Residency: Day two

08Jun10

We knew that we had to come in with material and exercises that were of a different feel and energy to the end of Monday afternoon as it was quite heavy, so we decided to investigate place and look at building soundscapes using some of the  places they were talking about missing or not remembering.

The group responded really well to something that from the outside could feel quite abstract. It was also a great day for myself Sarah and Lizzie to work out our relationship in the room. Each of us had a support and the other person was active within the smaller groups. This worked well so that there weren’t too many voices leading things, so it felt that things seemed to run a bit more smoothly today.

After our first day I was really struggling emotionally with being in this environment, so I felt like I kind of came back to day with a different attitude. I was aware of the environment now, not immune, but I had to remember why I was there, and if I were affected by all that was being talked about I wouldn’t get anywhere and neither would the residency. This was a time when it felt really valuable to think that we were making a piece of performance and that is the purpose for being there, it gave me a greater sense of focus.

Learning Points/Observations:

-I considered the role of a facilitator working from within the groups, a participant and a facilitator, supporting the session and also allowing the creative voices to emerge from the group.

-DIRECTOR _ FACILITATOR_DIRECTOR: Meeting the group as a director, but going on a journey with them in which their contributions are valued, and then moving on to being a director towards the end, responsible for pulling strands together.

-OWNERSHIP: Allowing the group to take choices and have discussions amongst themselves, making them take choices so that they have some control over the trajectory of the process too. Letting the director go for a bit, facilitating the discussions and ‘harvesting’ their responses, or pull the strands together.

-Not using terms like  ’I find it interesting’ during reflections as this puts a level of authority on it already, this person being right. Allow for responses from the group and critique in an accessible way which furthers dialogues.

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