Monday, May 28, 2012

Captain Ko, spotted in a north london park, at dusk...

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Over the past two weeks we've been working on each section, really trying to nail what it is that each section carries in relation to the piece as a whole. Our associate dramaturg Lu Kemp joined to help us with this. We attempted our first ever stagger-through for Lu, after which she said "it's a lot less obscure than I thought it would be". Joking aside, we were very happy to hear that. On a closer inspection of each piece a few challenges emerged, namely Captain Ko's emotional and physical journey through Part 1 and the development of her dependency on Stark; the actual need for a mask in Part 2 (something which we'd been increasingly doubting, the more Valentina rehearsed without the mask) and the crux of the matter in Part 3, more specifically what is it that actually happens to Krikalev and why is this important? All these questions are now going to be driving the re-writes and tweaks, but on the whole we are really pleased with where we've got to with the piece. We have had to shed many aspects, moments, images we have grown to love over the past year or so, in the name of clarity and simplicity and giving space for the audience, as always, to make their own connections. Our next big job is to nail down all the designs for July when we revisit the piece in its multi-disciplinary form. We are looking forward to seeing it all come together.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

And here is a mock up of a few of these faces, done in a very short time just using bit of scrunched up old newspaper...

May rehearsals / dramaturgy

Our mask maker Vic came up to work with us on Part Two. Vic is the extremely talented young lady behind the beautiful masks of Theatre Ad Infinitum's award-winning Translunar Paradise. But after the last few days we've come to the conclusion that we want something different for our Dawn in Captain Ko. Something in fact along the lines of the beautifully drawn people in Paco Roca's Arrugas, which we've mentioned many times before in our research.