We talked a lot about archetypes, which is where mask work would come in: through masks you could distill an archetype. Then the real detail of that work was to do contra- archetype, so you could …
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With the writer or writers, we talk and dream, we map out the structure and the overall shape of the piece. They go away and write collections of poems or lyrics or ideas. Each writer works in a …
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I find Ladybird books quite useful! Simple books which give you the structure and the story, but they also give you lots of opportunity to open the story up without being consumed by 125 pages of …
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Emma commissioned both me and Carl (Grose) for Tristan and Yseult, writing a series of poems and dialogues, rather than a full script. She said, “Anna, I want you to write the voice of the unloved …
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At the risk of seeming over-simplistic I always remember Miss Hibbs even when approaching something as dense as Gunther Grass’s Tin Drum or Shakespeare’s Cymbeline. It helps me understand narrative …
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I try to write the bits that come easily first, like the best bits: the bits that feel like they're already almost there. I'll tackle the bits that I can already see. That's quite a good way of …
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In discussions and workshops, we end up with bits of paper taped, like big PostIt Notes™. Each bit of paper might be particular images that we like, or a key moment of the show or story. For example, …
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You're absolutely in connection with your fellow colleagues and the audience. The storytelling takes people on a journey.
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A simple game of ‘keepy uppy’ can really help alertness, awareness of the group, sharpen antennae, focus and build ensemble. A good theatre show needs a good team actively practicing these qualities. …
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I find that my brain works really well if I butterfly around an idea, and then I tend to land on something which isn't the thing itself, but it gives me a different map. It's what gives you a fresh …
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I think about it a lot in my work, which is that we're all scared all the time. Performing is a really scary thing to do, because you're not just scared, as we all are, but you're doing it in front …
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A good way of storytelling is getting an audience on the edge of their seat going, “Oh my God, what's going on? What's going to happen next?”
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You can’t rest on what you know, and you can't relax into research. You're sort of dancing at the edge of a precipice all the time, which is what Kneehigh felt like. Kneehigh do no research. There is …
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I believe that once the body is energised and the blood is oxygenated then creativity comes to the fore.
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If you're making a piece of theatre, you're asking the audience to engage their imagination anyway. A puppet is part of the imagined world created by the performance. A puppet guides our imagination …
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In Ubu, Ma and Pa Ubu sail away in a boat. The boat is one of my favourite props ever. It's two flat bits of cardboard on two poles that are folded around Ma and Pa and it just looks like the flat …
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In terms of a process for the baby puppets in Dead Dog in a Suitcase was that Sarah and Lyndie (Wright) whipped up some prototypes which were brilliant, and we just spent an afternoon playing with …
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In village halls, you can’t pretend to be someone else. You have to talk directly to the audience, you have to engage with the tea urn, you have to engage with the children and the grannies and make …
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If you're testing a story out, you might make a shadow play of it. This is a great thing for teachers and for students, because a shadow play is a play without words. You're making a storyboard, but …
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Don’t labour your ideas. Ideas come easy and Emma always said that bad ones (ideas) usually take care of themselves (by dropping away). Be brave. Be present and respond. Be intellectual when you need …
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Bill (Mitchell) was a really great visual director, and his work was so visual. His designs weren’t just making sets for people to act in front of. They were playgrounds.
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We would try not to rehearse indoors too much, because if you stay indoors, you start talking your ideas out rather than doing them. Try and make the work on your feet.
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Audiences are different outside. They become closer to you. You’re sharing the same space. You’re sharing the same view.
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Months before rehearsals begin, I start work with the creative team. We gaze at books and films, sketch and begin to form a concept; an environment in which the story can live, in which the actors …
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