Reflecting on form and content

My pitch that I handed to marketing included a description of what the piece was intended to look like. This was a series of vignettes that would cover the issues that a student might face transitioning from secondary to tertiary education. There would be a central metaphor and hopefully a narrative thread that tied it all together. The metaphor I guess looking back now is probably that life is like a relationship because there are always choices, problems, good times and always plenty more fish in the sea. Reflecting now I wonder what the show could have been like if this was the central metaphor and vision that I had approached the ensemble with? The issues and ideas about further study we wanted to cover developed in the research stage through brainstorming and discussion. These became the basis for our series of vignettes. The first rehearsal I conducted a skills and interest audit and what came across was a mixed bag although generally we all had an interest in non-naturalism in some form. We wanted to create something non-naturalistic at least in part. Initially some scenes were headed in a non-naturalistic direction:

• Horse race
• VTAC monster/beast/animal
• Choices (matrix pills)
• Moment of truth (dropped)
• Ready steady crap
• The lecture
• Student services saved your life (dropped)
• Spoon feeding

These all began with ideas or comments made during brainstorming and discussion sessions. We workshopped people’s ideas:

• What happens?
• How do you see it happening?
• What does this convey?
• Is it clear?
• Is there text or objects we can draw on?
• What does it look like?

These were questions for the ensemble to answer not just the ideas originator. Some developed quickly and easily, some slowly and arduous, some have changed beyond recognition, and others have been dropped. The horse race for example came from an idea which got thrown around about year 12 seeming like a race to the finish with the horses wearing blinkers. When the blinkers are taken off there is a realisation a whole world exists out there. I particularly liked this idea. It has developed slowly week by week and almost dropped a few times but eventually it became something that we decided to use because we did like the point it made. We drew on text of the meblourne-cup-call which was edited and reedited time and time again, tried being the horses, the jockeys, the jockeys riding crates, and a transformation of student to horse. It was really just a process of trial and error mixed in with discussion and reflection. As was the case for all the others listed above, some made it and some didn’t but I believe the performance was stronger for this reason (Dijt, 2006).

A lot of other issues or areas we wanted to cover didn’t stem from a non-naturalistic idea as was the case for those listed above. Running dry improvisations tended only to lead to naturalistic scenes and banter. One of the Deakin staff suggested looking at these scenes non-naturalistically; you could have actually seen the light bulbs turn on. This started a process of thinking about what was the core message we were trying to convey with these scenes and then how could they be portrayed non-naturalistically? A prime example was making friends (which has drastically changed since its inception). Further study can be difficult initially with people experiencing feelings of loneliness and isolation but after some effort everything gets easy. The idea then became to portray through the space a sense of isolation and a cold and lonely environment which gradually eased as the new student found there place approaching different groups. The other ideas that were very naturalistic were worked in this same manner and then everything was workshopped in the manner discussed above.

Morrison and Stinson (1995) argue that young audiences need post modern content as well as a post modern structure. This they argue is due to young audiences growing up in a rapidly changing complex and multi-layered post-modern world. Was the performance inherently post-modern? The project was not approached in a deconstructive sense but it did contain elements associated with post-modern form such as pastiche, collage, non-linear narrative and others. I would not call it an example of post-modernism but it contains the elements which Morrison and Stinson (1995) argue are essential for promoting and developing artistic and aesthetic experiences for young audiences. This they argue is a ‘responsibility as educators for widening their cultural experience’ (Morrison & Stinson, 1995: 40). Considering the brief this was not an intention when beginning this project but it has been on my mind regarding my next project for some time. I wonder why then it developed in this way and the age of the ensemble is the first thing that comes to mind, considering we are all young ad have grown up in this post-modern age as well. Nonetheless it could have been beneficial for the audience in widening their culture experience and I hope it was.