[OSList] Open Space theatre-making evaluation

[Harrison Owen]

Stella - Wonderful tale. Congratulations to all!! And somehow your posting
of this note in the middle of the ongoing discussion of "The OST Game"
seemed not only fitting, but hugely contributory, at least to me. The
connection between theatre and software may be a little tenuous, but both
are clearly intense, demanding, technical activities - and doing all of the
above in a rich, collaborative and productive fashion is essential. What I
found significant in your story was how little anybody said about the
process (OS) - it was all about what emerged, good theatre produced
"ensemble".  "Absolutely the Thing about ensemble, so moved to see so many
people so together and so invested in their togetherness. And their
differentness, and their meeting."-from the report. 

 

Thank you!

 

Harrison 

 

Harrison Owen

7808 River Falls Dr.

Potomac, MD 20854

USA

 

189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer)

Camden, Maine 04843

 

Phone 301-365-2093

(summer)  207-763-3261

 

www.openspaceworld.com 

www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)

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From: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org
[mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Stella Duffy
Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2013 11:42 AM
To: Open Space Lists
Subject: [OSList] Open Space theatre-making evaluation

 

Hello all, 
Those of you using Open Space in the arts (and elsewhere perhaps) might like
to have a look here :
http://www.chaosbabyproject.co.uk/keeping-it-open/

Having worked on The Chaosbaby in Open Space, from the beginning of calling
it as a session at Improbable's devoted and Disgruntled OS in 2010, right
through the performance this summer, with over 70 people (not all in the
room at the same time), ranging in age from 17 to 70, we then had to send a
evaluation/report to the Arts Council who part-funded it. 
While there was the usual box-ticking and head-counting that these
evaluation reports require, we also tried to be a little more open in our
self-evaluation and sharing of our experience. So, as with a closing circle,
everyone who wanted to gave an appraisal of how it had been for them, we
tried to speak honestly about the 'failures' and the 'successes' and the
learning from them both, and we tried to offer the assessor the possibility
of experiencing our evaluation in as much Open Space as they could manage
for themselves - offering them the chance to flick through the pages of our
evaluation, while also flicking through our 500 images, looking at/reading
whatever they were moved to see/read.
We have no idea how this was received, as there is no feedback, but when I
called the Arts Council today, I was told they will be paying the last 10%
of our small funding to our account next week. So that means they've
accepted it as an evaluation at least!
They've been very supportive of our trying to make work in this way, and
seem genuinely to have understood our interest in process being as valuable
as product.

We said we would share it with the world once the evaluation had been ok'd,
so here it is. 
It's not been easy making the show in Open Space, but then making shows is
never easy, so I don't think it's been any harder than the traditional
hierarchical model. It has, however, been far more interesting (to me) and
far more empowering (to the other makers) as they say in their responses. 
And just today one of the young Chaosbaby director/makers emailed to tell me
he has led his first two Open Space theatre-making workshops, and now has
others following on from him in doing so. So it's a thing, and a lineage,
and that's lovely. 
Stella x 

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