Guerrilla Theatre: Can we use our numbers to take back control from underneath?

Convener(s): Alex Hassell

Participants: Claire F., Lisa H, Roger,Eva, Jamie, Lianne Howard-Pace, Jon Jack, Annette, Jon B, Fiona, Patricia, Louise Kemery, Alan Fielden, Graham McClaren, and lots more without names…. 

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

The discussion used as its point of reference The Factory’s planned Hamlet Project , although it is to be made clear that the ideas raised were of a wider implementation in the theatre world. 

The main issues raised were:

The need for actors and directors to reclaim their right to connect to their creative lives, and not feel locked in and miserable with the fact that the industry and the decision makers within it withhold from them the most important thing…..WORK.

Therefore….. Fuck it. Just do it.

 How?

Get a bunch of actors and directors together and perform a play.

Problems:            

- venues / space / a theatre.

- Law and regulations, funding bureaucracy, advertising.

Solutions?:

- no paid for building

- No building at all

- Use public spaces, car parks, derelict buildings, empty office blocks etc etc. …whatever you can find, that will hold an audience.

 Derelictlondon.com 

Advertising:

- flash mob

- Implantation of text message: eg. THE FACTORY PRESENTS HAMLET. TONIGHT. MIDNIGHT. ……..address etc…..BE THERE.

- Emails. And text.

How do you generate interest and hold onto it?

Collate a central database of anonymous mobile numbers, so no personal info is kept.

Bluetooth.

A response to the intrusive box office method of asking for post code etc etc whenever buying a ticket!

Free text service: callwave (.com?)

Word of mouth.

Midnight showings in secret location at the last minute.

Turn it into something underground, talked about. Unknown, subversive…all these elements make it attractive to people….the MYSPACE mentality….discover something for yourself or through viral means.

Brings back the immediacy of theatre!

Throws the need for months of planning and attempting to gain funding through ats council forms etc.

A way of connecting with new audiences. E.g. Doing it in a skate park.

Or in front of the national theatre.

There is a perceived lack of generosity in the industry.

If a company can come together and share everything it would be a lot healthier.

We need a radical rethink of the power of sharing and collaboration for the sake of our art, and not for financial reasons.

Is there a sense of elitism in the establishment of the industry?

But the more highly regarded directors and actors sign up for something for free and to simply play and explore as has happened with The Factory, then it is self-propelling, and adds further impetus to creating something for its creative worth.

The democratisation of theatre.

Get a number of writers to sign up for a possible new play and get the audiences to vote who they want to write the company’s next play.

Audience interaction.

Returning theatre to its urban beginnings.

Example of real guerrilla theatre in Belarus……theatre banned, so secret congregations of performances take plae in forests etc. and then disbanded before authorities find out.

Does such an underground method eventually get absorbed into the system and become the establishment norm?

Is it bad if it does?!

Shouldn’t do Shakespeare in this method…leave it to the Globe?

This was roundly rejected by the group, as inverted snobbery.

Combine Shakespeare and myspace / flashmob cultures.

What is the overall aim?

To fuck the establishment or to get the establishment knocking on YOUR door?

Parrallels…..banksy, Parkour free jumping, Damien Hirst

How do people……actors, directors, writers AND AUDIENCE invest in the production other than financially?