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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 ♪]