COMPANION PIECE WORKSHOP - DAY 1 & 2

Hey there, folks! Shelley Carter here, workshop assistant for Companion Piece, an exciting new devised piece of theatre from creative masterminds Mark Jackson, Beth Wilmurt, Jake Rodriguez, and Chris Kuckenbaker. This is the first of a series of daily blogs to take you through the journey of our rehearsal process.

The first day of the process on Monday was spent doing "table work," which is a chance for the director, performers and workshop participants to sit around a table swapping research and ideas. To familiarize the group with vaudeville, director Mark Jackson had everyone gather onstage to watch a collection of DVDs of vaudeville performances and the work of other interesting theatre ensembles. While we were doing this, we were also being videotaped for documentation purposes! This means that eventually, there will be a DVD that you can watch on your television of people on stage watching television of people onstage. Why do we do this, you ask?!

I suppose that in such an ephemeral art form, the ability to connect with our predecessors and to draw inspiration from the work that's been captured is incredibly valuable. Watching these videos gives everyone participating in Companion Piece a collection of references points to draw on in rehearsals, a context for the kind of work we're doing, and a common language with our theatrical ancestors and with each other. Though this piece been worked on for several years, for many of the participants (including myself) Monday was our first day. Taking the time to explore the research together ensured that everyone was embarking on this journey together.

Day 2 was about exploring the seemingly "empty" space of Theatre Artaud. I say "empty" because what initially seemed like an empty space, upon further investigation, became a veritable playground of opportunities. Instead of immediately bending the space to suit our needs, we tried to read what the space and the raw materials had to tell us. It felt a little like taking an eye exam, you know, "What do you see? How about now? A or B? And now?" Our conversations went something like this:

"Ladders parallel or straight on? Now spin the ladders? How about now? Now, turn in a circle while he's spinning you on the ladder. OK, now? Spin the umbrella? Now upstage? Now through the door? And put on the sparkly tights. With the white dress? With the striped dress? How about now? And add a hat on a stick? What do you see now?"

And not unlike an eye exam, there are moments, glimpses, of absolute clarity, where the fuzzy image suddenly clicks into focus. Everyone participating in the collective eye exam agrees that they've just seen a piece of the play dart out of the forest of the imagination and run across the stage. "Did you just see that?" It's an exciting moment because it's a shared moment. It's a shared moment of creation, which, it seems, is one of the very ideas that this particular play is all about.