Creative conundrums...

Solving creative puzzle,s a thing that dominates a large proportion of my life, is an interesting business.  Sometimes it’s so very easy and instant solutions are found, a good example of this happened recently when the head of one of our partner organizations was looking for the music to the opening number of our shared show at the end of June.  The conversation went something like this…

Sarah Thomas (Principal of West Yorkshire Theatre Dance Centre)

“What music should I use for the opening number?”

Jack Iredale (Member of Black Company who happened to be there)

“Eye of the Tiger”

Sarah Thomas

“Brilliant.”

And so a decision was made and apart from Jack being a little shocked he’d got away with such self indulgence everyone moved on to the next creative solution to be found.

Some solutions are slightly harder to find but still ultimately reasonably smooth.  For example I’ve just started writing a play with eight characters in it and yesterday with very little effort the character profile and story structure came together meaning all I have to do now is sit down and write it.

Other solutions are infinitely more elusive and we faced one of those kind at Black Company this week.  To understand some context is needed:  In Black Company at the moment are working towards two performances.  One is a series of short plays for “Inspired by Music,” these are all chosen, written and well on the way rehearsal wise.  The other is our offering for "Reprise," our ambition is to create something short but memorable and of the quality associated with the high standards of the most experienced company of Yew Tree Youth Theatre.  I’d had the idea of staging physical performances of sonnets written about the art forms featured in the performance – dance, music and drama.  It looked better in my head than it sounds and so I had started the writing process but as I was doing this something made me doubt my plan was a good one.  I decided, as a consequence of theses doubts, to test what I’d written so far with the actors to see if my reservations were well founded. 

To workshop the idea Black Company split into groups and played about with the sonnet I had written inspired by all things dance.  Reactions from the actors varied from positive to distinctly unsure as to whether we could make a performance that would engage an audience, it became clear further thinking was needed.  I asked the actors to experiment and see what we needed to do to make something good and eventually by way of a few changes in direction we hit on a solution to our creative conundrum. 

What was good about the process was that we eventually found something that would work – that I as a director and theatre maker finally had a vision of how I could guide the actors into making the idea happen using their veritable creative prowess.  What was sad was the fear that seemed to go with the process.  There were times in the session where people appeared uncomfortable in suggesting, challenging, abandoning and building ideas.  There was a worry that offence might be caused even though it was made clear that at this stage nothing was set in stone and all ideas were welcome.  Still it’s always nice to identify areas where we can improve and things we can learn from.  My ambition is to encourage an enjoyment of finding the solutions and not a need to have them in place immediately…to relish in the brief uncertainly, to be comfortable in rejecting things after due consideration, to be brave enough to change direction when the landscape we find ourselves in demands it in the cause of finding the best idea for what we need.

Of course the other thing about finding creative solutions is that they never stop…we found a solution on Thursday by identifying the form that the performance would take. Once this was in place we needed music, costume, narrative, staging etc etc etc…but I’ve done some thinking – the first two of those are sorted, the third is more or less in place and we’ll start on finding the fourth this Thursday…I have to admit to being something of an addict…the more creative solutions I need to find the happier and more fulfilled I am…