Flighting and writing

Season 6 is of Takalani Sesame is flighting.  And we have recently began writing seasons 8 & 9... Quite a journey so far.  I thought I'd jot a few points down about what I have learnt about writing during this process... as writing for kids is tricky... as is sketch comedy. Put them together and... well it is tough.  And writing for a South African audience is not easy.  The programme is translated from English into four other languages.  Therefore verbal jokes don't work - as they more than likely won't translate.  We are asked by production for a number of things... Like... 

• Minimise locations to one location per sketch.  
• Use a maximum of 3 Muppets per sketch - and only if absolutely necessary - otherwise two.
• Use minimal props.  
• Be aware of the limitations of shooting green screen - and there are many!

But as we know with constraint comes creativity. So...

1.  Keep it simple. Simple simple simple.  If you have to say 'because' when describing your sketch then already it is too complicated.

2.  Get to the point quickly - Nick always says that more often than not you can delete the first paragraph / page.

3. Having one character who doesn't quite 'get it' or has outrageous solutions helps with dialogue... conflict, drama... and of course comedy.

4.  Never 'teach' in your dialogue... learning is revealed - is a consequence - and is not 'the point' as it were.  If you are too on the nose - it's probably boring and patronising.

5.  If someone is a bit off or 'wrong'... it is - mostly - the adult and not the child Monster Muppet.

6.  There has to be a build and a twist at the end... a punch line. In a four minute sketch, that can be rough.  Something surprising has to happen. If the end surprises you - that's good!
7.  Don't have two twists - turn the story twice as it were - it creates a false ending and loses momentum.

8.  Write everything today and edit it tomorrow - it's amazing what a nights sleep can do. 

9.  Just start writing.  Sometimes I sit for ages and ages and ages... writing and rewriting the title for the sketch... and the truth is, even if you don't know exactly where you are going, just start.  More often than not the story will tell you what should or what could happen.  Who cares about the title!

10.  Have fun.  If you are having fun - and if it is shot properly and performed well and edited with good timing - then the audience should have fun too!

And a special one just for me...  Do a spell check :)

I'm sure there's loads more - but that's all for now.

These are some background stills from the new season look... I think they are fabulous.

Desert Trailer

We are very pleased to publish the trailer for our clown show 'A Day in the Desert' ...Ah.  Clown.  Such a wonderful art form.

Day in the Desert from Jenine Collocott on Vimeo.

Love. Of film.

This... made me swoon.  Cinema.  Transposed.  What a beautiful thing.  These people are very clever.  I would also like to be a Dancing Ghosts.

Dancing ghosts from dunun on Vimeo.

Flowers for her hair

Even though today is freezing cold... Spring is in the air. The first blossoms are sprouting... little dashes of pink in the garden poping out to say 'Hi!' ...The pool is getting warmer. The cats are staying out in the evening. In celebration of flowers I found a few clips filmed in Italy when we were given little yellow flowers by the school for womans day. Ah. So... Hello spring. Welcome.

The Snow Goose

The Snow Goose.  The novella by Paul Gallico... Was not my childhood love... but it certainly has become my adulthood love.  On the other side of the first run of our stage adaptation of the 1940's classic - I have discovered the haunting beauty and gentle poetry of this story. But to be honest.  When Simon and Helen Cooper first asked me if I would like to be involved in the adaptation - i'd never read it. I was still studying in Florence and I rushed out, bright red gum boots splashing along wet cobbled roads to the only English book store and I ordered a copy. I read it in what felt like a few minutes in my favourite cafe over a latte... I put it down and thought... Gosh. Okay. It's simple, it's sentimental, it's sparse... there is really a lot of space in this story... all beautifully described. But theatre is not the written word and we cannot simply do a transcription for the stage and hope it will fly... but rather to be inspired by the story to find the story within it that will work for us... the creators (James Cairns, Taryn Bennett and myself)... To find out why we like the story and then tell that story. Find places to expand and extend and discover something new... both in terms of stage craft, characters and event narrative.

So we began... one hot summers day in January 2013... with a warm up.  Like all good theatre rehearsals should start.  Stretch. Resonate. Get ready to play.  And we did play. We told the story from the perspective of everyone in the story... from the postmistress to the hunters, the soldiers to the recruitment officer, the snow goose to the lighthouse... everyone except the to lead characters.  This way we learned so much about them and found connections that were perhaps not in the original story. It was on this first day of rehearsals - when I saw the hunters - that I decided to try half masks.  There was something so right about their contradicting dynamics - their sense of fun and their small minded meanness... that cried out for a primary mask...  So I got to work.

(Here are James and Taryn in our reheasal room in Brixton)

I have never made a primary mask before - I had only played Matteo Destro's primary masks - so it was all rather scary. And of course I have made masks and learnt quite a bit about how to do it from Matteo... but now I didn't have him there to call on for 'HELP!' I made a hundred mistakes. Some could be fixed and others are still there... waiting to be corrected. Righted. Redone. 

Taryn Bennett... and her extraordinarily petit face mould

So whilst I was making them, the whole time I had Matteo's voice in my head... 'Find the plain.' 'Find the volume.' 'What's the consequence?' 'Take a risk... even to the point of destroying it.' ...And I destroyed many. I am proud to say.  So here we have The Hunters... ta-daa...

Frank.

Mr Cartwright.

With these masks I pay homage to my teacher Matteo Destro.  Whilst they are nothing like the brilliance of his work... they did play. And the actors had a tremendous amount of fun. And I love them. And now that the show is neatly packed away in crates waiting for 'next time' ... I really miss them. Thank you Matteo. Again.

James Cairns as Frank and Taryn Bennett as Mr Cartwright... in action.
photo by Sam Lowe

Initially both lead characters were not going to be masked but once we started working it became so clearly and plainly obvious that Rhayader needed to be masked... a hunchback living alone in a lighthouse. Mask. For sure. But certainly not a primary mask - so now we were combining mask styles - which I knew we would do right from the beginning and I just hoped it would work.... 

The moment James put on the mask ... and we found the right voice... he instantly moved both Taryn and I. Taryn said she could see why Frith kept going back to the lighthouse... he's so lovely! And kind. And he was so lovely. So tremendously moving. Mask. Amplification. Subtly. Sentiment. What a wonderful thing. 

Taryn Bennet as Frith and James Cairns as Rhayader
photo by Bazil Raubach

It was also clear that Frith should not be masked. Somehow she is the innocent. Juliet... or Beauty and Rhayader, the Beast. She is the one who grows and learns and changes. The emotional crescendo is with her... When studying melodrama Giovanni Fusetti would often ask us where do you want to break the audiences heart... Name it, and go for it. And with us it there was no question that it was with Frith. And her being unmasked gave depth to that decision. I believe. For us perhaps Frith is the lead character and not Rhayader as it is in the original story. The challenge was how to play a mask without physically wearing one - so that Frith is not playing in a different style to the rest of the play.  With 'naturalistic' performance the rules of action/reaction and articulation do not need to so incredibly rigid.  But with mask... this is the difference between clarity and porridge.  So it was a challenge... An exciting one. Taryn played in red nose - the smallest mask - until a few days before the end of our rehearsals. And in my opinion it happened. It worked.

James Cairns as Frank and Taryn Bennett as Val
photo by Dani Bischoff (as well as all photo's below)

Then there was the postmistress... Val. Who we took a little while to find. Until one rehearsal I asked Taryn to do something different until she had fun. Really had fun. Taryn was bit frustrated and a bit exhausted... but she went with it and after a little while of trying different things she suddenly burst into song... La Vie en Rose... And Val arrived on the rehearsal room floor!  It was so exciting. La Vie en Rose was only released after the end of the war - but it was right for the mask and for Taryn's play... So I went with the mask - which is true... and not history - which is real. Truth triumphs over reality! Yay. From then on Taryn could play Val for hours and hours and loved her more and more... as we all did. Looking at life through rose tinted glasses.

Val was also a humane-half-mask.  So she was in the same 'world' as Rhayader which was also right. She has a big scene with Frank and the different masks on stage worked. What works, works.

James Cairns as the General and Taryn Bennett as Frith

And then there was The General.  A character where James really tapped into performance flow... it was wonderful.  His short sharp scene lit up the stage.  Here we used the mask I only know as Doctore in Commedia... it follows the T shape of the face.  Initially I thought I would use them for the news readers... but in the end the news readers were masked by hats, a little microphone and a spot light...

The device of using the news readers was wonderful for time and place... we found real BBC news broadcasts and transcribed them... 'This is London.'

Making them live and not pre-recorded was exciting, at times creating split second choreography on stage... where often I thought... oh dear he's not going to make it. But he did.  Every time.










What was very interesting about using mask to tell this story is it brought to the stage all the elements that make the novella so wonderful... Beauty without being self conscious. Sparsity without being boring. Sentiment without becoming sentimental.  I feel so very lucky to have been a part of this process.

At the end of third year at Helikos the students were each given a 'Command' - a personal sentence - as a provocation to create their final piece of work. As I did not finish my final year at Helikos due to work opportunities at home - one of which was The Snow Goose - for me this piece is my command. And in some ways all my teachers were there with me all the time.  Making the masks and in the rehearsal room.  I cannot say enough about the brilliance of that school.

In the moments before we opened the doors for our premiere performance in Grahamstown.  I was shaking like a leaf.  After a very messy technical rehearsal the night before, getting to bed at 2am, not being able to sleep, I honestly thought... We're not ready... What have I done...  I have wasted Simon's money... I have let the actors down... I have forced these brilliant performers into wearing masks and shook to a degree the foundations of their training... taking away much of what they would normally rely on.  Oh my word. There was not enough time. I need more time.

Bah!

The doors opened. The Andrew Sisters sung merrily as the audience poured in. A full house. 200 people. 200 people who grew up with The Snow Goose as their childhood love. I am so sorry Paul Gallico! We get clearance from front of house... and we're on. As I was running sound and calling lights I honestly don't remember anything else until there was a thunderous applause and an audience leaping to their feet. My eyes filled with tears and relief and I thought. I love theatre. It is so scary. All theatre by its very nature is experimental. Who knows anything. 

Dance some more.

Dance dance dance...

So thank you... Simon and Helen Cooper. Taryn Bennett and James Cairns. Nick Warren. Barbara Draeger. Duncan Gibbon. Alida van Deventer. Peter Connell.

I cannot wait for the next run.  Aah.

A few sound bites:

Ow. My poor poor heart.  I was giddy with admiration, gratitude and honestly, love, when I left the Drill Hall after watching The Snow Goose. This play is proof of that elusive magic made between actor and audience in well-made theatre; an energy with the ability to get you buzzing. ~ Kei-Ella Loewe, Artsblog

This play is a must-see. It will make you cry but it will shift your parameters as to how good theatre in this country can actually be. Don't miss it. ~ Robyn Sassen, Artslink 

With the significant talents of James Cairns and Taryn Bennett, masterfully swapping faces (literally) to play all the story's characters, the story of the unlikely friendship between two people over and injured snow goose thrown off course over pre-war England is brought vividly to life. ~ Gayle Edmunds, City Press

The Perfect Week

It is fabulous to be back on set in Dobsonville ... Back at the first tavern we ever shot at ... and where we launched our style all that time ago. Super talented actors. Fab crew. And a spa across the road for when it all gets too much :) 

Show: 'The Perfect Week' live-to-video

Event company: Mann Made Media

Corporate client: SAB

The skin of an Elephant

Grahamstown is done.  National Schools Festival is over.  969 Festival is finished.  Life is quietly returning to normal.  So yes.  All that happened.  We did our clown show... 'A Day in the Desert'...  Barbara Draeger came all the way to South Africa... we hired a harp.  And worked for hours and hours in our - brand new - studio.  It was wonderful.  And intense.  And a whole load of fun... discovering new things.  Making necessary links...  All the while remaining true to the work - and the clowns.  The show was met with wildly mixed responses.  As red nose theatre clown is bound to do.  But because it so vulnerable - and honest - it is quite difficult - for us - and perhaps for some audience members too.  I don't know.  What I do know is I don't have a thick skin.  Sadly.  Or happily.  I'm not sure...  One thing is for sure - It was worth it.

Barbara and I as Fiona and Andromeda...
Pictures taken by Dean Hutton

The first obstacle - for me - was performing for Nick.  Ah.  Terrifying.  Nick was our outside eye... guiding us in the process of turning two 10 minute disjointed pieces into a cohesive 40 minutes.  These initial two scenes were developed while Barbara and I were studying together in Italy at the theatre school Helikos - and these scenes were the reason why we wanted to develop this work further.  But we needed help.  So Nick came on board to help.  Which was brilliant.  And he was brilliant.  He totally came with us into our world and helped us.  At the end of Grahamstown he said to Barbara that he's realised that you cannot watch Clown with you head... you have to watch it with your heart.  Gr.  That was moving.  Giovanni says that all the time when creating new work with clown.  The head can get in the way and spoil it...  You have to be very careful.

But yes...  Back to performing.  Wow.  That was hard.  Really hard.  But in this time I made a small - but perhaps important - realisation...

Giovanni Fusetti (Director of Helikos) often talks about the fact that the clown is already dead... so when you are on stage, just go for it... because, what with being dead already, you can't actually die... so you have nothing to lose.  And during this time of performing for Nick (who has never seen me perform - and clown is a bit of baptism by fire)...  I thought about this alot  'the clown is already dead... so just go for it.'  A mantra going over and over in my head.  What does it actually mean!?  But somehow thinking about it helped me 'to just go for it.'

And then one day I thought...  It means that naïvety is dead.  Once you have looked through the window and seen the world for all that it is, innocence is gone.  Naïvety is dead.  So the clown, who is necessarily naïve, is dead.  So go for it.  And people will either come with you.  Or they won't.  Perhaps this is what Giovanni means... perhaps not.  But either way it helped me just go for it... firstly for Nick and then the audience...

Because the most important thing about clown (and perhaps all theatre) is to 'play'...  As there is not much else.  There is no set... no cleverly written script and so on.  The key theatrical principles of clown - there are many i'm sure, but i'll name four here...

1.  Stay in the 'state of play' (rhythm, body shape, resonance)...
A clown is not a character, but a persona... there is a certain frequency at which the clown vibrates and if you hit that... play follows.  If you don't and you start acting.  It's over.

2.  Maintain contact with the audience always...
The audience is actually there.  And clown lives simultaneously right in front of the audience and in the imagined world.  So look for the ones who are are laughing or who are watching with their eyebrows up... and perform for them.

3.  The space matters the most...
Where are we?  Is the audience with us in the desert or amongst the starts?  That comes from intention... how you treat the theatrical space.

4.  The story is bigger than you...
It has to be.  You are in service of the story.  And if this is true you can hold your centre and play.

So when you 'go for it' these are the principals / disciplines that can help... 1, 2, 3, 4 little things I had to remind myself of often...

...even when you can see the odd audience member is clearly thinking 'What are they doing!?'  ...with their eyebrows down.  The line between the sublime and the ridiculous is sometimes incredibly thin.  And it is this that makes the work so risky.  And perhaps it is this that also makes it worth while.  So you have to try and focus on the audience members who you can see are thinking 'What are they doing!?' ...with their eyebrow up... their eyes a little wider... their mouths slightly open... with the look of a childs delight... Because for a brief moment they are remembering their own naïvety.  For it too is dead.  And that can be moving for some people.

So yes.  Here are a few lovely responses to the show...

We won an award.  Yay.  A Standard Bank Encore Ovation Award.  So that was nice.  We are now an 'award winning show!'

A few people saw the show twice in Grahamstown and in Joburg at the 969 Festival.  And that was delightful.  And encouraging.

We received a wonderful email from an audience member who was touched deeply by the work and wanted to understand how we 'developed the characters' and asked about our 'research process'... which is totally interesting that somehow she knew that these were not just characters from a bank of characters.  Discovering 'your clown' is to discover what is uniquely you - and uniquely funny about you.  And this can come from - and often does come from - our deepest wounds.  Our most hidden insecurities.  It is a most fascinating, fun, and often quite traumatic, process.  I wrote about it while I was in Helikos.  And then I wrote a bit more about 'Clowns in Life' (which is what this show is...)

Then Barbara was in a coffee shop buying tea when a young girl who saw the show at the Schools Festival said... 'Thank you for making this show.'  That was moving for Barbara - as she didn't swoon or say it was the best thing she'd ever seen... she simply said thank you.

And finally Robyn Sassen wrote a wonderful review for us... "...Suddenly, sitting in the audience, you are four or five years old, and the matter of giving a creature in distress your most precious possession to show him that you love him is perfectly acceptable. Suddenly the interplay between harp, space ship and a pot of tea is so profound that nothing else really matters."

Barbara has returned home.  A new show is in the world.  And this marks the beginning of what will hopefully be a very long journey.  x Thank you Barbara Draeger.  Thank you Nick Warren.  Thank you Giovanni Fusetti.