Background Statement

For over 10 years I have involved myself in theatre and the performing arts, and in that time, I have found myself constantly in collaborative efforts towards a goal. Whether that be working towards a full production of a show, or workshopping in acting classes on a small piece of new work, I have always been involved in collaboration, however as a performer the type of collaboration has usually been on the end of the facilitator rather than the creator necessarily. A lot of my theatre experience prior to this course has been theatre in acting alone, rather than musical theatre, with acting, singing and dancing being involved as part of my collaborative process. Whilst I have done some musical theatre shows in my youth, it was only in amateur and/or school plays. Additionally, whilst I did my undergraduate degree in theatre and continued to grow as a collaborator as an actor, I didn’t explore singing or dancing as a musical theatre performer in that time. I have always enjoyed the process of collaboration and have been eager to use the opportunities I currently have on a Musical Theatre course to expand my knowledge and experience of different kinds of collaboration and what it means to be a collaborator.

Line of Inquiry

As a performer, an aspect of collaboration that I have been particularly interested in, is exploring the ways that I can help in and get the most out of the creative process in my role as a performer, depending on the style of collaboration and how the responsibility in that creative process is spread out between the different roles. This tends to vary depending on many variables whether that be the type of project you are making or the group of people that you are working together with on that project. This is especially relevant as a performer, as whilst in some forms of collaboration my role as a creator will be equal to the rest of the group, it is often the case that there will be a leader whether that be in the form of a director or otherwise, who takes on a lot of the responsibility and/or has the final say in creative decisions.

As Robinson says, without a leader in collaborating in performance, there is more likely to be disagreements and discontent within the group as everyone will have their own personal vision and/or ideas for how that creation will go. This has the potential to massively slow down the creative process and hinder the overall creativity of the group. That is why having a leader, especially an external force from the performers such as a director can be a massive benefit to the collaborative process when creating through collaboration. However, whilst with a good leader who garners trust and respect from the group the process can be smooth and more efficient, if the trust isn’t cultivated between the leader and the ensemble, then that leader can be more of a hinderance than trying to work as a collective instead. Depending on the circumstances, these different forms of collaboration can all be beneficial. (Robinson 2015: 96-97)

In the past, I have found the process of working with a leader on devising new material to have mixed results and have struggled with building that trust in collaboration whilst still feeling like I am able to give effective creative input in the process rather than being a passive performer in the process. I want to explore the different ways I can be a more active participant in the creation of collaborative work within my role as a performer.

Documentation

Over the first half term of the course, I have engaged in many collaborative projects with my cohort and it has been a helpful process in understanding both the ways I can be a more active participant in the creation of that work and also what issues I can run into in certain collaboration styles.

ICP Workshop 2 – Vacation task

New Work Lab 2 – Tomorrow Task

In this task, we were placed into small groups and asked to create something based on the prompt of ‘tomorrow.’ I was more firmly placed in this group as a performer, as the groups were purposefully picked out to have a mixture of every course involved and so I was clearly able to understand the hierarchy in the group and collaborate on the project accordingly. An idea for a play about ADHD and how easy it can be to put an important task off till tomorrow. This idea was then distilled into a song which was written by one of the Creatives and as a performer I was given harmonies to work on and help facilitate in performing the song.

ICP Workshop Week 3 – Micro-Workshops

These are notes I took on one of the Micro-Workshops in ICP Workshop 3

In these Mini-Workshops, we were collaborating with our cohort in doing different activities and/or exercises that in some way showed something about them and the way that they work in their roles. The Micro-Workshop I’ve chosen to focus on here was done by a Dramaturg, however I found it insightful and helpful in understanding things I can do in my process of collaborating as a performer when trying to understand the show as a whole beyond just my singular role of performing my character. The Micro-Workshop in question asked 10 questions that can be applied to any story, whether that be a book, movie or a piece of theatre and helped to break down character motivations and objectives within the story.

Reflection/Analysis

In the ‘Vacation’ task, I found the style of collaboration to be quite challenging in spite of it being a style of collaboration I have commonly been involved in. The structure of this collaboration very much resembled Robinsons, “Tossed in the pool together” model, which he explains as a common practice for workshopping new ideas with individual creatives coming together and having to balance a lack of defined leadership and time constraints in order to create a piece, which often means that the group is forced to come to quick decisions which can stop big arguments from arising but can be the cause of much frustration from a creative standpoint for individuals. (Robinson 2015: 97-98). Growing up, I have been involved in Theatre clubs and have been used to being thrown together with a randomly picked group to create a small piece under short time constraints. I often struggled with being confident with my voice and my artistic ideas and it is something I have been actively working on since starting my undergraduate in Theatre, learning to trust my own ability and offer more to the group when creating projects. However, whilst I took the reins and began that process by speaking up and coming up with an idea that everyone agreed with, and we began working on that idea, I found my voice became drowned out by the other creatives and my idea that I believed we were working on evolved to the point it was no longer recognisable and I could no longer feel ownership over the idea. Throughout this process I’ve learnt that within collaboration I cannot be precious about my ideas, as each person within the group is a creative within their own right who will also have ideas to offer, but equally that as a performer, I find that a less organised structure doesn’t necessarily offer me the chance to take on a leading role in that collaboration just because I have ideas. Going forward I need to be comfortable in focusing on what I can control in the less predictable environment of a collaboration style like this and still strive to make offers for ideas without allowing frustration to take over when there is only limited time to make these decisions and remembering everyone is working together towards the same goal. I should not be discouraged from using my voice as a creator as well as a performer however, and this is supported by Shepherd who says, “The emergence of actors as creative presences in their own right. Not simply a vehicle for realising the writer’s text or the director’s vision, they are capable of generating material for a show.” (Shepherd 2009: 76). Shepherd goes on to explain how this process can help to create a better connection between the performers and the audience, as the performers have a stronger connection to the creativity of the show and can therefore feel more empowered to take control of their performances. (Shepherd 2009: 76-77).

In the ‘Tomorrow’ task there was a similar situation to the first task with a group of us being thrown together to create a piece based on a prompt, only this time, whilst we were all still relative strangers in our cohort, we were aware that everyone has been split into their groups in a way that specifically allowed for everyone to commit to their preferred role in collaborative process and so we were quickly able to understand the hierarchy in the group once the director, musical director and creative introduced themselves. We all still collaborated on building ideas and pitching in different offers and suggestions, but unlike the previous task, there was a shared understanding of who to look to, when looking to make the big decisions on which combination of ideas to go with. This is supported by Robinson, who states that with a collaboration style involving a group with a leader, “The work tends to have a unified artistic look because one or two people with a strong vision are shaping the final product.” (Robinson 2015: 100). This is also supported by Cohen who states, “Hierarchies, indeed, provide the essential structures of management,” (Cohen 2015: 27). This allowed the ideas we made to feel a lot more streamlined as we were able to defer to the leaders and build off their strong ideas with our own offers. From this the Musical Theatre Creative on our team, pitched to create a song based on the ideas we’d come to and so once that song was ready, I was then able to work with him as a performer to workshop the song and the harmonies that we could do with the other performers. I found this to be a very fulfilling and effective collaborative experience as everyone in the group was able to play to their strengths and compliment one another in the process.

In the Micro-Workshop, I found the process of breaking down a story and the characters within that story through a few simple but effective questions to be very revealing in how I can offer more in the creative process as a performer. Whilst the task was from a Dramaturg, designed to show his way of working to us, it is absolutely applicable to any role within the collaborative effort of theatre making. This is supported by Cohen who explains how whilst in most areas of work, the hierarchical structures would be very strict and formulaic in their positioning of different specialists within that structure such as the army, this often doesn’t work when applied to a group of theatre makers as such structures do not account for the individuality of creativity and that the job in itself revolves around facilitating and encouraging that creativity, rather than trying to make all the workers work in the same formulaic way. (Cohen 2015: 35). Through this process I was able to gain a broader perspective on the different ways I can help to be a productive voice in the creative process when collaborating with others.

Conclusion

Throughout the first half term working on Collaborative Practice, I have explored many different collaboration styles and practices and in doing so have been able to gain perspective on my shortcomings as a collaborator and certain collaborative approaches I work better in. I thrive in an environment that allows me to bring ideas and offers to the group whilst knowing who to turn to when the creative decisions need to be made and going forward need to improve on being more malleable when the collaboration process is less structured and organised and still find a way to effectively communicate and collaborate.

Bibliography

Robinson, D. (2015). Practical Guide to Ensemble Devising. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Butterworth, J. (2009) ‘Too many cooks? A framework for dance making and devising’, in Contemporary Choreography. Routledge.

Cohen, R. (2011). Working together in theatre. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Shepherd, S. (2009). The Cambridge introduction to modern British theatre.: Cambridge University Press.