Keepin' Busy

Wed Jan 11 04:09:22 PST 2006

Hi Phelim,

So glad to hear this, as someone standing on the edge of leading an OS
here in Bradford, in one of our communities which seems to be losing
hope, & as someone who has great hope for his own future OS work!

Regards,

Martin

________________________________

From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Phelim
McDermott
Sent: 10 January 2006 18:35
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Keepin' Busy

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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