Fasting from Facebook for a Fortnight

I've decided to take a break from facebook for a fortnight. It's not the first time that I've done it, but this time it feels more significant.

It's amazing how many hours can disappear in an evening from just watching television or browsing through facebook. It's time that I've decided I am not willing to waste anymore. Partly because I find I am neglecting other things that would be more worthwhile. But also because I've decided that the time I spend on facebook takes me further away from truth.

It is so easy to start measuring your life against the lives others project on your news feed, and I know that I for one have found myself dealing with jealousy, competitiveness, feelings of failure and inadequacy, and I've generally just found myself striving. And the worst part is that it's so subtle. For me, time spent on facebook has allowed the enemy's whispering lies to gain a foothold in my heart. "You're not successful because you're not getting the kind of work that so-and-so is getting." "You are unloveable because you're not married or engaged when all your peers are." "You should own a flat and have a proper job by now, you are wasting your life."

And before I know it, I've joined in with the great facebook charade and I am projecting a version of myself to all the people who follow me in an attempt to prove that those whispering lies aren't quite true, although deep down I know that I have started to believe them.

It becomes so easy to forget that the single most important thing in my life is Jesus. Before all other things comes my love for Him. He doesn't care about some half-true version of myself that I display on my profile because He knows the innermost workings of my heart. He knows me better than I know myself and no matter how much of a failure I might be, He will always love me. Unconditionally.

So this fortnight, I am packing in my online persona and instead I'm going to spend those normally-wasted hours getting to know who He says I am. I'm going to be still in His presence and stop striving. I am going to trust in His sovereignty.

I'm going to engage with the world in real time. I'm going to spend time with people in person. I'm going to be more fully present in the day to day - not buried in my facebook app on my phone.

I'm pretty sure it's not going to be easy. I'm sure I will feel like I am missing out on all the latest goings-on. But I am also sure that I will come through the other end changed and a few steps closer to who I was created to be. And for that I can't wait.

The fruit of two months back in Glasgow

So today marks two months of being back in Glasgow so it seemed only fitting to have a wee reflection on the whirlwind so far and the questions it has posed for me.

I can say without doubt that moving back North was the right decision, after months of closed doors it has been amazing to have had so many positive meetings and introductions and opportunities here. It has done wonders for my confidence in myself as an artist and facilitator, and has allowed my energy to be channelled into reflecting on my practice instead of mere survival.

So what have I been up to for the 61 days I have been home? And what have I achieved?

It is fair to say I have been busy the whole time I have been back, although perhaps a lot of what I have been doing wouldn't necessarily be conventionally classed as work... but welcome to the life of a freelancer!!

So let's start with the quantifiable...

Four Decades at Traverse Theatre with Playwrights Studio Scotland

In my first week at home the Traverse were hosting an event that looked back over the past four decades of Scottish Theatre and forward into what the future might hold. This was perfect timing for me! Having studied Contemporary British Theatre as part of my MA, one might have expected that I would have been familiar with a fair bit of what was covered. One would be wrong! I spent my three days at Four Decades (The Nineties, The 2000s, and the Future) frantically noting down names and companies and plays and books for further research and trying to scope out who was who.

It wasn't until later that I remembered feeling this same way at the start of my Playwriting course at City Lit and again at the beginning of my MA. But very quickly the jigsaw pieces begin to join up and a picture begins to emerge.

These three days were invaluable for getting my head back in the Scottish scene and for meeting some important folk. And all three days were paid for by the Theatre Tokens that my lovely All Saints' family gave me in my leaving gift.

Skill Up with Promote YT at Dundee Rep

The following week I spent the weekend through in Dundee at a conference for those working in the youth theatre sector. It was so refreshing to be surrounded by others who were passionate about creating great theatre with young people and it was great to stretch our brains together about some of the challenges of working in this sector. I particularly enjoyed the morning I spent in a workshop led by Louise Brodie (Artist in Residence with Imaginate) on the Ethics of Autobiographical Work with Young People. This is a subject I have wrestled with for a while and I just really enjoyed hearing others opinions and chewing over ideas. The workshop also really stretched me as an artist and put me in the shoes of the participant - this was so crucial because it can be so easy to forget what it feels like to be the young people we work with, and it brings a whole new perspective to the question of whether what we do and what we ask of them is "ok".

I also participated in workshops with Company of Angels, Mary McCluskey from Scottish Youth Theatre and Jemima Levick from Dundee Rep, saw a performance by Dundee Rep Youth Theatre, went to a ceilidh and met lots of people from all different sections of the industry. All in all, it was entirely worth it!

Small Change with Citizens Theatre Learning

Within just a few days of being back I was fortunate enough to be offered a project with Citizens' Theatre Learning. The project was rolled out in primary schools across Glasgow, working with Primary 7 pupils to use drama to think about money management. I delivered the project in two primary school's in the East End of Glasgow over four weeks.

It was great to get some work sorted really quickly and it felt amazing to be out workshopping again. It was also really nice to be back in the East End where I did placements in first and second year of uni. It brought back a whole load of memories but it was also really cool to think about how far I have come since then and how much I have grown as a practitioner.

What's more I learned a bit more about money management myself! One particular highlight was when one of my classes educated me on "Menage money" (pronounced minodge).

Get into Drama with Enable Scotland and Platform, Glasgow

Also within the first week of being back, I secured a project working with adults with additional support needs out in Cumbernauld. The group is a brand new group as part of a new programme of activities that has been launched by Enable Scotland. We've had great fun over the past 7 weeks getting to know each other and working out a direction for the project. It's all looking really exciting and I am especially excited that the project is going to roll on indefinitely.

I won't give away just yet what we are working on, but I hope that soon we will have something that we can share with an invited audience. Watch this space!

Play Station at Platform, Glasgow

Through word of mouth and my website (designed by the brilliant James McNelly), I was contacted by Matt Addicott at Platform and asked to be a part of the team of facilitating artists delivering Play Station this term. Play Station is a Saturday morning drop-in drama session for children aged 5-7.

This project has been really important for me in my development as a facilitating artist and has really caused me to reflect on my practice and consider what I think the purpose is in my work with children in this age group. You can find out more about my thoughts that were inspired by my work with this group in my previous blog post (A reflection on integrity).

I have two more sessions left with Play Station and I have to say I will really miss it! It has re-awakened my love for working with children of this age!

Words, Words, Words at Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh

Words, Words, Words is a scratch night of new writing - 8 extracts of previously unseen work from 8 writers at any stage in their career directed by 8 emerging directors.

I applied to join the Emerging Directors scheme at the Traverse and as such was notified about this opportunity. I sat on it for a few days, swinging between feeling like I shouldn't apply because I wouldn't get chosen and feeling like I shouldn't apply because if they did choose me, that was terrifying. So I decided the only thing I could do was apply. Time passed and I figured I hadn't been chosen... but I was wrong! I was given an extract of a play called "Look at Me Look at You" by Robyn Hunt and I had an hour and fifteen minutes to direct a rehearsed reading of the piece with actors Paul Cunningham and Tom Freeman.

It felt like being back at drama school and I spent most of the day feeling utterly sick, but ultimately it was an amazing experience and I know that were I to have the opportunity to do this, or something similar again, I would do lots of things very differently! Most of all though, I wouldn't be afraid to ask the questions that may seem silly. For example, I knew the event was to take place in Traverse 2. Every time I have ever seen anything in Traverse 2, the space has been in thrust... so I assumed...

Wrong!

It was set end on.

Lesson 1: Always ask what the space will be set up like.

Theatre I've seen

I've seen a wide and varied selection of companies and productions as well as a number of rehearsed readings, all of which are helping me to define what my theatrical taste is. The productions I have seen in my two months of being back are:

Black Watch by NTS at SECC
Dr Faustus at Citizens' Theatre
Headlong's The Seagull at the Citizens' Theatre
Scottish Opera and D'oyly Carte's Pirates of Penzance at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow
The One Man Show Off as part of the Southside Fringe
Little Shop of Horrors at Cottiers by Pantheon
The House of Bernarda Alba by students from Motherwell College at Cottiers Kelvinbridge
Slick by Vox Motus at Platform

As for the rest...

I've spent a lot of time having meetings and coffees with folk, sending CV's and applications and I have to say the future is looking bright! Lots of these I can't really share at the moment but some future stuff that I can share includes:

National Festival of Youth Theatre

I am going to be delivering a series of workshops at the National Festival of Youth Theatre on working with text for performance. The NFYT takes place in Glenrothes and will involve camping for the weekend - prayers for dry weather would be much appreciated!

Summer Academy at Citizens' Theatre

I will be leading a Summer Academy at the Citizens' Theatre for 9-12 year olds at the end of July. I'm really excited to be back in the building working with the young people.

Re:Action Youth Theatre at Callander House with Falkirk Community Trust

After the summer I will be working with Clare Collins and the young people at Re:Action to create a site specific piece of theatre at Callander House which will be performed on the three Saturdays in December leading up to Christmas. It's going to be great to get back to working with a youth theatre group and this project really reminds me of a piece I worked on at Dean Castle in my time with East Ayrshire Youth Theatre.

East Renfrewshire Council Youth Services

I have recently been successful in my application to be a part of the detached youth work team for East Renfrewshire Council. This is a pretty new thing for me and I am looking forward to working with young people in this new format for me.

I've been reflecting a lot on this wee job and how it fits into the bigger picture of my work. I have talked lots about the tension I feel in the work that I make between a social agenda and an artistic agenda. This job certainly sits on the social agenda side (where Words, Words, Words sat very much on the artistic side). But the more I reflect on this spectrum the more I see that it all feeds into each other. In both extremes of the scale I can learn things that will impact the rest of my work, wherever it lands on the scale. Surely working in a detached youth work context with young people is only going to help me to better relate to the young people I work with in a youth theatre context? In the same way that working in a purely "theatre" context can also inform my work within youth theatre. Basically, it's all good and none of it's wasted... as long as I keep questioning and reflecting. I want to keep learning all the time, and the best way to do that is definitely to keep asking questions.

So there we go. A jam-packed two months and lots of hope for the future. I'll keep you posted!

A reflection on having integrity

I've noticed that since completing my MA I am a much more reflective practitioner. And I ask questions of my practice a lot more. "Why am I doing this?" "What do I think of this?" "What is the purpose of this work?"

This week, in particular, I have noticed that the pages of my notebook are filled with lots of little pep talks to myself. Things that I have learned that I want to keep learning and never forget. The biggest and most important learning point, that comes up again and again, is to be myself.

I have always felt strongly that I wanted to have integrity in my work (and in all areas of my life). That I didn't want to "sell out" or to become a suck-up to get ahead. But I have found as I have reflected on my work over the past couple of weeks that integrity is about much more than just that. According to Wikipedia integrity is:

A concept of consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations, and outcomes.

Consistent methods. This in particular is the area that I think I have re-discovered this past week. It can be so tempting in a new environment to bend to how others work, or to try and fit someone else's mould. I feel like I have been caught out in the last fortnight in this very area. Not in some major, catastrophic way, but subtley bowing to others opinions instead of sticking by my convictions and my own tried and tested methods of working in particular settings. What I have discovered is that when I do try to fit in someone else's mould I have invariably stopped questioning my process, choosing instead to just accept someone else's way of doing.

And so, I remind myself:

• Don't lose your nerve
• Be honest and true to yourself
• Hold strong to your convictions and ideals
• Don't undermine the exercise's purpose or potential by compromising its full process

It strikes me that when I fall in to a place of inconsistency in my methods I am compromising not just the potential of the exercises and the process but I am also compromising myself. I am who I am, and my process is my unique selling point. Even someone who uses a similar process to me will be different to me, because so much of the job is tied up with personality. You can't fake your personality. So when I try to adopt a process that doesn't fit well with my convictions and personality, I'm never going to be working at my best. Not because that process is no good, but because it is not mine.

I think all good directors have evolved their own way of working, cobbled together like mine from things that have worked.

Max Stafford-Clark

So what are some hallmarks of my process?

• I have to know the purpose behind each activity I am using - if I don't know what I am trying to achieve through an exercise, it shouldn't be on my plan.
• I must have some degree of order in my rehearsal/workshop room. It is important to me that creativity is channeled. Unbridled creativity leads to an atmosphere of chaos where no participant's voice is fully heard. Part of the creative process is knowing when it is one's turn to speak and when it is one's turn to listen. It's about instilling the principles of teamwork and creating an ensemble, where all can speak and be listened to.
• There must be a goal or objective to work towards. An endless stream of workshops for workshops sake gets no one anywhere. Whether the end point is a performance or the development of certain skills, I think it is important for all concerned to feel some sense of purpose in the work.
• The drama/theatre should never just be a tool or vehicle. If we are going to use drama and theatre, we must also teach how to use them effectively. We must equip people with a theatrical language. How can we expect participants to express themselves theatrically if we do not teach them the language? That is like asking someone who only speaks English to write a poem in French.

And so, my challenge to myself in the work that lies ahead is not to lose my nerve. To cling to my convictions and to trust that what I do best is be myself.

7 days!

Well it's now just 7 days until I drive on back to Glasgow to live, not visit, after 5 and a bit years of living in London. Of course, I am slightly terrified about the unknown but I am mostly just really excited!

So to mark 7 days until my return home, here's 7 things that I am really excited about:

1) People understanding when I tell them my name!

I have spent the last 5 years having to put up with constant awkward introductions. I find it's important to nip it in the bud early when someone thinks they've heard my name as Jane or Jean or some other obscure non-Jen variety. But it doesn't make meeting new people very easy, in fact it largely fills me with dread! Here's to being in a place where everybody knows your name (and you're always glad you came!)

2) Theatre

There is a great big heart to Scottish theatre that I have failed to find in London... Please don't read that I'm saying London theatre is heartless, it just hasn't captured my heart in the same way as the work I have seen in the homeland. I am so excited to be back in the city that is home to my all time favourite theatre, the wee gem that is the Citz - love its heart and its heritage and can't wait to see lots of great work there (and hopefully get involved in some of it!). Also excited for the Tron, Platform, Tramway, the Trav and the Lyceum in Edinburgh (which will take no longer to get to than a trip from here up to the Royal Court). The joyous National Theatre of Scotland and some ventures to Dundee, Inverness and Aberdeen. For Scottish Opera, Scottish Ballet... Scottish, Scottish, Scottish. I am bursting with excitement to reconnect with my culture and my heritage and the stories of my people.

3) Rolls and Lorne Sausage

There is no mistaking a PROPER roll and sausage. No counterfeits accepted. I shall start the day with the breakfast of champions, washed down by a nice cold glass of milk. Just like the days of the BACA at Jordanhill. God rest you Toby's and your cheap-as-chips rolls and sausage and wee cartons of "green milk".

4) Seeing more of my family

It's a bit of a given really. With the exception of my brother who lives in Romford, my move will mean lots more family times... And quite likely even Christmas in Glasgow!!! I am so excited to see my gorgeous wee cousins Kirsten and Rebecca growing up and to spend time with my lovely older cousins, for more than a rushed once-every-few-months catch up. I have some amazing people that I have the privilege of being related to and I'm excited to have them as more regular features in my life!

5) My lovely Scottish Friends

The beautiful people who I grew up with! It'll be odd because I've grown up heaps since I moved to London, but I know that I have friends in Glasgow who are friends for life and I'm excited to share life with them again in person and not just over Facebook. The sad side to this is leaving my lovely English friends behind - but just like I have kept solid friendships across 400 miles when I moved down here, I know that we will stay in touch. Proper friendship lasts the distance!

6) Starting a new adventure in the place my heart calls home

I left Glasgow, newly 21 and having only ever lived in one house my whole life. Five years and about 7 addresses later I'm coming home an adult. I've never lived in Glasgow as an adult, so while it's a return to the familiar, it definitely feels like a whole new adventure! I am so excited to see what is around the corner - there's nothing concrete at the moment, so it's a huge big leap of faith, but a leap of faith that is definitely also a homecoming! Watch this space!

7) The beautiful land, it's greenness and its hills

Every time I drive home to visit or I step off the plane in Glasgow the sight of the hills and mountains takes my breath away. I guess you don't always appreciate what's always right in front of you and it has taken going away for me to realise just how beautiful my homeland is. The greens and greys and purples of the landscape settle my soul and even the dreich weather sets my heart at peace. I am determined not to allow myself to take this beautiful land for granted but to make sure I explore it, am thankful for it and allow it to inspire me. Bonnie Scotland, I'm coming to get you!

Left in the Wake of the Practicalities

 

I've been reflecting a lot over the past week on different platforms for sharing or showcasing the work that I make and the importance of finding the correct platform, not just for the story but also the group who are telling it.

One of the projects I have been working on over the past few months is Saints' Youth Theatre. The group consists of 11 girls aged between 10 and 13, many of whom have very little experience of performing. It has been such a massive privilege to work with these girls over two terms and to witness, and I hope have some part in, their blossoming into more confident young women. Every week I have had the honour of working with these imaginative and creative girls as we have explored the idea of what it might mean to be left in the wake of the world.

One of my MA tutors, John Adams, said often last year that every project is about "what you can do in the time for the money". I can't help but feel as I reflect on this project that my ambitions of what I could do in the time were a little high. Not because the girls were not all talented and enthusiastic collaborators and performers, but because there just was not the time for the scope of the task.

That is not to say that what we achieved was a failure. But I have come to question the platform on which the work the girls had accomplished was shared. In just 42 hours of youth theatre sessions the group journeyed from a title and a collection of pictures of the London 2012 Olympics to a 24 page script that explored what happened when a young girl woke to find herself 100 years out of her time, in a world that looked very different to the world she fell asleep in.

The concept and story that the group constructed was incredibly impressive and their commitment to the story was unlike anything I have witnessed in my six years of leading devising projects with young people. In many ways, this is one of the most successful devising projects that I have ever led. But I have a nagging fear in the back of my mind that the platform on which the girls shared their work did them a disservice.

The performance was to take place in All Saints' Church - a large building that seats around 300-400 people and where anyone speaking from the front uses a microphone. While we expected nowhere near those numbers in the audience, it seemed to me that if the clergy would not speak un-amplified from the front of the church, how could we expect the voice of an 11 year old girl to carry in this cavernous space?

I got so fixed on this dilemma that in my mind the only way forward was to make sure the girls were miked up. In hindsight, this was a huge mistake on my part. I got so caught up in the need for the girls to be heard from the front and making sure that they didn't perform to an audience that, in the size of the church, looked empty. I allowed the scope of the practical "problems" stop me from being creative in finding solutions.

This week, we are running an interactive promenade performance of the Easter story, told through the eyes of Peter, for the local primary school. And with the unexpected late-march cold spell I've again been faced with this question of the most suitable platform. Around half of the performance was planned to be outdoors, but with windchill taking temperatures down to an icy -6 decisions had to be made on whether to re-think some of the locations.

And so our perfectly set hillside of the crucifixion had to be sacrificed for an indoor alternative. It has undoubtedly been the best solution, despite losing some of the aesthetic, because the children are warm enough to be able to concentrate on the story playing out before them and the interaction need not be rushed in order to get back into the warmth.

It has been in the relocation of this scene that I have spotted an alternative solution for last week's youth theatre performance. It had not occurred to me to section off a smaller area of the church for the performance, but standing watching the hillside scene played in front of a black cloth at the back of the church has unveiled the other option that I missed for the Youth Theatre. This smaller, more intimate setting within the church would have allowed the girls to speak without microphones and would have allowed us to keep the audience to friends and family, with the space looking busy without being overwhelming for the girls.

I believe in this setting the girls would have had less to contend with in the sharing of their work. It would have allowed them to relax. They wouldn't have had to deal with hearing their voices amplified for the first time and the feedback from the mics that was the result of not being able to properly tech with the microphones due to the cost of hiring them in. Therein lies a learning point in itself - a proper technical rehearsal is non-negotiable. By John's rule, therefore, microphones couldn't be done for the money as we couldn't afford more than one day hire. If I had caught on to this truth, perhaps I would have dared to find the more creative solution.

But all is not lost. The girls were as high as kites after the performance and the feedback from the parents has been very positive. All I can do now is reflect and learn from the process and use what I have learned to inform my future work. So, to sum up, what have I learned?

• Finding the most appropriate setting for the group is so important. "The best" for a group may not be the all-bells-and-whistles solution, it could be a much more informal sharing of work in a more relaxed atmosphere. The question has to be "which platform will allow this group to most effectively share their work in the most empowering way?"

• Tech is non-negotiable. If lights and sound are being used, both the cast and the operator must have a chance to run it through. If you can't afford to tech then you can't afford to use lights and sound. This feels especially important in a community-setting.

• Always push to find the "other option", even if it is discarded - best to have explored all the options and written them off than to get stuck on only one possibility.

London, you lied to me (spoken word)

 

The big news in the last few weeks has been that I am going to be moving back home to Glasgow at the beginning of April. It's a decision that I have been wrestling with for 6 months and part of my difficulty in taking the leap was due to a false perception that I had picked up that told me I had no prospects outside of London and that I would be going backwards.

This notion inspired me to write the poem London, you lied to me. I want to just make it clear that I hold no animosity towards London, this is purely an expression of the struggle I had to allow myself to consider leaving.

It's my first recorded spoken word piece, so I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Provision in Every Postcode

This week I received the news that I had passed my MA in Theatre Directing with distinction. It therefore felt safe to look back over my dissertation which had been a definite no go while the result was still pending.

My dissertation was an imagined youth theatre production of Abi Morgan's Fugee which was part of the National Theatre Connections Festival in 2008. Part of my study focussed on youth theatre provision and on methodology for directing a youth theatre production.

Here's an extract that sums up why I am so passionate about youth theatre provision in every postcode:

I have a specific interest in youth theatre and have found that often youth theatre provision can be ghettoised to areas of high deprivation, becoming the reserve of marginalised groups. While I do not contest the worth of having drama and theatre projects available in these areas, I think it is equally important to have similar provision in more affluent areas too. The argument against this is often that more affluent families can afford to pay for arts provision for their children. In these areas, however, arts provision tends to lean towards graded exams, for example, Associated Board, LAMDA and RAD, or stage school-esque performing arts schools that focus much more heavily on the performance as the product and less on the impact of participation.

Chris Johnston advocates that “none are excluded from participating at a grass-roots level” (1998, P3) however, if we fail to provide access to youth theatre provision in more affluent areas we are excluding young people in those areas from taking part on the basis of their economic background. Johnston also stipulates that:

There is no special qualification required to participate in drama work. You do not need to have lived a particularly vivid, difficult or disaster-strewn life to contribute; to have lived thus far is sufficient.

                                                                                                                                (Johnston, 1998, P14)

 

As Johnston points out, there are no benchmarks for participation. Neelands and Goode refer to theatre as “a process for the interpretation of human behaviour and meanings as well as for their expression” and suggest that it is born out of our response “to a basic human need to symbolize the world through art-forms.” (2000, P3).  It is my belief that, in accordance with Neelands and Goode’s assertions, young people from all backgrounds are engaged in the process of trying to make sense of the world around them and that access to youth theatre provision is essential across the spectrum of economic backgrounds. Clifford and Herrmann breakdown the process of participation as follows:

 

Through bringing our mind, body and spirit to the drama, we gain insight into ourselves (personal). Through working with others to create a play within the discipline of theatre, we develop skills to relate to people and build relationships based on trust, support, honesty and understanding (social). Finally, as we take our performance out to the wider community, we make ourselves heard in the public arena, allowing others to engage with our views and concerns and impacting the world we live in (political). It is the ability of theatre to transform the inner self, the group and society at large that makes it so powerful and appropriate a medium for work with young people.

                                                                                                                (Clifford and Herrmann, 1999, P17)

Clifford and Hermann assert that participation in the community theatre process leads to personal, social and political growth for those who take part. In my opinion, the opportunity to develop on a personal, social and political level should not be means-tested, but should be a right. This sentiment is echoed by Neelands and Goode who suggest that “meaningful and personally useful theatre activity is the right and prerogative of all people, enabling all to maximise the culture of their race, class, gender, age or ability.” (2000, P3)

 

Clifford, S. & Herrmann, A. (1999) Making a Leap Theatre of Empowerment. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Johnston, C. (1998) House of Games. London: Nick Her Books Limited.

 Neelands, J. & Goode, T. (2000) Structuring Drama Work (2^nd ed.) . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.