industrial theatre | Megan's Head

The Week that Was

On February 12, 2010

In Cape Town, deeply personal, me on stage, political, small furries, theatre stuff, world of work

It’s Friday morning and I’m about to go and walk the old ladies, Bayla and Gally, try and get to the damngym (I have been making a bit of an effort this year) before rehearsals, then rehearse, then perform a TheatreSports gig at a pre-barmitzvah thing in somebody’s lounge tonight. And it looks like the weekend will be full of work stuff too. And Big Friendly and I are going for a romantic 2020 game at Newlands on Saturday night!

But I thought I would take a couple of lines to reflect on the week that was.

TheatreSports had good one, with that fab show on Tuesday night, and a really successful corporate performance yesterday. We performed for a company that I had first performed for 16 years ago. They were our first corporate client! Love it.

Rehearsals for my industrial theatre project are going really well. I have been working for the same client for five years now, creating plays, based on the same characters, that go on a country wide roadshow, and I love it. I love my team of actors, I enjoy the process which we have honed into something easy and painless, and it’s the one sure gig I have that pays the rent! it is also the one kind of theatre that I know reaches its target audience, who love it.

I am irritated with our Prez and the country in general. Come on guys, this guy was voted in with a completely public track record of sexual expediency and polygamy! It’s not new news. I’m just irritated that because he is the most important public servant, we taxpayers have to pay for this all. I am irritated that a red carpet was laid for the opening of parliament. I am irritated by the predictability and insincerity of our politicians, and the fact that their promises are totally empty and meaningless; a series of random placatory and warning words strung together and haltingly read out.

I am depressed that I seem to be enjoying pop music again, at my age. I catch myself with Lady Gaga as my earworm of the day. I am dancing to hip hop at my hip hop classes at the damngym!

I am delighted, and this should have been higher on the list, by the Proteas, who mafferated the Indians, on their home turf, by more than a total innings! I can’t wait for the next test to begin on Sunday.

Lots to reflect on, but it’s getting late and the dogs are milling about!

Life after Noah

By megan

On July 14, 2009

In deeply personal, me on stage, theatre stuff, world of work

So Noah of Cape Town opened on Saturday night and so did the heavens, bucketing down and causing flash flooding and chaos in our city. A big, if dangerous, release I think.

I also need to release. Noah has been all consuming for me this year, and while I am totally proud, awestruck, dedicated and still determined that it have a long life, I need to get stuck in to a few other things that need my attention.

The first of these is TheatreSports, one of my first and oldest loves, which has been ticking over nicely in the background and now needs to fly. I want to find a long term sponsor for TheatreSports. TheatreSports needs to be played and learned at every school and every schools festival. We need full houses at our weekly performances and more shows during the school holidays. We need money for a proper marketing campaign if we do next year’s long and ambitious Grahamstown festival. We need to put our plans of hosting a TheatreSports world cup into action.

Then there is The Tent, the play I wrote which showcased at Artscape’s New Writing Programme last year, and has been given a full run this year. I am really blessed that this new work of mine is being supported by this programme and allowed to grow and develop. We go into rehearsals in October and have a two week run in November. I am so excited to get my teeth into that one again.

Up next though is another of my industrial theatre projects. For the last five years I have been working with a client, creating half hour plays that perform as part of a National road show, and this year there are two different plays. We did the first one quite recently in May and June and the next one starts rehearsing at the end of August. Although it’s challenging to come up with new and fresh ideas on a similar theme and concept, I love the characters that we have created and I love the team of actors that have become their own little family.

So there is lots to look forward to and I need to get very busy.

But before that I must remind you to go and check out Noah of Cape Town. Now. You might want to see it more than once.

Loving an audience

By megan

On May 6, 2009

In me on stage, theatre stuff, world of work

Today was the first performance of my yearly industrial theatre roadshow. I’ve been creating, writing and directing a new thirty five minute, four hander play for this big company for almost six years now and it’s amazing. We use the same characters to deliver different messages to a huge audience, around the country, and over the years the client and the workers have grown to love the characters and the show, and feedback has shown that the message is being successfully taken up.

But it really is such an interesting process. After I pitch my concept it goes back and forth a bit until I get go ahead to write the script. This too goes backwards and forwards a couple of times (where client tries to squeeze in a few last minute messages – they know how effective the industrial theatre performance is at delivering a message), and then we rehearse.

One of the most interesting things about the rehearsal process is that the cast and I create the show with the audience in mind, but with no idea which bits will work, what will be funny and whether we have ‘got’ them. So when we face our first audience there are always the first show nerves, the little patches of panic and the ‘do we have them?’ moments. And I am so proud to say that today was fantastic. Yes there were the few blapsies and the sound was a bit all over the place, but the guys were received like old friends, and they were applauded and cheered and loved! Nothing like five hundred people to perform to, to cheer a theatre junkie up.

Thank you Thembani Luzipho, Mbuso Shandu, Mzimasi Nongwe and Hein de Vries. You guys are number one!

Weird week

By megan

On March 16, 2009

In deeply personal, world of work

So looking back on last week, from the fresh perspective of early Monday morning is quite weird. Yes, I celebrated our fantastic honour at the Fleur du Cap awards with lots of joy, but I also spent the week fighting. I fought with Fossil about my watch, I fought with MTN (that fight continues) to get an upgrade on my phone, I fought with Virgin Active who clearly don’t know how to run gyms, I struggled with Nedbank (I was a victim of credit card fraud) and I had an interesting but difficult time with work.

The common theme with the things that I am enraged about is money, or rather, the arse about face way that people and companies try to save it. I am working for a big corporate company at the moment, running training workshops for their big team of staff. Each day about sixty of them are taken away from their jobs for some team building and training, and we spend an hour and a half doing improvisation workshops with them. The rest of the day is spent doing other activities that have no connection with what we are doing, or with anything else really. So, what’s the point? This is the logic. Since they are spending money on us, the rest of the stuff will have to be internal, and for free. Just follow this train of thought to where it ends up. Nowhere.

Then, I was called in by an advertising company, who won a pitch for some industrial theatre on the strength of my proposal and budget. They wanted to meet with me so I could take the project on, since they have no idea about industrial theatre. But they only had half the budget. And there was the total expectation that I would do it for that. I tried to cut costs as far as I could, but no, that was not enough. They only had half. And yet, they still asked me to do it. They can’t do it themselves. The guy admitted that I was by far the cheapest industrial theatre maker he had spoken to, and yet, they didn’t want to pay. I was livid.

This week is going to be different. I will love the work I do and honour it by giving it its real value; in time, energy and money.

Megan's Head

A place where Megan gets off her head.

Tag: industrial theatre (Page 3 of 3)

The Week that Was

Life after Noah

Loving an audience

Weird week

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