On What We Mean When We Say Better Theatre

[danieldwilliam]

The exhortation at the end of the Open Stages Open Space event on Sunday afternoon was to go and make better theatre, go and make the best theatre you can.

I liked it. It was trusting us to do good things; to do more good things.  It placed on us a responsibility; to do better. It gave us an aspiration; to do the best we can. Yet it recognised the limitations that non-professional companies have and the difference between professional and amateur theatre. An encouragement, gentle but motivating.

And it set me thinking about what is meant by Better Theatre.

Is a play that is a shambles on stage but which the cast and crew loved working on better or worse than a play that was cut glass perfect on stage but which lead to lifelong enmity in the cast and stultifying boredom in the crew?

Is a play that made a fortune but which the audience thought was “meh, okay for a night out” better or worse than a play that changed the lives of all 4 people who saw it?

What do we mean by Better?  And Better for Whom? And Why?

When we say better theatre are we thinking about the experience of the audience, of the participants or the community?

In amateur theatre it is important to balance the needs of all three groups. There isn’t enough cash to buy off one or two of the groups in order to make the other very happy.

What do the audience want?  I think they want a better product on stage. To get this what is needed are better acting, better directing, better writing,  better technical craft skill and better production design. There is also a need for a better co-ordination between the various Arts and Crafts. These are things that the participants want as well. I don’t know any actors who don’t want to be better actors.

You can point to a number of qualities in the craft and measure them for betterness. Were the lines delivered by the actor as the director wanted them delivered? Were the actors well light? Did the set stay upright? Did the lighting create the right emotion in the audience? Did the director explain her understanding of the play to the actors? Did she facilitate a process where the actors could discover the play for themselves and can you see this on stage?  Were all parts of the production process well co-ordinated? Did they all share a common understanding of the play?

You can in short measure the inputs to the audience’s experience of the play.

This is useful and worthy version of betterness. I think it is something that is required but probably not sufficient for amateur theatre in Scotland to be better, to be the best it can be.

You could ask the audience what it wants and then ask it again if it thought it got what it wanted. You can measure this in part by looking at ticket prices and ticket sales. This approach doesn’t capture the desire of the audience to experience something they didn’t know they could experience. It also doesn’t quite capture the experience of the audience as part of their community who are enjoying their friends and colleagues enjoying being in a play.

I’m not sure I’ve quite explained what I think a Better Product on Stage looks like. I don’t think it’s my place to do so.

My role is two fold.

I can work on improving the quality of the inputs to the product on stage. I can learn my lines. Practise improvisation techniques.  Master the lighting desk. Enthuse about production design and encourage my theatre company to work better together and I can evangelise about Better Theatre, Better Product on Stage through Better Inputs to other companies in Scotland. I can in turn be evangelised by their view of Better.

The second thing I can do is to make the audience an offer. An offer to come and see my version of A Better Product on Stage. If they like it, great. If they don’t like it, they can go and see something else.  Let a thousand flowers bloom.

What do the participants want?  Participants in amateur theatre is a wide group. Directors, actors, technical crafts, production design, front of house, back stage crew. Writers (will nobody think of the writers). There were about 150 participants at the Open Stages Residency last weekend. They don’t all want the same thing from theatre and they probably don’t want the same things as the people who weren’t there.

We could make theatre better for the people taking part. It is after all amateur theatre; done for the love of it. What do participants in amateur theatre want? That varies from company to company and person to person.

Some will want to produce art and to express themselves. Not just the actors but the technical crew and the back stage crew have an interest in being the best artists and the best craftswomen then can be. Exploring the arts of theatre can be a goal in itself.  There is a subtle difference between having the best exploration of your art and using your art to put on the Best Product on Stage. Better Theatre could mean an opportunity for each participant to be individually better at their art.

Participants in amateur theatre also gain from being part of a community of practise. There are several overlapping communities here. There is a community of actors. One of directors. A community of those who explore theatre on stage. A community of those who contribute off-stage. The whole project production team, cast and crew, are a community of practise.  There is value to be had in being part of something and interacting with it. There is value in holding of a place in a group and having that place change over time.  One man in his time plays many parts.

So a Better Theatre could mean one in which we nurture the communities of practise we are part of. Where we find fellowship in exchanging ideas and in supporting each other. Where we do theatre for ourselves and fill the stage even if the seats are empty.

We could pay attention to making the process enjoyable. We can make the Way We Make Theatre Better.  Making our companies sociable but also creating processes of making a play that are valuable to the participants. Again, it isn’t for me to say what that process looks like for others. There are a range of ways in which an individual can engage with the making of theatre. I favour a work-shoping and improv based approach with early artistic input from the technical crafts. Others might prefer a more auteur and autocratic approach.  For some they will want to stretch their talents to the fullest extent. Amateur theatre offers fantastic opportunities to move beyond your own limits; any willing hand is wanted. Some participants will want to arrive for rehearsals and lose themselves in some light acting for an evening. For others the process of creating theatre will be an important way of engaging with their community and ensuring that the stories that come from the people are told by the people.

The important thing is to ask our participants “What do you want from this process?”  Some companies will want to excel at delivering a Better Product on Stage, some will be a social club for theatre lovers, some a radicalising presence embedding theatre in the community. Some will be none of these things and more or different.

I like what my company does. We try to do excellent product and we try, tentatively, to use innovative processes and we let people have a go. Your company will be different. If you love what your company does try and recruit me. If you don’t, come and join us.  Let a thousand flowers bloom.

We could look at Better Theatre as Better for The Community.  What does A Community want from theatre? I don’t know. I haven’t dared to ask them yet.

I’m not even sure that my theatre company is a Community Theatre Company.  We’re a white, middle class, affluent, professional bunch.   I suppose that’s a community but I don’t think it’s what people mean when they talk about Community Theatre. Perhaps Community Theatre is broad enough for us.

What do I want from my Community Theatre?

I want theatre that curates and cares for our common stock of narrative, both the stories and the story-telling.

I want theatre that provides a place for me to be a fool (and at times a king, a trickster, a coward, a miser, a lover or a bully). I want a place where I can enjoy a community of practise. I want (and I suspect My Lovely Wife wants) somewhere I can go and practise being me in a different way. A community theatre that gives opportunities for members of the community to come together to tell stories and to be together.

I want theatre that talks to and for each of the communities in Scotland. Theatre that is open to all, not just the middle classes but not excluding them either. A theatre that engages and radicalises and energises those who come into contact with it and which gives each citizen the opportunity to emerge as the protagonist or antagonist in the story of their community. Where everyone can find a place if they want, on stage or off stage.  I want what I want from a Better Way of Making Theatre to be available to everyone who wants it enough to go and ask for it. I’d like anyone who pitches up to get a say in what happens next. Theatre of the people, by the people, for the people.

I want a theatre that looks and sounds and feels Scottish and International.

I want theatre that sells tickets to tourists so we can afford to maintain our theatres and our theatre companies.

I want my community theatre to be influenced by what you want your community to be.

There are many ways of making Better Theatre. I think the important thing about the question what do we mean when we say Better Theatre is not that there is a right answer or a wrong answer.  It's that we are sure about what we mean when we say better and that we explore what we mean and why we think it is better. We also need to leave room for everyone else to be right too.