WITNESSING CREATIVE LAB

OBSERVING ONE REHEARSAL 观察/回望

‘Objectives’ are everything in life

From Stanislavsky, we learn that ‘objectives’ provides direction, intention and purpose for characters and actors. For teachers, ‘what are my students learning?’ is key. For creators, ‘what am I saying?’ helps guide the production to some clarity. However in artistic collaborations, the journey is never as clear. Why go on an adventure if you know what to expect from point A to point Z? It is the brave who will travel the untaken path and the creative who will hunger for constant exploration and improvement. How hungry are we?

Watching the first day of the ‘Creative Lab’ rehearsal, I saw four actors sharing their solo performances created in response to Pao Kun’s ‘The Spirits Play’. Each performance was very different in style and delivery but they were almost at performance level with some clarity as to what they wanted to say. A few questions emerged, how precious and open are the actors in listening and adapting their work to collaborate with the others? Is there a need to collaborate if the individual performances are already strong and almost complete? If a dialogue is wanted, collaboration is absolutely necessary. How can one be critical and keep challenging fellow creators/performers? How is language used? Do we use English to ensure that others understand what we are trying to say? What is lost in the translation? How will this group of eight collaborate for the ‘Creative Lab’?

The ‘objectives’ of why we do what we do in theatre or in life, is extremely crucial in creating works that matter.

Thank you for allowing me to watch the creative process and I hope we’ll start a dialogue about life, art and living.

With theatre in my heart,
Jeffrey Tan
Theatre Director, drama educator, arts administrator