a day out of his schedule to teach me this.  It ended up being so much more than simply learning a technique, but a day filled with what it means to make theatre.  Matteo said if someone calls him a theatre-maker he says he's actually a director... and if they call him a director he says he's actually a mask maker.  Because theatre is a mask.  Unless you are working in realism of course.  Which we're not.  Giovanni often talks about something being true but not necessarily real.  I like that.  So with mask making the volume and form emerges as it does when you improvise a scene... whether you work on the floor or in front of a computer writing.  That work on stage requires a level of poetry that takes it further than the literal world...  How does the whole stage explode in joy... the mask... the volume... a level of removal that brings you right into the work. (Yes I know... I've spoken about this before... so I won't repeat myself - as such)  But - lately I have seen so much realistic theatre and I can't help thinking i'd rather see the movie... where they have the close up... the swell of music... the cut away to the crashing waves.  Where the camera brings the poetry that two people on stage, one with their backs to you most of the time, cannot achieve.  I know it's a style and a choice.  Ja.  There needs to be more.  For me.  And it's hard.  And you might fail.  But you might not.  

So now as I prepare to return to Italy for my third and final year... this morning I looked sadly at my little box of masks who have not been out to play since I got back.  How quickly life rushes by.  My old woman is still a paper mache mould... waiting for stucco and sanding and painting and ultimately playing... (Which will hopefully happen in the year that lies ahead).  To celebrate her and the art of mask making... which may just be the art of theatre... I have put a few pics below taken during this very important day of mask making and theatre discussion with the ever-brilliant Matteo Destro.  

Hilton High

We arrived at the Hilton Festival after hours in the worst traffic jam from a massive accident to watch the brilliant Paul Zerdin open the festival. So great. Then onwards to our technical get in which was smooth and professional - Roamy our stage manager and technician and her team rocked. So aside from our first show where a lone builder decided it was a good time to bang right outside the theatre door... We had a rocking time.

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My festival highlighted was 'Three Little Pigs' with James Cairns, Rob Van Vuuren and Albert Pretorius directed by Tara Notcutt.  Fresh.  Brave.  Funny.  Rich.  All that.

The N3 billows with veld fires... welcoming the imminent summer.

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Sad to to say goodbye... Next for Sunday Morning is our second run at Theatre on the Square from the 16 - 27 October.  Although I shall be in Florence by then.  How quickly the time goes. 

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The Ugly Ducking Marionette Move

I took my niece and nephew to see the Chinese Fujian Marionette Art Troupe the other day at the National School of the Arts... a kind invitation from my friend Mark Hawkins - as we couldn't make their proper performances. They were amazing.  Truly wonderful.  My favourite moment was when a troupe of little dancing fat girls as if by magic suddenly became a troupe of dancing princess...  I kid you not.  Before our very eyes.  It was amazing!  Yes - that and the drunk guy picking up and pouring real liquid into a teacup and then picking up the teacup and drinking until he was so drunk he passed out!  Magic before your eyes.  How lucky we were to see them.  Masterful talent.

Photo Credit:  Gregg East

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In the Witness

Yesterday I completed our bookings for the Hilton Festival... we are going to see British Ventriloquist Paul Zerdin (how cool?!)... and Three Little Pigs (with my friends James and Rob!  Yay)... and Horn of Sorrow (will be sad - i'm sure)... and Delirium (with the brilliant Fiona Ramsay!)... and Venus in Fur (with Neil Coppen who has taken the very brave step from Director to Performer... eee).  Can't wait.  I have of course seen Sie Wies Alles - so if your reading this and haven't seen it... you should

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So tomorrow we leave for the Hilton... where our shows are sold out.  How lovely.  A packed audience i'm so excited!  This is the booklet that is released in the Witness newspaper...  ah.  And there we are.


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The Last Show

The Last Show... is certainly not the last show from these fabulous people...  I went to see the formidable Toni Morkel and the wonderful Roberto Pombo in their new show 'The Last Show' at PopArt... to raise funds for Roberto's return to school, Helikos, in Florence Italy.  A worthy cause!  There were so many things about it I just loved... the costumes for one... Toni's speech about being eaten in a cave... Roberto's speech about the end of the world and how rad the new iPhone is.  Very funny.  I look forward to the development of this show!

This is a pic of Toni and Rob that I got off Toni's facebook page... how cool?

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Silver Star Casino Launch

Event Client: VWV Productions

Corporate Client:  Silverstar Casino

Event:  Launch Event (external audience)

My Role:  Event Creative Head, Live Producer, Live Director

This was the first job I was Creative Head on... it was in early 2008!  Long before I had a blog.  I found these pics in an old folder - and of course I remember this event well... and fondly!  The theme was 'Not the Usual' - the payoff line for the Casino itself.  What a pleasure!  It meant we could do so much - and have huge creative freedom.  We kicked off the evening with a walk-on-water fashion show.  With girls in outfits inspired by the look and feel of the casino's design.  This to a backdrop of the most spectacular water fountain (seriously - everyone should see it) and to a haunting musical number which Nick Warren (the then Creative Director of VWV) brought in New York... I don't know what it was called... so that's not helpful.  Ja.  But my most favourite bit of all was we had synchronised swimmers as part of the spectacle!  How cool.  

Artists rendering of the walk-on-water fashion show

Artists rendering of the Gala Dinner

Syncronised swimmers... in perfect unison... beautiful clothing... a fountain... what more.

Capoeira dancers

An opera singer

Tamara Dey and Concord in a wonderful musical duo

Geisha girls to welcome guests on arrival

SAB Live to Video

Event Company: Mann Made Media

Corporate Client: South African Breweries

My roles: Creative Head, Live and Video Director, Script Writer

Previously I spoke about this super fab show I did for SAB... and here is a three minute video of what we called Live-to-Video... where we took the on-stage live performance and translated it for the screen.  So that it was not the death of theatre when filmed - which would be an ordinary point and shoot of the on-stage production... and whose purpose could only be a record of the original show.  Rather we created a piece of entertainment in it's own right.  The video explains the whole thing so I need not go into detail here.  But I feel very lucky to have been part of this project and further developing what could be new medium in the corporate theatre world.  Rocking.

Red light jumper

Another physical tweet from our board which I dig... I remember doing exactly this at 5am and driving past the early morning cyclists thinking... 'who are these people.'  Now I'm much closer to those cyclists than I am to whoever left this tweet.  Funny.  

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Business Day Today

We're in the Business Day today... with a fab review from Christina Kennedy... my favourite bit... 'Sunday Morning is like a ray of sunshine in an often-gloomy theatre landscape.'  I like that.  Poetry.  And then '...this play play is a more rewarding and elevating self-help manual than anything you'll find in the bookstores.'  Because it made me laugh.  Out loud.

So ja - this is me - at home - reading the paper.

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Out of the Blue

Event Company: Mann Made Media

Corporate Client: Standard Bank

My roles: Style and concept development with MMM, script writer episodes 1,2 & 4-8, Director episodes 4-8

Very excited about this post... I have been waiting a while to put it up... But here it is.  I have, on a number of occasions, posted about this series I've been involved in for Standard Bank... Which started as filming physical theatre and has developed to include minimal and styalisted art direction.  The style was developed in 2011 when we has to film a physical theatre live performance to go on the road as part of the travelling roadshow... From there Nick (Creative Director of MMM) saw the creative opportunity to use the tecnique in a monthly video communication.  The character 'Sue' however was developed some years ago for the bank... So it has been a slow and steady development to get us to this exciting place.  

Here is a two minute video that shows bits of what it entails... Characterisation, drama, comedy, story... Just a few reasons why I dig it.  This clip includes the first few episodes and we are about to shoot episode 8 this month... So naturally the style and delivery has developed somewhat - but that's for the next video... yay.

Lights up

My first favorite tweet from our physical tweet board at Theatre on the Square.  I also love the lights. x

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Post-it Pose

James and I in front of our physical tweet board after the opening of Sunday Morning at Theatre on the Square... The skyline of joburg made from post-it pixels... where people are asked to write why they love Joburg (You can check them out on twitter @jeninecollocott #sundaymorning #whyilovejoburg). Our opening was full and lovely... Thank you Daphne Kuhn for all your work and enthusiasm x

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Newspaper Pixels

Johannesburg slowly emerges on the wall of Theatre on the Square...

A pixelated wall for theatre backdrop.  How exciting.  I know.  I spent the whole... and I mean the whole of Tuesday tearing up the Sunday Times (because of course the play being Sunday Morning - only a Sunday newspaper would do - even if no one knows - it still counts) breaking off bits of prestic and sticking the individual pixels onto the theatre wall.  What a mission.  I was in such a flat panic that I wouldn't finish in time.  But miraculously I did... here I am two days later and my fingers are still so sore from ripping prestic - who knew!?  It was worth it though.

So the 'how to' of a newspaper pixel backdrop...

Have a wonderfully inventive and super talented designer - for us that's Alastair Findlay - to come up with the design of the image... a semi-circular Joburg skyline... ahh.  The rest of the circle is completed on the stage floor with a semi circle of more hap-hazzardly ripped newsprint which demarcates the playing space amongst other thing of course... (and this has always been part of the design)  So now it is no longer the semi-circle of life but the circle... of life.  Deep.

Set aside like about 9 hours... or get help.  Help would be good.  (Important to note... I did of course actually have help over the weekend in the form of Nick my husband and Amelia my stepdaughter.  But sadly I had asked for the stage wall to be painted grey and it really didn't work - there wasn't enough contrast... so it was repainted on Monday when we did our full tech leaving only Tuesday and me to complete the wall.  Hectic.

Then project your image image onto the wall and outline it in chalk.  Ensuring that you don't let your computer go to sleep as the image will have moved when you wake it up again.  Mmm.  Frustrating...  So there I was every few minutes running up into the empty theatre seats, where the projector was balanced, to my computer and running my finger along the mouse pad sensory thing...

Yip.  Develop a system... mine was this:

1.  Tear the paper into the pixels using a metal ruler for straight lines
2.  Rip and stick balls of prestic onto as many pixels as you can stand (whist you are sitting cross-legged on the stage)
3.  Grab a massive hand full of prestic ready pixels and get sticking
4.  Start from the bottom up... such brilliant advise from the site The House That Lars Built (which incidentally I stumbled upon after deciding to do this... but it was key piece of advise that made it possible ... try any other way and you'll see what I mean.  Thats a challenge)
5.  Step away often to see the image emerge, creating delight, giving you the energy to 'keep calm & carry on'

My favourite pixel leading up Ponte tower.

Inspired by The House That Lars Built we made a physical tweet board... for why you love Joburg...
a few of which I will instagram and tweet and bite-size blog...