Keepin' Busy

Tue Jan 10 10:35:28 PST 2006

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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