Ed Vaizey’s recent speech on “cultural education” seems to suggest a near-future of cuts and centralization in arts funding. First, there’s the repeated suggestion of “confusion and duplication,” a “blizzard of initiatives” that represent wasteful effort. Vaizey doesn’t actually provide any real support for that claim, but it’s the rhetorical basis for the call to …
I’m introducing students to different models of devised performance – and, in passing, described Clay Shirky’s hierarchy of participation: starting with sharing, and moving in increasing complexity through co-operation and collaboration to collective action. Since that lecture, I’ve been thinking about the value of recognising the link beween these different kinds of participation – that …
I’m learning – always, always learning – to be more aware of why students ask for help understanding tasks during workshops. Sometimes it’s simple: I’ve explained it badly; brain-to-mouth failure. However, I’ve also realised that – sometimes – students aren’t asking for clarification (what are we supposed to be doing?) but for reassurance (am I …
Working with my performance writing students this morning, I set them the task of quickly inventing a game to be played before, during, after or as a piece of performance. I asked them to determine a playing space, one or more tasks to be completed and a relationship between the players. Here are three of …