To read diary entries from the performer workshops, visit the “blog” page on this site.
Workshops with performers: Over three days in May, nine artists gathered at the Old Vic Theatre to look at several themes of Silent Snow Secret Snow, the story by Conrad Aiken that was the inspiration for this project, led by Rachel Parish.
Workshops with Cooltan Arts: Over three weeks in June and July, Rachel Parish provided five members of Cooltan with a pilot set of creative workshops, modeled after the performer workshops. The response was overwhelmingly positive, and over 20 members of the organisation are interested in taking part for a longer series of workshops. The creative work produced showed a deep engagement with the themes of the material and a unique creative voice emerging from the participants.
The goal
These workshops will begin
to develop a method of approaching the research questions through rehearsal
to investigate artists’ response to the material of the story
to shape our approach to devising content for writing the plays
I identified core themes from the story, Silent Snow Secret Snow, including a heightened awareness of the senses, shifting voice / point-of-view, and a complex approach to past present and future.
I also identified elements of the basis of my working research questions, including what are trigger events, what happens when the degree of a person’s experience changes, and what can be regarded as “normal”.
I have combined these elements and developed a set of activities for the first series of workshops. Participants in the workshop are blogging about their experience of our activities as we speak. Browse over to the “BLOG” page of this site to read about the many activities that we did on day one.
If you would like more information on these workshops or would like to be involved, please contact me at silentsproduction@gmail.com.
October 28, 2008 at 11:41 pm
It is a very interesting concept you have in the way you explore questions in workshops to form the layers of a play.
The medium doesn’t lend itself readily to mental illness but I can see where you are going psychotic episodes are like a torch being shone on words and images you see everything in a new light.
I would like to discuss what I feel are common events in schizophrenia with you
From discussing symptoms with other sufferers there are things that appear in halusinations that we all see.
Sandra