Dorcas' practitioner notes - Thought these have a place here, Gabs

Rollercoastival @ Scarborough Literature Festival

Lore Unto Ourselves

Creative Approaches

The idea is that each practitioner has their own unique take on the subject, but is aware that the final ‘showing’ will involve elements from each to produce a ‘whole’ picture, rather than discretely. Equally, there needs to be a sense of each element taking centre stage at times throughout the ‘showing’ so no creative aspect ends up playing more of a supporting role.

When I met with Lizi and Maria, we talked of maximising the dramatic qualities, as the subject matter lends itself to this. Lizi talked of locating speakers in the audience, reading their texts using torches. Lizi plans to explore the character’s perspectives with the children writing in the first person.

Gaby will be working with willow (whom none of us apart from her have met before ;) !!). Rob is considering using voice as the main inspiration for his sound work.

Working together – thank you Rob!!

When Rob and Gaby met with me, we felt the need to find a simple way for us all to communicate was required. With that in mind, Rob has set up a blog to which we can all contribute, so ideas can be shared during the course of the project to help steer the final showing. You can upload pictures, soundfiles, web links etc.

In order to access the blog, you will need the following information:

1.       Go to: www.blogger.com

2.       Sign in with the following info – Email: loreunto@gmail.com, Password: ourselves

3.       You will now be in our Blogger account. You can view the blog by clicking ‘View Blog’, or add a new post by clicking ‘New Post’.

4.       If you are viewing the blog, you can also add a new post by clicking on ‘New Post’ at the top right of the screen.

5.       Everything is pretty self explanatory really. When you click to add a new post, there is a menu bar at the top of the post with options to add links, videos, pictures, etc.

6.       Please put your name in the post title so everyone can see at a glance who has written what.

To look at the blog, the url is: http://loreuntoourselves.blogspot.com/

Practicalities

The Literature Festival has approved a photographer to  document sessions with the children and also of the final event. (I will, of course, check permissions re. photographing the children.) The intention is that the photographs taken during the lead-in workshops will appear in the publication we are producing and that some images from the final showing will be printed up large-scale and displayed on the walls in the library during the festival proper.

I have also asked if Ben Vickers (technician) will be available for the launch to oversee lighting and other technical aspects (awaiting confirmation). I will check with Karen what lighting equipment is available at the library (Gaby, I think you said they had some?).

Schedule/Timeline

Practitioner	Weekdays	March	March	March	March	March	April	April
Lizi	Weds	2nd	9th	16th
Rob	Thurs	3rd	10th	17th
Gaby	Mon		7th	14th	21st
Maria	Mon					28th	4th	11th

I have organised with Karen for the Concert Room and Small Meeting Room to be available on Wednesday 13^th April all day, the intention being that practitioners meet in the morning to plan the final showing and then running through the performance with the children in the afternoon. I will discuss this with the children’s group leaders and confirm.

It is hoped that the Small Meeting Room will be available as a green room during the launch, although it will have been set up as a bookshop for the festival and will be open immediately after the festival launch.