Elsewhere – director’s blog 6

TakeOver10 officially opens this evening with a huge music launch party and we are one day away from our opening of Elsewhere. There’s always nerves at this point in the process, as essentially the process has finished and what we are left with is the product. But especially with this show there is so much process in the product itself as the show is a ‘work in process’ with the audience and their input. We found on Saturday with our two dress rehearsals that both shows were completely different. Audience react in very different ways, depending on who they find first, how their feeling that day, how that first interaction affects their role…there are a huge number of things that can and will change this performance. And the main thing we knew but now is confirmed that happens is that genuinely everybody gets a very different experience. This I hope is exciting but that also I imagine could also prove frustrating.

We got some useful feedback from the audience and it was clearly engaging for them but I want to try and find a few more people that came to see what their own experience was, because for me I want to make sure the piece is communicating at least to some people what I believe we made the piece for.

The company have done a fantastic job over the past few days and have really engaged in the process of creating their roles but also understanding the need to be able to communicate that role to an audience. If you come and see the piece this will make a bit more sense but essentially it means allowing people actively into your story, no matter how impossible that may seem for your character – as in the end of the day, it’s a play and the audience have paid to see some form of action and story from you. I think its been a positive and constructive process for the company. I know it hasn’t been easy as we’ve asked them to develop new skills and to work in a way that can be very exposing but hopefully through our rehearsals we have been able to make this more liberating and freeing. As often we’ve found ourselves saying to them if they have a difficulty, “it’s your character, you made it, you change it!”. I think there’s an inherent empowerment with this way of working.

So this will be a very interesting week for us all. I don’t really know what to expect, expect the unexpected might be a mantra. But I do hope that our audiences will get something challenging, fresh and of the moment. Let me know if we’ve achieved it for you…