many players many partsA conference exploring the use of performance as an interpretive tool.
This blog is designed for participants of the conference and virtual particpants around the world to share dialogue that will contribute to a better understanding of cultural institution interpretation through the use of performance.
The conference takes place at Melbourne Museum, Scienceworks, Sovereign Hill and the State Library of Victoria.
All participants are invited to add comments or contribute to publishing. The passwords to open this blog are:
Username = manyplayers and the password = manyparts
Patrick Watt will play moderator and can be contacted:
pwatt@museum.vic.gov.auPlease feel free to contribute with comments, letters, articles and photos.
Many Players Many Parts Conference Notes
Conference Notes:Thursday 12 October 2006
@ Melbourne Museum
These are the recorded proceedings of the days events so far….
Speech by Wesley Enoch
Many Players Many Parts Conference
Melbourne Museum 12 October 2006
My family came from Minjerriba or Stradbroke island just off the coast of Brisbane….when I say my family I should qualify that by saying it’#### Father’s father’s country and even that is contentious in that there are so many stories that link us to the island and so many stories that feed in from other places…there’#### great great grandfather who was a Filipino fisherman, the great grandfather who was a man from Rotumah island in the South Pacific, there’s the Scottish, Irish, English connections and the 3 Aboriginal clans…let alone the family on my mother’s side who are Spanish, Danish, English, Irish and a little bit of German. Well, you can see that it’s not that easy to say where you come from but I say my family come from Straddie.
I remember being asked a question about being involved in Indigenous performance and they said “why do you focus on your Aboriginal family and not your Danish family ?” The answer for me is simple – it’s about purpose….about the why I do what I do. All around me I can see my mother’s family story being enacted….in the media, in books, in the cinemas, in magazines but my father’s family story I see shrinking or being limited. This gives me a purpose and a focus….a reason to be an artist, a performer. It forms the rationale for my decisions and provides me with a moral and cultural framework from which to talk. It energises my work and allows me to express myself in the medium of performance with conviction and meaning.
Being part of the ‘other’ means I have been forced to analyse where I come from and the motivations for my art.
It’s a fundamental question for everyone I reckon. Why do we do what we do ? We know it’s good to do it….we know we feel good doing it…but why do we do it ? And why does it matter ? It’s become a fascination of mine and unfortunately for you….well it’s going to be what I talk about for a while.
But this form of questioning is not just a personal search for meaning it’s about how we look beyond ourselves and start to see the web on connections in society and the role performance plays in knitting that fabric…how artists and the fundamentals of what we do fits into a bigger picture. Though I will defend the right for artists to be protected from the rationalised world of the economic rationalist…I do believe in the democratic principles that the market can espouse. The people must value artists. They are the audiences and reason an artist asks them to participate and/or observe their work.
I don’t know about you but I look around and see so much I disagree with. How our public storytelling has been taken out of the realms of connection and placed into the hands of spin doctors and marketeers. How debate is being squashed and controlled like it’###### dangerous than nuclear waste (well we can deal with nuclear waste cause we want to make money out of selling uranium)…we’ve commodified thinking and learning and demanded that it come with key performance indicators, measurable outcomes and be vocationally driven. We’ve demonised our teachers as ideologues out there attempting to corrupt children with useless skills and stupid ideas. I scoff at the idea that a litre of petrol is cheaper than buying a litre of water and yet the national crisis over oil and petrol seems to dwarf the environmental issues of drought and climate change. That economics have become the measure of a successful society and it’s people and behaviour is a slave to the task.
I remember reading Ian MacFarlane – the outgoing Governor of the Reserve Bank saying that Australians spend too much time talking about the economy and that anomalies and small fluctuations are blown out of proportion by a people fixated on the minutiae of economic management rather than the big picture. A people working together to raise an adolescent economy rather than raising a family.
The interest rates and the size of the national surplus command more respect than delivery of services and the building blocks of our society….that things can be branded as UN-Australian but somehow we evade establishing a criteria for what is Australian. We as a country wish to find the reasons to exclude rather than find the reason to include.
WHY ARE WE SO SCARED ?
This is not the relaxed and comfortable world I was promised ?
I’m going to talk about the shrinking of our creative and performative environment. I’m going to suggest that the more you try to control the public storytelling, control debate, centralise decision making, squash dissent and reject the role of the arts in the life of a society…the more that society suffers from a creative paralysis…a shrinking of the collective imagination and the creative life of a society. This then shrinks the cultural capital that binds us and mob rule reigns based on lowest common denominators, pollsters and wedge politics.
That sounds a little dramatic but you know what I’m getting at. I am preaching to the converted I fear. But even we are in the process of forgetting what we are about and why we do what we do. We have accepted our position in society and as our position shrinks in the public consciousness as the purse strings get pulled even tighter we must reinvigorate our arguments and articulate our purpose to a society who has grown economically weary and issue fatigued. A society who has shrunk down to the smallest, leanest, most manoeuvrable economic unit…the family unit of one. Maybe performance is an element in the solution and we offer our specific skills.
I’m getting ahead of myself.
STORY – Imbala
THE ELEMENTS OF PERFORMANCE
I love this story….there’s something about it that places performance central to our understanding of the world. It talks about using performance to engage in a public storytelling and making meaning of the world around us. I like to think that performance has some key characteristics that are unique and community building.
In it’s barest form performance requires nothing more than a human being…I’d argue it needs at least two…a performer and an audience….it is about communicating between these two people the creator and the receiver in a temporal form. Time is not frozen like in visual arts…nor is meaning formally coded as in Literature requiring an intellectual decoding. Performance is about at least two people in time and space trying to understand each other. Add to this the concept of role ‘taking on role’ and the process takes on a transformative element….the idea of becoming another, understanding another’s position to the point that you convey their world view to an audience.
Dance, Music, Theatre, storytelling…they share these basics.
It’s why they are the basis of ritual and ceremony….why artists have been considered shamans and mystics for eons.
Performance is the building block of social engagement and human interaction it gives us a medium through which we can understand others, to walk in the shoes of another for a period of time, to experience emotions and ideas which are not really within our scope of lived experience.
In the Greek word performance was said to have the power to transport an audience into another world where they experienced the pain, anguish, triumph, joys of a hero in a play and then they would be returned changed forever…having been taken to the extremes of the human condition through the safety of a performer’s actions and story. This is Catharsis.
It is the ultimate act of imagination, the suspension of disbelief, the wilful engaging of a collective creative leap to buy into a group of symbols, narratives, actions, emotions and conventions. I love it. There is a feeling of community. Be it on a one on one basis telling a story or a collective experience of a concert of play…the transformative experience of performance is magical.
You get to learn about the human condition…you develop skills of empathy as the performer takes you on a journey of discovery. That journey is internal….through your humanity…and through the specifics of the story being told you discover the universals. Or like in ideas of carnivale you get to invert the status quo to see things afresh.
It is the continuation of play…the thing we do so naturally as children to learn about the world…performance can create places for play which has at it’s heart the need to communicate and the willingness to listen. Learning, listening and transforming in a constant feedback loop.
THE ROLE OF THE ARTISTS
The role of the artist has always been to transform…to be the storytellers and commentators on society.
STORY – Chelsea Rep
Like in the story of the Imbala…the artist is about creating a language for understanding the world.
I agree with Stephen Sewell who argues that the artist is central to a society not on the fringes of it. That the future is artist driven as we create new ways of seeing the world, of taking audiences to places they have never been before.
The role of the artist is both to reflect the society as it is but also to critique it. To hold up the mirror but also the magnifying glass. Artists explain the world around us but also create a vocabulary for change......to imagine the world we want to live in and to criticise the world we do.
To this end artists must be at the forefront of change and debate…..the creators must be finding a centre and the edge, to risk offence. An artist is both a part of a society and apart from it. Soaking up through osmosis the ideas and themes of a community and bringing them to the fore in unexpected ways. Acting as a touchstone for underlying issues and themes that have been waiting to find a voice.
STORY – Stolen
Artists work in ways that lead a society rather than follow it. The structures do not always reflect democratic principles. It is a gut and an instinct driven environment. It is not about lowest common denominator.
This is where it gets tricky. Though I will argue for the right of an artist to have their vision expressed fully….it is that fundamental relationship with the audience that should be considered at all times. The ivory tower is not our traditional role. The anarchic role of artists (I use anarchy in it’s true meaning….that is the self management of small groups) is one in which it is connected to a community and the osmotic relationship is felt keenly.
The interconnectedness of the arts and culture, of politics and landscape, of genealogy and law is a fundamental in Aboriginal societies.
STORY – Aunty Kath Walker and the 1967 referendum, artists and sporting figures as role models and agents for change.
THE HISTORY OF SUPPORT FOR PERFORMANCE
I think all societies started off like this. Where a community would choose their most talented artists to paint for the whole clan or village. That a community would value their function so that they would carry them….hunt for them, provide them with food and in return marvel at their skills as a painter or a dancer or musician. Though everyone would participate as a singer or dancer they were led by a person who showed exceptional skill and insight and dedication. The exchange was seen as equal and as a sign of their civilisation.
I think we’ve forgotten this arrangement in a bit in our modern society. As the arts have increasingly become commodified we have forgotten the arguments for our own existence.
In 1972 when Whitlam established the Australia Council the arguments were clear….it was about getting our accent and our world view on the stages, screens and what ever mongrel spaces could be found. A way of getting our stories told. To influence the public storytelling of our culture. And in so many ways that has been a success….so much so that we have forgotten that it’s an ongoing process…having won that battle we have started to trade it away in the name of free trade….we’ve started to strangle it with funding cuts.
I challenge us all to ask a politician to re-iterate the reason why we support the arts. Cause I think that’s what we need now. We need to say this is the power of performance…this is what we can do….this is what we do all the time and this is why it’s supported. Does that mythic being ‘the average Australian’, know why the arts should be supported…or why we have any army? Or why we have a health care system….
We no longer talk about what motivates us and what builds our society.
THE CURRENT SENSE OF CONTROL
Quite the opposite. There is a lack of conversation and debate and attempts to lock down the critical functions of our society – the arts, academia, the church, trade unions, the public broadcaster. There is a culture of control. In some ways you can take it as a compliment that successive governments have recognised the power in performance and storytelling…harnessing it to their own aims and attempting to channel that power to shape a society. The propagandist engaging of artists is as old as art itself, those who control the storytelling get to write the history. Limiting or starving certain aspects of storytelling can lead to disenfranchisement. Closing down the creative elements of our society, the critiquing elements, the people and the functions in a society who live and work with a clear purpose.
Trying to control these functions in our society is dangerous.
STORY – John Oxley – LA Riots. Cronulla, Redfern Riots…acts of terrorism.
The democratic aims of a society often claim a mob rules mentality. Democracy is best when it is anarchic – centrally organised government is antithetical to democratic principles. How big can a representative democracy get before it becomes undemocratic.
Does the creation of a single narrative of history serve the greater good ? Does it reflect the truth of our society ? Does it engage in the debate and the process of becoming that is an ongoing process for any society ?
I am not naïve enough to suggest that performances can solve all the woes of the world but if you re-examine the strengths and purpose of performance and storytelling I begin to wonder if it hasn’t got more to offer to the world in these times of uncertainty.
The encouraging of debate, of opposite and new views of the world, concepts of empathy and universal human connections, being in the shoes of someone else….developing new symbols and vocabulary for a new world…the belief in the need for a community to have transformative and collective experiences which define them and developing codes of behaviour and debate…..two people in time and space one wanting to communicate, the other wanting to understand.
What can we do ?
I think it’s time to break some complex issues down to simple questions so that complex answers can come forward. It’s time to re-iterate what it is we believe in rather than trying to be the smallest target possible, time to talk about values, time to look at what includes us rather than excluded…..and ultimately it’s time to see the history of our role as storytellers, as the keepers of the elements of performance, of the shamans of our tribes and acknowledge our strengths in creating the society we want to be a part of.
Thank you.
4 Sides to Every Story : Anthony Balla
Snuff puppets – as part of Melbourne Museum July school holiday program.
Both roaming and narrative
Roaming : puppets blend in around Melbourne Museum – wherever they wanted to go except Children’########
Narrative : combination of live music and reading out context of what bunyip story was all about.
Visitor comments received, both negative and positive.
Management perspective by Margaret Griffith :-
3 reasons for deciding to go with Snuff Puppets - partnership with external group doing most of the work; Puppet company with a very good reputation and good way to promote indigenous culture.
Questioned if this would be good for ‘our’ audience ? Suitability ? Swayed by argument that we need to present the real indigenous story not the watered down version.
Became a very organic process, as complaints kept coming in – taking it quite seriously and putting tactics into place i.e. signage, announcements each time puppets were coming out and worked with puppeteers to modify the show.
Puppets were told not to touch children.
We were told that we didn’t have enough story context for roaming puppets.
Complaints tailored off towards the end.
“We thought we’d take this on because we thought it would be easy !”
Caroline Martin :-
Contemporary show telling an indigenous perspective.
Thanked Margaret Griffith, Patrick Greene and Barbara Horn for support.
Museum was ‘alive’.
Bunjilaka is promoting a living culture in context of contemporary means by art exhibitions and performance.
Disappointed with some complaints, one in particular – we made it into a Disneyland production”. Responded that it’s a contemporary way of telling a story, not ‘Disneyland”. Production was fantastic. If we had an opportunity to do something that controversial again, we’ll do it.
Indigenous community “loved it”.
People still talking about Snuff Puppets, “it was awesome”.
Andy Freers – Artistic Director/Performer Snuff Puppets :-
Fantastic experience. Never worked in a cultural institution like this before for such a long time.
Company very good at changing, fitting into the social landscape and building.
Essence of Puppets is to scare children – ‘not to go into the waterhole, they could drown’. Elders are saying there are monsters in the waterhole so don’t go down there.
Complaints that do come in are from people who like writing complaints rather than people enjoying the great experience.
Perfect surroundings/location for Bunyip Snuff Puppets.
It was great, from Puppet perspective we’d do it again. With all the knowledge we have now would make the next time around ‘great’ !
In closing Caroline commented, “most of the performers were indigenous, written by indigenous performers and endorsed by indigenous elders of Victoria. We had everyone on our side”.
Dora Fay Davenport Show : “How to achieve domestic bliss”
Presented by Daina Harvey, Luke ####### and Nigel Sutton.
Domestic life of the 1950’s and how it was portrayed by the media.
Benefits to Museum about reminiscence theatre, engaging audience with Museum collections. Show offered and continues to offer the Museum to be innovative and creative. Reinforces commitment to senior visitors. Links back audience to collections.
Designed for senior visitors. Reminiscence theatre.
Outreach program.
Development of a website.
Why senior audience ? Australia is an ageing population.
How did the process work creatively – creating an environment to stimulate memories by language and accents of the characters; costumes; archival audio recordings; news of 1957; real objects of the 1950’s; recreating the advertising of the day.
Formal evaluation. Findings included - appealed to target audience, to family groups and encouraged intergenerational dialogue and learning; care groups attended including nursing homes and dementia groups; last season of a capacity of 1600, we attracted 1356 audience members; engagement went beyond the show – letters, visiting and revisiting 1950’s collection, web blog, media interest and donations of 50’#############; failure to engage people with the website.
Partnerships Panel : 2pm
Partnerships Panel – Patrick Watt (Scienceworks); Pam Creed (National Institute of Circus Arts) and Celia Roach (Victorian College of the Arts Open)
Patrick Watt :-
Talked about one particular partnership stemming from the Commonwealth Games.Great opportunity. Big sponsor was Coates Hire, Coates went to Questacon and asked to help them sell their products. Went to Scienceworks, to come up with a product to help them to sell and promote their product – the partnership was born. Decided to build a cube 16mx16mx16m and inside build a theatre for a gravity theme show.
Scienceworks brand. Knowing own product.
Who benefits and how. Where will the partnership lead to ?
Issues of Truth, Museums and Theatre.
The ‘Curactor’ (a curator and an actor).
Role of education is vital. We are education institutions. It’s partnership with everyone in education.
Pamela Creed :-
Partnerships were pivotal to get the school off the ground.
NICA has grown to good partnerships.
It’s about how to get through the doors of the CEO’s office – good ideas for us and for them.
Partnership with Prime Life led to donations of paint, whitegoods etc to help set up the school.
Talked about 3 particular partnerships – Cirque De Solei, Myers / Grace Brothers and Museum Victoria.
Each organization needs to know what they want, what’s good for each other, core values need to be in place, need to have the same direction. Find organizations that can help us get brand out there and give opportunities for young people we train to perform.
Working with Cirque de Solei with young people at risk.
Fantastic relationship. Supports our work with indigenous.
Pleased to be working with Museum. How do you take circus and bring it some meaning to curators etc. What does each organization want out of this.
How do we make the partnership work – make sure you know what you both want.
Celia Roach :-
Institutional perspective.
Why do we do partnerships ? Branding issue as VCA is seen as an elitist institution; funding and people outside the arts seeing what the relevance of what we do to their lives. Great teaching opportunities and great to pay our students corporate rates.
3 case studies : - Royal Melbourne Hospital, unnamed rural community, Melbourne Business School.
RMH approached VCA. Trying to achieve what Chelsea and Westminster did – healing the whole person, not just the disease. Live music playing in foyer of RMH. Artist in residence working on tapestry project with full staff engagement program in place which will result in an exhibition.
Unnamed rural community approached VCA. VCA’s role was to go in and train their trainers but they were hearing that VCA were coming in to solve their problems for free – quick fix program.
Melbourne Business School rely on artists to pick up new ideas.
Audience :-
Question/comment :-Links with corporate entities. Scary because it seems that they’re just using us to meet their ends and not ours. I want that role minimized in my life not expanded.
Pam – I feel the other way, the reality is NICA was established on an amount of funding that was never going to do the work. The partnerships we have been involved with have been very enriching on both parts. Finding ways of what you want to do and ways of doing it. Myers show failed because of the marketing, not our fault. They didn’t understand what it is to market the arts and capitalize what they had there. We put on a show we could never have afforded and a great opportunity for our kids. If we do anything with Corporates it’s to provide income for young people who have chosen the arts for a career. Working with Corporates whose values match.
Patrick – if we didn’t have that corporate connection for Coates, it wouldn’t have taken the museum out to the people. We were on the world stage. We used it for our KPIs. The Corporates didn’t indicate what product they wanted, they said you come up with the ideas. It cost them a lot more money than they intended but they trusted us because of our branding.
Celia – the more you pay the more it’s worth. The business school pays as much to me as a consultant – it respects what we can do for them and what we can offer.
Question/Comment :-There are sponsors that won’t sponsor shows ? That will dictate what artistic directors program. Coates is an interesting one – how did you achieve that branding. How many people knew it was a Scienceworks show because it did have Coates branding all over it. Interested also with Cirque de Solei, did it open the Optus door ?
Pam – It’s not about artistic programming, its about partnership. It’s about their values as a company. They put 1% into young people in risk.
Patrick – re branding. Scienceworks did get their brand out there (sandwich board), gave people pens. Coates were keen for us to brand. Other side of corporate thing is for example Museum is sponsored by Channel 7 so we can only used approved actors, limited with who we can use as partners in other things.
Taking the bull by the horns :
Panel consisted of Wesley Enoch; Chris Krisha-Pillay; Lyn Beasley
Question /Comment :- Back to anecdotes about Corporate institutions (as discussed by the previous panel). The Corporates came to ‘you’ guys – has that inspired you to go out and actively find that money or approach some Corporates with projects in mind ?
Patrick – Yes.
Chris – in regard to getting money from people (or space) is, that frequently you have your own idea and then this happens, yes, I’ve gone to people because there’s something I can offer that group.
Wesley – with the nature of partnerships, we often talk about money. How do you form ongoing relationships ? Best kind of partnerships are those that are formed over time, shared values.
Loyalty.
Partnership is such a Corporate word.
Relationships with audiences - government has a role to play in fostering and maintaining this.
Quality of experience. Those that smaller company’s are trying to provide should get government assistance.
Chris – can’t underestimate the value of what you’re offering as an artist and how you’re communicating that.
What is the nature of the work in process ? How do we develop a balance sheet for what we’re providing.
Question/Comment :- With regard to complaints, do institutions have a risk management system to prepare for complaints ? Is there a commitment from senior management?
Lyn – Need to evaluate what the acceptable risk is. Where risk factor is likely to come from. How many will we accept ? Nothing is undertaken unless approval received / full support from senior management.
Chris – we’re managing expectations. People have visions of what they expecting to see at different venues. Need to be prepared to go into the ‘grey’ areas and be prepared for those complaints and have a system in place to handle these.
Lyn - when a partnership is formed, it’s often a person and a section of that institution. From institution perspective, need to take the whole institution with you. Groundwork needs to be done with more than just one person. Manage all internal expectations and developing a really good partnership.
Question/Comment :– re ethics. When do we say enough is enough ? Where is our ethical responsibility ?
Chris – personally I avoid working with someone I’m not comfortable with.
Lyn – for us this is decided at an executive level – we have a list of institutions we wouldn’t work with.
Margaret – back to point about partnerships not always being about money ? Partnerships between community and cultural institutions.
Wesley – Worked with indigenous community group in rural Victorai in partnership. At what point do you compromise the skills you have. There is a cultural benefit. Not about how do we get the money, but we’re interesting and we have shared values, lets see what we can do, add to each others values.
Question/Comment :– relationship and partnership - what are possibilities of NMC and MM creating a performance that can happen between both venues. Take up on great resources we have. Share exhibitions.
Lyn – did attempt it with MM in the past but never happened. Always looking for partnership opportunities.
Margaret :- Keep that in mind, the fact that there is a national exhibition sharing organisation and there is a bit of program sharing here and there but we don’t have anything systemic, no expectations that we can share performance.
Question/Comment :- how do you maintain good partnerships with a quick turnaround.
Wesley – It’s about dialogue, not actualizing it, but keeping the dialogue so that something comes up.
Chris – you’ve maintained a relationship even if you don’t come back to your partner 6 or 12 months after the ‘event’ by dialogue.
Wesley – one reason you don’t share projects is about ego.
Form the measures of success together early.
How do you measure the success of partnerships.
Lyn – one successful partnership formed is with a drama teacher and students. Great for them, gives them and us a show, audience experience, not about money or ego. Our measure of success is what the kids got out of it.
Chris – if you have an ego, get it out there at this conference !
Friday 13 October : Sovereign Hill
(Keynote address will be posted soon)
With a Song in my Heart – Michael Mills, Heaps Good Productions
Why do we define ourselves with music that has been a part of our lives.
The music that defines a generation will be very important to that generation for the rest of their lives.
We associate music themes with certain images.
Melody lingers and becomes part of our long term memory. Becomes a part of who we are.
Attentiveness
Interest and strength of fascination
Audience that is motivated will remember
Positive emotional state
Level of intensity, emotional experience.
“Tears in Heaven” resignates to those who have lost someone.
You always memorise the context of what you’ve learnt by certain locations, sights and smells.
Through quality songs we can engage the audience.
Australian War Memorial – Andrew
Performance provided option too look at the ‘other’ side, the enemy.
Originally was a talk, very technical, turned it into performance piece and get into the character of the person / short monologue / insight into character.
Emotion in performance can give impact and give a memorable experience.
Monologue style is simple and direct.
We tell audience that this is a staff performance.
Identified groups (in segmentation study) visiting AWM - emotion seekers, knowledge seekers, pleasure seekers and pleasure bonders.
Conservative organization. Senior management look closely at what we do in exhibitions and big events. They like to know what’s happening in public programs but not as much involvement.
Casestudy : Forecast – art and fashion
National Gallery of Australia – Jodie Cunningham
Challenge was how do we engage young children with artworks by John Constable?
An evening of experimental fashion, music, dance and art.
Target audience 16 to 25 – increased to 35.
Theme was ‘weather’ inspired by the exhibition ‘Constable : land sea and sky.’
Key objective was to explore the use of a collaborative process with a variety of genres.
NGA role was project management and budget providers.
Committee selected best work produced in prior semester and superimposed theme of water. Students gave designers garments to interpret.
Brief developed by committee and given to designers, choreographer, dancers, VJ, DJ and video artist.
Competition brief was to design an outfit in response to the Constable exhibition.
Promoted event via media, printed, electronic and advertising.
‘Word of mouth’ was noted as the main way of how audience knew about the event.
Bureaucratic process was one challenge.
Benefits included - it sold out, unique event, learning outcomes for participants and media coverage.
Themes for next year’s show are - History of Australian printing making and Art of the Modern Poster.
Permission, patronage and participation ; University of Melbourne – John O’Toole and ???
Concept about participation in theatre.
The 3 P’s of participatory theatre – permission, patronage and participation.
Boundary between performance venue and social venue (e.g. the pub).
Audience became performers when they told their stories to audience members. Stories about how they relate to the story told in the performance.
How do we construct a place that combines different types of interaction ?
The 6 P’s – purpose, place, people, power, permissions and protection and participation.
The audience have their own purposes for participation. Perhaps complimentary to yours.
Need to think who our audience are and their purposes, their profile ?
In any audience, there are multiple audiences. (eg. Snuff puppets). Performers need to take this into account.
3rd P is Place – the real context, inside that is context of performance, inside that a fictional context - a play within the play.
4th P is Power and ethics – who has the power ?; the captive audience (usually young people); morals and moralysis (i.e. everything needs to be seen for the children’s good).
5th and 6th Ps – permission and protection – permission to play and protection and resistance. (Adults need to give themselves permission to play).
8th P – Performers – need both charm and an edge of dramatic tension to keep the audience there.
Narratives Panel : Anne E. Stewart; Bernard Caleo;
Anne - Importance of the narrative threat
Spent a lot of time traveling, telling stories, introducing school kids to aboriginal culture, find stories connecting to the land.
Story - Napiljarra Story.
Story about Ballarat – Joseph O’Flattery.
In planning programs have some sense of indigenous importance – giving voice to the landscape.
Bernard :- Time and Narrative
We use narratives to tell time.
Performance conceptualizing time.
Previous performances at Melbourne Museum – Bugs Alive!, I Saw a Dinosaur, Tales from the Tomb, Aquatic show and Minmi Grows Up. All involved animation, props, puppets – tools to give these narratives to our audience.
Story, plot and narrative can all be used as synonyms.
Narrative is the telling of the story – what is experienced, the voice that transmits the story.
In making and performing a narrative we are presenting a model of time, time span of the narrative shaped by our art. If art is strong enough narrative will become a part of the audience lives, of their memory.
Aporias means problems.
Conflict between cosmological time and phenominological time. How do you get these two times to meet ?
Museums are a place where these 2 times meet and across these you get narratives i.e. visitor says “I know this thing”, “I have one myself” or object label.
Weaving narratives around these objects we are giving audience a sense of shared world of what is happening on stage.
By telling a story about object or history of institutions we are saying we have woven this tale by elements of the object/institution.
Museums are the store houses of narratives.
How do ‘you’ in cultural institutions think are the important things ?
You can’t tell all the ‘stories’, what’s important to you and your institution may not be of interest to others.
Australian identity – forever changing.
Story transmits a part of the storyteller.
Need to tell alternative stories too.
Not only about the stories we want to hear but that space for listening.
Sovereign Hill Performance
Pantomime – Little Red Robin Hood
Moving into taking issues – exploring ways of dramatizing them, events that didn’t necessarily occur during Sovereign Hill time.
Miss Lola Monez
