Friday, May 22, 2009

Chemistry

Sometimes there's a bubbling up of excitement in the mid chest region. Sometimes it rises up, spills backwards over the shoulders and down the spine into goosebumps. That's how I feel right now about this collaboration, this play, the theatre wizardry we are embarking on. It feels like all this time I have been biding is about to pay off. At last. The planets are aligned and I've got the right people around me.

I'll go into more detail later about who is who and their bios and experience. For now - all you need to know is that we are good ingredients. A choreographer-designer (Jen); a writer-director-facilitator (Tamara); a performer-storymaker-dancer-musico (Nhlanhla); and two creative performer-collaborators (Jess and Ndu).

Jen and I should have worked together ages ago. There's a good spark here. Nhlanhla and I have - and we work together beautifully. We have a similar vocabulary for what makes us smile and we fill in each other's gaps well. I can do words, visuals, conceptual stuff, and the more practical sides like marketing. He's got stories in his blood and theatrical imagery in his bones. Ndu is a 4th year student. Her audition made me cry. She has a rare something. She can channel character through her like liquid, but also a real presence. Something almost dangerous about her. Like the liquid she channels through her is flammable and could ignite at any second. Jess has a solid integrity coupled with an inventiveness that I'm loving. I barely know these girls, and we've had so little time together for working, but it feels delicious to be nosing our way through the dark together in search of the gold we know is in here, somewhere.

I think this is what makes the space exciting: its a proper collaboration. Not for us girls the big messy egos and ownership issues. We gonna open this wide open, there's plenty to go around, something for everybody. That's what excited me about Joburg when I first got here and that's the philosophy I want to maintain. Not being dewy eyed - there are always stickinesses and issues. Naturally. But this one, I know, has legs. Maybe even wings. And I declare it before you, witnesses all.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Space

Rehearsal space is an issue right now. In theory we should have access to space in the drama department at Wits, but it's prac exam time and space is in high demand. Students are practicing their voice exams in the corridor. The whole building is trilling and vibrating.



We have a little funding (thank you, National Arts Council) but once you calculate paying three actors a survival wage, travel to Grahamstown, accommodation, posters... it doesn't go terribly far.



Oh, the luxury of space. A room of one's own, where one can park one's props, set up the set, a decent floor, the ability to hear yourself speak. Maybe even make tea? Well, it comes at a price. Even if its a reasonable price, it adds up quick.



Sooooo, we fall back on the good old barter system. Space for talents. My dear friends at the art school in Braamfontein are letting us use the theatre twice a week, and in exchange we will give them a couple of workshops and some free performances when we have material to show.



And then, and then. I have at last made contact with the Hillbrow theatre people, at the old Lutheran church on the edge of Hillbrow. I haven't been to Hillbrow much lately. Aside from the Joburg Art Gallery, its usually a case of drive through, roll up the windows and lock the doors. Drive up Twist street and run into thin memories of your 17 year old self striding confidently up the hill to the bookshops, the record shops, the coffee shops.



Aah - Hillbrow memories, stories anyone? write them on the comments page, and who knows, we may even use them in the script.



So the Hillbrow theatre is an oasis. With a big stage and wooden floor and quite warm and somewhere to leave our set. We can work there in the mornings, three times a week. In exchange we will give workshops to the schoolkids who come there as part of their outreach programme.



Now all we need is for the entire cast to be available at the same time so that we can actually start work. At the moment, Nhlanhla and I are furiously generating material, and we have a workable structure. More on that in the next post. In the meantime, an extract.... or is it just a ramble? Anycase, it happened right here in Jozi town...


I speak to John on the phone and he says its easy, you just take Smit street from Wits and then you turn into Edith Cavell and the church is on your right about 100 m from the corner of Smit. But when I drive down Smit street its not like I remember it from that summer when I was here with my mom. They've put these big yellow blockade things in the road and you have to drive faster than you can see because of the big silver Kompressor behind me, and I'm looking, looking, but there's no street signs anywhere, and then I see Twist street and I remember Twist street – we always used to walk up the hill, past the Fontana chicken, and I remember that guy who used to open his coat and flash me but I can't remember if Edith Cavell is before or after Twist, so I just keep going and then the road works start there and the guy with the red flag waving but I don't know if he's stopping me or waving me on so I stop but the guy behind me hoots so I go but I stall then I go, then I have to go straight – past the vodacom tower shit now I'm heading to Ellis Park and more red flags waving me wow looka that I suddenly get a glimpse of how the city will be when the new bus system is in place, its going to be awesome, and then I see the BP. I'll have to pull over at the BP.

Thank heavens for petrol stations.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Portrait, still-life, landscape

Paydirt
Johannesburg, Joburg, Jozi, Egoli, Gangster's Paradise – the city of many names is alternately a place of promise, and a place of terror for generations of people who follow its call. Is there a 'story of Johannesburg'? Can any city so diverse hold within its belly common themes or experiences?

Histories of the city have traditionally featured archetypal stories of gold diggers, migrant labourers and randlords – macho tales of heroism and frontier outlaws who penetrate the earth's surface in search of elusive lucre. 'Paydirt' was the term used to describe the newly discovered wealth locked in the rocks around Langlaagte farm. Today, fortunes are more likely to be made and lost through violent crime than through sifting dust for gold.

Jostling through story junctions and high rise dramas, this multi-media, melting media, physical theatre piece unpacks what it means to be a member of the metropole. Three distinct departure points are used to map the Jozi experience – portrait, still-life and landscape.

Paydirt's creators mine the shadows behind the stories of some of Joburg's notorious figures from history – from gold diggers to gangleaders - real and imagined, notorious and anonymous. Their lives form intersections with those of countless migrants, cash diggers, gardeners and hustlers. High finance brokers navigate traffic next to broke, high traffickers. Economic refugees from the north bump shoulders with the ghosts of their gold digging ancestors, while a new generation seeks to rise above the skyline. They all face the same unspoken challenge – will the city swallow them?
 
Creative Commons License
Paydirt by Tamara Guhrs and Paydirt cast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 South Africa License.