Title TBC

Well, the reason my post title is so ambiguous this week, is because as a group we haven't yet decided completely on what the question / title of our group project will be. We know that we would like to concentrate on the use of new media in theatre, and that we would like to create a performance piece together as we are theatre students and that is our area of interest / main area of study!

So we find ourselves with a small amount of difficulty in choosing our question, much like trying to find the ultimate question to the ultimate answer of life, the universe and everything!
A preliminary version of the question was suggested as:
"The use of new media as a focal point in a live theatre performance". 
This was commented upon by Andy (one of our project supervisors) as a good start, but we all got the feeling it was not quite good enough.

Another thing we discussed this week was our roles within the group. We all have to be assessed individually and as such, all need a specific area of research to be graded on. As we are doing a creative piece, we have decided that Paco's area of research will be Directors and Directing, Kathryn will be looking into the New Media side of things while I shall be concentrating on Writers and Writing.

Since then, I have discovered my love for creative writing, through writing ideas for stories and scripts. I have also done a little research into play writes, novelists (with the possibility of adaptation in mind) and writers of more recent forms of media, (film, television, etc).

More when there is more to talk about!

A Meeting of Minds

Previous discussions with my group had been very interesting, but fleeting, with very little decision making, definite plans of action or indeed any particular direction of research. Well, at last we are on track after having been given some idea of what we have been tasked with!

In our first proper meeting, we decided to list the pros of choosing to do either a theatre based project or a film based project. As theatre is our speciality, we were quite keen to pursue a line of research that at least included theatre, but maybe not exclusively. We discussed the pros of film and making a film over a theatre production, being able to shoot and edit at our own pace, where as a live performance is a one shot deal and requires weeks of planning and rehearsal. Regardless of whether we choose to do one or the other, we realised that a DVD / tape would have to be sent to an external examiner; we also concluded that either would be a good edition to our project portfolio and to our individual portfolios. 

We hit upon a very interesting point in the discussion, of combining new media and theatre. Many theatre companies have used new media in their productions, varying from simple television screens with pre-recorded or live video, to projections onto the backdrop and giant LCD screens. Amongst these companies are DV8 (better known for their physical theatre), Forkbeard Fantasy (multi-media company) and Forced Entertainment Theatre, the latter challenges traditional and pre-conceptions of theatre. So intrigued were we by their work, that as part of our research we have already booked tickets to see Forced Entertainment in Manchester on November the 19th, after which we will attend a talk with the company.

We read an article on the use of new media in theatre which mainly focused on images / video projected onto the stage using different methods and how these methods have changed over time, due to new emerging technologies.

Other topics we discussed were Dadaism and Grotowski's alternative theatre. We discussed the possibility of a video blog, a behind the scenes insight into the project and its progress, even updating a classic play for modern times e.g. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, or Educating Rita by Willy Russell.

Although we as a group aren't definite on the exact topic of our project, we are at least a step closer, and are fairly certain it will pertain to the use of new media in theatre.

References:

Davies-Webb.H, 2010. Chapter 5 New Media and the Theatre. [online] Performing Arts Technical Training. Available at: <http://www.performing-arts.org.uk/pdfs/Ch5.pdf> [Accessed 02 October 2010] 
Forced Entertainment, 2010. Website. [online] Available at: <http://www.forcedentertainment.com/> [Accessed 02 October 2010]
Forkbeard Fantasy, n.d., Website. [online] Available at: [http://www.forkbeardfantasy.co.uk/> [Accessed 02 October 2010]