Round 3 Workshop Showings!

Support Artist on the Open Door workshops at Ozanam Learning Centre this round, Lucy Watson, writes about the performance showing and what was explored in the workshop:

We looked at how to collaboratively devise a story from scratch. We created a few stories in different ways, but one really stuck, and we worked on that for the rest of the term. The story was about a young woman called Jessie who had gone missing at sea during a cyclone and the two groups who were looking for her; one on the shore and one on a boat. The story was dramatic and heartfelt, but many of the characters also had a lot of selfishness which made the drama more compelling and added a lot of humour!

Each person in the Ozanam Learning Centre workshop group developed an individual character within the framework of the story we were collaboratively devising. We worked on developing the characters, their feelings, desires and conflicts. During the workshop round the story expanded, contracted, and shifted focus as we discussed different structures for how to tell the story and how this would effect the impact of the work.

By week ten, the workshop group knew their characters and the story so well that our end of term showing could be partially scripted but also included a lot of improvisation! In front of an audience the humour we started with returned but felt more satisfying, as the characters were more detailed and well-rounded. We could laugh at their foibles but also feel the truth behind them.

Really looking forward to term four with this fabulous and ever-changing group! - Lucy