Target Market: life-giving or life-sapping?

By far the most asked question I've received from 'theatre people' about 'The Zanniskinheads...' is "What market do you think this show is for?", and when I'm feeling honest I've just said "I dunno really..?".


"What do they mean 'what audience'? Everyone! Surely everyone on planet earth will be intrigued, mystified, elated and yet deeply moved by our production? Won't everyone want to come?!!"

Once I'd removed myself from this place of fantasy, I carefully tried to pin down who our audience is for this show, and I feel I'm only at the beginning of understanding what has to be said is practically un-understandable. We're asking "what type of person, what would come and see this show, and enjoy it? Who is my stereo-typical audience member", which given the universal uniqueness of humanity is pretty taxing.

My conclusion so far is people who are young, either in age or in spirit, those who can somehow suspend disbelief and enter into the characters' world, accepting the Zanniskinheads as they are, and enjoying them, rather than judging them and ruminating over the politics of their behaviour. Common groups so far have included late teens, and middle-aged couples!

Through this un-scientific process, I've uncovered an enormous can-of-worms lingering within the arts industry, which is that the very idea of market-research to some artists is insulting and frowned upon. The logic is that if producers or artistic directors are assessing and gathering data on audience demographics of an arts organisation, they will for the sake of finance direct the artistic product in a certain direction, contrived to meet the artistic desires of said audience. Put simply, they will find out who the audience is for a company/artist, find out what they want, then give it to them. Could there be a deeper more exasperating crime?!! (Hoping my irony reaches across the web there). The argument also is given that market research can only assess current tastes, where as art is about creating and generating new taste in the audience - this is a more compelling argument, but certainly not damning. Finally, its thought that if detailed data is gathered and used to guide the artistic product, the result will for certain only cater for the lowest common denominator, the broadest and most widely applicable desire.
 

Firstly, why is the arts industry so cagey about finance? What's wrong with making money? I'm sure the historical poverty of our industry is self-perpetuated by some desire to be 'poor and pure'. The phrase 'Commedia dell'Arte' can be translated 'Professional Theatre', which is ironic seeing as most people who continue the art form now do so in an amateur environment. For me it comes down to sustainability. If something doesn't pay your wages, its not sustainable, because at some point your resources will run out, the credit cards will be maxed, and your long term girlfriend is staring that little bit longer into the jeweler's window, and you'll put the business 'on hold'. If something isn't sustainable, why sew into it? Or better, if something can't sustain itself long enough to achieve its own aims, why bother? For temporary profile raising, self-satisfaction or artistic exploration - absolutely. But an arts organisation must have a financial sustainability if it wants to achieve the usually long-term aims and objectives it walks towards (such as ours!).

Secondly, I agree that art isn't about giving people solely what they want, hence part of our mission statement being "to go beyond the expectations of the audience" because I hate going to the theatre and being able to too accurately predict what it's going to be like. But I don't see how understanding our audience better determines that we will pander to their most common tastes. Surely by knowing their tastes better, we can decide how to meet them and how to not meet them, how to stir them and how to challenge them, how to embrace them and how to rebuke them. Surely this is the very work of an artist?

For me personally, I've long realised that I write much more fluently and clearly with set boundaries in place. Give me a blank sheet of paper and say "write anything you want, for any medium, for anyone" and I'm lost (and depressed!). But give me a brief, with boundaries, a medium, and a set audience, and my creative juices flow almost instantly as I envision my public in their location, sat, watching, rustling papers, standing up and sitting down, waiting to see something that engages their minds & hearts. Who are they? What do they want? What would inspire them? What would challenge them? How can I make them laugh? Furthermore, if like ourselves, you're a non-for-profit company relying on subsidy, your chances of securing funding are at least tripled by having a clear picture of who you are serving and how public money (through ACE for example) will benefit the people you intend to engage.

To me this is life-giving. Disagree? Why not write a comment?

Zanniskinheads UK tour begins 28th September at Camberley Theatre, all details on the website.

Christopher

Commedia dell'Arte in the 21st Century: Our journey

In July 2009 I spent four months working with one of world’s only remaining Commedia masters, Antonio Fava, at his International School which he has run successfully for the last 27 years.
Rediscovering European theatre’s foundational art form, the Commedia dell’Arte, was a revelation to say the least, and I found myself gripped by the power of the masks and their empowering of the actors. My return to the UK coincided with my establishing of Slingshot Theatre, a company set up to create exciting new theatre, with my sights firmly set on our debut show bringing Commedia to a contemporary audience.

Our artistic problem lied in relating something so cloaked in Renaissance culture to a modern audience, without disrespecting it or simply ignoring parts of it we didn’t know what to do with. The fixed points of Commedia had to remain present: masks, fixed types, improvisation, multi-lingualism, and Lazzi – comic actions not simply comic utterance. However Commedia’s dramaturgy is very dated, (marriage contracts etc.), the character’s names all carry detailed meaning in Italian, but not in English, and a small-scale production would not be able to accommodate the usual cast of 12-14 actors who give life to the full community of characters.

The answer lay in Antonio’s ‘Zanni-Skinhead’ mask. In Renaissance Commedia, Zanni was the foundational character, a poor, simple servant from the mountain regions, who sojourned to the city in search of work. His life is basic, led by two primary needs, food and sleep, and in summary: instant gratification. These marginalised bumpkins serve to survive, and serve badly because they are stupid. On a visit to the UK, a chance encounter with some aggressive skinheads inspired Antonio to utilise an artistic similarity between these two groups to propel Zanni 450 years into the future, rooting him in contemporary culture, dramaturgy and theatre. So fascinating was this Zanni-Skinhead character, we found the presence of any other character onstage unnecessary, which gave birth to the comic couple of ‘Peenut’ and ‘Ribbón’.

Through an international collaboration between Slingshot, ‘O Pernacchio (Switzerland) and Antonio’s ArscomicA (Italy) The Zanniskinheads and the Quest for the Holy Balls was born, directed by Antonio, and performed by myself and my Swiss colleague, the wonderfully talented Jean-Luc Grandin. It’s been exhilarating, risky and an incredible privilege to put together, but remarkably challenging and has been met with a violently varied response. We’ve had roaring laughter and mass walk-outs - it really is theatrical marmite, you either love it or you hate it and there’s not really an in between. However we don’t apologise for these matters of taste. We defend our culture and Commedia’s rich tradition, while serving a contemporary crowd and humbly aspiring to be better.

Many people ask me “who is the audience for this work?” and my answer is simply people who are young, in age or in heart. For the young don’t question or analyse the mask, they simply embrace it and enjoy it for all its worth, they accept the Zanni-Skinheads as they are, and rejoice in their idiocy, the idiocy of humanity.

Written August 26th, 2011 for Whatsonstage.com

Shock & Awe

Wow! What a busy time I'm having! Just now securing our Edinburgh venue, and indeed booking in previews and a small-scale tour of Zanniskinheads in October. As always lots of new territory being covered, and as I'm a one-man band at the mo I've had to learn how to deal with it all. My highlight of the week was writing Slingshot's Health & Safety policy - I nearly died with boredom. Still, we are officially a Limited company now and I'm feeling great about that, another step forward.

Watched two plays this week, Mogadishu at the Lyric Hammersmith and To Kill A Mocking Bird on it's national tour, this week in the epicentre of progressive cultre: Bromley. Both contained good content and some really good acting (in various degrees of course!), but I was left by both of them just, as my friend Martin concurred, 'wanting more'.

I think it's a really healthy attitude for theatre makers to just keep wanting more. One of the key phrases for Slingshot's 'manifesto' if you will, has been 'to go beyond the expectations of our audience'. I find this spirit so important. I don't want to go and see something which meets my expectations. I don't want to be able to acurately predict what the show will be like before I see it.

This is why I'm falling more in love with mask & puppetry, because I think it brings that spectacular dynamic to the stage. The word 'Spectacle' gets thrown around like dirty laundry in the West End. Snotty actors say "Oh but you know, it's all just cheap spectacle, it's not real, it's not drama". Firstly, I don't agree with these sentiments anyway, because I think spectacle can create much greater drama and intensity of emotion, but secondly, the profound truth is that audiences WANT specatacle. Look at the shows which succeed year after year in the West End - while I wouldn't at all say that I like them all, they all have great amounts of spectacle: glorious singing, dynamic dance routines, impressive staging & technological splendour. My favourite example is WarHorse - one of the few plays to be transferred into the West End in recent years, and certainly a freak of nature in terms of its continued sell out audiences. WarHorse has surpassed the National's last big success 'History Boys' and why? Spectacle. If it weren't for the puppetry and the music in the show, I'm not sure it would have even transferred - after seeing the show 5 times now they are the only sections of the show which remain interesting to me!

But I don't believe spectacle is about big budgets, not at all. Indeed, part of our reason for choosing the name 'Slingshot' was the story of David & Goliath. Goliath has a sword, a spear, massive armoury protection, and stands 10ft tall, a man-mountain. David is a young shepherd boy, with simply a slingshot, but he knows how to use it and uses it well and Goliath falls. David asks to borrow his sword, and chops off his head. Young companies like us - we may not have big budgets, we may be surviving in unorthodox ways, we may not have the weapons & the armoury that the big organisations have. But I believe that theatre is predominatey made manifest through the actors, through their skill, talent and ability to look after an audience, and if this is done well, I truly believe we can compete with the best.

A great example of this is my friend Dan Clarkson who with his comedy partner Jeff went off to the Edinburgh Fringe 6 years ago with the proviso "How far do you think we can get by just dicking around on stage?". Their show 'Potted Potter' was picked up by a producer, and they have toured the UK extensively playing to sold-out theatres, were head-hunted to be presenters on CBBC, and most recently brought their new show 'Potted Panto' into the Vaudeville theatre over the Christmas season, for which they were nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Entertainment Act, alongside the English National Ballet's Beauty and the Beast and the eventual winner, the Railway Children. As one reviewer said of them "It's good to see how far you can get with just a few silly hats".

All the best and more news to come soon,

Christopher

Theatre of the People

Hi all, I'm currently in Geneva launching The Zanniskinheads and the Quest for the Holy Balls. The big week starts tomorrow so I thought I'd put a blog on with some of my recent thoughts.

Antonio Fava, our director, has been speaking this week at Universities and Colleges around Geneva about theatre and the Commedia dell'Arte. One thing in particular which he was speaking on struck me as being worth much more consideration.

He brought forward his view that comedy today has greatly lost the ability to deal well with suffering. He exampled that in Commedia, virtually all of the comedy is provoked from the great suffering of each character: Zanni who is poor, hungry and tired, but who nevertheless must work to earn food & money, followed by sleep; he must fight to survive, but his survival brings about great suffering in itself. The Lovers, whose great joy at being in love with each other is continually put on the line by obstacles standing in the way of the fulfilment of their love. They live in the pain of loving someone so much, but being seemingly unable to be with them. The Capitano, desperate to be seen as an honoured man, to have the respect of the people and to be exalted as great, constructs his entire persona to conceal his miserably pathetic existence and lives in fear of his true self being revealed. The Old Man, determined to fight old age, to gain much money but to expend little and to continue the love-appetite of his youth with girls young enough to be his daughter. His suffering is vast, as the stories of the Commedia prevent all of these desires from fruition.

The suffering of humanity can provide such rich comedy, and links in with something I believe very strongly: that theatre is for the people, for humans. To engage with suffering is to engage with humanity.
We all suffer, all 6 Billion of us suffer daily be it in hunger, bad employment, shame, love sickness, denial, desperation for money, unfulfilled sexual desire and dreams which seem like they just don't want to come true. Suffering produces character. This is as true for characters in stories as it is for humans in the world, for story itself really is one great metaphor of life. We are the characters walking through our own story-lines, making decisions which affect the outcome of our scenes, and overcoming or giving into the obstacles which manifest themselves in-front of our dreams. If we overcome them, we earn the rewards, If we turn away scared, perhaps we didn't deserve them in the first place.

I think that theatre has been affected by the, what I believe to be, ridiculous perpetuation of 'modern art', which like the chief fashion designer in the Emperor's new clothes has convinced the general public that what is odd, strange, unconventional, unstructured, seemingly meaningless and inaccessible is the art which is the most high-brow, the most desirable and 'pure'. What tripe. Theatre is for the people, to serve the people, to entertain the people, to allow the people to bleed, to engage with the suffering of the people and galvanise catharsis, and to destroy the tensions, fears & doubts of the people through literally God's best medicine: laughter. The Art critic cries "That's all very well, but what will it all mean?" My answer: If theatre serves the people in the way I've described, I don't know how it can't 'mean something', the significance will be evident in the emotions of the people as they leave.

I sense there are many, probably art-house critics, who would say that this is all terrible nice but very old-fashioned. Maybe it is, but maybe it's old fashioned for a reason. Our desire to be 'new' has led our theatre generation down a slippery slope of 'arty' theatre which has not served the people whatsoever. To be creative if life-giving and at the heart of theatre, to find new solutions and collaborate new technology is wonderful, to push theatre into new spaces is refreshing, but all only if the result is that the audience is better served by those efforts. For our 21st Century audience have been made to believe that the reason they don't understand is not our fault, (as Shakespeare's audience believed) but indeed their fault, thus they leave bemused and dejected at being not 'clever-enough' to comprehend the theatre, and don't return for fear of feeling the same way. Thus theatre becomes evermore middle class and evermore empty.

I endeavour to live out these thoughts in our work, and look forward to seeing how the people react to Peenut and Ribbon, the two Zanniskinheads, who in our play immediately fall asleep at the mention of the word 'theatre'!

Blessings,

Christopher

Slingshot Laboratories: Why Commedia?

The acting profession has always been a rockier road than most. In today's climate, filled with not just directors & producers but also casting directors & agents, not to mention audiences, there is one thing that everyone wants from us: excellence. However, the need to survive financially when out of work forces us to forsake our chosen profession in order to keep the landlord happy. This provides what I believe is our most torrid dilemma: how do we provide excellence when we have no time or space to train or grow? Even when in work, especially for long contracts, the skills we use are often limited to one area of our talents. How do we grow? How do we strive beyond the mean of the industry to achieve excellence? Even when finance isn't an issue, there is the problem of space & co-workers. Acting is not a solitary artform; technique can be refined, plays read, scripts analysed, theories absorbed, but this only strengthens our theatrical muscles. 

Imagine young David, eyeing Goliath up with his slingshot in hand, swinging his weapon faster & faster gaining momentum and rhythm. This is our technique: strong, rehearsed, timed, coordinated, disciplined to execute the throw. Our technique is the launchpad and foundation of the quality of our work. 

But Theatre is not just the execution of technique, it's the release of the stone, the release of our creative life, the life deep within us that allows the rock to fly. A weak technique means a weak throw. An arm that won't release means a dead show. It is the combination of the actor's discipline & refined technique, with their ability to liberate their inner creativity, creating memorable theatre, alive and vibrant. This release cannot be achieved alone, and whilst technique can be, seclusion from a work environment saps the energy to discipline ourselves. Painters can paint alone, writers can retreat off to remote islands, musicians can gather in small spaces to rehearse, but actors learn in front of an audience in a performance space. 

That's why at Slingshot we're seeking to establish a Laboratory to train actors in Commedia: not as THE solution to this age old problem, but as part of a solution. 

You may ask "Why Commedia? Why is this random Renaissance art form heralded as the path to improve my acting? No-one does Commedia any more, it's all method..." etc. etc. 

This is why I believe in the necessity of Commedia in actor training:

1) It puts actors at the centre of the creative life of performance, which is where they should be. This is opposed to putting the writer, director, method or indeed character at the centre. The first three do not exist to the audience, they do not see them and only consider them in reflection upon the event. The character exists only as a living interpretation of the actor, it is a mask the actor brings to life on stage in front of an audience.

2) It requires not just one part of your acting skill-base, but indeed all parts. As Antonio Fava says "You must control ALL". It requires a physical perfection which must be drilled to become part of the muscle memory. It requires a keen wit and alertness of mind. It relies heavily on teamwork with fellow actors. It demands that you take risks, speak clearly, make all your actions understandable, and that you learn to improvise. Improvisation alone requires creativity, timing, teamwork and the role of a writer within your head: editing, copying, pasting, filtering etc.

3) It is the foundational art form of ALL European theatre, including Shakespeare (see '7 ages of man speech' in As You Like It). It was the first professional theatre of Europe (for the name means "professional theatre"), inventing the actress (1560 - 100 years before England would do the same), the indoor theatre (Vicenza), and physical or 'slapstick' comedy, a term taken directly from Commedia (Zanni's 'Batocio'). 

4) It provokes something from actors which no other method I have come across does: it brings actors alive and into an ownership of their work, (without the religion of the method), and a realisation that they are artists, not just props for the overly exalted director, writer or producer. Rather than the Eastern European methods of shedding self, journeying to neutral and ridding oneself of all things interesting, the Commedia embraces and calls forward precisely those individual qualities and idiosyncrasies and asks the actor to inject them into their interpretation of the mask/character (which are the same thing). 

5) The main reasons actors & directors steer clear of Commedia in the UK is fear & pride. Fear of the unknown, and pride of having to learn something unknown. Fear of an art form which exposes the heart of the actor to the audience and pride of feeling 'above' such an art form. These reasons are at best, lame.

Details of laboratories will be posted on the website and sent out through our mailing list. They are currently sporadic and infrequent, however our desire is to find a permanent home & regular slot.

1st Post

Hi, I've just discovered blogging. This is what it must feel like for OAPs trying to catch up with technology - each new discovery comes with a cocktail of emotions: triumph over youth and yet the realisation of being left behind.