A main aim of my inquiry was to increase my knowledge and understanding of other experts within a theatre production.
"For you guys, you come into work and everything is up and happy but the amount of rigging and relying on people like myself to keep everything in the air and not fall on you is quite important." (Head of lighting)
I hope to increase my appreciation and awareness of what is going on around me in the work place - the hours, the efforts, the skills and so on.
"People don't understand or realise the work that goes into the show pre - warmup." (Head of wigs)
I've been going round the different departments conducting practical demonstrations and shadowing them in their environment, effectively participating in a work experience style activity.
Throughout the inquiry process, I have come the realisation that discipline specific skills are not expected or required from me in order to further my own practice at the moment. Although having this in depth knowledge could help career development such as dance captain or associate choreographer, that's what the experts and different departments are hired for. Experiencing and taking part in some of these skills has however helped with the above aim of increasing my understanding and awareness.
I have discovered that team work and and relationships are definitely key to successful interdisciplinary practice and provides the support and ideas needed to initiate creativity and growth within the company.
When asked:
What quality do you value most in a company member?
Not one person mentioned disciplinary specific skills or talent. These were some of the responses:
"Someone that says thank you." (Head of wardrobe)
"Being a team player - were all here to make the one show." (Cast member)
"Some one who is aware of what's going on around them and keeping to a time." (Head of lighting)
"To be treated the way you would treat others." (Head of wigs)
Relationships and teamwork are reciprocal processes so for my inquiry to have greater meaning, the understanding and appreciation needs to be shared amongst myself and my colleagues. That way I am fulfilling this collaborative cycle I am striving for. In order to do this, I wanted to give something back by sharing elements of my own expertise and to also say 'thank you'.
From interviewing participants and reading literature, we have found that the people who work in theatre are motivated by love, enjoyment, people and creativity - not primarily by any financial gain. Therefore I decided to invite my colleagues, from all the different technical/crew department, to join me on stage so that I could teach them a dance routine from the show. As well as it being my way to give something back and say thank you; I thought it would be a great team activity that would be a good laugh and bring everybody together in order to do something different and exciting. The head of carpentry said that "banter" is the key to a positive working relationship. It keeps up morale, makes it enjoyable and therefore "it doesn't feel like work."
"You've always got this divide between cast and crew but if you try and break that as much as you can." (Head of lightning)
I have definitely felt out of my comfort zone going around and shadowing because it's been with people I don't normally see too much of and I've been in an area of which I knew a lot less about than I ever thought I did. I didn't realise how nervous I would be when teaching the dance routine though. Although it's my area of expertise, I was effectively exposing that knowledge to a group of other highly thought of experts. It made me appreciate their willingness to participate in both the research activities and the group activity even more so than I already did. It also metaphorically broke down the barrier between myself and them - by us entering and being accepted in one another's environment.
Wednesday 29th March
So today I sent an invitation to our company manager via email so that it could forwarded on to the rest of the crew. That way people are more likely to read it and the activity then becomes more of an event. He messaged me back via watsapp saying that he would lease with the stage manager to find out what times and dates would be suitable - depending on the duties needed to be carried out on stage. I made it very clear that I didn't want to interfere with the duties or responsibilities of any body at work. Initially I was going to ask the cast to join me so that they could help teach, be there to follow and share the experience. After conversing with the company manager and stage manager at work, it seemed this may not be the best idea in regards to the confidence of the crew. Therefore I just asked my dancer partner from the show to assist me. It then meant there was a male dancer to copy for the guys as well as him making me feel more at ease in the process.
I was overwhelmed by how many people said they'd be up for it - including people from lights, stage management, wardrobe and wigs. There was a real buzz and conversation about it which was amazing. People had started practising, showing me bits of the choreography and coming up to me backstage. It caused some instant communication and rapport between cast and crew because some of the crew were going up to performing company members, asking them to demonstrate and get a head start.
"I think I know some of it already - I've been watching it every day in the wings." (Stage manager)
"I'm so excited, I'm going to bring my gym gear in." (Wardrobe assistant)
Saturday 1st April
I conducted the activity between shows today and when arriving to stage, I saw that 2 of the female participants had been to Primark to get glittery baseball caps and t-shirts for the occasion. The stage manager had brought in his joggers and trainers. I could sense apprehension and nerves at the start so I tried to make it as comfortable as possible in regards to my approach and where they stood on stage. It was so interesting to see a natural, unconscious divide between the girls and the guys in the space. Something I definitely feel was down to lack of confidence. It was clear some people found it really tough but everybody was smiling and laughing and said how much they enjoyed it at the end. A couple of people from the crew who chose not to participate still came to watch in the auditorium or help with the music which was great and still meant that they were involved. I was astounded how much they learnt in the space of 20 minutes and thought they all did amazingly well. Everybody was eager to keep learning more and a few people were brave enough to ask questions along the way.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the activity and everyone else did too. My dance partner said how nice it was to see them having a go and said how well I'd done teaching them which was reassuring. To say thank you/well done, I brought in Welsh cakes for everyone. Seen as we were in Cardiff, I thought it would be a nice little touch and treat for the end of the week. I also got enough to hand around the performing company afterwards so they still felt involved. When we did the show that night, it was great to see some of the crew dancing the routine alongside us in the wings. I definitely think they gained some appreciation for how daunting it can be on stage and an understanding towards how we can make steps look so easy. It brought people together because I could see them having fun and helping each other out with the choreography. I definitely felt it lifted the energy and morale on a double show day by engaging in something different, yet still creative.
Keep an eye out for some of the video footage in my artefact!
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