Online Roundtable C: DAY 1: Reflection

About half a year after Workshop B, the team met again online to review their last open tryout and the ways they worked together, in order to decide how to move on with the upcoming Workshop C.

INTRO 8'

● what have we done till now

● focus on the music of language + research part

● repeat the question: What kind of qualities in “language as music” do we see in what we did?

● introduce the new platform: Left/living room, Right/working space

PART A 40'

The team spent the first part of the roundtable watching selected video excerpts of Workshop B's open tryout, with a focus on the topic language as music.

Pepe:
it was very interesting the way the different accents melted

Efthimis:
and there is the way els was speaking it before, without having a content underneath

Thanasis:
I like it that Pepe listens to it as music, because the meaning is not there for him
and he can listen to the counterpoint because he's a musician
I mean, even better, because the meaning is not in the way

Pepe:
completely true

Efthimis:
taking out the meaning really helps to understand language as sound
i don't know why, in rehearsals we work so hard for the right punctuation, and here without any knowledge of the content the meaning totally is transmitted

Pepe:
i feel that every time we speak our mother tongue, we have way more colors or we make more difference in pitch

Thanasis:
the interesting part is that all of you non-Greek guys had a very high focus on the timing of the words and their sound

Efthimis:
its very interesting to explore these differences
you as musicians if u can somehow decode them
also rhythm wise, i don't know if you pepe for example were putting a rhythm of the spanish language in the text, and els from dutch etc. because there was a difference in the rhythm.

Pepe:
i must say that after that week, my approach on and the perspective of language changed. It was like a new window opened

---

Richard:
if the words didn't have the right emphasis, it's more difficult to understand. just as a phrase in music is more effective, if the phrasing is logical or expressive in some way

Els Mondelaers:
something to play with... right or wrong pronunciation of a language you don't understand

Richard:
it would be nice if we could transfer the speech rhythms into movement

Els Mondelaers:
is this a language too for you... the music of movements

tzeni:
and the opposite
the rhythm of movement into speech

---

Thanasis:
I think you were the only one Bas who spoke Greek almost the way you spoke English

baswie?:
Yeah I was exhausted from something, and I liked that a lot. ;-)

Thanasis:
I'm very interest to explore that more
I mean how does your body's state affect the way you play
it's always there
but it's maybe nice to consciously take it in account when creating a short scene

George:
thats a nice one to explore

baswie?:
Well you can of course control it if you want. But you can also let it go, which I in this case preferred.

George:
yeah, like that idea

Thanasis:
yes, I don't mean to control the body, but to design a sequence of events that change your body's state and affect the way you play/sing/speak

PART B 60'

In the second part the team went through the answers they gave more than a year ago, on one of the questionnaires of Online Roundtable A.

RE-FUSE Bot:
We’ll go back one year to see and listen to your answers on a couple of questions:
Is there something in particular you find attractive/challenging in music-theatre?

-- efthimis:
I find extremely interesting the musical dimension of spoken word as it is expressed in everyday life. I have worked with recorded everyday dialogues and there someone can observe how musical everyday speech is. I think an exploration of that music and an application of it to text can transform theatre as it is done and experienced

-- Els Mondelaers:
For me the challenge... is to be an all-round performer... 
Too often everything is divided in skills...
The actor has to act, the singer has to sing, the musicians are the musicians and when there's a composer... he's mostly offstage...

-- kieran:
Sometimes I find it hard to understand or connect with because I do
not have the broad theatre education. That is at the same time also attractive. For me finding an idea during a performance as an audience and turning their world of ideas upside down is sexy. I am very interested in showing them things they didn't know even existed. For example incorporating themselves into the show (using technology). 

-- Argyro:
yes, the poetry coming from music, meaning the other levels of perception opened, that are non logical.

-- richardehaynes:
I enjoy the opportunity/challenge to move beyond just playing the clarinet and to be involved in eg. text (singing/speaking) and physicality (moving/dancing).

-- baswiegers:
I sort of answered this already, maybe. The "totality" of the thing, maybe? The fact that as a maker you can really "live" in the thing, as opposed to merely being on stage and playing your notes?

-- georgedumitriu:
What attracts me are the different ways to get out of the comfort zone as a musician, which makes me in the end be a better musician.

-- pepe:
As a musician i guess the acting part. I always find it a bit tricky. After many productions I have done with theatre, dance, etc and by working with theatre directors and choreographers, I feel that i can go around with the whole acting thing quite ok but still it is tricky some times to not over do it.

-- Thanasis:
I have no idea if the blending of different mediums works. I mean the equality. So let's say I find the hierarchy issue the most challenging one. Next to this - where does one discipline stop being what it is and gets transformed into another (e.g. when does dancing become moving, or even simply, theatre)?

-- tzeniargyriou: 
I find attractive the co existence of performers from various backgrounds on stage and challenging the maybe swift of roles that could happen between them, confusing in a way the clear lines between them.