Applying Physical Theatre

1. How have you used physical theatre skills in ANY performance that you have done this year (use of voice/movement/facial expressions/gestures/interaction with other characters) to explore text for performance?
   The Tempest- In the Tempest I had to act like a snobby, nasty character, plotting to kill the king, with his sister. I had to convince her of the riches and success we could experience after the murder, to show this to the audience I used arm gestures to show that I was imagining myself and her as royalty. I would look at her from the side, showing the audience a sly facial expression whilst keeping eye contact with her to show our connection, and my persuasive energy. When delivering my lines I would put emphasis on words such as ‘suggestion’ and ‘together’, to make my idea sound even better to Bastiana.
   Our House- Another example of where I used my physicality to show character in an exaggerated way, is in Our House, specifically in the song Embarrassment. I played one of the Neighbours, with the line ‘we don’t’, I had to be angry and turn my nose up at the main character Joe Casey in an exaggerated way. To show this I had my arms crossed at all times, and would play with my hair or nails to show that I was girly and didn’t care about him, not paying any attention to him. When we initially approached this, we would have our backs to him, and would deliver our lines over our shoulders. This showed that we dislike him and that we have lost respect for the character.
   Dance Show- In the dance show media piece, one of our main stimuli was secrets and the power they hold, to show this we created motifs based around this, using hand gestures to show that we are whispering in each other’s ears. This, alongside a contrast in sharp fast dynamics to soft and slow, created a sense of controlled chaos, making the audience want to know the secret that us as a cast had, much like how the media may be keeping secrets from the public.
   WWRY- In We Will Rock You, I played one of Killer Queen’s Yuppies when off cast, In songs such as Play The Game, Killer Queen, Another One Bites The Dust and It’s A Kind Of Magic. In these songs I am under the control of Killer Queen, and can’t think for myself. To show this I used my facial expressions, depending on what the song was about. For example in Play The Game I used a fake cheesy smile,  and in Another One Bites The Dust I had minimal movement in my face, but mostly focus or fear, to exaggerate Killer Queen’s power over us.
2. What were your ideas from reading the text or script or lines?
   The Tempest- I have used physical theatre in The Tempest to show a shipwreck. We took lines such as ‘take in the top sail, tend to the master’s whistle, blow, till thou burst thy wind!’, ‘stay in your cabins, you do assist the storm.’ And ‘down with the topmast! Lower, lower!’. These quotes allowed us to create an idea of what it was like to be on the ship as our characters. To create sense of panic, in a non-naturalistic way, we decided to use a drum beat between each line, changing position dramatically, using positions such as cowering in fear, looking up to the sky, pleading with our arms, and trying to shield ourselves from the storm. This allowed us to use exaggerated facial expressions, so show the audience fear, desperation and exhaustion. This then went into using a long rope to create a V shape in the middle of the stage, this was efficient due to the thrust style of staging, allowing all of the audience to see some actors on stage. This V represented the ship, I decided to create some dramatic lifts with Luke, who was next to me in the line of the V, so show some people falling off the boat. We, as a cast, used reaches and flung our limbs dramatically over the edge of the rope, and curving our spines backwards to show how we would be thrown about in a storm on a boat. Finally, to show the shipwreck itself, we all, in pairs or trio’s performed these dramatic lifts, and fell to the floor to show the end of the storm, or that we had reached the shore of the island.
   Our House- In the song Sun And The Rain, in Our House, I played a seller at a market, singing the line ‘such fine offensive t-shirts, rude words obscene designs’. This made me want to appear very rough and British, I hunched my back to show bad posture and was crude with the t-shirt when I came downstage to deliver the line, by putting it up against myself looking directly out to the audience.
3. How did you explore the text/script/lines- did you discuss and try ideas/improvise?
   Dance Show- This post explores and explains how I have used text to create movement. http://emilydagostinoyr14.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/text-stimuli.html
4. What worked well and what didn’t work? WWW/EBI –analysis of any devising lessons and rehearsals.
   Our House- As previously mentioned, I played a Neighbour in Our House, when we first blocked this we decided to be turned away, however when doing dress rehearsals nearer the final performance, we found that it restricted our volume of our lines, which was limited anyway due to the band, and that we only had 4 of us to deliver the line. We then decided to face the front instead, but either in clumps or on our own, directing our lines at the audience and the main character, Joe. This was much more effective as it allowed me to show my gestures and facial expressions much easier.
5. How have you developed your role/character? What were your ideas?
   The Tempest- As my character, Antonia, in The Tempest, I needed to achieve a nasty, bitchy character. I looked at the ‘ugly step sisters’ characters as my inspiration, as I was very much a double act in this with Jaydee, playing Bastiana. In the scenes that we were in, we made sure that if we weren’t the main focus of the scene that we were at the edge being seen whispering to each other in a judgemental way. We developed this by projecting this towards Talia, playing Gonzala, who Bastiana and Antonia did not like. To achieve this we pointed at her and gave her sly looks whilst giggling together. This assisted the narrative, by showing the audience the relationship between the three of us clearly. We made sure to exaggerate these because the modern audience may not have been able to understand some of the Shakespearian language used in the script.
   Our House- As a Neighbour, I needed to be more aggressive towards Joe Casey, to achieve this effectively I suggested that we should lean over the bars of the set, on the top blocks, to show that we were physically and emotionally looking down on him. This worked well with the final line- ‘you’re an embarrassment’ as we could lean way over the edge using one arm to point at Joe as a full collective. I also had an angry look on my face during this line, which made me seem much more aggressive when trying to reach him.
6. How did your ideas help show the meaning of the scene or show?
   The Tempest- In act 3 scene 3 of The Tempest, spirits come onto the stage and manipulate us, with their powers. I choreographed some movement in pairs, using pulling and pushing motions to show how we were under their control. Jaydee and I were together, being manipulated by charlotte, playing one of the spirits. This choice of pairing was to show that we had a close relationship in the show.
7. Evaluate the final performances/s –WWW/EBI

WWRY- My rehearsal process was quite evenly split between ensemble work, and on character as Brit with Talia playing Meat. This allowed me to evenly learn and rehearse choreography, lines and songs for both. I ensured to work out of lesson/rehearsal so that I could be prepared for rehearsals, specifically with Talia as I had all of my scenes and songs with her. When working as an ensemble, I felt we always worked really well as we often had the whole cast available, and therefore could all contribute ideas and rehearse together. I mainly contributed blocking and dance ideas, as I often find myself having discussions with the director or choreographer about pieces. In terms of choreography, Talia and I worked privately on Radio GaGa, creating the movement for the song, to teach to the ensemble. This teaching aspect helped me to remember my work better, and also gave me a leadership role which I am not used to, but it pushed me to develop and work professionally, sometimes on the spot.

I worked heavily on I Want It All, as this song is my opening number as Brit, and is all about what she wants in her life. Talia and I worked with our director and pianist out of rehearsal on this song, as we wanted to add some harmonies and work on timing. I suggested splitting the riffs at the end of the song, making it more even. In terms of rehearsal, we both regularly met up to run lines and songs rigorously to ensure our performance was clean and refined, allowing us to develop movement and have fun with the scenes. It also pulled us together as actors, enhancing the chemistry and believability on stage. Often Talia would lead the singing rehearsals and I would lead the more acting based rehearsals as these are both of our strength, and we worked on blocking/dance together evenly. This was efficient as it used the time wisely.

Another song I worked don was Headlong, including myself, Meat (Talia), Galileo (Megan) and Scaramouche (Amber). This song is quite long, and really needed some choreography. Which, at first, as quite difficult. I came up with a few gestural ideas myself, and developed these with the group when we came together. Using my time like this was really useful as I could take my time and be creative, meaning I could come to rehearsals prepared and able to teach or develop. We found it quite hard to remember lyrics for this song as it is quite repetitive but with slight lyrical changes in each verse/chorus, however this movement helped us a lot to follow the lyrics with specific movements. This song definitely uses our physical verbal and musical skills, in that some characters had minor dialogue in the song, and it showed our characters personality traits clearly. We communicated well through our movements, making gestures towards each other and making eye contact throughout, and when singing, we worked on harmonies and looked heavily into timing in our own time, again creating a disciplined and clean performance.

My line sin this production were quite tricky to learn as they were often simple additions to conversations, or repetitive lines in a scene that have slightly different wording ach time, making it hard to get it perfect. I wrote my lines out and recorded them alone and with Talia, at home and at college. This structured rehearsal time again allowed me to feel progressively confident in rehearsal, and understand my character better.

The main ensemble scene I was involved in was at The Heartbreak Hotel. In this I played Meat and an off cast Bohemian. When being Britt I found it was really useful and encouraging when the cast reacted and interacted well with myself and others on stage. This made me feel more immersed as an actor and added to the level of energy on stage. When offcast I made sure to react loud and clear, with some gestures, as I was able to follow the scene with ease because of my previous knowledge of it. These actions and reactions used our communication skills well, making eye contact with each other and improvising personal movements to enhance the rough and fun feel to the Bohemians as a group. 

 

Site Specific Performance GC3/4

My contribution to this production includes working on harmonies in the song 'All We Do' by Oh Wonder, Jaydee and I looked at this song near the beginning of rehearsals go establish harmonies and tempos that we can use. We experimented to percussion to sing to, which is what we ended up sing in the final performance with our live band members. We then were able to show our work to the cast, teaching them what we had planned with flair.
I also worked outside of lesson to work on my character, to make sure I had a fully provoking sense of characterisation to express at the BOAT, exaggerating enough to reach out to the back of the audience. Jaydee and I would run our lines in and out of college and in and out of lessons to gain a good understand the narrative of our scenes, specifically Act 2 Scene 1, in which we lead this, as it is the longest scene in the production. This responsibility to carry a scene well inspired us to work hard. To add an extra edge to the scenes, we developed the comedic side of our dialogue. The text in this scene is sly and bitchy, so we tried out different ways to deliver these lines, accessing the humorous tone. We researched ugly step sister characters in panto's and films to learn how to move as one together, acting powerful. This also helped us with line confidence, We also looked at court dances from the Elizabethan era, to look into how we could move rhythmically when plotting to kill the king.

To help shape the content and structure of the work I assisted in making the tree, the main part of our set. I auggested that we use a mixture of artificial and natural foliage on the day, to add to the sense of non-naturalism. This tree is a vital part of setting the scene for the show, in the narrative of the show, and in terms of filling the space at the theatre.
I made my own costume for this production, I started eith a dress that my director had provided that fitted the colour scheme, that the royals from Milan had a purple theme. I thought about what materials to use to change my dress that would show my character too. I used shiffon and netting to suggest Antonia's nasty evil side, I made a bustle for the back of my dress to reference the traditional dresses they may have worn in Shakespearean times. I also used layering and feminine flowers in the middle of the bustle with purple to show her girly side, which also worked well with the red flowers that Jaydee had on her dress, playing Bastiana.
I also helped to choreograpph a lot of the physical theatre and dance as mentioned in other posts-

 I have used physical theatre in The Tempest to show a shipwreck. We took lines such as ‘take in the top sail, tend to the master’s whistle, blow, till thou burst thy wind!’, ‘stay in your cabins, you do assist the storm.’ And ‘down with the topmast! Lower, lower!’. These quotes allowed us to create an idea of what it was like to be on the ship as our characters. To create sense of panic, in a non-naturalistic way, we decided to use a drum beat between each line, changing position dramatically, using positions such as cowering in fear, looking up to the sky, pleading with our arms, and trying to shield ourselves from the storm. This allowed us to use exaggerated facial expressions, so show the audience fear, desperation and exhaustion. This then went into using a long rope to create a V shape in the middle of the stage, this was efficient due to the thrust style of staging, allowing all of the audience to see some actors on stage. This V represented the ship, I decided to create some dramatic lifts with Luke, who was next to me in the line of the V, so show some people falling off the boat. We, as a cast, used reaches and flung our limbs dramatically over the edge of the rope, and curving our spines backwards to show how we would be thrown about in a storm on a boat. Finally, to show the shipwreck itself, we all, in pairs or trio’s performed these dramatic lifts, and fell to the floor to show the end of the storm, or that we had reached the shore of the island.

In act 3 scene 3 of The Tempest, spirits come onto the stage and manipulate us, with their powers. I choreographed some movement in pairs, using pulling and pushing motions to show how we were under their control. Jaydee and I were together, being manipulated by Charlotte, playing one of the spirits. This choice of pairing was to show that we had a close relationship in the show.

I made the most of the creative and artistic possibilities by trying out different entrances and blocking on the day during our rehearsal time-
 Jaydee and I got the opportunity to experiment with our blocking, we often stand near the audience making sly jokes and looking at the other characters together, this rehearsal time gave us a chance to try our different blocking to find what was most effective for reaching all angles of the audience and delivering lines. We also worked on coming onto the stage, for Act 2 Scene 1, we tried walking part way down the back of the audience before the end of the previous scene, to immerse the audience further, acting as if we are exploring the island. It also allowed us to see what our costumes and set looked like on such a big stage, luckily we found that each of the costumes portrayed the relationships in the complex family tree and the characters duties. Ultimately this time at the theatre helped us feel a lot more comfortable, in terms of nerves.
We also developed the tree in our set, by taking real trees and logs from the woods in the park near by, making it more realistic, and allowing us to change it depending on how it looked on the nigger stage with the concrete slats at the back.
We also tried out singing our finale song from the very back of the theatre, standing on the ledge behind the back row of the audience. This was really effective because it allowed us all to sing directly to the audience, avoiding any volume issues, and it also allowed the audience to see every cast member at once for the final time in the show, linking to the 'happy ending' style of finish to the narrative. It gave us a bold ending image to go out on, before bows.

Here are some shots of the theatre itsels, and us performing in it-

Site Specific Performnce GC2

These are some of the main potential restrictions or conditions on our production of The Tempest at the Brighton Open Air Theatre- 

• Worthing college must submit a risk assessment and proof of public Liability Insurance
• BOAT will be credited in any and all promotional works, including the logo and adress of the Brighton Open Air Theatre
• Any amendments or alterations to the agreed contract are to be discussed and agreed between both parties, and in writing. 

Licencing

Due to The Tempest being a Shakespearean play, the rights to it are free. This is because when it was written, between the late 1500's to early 1600's the rights to the licencing belonged to Shakespeare, however since he has past away, they are now available at no charge, since 1616. This means we could mold the show to how we wanted, by cutting scenes or monologues that didn't fit with the contect that we were working with, that needed a high energy and an abstract approach, by including songs and physical theatre. We were also allowed to change some of the genders of the roles of the characters, as our cast is mainly female dominated, it was difficult to cast well and create a successful production, if some of the cast had to play the wrong gender. This contrasts heavily to how it would have been produced in its original performance context, as they would have had young boys playing females, but never the other way around. This lack of licensing fees allowed us to save some of the budget for the production, allowing us to up our production quality, which was really important as it was a part of the Brighton Fringe.

Looking into the Physical Theatre we embedded into the script, if would have been unlikely to see something like this in Shakespearean times, therefore our adaption was definitely modern and new. I helped to choreograph a lot of this, such as the opening shipwreck scene, the banquet scene and the movement with the spirits. I really enjoyed this as I feel renovating classical texts is a really important aspect of modern theatre, maintaining literature in society, but in a way that people understand, movement often helps this. 

Venue

The venue itself is outside, and is a thrust style of staging, is has large steps for the audience to sit on, seating up to 425 people, and allows for interesting entrances and exits to the stage. This is a plan of the space- 

Screenshotted from one of the emails from the BOAT Theatre

Due to the high capacity of seats available, I feel it is important that we selll as many tickets as posssible, through college, and our own familes and friends. This will help to pay for the expense of being a part of the brighton fringe, and hiring out the space. I peronally made sure to tell everyone I knew about the event and shared the promotional poster on social media, alongside rehearsal updated through my professional instagram account, making sure I am appealing to a relevant audience. 

The cost to hire the theatre space out for the day of the performance was £425, taking a large chunk out of our budget, however this was definitely worth it from an actors perspective and in terms of preparation. It allowed us to adapt or improve our piece, and rehearse in the space. Jaydee and I got the opportunity to experiment with our blocking, we often stand near the audience making sly jokes and looking at the other characters together, this rehearsal time gave us a chance to try our different blocking to find what was most effective for reaching all angles of the audience and delivering lines. We also worked on coming onto the stage, for Act 2 Scene 1, we tried walking part way down the back of the audience before the end of the previous scene, to immerse the audience further, acting as if we are exploring the island. It also allowed us to see what our costumes and set looked like on such a big stage, luckily we found that each of the costumes portrayed the relationships in the complex family tree and the characters duties. Ultimately this time at the theatre helped us feel a lot more comfortable, in terms of nerves. It was a vast new space to work in when we first arrived, however when it got to show time everyone felt a lot more collected and calm. In this screenshot from emails, we can see the schedule, we arrived at 9am, and had until the doors opened to the public at 6pm to rehearse and prepare the set-

Facilities and Services that BOAT are providing

• Stewards (1 steward per 100 audience members)
• Duty manager at the venue for 10 hours
• Lighting and sound equipment & stage manager provided by the promoter
• FOH staff and dressing rooms

Another way we covered the cost of the hire was to promote ourselves at the Shoreham Shakespeare Festival. We brought small scenes from the play and other classical Monologues to directly show the audiences walking by some of the show, and to promote ourselves as actors. It was important to make sure we always had enough money as the BOAT sent a contract- 

Screenshotted from an email from the BOAT Theatre

Another example of a condition that the BOAT Theatre had set was that we respected our surroundings, before the performance we had to make sure the entire space was clean and clear for the audience to enter into, without spreading it to the public parks around the venue, whilst respecting the wildlife throughout the day. When we first arrived in the morning, there was a hedgehog in part of the stage where the electrical power came from, this caused us to delay our rehearsal but we made sure the animal got home safely, after we all took pictures of it. An example of bad conduct in this way, is when some others from our cast arrived after the main minibus, they were challenged by a member of the public, This became verbally abusive towards one of the members of the band and us as a college, and she was claiming that he had been driving recklessly near her dog. Our director, Rachel, handled this well and discussed the situation with the owners of BOAT to come to a settled conclusion on the matter. These cleanliness rules also applied for our striking of the set and cleaning up, evidenced here from one of the emails- 

Some things that could effect our performance was also the natural elements, the wind can effect our projection on the stage, taking away the volume from our voices in a drastic way. To prevent this we made sure to practice with people sitting in the back row of the audience, to see if our projection was strong enough to hear. The weather was also an issue, if it had rained on the day of the performance we would have been very distracted by it, and would have had to had tried a lot harder to focus. Although it didn't rain, we experienced a lot of wind and cold whether this year, backstage I gave people my jacket that were cold and we had to sit huddled on the floor to keep warm, if our costumes had more layers, or if some of us wore shoes it wouldn't have worked with the narrative of te piece. Especially last year, we experienced some rude members of the public during the performance, because it is so close to a road and backs onto an open park for the public of Brighton, it allows people to yell and be heard through the gates. Sometimes we have to act through and ignore the nasty things that people yell at us whilst performing. 

As seen in the plan, the stage itself is surrounded by a trench, a few foot deep, with gravel at the bottom and wood around the edge. This is a potential risk for the show as someone could trip and fall, and although the drop isn't far, they could hurt their knee or ankle, or scrape themselves, as the wood and gravel are sharp enough to possible break the skin on someone. 

Event Details

• Venue
• NO. of seats available- 425
• No seat reservations
• Date of performance- Monday 8th May
• Start time- 7pm
• Get in time- 9am
• Interval tba
• End of show tba
• Get our by 10pm latest
• Category of production- Theatre/Education
• Event open to the public

Promotions & Tickets

• No. of seats for BOAT Staff- 10
• Company/crew needing backstage access during production period- 40
• Tickets allocated to promoter for guest list- 10
• Tickets allocated to sell directly from Worthing College/Brighton Fringe- 425
• Total tickets possible- 485

Invoice from the Brighton Open Air Theatre

My opinion on these conditions and the invoice is that it is very reasonable, the BOAT have explicitly explained basic rules for the venue, they have provided us with toilet facilities, teas and coffees, a fridge and a lovely theatre for us to perform in at a very reasonable price. However we had a restricted time after the production to take apart our tree and take the set down, because of the darkness this was quite difficult, and we felt rushed, therefore I feel that a better way to decide a get our time would be to decide based on what time the production finishes. The contract itself was very clear, and easy to understand. When we arrived on the day we were welcomed warmly with a short speech about health ans safety, and medical help and facilities in and around the venue. This coincides with what was on the contract, meaning that if not all of the cast members had read this, they would be fully informed too. 

Email correspondence between the Brighton open air theatre manager and our performing arts co-ordinator

"16/1/17

Hi All

I have just been to a Brighton Fringe Venue Managers meeting and wanted to pass on some updated information to you all! Apologies for this list but if you would like more details on any of the items then drop me a line … here goes! 

Dates: Fringe goes on sale for ‘fringe friends scheme’ on Wednesday 22nd Feb then on to general sale on 3rd March … PLEASE go on to their website and copy the link to your own events and email them out to your friends / followers … lets get the shows sold out! 

They are now taking applications for Fringe City so if you haven’t already applied please do if you think this would be good exposure for you … remember if you do Fringe City to have a person with you who can ‘leaflet’ whilst you are performing. Remember if your flyer has the Brighton Fringe Logo on it then you can flyer without a permit in the centre of town. If it doesn’t you will have to pick up a special permit from the Fringe office … (something to bear in mind if you haven’t completed your design yet!)

If you applied to be a ‘Window' event you should have heard by now … if you were successful please let me know. (Fingers crossed)

FEU - If you are coming from overseas you will need to register on the FEU form (for Tax purposes) in advance of you coming (this means it will not hold up your settlement) more info on this when they send the link through in a couple of weeks. 

BOAT will be attending a ‘Meet the Press’ event on your behalf on 27th February… If you have any posters / flyers / images / copy / sample CD's you would like me to take with you or turn into a press pack ready for then … please either pop something in the post to me at 

81 Dudley Road, Brighton, BN1 7GL or email something over….

Please check out the Fringe Website for a section about ‘Awards’ … there are about 18 different awards that have different criteria … please take a look at them and see if your show is a ‘fit’ and nominate yourself … it’s good exposure and there are a variety of prizes you could win including the Gemini Award for best artwork which comes with Free entry for next year plus £500 worth of print!! 

Take a look around the Fringe site for other useful sections like Fringe Academy .. I think in March they will have sessions on Health and Safety (ooh!) and Insurance (ahhhh) and even Tax (yay!!!)

Do let me know if you have any more questions / comments etc. 

Really looking forward to this year kicking off in style! 

Best Wishes 

Anne-Marie Williams

BOAT Manager

07802 299 267 "

"7/5/17

Hi Kim

I’m really looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow morning up at BOAT at 9am.

I just have a few quick questions for you:

Please could you send me through a copy of your PLI.

Please could you also send me a risk assessment covering the show. 

and finally do you have any idea of ticket numbers / likely audience. I can see the tickets sold through the Fringe Office but wonder if you have sold more through the college / directly. 

If you could let me know so I can set up the theatre appropriately that would be a huge help! 

Best Wishes 

Anne-Marie Williams

BOAT Manager

07802 299 267" 

Site Specific Performance GC1

My presentation

Holly's Presentation

Holly's presentation was about London Bubble, they began in 1972 in London, and began to grow as a company. They are known for performing site specific pieces in places like community centres and nurseries/schools. They look to involve mainly the elderly and the younger generation in performing arts, by reaching out into their communities. They do this by running weekly drama classes and speech therapy sessions for young children. They have workshops including 'tea break theatre' for the elderly, for a 'gentle workshop and a cup of tea'.

Jaydee's Presentation

Jaydee's presentation looks at Willi Dorner. He was born in 1959 in Baden in Austria, where he studied at the Austrian Society for Dance Therapy. He also trained at the Erick Hawkins studio in New York. His piece is called Bodies in Urban Spaces, and is site specific, much like a lot of his works. These, and his stage shows are shown in Europe, Africa, China and North and South America.

Isabel's Presentation

Isabel's presentation is about Punch Drunk, a company that look at sensory experiences in theatrical spaces. It was founded in 2000 by Felix Barret, looking at classical texts in an abstract way, in old buildings, or outside etc. They include artsy set, props, immersive staging's and physical theatre in their pieces, breaking the fourth wall, to allow for a more engaged audience.

What do the companies have in common?

One of the main things that these four companies have in common is that they all use site specific performance styles in their works, whilst breaking down the fourth wall. They use this to reach out to the communities around them. London Bubble, helping the young and old to feel more confident by showing them a new way to express themselves, Punch Drunk giving their audience a full experience, and Willi Dorner literally using the publics surroundings to portray a message during their day to day lives. Another thing these companies have in common is that they are all travelling companies, they all move around the country or the world relaying their messages to the masses through the arts. London Bubble and Punch Drunk both started in London, this is known as the capital of performing arts this proves that it is a place of success for abstract companies like this. 

What is different about these companies?

In my opinion I feel that Will Dorner is the most different in comparison. He has a specific motive in most of his pieces, this contrasts to London Bubble and Punch Drunk and how they use things like classical Theatre, Physical theatre and elaborate set. Willi also works more with outside spaces at random, as apposed to creating a piece and taking it somewhere. Another difference is the target audiences for these companies, London Bubble specifically look at people that may be suffering in silence, and works to bring out the best in them, whereas Punch Drunk want to allow anyone to feel and experience something new, Willi Dorner will give an unexpecting audience a piece of movement art that they didn't expect, allowing them to tell others.

Which company are you most drawn to and why?

I am personally most drawn to Punch Drunk, this is due to their use of classical texts. I enjoy the use of Shakespearean texts, and creating them in a new exciting way that allows younger, modern audiences to see this theatre in a at that is easy to understand, but still gives the message that the original playwright intended. They take these pieces around the world, giving others a taste of theatre from a place they are not familiar with, and they therefore learn about different types of theatre and how it can vary from what they are used to.

What is most surprising about the work you have discovered through research?

The most surprising thing I found about my own company, Welfare State International, is that the company started in 1968, meaning that the types of theatre that we see as modern, with elaborate sets and sculptures, have actually been being created for a very long time. It makes me think about how the creative industry has always been something that can tackle difficult subjects throughout history and has a renowned effect on society. I am very interested in this type of puppetry as a way to send a message, as it reaches out to peoples childish side, no matter their age, making it more personal and deep.