Pushing Boundaries: Part 2 – Crossing Genres

Following on from my post about a couple of Adelaide Fringe events, both involving a workshop, and a live performance:

2 . Crossing Genres

Last weekend (Saturday 17th March 2012, St.Patrick’s Day), as part of SPOKE, Jenny Toune put on a ‘cross genre’ event, consisting of a morning workshop, and an evening performance.  She brought together writers and performers, paired us up (apparently randomly, one writer with one performer), and sent each pair off to choose one of the writer’s pieces of work to perform.  I was paired with the very talented Petra Szabo.  I’d never met Petra before. She has a background in dance, theatre, singing as well as being a writer herself.  We had about 45 minutes before we had to present our piece to the rest of the workshop.  So we quickly picked a poem I’d written that week, called “The Skin I Live In”, which we thought was suitable.

An interesting process. Petra certainly drove the performance side of it, thankfully. She constructed a routine involving each of us reading parts of the poem, with Petra dancing various sections. The only prop was an umbrella, which she used to great effect.  The run through in the workshop went quite well, given that it was the first time through.

And that was it, until the evening performance before an audience on the stage at Shimmering West!  No polishing, no perfecting, no extended practicing. Jenny emphasised that this was not theatre, this was an experiment in crashing two genres together and seeing what happens.

Come the evening session, after an open mic (with Open Mike), session, we were into the live performances.  The others I watched were really good. The performers and poets working well together, interpreting, connecting, presenting.  Some very talented people and a receptive audience.  As for my performance with Petra, there were a few dodgy moments where one or other of us wasn’t quite sure what we were meant to do next, but it went fine, and the feedback was positive.  I believe Sean King filmed the whole day, so there may be video available at some stage.

Here’s the poem we used:

The Skin I Live In….

is not the skin I was born in

but a version of it

the latest instalment

of a long running story

The skin I grew in

was bruised, burnt

soothed, hugged

scalpelled and stitched

The skin I played in

was pushed, stretched

inked, smeared

muddied and bloodied

The skin I fought in

was pinched, spat on

kicked, jeered

punched and pricked

The skin I loved in

was bared, revealed

oiled, massaged

caressed and kissed

The skin I work in

is clean, shaven

good and proper

white and regular

the skin I write in

is naked, exposed

sensitized, susceptible

reaching and probing

the skin I live in

cannot be preserved

processed, prolonged

projected,protected

 

nothing can save my skin
the skin I die in

will not be the same skin

that now envelops me

but a descendant

A frailer husk, a drier casing

a peeling parchment

etched with symbols

a final, still shifting shroud

shedding inexorably

from the surface of what

was a life

–

 Copyright Mike Hopkins 2012

Pushing Boundaries: Improvising and Crossing Genres : Part 1 – Improvising

Spoke

The Adelaide Fringe came to a screaming conclusion at the weekend. My attention over the last week was focussed on the west end of the city, where the SPOKE mini-festival was going on.

Two events caught my eye, both involving a workshop, followed by a live performance.

1 . Improv Poetry

The first was Improv Poetry. Teri Louise Kelly and Daniel Watson gave an excellent morning workshop on how to improvise poetry.  The idea is that a word is thrown at you from the audience.   The challenge then is to speak for a minimum of 40 seconds, and maximum of two minutes.  If you don’t like the first word, you can reject it, but then you HAVE to take the second word.  You have 10 seconds maximum to gather your thoughts.

Daniel Watson

So, for instance, in the workshop I was given the word “face”.  I managed to cobble together a passable two minute story about being able to order a new face from an internet site called “Faces ‘R’ Us”, and have it delivered to your door, so that you could be a new person whenever you wanted.  Went down well with the workshop attendees. I was feeling good.

When it came to the live event however, on an open air stage at Shimmering West in the evening, faced with lights and an audience and traffic noise (and a few beers), it goes to another level of difficulty. Added to this is the extra pressure of a $500 prize for the winner! Thinking on your feet becomes a great deal harder.

This time, the word thrown to me from the audience was ‘garbage’. The trick with this sort of thing is to stay calm, think laterally, find a good entry point, make your mind up quickly, and keep talking. Easier said than done. I managed to burble on about rubbish bins for about a minute, before I dried up. I wasn’t alone. Very few competitors made it to the two minute mark. Even our most succesful slam poets were struggling by their own high standards.

Needless to say, I didn’t win. The winner was a nice young man called Kiefer Rodriguez, an Adelaide stencil artist, who was attempting this challenge for the first time and was given the word ‘nose’.  He spoke about the pain of having a broken nose.  He was convincing. I asked him afterwards when he broke his nose.  “I’ve never had a broken nose” he replied.  That’s the secret: spontaneous creativity.  Good on him.

Full Results: 1st – Kiefer Rodriguez, 2nd Annie Fox, 3rd Nicki Bullock

Teri Louse Kelly

Jenny Toune aka Red Uncensored

An interesting event, and one I will have another go at. Well done to Teri Louise and Daniel for the workshop, and to the excellent MC-ing and organisational skills of Jenny Toune.

Part 2 on “Crossing Genres” will follow in my next post.

Upcoming Event

If you’re in Adelaide tomorrow (Wed 21st March), I’m MC-ing a great Friendly Street Poets event at the State Library of South Australia: Words@Wall with Mike Ladd (of ABC fame) and Rachael Mead, two of our very finest poets.  5:30-6:15. Followed by the Australian Poetry Slam at 6:30.  Should be a great evening.