Beginnings of a Narrative Arc Molly
When talking about Smoking Apples, people always ask me, so, are you in it? Or are you the director? Each time I hear this being asked, I’m always a little bit surprised and this is just because for me, devising requires you to be both. It requires you to be able to have the skills to show your ideas and deliver the goods in a performance but also go and mull over the heart, the soul, the point of what you are making.
Now, I will be the first person to admit that this does not come without difficulties and during today’s rehearsal, I found myself wishing that I could split into two people and have one rehearsing practically and one watching. This doesn’t happen very often but when it does it’s VERY annoying!
It all started as we tried to work our way into making the scientific process of MND clearer. From our scratch performances, we are aware that we used a rather simplified method of showing to audience our central character was being diagnosed with MND. This was purely down to time constraints and we felt as though, within the 10 minute time-frame we had, it was best to be as crystal clear as possible so that the audience were under no illusion that it was MND we were showing. Having reflected on this and although this served a purpose at the time, we were ready to move into a more subtle way of telling the audience about the process of MND.
At this current moment in time, there is no verbal text in our piece. This is not something that we have decided on for definite, it’s just that each time we try adding it in, it feels totally wrong and is therefore removed. Here, we have created another dilemma for ourselves. How do we go about showing the physical process of MND (some of which happens inside of the body) without speaking at all, without a doctor reciting exactly what it happening inside the body? This proved to be the most interesting exploration of our rehearsal today. We have been working around ideas of the external physical state caused by MND and the notion that this then inspires the internal mind, however, we had not practically explored yet the fact that the external physical is being caused by the internal physical and therefore, perhaps in order to provide clarity for the audience, they have to see that part too.
We have spent today working on a scene that shows what MND causes inside of the body. In between each of the thousands of neurones we have in our body, electrical impulses are transmitted. These carry the message from our brain to our body parts, allowing them to move in the way that we want them to. When someone has MND, those parts of the neurones that deliver and receive the impulses start to wither and the impulses can no longer reach their destination, therefore the communication between the brain and the body part breaks down eventually causing complete immobility.
I don’t want to ruin it for anyone who may come and see it (hopefully all of you reading) but I will say, at this point, it involves being in the dark, torches, lights and shadow play. Let’s see what everyone makes of it in our open rehearsal tomorrow!
When talking about Smoking Apples, people always ask me, so, are you in it? Or are you the director? Each time I hear this being asked, I’m always a little bit surprised and this is just because for me, devising requires you to be both. It requires you to be able to have the skills to show your ideas and deliver the goods in a performance but also go and mull over the heart, the soul, the point of what you are making.
Now, I will be the first person to admit that this does not come without difficulties and during today’s rehearsal, I found myself wishing that I could split into two people and have one rehearsing practically and one watching. This doesn’t happen very often but when it does it’s VERY annoying!
It all started as we tried to work our way into making the scientific process of MND clearer. From our scratch performances, we are aware that we used a rather simplified method of showing to audience our central character was being diagnosed with MND. This was purely down to time constraints and we felt as though, within the 10 minute time-frame we had, it was best to be as crystal clear as possible so that the audience were under no illusion that it was MND we were showing. Having reflected on this and although this served a purpose at the time, we were ready to move into a more subtle way of telling the audience about the process of MND.
At this current moment in time, there is no verbal text in our piece. This is not something that we have decided on for definite, it’s just that each time we try adding it in, it feels totally wrong and is therefore removed. Here, we have created another dilemma for ourselves. How do we go about showing the physical process of MND (some of which happens inside of the body) without speaking at all, without a doctor reciting exactly what it happening inside the body? This proved to be the most interesting exploration of our rehearsal today. We have been working around ideas of the external physical state caused by MND and the notion that this then inspires the internal mind, however, we had not practically explored yet the fact that the external physical is being caused by the internal physical and therefore, perhaps in order to provide clarity for the audience, they have to see that part too.
We have spent today working on a scene that shows what MND causes inside of the body. In between each of the thousands of neurones we have in our body, electrical impulses are transmitted. These carry the message from our brain to our body parts, allowing them to move in the way that we want them to. When someone has MND, those parts of the neurones that deliver and receive the impulses start to wither and the impulses can no longer reach their destination, therefore the communication between the brain and the body part breaks down eventually causing complete immobility.
I don’t want to ruin it for anyone who may come and see it (hopefully all of you reading) but I will say, at this point, it involves being in the dark, torches, lights and shadow play. Let’s see what everyone makes of it in our open rehearsal tomorrow!
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