Online Roundtable A: DAY 2: About music theatre

The second day was focused on what music theatre is for the members of the team. The introduction of the RE-FUSE bot, which became the roundtable's host, spiced up the chatrooms. Kieran’s parallel platform was as well introduced, via which the team could all together watch videos in real-time or be involved with solo/group tasks. Here is a brief structure of the day:

INTRO: Live video of Thanasis (short explanation of Kieran’s auxiliary platform)

QUESTIONNAIRE 15' What is music theatre for you?

RE-FUSE BOT [7:38 AM]
-- efthimis:
It's the field that uses musical ways to organise stage action involving the soundscape (including spoken word) of a performance, the movement of the bodies and even the general dramaturgy. It is also the field that explores how musicians can exist on a stage with their whole body and act not just through their instrument. A combination of these 2 can be music theatre

-- Els Mondelaers:
Music-theatre for me is literally the stage where experiment can
take place... Experiment in the meaning "What is the perfect
balance between several media on stage.
Theatre | music | dance | light | visuals | ...
Whatever the selected areas are, or if music is new or repertoire. And the answer to the question what is music and what is theatre. What is the meaning or the necessary quality of "being true" on stage...

-- kieran:
Music, technology, movement, playing, time, design and all other
fund things together.

-- Argyro:
a stage form addressing primarily to senses, through the use of
music in a generic sense (music coming from movement, voice, images, instruments and the composition of all that together).

-- richardehaynes:
Music-theatre is a very open term for me. It could mean everything
from a solo piece with theatrical qualities, to a full-blown
'musical'.

-- baswiegers:
This can be many different things. I prefer not to define it too
much: a "theatrical concert" can be music theatre, and a "musical"
way of "text theatre" too. For me it doesn ́t come from opera,
operette or musical, but from a more "contemporary" notion that a
stage is always a theatre. Classical musicians tend to deny this,
but they are wrong.

-- georgedumitriu:
A syncretic art-form where the two fields get equal consideration.

-- pepe:
Musical work that has very important theatrical components. There is a thin line when i say 'musical work" since music can be for me
anything from a movement or silence to a dark space but the way we
present it using theatrical elements is what it is for me.

-- Thanasis:
I could say music theatre is the space where music meets theatre and they blend in unpredictable, twisted ways. It is about borrowing practices from one and applying them to the other discipline. Everything becomes functional and real. If music is abstract and does not have to convince you for its existence in space, theatre most of the times has to deal with how to exist in space. This is what music theatre comes to research and play with - the in between; Sound as a stage event / a stage event as sound.

-- tzeniargyriou:
It is a performance that uses live music or sound environment and
live theatre /dance as the main ingredients and focuses on the
dialogue, the interaction and maybe the fusion of these two.

• Have you worked in this field before? If yes, what kind of skills of yours have you applied until now in music-theatre? (e.g. moving on stage/dancing, singing, acting, stage directing etc.)

• Is there something in particular you find attractive/challenging in music-theatre?

• What professional/personal skills of yours would you love to be taken advantage of in a music-theatre piece? (e.g. sense of space, perfect pitch, playing the Eb clarinet, crisp articulation etc.)

VIDEOS of the team at work:

Bas

Efthimis

Els

VIDEOS of what can music theatre be for the team:

Bas

Iro

Richard

George

Thanasis

Pepe

CHAT in 4 chat rooms under different topics 16’:

RE-FUSE BOT [8:48 AM]
Moving on, in the next 15’ you will have the chance to discuss on a
few ideas. You are going to chat in four different rooms (channels)
under different thematics. Please check the short description when
you enter each room. I will let you know when to move to a different one. Here are the first groups:

Bas, Efthimis, Pepe join the channel: #space_and_time
Roelof, Tzeni, Iro join the channel: #body_on_stage
Els, Thanasis, Richard join the channel: #interdisciplinarity
George, Kieran join the channel: #speech_music

• space and time: In what way does space affect your perception of time when working within your discipline?

• body on stage: How does a/your body exist on stage within your discipline’s context?

• interdisciplinarity: Do you believe there are hierarchy issues in music theatre, combining multiple art disciplines?

• speech as music / music as speech: What is the function of the voice in a music-theatre production? Where does music meet speech, when does speech become music?

GOODBYE