When I auditioned for OPEN I had no idea what to expect. Prior to the auditions our director (Jack) and producer (Emma) had taken to the streets of Nottingham to ask different people what their opinions of Britain were. They recorded various people’s opinions then transcribed these opinions and made them into audition pieces. When we were handed the pieces we had no idea who these people were, what their backgrounds were, their occupations, their political backgrounds ect… We just had these words on a page and we had to interpret them in our own way. We took away whichever piece we were handed and had to put together our audition. I was given a speech by a male artist that Emma and Jack had spoken to. That was all I knew about the person. As a female I had to put my own twist on his words, but that was what Emma and Jack wanted. They wanted to see how we could multi role. The man’s opinion was eye opening. He was so optimistic about Britain and our multicultural society. His language was poetic: (*SPOILER*) “There’s colour, everywhere, y’know, there’s people from different ethnic groups, and that’s make - makes England colourful, it’s beautiful, y’know, nice colours and that” That’s when I realised that the fundamental element of creating OPEN was using people’s own words and experiences to create a play. The people of Britain have written this play, their words are our script. Once we had been cast we followed Emma and Jack’s lead by taking to the streets of Nottingham and our various home towns to record other people’s opinions of Britain. We went out on election night and interviewed people outside the polling stations. We then transcribed our recordings and sifted through the various transcripts to find what worked for our play. We had discussed early on that we wanted to create a play that portrayed the diverse opinions from all sectors of British society and this is what we’ve strived to accomplish. Making OPEN hasn’t been easy. Without a definitive script the rehearsal process was difficult, complicated, and incoherent. It was something that none of us; as actors, directors and producers, were used to. Our characters were not fictional. We did not have to read their lines, understand their motives and learn how they thought. We met our characters. They weren’t characters, they were real people, and we had to learn their mannerisms, listen to their dialect, their pitch and tone and mimic it. We had to decipher how these people would interact in a take away. And we had to ensure that this was done authentically. We wanted to represent these people realistically. We did not want to portray our own opinion or morale. We just wanted to show different opinions equally and fairly. OPEN is set in a take away café on election night. It resembles real people’s voices, opinions and experiences in an everyday setting. When we eventually decided which transcripts would be incorporated into the play, we were able to work with some non-naturalistic theatrical techniques that would make the play more diverse. That’s where the spoken word and guitar playing comes into it. We felt that these techniques added to the overall message that the play was delivering: that Britain is diverse, unique and different. Ironically, OPEN has taught me to be more open as a person. To listen to other people’s opinions before judging them. To understand that in Britain, we all have different experiences and opinions, and that’s OK.
gracieabrams
andulkaphoto
prguitarman
sugurugetos
gummygunk
areudirty
yousharknotpass
tangentwithtanner
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