Keepin' Busy

Thu Jan 12 14:53:22 PST 2006

Phelim,  

Wonderfull!!

I liked to read that :  ".... it's just the beginning "

Funda

----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Phelim McDermott 
  To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU 
  Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2006 12:42 PM
  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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