Issue: What’s so now about now?

Convener(s): Annette Mees

Participants: Richard Herylow, Karen Gron, Melissande, Danny Braverman, Susanna Estburn, Tassos Stevens, Lun, Jon Palmer, Adrian Jackson 

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

CONTENT

Signalling:             lack of optimism

                        should arouse debate

                        anything but the war

            rising spiritualism > theatre is rooted in ritual – collective experience!

What is important is that theatre is in the now > it’s live, alive and in he now – no discussion or lecture

 Universal Themes:

            love/death etc. are always relevant – always now

What survives is metaphor which can be used to express current themes

            (Miller’s the Crucible being an example)

FORM

Trends: interactivity, one on one’s, lots of new writing schemes (often issue based -> instrumentalism), live art

What can theatre do?

Live

a gig with a story

a bullfight where the matador conducts the audience and the bull

Participatory

            (all shape or forms: like football matches – active on the side line to actively creating etc.)

Offering puzzles to solve – puzzles you can only solve by engaging – by being part of he event.

Group experience

            the collective in breath – ritual is referenced again

but also:

Individual experiences within a collective event 

Extendend event

            a key term

            the event lives on beyond it in conversations, starts with booking a ticket

            What does the experience as a whole look like? 

When does scale become a problem?

Scalability is it always size v. content?

            The size of the audience becomes part of the experience (makers should embrace this) 

Conclusion:

The future is looking bright. Interesting work is emerging all around. Form seems to be in development.

Question that arose:

How do we alert an audience?