Your reports Find reports Audience Agency in ‘Political’ Theatre in Rehearsal and Performance Audience Agency in ‘Political’ Theatre in Rehearsal and Performance Convener(s): Tom Ross-Williams: [email protected] (Populace theatre), Becki Hillman: [email protected] (In Good Company) Participants: Tom Brocklehurst, John Ward, Susana Davis Cook, Rod Dixon, Christina Caralina, Nicola Sianhope, Fran Hyde, Eve Leigh, Lauren Cooney, Emma Callander… Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations: Questions/provocations/models of practice/thoughts relating to the group discussion: come to me with a solution, not a problem how do giving answers/asking questions lead to political agency in performance? positivity/negativity for politicisation in performance the efficacy of ownership/belonging for a theatre of action Theatre Uncut and David Greig: his short play last year needing audience to participate – and empowering model? (Engendered emotional responses from audience members who empathised with what was going on and had to perform role-play)… …(but is an audience reading from a script in unison always empowering?) Third Ring Out (performance) – educative, gaming model of performance, which began anonymously but became more involved/actively engaged An invitation to become active/the active engagement of the audience must not lead to nowhere! (Where can it lead? – into other actions/networks/practices/social movements or groups? Into further productions? – how can we facilitate further engagement, what obstacles might we encounter as practitioners and how might we overcome them??) Collective identity feels safer for an audience to practice agency (builds confidence). How can we engender this in rehearsal/performance? By splitting people into groups? Inviting them to socialise? Involving them in process…….. Is the word ‘political’ a turn off to theatre audiences (and what audiences do we want to politicize?) Is it unsexy/not escapist enough?...Automatically unpopular? Or is this relative to historical/political/economic contexts? Where is it sexy/popular? (Scotland? Other…?) OR reclaim the word ‘political’??? Is being told something or being preached at always something we shy away from or do we accept it in contexts that aren’t ‘political’? Is theatre encountering its biggest period of ‘formal explosion’?! There’s much more but I am running out of time!....... thanks to tom and participants for great discussion! Becki Donation only political theatre Don’t turn the lights out on the audience Giving people a shared experience But give audience a role in political theatre is important Leave a show feeling galvanised rather than pacified The power of obstruction – audience unified by having to solve a problem of sharing a tight space Encouraging audiences to be disobedient Audience - Soho Theatre (manipulated but disempowered?) Nature of the offer given to the audience If we are told what to think do we turn off? Demanding to share viewpoints to incite reactionary thinking/action Connect audience to tangible stories rather than abstract ideas Like the demolition of local building Localised is political theatre We can learn from other forms – circus/stand-up/dance 7:84 Black Black Oil What is your language Political issue explored through a ceilidh Shalom Baby – political moment a gay kiss in Stratford East “Be the change you want to see in the world” Leave the theatre with the world “yes!”