Rosalie White, 26 January 2013

Called by Rosalie White

Attended by Andy Roberts, Tom Martin, Sophia Breido, Becky Haines, Fergus Evans,

Pat Ashe, Tom Frankland, Julia Vose and others…

Interesting? Yes Exciting? No

It's over: 2008-2010, it's had it's day.

Don't approach it as a motivation for making work, the idea has to come first. Festivals

are the only ones who can afford it now. And outdoor arts international scene where

there is money.

Financially impossible?

It requires something of the audience, and I'm (Becky), not comfortable being engaged

in that way.

Being uncomfortable is what's exciting about it.

Taster menu is a good idea, choosing types of expierience, giving them warning. But

this has a negative outcome too because it raises expectations

I felt angry with an artist because they made me feel unsafe. It's scary but that can be

good.

It's harder to sell 1 One on One performance on it's own now, since whole festivals of

One on One started happening. And the question of how you can justify the

expenditure of presenting just one - small capacity.

“Calm down” Does it matter what the next big thing is? People are playing with the

gimmik of one on one now, instead of making work because they have something to

say they are making it to fit the form. But it is less possible to get away with making

bad one on one theatre as the form becomes more known - the first time you

experience it the novelty carries it, but once you've done it you start to care more

about the content than the form.

Often the development time is short for One on One pieces.

“I am pleased because the rural touring networks seem to be loving one on one work

at the moment and I'm glad its getting out to different areas”

In some ways it's less risky to tour this kind of work because you need to sell less

tickets.

Pressure to run your one on one show multiple times so enough people can

experience it. This is tiring and difficult. Example of one company present who run

their show 30 times a day (it's 5 mins long). Someone else: “i love the challenge of

repeating the show. Once I did it for 7 hours. it really tests you and you have to make

better work”.

Responsibilty of programmers and marketing to be honest with audiences. Should

copy explain what it isn't as well as what it is to control expectations?

“I feel saturated by too much one on one work and I don't want to experience it any

more” - countered by the point “there is a huge variety within this type of work - all it

shares is the form but otherwise may have nothing in common”

Are people only excited about One on One theatre because it's about sex? it's so often

about intimacy. “As a performer doing a one on one I couldn't help defaulting to flirting”

“It is about questioning am I open, are you open? but this doesnt mean i want to have

sex with them. I flirt a lot in my professional life to look for possibility.”

Ontroerend Goed - the betrayal of their shows has had an effect on the ecosystem of

One on One work. The conversation was alive after Internal, about permission, trust

etc. But it made for assumptions about what will happen.

Is it for a ‘certain type’ of audience? Those who hate theatre sometimes love this work,

because the audience counts. In other work the audience doesnt matter so much.

Why is it ‘theatre’? It's more like therapy. Theatre label can be confusing. (ie. Adrien

Howells). Internal is a date, it's not theatre. Is it liveness which makes it theatre? Or

should we avoid labels. It's about an honest interaction. It isn't always about sex.

It's a stupid question ('Is One on One Theatre Still Exciting?') because it's a very wide

spectrum. Like saying are ‘plays’ still exciting? Is useful for marketing to have a label

though. Which is also why one on one work is often clumped together as a festival

experience.

“It's not for the ‘mainstream’” (????!!!!)

I want to see this work in festival context because I can spend a weekend seeing

loads of pieces of work.

Is a ‘zero on one’ the next step? Performerless performance. it ends if you drop out -

you have to GIVE a lot as an audience member.

Example of Bootworks' black box shows which give the audience watching on the

outside an experience as well as the person inside.

… It is very difficult to make and perform and fund and tour this kind of work. Yet it still

exists and is still being made. So it must be exciting. Just because it was a fad it won't

die. Maybe it's more exciting now it's not as ‘cool’ and it's moment has passed.

Theatre's about relationships between people and one on one is the perfect medium

for that. It's getting more exciting than ever.

Ps. Sorry about my spelling.

Tags:

Audience, Trust, sex, one on one, flirting, audience, trust, responsibility