Your reports Find reports Staging A Last Tango in Paris Staging A Last Tango in Paris Convener(s): Lawrence O’Connor Participants: Lawrence O’Connor ([email protected]), Dodger Phillips ([email protected]) Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations: Themes discussed: STORY CHARACTERS AUDIENCE MORALITY ETHICS LOGISTICS OTHER STORIES PHILISOPHY TEXT POLITICS CONCLUSION Probably the most effective way to communicate what we agreed was beautiful and interesting about this story is to stage, in very truthful terms, the basis for and the process undertaken during this Open Space Session no. 18 to unearth what it is that we find of value in the story and, using snippets and extracts from the text/film, enable the audience to take that journey with us. THE STORY Components of the telling of The Story: Exploration Animality Animals have no need for… Worry Self-justification Living outside the moment Humanity Beauty Why it needs to be told Why it is difficult to tell Reactions to it Reactions, obstacles and challenges to the telling of it And those described in the following themes… CHARACTERS Flawed*** Worlds Inside (together) Outside Need to be understood By Themselves Each other AUDIENCE Chooses to… Question Judge Reconcile Story accesses… Their personal experience Their images MORALITY This is the personal world view that the story tellers and the audience will inevitably bring and that will enrich the giving and receiving of the story. ETHICS This is the social & political external, cultural dimension that will inform and, at times clash with and contradict the personal morality of the story, its tellers and of the audience. LOGISTICS Simply staged Lectern One actor Flip chart and large space on which the map of the story will evolve. Screen for projections of movie snippets OTHER STORIES It seemed helpful to look at other stories that include some of the elements that we wanted to address in this staging: The Piano & Blair/Iraq Flaws All the main characters are flawed** Voyeurism + revelation Key moments seen through… Slots Holes Gaps Self-destructive Privately Publicly Need to be: Discovered Understood Swimming to Cambodia by Spalding Gray Useful model for staging. PHILOSOPHY This is where we spent most of our time in discussion – it was a way of unfolding what the ideas were that made staging the story of A Last Tango Appealing and getting beyond the common perception of the story as only about ‘fingers, butter & bottoms’. Human evolution Existentialism Process Choice Possibility Beauty Risk Being Wrong Disapproval Nihilism Dark aspect Satre Typical, general perception Responsibility Light aspect De Beauvoir In the moment Absence of ‘worry’ TEXT What will be the content… Extracts Screenplay/script Research about the original film/story, the making of it and the impacts of it having been made. Story of the story of… First encounters/impressions of A Last Tango’ Finding beauty in the story/emotions/tears. Impro Engaging the audience POLITICS/CULTURE One of the things that will make the staging of the story of the story is interesting is the context in which it is told, the tensions between that and our current social politics and culture and the disconnect between them and the themes of A Last Tango’. Rules Other People Who are they anyway?? (we bearly know ourselves, how can we ever claim to ‘know’ other people???). Social ‘Inclusion’ it is a futile and sometimes destructive exercise to set out to attempt to ‘include’ everyone. People will include or exclude themselves based on their choice. Important to remember that, on one level, people are organisms. The importance of: Time Place The story staged must be personal and truthful to be a sufficient antidote to the challenges above and enable the interest & beauty to be revealed.