Process - early days

Collaborating in the way we have chosen requires huge reserves of trust and lots of letting go. As well as a healthy dose of control, in the right places, and loads of preparation. Sounds contradictory? Its weird, but I'm a firm believer in a creation process that doesn't involve constructing so much as uncovering. Or allowing. Finding the underlying structure and pattern to a work, listening closely, and scratching away at the topsoil to reveal what's there - a skeleton framework under the sand. The key is spotting a pattern that others may not see coz they don't have their eye tuned in.



Let me take you back to our early chats. Jen's idea - I want to create a work that uses three modes - portrait, landscape and still-life. My idea - I want to create a work about Joburg. About the way that this city's goldrush origins still inform it's contemporary spirit. The original city site was the driest, most inhospitable piece of land in the area - allocated for settlement because it was the only spot where there was no gold underneath. The population that streamed in like the rivers that originally brought gold dust into the sludge here in the first place, billions of years ago, came purely on the "tata ma chance" philosophy - a bit of adventure and (maybe) some money. They chipped and drilled and blasted away, penetrating ever downwards in search of those quick moments of yeah-haaa! Yep, its origins are distinctly masculine.



So, we take these two ideas and we audition people using some extracts from Vladislavic's Portrait with Keys and a couple of non-verbal scenarios based on getting lost in the city. We cast three people that we like and feel excited about working with.



At our first meeting, we take those three modes - portrait, landscape, still life and we brainstorm. Mining each of our 'Joburg' experiences, we create three lists. What is Jozi to you - the landscapes, the objects, the people.



We give homework - everyone must go and research two random people that fascinate them. One on each end of the economic scale.


At the next rehearsal we share these stories, gestures, observations. Nhla has had an extraordinary conversation with a homeless man in Joubert Park. His story is one of many stories that give truth to the "if you go there you will never come back" line. A man from Lusikisiki whose mother does not know where he is. Their stories layer quite neatly over the conversations we already had, and the structure that is starting to emerge.

I've already got a storyline I'm nurturing as a hook - something about a girl who goes to the big city in search of her father. She meets a skellum. She has some choices. I'm not pushing this story, but i'm aware its there, and I share it, and ask them to do some character exploration. I only know the opening phrases of it - no crisis yet, just the first movement.

In the meantime, we are also using each of their audition pieces as source for some material. Jess did a haunting breath/running/chased sequence. Ndu clearly is adept at character channeling. Nhla, well, he's got a nice take on the rural perspectives. We spend some sessions bouncing the storyline back and forth at each other until it starts to get an arc. This is fun. We realise that we all have an 'outsider' perspective on Joburg. But then we remember that this is the core Jozi experience. Everybody was a foreigner here in the early days. Its part of the soul of the city.

In the meantime, Jen developing some killer gesture-scapes with them. As you can see, our rehearsals til now are fragmented and we are working piece by piece, filling in a structure that can accommodate small slotted-in segments. Yes, there's a storyline. But there's also a whole parallel historical narrative that sketches the history and origins of the city, as we follow our heroine on her journey. And there are also parallel "car window" vignettes. Short cuts, chopped in. Fragmented, yeah, that's the scene here in Jozitown, so that's how its working for now.

And I trust that it is. Working, that is.

That was the first week or so. Now that we've done some interesting explorations and generated some truly delicious physical sequences ( the Friday Night Brenda Fassie sequence is to die for, doll), we need to start pinning it all together and sculpting. I've got the structure down now. Nhlanhla and I have figured out the story arc. (Well, it just landed, really).

I'm frantically trying to get a decent working script out for tomorrow, so pardon me for now.

I do have an exciting aspect to talk about in terms of collaboration and further processes we wish to explore, but before those come, I just needed to give you that bit of background...

If you'd like to write to us, please do - you can send email to paydirtplay(at)gmail(dot)com. You get the code, neh? That's to fool spammers. Coz I'm a streetsmart Jozikid, me. I can sommer fool the spammers. They won't catch me.