chinese pole and nellie the elephant

Yesterday we wrote every idea we had for the show, for a scene or a moment or a skill, on pieces of paper and stuck them on the notice board.

Today we went to Auspicious and sat on the couches in front of the notice board and looked at them. The auspicious office is small and warm. The folk all say hi and welcome and there’s a fishbowl full of lollies and tea for the making. We talked about what our process might be for making each scene. One is an impro clown game, one involves looking at our interview transcripts and finding the ideas we like the best, another will be about layering voice and sound over a pretty strict physical sequence. It felt like a good ‘to do’ list for things to happen the next few times we come together.

And along the way we came up with new ideas and added to the existing ones. Loved the idea of Christy being the little character who occasionally yells ‘mad tricks!’ and throws herself off things. It made me snort into my teacup. And of me singing ‘Dog! Ahhh’ instead of ‘Flash’ from the flash Gordon soundtrack.

Did Chinese Pole with Luke this morning after tumbling while Christy did computery things. My first ever Pole lesson. Luke with a tea-towel soaked in goo. Something rich about the sticky, amber rosin-and-linseed-oil mixture. He climbed the pole and stickeyed it down and then we waited a while, testing occasionally to see if it had dried enough for climbing.

I felt so much more safe and solid on it than I expected to. After a rope it really is literally more solid. I like the rhythmic, swinging gait of the climb and though my feet slipped occasionally I never thought I would fall off. It’s probably that thing: learning the very basics on a piece of equipment is easy and then you plateau because everything else involves serious skill and strength.

I handed over the Arts Vic application to Luke, all the papers neatly in order and paperclipped, the budget added up and the cover letter signed. Now he just has to add the set drawings and the DVD and Christy add the transcript and the whole thing is ready to go in the post.

Now I’m on my way to Byron Bay for the writer’s festival. Went home to Montmorency and packed my bags and emptied the compost and said goodbye to the dog. Left the house with my little red trundle-along suitcase and my laptop full of dreams singing:
“Nellie the elephant packed her trunk and said goodbye to the circus…”

Was still singing it in my brain as I slid up the escalators at Southern Cross Station and went to find Jono.

such an important part of running a company

It’s a home day, a grant submission writing day. Arts Vic all over again, and each time I do it I think I’m a bit more organised. A whole pile more support material. Calling Luke who is at Auspicious, delegating tasks, discussing quotes, confirming dates. Calling Christy to check about confirmation letters and the email that bounced. Calling the folks at Arts Vic to clarify and clarify and get it exactly right. Knowing now that they will recognise me and my project as soon as I introduce myself. Laughing at myself for being the dorky one who just keeps on calling. Starting to think about funding for touring in 2011.

the chin up bars we found

Met at Westside first to meet with the Westside people and talk about Asking for Trouble. Told the long story of my life and Westside Circus. It’s so epic… It was good to do but lasted longer than we expected and shortened our training time.

Instead of training we went on another mission in Nona to find chin-up bars. I knew they were there…but where? Driving and then wandering around Melbourne’s parks. Christy and I ended up walking together across Princess Park while Luke went back to get Nona. The sunshine and the afternoon light and a good conversation about how we’re going.

Finally chin-up bars and both of them swinging, climbing, turning on them, us filming with the lap-top and the funny joggers, random drunks and teenagers passing us by. Thumbs up from one group of teenagers and Christy, upside down on the bars said,
“It’s the 80’s all over again!”

Afterwards we sat in Nona and talked ideas. So many of them. For structure, character, themes….we want to tell the story in vignettes. Luke is really interested in the secret world of the person who imagines they are a superhero but the rest of the world doesn’t know. I am really interested in the imaginative energy of a team of kids who wildly make up adventures as they go along ‘then suddenly a massive wave comes and crashes us down..’ ‘yeah and were all bruised but really tough then we have to race across the desert’ ‘Yeah, because otherwise…’ and its funny because for both of us we are remembering something very specific from our childhood and we want to capture both of those energies in the show.

We’re interested in these hilarious characters we are beginning to create and also in our own voices telling stories and in the voices of the people we interview – either recorded or learned by us verbatim.

We sit in the truck and make discoveries about what each other think and we think out loud and come up with new ideas. Go to a café and eat too much food while we watch the footage of what we have made so far. Arrive at tumbling together in a jumble of conversations.

pretending to direct teenagers

Another day at Kingston Arts centre. Morning of logistics. Organising dates, delegating jobs, laptops, diaries and money talk. The four of us on the theatre floor making phone calls, making lists, making dates. Making a show.

We planned our session pretending we were directing a show of teenagers. “Well we really want to work on that scene, so maybe we should give them a score and see what they come up with.” “They’ll need a break after that because it’s pretty hard work” and “we definitely need to play a game at the start to get them warmed up”

Christy made up ‘superhero tiggy’ and lead us in the Anni Davey make-a-routine exercise. Did school of fish ‘against the wind’ Lots of cute, funny moments that we captured on camera.

As four o’clock came round it started to get hard. When we finally sat, three of us across Nona’s bench seat, we talked about how we are like the teenagers. We need to do a proper warm up and connect, we need to ease our way into things. It’s hard to direct something from the outside and ease your way in. Starting to set up a process for the three of us to work together and realizing all over again that we have never done this before.

Drove through the suburbs looking for the right kind of chin-up bar for Christy to spin around. Playground after playground has been safety-ed into oblivion. It made us all sad that the world is so scared that there is less fun in it. After checking several we gave up and headed back to Luke’s dads. Erin had made spinach and ricotta lasagna with potato gems. Christy edited the day’s footage while Luke made phone calls and I whispered ‘you see, I told you work was only done til after dinner.’ Christy raised her eyebrows and smiled. It’s a race every day and there’s always something to do.

schedules out the window

Woke up late with all the clowns and walked down to the beach again. The whole schedule is out the window because we are all very relaxed. We played tantrum tiggy on the beach and then Mr Hit, then Mr Hit with made up names, then Mr Hit with Animals. I love Mr Hit with animals it includes a noise and action that is your ‘attack mode.’ It was so great that Rachel suggested Mr Hit with a gesture and a sentence in a foreign language. So brilliant, so culturally inappropriate, so hilarious.

Then we played farm animal musical chairs – which I never got until now because always before it felt too humiliating. Suddenly today it worked and I laughed and laughed.

When we got back we had lunch and talked business. How clown practice will run in the future. How to use the group for devising. Who will be running the next few sessions.

And the schedule was really over and we cleaned and packed and did a quick photoshoot. Piled back into the cars and drove, raucous and hilarious, talking ernglersh, insulting each other and listening to Madonna. Straight into a bright, squint eyed sunset and piles of orange clouds.

It feels like this has been a good way to start making the show - to work together lead by lots of other people, to have a lot of fun and to play hard. Seems like a solid base to begin on (although sometimes I get nervous that we aren't making the show yet.)

Clown Camp in Venus Bay

Drove here last night after the Taxi workshop with carloads of costumes and food. Stopped in Cranbourne for noodle dinner and arrived at midnight to unload the car into the Venus Bay beach house. Walked down to the ocean this morning to where ‘beach no. 5' is lined with fisherfolk with buckets and waders. Found ourselves an empty space and did some simple games on the beach. Zap and pass the changing inanimate object. Group lead moments getting to know each other and starting to play.

I swam in the winter-cold ocean while the rest of the crew sat in the sand. The aching cold in my feet turning to numbness and then the glowing skin-tingle as I left the water.

Clown dancing with Rachel. Dancing with our noses on in the circle and in little duos, to sixties pop-rock and then to Britney. That moment at the end where everyone in the circle has a nose on and we don’t know who’s going to take charge and finish.

After lunch I lead a grant submission writing workshop which was all about dreams and goals and being able to give people leads as to where they could go with their projects. Sense from everyone, as artists, that this kind of goal setting and articulating feels really useful and important. The conversation could have gone for a long time, but its so important to remember that clowns need to play.

Status with Cam, ‘mindfuck’: the game where if you get it wrong the whole group yells at you with a pointed finger ‘YOU ARE OUT OF THIS GAME’ oh god! So much fun! Ah So Kah, and the game where you stand in a circle and try to do nothing except copy the one person in the group who is your nominated person. Choosing status and exaggerating it till the whole group was pawing all over each other. The king clown who has an endless series of jesters and kills them one at a time as they stop interesting him. ‘Treats’ where both clowns have a treat and the game is to eat and enjoy your treat with more than the other clown.

Story-telling with Bronwen. One word stories as a group, one word stories as a duo, one word stories with the duo performing the story as they told it. Totally hilarious. All of us clutching ourselves with laughter as we watched. ‘The little voice.’ I feel like it’s been a long time since I worked with voice, improvised voice, in such a relaxed way. Really enjoying letting my mouth open and a story come out and evolve.

In the evening we pulled out mattresses and doonas and snuggled on couches to watch Charlie Chaplain. The boxing sequence. So brilliant. Got to be seen. All the sleepy cute clowns taking themselves off to bed in the beach house.

“I haven’t seen art like it.”

This title is what Penny said of the group's work in our feedback session. It made everyone laugh...


So its the last day of Taxi workshops and I want to note as much of what we did as possible. For warm up tosay we id school of fish and working through all the scores from the previous days.

Then one, two, three - School of fish, one solo breaks off and moves into a doing dance then each person from the school of fish joins the solo one at a time. So many of our impros turned quite literal. There was a hilarious shark Busby Berkley moment and a drug taking scene. For me, a sudden flashback to year 8 drama, the Bega High boys miming getting stoned. Luke talking about the difference being that instead of landing in the dead end we were dancing the dead end so it wasn’t dead.

After lunch we did a Tai Chi warm up, reminding me of my Dad in the sunrise loungeroom in the morning.

Le Director, the addition of the director voice to the impro. Interesting hearing other people’s reaction to authority voice and for myself, coming to the understanding that the director is part of the ensemble

In the end we did open improv and Luke, Christy and I worked as a trio. It was great to come together in a way that we hadn’t since the first day. Me watching Luke leaping off the stage, the two of us carrying Christy, the intensity of the hard working, breath, all of us jumping into front support.

I’ve been wondering and noticing the music, how it affects and drives and is a vital part of each piece. I asked about the process of how music decisions are made and they all told stories about how important it is.

In the feedback session at the end we talked about the clarity of having a score. Not using scores today made it harder. We also talked about the difficulty of leaving a character once you’ve found one.

The main thing I remember from the previous days that I didn’t write is the power of two. The second person deciding the spacing the school of fish, whether it is loose and strict, deciding to allow the leader to solo, changing facings, deciding the timing in a cannon.

The reflection of careful bare feet treading on the shiny wooden floor.

There’s something so great about watching a trio team teach (It’s such a familiar part of my work with both Luke and Christy - the team teach) good because you get the different teacher perspectives, good because one teacher has the outside eye and the other two participate. There are specific things you learn from impro-ing with someone who has a whole lot to teach you.

Also something great about the whole business and governance of a small company of artists doing what they love. Sense that we have something to learn from that. In the feedback session I said so and some small stories came out which made me more sure that I want to hear that story. Something inspiring for me about a group who has been doing work they love professionally for such a long time together.

first photoshoot image to go out into the world

for the physical theatre impro geeks

On the train back from Dancehouse. Again, I’m going to write what we did so I can remember.

Union jack – the union jack is laid out in tape on the floor and you are limited to walking on it. You cannot cross another person on it and you must stay neutral and the only movements you can do is walk, turn or stop. Add run and fall to the next time round, then add scream and laugh the time after that.

I noticed the intimacy of coming face to face with people, the significance of stillness.

It’s interesting how selfish I feel when I choose to stay still and not go with the group. Choosing to become the one people notice.

At lunch, we went again to Degani to the friendly waiters who know us already and give us discounts. Christy tried wildly to email Kapow! photos from the photoshoot to Mitchel so maybe they will go in the Age for the Northcote shows. Luke and I talked, what are we learning what are we noticing; I find it easier to work in neutral, it feels safer and I feel like its easier for me to have a big picture of what I’m creating. Luke has a story about why and its something to do with being able to define what you’re doing giving you freedom, but I’m destracted by Christy’s little distress noises she’s making towards the phone. I really can’t help and so Luke and I are talking again. Does the fact that we are a trio creating work right now affect the group? Maybe. (More in the social time rather than the actual workshop) Thinking about clown camp this weekend, being careful about being part of the big group. And we race from the café with Christy in her phone and her phone still hasn’t done its magic. Want our photos in the Age. But she puts it down and steps into the workshop.

We did a warm up starting with ‘your hips are a bowl of water’, carry the water carefully, tip the water out in all directions, create a gentle wave in it, how does it make the rest of your body move?

Now you have a beam of light coming from the crown of your head – what does it mean to play with that light, now you also have a beam from your coccyx now you have a beam from both feet, both hands, your eyes. So fun to play with where the light goes. I’m not playing with my body – I’m playing with the effect of my body, shading the light and shooting the light – it goes in all directions and then I crunch and cover it up.

The feedback sessions. The aim of talking about what you enjoyed and what you discovered, which is occasionally broken when people need to talk about what was hard. The difference between feedback which is about specific moments, feedback which is the story you saw, and feedback which is about broad intellectual concepts. I find my brain sliding off a word like 'composition', perhaps because I’m not used to using it. It doesn’t hold a meaning for me.

In the afternoon we just did little performances with scores we were given by Nick. “school of fish and union jack” “similar and the same and union jack” “create character from body shapes, then do school of fish as those characters” “start in two duets and use a crazy shaped union jack.” All kinds of hilarious moments came out: the crazy, posing, vogue ponies; the bizarre bouffant troupe; the stunning dance duet in front of frantic, irritated techies.

It’s nice to find something fun, relaxed, playful about the impro. So much of what I have done in the past has felt self conscious, lonely, somber, significant.

Born in a Taxi - day 3

Summary of what we did…so I can remember:

Aerobic warm up because the heater is broken going into aerobic school of fish

Character leader/follower: leader begins in abstract dance goes into character and the follower takes the lead and leads it back to abstract dance (repeat cycle)

Doing-Dance: abstract dance, to doing dance to doing dance in character, swap leaders and back down the scale (repeat cycle)

School of fish with superseding

School of fish where number two holds the group back and number one goes into a solo

Emotional school of fish

School of fish where one does a solo and everyone else does emotional school of fish.

Some stunning impros where we sat and watched groups. Absolutely glorious one where the music went outrageous romantic classical and Disney on ice went slapstick with children falling off the stage and flat on their faces and everyone was being quick and graceful and ridiculous and falling all over each other. Oh god. I was so happy.

Emotion school of fish – real cartoony, reminds me of classic kids cartoons. Even the animations in Mary Poppins…

Went again to Deganis where the hilarious boy makes us all very happy and the coffee ‘takes of half an hour off warm up’

photoshoot...

Stepped out of the Taxi workshop and onto the shining wet street, bicycles dripping and water in our helmets. Caned it up Drummond and then Lygon St to Pigeon Hole, talking the things we’d noticed. What’s it like to solo at that point? How does it feel when you want the group to come together and they don’t? What is going on with eye contact and gaze. Dusk in Brunswick.

Left our bikes in the warehouse and got into Nona and out into the peak hour traffic. Museli bars and hilarity, poo jokes and Christy saying “don’t let anyone in front of us Luke! You’re letting people in front!” and the big sluggish old engine roaring ineffectually as Luke stepped on the pedal.

A rush at Kingston to unload and set up for the photoshoot and to organise food for our desperately hungry impro-exhausted bodies. Me wandering round the streets of Moorabbin trying to find some immediate take-away food in the rain – to no avail. Luke re-assembling the ikea bunkbed with an allen key and bolts in his mouth. Christy switching between helping luke and doing all the other jobs that needed to happen. Amanda turned up with bag loads of costumes, capes, ‘onesies’ (full length unitards) and various other crazy items.

I finally scored fried Indian things and we ate them on the stage between completing the bunk-bed ensemble and trying out costume ideas. This is the bit where you take photos before making a show and you don’t really know what the show will look like and you don’t really know what your characters are. But you need the promo now! So here we go…

Ali Fairly showed up with her camera and gave us make up tips while we said what we wanted. Crazy photo shoot, rushing through ideas on the not-bright-enough stage, trying to look spectacular without getting too high. Ali: “tall isn’t good.” But we want to have photos that say: ‘we do acrobatics’ as well as ‘we look stunning and professional and like our show is going to be fun to watch.'

I’ll add the pics as soon as Ali puts them up on flikr…

Went back to Luke and Christy’s that night and got a message from Jono: “I don’t understand where you are. I don’t see how you could sleep at Luke and Christy’s because they live in a little truck.” So Christy took a photo of me and my little bed to send to him.

Born in a Taxi

The Born in a Taxi people are running a week long intensive improvised physical theatre workshop at Dancehouse and we are making it part of our creative development. Today was day one, locking our little stack of bikes up on Alex parade and finding a place on the wide shiny dark wooden floor.

There are lots of familiar words – school of fish, initiator, responder, solo, group work. There are lots of familiar directions – notice the weight of your feet in the floor, notice which parts of your body touch the floor…

And there is something very familiar about improvising with Luke and Christy. The first time we ever did this as a trio was with Kate. And yet we know each other so well. The physicality of training acro, the trust of having been spotted by them both when I feel like I’m going to die, long nights dancing on some crazy dance-floor and being ridiculous, outrageous and bouncing off each other across the room. Saying the scary thing and it being made ok. Teaching classes with both of them where you pick up on the others’ idea and run with it and Luke and I always say ‘planning leads to unresponsive teaching.’

So the feedback that we got is that it was ‘sophisticated’ it ‘walked the line between theatre and dance’ and everyone went ‘Oh!’ when someone said we worked as a trio. Which, of course we do, yet working this way together is new to us.

New things too, new scores, new ways of moving, new people, new group dynamic. Beginning to take people’s weight who you don’t know, making eye contact and a connection and creating a story after just a short moment of play. Watching the stories arise on the floor.

Feels like a luxury and a privilege to be able to spend a week doing this.

Cycled back to Pigeon Hole with them afterwards and climbed on the new bunk beds, Luke explained his so many ideas to me. Then drank tea with Christy in the Pigeon Hole kitchen while Luke and Tim looked at the set and talked structural integrity and tour-ability.

the superhero, the acrobat and the child

Hello Arts Victoria, please give us money: "We are interested in the crossover between the superhero, the acrobat and the child. Each has a terrifying vulnerability to danger and yet shows immense strength; there is a sense of safety in the middle of danger. We are using acrobatics and circus skills to explore the physical world of suburbia: brick walls, shed roofs, monkey bars and bunk beds. Alongside this, we are using clown, dance and performance work to play with the imagined world of the superhero: the alter ego, the secret identity, the villain, the last minute rescue and the idealistic moral code. We are interested in the superhero fantasy that allows a powerless person to imagine the changes they want to see in the world." (quote from the grant submission i'm writing)she's so tough....

the thing about funding...

Talking to the funding people: arts vic, sidney myer. Spending time on websites looking at criteria. Sitting in the sunny study in montmorency with print outs of old grant submissions and a red pen thinking about timelines and budgets.

Research!!!

One way of making a show is to train hard and do lots of impro and do serious planning and budgeting sessions. Another is to write some ideas and then go to the bakery to eat end-of-the-day quiche and talk.

The route to the bakery is through a building site and the gate is usually wide open. Not today. Today we looked at the locked gate and were about to turn and walk the long way round when Luke said, ‘Research!’ and scaled the brick wall. Christy climbed the tree and I climbed the cyclone wire and we all dropped down the other side onto Alex Parade. Grinned at each other.

Luke wants to be the super-paper-boy, ride a minibike and juggle newspapers. Christy wants to be the one who yells ‘catch me’ and jumps and we always catch her. I want to be strong and for people to say, ‘Wow! she’s so strong…’

We all love the newspaper play idea so when they kicked us out of the bakery we went back to Westside and juggled clubs. Memory of Sacha throwing them at me again and again. (thanks Sacha!) There’s something very satisfying about the rhythm of a ‘pass, two three four’ and the clubs hitting your hand and your friend smiling at you and giggling as they all hit the ground in one rolling mess and then picking them up and trying again.

Came home where Jono has an Age subscription that sometimes doesn’t get unwrapped. Dropped rolled up newspapers in the kitchen for a while and Jono giggled into his toothbrush. (maybe we could get sponsorship from the Age…)

"in terms of the set..."

Luke has said this a lot of times. We are thinking about suburbia, signposts, letterboxes, astro turf. We are full of kid stories. The magic physicality of our own childhoods, vaulting the fence down to the creek, jumping off the shed roof, swinging down from the top bunk to the bottom one. Freedom and bodies. Feeling safe while doing dangerous things.

'Lets get a parkour guy in to teach us stuff,' 'Imagine if we turned the bottom bunk into a trampoline,' 'Chinese pole on the signpost,' 'Off the ground tiggy.'

The classic 50’s aesthetic that goes with the superhero and ourselves not superheroes but imagining we are. Sometimes the superhero story looks real. Can we have a signpost, powerlines, a bunkbed a table we can slide on and monkey bars all in the same set? And also a brick wall, a staircase and a hills hoist??? Luke is dreaming and wants to build it…

We think we can get cheap astroturf...

Malthouse Cafe

We gather at the Malthouse café. First Luke and Christy and I with butcher’s paper and coffee and a laptop - to write an agenda and plan the meeting. Then, slowly, the rest of the show team following hard on their “5 mins late” texts. Amanda bubbling with costume ideas, clear about her timelines and pushing little Tarlo in a pram. Ania with chilly cheeks from the cycling and a bit concerned about her ability to make sound while on tour with Oz. Jak, the painter/illustrator who knows the least about the project; tall, quiet, listening. Kate comes last of all, friendly, in a hurry, laughing, introducing herself around the circle. Timelines, budgets, brainstorms, ideas. Christy holds Tarlo while Amanda talks costume, Jak asks questions and Luke talks about the set.

Bringing everyone together makes the project feel real. Christy and I smile at each other on the tram as we leave, “that was a good thing to do.”

Kingston Arts Centre

Kingston Arts Centre is next to Moorabbin station. It takes me an hour and a half on the train from Montmorency and when I change trains at Flinders street it is so chaotic that I make friends with the other confused Frankston line travelers. Kingstron Arts Centre is on the edge of a busy, three-lane each way road with that feeling of suburbs and industry all around it.

It’s a lovely old building. Two story red-red brick with big, white-framed windows and a wide staircase lined by dark wooden banister rails. We have the use of Kingston Arts Centre every Monday. Marisa is totally welcoming and sweet. She shows us our own desk space in the office and lets us into the theatre we will have for 6 hours.

While Christy goes straight to the office and calls people, Luke and I clamber up into the tech box and start to play. We find the lights, put up a blue and some reds on the curtain, and a wash on the stage, take it in turns to explore the desk, find the mike and the laptop plug in and start to play. The sound of our miked voices through the theatre makes us embarrassed at first and then is fun. We tell stories, make things up while the other brings music in underneath it on the laptop. Suddenly we have being improing for an hour on the sound desk and Christy is back.

We plan schedules and budgets with a computer and a phone in front of each of us lying on our stomachs on the theatre floor.

Luke and I impro on the floor while Christy layers sound under what we do. Playing the digi recordings, bringing up music, telling stories on the mike. 20 minutes is nothing.

Luke’s dad’s house is just around the corner and we go there and drink tea, tired and happy on the couches looking out at his newly planted vegetables. We’ll be back next week, we say after our next session in our very own theatre.

empty teapot and excel

We didn’t get the Arts Vic funding so now we are going to make a show without it. The main thing for me is the time/income conundrum, the curse of every artist, I guess. How can I earn my money to live and make a show and write a novel and study my masters and still have time for the people I love and to keep my house friendly and full of food? But I haven’t really even started to consider it when Luke and Christy come to me with a proposal. They want to pay me to write grant submissions.

I go to Soul Food on Smith Street and drink lemon and ginger tea in front of the maths. After an hour with excel I have done a personal income and expenditure, an Asking for Trouble grant budget and proposed timeline and a weekly time budget for myself. I am bursting with the possibility that I can do everything I want. I love the trams and the overcast sky and the empty teapot and excel. I’m looking forward to the rest of the year

Frangelico

We didn’t get the arts vic grant. Luke and Christy came back here and we sat at my kitchen table with a tiny glass of frangelico each. Christy said ‘to making beautiful art against all odds’ and we looked into each other’s faces and smiled and took little sips of sweet nutty liqueur.

clown school in paris

Luke and Christy are planning to go to clown school in Paris. Train with Gaulier. I want to go too. I want catch the Trans Siberian and then live in an apartment in Paris and go to clown school every day. While Luke cooks dinner and Christy does Asking for Trouble business I look at apartments to rent in Paris and sing Ertha Kitt songs in my head