This weekend at the Artz Centre we are debuting a brand new play, as apart of a brand new partnership with the National Theatre and through a brand new acting department we launched in the winter last year. There is lots of new-stuff. And not everybody likes new. Because new isn’t comfortable.
I can’t disagree with them. New is not comfortable. Doing ‘the new thing’ takes us into realms we haven’t worked in before. It can expose faults and weaknesses we haven’t consolidated (yet) and fundamentally you spend lots of time wondering whether doing ‘the new thing’ was the right call.
Kiss, Marry, Push Off Cliff sees eight Artz Centre seniors take to stage with a dark coming of age script written by Josh Azouz. In taking 8 musical theatre actors who are used to big ensemble Artz musicals into a much smaller cast, straight drama project I have been really fascinated in how the group have worked together. I think everyone in the cast has felt the responsibility of being the first group of ours to take on a project like this. The eldest in the group especially I think have carried themselves with a sense of duty to create a performance with legacy. I believe they have wanted to produce a show that inspires students in the audience to audition next year, and the year after, and the year after.
For me as a director, this production has also been a huge venture from the norm. My bread and butter is musicals. I am far more comfortable with a script that has sheet music in it! And so what I’ve found is that the flow of a play is completely different! Expanding on moments, finding theatricality and a dramatised reality is a very different challenge when you aren’t always 4 pages away from the next musical number. I think a lot of this is because musicals provide us as directors more sculpt. The score can often carry a shows energy. It can turbo charge the atmosphere with a thrilling quintet or resonate with something deep within us with an emotional ballad. Now… it may seem like I am meandering into a love letter to musical theatre… but thats not my plan. My point is that yes, musicals do absolutely give us those tools and those guides. But in doing a play I have sort of felt like a kid who’s stabilisers have been taken off his bike. The pacing, emotional peaks and troughs, holding the audiences attention all these things are handed over to you when picking up a play.
As a result, I’ve really felt how novice I am in this area. Kids who have their stabilisers taken off start off shaky after all! But that has been such a blessing! To be able to go “I’m new to this, I’m hoping to learn” has been so grounding, and so rewarding. I’ve had friends and colleagues feedback to me on the show and I’ve wanted to soak up every one of those comments. But my favourite have been “I didn’t understand that bit” because comments like those allow a director to understand what doesn’t work, and then consider how to fix it.
My advice to myself, is embrace being new or novice at something time and time again. Nobody should be ashamed of learning something for the first time. Learning lasts a lifetime and lets all look for the new thing to learn… the thing we haven’t done yet. Because I tell you what… the learning I’ve done on this play will undoubtedly mean when I open up my next musical script, I’m going to be better at that too!
My final observation has been about the powerful impact of being honest and vulnerable as a facilitator in the room of this production and being brave enough to say to my 8 actors who were all working on a play for the first time: “I’m doing this for the first time too”. I 100% think there is so much value in learning from under someone who can honestly hold the mantle of expert. If you can find yourself an expert who is willing to mentor you, GOLD MINE! But if you’re working with a group of young people and you can’t honestly say you’re the expert (yet)… then why not say so. I have found that being honest with my position has made me feel so much more comfortable saying to my cast “guys… I think I went wrong with that idea there… can we backtrack and start again”. As well as my personal favourite “I have no idea how this is going to go… I THINK it’ll be good… but can we try it?” Funny enough… one of those experimental moments I proposed to the cast was what was sighted last night by a cast member as being the moment when the show started making sense to her. So I am going to take that win!