Hi guys!
Well yes it happened!! I've been pretty busy too. on 7/8 Jan I
convened Open space for 200 people in the theatre community. From
Highly influential theatre elders to young students an amazing time
was had. Lots and lots to say but in the moment. Just to let you know
it was an amazing, awesome, fantastic, moving success!! Can't begin
to tell you all the stuff that comes from this but most of all a
feeling of coming home for the first time in my own community. Our
150 page report is already online and I have never had such amazing
feedback for an event. So many letters and emails in the last day
about people feeling hopeful for the first time. Thanks so much for
your support around this. I had an amazing time. and.... it's just
the beginning
Lots of love
Phelim
www.improbable.co.uk
Devoted and disgruntled
What are we going to do about theatre?
THE SESSIONS CONVENED WERE HELD ON THESE ISSUES:
1: ISSUES WHAT ISSUES?
2: Theatre can compete with film as an exciting artform (get more
people out of cinemas and into theatres.
3: MONEY MONEY MONEY (WORKING FOR FREE)
4: How to get more people into theatres.
5:“straight” theatre & “made/devised” theatre – creating a
conversation about and between.
6: Are we European? Can we learn anything from the rest of Europe or
elsewhere?
7: CRISIS IN LONDON VENUES
8: HEALING THEATRE: The origin of theatre in the cave, connected to
health and survival.
9: RACIALLY INTEGRATED THEATRE
10: Why don’t we share useful information with each other?
11: Theatre for all the senses.
12: America
13: HOW CAN THEATRE LEARN FROM OTHER, MORE SUCCESSFUL FORMS OF
CULTURAL EXPRESSION?
14:Actors as global citizens addressing global issues
15:The Primacy of Perception
16:How can we dissolve disciplines and Hierarchy in the established
theatre.?
17: Where is all the “provocative” street theatre?
18: Should We Measure Artistic Success and if so, How?
19: How to get more disabled people into theatre
20 :Do I have to devote my time to administration, producing,
funding, funding, funding…. To create art?
21:New Forum where Conventional Theatre meets Community Theatre
22:Women
23:Entrepreneurial and savvy theatre
24: What puts you off going to the theatre?
25:How Being Marginalised Can Be Celebrated and Used to Good Effect
26: Too Many Careerists Have Spoiled Our Broth.
27: OPEN UP SPACE SO THAT MORE PEOPLE CAN HAVE A GO.
28: Why is there still such a division between the mainstream and the
experimental?
29: Why do you need to go to college to do theatre?
30: Audience...
31: Money / Funding / Producers
32: Is theatre all about contacts or can you make it on your own?
33:Use of the Theatre-Making Process in Personal, Social and
Organisational Development
34: Is theatre all about contacts or can you make it on your own?
35: Why do we need a separate theatre for Black work?
36:The Mainstream does not exist
37: Where are the Women Protagonists?
38: How can we establish mentoring systems for theatre practitioners?
39: Less Actors; More Practitioners
40: What positive relationships can exist between film and theatre?
41: Is the written play a dying form? And if so, what can we do to
revive it?
42: Censorship are there things that we should not be allowed to do/
say on stage?
43: Directors sharing skills and working practices.
44: Where is the archive for socially engaged practice?
45: Relationship between artist and audience
46: How do we take ‘it’ to the outside world?
47:How can we create more quality experiences of theatre for children
and young people?
48: Not knowing what group to belong to.
49: Where are we at Now? (How does this Influence where we are Going?)
50:How do we break up cliques and stop the same people getting all
the work?
51: IS THEATRE REALLY NECESSARY?
52: Mentor registration form.
53: Who profits from theatre?
54: THEATRICAL THEATRE
55: Making directors work harder to make auditions for actors worth
the train fare.
56: What can audiences do?
57: Conflict Management
58: Who We Fancy In The Room
59: TO GET NEW AUDIENCES INTERESTED IN EXPERIMENTAL THEATRE
60: How can practitioners who work with people with challenging and
volatile behaviours be better prepared and supported?
61: I still feel like an outsider.
62:Theatre for Adults & Children / Get Them When They’re Young.
63: : In The Absence of a Union how can we lobby DCMS/ACE etc
64: We make too much shit theatre and that’s why people don’t come.
How can we raise the bar?
65: Making a space/place for continued play/learning/development
66: Is theatre speaking to ‘real’, people?
67: Can theatre be more than a profession
68: What is a director and do we need them anyway?
69: Pimp Theatre for Pissheads
70: Working Class Audiences
71: Issues Facing Mankind : Future Shock : Man and the Machine – Can
Theatre Help Us Deal With Change?
72: Benefits and Pitfalls of ensemble working methods.
73: What would happen if there were no proscenium arch theatres for
15 years?
74: More play, less plays
75: Spiritual Theatre in a Materialistic Age
76: WHAT ARE WE DEVOTED TO?
77: Positive discrimination-yes or no?
78: WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF WE REPLACED CRITICS (OR KILLED THEM)?
79: Why are the only black people here serving coffee? What does this
mean?
awaiting reports:
80):Puppetry isn’t just for children. Smiley count:@
81):The issue on hearing/non-hearing audiences and the role/
integration of the Interpreter (I don't know the exact title of it)
82): Selected images
83): Making Relationships between venues and between companies and
venues. SC:@@
84): Is there a better way for theatre to be distributed locally,
nationally and internationally? SC:@
85) Why aren’t we working constantly and being paid?
86) Is wanting to be an actor enough?
87) Being a “Regularly Funded Organisation”- Ultimate goal for a
theatre company?
89) What would happen if we closed all proscenium arch theatres for
fifteen years?
On 10 Jan 2006, at 15:21, Harrison Owen wrote:
I guess I fibbed a wee bit. Yes I am working on a book (or the book is
working on me) - and there are a few other things coming down as
well. I
have also been working with a really neat organization which is
seeking to
open some space in a very critical area. And they are more than a
little
worried about really opening space. We have been going on and on
until I
felt constrained to send the following message. I share it here
because I
thought it might be of interest. As I was writing this about 5 this
morning
I thought fondly of Lisa and her speech about "only the highly
evolved..."
But I didn't think that would work in this case. Needless to say I
have
scrubbed all the identifying details.
Dear XXXX -- I am glad that you still think Open Space is the way
to go --
but I must confess that I am having some reservations. These
reservations
have nothing to do with the capacity of Open Space enable this
group, or
indeed any group, to engage in meaningful conversation and come to
useful
conclusions. The issue for me is two fold -- First, Do the sponsors
feel
sufficiently trusting and supportive to let the process run? There
will be
moments of high tension, and experience has shown that the people
themselves
can and will handle it all by themselves. The bottom line is that I
just let
it go. Once underway, we are gone, and there is no place for
intervention,
mid-course correction, the conference management committee doing a
re-design. It is all up to the people.
My second area of concern is whether or not what I might call
"competing
interests" create conditions that are, to some real extent,
antithetical to
real Open Space. I am thinking particularly of the Press. I clearly
understand the need for press coverage -- just to get the word out.
The
problem is that deep conversations can rarely be reduced to sound-
bites.
Even worse, deep conversations which are only partially concluded
are even
less susceptible to being sound-bites. I think it is quite possible
that we
will reach the end of the first day in Open Space and there is
nothing to
report -- or at least nothing that anybody wants to report. It is
equally
possible that we will reach the end of the conference in the same
condition.
Several thousand years (well almost) of understandings,
misunderstandings,
ignorance, misperceptions, to say nothing of mis-trust and anger
will not be
resolved in three days. We can make a good effort, and things may
well move
along much further than we have any right to expect -- but
expectations of
any sort can be very problematical. The hard lesson of Open Space
(and I
think life as well) is that firm attachment to specific outcomes is
usually
disastrous. When you don't get what you expected the temptation is
to think
that you achieved nothing at all. And if the expectation is that by
the end
we will have a neatly tied up body of conclusions combined with action
plans, all of which may be "briefed" to the Press, I think that is
quite
unlikely. Possible for sure -- but unlikely. And should any of this
occur
(or actually NOT Occur) the press will leave frustrated and might well
report total failure. The fact that subtle, but important movement
took
place in the building of relationships, the definitions of issues and
opportunities for future conversations (but not immediate
resolution) will
escape them because they were not part of the conversations. That
would not
be, I would judge, a desirable outcome.
An even worse scenario would be if we were to drive the whole
conference
towards a final, definitive document with neat conclusions,
recommendations
and actions. That would effectively shut the space down, and the
only way to
assure such an outcome would be to have all of the conclusions,
recommendations and actions defined in advance. Obviously there are
multiple
international conferences that do just that. Such conferences have the
advantage of meeting expectations and maintaining the semblance of
control.
But that is not open space (or Open Space).
The crux of the matter, I think, is that everybody (certainly the
organizing
body) must be willing to exist in that wonderful Great Cloud of
Unknowing.
Something for sure will happen, but there is absolutely no way to
predict or
assure what that "something" might be. Personally, I have always
found that
the "something" we didn't expect was so much better than what was
predicted
as to make everything worth while. But you can never tell in advance.
I have written at such length because I think it is absolutely
critical that
all the responsible parties are totally clear about what we are
getting into
-- which paradoxically is that we really don't have a clue, and
certainly no
guarantees. Hope, desires for sure -- but we will not know what is
achieved
until it has happened, and even then we may not be too sure.
Personally, I also want to make sure that nobody mistakes me for a
salesman
or even an advocate for Open Space. I am delighted to share my
experience
and pleased to offer my services, but the choice on how to proceed
is not
mine to make. Truth to tell, I guess I am an advocate, not for Open
Space
Technology -- but rather for the people and their capacity to make
sense out
of the confusing and progress out of difficulty. But you can never
tell how
it will all work out.
Harrison
Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland 20854
Phone 301-365-2093
Skype hhowen
Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com <http://
www.openspaceworld.com/>
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website www.ho-image.com
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