The Red Hat Project
It was an intuitive experience..."the film makers became part of the ensemble
Dr Rea Dennis, Convener, Improvisation Continuums Conference, 2007 described this collaboration as a "groundbreaking film documentary." Film maker/co-directors P.D. Casely-Hayford and Athena Currie teamed with visionary producer/film maker, Suzanne Nicholson and Dr Rea Dennis, Playback Theatre Specialist in "an experimental dramaturgy that explored improvisational story-based method playback theatre in performance in film, film making and storyboarding." The film project was a collaborative process between film-making practice and live performance. Playback Theatre
re-counts personal experiences, which are re-enacted back to the participant offering their story by a group of Playback Theatre Performers. Often, as was the case with Red Hat, these experiences are emotional and evoke intense drama.
Red Hat focused on the personal traumatic and real experiences of a group of travelers captured by Banditos in Columbia, in the early 1990s. It was an intense experience for both actors and film-makers. What made this project innovative is that Playback Theatre is an improvised reactionary process. Every performance is going to be different, and often unrepeated. There are no rehearsals and there is no blocking of the actors movements on stage. For the film-makers, it's all one long take, which can't be broken. Gaining the trust of the performers was the main challenge. The film-makers immersed themselves on stage with the performers." It was an intuitive experience.
They (Casely-Hayford and Currie) became part of the performance, shadowing the actors on stage with hand held cameras, capturing the improvisation.
After the shoot, actors talked about " how the film-makers became part of the ensemble." Their movements were choreographic. The film screened in early 2007 at S.C.A.I.P, Queensland, Australia, and later on in the year at the 10th Annual Playback Theatre Festival in Sao Paulo Brazil in August, 2007 as part of a session entitled, Enthnofiction, Re-enactment and Playback on Film.
"Every participant has fond memories of the project, and all were honoured and credited equally for their contributions. That all sounds a bit touchy feely, but after working on other projects (with control freaks grafted with splices of Stalin-like DNA on a bender, oh you've worked with those types too?), it was great be on set and stage with a happy hard-working team who remembered why we love creating artworks and that it's supposed to be fun!"
There's always more...
everywhere that mary went - experimental improv-film
The second project was the film, Everywhere that Mary Went produced by Screenbitch.com. The project was experimental, and performances and filming was improvisational. This film was screened at S.C.A.I.P, Queensland, Australia.
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PROJECT 24
When is the creative piece finished? Once taken from the creative practitioner and published or exhibited or performed, the work is suspended in its own time and space, as if the creative process has a beginning and end. Two urban black creative practitioners, one Australian aboriginal artist and one Afro-Australian committing to a collaborative exploration ready to respond, recall, re-enact, re-create. We're open to the journey.... Read more...
indigenous ephemerality- art soundscape PROJECT
This project is currently underway. Imagine a natural setting as the canvas, two urban black creative practitioners, one Australian aboriginal artist and one Afro-Australian soundscape artist collaborating. Read More...