I thought it would be such a doddle . . .
Reflections on frustrations facing collaborators
within hierarchical structures
My work in Higher Education for more than 30 years has been in tandem
with my professional practice as a theatre designer. I have always thought
of them as inseparable aspects of the same thing – my working
life – any reflection and discoveries made through one always
feeding the other.
My research has, thus, been through the experience of, and thinking around, apparent synergies of pedagogy and theatre design practice. Currently my focus and interest lie in 3 principal areas:
Firstly: Questioning the paradigm of the scale model in UK theatre design practice as established in the early 20th century by the design team Motley. This is in the light of incredible recent technological advances and the creative potential of computer-based technologies. A slight divergence here but in the interest of clarity I hope! There is an enormous, and growing, disparity between typical design for performance practice as taught and learnt here at WSA for many years and certainly practiced by me, contrasting with, for example, mind bogglingly technologically complex productions like Robert Lepage’s KÀ for Cirque du Lumière staged at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas where there is no stage,
simply a huge pit from which enormous performance spaces rise, descend, track, tilt and swivel. And that’s nowhere near the end of it,
The entire ‘stage’ turns into a giant touchscreen which is used to create graphical waves and other images that radiate out, interactively with where the performers’ feet contact the deck, fairly clearly shown in this slide, or to create interactive falling ‘rocks’ that they must dodge as they perform on near vertical surfaces, seemingly defying gravity. But any more than that is another presentation!
• Second area of interest: The life and work of Richard Negri, designer, teacher and the visionary behind the building of the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester. I'm developing material for a publication with invaluable primary source material currently being gathered from interviews with key figures carried out by the National Life Stories Collection at the British Library.
• Thirdly: Questions surrounding collaboration and interpersonal relationships. This is in the context of a longstanding and instinctive personal discomfort with hierarchical structures and the consolidation of a belief in a necessity for mankind to aspire to anarchism.
Noam Chomsky in ‘Deterring Democracy ’ says: “Those who adopt the common-sense principle that freedom is our natural right and essential need will agree with Bertrand Russell that anarchism is “the ultimate ideal to which society should approximate”. Structures of hierarchy and domination are fundamentally illegitimate. They can be defended only on grounds of contingent need, an argument that rarely stands up to analysis. As Russell went on to observe, getting on for 100 years ago now, “the old bonds of authority” have little intrinsic merit. Reasons are needed for people to abandon their rights, “and the reasons offered are counterfeit reasons, convincing only to those who have a selfish interest in being convinced”
That’s still heady stuff for me in this era of
increased bureaucracy in Higher Education, of control exercised upon
us from so many quarters and all seemingly so innocent and well meaning.
It’s always for everyone’s good; ‘spin’ in ceaseless
action. From Government and HEFCE macro to the micro at WSA: “there
is no alternative to merger”, or “unitisation will solve
so many problems”.
I’ve
chosen to exemplify the most recent instance where it has been confirmed
that success, and otherwise, of a theatre production is dependant on
achieving healthy, honest dialogue between all participants.
E-mail: db@davidburrows.com