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Katie Mitchell devising Beauty and the Beast

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    [♪ lively string music ♪]
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    >[KATIE MITCHELL] We're trying to work out
    how to do a live performance
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    of "Beauty and the Beast" now
    for children aged between 8 and 12.
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    >[voice on a video of camera]
    It was still early in the evening,
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    and already, [unclear name]
    had unwanted guests.
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    [critter noises]
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    >[MITCHELL]
    Eight people's imagination
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    working on one simple question,
    “How do you do the Beast?”
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    are going to generate more
    possibilities from which to select.
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    If I set that task for three groups,
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    I'm bound to have a much
    wider range of choice
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    from which to select the final output
    that the audience sees.
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    [actors growl]
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    >Whereas, if everything is held hostage
    to my subjective artistic vision,
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    I'm likely to be more limited
    in what I can generate.
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    [♪ whimsical piccolo
    and muted trumpets ♪]
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    ♪ ♪
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    >This workshop will provide
    the starting points
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    for the rehearsal process
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    and the starting points
    for the design process.
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    [♪ trumpets continue ♪]
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    ♪ ♪
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    [♪ music stops ♪]
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    >Well, I've learnt over time
    to have a structure
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    whereby I set simple tasks for groups
    and then select outcomes that I like
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    or just pick and mix
    between different outcomes.
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    is a much more efficient way
    of generating material.
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    [unclear dialogue]
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    >So each of you maybe have a read through
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    because that's probably the best
    and most efficient way of doing it
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    and have a go at how to do this.
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    This is sort of a classic bit
    of the fairy story.
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    So it's really from “The merchant
    tied the horse up to the manger
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    and walked towards the house
    where he saw no one
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    but entering into a large hall.”
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    We're only looking at his arrival
    into the empty palace,
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    probably equivalent
    to about four pages
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    of quite magical movement
    through different rooms.
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    And for me, it's like an example
    of the sort of episodic problems
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    inherent in the telling
    of a fairy tale like this.
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    Is there, you know,
    is there a way of solving it?
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    Is it a “narrator” that does it?
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    Or do you do it through action?
    Do you do it through—
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    And it's silent as well,
    so there's zero…
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    Or does he matter to himself or—
    I don't know. Good luck.
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    >[MAN IN GREY] There might be some
    coat hangers just lying around.
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    Can we borrow some?
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    >[MAN IN PURPLE]
    Open the door and-- [hangers clang]
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    [others laugh]
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    >[MAN IN GREY] Change the--
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    >[MAN IN PURPLE]
    Yeah, I mean, in a way,
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    the entrance and exits
    could be any way.
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    What's important is
    the play of the changing.
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    >[MITCHELL]
    If possible, I try not to direct.
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    [unclear conversation]
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    >It’s more efficient, and it means
    that all the conversations are had
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    around very practical
    concrete components—
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    >[WOMAN IN GLASSES]
    I had this idea of—
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    we looked at the text,
    and we're just like, actually--
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    He thinks the palace is
    people or statues; that's all it is.
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    [unclear responses]
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    >So what happens if they can—
    What happens if they can move?
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    >[WOMAN IN BLUE]
    Where are we going to do statues?
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    >[MAN IN PURPLE] I think
    you should both be [unclear]
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    on either side of the big
    Victorian fireplace, yeah.
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    [off-screen]
    Yeah, great. I think go for it.
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    >[MITCHELL]
    They're very good at acting,
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    so they'd be the best people
    to generate scenes
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    at this stage in the process
    and to test-run ideas
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    much better than me
    or Lucy or Caroline.
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    [unclear actor dialogue]
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    >They'd have a very clear sense
    of the aesthetics that I would use
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    to make beautiful scenes and work.
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    I mean, there could be staging rules.
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    You just don't do anything
    downstage center, for example.
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    I just find that a bit
    sort of flat and dull.
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    Or there could be a stylistic
    or genre rules, you know,
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    that you might not—
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    you might act in a sort of Lecoq way
    as opposed to Stanislavski way
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    and they know
    I'm not gonna like it.
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    But it's good that they know me a little.
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    But it's like just a group of adults
    investigating something together.
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    >[MAN IN GREEN speaks
    unclearly as the Beast]
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    >[MITCHELL]
    I just think it's maybe too subtle
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    for this moment where
    we're gonna show them,
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    so maybe the next thing
    we should hear is the text,
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    the two lines of text between
    the Beast and the dad.
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    It's a devised project,
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    and Lucy's going to write
    scenes for the project.
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    Lucy doesn't have
    the burden of having to write
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    a new play called “Beauty and the Beast”
    that I'm going to direct.
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    No, she's joining a process.
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    >[LUCY] So, what happens is.
    you go “Hello, hello.”
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    No one's there.
    [snaps] Dumbwaiter.
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    What do we do? Lay the table.
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    >[MITCHELL] Even though
    my touch is very light,
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    it is sort of from certain plans and aims.
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    You'll notice that I haven't let them
    stage a scene outside the dining room
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    for the last four or five days,
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    and that's because I've made the decision
    that that's the staging for the show.
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    So I've narrowed already their parameters,
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    but it might look like that's just
    a chance occurrence, but it's not.
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    >It's something...
    [♪ plinks piano key ♪ ]
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    ...that's consciously
    being evolved by me,
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    but without it being declared.
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    [♪ plinks key again ♪ ]
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    >I'm not someone who believes
    in waiting for the unexpected
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    to yield or generate something.
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    I mean, we had one
    uniquely unexpected moment
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    in this workshop, which was, you know,
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    someone who worked in the admin
    put on a pink outfit in the corridor
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    before we were doing
    a showing for kids,
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    and I jokingly invited him in
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    to introduce the show to the kids
    in his pink outfit.
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    >[MAN IN PINK, enthusiastically]
    “Ladies and gentlemen…”
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    Is that what we're thinking?
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    [cheers and laughter]
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    >[MAN IN PINK laughs]
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    >[MITCHELL] And this became
    a character in the piece.
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    [rhythmic chanting of man's name,
    followed by three short claps]
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    >But, I mean, that is so rare.
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    you couldn't rely on it
    for a split second
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    as a way of generating material.
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    >[BEAST growls]
    >[BEAUTY] What is it, Beast?
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    I've upset you and I don't know
    what I've done, so please tell me,
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    and then maybe I can--
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    >[MITCHELL]
    I think that maybe the heart of--
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    sometimes maybe running
    a workshop and maybe directing,
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    is that basically
    what you're watching happen,
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    you’re, in your head,
    programming as the show,
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    but you're not declaring that,
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    but you're constantly,
    therefore, guiding the actors
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    in the direction that you're programming
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    without them necessarily needing
    to know that that's the case.
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    Having a child hasn't necessarily changed
    my interest in theater making,
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    but, of course, the world
    changes color when you have a child,
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    so everything is subtly
    and delicately recalibrated.
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    And I suppose this is a more
    conscious active moment
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    of deciding to use the skill I have
    to make things for children.
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    We just try these different tones
    and atmospheres and ideas
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    and just see which ones they like
    and why they like them and why they don't.
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    And that will really determine
    how we move forward with it.
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    I think they're probably more
    challenging as an audience
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    because I think you have to be so precise.
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    And what's been really
    surprising about this process
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    and indeed “Cat in the Hat”
    is [that] they can accept
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    a sort of very, very high level of
    craft and aesthetic and psychology.
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    It's much more sophisticated
    than we think.
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    [BEAUTY off-screen]
    The ceiling's opening!
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    >[BEAST off-screen] Oh!
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    >[BEAUTY gasps] What?
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    >[BEAST vocalizes]
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    [BEAUTY and BEAST
    slurp food from plates]
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    >[MITCHELL] Okay. [laughs]
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    What do you think of that?
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    >[CHILD 1] It's good, but I don't get it.
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    >[MITCHELL]
    It's good, but you don't like it.
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    >[CHILDREN 2 and 3] I don't get it.
    >[MITCHELL] You don't get it. Okay.
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    [to another child] Yes?
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    [CHILD 3] [unclear]
    Beauty's turned into the Beast.
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    >[MITCHELL]
    Beauty’s turned into the Beast.
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    [as voiceover] We're looking for genre,
    we're looking for narrative.
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    we're looking for character.
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    And you can only really test,
    I think, by looking at it.
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    >[to team] Yeah, well, let's go
    to the next stage, I think, don't you?
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    What do you think, team?
    >[TEAM] Mm. Yeah.
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    [♪ violin music ♪]
Title:
Katie Mitchell devising Beauty and the Beast
Description:

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Video Language:
English
Duration:
08:21

English subtitles

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