Julius Caesar - WAAPA Third Year Students at the Subiaco Theatre Centre

 The Pandemic has meant that I have seen this cohort of graduating WAAPA students less than previous ones. I was eager to see how this group of students were progressing

From the opening the production had a strongly stated sense of aggression – an animal spirit that manifested itself in the mob. The panther like movements towards the corpse of Caesar during Mark Antony’s speech worked with a kind of savage ferocity that worked well.  

As always with being an audience for young actors I ask myself key questions. How effectively was the meaning of the text interpreted and communicated? How well was the physicality of the character shown? 

This production revealed some excellent text interpretation that captured the nuance of meaning and was well-paced. Having noted that, particularly in the scenes between Brutus and Casca,  there were some sections that were less successful. Part of the issue for us, is that we know so many of the often-quoted speeches so well, that we spot missed opportunities more easily. It’s not easy to carry off lines like Cry “Havoc!” and let slip the dogs of war… or chart the nuances of shifting irony of the repetition of Brutus is an honourable man… But the play depends on them. 

There is a curious conundrum about this play. As is so often the case and also evident in this production, the title is abbreviated from the original: The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. How can this be a tragedy – in a classical sense – if the main character is dead by the beginning of Act 3 Scene 1? And what is Caesar's fatal flaw? Who are the real protagonists in this play? Brutus? Mark Antony? Casca and the Conspirators? One of the questions for this group of actors to answer: who do the audience most value as they leave the theatre? In this production I came away with a stronger sense of Brutus. I wonder if that was the director’s and actors’ intention.  

The animal imagery and savagery was evoked powerfully. Full blooded battle scenes were staged well. The costuming gave a vaguely stated sense of time and place. We have become used to cross-gender casting. Accepting the convention brings with it a blurring of expectations. But I was worried by some of the physicality choices in one cross gender role that relied heavily on contemporary gestures and body language from teen TikToc portrayals. The licking knives touches from schlock horror flicks also occasionally verged on the laughable. 

The simple setting of three broken columns and a simply raised dais evoked a sufficiently classical mood. Subtly through the action of the play, the broken columns changed lighting states, glowed from an inward lighting and, at the crucial moments of Caesar’s assassination, flowed with blood. Simple, but effective. 

The Subiaco Theatre Centre MainStage with its corner stage is a warm and forgiving performance space. It is kind on voices. The production made excellent use of the various entrances through the audience (though a couple of times, errant swords in hilts, might have been perilously close to those sitting in the aisle seats!).

As always, I am interested to see our forthcoming generation as they stand on the cusp of the profession. Overall, I was not disappointed by the promise shown. 

Foreman Funnies - The Dungeon

Drama Tuesday - Batavia Children: a Process Drama Exploration

Foreman Funnies - The Batavia Children

Drama Tuesday - Generosity of Spirit

Don't come to my production if you there to point score, to redirect it or to criticise it unreasoningly.

Come to enjoy, to share, to discover along with us the joy and rough magic of theatre, to understand why we are performing, to share what we are saying ( or trying to say!)

Come to share our sense of achievement, to understand what it is we can now do as a result of the process of discovery we have explored.

I am not going to apologise or pretend that it maybe couldn't ( and shouldn't ) be better. I can be critical as the next person (honest!) I try to have a real sense of what should be on the stage - but I also know that in schools we are working with theatre in an educational context - the learning is as important ( perhaps even more important ) than the production.

Having said that I don't advocate using that thinking as an easy excuse or escape clause. (My old mother, ever a realist, taught me to never apologise for what might have been or to blame someone else, but to cop it sweet whatever happens.)

There can be a lack of generosity of spirit in the barely suppressed commentary of carping criticism I sometimes overhear. This is more than just sad (or hurtful), It damages and diminishes the rest of us.

They sometimes say that the theatre is the natural resort of bitches but I question whether that ought to be the case in theatre in educational settings. If we saw or heard our students rubbishing other performers, we would do something about it, wouldn’t we! Surely we wouldn't join in. ( Which isn't to say that the application of critical frameworks as part of understanding the role of the critic isn’t part of the theatre going experience - but that is something different from the mood of picky and personalised knifery that sometimes seems to pervade the audience of our peers. )

I know that it is easier to laugh at something than to think about it; it is easier to wreck rather than to feel; it is easier to snigger than to understand. If theatre is truly to move us - and move us in more than a simple cathartic burst of emotion - to make us think and feel and, therefore, to change, then we cannot afford to rely on the easy response, to use a quick laugh at someone else’s expense as a substitute for a genuine reaction. Are we so insecure about our own work and abilities that we have to prove our worth at the expense of someone else’s work?

When I go to see someone else’s production, I try to see the production in its context. I try to see its successes and strengths. I try to find something positive to say. I try to base any comments that I make on the production - particularly in discussion with my students - focus on the specific, avoiding the personal or the cheap Jibe. I aim to make my comments balanced, clear and thoughtful. And the amazing thing I have discovered, is that it isn't so difficult to take this world view because often what I see when young people perform is wonderful, amazing and awe inspiring. so it is not effort to focus on the positive.

I am not claiming to be some plaster saint - or to say that sometimes I am not tempted to think a few cheap and nasty thoughts. But I am saying that I have learnt to bite my tongue when the carping starts. And I think we all should do that.

So, when you come to my production, come knowing what to expect. It will be the best that I can do with the talent and the resources that I have at the moment. We have set out to make a production which is the best that we can achieve at this moment in time. We are what we are. Whatever our deficiencies, we don't excuse them but then we don’t let them diminish our sense of achievement.

Foreman Funnies - Part 5

Drama Tuesday - Drama Teaching and the School Production

High School production of Les Miserables, 

Evora, Portugal 2017

 Scratch a little below the surface of why young people study drama in schools and almost always they’ll say they do it because they love and want to perform – to be in productions*. The allure of costumes, lights, sets, learning lines, rehearsals, stepping onto the stage in front of an audience, applause. 

I share with students an affinity for the “smell of the greasepaint and roar of the crowd” (as the song goes). Going to a school that did not offer drama as a curriculum subject when the annual production was the only drama opportunity, I grew into a love of drama from that model. But the curriculum (eventually) caught up. Drama became a part of the offerings of schools – though sometimes that is being held onto by our toenails in some schools. For some students (and for some teachers maybe) the focus of drama in the school is less the formal curriculum and more the chance to put on the play or musical. Many schools value the performance for its PR value, for presenting the school in a positive light. According the the gossip, some schools spend huge budgets on these annual extravaganzas. 

What is the role of the school production?

What is the relationship between the drama in the curriculum and the school production?

Don’t get me wrong. There can be many curriculum and co-curricular benefits from a school production. Students learn the discipline of rehearsal, the deferred rewards of working towards a shared goal. They learn about working and learning collaboratively as a member of a team. They work on the nuts and bolts of voice and movement role and characterisation. They learn lines and work on memorisation. The learnt the values of setting personal goals and achieving them. They understand the sense of personal satisfaction of achieving something challenging.

In co-curricular terms, Students from across the years and cliques can be brought together. School identity and cohesion can be fostered (in many of our productions in schools we had students and teachers working alongside each other on stage, sharing dressing rooms and the anguish and pain of learning lines).

But behind the glamour and the sweat, the focus is less on the curriculum content and more on the show. This is not just a problem for the drama teacher. I am reminded of the music students who want only the “glory” of the performance and not the hard slog of so called “classroom music”. 

We cannot overlook the issues that accompany an approach that focuses on a performance-only drama education. Competitive auditioning and casting of favourites; using professionals or outsiders to “bolster” local talent (there is a story going around of the school that spends the equivalent of one year’s teacher salary on hiring professional musicians to “sweeten” the orchestra!); choosing from a limited known repertoire – the crowd pleasers! Censorship. Relentless drilling for perfection. The production as a vehicle for the teacher’s starring role (vanity project 101). The list goes on.

Let’s put the performance schedule of drama in schools in perspective. 

Performance is important in drama education. Gone are the days when the concept of performance in the drama classroom was anathema. Unless we want to return to the days of what I sometimes call Kleenex Tissue Drama – we make drama and then throw it away barely realised, like we do with too many paper hankies!. 

At its heart, drama education is about providing students with opportunities to express ideas and share them – communicate them with and for an audience. To that end, what we do in our drama classes – our class drama – provides the foundations of knowledge and skill for effective performance. 

What is your balance of performance in drama education in schools?

Music Monday - Koolbardi Wer Wardong

The world’s first Noongar opera is coming to the Awesome Festival next week!

Western Australian music teachers are familiar with the sound and work of award-winning songwriters and storytellers, Gina Williams and Guy Ghouse, whose performances and workshops over recent years have inspired and educated many of us in aspects of Noongar language, culture and music. (Noongar is the language of the first nations people from the southwest of Western Australia.)

It is therefore very exciting to see that their opera, Koolbardi Wer Wardong is part of the upcoming Awesome Festival for children. The theme of the opera is described as one of sibling rivalry. “Koolbardi the Magpie and Wardong the Crow are two very proud, vain, jealous brothers. Watch as their cunning, their rivalry and one-upmanship brings them unstuck in spectacular fashion”.

We do hope that many of you get along to see this world first. The recommended age is 8+.

Also check out the whole program for the Awesome Festival. It is a wonderful opportunity to give kids of all ages an arts enriched holiday experience. (And how lucky are we here on the west coast of Australia that we can enjoy live performance at this time.)

https://awesomearts.com

https://www.waopera.asn.au/shows/events/koolbardi-wer-wardong/

https://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/news/west-australian-opera-commissions-new-noongar-language-work/

https://www.ptt.wa.gov.au/venues/his-majestys-theatre/whats-on/koolbardi-wer-wardong/

https://www.artshub.com.au/2020/07/14/first-opera-sung-entirely-in-noongar-language-commissioned-in-wa-260729/

Drama Tuesday - Once More unto the Breach …

…into WAAPA for production of Human Cannon by Edward Bond.

 We are in the Enright Studio at WAAPA for the production of Edward Bond’s Human Cannon by Second Year actors. 

The twelve scenes provide a sweeping portrait of social oppression, struggle during the years of the Spanish Civil War. Our focus is Agustina, mother, wife, revolutionary, symbol. At the play’s opening she is burying her dead new born unbaptised child in the face of the implacable power of Church. At the play’s closing, as she is about to face a firing squad, as she is shown the face of her daughter’s new born, she finds comfort and can smile. In between, bloody events of revolutionary savagery, acts of war, terrorism and betrayal on a foundation of love and loyalty. She becomes the human cannon aimed at the heart of inhuman cruelty.

The audience flank the acting space on two sides. We entered through a scatter of hard backed chairs, a door frame, a wooden table and minimal props; suspended from the ceiling are broken chairs. Light haze filters the lighting. Atmospheric music underscores the action.

The cast plays more than sixty roles. Sometimes generic revolutionaries or soldiers or cardboard cutout caricatures of power – Priest, Franco look alike, Vendors – sometimes named roles. The use of minimal props is noteworthy for students of drama – sticks and lumps of wood pressed  into action as rifles and guns; a piece of fabric is pummelled as kneaded bread; wagon wheels and wood are shaped into a cannon. The use of sound effects was interesting – the loading and re-loading of the cannon – over the mimed actions using improvised props. The manipulation of minimal props and the easy transitions of locations was deftly handled (though I did feel that the weaving of chairs overhead was now a tired and overused theatrical commonplace – institutionalised to the point of overuse in Billy Elliot for example).

Edward Bond continues to have a throat-hold on theatrical power. The many inheritances of Brecht are evident. Announcing the titles of each section in handwritten chalk scrawled by the actors (but spell the title of the play correctly, please); the explicit telling of the fable of the play in the opening scene; the use of shadow puppetry; each scene presenting polemic dialectical discussion of themes embodied in human interactions. The push-pull of distancing us from the horror while also engaging us with gut-level action, worked. The broader socio-political purpose is foremost: the events from the Spanish Civil War serve as a template for wider struggles. This is a primer in recognising the broad purpose of theatre. 

The production moves rapidly from scene to scene even though the sweep of words and dialogue is ever present. Not a short production (we have become so used to bite size theatre that maybe we have lost the stamina required!). There is richly evoked poetry. Agustina’s lament for her country – the long lyrical heart of the play – is powerfully evoked. It finishes with the ironical question: who could not be happy in such a land?

According to a 1987 source (Debusscher), Human Cannon is unproduced. It makes me wonder if this production is a first. It presents an interesting challenge if it is. As a vehicle for acting students, there is plenty of challenge and scope. I was uncomfortable with the accent work, which sometimes verged on cartoon or parody. But, overall, the production proved to be a a successfully managed challenge. And, sometimes, the well-intentioned movement work and Spanish clapping, was under-developed. 

The fable of the piece is powerfully captured in the story of the stone and the tree. Again, Bond’s  nimble and practised handling of his craft shows the strength of his writing as it was realised in this production.

Overall, a strong production with an interesting (and diverse) group of actors. 

There is an excellent discussion of the play’s themes and contexts in Debusscher, G. (1987).

Bibliography

Debusscher, G. (1987). Human Cannon ·: Edward Bond's Vision of the Spanish Civil War. Revue belge de Philologie et d'Histoire, 65(3), 604-618. Retrieved from https://www.persee.fr/doc/rbph_0035-0818_1987_num_65_3_3598

Music Monday - More Covid Curiosities

Earlier this year I wrote about a soprano in a Perth fringe show asking the audience, “Twenty years ago, who would have thought that in 2021 there would be more work for a singer in Perth, Western Australia than in London?”

Although the UK and USA are now opening up to live music performance again, here in Australia (where our state borders are still subject to closure as we try to curb the Delta variant of Covid-19) the phenomenon continues. Over the past few weeks here in Perth, there have been more performances and shows involving students and friends than I have had spare evenings to attend. 

Local commercial theatres, without bookings from the national touring companies, are more open to taking local bookings. Several WA based companies have sprung up, particularly in music theatre. These companies mostly operate on a ‘pro/am’ basis; they pay some or all the performers in principal roles, but the ensemble often do it for little / no monetary reward. 

There are also smaller companies who do shows on a profit-share basis.

Some graduating actors and music theatre students from WAAPA are planning to stay in Perth for the time being, seeing it as a place where there is some possibility of work. Until the pandemic that was unheard of – graduating performers always headed to the larger, more performance active cities of Melbourne and Sydney.

On a side, but connected, note – yesterday I adjudicated some vocal sections at a local, well-established eisteddfod. In chatting to the organizer at the start, he commented that the number of piano competitors was at a record-breaking high, but that they had never had so few singers. Later, as I drove home, I pondered that situation. Are all the singers in Perth now in rehearsal or performance for our plethora of shows? 

There is no doubt that it is good to see a much more active local performance scene here. (That must be one of the few positives of the pandemic.) There is a much stronger sense of a local arts community.

 And if we also keep our ears tuned to what is happening nationally and internationally, the future of music performance in Perth could be a healthier and more abundant one.