Far Too Bold Imagery
Hello there, it’s me Andrew again to tell you what’s
happened since my last blog.
Well, since then I have worked more on college
projects, I have written up some minor ideas for possible ideas, I have been
creating songs, Tarot cards have become a part of my life and I have ultimately
spent far too much time doing work in my bedroom.
One Saturday at the end of January, we had a young playwright’s workshop with playwright, Oliver Emanuel. He talked us through his process of beginning to come up with ideas for plays; but I’ve also taken it as a process for coming up with story ideas for creative things. First we talked in pairs about one idea we have at the moment and explaining them, which I really liked because one of the things I wanted to get out of the Young Playwright’s Programme was to be able to share my ideas and get feedback on them. We then went into talking about the 'Bold Image and Big Problem'; in this we thought of a question for other idea and bold piece of imagery to accompany it. I love this because it helps me put another project I'm working on into perspective. We also looked at an actual news story and found the bold image and big problem; showing that this is applicable for real life as well.
We then went on to work on “Ten Brilliant Things” in which we just came up with ten visual ideas that didn’t need a huge amount of explanation; another great way of starting to come up with the ideas that are hopefully going into your play. This I quite enjoyed as it was a more organised way to brainstorm and as such, made more sense and was easier for me to do.
Towards the end of the workshop, we were encouraged to ask questions
and I asked about how to protect your mental and emotional when
researching hard hitting topics for plays, and the answer I got, was that maybe
you don’t. That makes sense to me, because if you try to protect
yourself to any huge degree, you end up blocking out some of the meaning and
feeling that you could use and put into the play itself. That’s probably why so
many plays are great, because playwrights let the full emotional weight of what
they’re writing about, flow through them onto the page, which I find to be a
very beautiful but sad thought.
Later in the week, on the Wednesday, we had a gathering for the young playwrights to talk about the workshop and the plays we had read; we had all really loved the workshop and talked about the aspects we specifically loved, and what we’d like to see in future workshops.
We then reviewed plays we’ve read, I still absolutely love 4.48 Psychosis and Empty by Kathy Forde which I wasn't so sure about; and then we got given our new plays to read.
I started to read “Pornography” by Simon Stephens, and to be honest I could only really get about 3 chapters before it started to make me feel very much uncomfortable and sick; it’s really graphic in some of it’s imagery and ideas; it’s not one I plan to pick up again for another read, nor do I recommend others do unless they have the stomach for it. It does start off very intriguing and initially upon reading, it was something I was thinking would be great to see, but after reading further in, I can say that definitely do not want to hear that spoken aloud, but I do understand that it is probably a very well written play and enjoyed by many, but it is unfortunately something that I truly disliked.
This reaction has led me onto looking into 'Shock' and 'In-Yer-Face' theater and learning more about that too. I think there is a line between entertaining and informing and I feel as though I fall more to the entertainment side of it. I do love theatre that tells you of true issues and events but in my opinion I think there does need to be a layer of theatrics and fiction around it to get the message to me. I think that "Shock" theatre to me, can't be too direct and literal or it loses the message behind too many facts and truths; it works better for me when it's metaphorical and poetic, and it lets me come to the conclusion of the idea which causes me to think more about the issues instead of just giving me the answer. But I do understand that there are people who respond better to more direct approaches of "Shock" theatre.
What are people's thoughts on "Shock"/"In-Yer-Face" theatre? Is there any one way to do it? What's the most shocking thing you've seen? And how would you want it presented for everyone to learn about?
One Saturday at the end of January, we had a young playwright’s workshop with playwright, Oliver Emanuel. He talked us through his process of beginning to come up with ideas for plays; but I’ve also taken it as a process for coming up with story ideas for creative things. First we talked in pairs about one idea we have at the moment and explaining them, which I really liked because one of the things I wanted to get out of the Young Playwright’s Programme was to be able to share my ideas and get feedback on them. We then went into talking about the 'Bold Image and Big Problem'; in this we thought of a question for other idea and bold piece of imagery to accompany it. I love this because it helps me put another project I'm working on into perspective. We also looked at an actual news story and found the bold image and big problem; showing that this is applicable for real life as well.
We then went on to work on “Ten Brilliant Things” in which we just came up with ten visual ideas that didn’t need a huge amount of explanation; another great way of starting to come up with the ideas that are hopefully going into your play. This I quite enjoyed as it was a more organised way to brainstorm and as such, made more sense and was easier for me to do.
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| Oliver Emanuel |
Later in the week, on the Wednesday, we had a gathering for the young playwrights to talk about the workshop and the plays we had read; we had all really loved the workshop and talked about the aspects we specifically loved, and what we’d like to see in future workshops.
We then reviewed plays we’ve read, I still absolutely love 4.48 Psychosis and Empty by Kathy Forde which I wasn't so sure about; and then we got given our new plays to read.
I started to read “Pornography” by Simon Stephens, and to be honest I could only really get about 3 chapters before it started to make me feel very much uncomfortable and sick; it’s really graphic in some of it’s imagery and ideas; it’s not one I plan to pick up again for another read, nor do I recommend others do unless they have the stomach for it. It does start off very intriguing and initially upon reading, it was something I was thinking would be great to see, but after reading further in, I can say that definitely do not want to hear that spoken aloud, but I do understand that it is probably a very well written play and enjoyed by many, but it is unfortunately something that I truly disliked.
This reaction has led me onto looking into 'Shock' and 'In-Yer-Face' theater and learning more about that too. I think there is a line between entertaining and informing and I feel as though I fall more to the entertainment side of it. I do love theatre that tells you of true issues and events but in my opinion I think there does need to be a layer of theatrics and fiction around it to get the message to me. I think that "Shock" theatre to me, can't be too direct and literal or it loses the message behind too many facts and truths; it works better for me when it's metaphorical and poetic, and it lets me come to the conclusion of the idea which causes me to think more about the issues instead of just giving me the answer. But I do understand that there are people who respond better to more direct approaches of "Shock" theatre.What are people's thoughts on "Shock"/"In-Yer-Face" theatre? Is there any one way to do it? What's the most shocking thing you've seen? And how would you want it presented for everyone to learn about?
Thank you for reading.
Andrew Birch
Andrew is part of the Bunbury Banter Young Playwrights Programme 2019-2020
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