butcher's paper time

I come to Pigeon Hole and sit by the heater. Christy gets butcher's paper and we start to write ideas about narrative.
I think of Ana Kokinos talking about a film's 'controlling idea' and i try to write some sentences that I think are our controlling idea. Luke is interested in questions, points of enquiry. We write some questions too.
Christy talks about how they made Quiche. They started with an aesthetic. I feel like we are very clear about what our aesthetic is - especially after last nights conversation with Amanda.
Christy gets a fresh piece of paper and writes "aesthetic: comic book suburban." Underneath we have chosen one of my 'controlling idea' sentences which is 'We are more powerful than we think we are" Then we spend some time choosing questions.
"What makes us feel less powerfull and what do we hold up against it?"
"What are the skills we have that go unnoticed?"
"How do we use the superhero fantasy?"

the most fun so far

"Our house is full of set - its a bit overwhelming." It's true. When you live in the back of a truck and you use it for transporting things, the things end up on your couch, on your kitchen floor, on the pathway to your bed. We unload the table and the bunkbed peices and the bits of acromat and the long roll of chequered lino. We talk about a trailor.
It looks like a lot of stuff to be touring round the country and lumping in and out of theatres. I'm daunted.

We stack everything in the elevator and then set it up on the stage. Amazingly it seems to only take about ten minutes. The set is bulky, but not heavy and awkward. Every piece is easy to carry. "It will be a quicker bump in than Bubblewrap" we say. Every piece of set/equipment we have needs to be considered in terms of touring.

We spend a long time looking at the layout of each item. the mats, the lino, where the astro turf will go. The aesthetic versus the practicality of where we want mats. the additional barrier of not wanting to cut foot holes for the table and bunks in the mats means we are limited to very particular angles. The relationship between the table and the bunkbed needs to be pretty specific. If we are putting the mats under the lino and the astroturf we really need to have very clear visuals about where the mats are and where they aren't.

Finally we come to a conclusion. For today. Lets play on it.
So we warm up and start with forward rolls in and dive rolls out of. We jump on the table and up onto the top bunk, we do table-slides onto the bottom bunk and forward rolls out. Then we start on the list we made on friday. We try each trick once or twice and most of them get a tick. Yes this one will be possible. So will this. Only a couple feel like they will require a lot of work. Our skills translate easily onto the equipment. By 2:30 we want coffee and treats but we have worked through the whole list of tricks.

Suddenly the set feels more vital to our training routine. We want to start putting together routines, we want to get used to working on this equipment. It's going to limit everything we do while offering us a million options for new things.

We look at the rehearsal schedule of venues with this in mind and make some phone calls, book Kingston for some more sessions, think about a proposal to Westside.

Then we meet with Amanda. She comes in and sits on the floor of the theatre and watches some of our impro footage on Luke's laptop. The Kingston people are locking up so we walk the cold streets of Moorabbin together trying to find an after-five cafe. The only thing open is subway so we sit there drinking orange juices from the subway fridge and brainstorming costumes. She says "You're magic, I think you're magic, you're going to just discover your dog ears and its going to be amazing" she says, "a quick change is easy you'll just need one other person..." and she explains the velcro. She talks about kneepads and her own childhood dressup box and an old black and white photo of a girl in a pretty white dress with flippers and a snorkel mask.

We talk about a black and white palate in the sense of a newspaper. With all the grainy greys and off whites - chromatic - and additional splashes of magical colour. I like that this is similar to Bubblewrap in a way - the very limited palate. It get's dark outside and we make dates. Plan to talk soon.

We drive back through the dark streets in Nona with me typing a proposal to Westside on the laptop and Christy alternately encouraging Luke's driving and looking over my shoulder to help me with sentences (but only at the traffic lights because otherwise she gets carsick)

improvising

Its the end of the week and after tumbling Luke's back is sore and we decide not to train. Instead we go to Auspicious. We sit in the warm and drink tea and eat too many jelly-frogs. We make a list of all the moves we would like to try on and over and through the bunkbeds and the table. We type and type and our list gets longer and longer. At the end of it we look at it and say "if we have a tenth of these the show will have cool tricks." We watch some of the footage from monday. The long improvisations, pulling out moments that we liked:
Laying out a map on the floor using the newspapers.
The dog-head girl saying everything she knows about dogs
The newspaper boy dance
The boat with the newspaper boy in the back
There were more. I forget...

catch me...

Left the house at 7:10am rather than 6:10am to go to training this morning. Spent a couple of hours after tumbling working tricks we want to use in the show. Things feel solid. Quickly ran through the list and kept moving, keeping warm, keeping our bodies busy. Slate roof, where I base and do nothing and it makes us laugh. Passing Christy through a bunch of high moves - which is always solid on the second go round. Surfing on bluebird which is easy but it would be nice to work a down from. Double flag with me basing - which seems to take a few tries but we always get solid eventually. I worked the kip over Christy's back from fear and two spotters to confidence and no spotting. I'd like to do it in the show just because it will mean i keep the trick. We try a bunch of "Catch me!" tricks. Christy jumping down to us and us needing to catch her in a hurry. It's fun. Christy lands and looks up with big eyes and says "fun!" and then scrambles up again to the height to try another jump.

We go to the Westside Circus bakery and eat sausage rolls and coffee.

goodbye montmorency, hello east brunswick

goodbye train-trips where i write on the way home. goodbye gum trees in the burbs, goodbye central heating, goodbye getting up in the dark and walking under the moon to go to training. Hello Lygon street and 5 minutes cycle to pigeon hole. Hello bedroom and housemates and the tramride to uni.

It takes a day to do two ute loads of furniture and clothes and to clean the Monty house. Now I'm back in my old hood and all my making-work feels like it lives nearby

arranging the set

I'm late because uni is so fun i have to stay there. I drive up to Pigeon Hole and we look at the set. It's ready to play on only the warehouse is so cold. The concrete floor feels like it won't be very fun on barefeet. We move the table, hold up the chequered lino, think about colours, curtains, the pole the mats. We decide to take everything to Kingston and lay it out there where we can see it against the blacks. Bring the mats so we can try all our moves. We go sit in Nona and talk, plan organise.

obsessed with newspapers

I am back from adventures in Byron Bay and outside my Montmorency house are the week's newspapers in so many plastic rolls. I pack them all in my bag and take them on the train to Kingston. Now we have nine wrapped newspapers which is a passing set and we are inspired to play newspaper games. I lead a round of newspaper passing like the group juggle. Christy suggests we play newspaper treasure corners.
We sit and write some of our thoughts about newspaper rounds and then we do impros in pairs bouncing off the written materiel, remembering the rule Kate gave us - if you get stuck in the character - go for abstract movement. It will work. The early mornings, the aiming for each doormat, the one handed folding, the bike that is so heavy with newspapers it falls over.

Christy does a solo impro. She dances with the newspapers, laying them out and stepping over them and cartwheeling in the gaps.

We have to talk about super-heros then, because we have been so excited about the newspapers and we feel like we need to connect it back.

I do a solo in my dog hat. It's very very fun. Luke puts on the Top Gun sound track and I do strange doggie ballet and read a book, pointing my toes and wriggling my non-existant tail. I have to work to stop myself from laughing. Luke asks me questions and I play more. It's funny and silly. I suck my thumb and talk about everything i know about dogs. I want to be the dog superhero.