From the Mouths of the Artists Themselves

Many of our Freedom Art participants have their own blogs and twitter accounts, and are broadcasting their thoughts on the work of the week.  Here are a few samples (and a great way to get to know our resident artists):

 

Allie Herryman

Aug 10: Freedom Art Retreat!

Aug 10: Photos From the Retreat

 

Colleen M. Hughes

Aug 6: Like the Theatre Camp I Never Got to Go To

Aug 9: Freedom Art, Day 1

Aug 11: Climb Every Mountain…

Emily Kaye Lazzaro

Aug 11: Elsewhere

 

And from the twittersphere:

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Theatre Artists on Wildcat Mountain

We spent the day on Wildcat Mountain (in direct view of Mount Washington’s weather station).

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There was a zipline (!!!), a gondola, lunch atop a mountain, an observatory, hiking vertically up (& down) a portion of the Appalachian Trail, hiking down the ski trails, and pleasant encounters with several bearded mountain men hiking the AT for the long haul.

While the hikes were beautiful, by far I loved the zipline best. Check it out!

The first group down the Wildcat ZipRider:

View from the ride itself (with a playwright waving in the distance):

Last night, I secretly gave the designers the task of paying especial attention to today’s experience for points of inspiration in their particular design fields (sound, violence, and puppetry).  This evening, I tasked the dramaturgs with creating the collaborative teams, matching designers and playwrights together. One hour later, each team had an outline for a new theatrical piece that used the designer’s ideas as a jumping-off-point. Tomorrow, they flesh these ideas out more fully as the playwrights run with the designers’ creative sparks. I can’t wait to see what they make!

Hammer Time!

In 7 hours over the last two days, a group of four collaborators conceived of a full length play for young audiences, with heavy metal (acoustic guitar) music. It stars a troubadour fox and a katana-wielding hero whose sword is named Hammer.

Here’s the first song, called “Nails.”

Hammer will flatten out all of your problems if all of your problems are nails!

All rights reserved, created by Meron Langsner, Colleen Hughes, Corianna Moffatt, and Phil Berman, with sponsorship by Playwrights’ Commons. Performance by Phil Berman & Corianna Moffatt.

Charts Charts Charts: Visualizing the Creation of New Work

Over here at PwritesCom, we’re thinking a lot these days about the various modes of creation for new work — especially in advance of the Freedom Art Retreat. On one side of the spectrum of creation techniques there’s the single generative artist (playwright, or auteur director) who assembles to themselves a set of collaborators and sub-creators to bring the work to fruition. On the other end, we have totally ensemble devised works in which all participants, from actor to designer, have equal standing in the direction the work takes.  I recently stumbled upon a useful set of charts which help to visualize the differences.

…Click images to embiggen ’em…

First, I’ve long been a fan of the way Austin’s Rude Mechs conceives of its ensemble creation process. It’s one where members wear the very definite hats of Playwright, Director, Actor, Dramaturg, Designer, etc, but only at certain points. There’s a malleability in the structure of creation which I find inspiring. This is the diagram they used to explain the jobs of ensemble members in the creation of The Method Gun. This image originally appeated in issue number 4 of Play: A Journal of Plays, published by Paper Theatre.

The following images and descriptions (all by Ming Chen) were originally published in the article “Polyphonic Dynamics as Educational Practice” by Ming Chen, Ivan Pulinkala, and Karen Robinson: Theatre Topics, Volume 20, number 2, Sept 2010 (if you have a access to the Project Muse database through a university or public library, the original article can be found here.)

1. This diagram demonstrates the traditional linear trajectory of the creative process:

(Post continues after the jump…)