Something out of nothing...only not really...

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There’s been a lot of inventing things at the end of this week which is always a joy…creating something out of nothing is one of my favourite things to do…

The first helping was at Scarlet Company on Friday where in a very short amount of time we had choreographed a good third of a piece of physical theatre about dreams and aspirations from nothing but an inspirational song as a starting point.  After the intensity of “Once Upon a Fairytale,” it was refreshing to start something new…especially when all of the performers were working so well to make something engaging and revealing.

The next opportunity to invent was at Gold Company.  In addition to the filming of “Detective Collective,” we were creating more material for our new production – “Lit on the Lawn.”  Such was the progress made we now have all the raw ideas ready and waiting for me to write up.  The last bit of inventing took the form of a quiz complete with teams, buzzers and points to be scored.  I was very impressed with some of the company member’s quick wit and cleverness – just hope I can do it justice in the script.

I ended the week at Garforth Miners Welfare Hall – a lovely space and home to the very welcoming Garforth Amateur Dramatics society.  I was lucky enough to be invited back to run a workshop with actors from the society and as a consequence lots of inventing occurred.  During the course of the day brand new characters were created and in turn three new short plays emerged.  I was so impressed with the way all of the participants – who had a huge range of stage and life experience - worked together to make stories out of the disparate elements that were their starting point. 

I say it was making something out of nothing but that’s not entirely true…in each of the cases listed above there was a common denominator which was that the people involved were open and engaged.  That they were prepared to take a risk, make mistakes and learn from them…that they were happy to take the challenge presented and generous with their ideas, patience, creativity and energy…so maybe what makes it my favourite thing to do is working with people like that…



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