confluence

confluence (in honor of gaston bachelard)
by Jeanne Figueira Grossetti


Now that there are 10 days to complete the outside / inside experience - at least the first stage of this piece, as it does look as though it will have a life / a being beyond the 7, 8, 9 April - it is worth taking stock and trying to articulate, over the next couple of posts, all that we have defined / not defined / achieved this year and part of the last.

The starting point was the Gaston Bachelard chapter in The Poetics of Space (1958): with an exploration of notions, philosophies and experiences of:

• being / non-being
  
• positive / negative
  
• yes / no
  
• this side / beyond
  
• here / there
• noise / silence
• the conscious / the sub-conscious
• the ordinary / the essential
• the rehearsed / the spontaneous
• body / voice / thought
  
• music / sounds / effects
  
• breathing / movement / dance
• language / poetics / space

Members of the company, in their approach, have been relaxed, thoughtful (meditative even), exploratory and totally engaged; it may even have been the most relaxing - even therapeutic - (rehearsal) process I have been a part of in terms of putting something together / telling stories / making a piece of theatre.

The atmospheres, ideas and fun that have been created with the playing of music have been hugely progressive. The contributions, offerings, ideas of the group have allowed for a piece that has had a natural development.

Some people write more, some play more; some laugh a lot, some think a lot.

The mixtures have been fruitful and there has been much confidence in body, self and ideas; in imagination, in creativity; in exploring, in being: in making.

The confluence of the experience - of the outside and of the inside - is still uniting individuals, the scoops, the spaces and will continue to do so at each of the performances in 10 days' time...

[Our thanks to Jeanne Grossetti for the use of the above image here: it captures a sense of the dialectics of the piece...]