Elephant Foot Theatre Blog

Eyes to the Wall

2011-03-28T22:44:00.004+01:00

Help me. I'm in the corner. Nothing is there. Black, deep caught blankly caught. Ground, filth, others emerge from dark bob along on the surface. We are the surface of the show helping to create the world. Expansion happens I become onto others. Atom in the vacuum nothing becoming something it has to be.

The girl I see I know. She knows but she doesn't see. We are London we expand I am an atom. To the outside I go. We expand to each other I KNOW HER. She doesn't see me but we know each other I've expanded to her if only she knew it would help us both but she doesn't. Help me expand to the outskirts, we have to expand.

My arm is a shadow. Why? Stare at this head of a monster, deep, heavy, dark. Happens, has to. One fuses to the whole and blood rushes to the other. Thankful to have purpose. Lonely expedition has made me fuse.

Laura laughing. No that's me, but I'm Laura. Wait no. Fused, that's my shadow now. Have it back. I begin to laugh, that was brilliant. Heavy, weightless in the sea. Oppressing my lungs. Where's the shadow? It's me and the rest is meat. I knew this would happen so I got in the corner to start. Help me start it. Stop expanding to the end let the air in. I've got purpose now and I have the joke. Help me in the Vacuum. What's a Vacuum? Oh nothing. The Pond is expanding. Ha ha. Shhhhhhh it's seeping out.

Sometimes you just have to go

2011-03-26T20:09:00.002Z

with the flow, which is something that became increasingly apparent to me as I lay bed stricken and (a little) miserable this week, cast low by a sneaky, vindictive tummy bug/virus/evil that turned my stomach to trouble, my legs to weakened stumps (ok, slightly over-dramatising the situation) and my mind to a snivelling, sun-starved expat, addicted to such views of home as only daytime television can afford (although they do afford them thrice daily, which is convenient, if perhaps a little O.T.T...?)

To make matters worse (and arrive, finally, at the point) I was suffering terrible guilt over my tardy blogging for DDT, an activity that has caused me some anxiety over the past week. I am not now, nor have I ever been, a blogger. Neither am I a tweeter or a facebook-status-updater, so I’m not entirely sure I have the expertise required for such high-falutin’, new-fangled-tech-speak. But anyway-

The week I was supposed to be blogging for (last week) began with a bright and early visit to Homebase and all the bleary-eyed wonders (I work nights) that that entailed. The aim: to find materials for our new, modified, performance-enhanced Duck. The outcome: brilliant really, with added amusement from jovial boiler-suited men (see Saskia’s blog, Par:3, L:8-10) all we need now is to reign in our various schedules and bodily illnesses to arrange a time for building.

And that building process (not restricted solely to dowel and second hand hoover pipes) is what continues to be so wonderful about this project. It has allowed us to play and explore in a way that’s fantastically new to me, but at the same time, feels very right for the child-like nature of Wolf Erlbruch’s work. It has meant that we aren’t hemmed-in by a preordained structure or form, but rather, keeps us constantly discovering more in those supposedly blank spaces on and between the pages.

For me, getting to know Duck, both as a character and as a puppet, is just one part of that process that I’m finding incredibly interesting. Truth be told, I’m biased here, since a decision we made a little while ago has meant that Saskia, Harriet and I will be her puppeteers, myself manipulating her head and neck and providing her voice. Nevertheless (and in a vague attempt to prove this is not all about me me me) being able to learn about a character at the moment when they come to terms with their own mortality, both from the insider-view that Erlbruch and our work continues to provide, as well as the outside-in mechanics of puppetry, feels like a privilege of multiplicity, and one that could only occur in this slow burning stew/tagine/ratatouille of ours (you knew the food metaphors were going to come in at some point…)

And as we do start to narrow, ever so slightly, our process and plot out rather than play, I can’t wait to discover what else Duck, Death and the Tulip has to tell us.

Saskia is late. Shocker

2011-03-21T22:24:00.003Z

So it was my turn to blog last week. On Monday that is, or Sunday, I forget. And I've finally got round to it. My excuse? It was my damned birthday on Monday - I say fair enough. Plus, if I was actually on time for once in my life I truly believe the world would implode, so really it was a selfless act - safety first people, safety first.

Today I met with Chris and Laura to seek out Victorian toy-based inspiration. We went to Covent Garden to Pollock's Toy Shop and nosed around, picking things up, taking photos and honing straight towards anything that had a 'Please don't touch' sign above them. Toys you can't touch? That's just too English even for me. Lots of food for thought - does Death have a yo-yo, or a cup and ball? Can we make a world out of wind-ups and Spilikins? Anything is possible. Afterwards we went for cake and made paper aeroplanes - sometimes I wonder where the artistic investigation begins and the playtime stops, but maybe thats the point. Perhaps theatre only thrives because we're not allowed to play anymore. Well Pollocks to that.

Last week Syrie, Harriet and I went to Homebase, AKA Land Of Dreams, to look for Duck-building materials. We came back with a length of dowel ('What's dowel?' Ben asked. 'It's like a stick,' Saskia replied. 'Oh.' Said Ben), a plug and a catflap. (It should be noted that the two latter objects were personal purchases for my new flat, although I think it would be an interesting challenge to make a Duck out of the three aforementioned items). We then went to the nearby builders' yard in the search of a hoover pipe and with some amusement from the boiler-suit wearing crew that greeted us, were presented with exactly what we were looking for. 'How much do you want for it?' 'Just a smile.' Bingo. All we have to do now is build the damn thing - I believe that is Wednesday's job.

And so the construction, both literally and conceptually, of DDT continues. It finally feels like there's the hint of flesh on the bones now; if you asked my how we're doing it, I might even be able to give you a vague idea. Which is exciting. I think what people forget about making something, making anything in fact, with more than one other person is that it really takes time; part of our process of working on this project was (and is) finding out what that process is and should be. But I don't see that as a negative thing, we never were a West End, deadline-based, cash cow company and doubt we ever will be. I'd say we're more of a slow-burner - we make our marinade from scratch God damn it (to borrow/steal Ben's analogy for just a moment). He'd say we're making soup - I'd say we're more of a meaty stew, a tagine if you will, or for the vegetarians amongst us, a ratatouille. And as Willy Russell rightly points out in his gambit with Miss Rita, 'You can't burn a ratatouille.'

On the Soup

2011-03-07T22:49:00.005Z

Though my track record awards me no green to gripe, we and I should blog more often. Yes, we need to nurture this connection to our public, our audience, without whom we could not exist. Yes, we need to document our process and enliven our aesthetic by maintaining an open forum through which a collective artistic vision may flourish. Yes, we need to kick in the high gears of our marketing machine and spread our ever-chiseled message to the world.

That's we.

But I need to blog more often to indulge in my fetish in the creation of new theatre, to chart and grapple with and better understand the genesis and movement of ideas; to ask where they come from, why they were necessary or slicing at that moment, how they become owned by one to owned by all to owned by none, how they evolve to dominate or retreat to die, and where all the various points of departure become so deliciously distinct.

I've had a lot of ideas for this project, yet am trounced by the continual onrush of those of others. An artist and friend once said that making theatre is like cooking: our ideas are the ingredients, and our relationships are the fire. I'm warmed by the well-stoked interconnectedness of Elephant Foot honed over months, even years now; but my senses are overwhelmed by the cavernous selection of must-do ideas, and wonder, if we don't want to spoil the soup with too many flavours, why not make more than one meal? Perhaps that's the solution, and perhaps that's why we've always had more than one - more than a dozen, I'm sure - premises on the chopping table. Yet Duck, Death and the Tulip is a hefty enough task, and I'm impressed and inspired with just how complex the mix is becoming.

I'm working on the 'score' of DDT, which is more structural than musical, and though I'm trying to capture the moods and transitions of the book, and our interpretation, via the atmosphere of sound, I'm more keen to uncover the fundamental: who are they, what happens, why, and what is changed? I want to find this spine so that we can locate and define its many offshoots and reincorporations. I want to get the broth just right, to carry our imagination to its greatest possible reality.

Maybe the best part about food is that it's transitory, that there is a right time to consume, that it gets too cold; it exists in the now, and freeze-packed noodles are frankly shit.

I think we can apply the same to theatre.

The Story of the Play without a Home

2011-02-27T20:54:00.003Z

Having just joined the many-legged beast that is Elephant Foot (as Producer), I'm still trying to get my bearings. This is complicated by the fact that there's a lot to do. It's kind of like trying to work out where you are in a beseiged city, only not dangerous.......So up until last week, we were merrily gearing up for a Preview performance of 'The Duck, Death and The Tulip' on the 4th of April at the New Red Lion. We were preparing to compile press invites, sponsorship packs, recruit production team members; all for the magic date of the 4th of April. Done, simple.

If only! As is always the way in theatre land, the web proved far more tangled. Having lost our fixed venue (and so grounding all previously mentioned preparatory work) we are now casting the net wide for other options (all suggestions welcome!).

Our rather hysterical production meeting last week involved a lot of a curious dynamic, which I'm finding myself in a lot of the time at the moment. It goes something like this: Creative team member A proposes some amazing, exciting artistic or production choice, Producer raises numerous logistical reasons why said choice cannot be actualised. I kinda feel I'm bursting bubbles all over the place. I'm not looking for sympathy, I'm just voicing the eternal dilemma of the producer. I guess part of this comes from my own past experience, in creative team member A's shoes. Having been in those shoes, now that I have my producer hat on, it feels mean to shoot down someone else's creativity. It's an interesting path to tread, that of a producer, as one has to be part creative, part logistics and detail obsessed.

Moving away from myself and back to the production. I went to a Scratch night last week to check out a prospective venue, very much wearing my producer hat. Instead of seeing the endless artistic possibilities of the space, all I saw was an L-shaped room in which the audience could never see more than half the action at any one time. No go. And so we move on to other spaces...........

We have another production meeting tomorrow so hopefully the next blog, whoever it is by, will provide a happy ending to the story of the play without a home...............

All the Blank Spaces - Exploring Duck, Death and The Tulip

2011-02-19T23:35:00.007Z

Presentations of workshop tasks are a pretty standard thing. They are by all accounts muted affairs. A 2 minute whirl of what will hopefully be the faintest whiff of an interesting idea. We watch a rough outline of a piece and feedback in a polite and constructive way. Tuesday was different. As all three pairs prepped their ideas we agreed on 25 minutes for each group allowing for a second try and mixing things up. Laura and Harriet went first...

An hour later we stood belittled, giggly and enthusiastically confused. The other two groups would not be showing tonight. The girls transformed a function room above a bar into a totalitarian, unquestioning school house with the only stimulus being one word, 'compartmental". This got me thinking. First of all how certain people do not like being told what to do. Even in a controlled environment amongst friends people still rebel and become to put it coyly, naughty. Exercise caution in control experiments, should you ever decide to mount one. Secondly our experience with Duck, Death and the Tulip really felt that it had stepped up a gear. This sparse, lean and reserved story touches on so much in scope it would be quite easy to fill up all the empty space on the pages with images, questions and our own readings and that's exactly what we're doing. One of the best features of the book when you're coming at it creatively is how it lets you fill in the blanks or, indeed, let you leave bits blank and just accept them as they are. It has a transformative quality and allows us as a Theatre company to go anywhere, anytime, anyhow. That goes for an audience too. Can't wait to see if there is anywhere it can't take us. Gotta do that small presentation first though, politeness and constructiveness and stuff.

I should have

2010-08-25T12:26:00.004+01:00

In the last weeks we decided to have a open discussions with the audience, right after the show.
It's great to have some feedback: each time I discover or realize something new. This script has so many diffrent levels.... it's an entire world!!
:)
I should have kept a diary!

Z U M B I A

2010-08-18T23:39:00.004+01:00

Every day somethings changes.
I love theatre also for this. it's never the same.

today the actor's performance was just great
I like when they surprise me.
It's 2 weeks that I've been seeing our show
and I think it's great if you guys manage to surprise me ! !

I have a thing to tell to the WORLD :
today Threeweeks sent me to review a workshop, but actually the workshop was a fitness class, called ZUMBIA..................
I h a d t o z u m b i a a s w e l l
why is the zumbia thing in the fringe programme?

Stories to be told...

2010-08-13T23:28:00.002+01:00

Today whilst I was on the Royal Mile, I spoke to a mother and her two sons about coming to watch Wealth. Unfortunately, she was only in Edinburgh for the day but planned to return later in the month.

Wealth is such a unique play that people are always intrigued and fascinated by the plot when I explain it to them but today, it was my turn to be fascinated. The woman I spoke to was called Hilary and had been born in Kenya. During the 60's there was an uprising in which all white Kenyans had to flee the country. Her mother tried to smuggle both herself an her brother out but was unable to. Instead she was only able to take one child (Hilary) and flew to England with barely the clothes she had on her back. The other child (Hilary's brother) was taken to a hospital refuge and smuggled to England by a random stranger.

I was astounded by the story and urged Hilary to note it down but alas, her mother passed away last year and so it is a story that may never have a chance to be told.

It just makes you realise how many stories there are out there waiting to be told and shared and understood.

Tomorrow Amnesty International are coming to see the production and they'll be a post show discussion afterwards. I'm excited; this is such a powerful, universal story- my interest is piqued to know what Amnesty have to say about it.

Until tomorrow!

1st

2010-08-08T21:33:00.005+01:00

First of all I'd like to entroduce myself. I mean...
No.
First of all I'd like to thank Elephant Foot. Thanks to all of you. I have many different reasons to do this, and one of them is called
E D I N B U R G H ! !

Life should be allways like this.
Theatre, dance and music from 9 am to middnight.

I have the feeling that the Festival is feeding me.
My eyes, my stomach and soul.

So my name is Giulia my English is bad I met Laura and Ben at the Picture House for an interview in May today i took great pictures of the show

Wow what a great audience!!

2010-08-07T21:37:00.003+01:00

Great audience today! Big thank you to Marina Calderone for her lovely support and feedback!! Our performance is just getting better and better!! Spread the word: 'Wealth' is a brilliant must see show!

Today we saw 'Stationary Excess' in the Udder Belly-it was entertaining, fun, visually intriguing and poignant.

Saw TapOle an hour ago- My goodness it was fantastic! Mixture of tap, flamenco and spanish guitar; absolutely mind blowing skills!

We're off to see an improvised comedy musical; different every night so it should be fun- wahey!

Stephen K Amos was superb, last night, - such a warm, witty comedian- I definitely recommend!!

Edinburgh is just a wonderful place to see everything and anything...a whole month of pure enjoyment, discovery and opportunity!

Ahoy from Edinburgh!

2010-08-06T23:59:00.001+01:00

It's the 6th; the official beginning of the Edinburgh Festival. The air is crackling with expectation and we wait with baited breath for the impending chaos that will soon engulf the city... YAY! I CAN'T WAIT!!

'Twas our 3rd performance today and I'm loving every minute of my experience here. The play (Wealth) is great (and that's not just because I'm in it! Whoop Whoop!) A great man once said: 'It's good to talk' and that's certainly what occurs after our show. Definitely a 'food for thought' production!

Anyhoot, I'm off to see Stephen K Amos (yipee!) See you soon!!

I've had a blast.

2010-08-05T23:49:00.002+01:00

Well, there you go, my time in Edinburgh was short but sweet, but I definitely made the most of it.

I think I managed to cover all genres while I was here, apart from seeing some music. But perhaps after some physical fast paced Dance and some saddening Phsyical Theatre, the background music in the pub while supping a small red may count? Or more appropriately, the live music in the street when the sun is down and the street lamps are creating their own spotlights? Either way I love the atmosphere here in Edinburgh and I'm sorry that I won't be experiencing more of it.

One thing that made me curious was the different warming up techniques I experienced in the dressing rooms; from humming and singing, massage and shrugging, to crouching and counting. We artists are a funny bunch. I find it fascinating to see the various ways in which to prepare your body and mind for performance; to focus in on how and what you are about to present to an expectant audience. You can feel the nervous excitement and tension in the air. All I can say is to keep it varied, personal and fun: after a month of shows even warming up is going to be tiring.

Elephant Foot have had a great opening so far and I wish them all luck for the remainder of the festival. Of course, quite biased, I recommend a viewing. It's a powerful play and one not to miss. I shall look forward to hopefully returning with the company for next year's festival, but I shall ensure it's for the whole month! Otherwise I'll look forward to more projects with this company as it grows and grows over the next year and beyond.

Ciao for now xx

A warm hello from a Fringe virgin.

2010-08-04T11:03:00.003+01:00

After a short flight up from Bristol and a leather seated bus ride into Edinburgh's city centre, at last, I was here in Scotland, ready for the Fringe! As Adanna rightly said flying is rather glamorous, but if it's cheaper than the train, what ya gonna do?

I'm really excited to be here for a few reasons.
1: It's my first time to Edinburgh
2. It's my first time to the Festival
3. I'm really pleased to be working with and supporting Elephant Foot

So as an Edinburgh V I'm, gonna make the most of it! I've already been walking around, enjoying the sights of Edinburgh and I'm hoping to catch some Dance and Physical Theatre while I'm here. I'm only here for a couple of days but It's great to help prepare E.F for the mega month ahead.

We will be tweaking movement today in preparation for curtain up tonight. As Elephant Foot's Choreographer I've been working with 'Third', Saskia, most recently. We have been trying to find organic movements using the motion of Swing and an ABA structure. Her movement has a subtle weighting in the play that develops before us. It's important to fine tune even the smallest of shifts in her powerful silence.

The power of gesture is also something else that the whole group and I have been investigating. How much we say with our bodies is sometimes overlooked. We register meaning in movement and placement of movement beyond what is actually said. We are so used to reading body language subconsciously that what we think means something, can mean something else to another. Trying to find a harmonious balance between these associations and communicating a specific meaning is the fun of it all!

Ok, more to tell tomorrow. I'm off to enjoy a trek around the beautiful city of Edinburgh. Here's wishing Elephant Foot the best of luck for tonight!

Blog No. 1

2010-08-04T08:49:00.000+01:00

They call it 'the Edinburgh pace', and we've been at it since London. Vehicles, desks, chairs, makeup, sunglasses, gear shifts, decisions on communal food, a rota for the new Hotel Viewforth, wristwatches, windows, flyers, screams, keymasters, bad breaths and "where's my's"... Have any idea what I'm talking about? That's right. This is 'Wealth'.

We were up in the living room for hours last night, working through the oft-quixotic moments of that day's dress rehearsal, and discovering how each superficial concern has a root; and that root is often the same. Of course, it all comes down to the ending.

Today we open our show at the C Soco, and we are ready, thirsty even, to have an audience. So this is Fringe Blog No. 1. And whether the Edinburgh pace quickens or slackens, watch this space! We'll be here.

WEALTH

2010-02-02T14:44:00.000Z

ELEPHANT FOOT IS...

Rwanda, 1994. A young girl is stranded amongst bodies on a dusty road. She clutches her faded American doll. She steps in front of a car carrying a western diplomat and his family. They take pity on her. She sits in the back with a boy, she lends him her doll, sharing stories of its future. The car arrives at the border, but the guards refuse her escape. The boy leaves with her doll. She stays.

Sixteen years later. Nathan designs dolls of his own: action figurines into whom he pours his hopes, his dreams, his narrative of the perfect life, and by whom he has won fame and fortune.

Today Grace returns. She wants her doll back.

Wealth is a virtuosic performance event that crosses discipline and convention, a deeply important and riveting play about the collision of culture, memory, story and hope on the precipice of the End of History.

Written by Ben Charland
Directed by Laura Burdon-Manley

Performed at the Zeppelinne
566 Cable Street E1W 3HB
London

16 - 20 & 23 - 27 March @ 8 pm
20, 21 & 27 March @ 3 pm

Visit http://www.elephantfoot.co.uk

CALL FOR MUSICIANS

2009-12-20T17:49:00.000Z

Elephant Foot seeks a musician for its upcoming run of 'Wealth':

Instruments sought: cello, violin, viola, or keyboard(s). Other musical possibilities, however unorthodox, may be considered.

Ability to improvise to spoken text and movement is essential.

Please send a CV and brief description of your musicianship to auditions@elephantfoot.co.uk by Monday 1 February 2010.

Auditions will be held during the day on Sunday 7 February.

The accepted candidate will join rehearsals in mid-February for production in March.

There is the possibility of a subsequent production/tour.

Funding for this project is being sought, but reimbursement for the initial March production cannot be guaranteed.

CALL FOR ACTORS

2009-12-18T11:02:00.000Z

Elephant Foot seeks three actors for its upcoming run of 'Wealth':

1 male, 20-30s, white ethnicity. British or North American accent.
1 female, 20s, black ethnicity. Central East African (Rwandan) accent.
1 male/female, all considered. Androgynous.

Experience in physical theatre and movement/dance desired but not essential.

Please send a CV and headshot to auditions@elephantfoot.co.uk by Monday 11 January 2010.

Auditions will be held during the day on Sunday 17 January.

Rehearsals will commence 25 January for production in March.

There is the possibility of a subsequent production/tour.

Funding for this project is being sought, but reimbursement for the initial March production cannot be guaranteed.