Inspiration

On the 22nd of January 2019 while staying in London I was lucky enough to get the chance to “the curious incident of the dog in the night time” by the national theatre on Broadway. This show was truly an inspiration not only to me personally as someone who has grown up caring for someone with autism but also as a performer the skill, choreography and the directing of this show was truly amazing. Throughout the show, the cast mostly stayed on stage, the same as we are doing with the chaos it's not only challenging as a performer to be actively engaged in the show all the time but also reminds the audience that what they're watching is a show. I started to notice a lot of Brecht techniques like this, as well as the minimal set which I find, is more interesting to watch than some more classic kitchen sink style plays I’ve seen in the past.

- trailer from a dog in the night-time.

The ensemble participation was really something I took from this performance and wanted to add into my own fro Chaos, while my character has 3 monologues I take the rolls of different characters that I want to be just as in-depth and thought through like my main character.

The national theatre supports the exploration of modern theatre and how we can use theatre to help change society.

“We aim to reach the widest possible audience, to be open, inclusive and diverse, and as national as possible. We stage a broad range of productions in London and tour extensively across the UK. Our international activity puts some of the nation's leading artists on the world stage, with productions playing on Broadway and touring across the globe.

We invest in the future of theatre by developing talent, creating bold new work and building audiences, partnering with a range of theatres and theatre companies.

Our extensive nationwide learning and participation programmes like Connections, New Views, and Lets Play. In London, our programme of talks, events, and workshops open up theatre t people of all ages.

Our major new initiative, Public Acts, creates extraordinary acts of theatre and community: the first Public Acts production was 2018’s Pericles.

We extend our reach through digital programmes including National Theatre Live, which broadcasts some of the best British theatres to over 2,500 venues in 65 countries. Our free streaming service, On Demand in Schools, is used by nearly 60% of UK state secondary schools.

Whether you’ve been to the National many times or are making your first visit, we hope you will be entertained, challenged and inspired.

It’s your National Theatre. Welcome.” - taken from the NT website.

The national theatre has been running for over 50 years with its first production of Hamlet in 1963, since then the national has produced well over 800 productions and in 1976 they had their own theatre which was formally opened by the queen. On average the national produce at least 20 shows every year, many different performances can be seen in any one week and there are over 1000 performance every year across the UK made by a company with 150 actors and more than 600,000 people seeing shows every year either live at the west end. On tour or through NT live cinema broadcasts.

Chaos was written for the national theatre connections competition and it has been a massive part of my ongoing learning within performing. From year 7 I’ve competed in this competition with school and letter Oldham Coliseum theatre lab and I’m grateful that I could see this show live in London as well as get that chance to compete again in this competition.

https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/  National theatre website for productions and information.

Another company I’ve recently been looking into is complicate after attending a few auditions for the Central school of speech and drama course BA(hons) acting CDT where I first heard about the company. They are an internationally touring company based in London founded in 1983 and have been described as “the most influential and consistently interesting theatre company in Britain” There main focus is simply dividing and they have become famous for their innovative and new creative work that brings together not only the actors but writers, artists, recitations, etc. This is what we're aiming to accomplish with Chaos as we are heavily relying on our techies who have a major role within the show. We also, want to portray the truth of the writer while devising our own work to accompany her writing.

http://www.complicite.org/index.php Complicte’s website

"The English theatre has a fine and honorable tradition. Simon McBurney and Complicite are not part of this; they have created their own tradition and this is why they are so special and valuable." - Peter Brook

Lastly, another company that I learned about during my second year that has come up again is DV8 physical theatre. DV8 was created in 1986 led by Lloyd Newson how still leads the company now, as of this DV8 work reflects Newson's personal interests in social psychological and political issues. BV8 has no in-house company and is constantly changing its cast to fit the needs of the latest production. What I’ve mostly focused on is a project from 2012 “can we talk about this” by Lloyd Newson.

                                                                                                       -clip from “can we talk about this.

Although the context of the piece is completely different to Chaos, the way the production was formed and created is similar to how we want to produce our show. “can we talk about this” uses theatre to make statements on the freedom of speech, censorship, and Islam, and maybe not for the same specific reasons chaos does touch on how teenagers are being censored and how we use freedom of speech so it may be a different topic but overall it's the same points.  DV8 uses mvmt as a massive part of their creative process something we are also doing through workshops and experimentation.

https://www.dv8.co.uk/ DV8s website for productions and more information.