The Changing Rooms 2020 – 2021

During the time where live performance was put on hold and opportunities to engage with individuals on a meaningful level felt bleak, this online residency awoke the creative spark in me. As part of an ongoing momentum shift to appreciate practise over the demand to produce, The Changing Rooms continues to have a big influence in the way I collaborate, plan and deliver workshops.

My focus to a more experimental and applied live practise was energised by this residency – Tempting Failure was the ideal organisation to gently probe my understanding of my own practise. Tempting Failure aim to support and collaborate with artists that are ‘often considered too messy, too difficult or too extreme by many’, spoke to many of my own negative and inaccessible experiences when making work for the ‘main stage theatre world’.

The sessions, held over zoom and with a host of developing artists, were stretched over a series of months where we would meet and learn together. My training in theatre and devising gave me a footing in these inspiring sessions but my language for workshop and playing as a participant/facilitator expanded 10-fold. Each of us had our unique practise, all sharing a passion for live art. In between motivating workshops, our hosts and guides Dr TJB and John Kurzynowski set us thoughtful, challenging and joyful assignments to help us understand our practise and how we run workshops. When we gathered as a collective, we transcended the sometimes-awkward zoom platform with games, conversations and meditating rituals.

The name The Changing Rooms was in itself a warm and welcoming invitation, with multitudes of meaning: the use and protest of technology in live performance/workshop; the space shared between performance (the literal changing room); the workshop space and how it has changed and continued to evolve with future generations; how thought and discourse is embodied and changed in the workshop space to empower and challenge perceptions; how we as artists share our space and open up the room etc.

This online residency saw my perception of workshop shift powerfully. Through practical explorations, the series demonstrated a more equitable lens for power dynamics of participant/facilitator. Now having challenged the traditional, often unhelpful teacher/student framework (where one gives instructions and the other is expected to merely listen and regurgitate), the way I apply my practise has followed this transition. Balancing the potential expectation of workshop (the participant ‘signs up’ to learn a skill or method of creation) with the need to enable participation agency is now present in my planning. Therefore, the underlining objective is to create a space for creativity, freedom of thought and accessibility. The Changing Rooms residency demonstrated how we as workshop artists awaken the creative spark in individuals’ eyes – shaping a space of true connection; valuing the artist in all of us.

This celebrated place of play and connectivity can be almost impossible to achieve via video conferencing. Online workshops can break down barriers but often create new ones – participants/facilitators can unmute and engage but there is a sense of an isolation framework that is not there in live space. TJB and John demonstrated the ability to reimagine elements/tools of video conferencing, perhaps in ways they were not intended to be used, shifting the agency towards a multidirectional learning space of discovery.

Taking this dynamic radical approach to virtual workshops further, the mindset learnt throughout this process informed a new way of hybrid engagement. By thinking differently about how technology can be utilised in creative processes, exciting and unseen possibilities to support and enhance live practise emerges.

I experienced the power and harmony of workshop, met inspirational disabled artists and discovered a new language around applying practise. The joy of participating in this risky but well-held residency was enhanced by achieving a deeper understanding of what I do and therefore what I can apply in a workshop setting. I now have a language for my own practise which empowers me to:

• Articulate my practise through embodiment, writing and dialogue

• Facilitate space where the participant has agency – a process that better understands, values and respects the artist in everyone

• Re-structure/re-imagine workshop – empower participants to make mistakes and take ownership

• Negotiate and push boundaries of the maze of video conferencing/digital platforms from one dimensional to a creative space

For a more personal and playful reflection, check out the blog about this residency here