Shock and Awe
Sketch a day - Day 51/365
A day in Huddersfield with Kathleen and the Odd Doll Theatre team working on the Blink show R&D.
So much joy and challenge and learning in the room. It was a great day. Seeing folks design/costume and sound ideas for the show. Sharing those ideas and getting feedback from Vicky Ackroyd about access ideas for the work. Embedding that thinking in, right from the off. Then finishing the day, working with Kathleen, exploring objectives for the first draft. Along the way we all got videoed being interviewed by an action man doll about the process of making the RnD. Much laughter. It was wonderful and totally Odd Doll. I doubt there will ever be a better video made about the process of making a theatre show.
I walked out of Laurence Batley Theatre feeling elated by the day. And then read headlines about the latest disaster capitalism/ shock and awe bullshit that Trump/ the US govt is playing out into the world. To freak us all out and make us feel small.
I felt an initial response of fear. Then I remembered that this stuff is being done purposely and so the only appropriate response must be purposeful. So I thought about the world in front of me. By this time I was at Huddersfield station. I thought about the ways noticing it and celebrating it and drawing it down into my eyes and ears and heart could help. How doing this does not negate my concerns or fears. But doing this stuff does root me. And remind me that I am here and what I care about is real and how there is alot of the world to be in love with.
Because the ask right now is not for dreamers to stop dreaming, but for dreamers in the face of fascism, tyranny and hate to dig in and dare to keep dreaming. And, in fact, to dare to dream bigger better dreams.
And sometimes that means being interviewed by an action man about what dramaturgy is.
And other times it's about breaking open a new pad and drawing folks waiting waiting waiting for the train to arrive.
Because people are very vulnerable and beautiful when they wait.
And that is the news.