The Open Stage volunteers descended on the Arcola Theatre this month and saw ‘Tell Them That I Am Young and Beautiful’.
Reading the information on the website and looking at reviews for the piece I was really excited to see the show. As I am studying contemporary theatre practice seeing the names Complicite, Peter Brook and Jacques Lecoq on the flyer I knew I’d be in contemporary theatre heaven!
We walked into an empty performance space with the audience taking their seats around the stage space. We were warned by some fellow theatregoers who had seen the show already that there would be some audience participation so I headed straight to the back row! For me there’s nothing scarier than being picked out of the audience! The piece used neat little visual elements; rooms created with bamboo poles to starry nights created with disco balls - the less is more approach made it specatular to look at. Music came from a single musician who transported us from an Africanvillage to a canal in Paris.
The piece was based around seven words; Greed, Hospitality, Sacrifice, Knowledge, Truth, Freedom and Love. The stories we saw explored people’s relationships with one another, and how those relationships are affected due to our differences. Each story was told to teach us something - without us realising we were being educated. The play was also full of humour; we saw actors become cows and a surgeon juggling organs to represent a kidney transplant. The stories we were told ranged from folk stories to true stories; we recognized the story of the African man who went to Paris to donate a kidney to a dying girl and how he was treated when the surgeory was over.
My personal highlight of the show was the Ancient Indian story about the birds; I loved how the actors created the birds physically and the story we were told. All seven of the themes the play was based around were apparent in the piece. I c0uld really imagine a parent or grandparent telling a young child this story before bedtime because of the morals it teaches. It was a really sweet production showing what we do for love and what our companions mean to us.
Kathryn Hunter was fascinating to watch. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen an actor work that hard on stage. Her movements as each character she created were beautiful and completely controlled. She slipped in and out of each role with perfect ease I felt really rather envious of her skills.
Overall I really enjoyed the show and talking to the other volunteers about it afterward. It seems like the choice of show was a great success so a big thank you to B and Johannes for researching it and finding it for us!
We’re really looking forward to seeing Rikki Beadle-Blair’s ‘Shalom Baby’ this week – we hope to see you at one of the shows, where the Open Stage volunteers will be asking you to give your views – more on that soon!
Katherine
Hi all! My name is Jonathan and I’m the new Open Stage intern taking over from Debo. Do not fear Debo fans – he is continuing as an Open Stage volunteer, and passing on his wisdom to yours truly! I’m really glad to be joining Open Stage at this point in the project; it’s a truly great way for the theatre and the community to get involved with each other and shape the future of the arts right here in the cultural heart of East London.
As part of my induction I attended my first Open Stage session with the volunteers, it was great to see such a diverse group of people so passionate about what we’re doing. We also had several members of the Theatre Royal Stratford East team in attendance, so quite the full house!
This meeting was all about the results of the online survey. The great news is that many people took part giving us a lot of data to trawl through and analyse – and the results were very interesting. The top 3 categories that people voted for to see next year were: musicals in third place, comedy in second and in first place with a clear majority…plays! Our previous research also showed these trends. We also had several other categories such as children’s theatre and dance following closely behind. Splitting into 5 groups each with two genres to work on, we discussed the results; what was unexpected, what we agreed/disagreed with and of course to bring some suggestions forward as we prepare our briefs to the TRSE Artistic Team. Some of the topics at hand were:
- Potentially incorporating more shows and events with live music
- Exploring new types of events for the Theatre and Bar
- Sub-genres of categories people voted for i.e. within ‘Dance’ there is Street Dance, Contemporary Dance and Ballet
We also concentrated on some important fundamentals, such as new innovative methods to ensure that the public remain engaged with the theatre and its activity, now and long after Open Stage 2012 finishes. I’d love to tell you more about some of these, but that would just be spoiling the surprise…I am sure you’ll hear about them in the coming weeks!
I loved meeting the wonderful volunteers, and getting to work with them on what I think is a truly pioneering scheme. We’ll be working hard to prepare and refine our briefs for the Artistic Team as they begin to programme the shows and events for next year. Remember Open Stage is all about you – and we’re incredibly thankful for sharing your thoughts and contributing to our work so far.
The Open Stage team and volunteers recently went off to the Arcola Theatre to see ‘Tell Them That I Am Young and Beautiful’. Nothing like a trip to the theatre for a bonding session! Look out for a review from Katherine soon.
Don’t forget ‘Shalom Baby’ by the fantastic Rikki Beadle-Blair is starting this week and tickets are already selling out – don’t miss it!
Jonathan Woodhouse
Open Stage Intern
It’s been a big week at Open Stage HQ. We’ve had a huge report from Audiences London (many thanks to Dan and Helen), with the online survey results – quite a lot of information to take in in one go. A couple of reads later we’d got to grips with the information. We were blown away with everything people told us, and really excited to pass it on to the volunteers at Thursday’s session. We needed to filter the information so it’s not quite as overwhelming, so after going through all the information genre by genre, we grouped together similar answers to see what the most popular suggestions were. The possible ideas and the list of what we can do is exciting and endless!
At the session everyone got into groups looking at different genres – with loads of staff at this session (including Karen, Assistant Producer, Jan, Head of Young People’s Work, Sarah, Stage Management and Korinna, Wardrobe – phew!). We also welcomed more new volunteers so we were packed – perfect with the amount of information we had!
From this we’ve created briefs for TRSE’s artistic team who’ll then be talking with us about the ideas and working out how to make them happen. You can be rest assured that the Open Stage t-shirts will be a regular sight in the Theatre Royal foyer and we have lots of big plans for the 2012 season.
We had another drop-in session on Friday, where we were lucky enough to sit in the sunshine and talk about theatre and the ways people had become involved with TRSE, past shows and what made them great – and how to bring that to the Open Stage season. Best way to spend a Friday afternoon if you ask me!
We also want to welcome our shiny new intern Jon arrive. He’s ready and raring to go with lots of new ideas and suggestions to bring to Open Stage HQ, so keep an eye out for his blog soon. Next week will see us heading over to the Arcola Theatre to see Tell Them That I Am Young And Beautiful, selected by B and Johannes – watch out for a review soon.
Last night’s Open Stage session welcomed some new volunteers and some TRSE staff members also joined us as we’re approaching the final hurdle. We began with a talk from Rikki Beadle-Blair, writer and director of the next play to open at TRSE, Shalom Baby. Rikki is a regular face at TRSE and has been working with us for a long time. He talked to us about what inspires him and the kinds of work he does which was really inspiring – especially for the writers in the group. Iuliana, Olivia, Ronny and Marlon were really keen to find out more about becoming a writer, and it really opened up a new way of creating work as his method is so different to what we might expect. We had loads of questions, and got the chance to ask them!
When Rikki finished we were all geared up ready to tackle the last set of results. This week we looked at dance and grouped together all the other suggestions that people have given us for shows they’d like to see. In 4 groups (2 groups looking at dance and 2 looking at ‘something else’), we went through and proposed 5 possible events for the season, when they could happen and who they would be aimed at. When we talked about what we’d come up with, it was surprising that different ideas that came out from the groups when we were looking at the same information. We’ve come up with some awesome ideas but you’ll have to wait just a little while longer to find out what we’ve come up with!
Friday saw us hosting a drop-in session too, and welcoming new volunteers Radha, Cynthia and Angela. Charlotte and I talked through the results so far, we got lots of suggestions for variety shows and names of comedians who would be popular. The session was great fun and having a fresh pair of eyes looking at the results was really useful to us because it brought new suggestions and ideas to us that we might have overlooked.
In the office lots of changes are happening. Debo – everyone’s favourite wannabe superhero – has finished his internship but he’ll still be keeping us entertained at Thursday sessions as a volunteer and he’s also taking part in another exciting project at TRSE (more info to follow!). I’ve been passed the Open Stage baton for now and a shiny new intern will be joining the madness next week!
That’s it from me – have a good week everyone!
Hello everyone! Katherine here – Debo’s away this week so I’ve taken over the office. I’m an Open Stage volunteer and am currently interning with Open Stage until the end of September. I’m really excited to be part of the Open Stage project.
We had a great turn out for the session this week even with the change of date so a big thank you to everyone that made it. The theme for the week was plays and musicals. Taking a selection of results from the e-survey, we’ve started to analyse the findings so far. It proved quite a hefty task for all invovled but we waded our way through the amazing suggestions and ideas the public have put forward to us. It’s an exciting time for us looking at the possiblities for next season and knowing that we were invovled with the process. We can’t tell you what people said yet as the survey is still open and we don’t want to influence the results and what the public think, but the most popular artforms have stayed the same – musicals and plays – and we’ve had some great insight and more detail into all aspects of the way that Theatre Royal Stratford East works and what it does – including your ideas for becoming involved with us.
If you haven’t taken part yet or know of anyone that hasn’t here’ s the link http://www.snapsurveys.com/swh/surveylogin.asp?k=131359749906&s=web. We have volunteers heading in this afternoon to talk to members of the public about Open Stage and getting them invovled with the online survey, plus volunteers Jacqui and Helal coming in and manning laptops to give people the opportunity to complete the online survey as well as conducting street interviews. If you’re around Theatre Royal Stratford East over the next few days come in and say hi to the team. You won’t have any trouble spotting us – we’ll be in the bright yellow t-shirts!
Thanks to everyone who’s completed the Open Stage online survey so far. However, we still want more people to take part so ‘tell your friends, tell your family, tell your partner ‘cos we surveying errybody up in here!’. Here’s the link: http://www.snapsurveys.com/swh/surveylogin.asp?k=131359749906&s=trse
Gary Lineker: So after 45 minutes (give or take a week) it’s clear that the ‘Plays’ are ahead but with the second half to go, there’s still everything to play for. Alan what d’you think?
Alan Hansen: Aye. But I must say before the match I told ‘Lawro’ I thought ‘Musicals’ looked like the stronger side so I’m going t’stick t’ my guns and put my money on a comeback.
Mark Lawrenson: Honestly with the way pick’em you might as well just give me the money now!
Enter Intern:
As you might have guessed, this week’s Open Stage programming session was all about looking at some of the early data we’ve got back from our online survey. We started by splitting into small groups and assigning a different genre to each group. Each group was then tasked with going through the results for their genre and coming up with the 10 main points summarising the answers – the key things that we would or wouldn’t need to ensure happened as part of a show.
After this was done, the groups came back together and we discussed our findings – with some fireworks ensuing! Although some things we quite clear cut, for example a desire for upbeat and happy shows, adaptations of known plays/books and the use of familiar and known music in musicals, we found that we all had varying interpretations of the same data. In some cases we also realised that we may need more information, so we would have to wait for more results to come through and maybe hold focus group sessions to gather specific information.
Once this was done we also thought about how we could reach groups that are yet to engage with our online survey. We decided this could be done by us going out and meeting them, whether in schools, community centres or working men’s clubs. We particularly keen to get more men involved, as well as young people. So look out ‘cus we suryveying everybody up in here’. Exit intern.
Gary Lineker: Well we’ll see who’s right. It’s all still to play for as we return for the second half!
How many people would you have to go through to find a connection with Cheryl Cole, Boris Johnson or Levi Roots? …Well, if you were part of Open Stage it would only take two! (one of these may or may not be due to Shawab’s unconfirmed obsession with Girls Aloud).
As the online survey is now up and running (click here if you haven’t filled it out) Thursday’s session was a great point to catch up and share our thoughts on Open Stage so far. We wanted to find out how being involved with Open Stage has helped connect the volunteers with each other and people involved with Theatre Royal Stratford East.
As you can see, there are many connections with a few people acting as hubs or central points of connection. Since it is Open Stage’s aim to open up the theatre to the public, we are hoping that as time goes on there will be even more connections made between the volunteers and other people involved in the theatre. What we didn’t show on these diagrams are all the people that the volunteer team have made connections with outside of the project (but as a result of it).
As previously blogged, on Saturday 20 September Open Stage attend the Stratford & West Ham Summer Festival, Shed ’n all. Since Thursday’s programming session was a chance for us all to reflect on what has happened so far, we also talked about how the event went.
Aside from the rain, there were many things that we enjoyed such as: a water-resistant shed; talking to people; and Zumba! However, there were things that we thought could be improved upon such as the location of our Young People Work stand. But in all, despite the weather, everyone who attended seemed to enjoy the atmosphere and we were able to encourage over 80 people to vote on their favourite types of show, with more sharing their ideas and signing up for the esurvey.
Our guest for this week’s session was Karlos Coleman, project manager in TRSE’s Young People’s Work team. As well as leading us through a couple of games, Karlos was there to help us better understand the theatre’s work process and to help us explore our thoughts and feelings about Open Stage. Whether they were things we enjoyed or things we were (or are) apprehensive about, we found that most of us felt differently about many of the same things but also that we all enjoyed being a part of the Open Stage project. Some of the most exciting things are also the things that we’re most nervous about – constructing the actual season itself for example.
*In Jeremy Clarkson’s voice* – So on that bombshell; we’ll see you next week!
Have you had your say about what should be on stage in 2012 yet?
If you’ve been keeping up-to-date with this blog, you might already have told us what you want on stage in 2012 – but we’d love to find out more. It’s really easy to get involved – just take our short (5 minutes!) online survey and tell us more about your ideas.
Every one who completes the survey will also be entered into a prize draw to win £50 of High Street vouchers - so what are you waiting for?!
Thursday’s Open Stage programming session was all about our online survey. This survey is the next stage of the Open Stage process. Since 2010, with the help of the Open Stage volunteers – hoorah! – Open Stage has been going out into the community and asking people what they want on stage in 2012. Now that we have an idea of what kinds of shows people want, the most popular themes and many great ideas for shows, we need to dig even deeper into the detail of what will make the shows ideal for our audiences.
Despite the falling puddles of rain Thursday’s turnout was great; we welcomed familiar faces as well as two new ones.
Helal, an Open Stage volunteer, has been assisting Charlotte in developing the online survey with Audiences London, and we were hoping to try it out live, but due to technical difficulties [beware of the machine uprising] we weren’t able to. Instead, as we’d already printed out the full survey, pairs of volunteers took on different art forms and interviewed each other before sharing their thoughts on the survey.
The most significant thing we found was that the survey did not work in its current form as a paper questionnaire (unless you filled it in by yourself). Everyone had great ideas about how to improve the survey:
We know from previous research that not everyone uses the internet, so we also took the time to identify groups of people that Open Stage was unlikely to reach online. Once this was done, each group came up with ideas as to how we could engage with the group they had selected, thinking about how and where we could contact the various groups and engage them in the process – and who might be able to do this.
We’re nearly there with the survey so a huge thanks for everyone’s input (including the Open Stage staff champions at TRSE. We have identified a number of groups that we would like to reach out to and involve in this process – we’re coming – and we’ll keep you updated on how to take part in the online survey and the ensuing results.
Open Stage volunteers are also out meeting people at events across Newham, and can come and visit groups to guide you through the questionnaire in person. To organise a time for us to visit, please email us at openstage@stratfordeast.com
The focus of this week’s session was comedy, and we welcomed Darren Hart, who has performed at Stratford East many times, as an actor but also in a number of different kinds of comedy nights and shows at Stratford over the last ten years. Darren talked about his experiences at Stratford East, and the very particular relationship that audiences have with comedians when they’re on the Stratford stage – and how a performer feels when they’re there.
It was really interesting and so useful to have Darren there as someone who’s had experience in putting together a comedy night at the Theatre which is exactly what we’re going to be doing. I thought he was particularly useful to speak to as he made it clear for the whole group how important it is to plan when you do a comedy show, who it’s for and for how long. It was also useful to think about the kind of comedy shows we might like to put together and the expectations that people have of something called a ‘variety show’ or a ‘comedy show’. We don’t want our night to sound like it’s stuck in the past but we also don’t want to alienate people who do want to see a ‘variety show’.
What was most clear to me from the session is that we would need to find a really strong creative team – people who know the comedy circuit well and could advise us on who to book etc. Pulling together a comedy show is no easy task so I think it is really important for us as a group not to worry ourselves about how to make something funny or edgy (unless one of us has a totally amazing idea) but to think about a great team we might want to work with. Stratford East has a long history of comedy [Ed - you can read more about what else we've staged here]. and there were lots of really good ideas about the kind of thing we could do so I hope the comedy that Open Stage pull together can be as impressive.
What or who makes you laugh? We’d love to know what tickles your funny bone – tell us here and look out for the online survey coming soon…
