Going Solo: What can I do in a room by myself. Anne Langford, 27 January 2013 Doing Make plans. Set yourself very small structured tasks to break down chunks of time. Look at the toolkit of techniques you already have for making work and use those, be playful in how you adapt them to solo work. Find something do-able, make stuff get out of your head as soon as possible and as often as possible. What do you have at your disposal? Words/ sound/movement - start with forms to help generate making. What excites you theatrically? What is in your bones? Start here. Sing alone - it fills the space. Manifest your work in doable, simple things. Put into action tasks with a beginning, middle and end. Don't get caught in states - action will help with this. Recording what you do - blog, photo, film. Talk to your laptop - record your voice - vocalising really helps. Set up a director’s table for yourself, so you have a making space and reflecting space. Doing slowly - taking time. Dress the space you are working in, make it home. Edit on the wall. Bumble bee drops in to say Open Space alone, what do you feel like doing? Follow the law of two your two feet, whatever happens is right - buzzes gently off….. Make up a silly dance routine to a ridiculous song – when things are dropping do it. Call a yoga session for yourself. How do you disrupt structures? When you work in ensemble others can do that for you. Explore moments and the different themes / rhythms/ locations. Can you do it a room on your own? Should you? Have regular showings / sharings and ask is it clear? does it make sense? What interests you about this? Invite in people you love and trust. Invite in other people -you don’t need people you love telling you how lovely it is because they love you. Ask people what their lines of interest are in what you are doing. Remember it can be daunting for people you invite in - framing feedback, be specific about what you want. It's ok to ask people just to witness your work - just another person in the room. You can ask for anything from people you bring in. Think about showing things around the work - the photo that you saw, a piece of text or music, not always the ‘work’ Play around with inviting someone to go back to the start of your process, be open to where they would go - the line of interest. Different ways to collaborate - regular workshops with other people, on or off theme, keep renewing. Don’t apply everything everyone tells you. Understand ownership when bringing someone in – mine/ yours/ ours – be clear upfront. Accountability – the morning Skype – today I will, yesterday I did. Bits and bobs…. Go deeper within yourself. This could be about me trying to find my own creative voice – that’s scary. For scratch - find a question that you genuinely want to know the answer to. Maybe something you aren't convinced about, be specific. then it's not about like / dislike as there will be arrange of thoughts about this. Discussions around a space to go to work in or working in your own space - discover the different qualities and what works for you. Having boundaries can help to stop working. Don't feel scared about several different shows developing at once - 2 completely different shows often run alongside for a while, it's ok. Ways to avoid the inner critic - do before you know you are doing. Distinguish between composing (through doing) and editing. Trust yourself. Allow the audience to diagnose the problems – you fix them. Give yourself permission to do what you want. Guilt – and strategies. Torpor – pull out. What is work? Go for a walk, free yourself to work in new ways. Move between the micro and the macro, narrow focus / broad focus, broad to deep. What is joyous about working alone? sense of ownership, dancing late at night, naked, to loud music There's a moment where you set the work free, when it's you in the room there is a purity, it can get harder when other people get involved. Kit Post it notes a whiteboard - nothing is permanent, can feel nice Spider diagrams / big paper and pens Directors table – books, notebooks, chocolate, tea Space hopper Mini-tramp Hula hoop (and Hula Hoops) Surprise yourself with the weird stuff Knitting (physical absorbing tasks) Things to make / play sounds Who was here: Dan, Jasmine, Russ, Aiden, Tom, Tom, Kate, James, Kristen, Michelle, Tom, Alex, Jaye, Mandy, Chris, Peter, some helpful bumble bees and some beautiful butterflies. Tags: joyous, theatre-maker, accountability, action, doing, ownership, solo, Open space, Open Space, scratch, boundaries, open space Comments: 2 Jaye Kearney, 30 January 2013 I'm in the space right now. By myself. I'm doing that thing of having set up the space it is now just looking at me, demanding I do something interesting. I want to leave. There are things that I need to do that I can't because this isn't the ‘perfect’ space. It isn't a studio, it's just a room. I'm letting the fact that I can't do the things I wanted to do stop me from doing anything at all. I came here for inspiration… I'm going to do some of the tasks suggested here. I'm going to Open Space it and see where my two feet want to go. I'm going to do. Joanna Mackie, 30 January 2013 I found this session to be such a lovely mix of practical and inspirational. Every single person was so generous with their thoughts, and I just wanted to say a big hearty good luck and keep going to you all - you're all wonderful and passionate and, obviously, talented. I will be actively keeping an eye out to see where you pop up so I can come and see your work. Jaye - good luck opening space :-) xx