[OSList] Devoted and Disgruntled Roadshow Halfway!

[Phelim McDermott]

Dear Open Space friends,

I write to you as we pass the half way mark on our open space roadshow. Over the last months I have been on tour around the united kingdom. We have opened space around the same theme of  "the future of theatre" in 11 different cities and towns. From Enniskillen Northern Ireland to Plymouth, Bristol, Edinburgh Scotland and many more. We are in Inverness tomorrow.
We have been capturing the reports from
each open space on this website here. http://www.devotedanddisgruntled.com/reports/  As you can see this means we have effectively done 20 days of continual open space technology around the same question in different regions.  It's the biggest rolling conversation about theatre that has ever happened and it's been happening in open space. 

We've been printing out the document of the reports as we go and it's a mighty tome. There are 253 reports online which cross reference their  themes. (Related reports come up if they have been tagged.) 
Some are video reports, some are words, some are pictorial. 

If course there have been many more sessions than reports. Some Places we have had around a hundred participants and at one we had just three people over our two days. (more actions came out of that one than you’d imagine!). 

Nearly a thousand people have signed up to the site to create reports and to read them. Do join the site if you are interested in theatre in any way at all,  audiences are just as welcome as makers.

http://www.devotedanddisgruntled.com/profiles/

As the person holding the space on these events I can tell you after the half way mark that even now I hold a privileged position. I know more about the state, temperature and psychic atmosphere of British theatre than most. 

I can tell you what the, vitality or not of each particular region is.  
I can tell you about the quality of engagement in each area and how connected the theatre community is or isn't. I can tell you where people are cowed by lack of funding and hierarchies and where the theatre spaces are really engaged with their communities or not. I can tell you the places where people are already "highly literate" with open space and know how to use it like hungry people returning to a feast. It's been simultaneously exhausting and exhilarating. 

As a large scale social intervention it will be interesting to see what unfolds from it in years to come. And how we will follow up on it in the future. 

Meanwhile we hurtle towards The end of our tour with another 9 cities ending in Stratford upon Avon at the Royal Shakespeare Company.. 12 more days of open space and then straight onto WOSonOS 2012 in London which is looking very exiting! I'm going to write a separate email for that so do look forward to hearing about that. 

Best wishes from a small break in the OST road!

Best wishes 

Phelim x
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 I generally pick up emails only at the beginning and end of the working day. I am currently aiming to respond the following day. If it is urgent please call me on 07956 187298. 
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