Another giant leap… yesterday we received the Bloke Show theme from Tyrone Noonan. What a fantastic theme we have – I just love it. After Ty had agreed to write the theme I deliberately made the brief, well… brief. I gave him a rough running time for the piece, asked him to construct it so that it would be possible to cut it up for use as incidental music and sent him a couple of scripts so that he could glean his own impression from what we have written. I wanted to enable him to freely interpret the texts with as little interference from me as possible. I simply asked him to do whatever he wanted in his own inimitable style. The result is wonderful – Ty’s unique contribution to our project. In Ty’s own words “…the riff has an augmented feel ala the simpsons theme song and the track is inspired by the original, slowed down version of the southpark theme.” I hope you like it as much as we do. You can listen to it here – The Bloke Show Theme
My approach to direction is similar, I am very keen for the actors to bring their own interpretations/impressions to the performance. I do not (in theatre terms) block a performance. I would prefer actors have as free a hand in developing the production as possible. This often means any pre-conceived ideas I may have had are thrown out, and the process has a much more fluid feel. Both myself and the actors throughout the process are then constantly adapting and questioning : the text, character motivation and physical relationships – particularly in relation to the space. The more the actors can bring into the process, the more dynamic the process itself. Most rehearsal exercises and explorations are prompted by the performers and I wait as late as possible to finalize decisions. For me, this style of direction has produced a much more layered and interesting final product – things transpire that I could not possibly have forecast – it is this that delights and inspires me – and hopefully the results of our work does the same for our audience.
More about style and development in later blog entries . Its time to write some more webisodes . Hope you have a bonza day.
Simon
