Gary Steven's Performance lab 21/22 February, Toynbee Studios

ok, so in this Gary Steven's lab we worked with collaboration between people who hadn't worked together before, the first exercise on day one was to create a tableau with a single action. our objective become to centre on the door as a portal, how many ways we could see it, and the sense of impending urgency to leave or the desire for what's beyond.we played with the fun idea that we struggled or fought, but that actually the door was unlocked and you could just flick the switch and leave.

thanks to Ange Taggart for the photos




day two, different grouping slightly different, I'm so terrible with names, only remembering Megan and Aquila Rose (Aquila I knew). After improvising with a found balloon in the morning, the objective became to get everything out of the room in ridiculously complicated ways, first up, we came in and removed a piece of polystyrene as though it was the most precious thing in the world, letting it ebb and flow between our bodies. Then we tried to remove a piano, which was too heavy to move, until we removed the balloon inside it , naturally ;) I really loved playing with this non-sensical humour and improvisational chance elements; we had a score and then worked within this responding to one another.






turning on the audience....

and removing them...one by one




picking them up like the polystyrene

...and shoving them outa the door!!! then we go back in, with everything and everyone outside hehe :) for me, the day linked well with the ideas i had been bouncing around during my MA for bringing together extremes in stand up comedy, rather than any of my live art work, but a good day exploring scores and spontaneity none-the-less.

this workshop was for me much stronger on the second day i would have liked the more structured activities we did at the end of day two in day one. The lab drew parallels with the Objects and Atmosphere workshop run last year by Gerry Pilgrim, some of my MA blog posts are here on this- Part one, Part three, Part seven