Mijn interdisciplinaire stage in Engeland

Florian Auls' “interdisciplinaire stage” with the British
“Pericles Theatre Company ”


What is the “Pericles Theatre Company”?

Pericles Theatre Company was set up in 1999 in order to create Total Theatre, a multi-disciplinary approach to theatre with an eclectic mix of actors, musicians, puppeteers and other artists, one third professionals, one third amateurs with training, and one third people with problems around mental health, learning difficulty and/or homelessness. The Company committed itself to working with social themes and cultural questions.

Shakespear's “Pericles”, 2008

Pericles Theatre Company has this year been asked to present a production for the bi-annual international Social Therapy and Curative Education-Conference on the theme of “CREATING A FREE SPACE FOR INITIATIVE COLLABORATION AND INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY” at the Goetheanum in Switzerland.
We would like to do “Pericles” by William Shakespeare : Apart from the suitability of the play for the theme of the conference, we have long wished to do this play, for, as our name suggests, we feel close to this theme, which has such a contemporary stamp, while at the same time being both colourful, fairytale-like and full of music. It also has such a contemporary social theme that it is not for nothing that the Royal Shakespeare Company among others has in the last year twice done Pericles with a mixed cast of refugees and the homeless.
We will again be working with an eclectic cast of professionals, volunteers, students with- or in- training and people with special needs. The Company will be using its usual “Total Theatre” technique working with as many theatre skills as are available.


My activities and role in the production:

I was asked by the producer Paulamaria Blaxland-de Lange to play percussion and do sound effects for their play “Pericles” by William Shakespeare with its two presentations in England and Switzerland.
We were an ensemble of professional and non-professional musicians with harp, violin, cello, flute, trombone, an opera singer and me as percussionist.
Professional and non-professional actors performed Shakespear's “Pericles” on stage. Our group of musicians accompanied the scenes, gave intervals between the scenes and reacted to the acting in the scenes, sometimes even mickey-mousing it.
The professional harpist Liehsja Blaxland-de Lange was the music director and composer of the music pieces for the ensemble. However, she did not write a part for me for I was self responsible for my part and got the personal freedom to react to the scenes of the play and follow my intentions in cooperation with the director Vasile Nedelcu and her.
I also helped Liehsja with musical questions of arranging and instrumentation. We worked together on the final instrumentation of the play.
Having read the plays script and having a rough idea of the play and it's different feelings in the scenes, I came with a lot of different percussion instruments (Cymbals, Bongos, Darbuka, Tibetan bowls, shakers, small percussion, etc.) and created my own sound-cues and parts in the music pieces during the rehearsals. This I did by writing notes in my copy of the plays script.
Besides my own cues I also watched for possible cues for sounds of other instruments and stimulated the other musicians to use their instruments in alternative ways to create fitting sounds.
Moreover I came up with the idea of underlying a scene in the red light district with some jazz music. So I rehearsed a jazz-interval with the trombonist, cellist, violinist and flute player for this particular scene.
All this led to that I also did individual rehearsals with some actors to get the sound and moves together.

When I joined the production on the 27. 09. 2008 in their last rehearsal week before the first presentation (4. 10. 2008 in GB, Chequers Mead Theatre, East Grinstead - http://www.chequermead.org.uk/whatson.php) the actors had rehearsed for one month together and frequently most of the other musicians had joined.
Usually the rehearsals took place each day starting at 14:00 o'clock and lasting the least until 22:00 o'clock. In the mornings mostly was time for individual rehearsals.
I stayed until the 09. 10. 2008, the day after the performance in Switzerland (Dornach, Switzerland (http://www.goetheanum.org/86.html), and returned to Holland after having helped packing the van to go back to England.


Detailed activities of each day:

Activities before Saturday 27.09.2008:
3 hours introduction and brain storming with the producer, Paulamaria Blaxland-de Lange about the structure and development in the play and possible instruments used thereby.
4 hours choosing, collecting and packing instruments in Holland.
6 hours reading through the script of Shakespear's “Pericles” and starting to make my first own ideas for sound cues.
2 hours of getting information and literature for percussion technique on the Darbuca.
2 hour of organising a China Cymbal for the production.

Activities on Saturday, 27.09.2008
5 hours organising and collecting further instruments in England, setting them up and writing my personal text for the program-folder (see attachments).
Due to the different stations that Pericles runs through during the play, we need a broad variety of percussion instruments. I brought different sorts of cymbals, sticks and Tibetan bowls and here in England we collected a Floor-tom, Djembé, Snare Drum and other small percussion instruments.
8 hours run-through (from 14:00-17:30 and from 18:00-22:30 o'clock)
This was the first time for me to see and experience the play in its state so far grown. With Liehsja Blaxland-de Lange (the harpist and music director), I worked through the script to get all of the cues and moments for sounds so far. Whilst the actors played I reacted to their playing, according to what the director, Vasile Nedelcu, and others suggested as well as to my own inspiration.
With Liehsja I discussed to set certain songs she wrote for the play in a e-flat mode so that it would match the sound of one of my Tibetan-bowls used in specific scenes.

Activities on Monday, 29.09.2008
2 hours of organising and preparing food for the rehearsal-cast (I cooked for this evenings rehearsal break)
3 hours of rehearsal just with the other musicians (14:00-17:00 o'clock). Going through most of the script, rehearsing the songs and coordinating the sound-effects.
1 hour of cooking for the group
4 hours (18:30-22:30 o'clock) Setting up and rehearsing with the whole cast. We went through the first half of the piece, getting the first meeting of nearly all musicians (only the singer could not come at the evening) with the actors. So the emphasis on that evening was on getting scenes and music/sound effects together and starting to develop better communication between actors and musicians.

Activities on Tuesday, 30.09.2008
2 hours for organising two better snare drums to be used in the play.
1 hour of rehearsing the Jazz-piece with the flute player.
2 hours of getting to know the Darbuca technique by studying a book
4 hours (13:30 – 17:30) of setting up and rehearsing the first time in the “Chequer Meads Theatre” of East Grinstead. We met problems in placing the musicians on stage in a way that would not effect the acting to much and leaves space for side-entrances. The atmosphere in the group was first inspired by the new place but during the rehearsal tension arose and one actor threatened to leave the play. After some talking people could come back together and we managed to play all scenes on stage. A lot of cues for the music where not clear yet and I took notes on what has to happen when to discuss it later with the director and the musicians.
4 hours (18:30 – 22:30) of setting up, discussing observations and rehearsing in our ordinary rehearsal place. The director gathered everyone to share his observations in the theatre. Concerning the musicians he wanted to have more music with a bigger variety between sad and happy and a better interaction between actors and the music, especially concerning the cues. So after the discussion we rehearsed a scene with a lot of cues and ongoing music-changes. Whilst doing that the scene got much more lively and authentic and the energy of the group was positive.

Activities on Wednesday, 01.09.2008
4 hours (14:00-18:00) of scene rehearsal. I practised with the relevant actors moves of their entrance to my rhythm (they had to enter with big masks in their hands). We also rehearsed the entrance song with the group humming and the opera singer having the main voice. Later we went through a scene with a knights-tournament with a lot of sound cues.
4 hours (18:30-22:30) rehearsing of the red light district-scene (the “Jazz-scene”) with many sound cues and scene-repetitions to get the moves together with the sound. After the run through this scene we went to the fishermen scene to rehears and later packed our props, costumes and instruments for the coming day to rehears in the “Chequer Meads Theatre”.

Activities on Thursday, 02.09.2008
4 hours (9:00-13:00) setting up in the “Chequer Meads Theatre”, having a fully dressed run- through of the first half. Thereby I also took further notes of the scenes still to work on with the music. One actor missed all his cues and for that it was not his first time, the director and the producer seriously thought of excluding him from the play. Together with one other actor and Liehsja, I discussed with the director and the producer and we came to the conclusion to once more warn the actor, offering him help with getting the cues in time by letting another actor assist him back stage. He accepted and ensured to take more care.
The singer had limited time and so we had a selective run through all the scenes that included her singing.
4 hours (14:00-18:00) having a run-through of the second half in full dress at the theatre and taking further notes. Some scenes were stopped and looked upon with attention to the music and sounds accompanying it. The director felt that some music should change and so we tried to do so.

Activities on Friday, 03.09.2008
4 hours (9:00-13:00) doing a run-through of the first half with stopping at problematic scenes and rearranging them. I joined in solving questions over possible scene-changes and sound arrangements of scenes. I also rehearsed with a group of actors their entrance to the music and sounds that I make.
2 hours of packing the props together at the theatre and setting them up at our ordinary rehearsing place, for we had to leave the theatre once more before finally coming back on Saturday for the presentation (they had a different show on that night and so we had to make space for it).
6 hours (18:00-0:00) having a run-through of the second half with all the musicians and the actors, looking at the music cues in this parts. The trombonist usually worked during the week-days, so it was hard to ever get a rehearsal with all musicians in one space at a time. In the second half there are two scenes with a lot of interaction between Trombone and Drums, so we had a good look at it. Later all musicians finalised their scripts with the cues together and we went for a run-through of the first half. This time, the energy in the group was very good and we managed to run through the first half in about 1,5 hours.
After that we had a planning of the travelling to Switzerland, clarified upcoming questions and sorted things for the performance the coming day.
I ended with packing my percussion and drums to be ready for transport the coming day.

Activities on Saturday, 04.09.2008
6 hours (13:30-19:30) setting up in the “Chequer Meads Theatre” and getting some scenes sorted out with props and light. (Setting of the light was done without the musicians earlier this morning). I rehearsed with two actors their entrance as knights in coordination with my music/sound to it. Furthermore I also rehearsed with the flautist the Jazz-part of the play.
5 hours (20:00-1:00) doing the presentation in the “Chequer Meads Theatre” and packing all the instruments and props into the car that went to Switzerland by ferry.

Activities on Monday, 06.09.2008
Travelling to Switzerland by aeroplane.

Activities on Tuesday, 07.09.2008
4 hours (10:30-14:30) of setting up on the stage in the Goetheanum in Switzerland and rehearsing with just the other musicians. We went through the whole script improving parts that did not quiet work out by the presentation on last Saturday.
I rehearsed with the trombonist, the flute player, the cellist and the violinist our piece of Jazz that we are having in the play.
4 hours (15:00-19:00) of running through the first half of the play, getting used to the big stage, changing music pieces in relation to the acoustic in this big room. Here again the task of playing the Jazz with players on both side of the stage, confronted us with difficulties in playing together in time and we rearranged the Jazz-piece to stay just in the slow part.

Activities on Wednesday, 08.09.2008
5 hours (9:00-14:00) of having a last run-through of the whole play on stage. I did negotiate last changes with the other musicians concerning the Jazz-piece and rehearsed with two actors their entrance and movement with the music. Afterwards we had to move the instruments for a venue that took place on it before our show that night.
6 hours (18:30-0:30) of setting up the instruments for the nights performance, getting last cues sorted with the other musicians and running the show. After it, we had to clear the stage immediately and get our props ready for the packing of the car the following day.

Activities on Thursday, 09.09.2008
3 hours (9:30-12:30) of packing the car and checking all the places we had been for missing props.


Looking back on it

I definitely find it an important experience. Both presentations were warmly reflected by the audience which also made me aware that sometimes people cannot tell by the end-product in what way it came to be.
For me and everybody I spoke in the production it was a frequently tiring rehearsal process.
For that the cast members came from quite so many different areas and some had engagements in our rehearsal times, it nearly never worked out to get everybody of the musicians at one time together.

Throughout the rehearsals prevailed a rather tensed situation, which in my eyes came to a big extend from a miscommunication between producer and director. There seemed to have been no clear negotiations over areas of responsibilities between the producer (who at the same time did participate as an actor with several roles to learn and was a house-mother to organise the care for the mentally disabled and therefore sometimes seemed quite stressed) and the director (who felt he could not do his original job as a director for so many people asked for social support), with his rather open and free approach to not strongly lead the actors but rather let them experience their possibilities.
In discussion with both of them I learnt that due to financial cutting down from the government these sort of cultural productions are getting less and less funding and therefore less staff can be employed to help the project with its social needs.
On top of that the usual different expectations and levels of commitment within the cast came together with a wide range of level of abilities (from professional trained actors to mentally disabled persons) and so the rehearsals would ask an extra bit of tolerance in the process. Interestingly enough one of the most experienced professional actors seemed to have the most difficulties to stay patient with the process.
The whole situation often was in a way that no one really seemed to have a clear overview of what best should happen next. That frequently led to several individuals reaching their patience limit and trying to lead the situation and get things sorted. As a matter of fact this way a lot of different intentions came to discussion and a lot of energy was needed to sort the problems between different opinions. That led to quite some stress in the group and several times people threatening to leave the play.
I as a musician, also having just 1,5 weeks been in the process, could most of the time keep my temper low and rather observe the social tension from the outside, trying to stay focused on my duties as a musician, not to miss my cues and try to encourage people to not give up.
So I definitely had a place to learn about social skills and what happens to respect between people with a high level of stress.

Besides that social experience, I also had to learn to play together even with a big physical space between the musicians. The setting of the musicians in two groups, the Strings, Harp, Flute and Singer on one and Trombone and Percussion on the other side of the stage presented us with the challenge to stay in touch whilst playing together over a big physical distance.

All in all I learnt how important clear negotiations about responsibilities are in a production (as in many parts of life:-) and on the other hand side how different something can appear by its presentation in comparison to its production process.

There definitely were some beautiful moments of art in it and later I asked myself if the high level of stress and uncertainness put everyone in a situation of having to give “the outer best” for the performances. In a way that did “prevent” us from falling into a laxness of being sure of oneself. If so, then the clue would be: stress and uncertainness is good for your performance – but to me it seems there is a “healthy limit” to it.
I would like to do my coming productions with a healthier mix between stress and relaxation, uncertainness and clarity to keep a healthier atmosphere with people smiling at the end of a process and not just being happy that it is over.


Florian Auls, Utrecht, October 2008