RIVERSCAPE(S): CITY MAPS BODY MAPS (2012) was a cross-border multi-authored inter-arts performance concerned with envisaging a new landscape within an undivided city.
The piece was supported by the Ministry of Education and Culture, Cyprus, and presented for public performance in Nicosia under the auspices of the Cyprus Presidency of the European Union.
Credits:
Direction/ Choreography/ Creative idea: Arianna Economou
Dramaturgue/ Theoretical Support: Pantelis Georghiou
Performers: Harry Koushos, Ariana Alphas, Rania Glymista Michalis Kriempardis (Anita Michaelidis)
Visual Artist/ Installation: Horst Weierstall
Video Artist: Giorgos Ioannou
Live Electronics: Antonis Antoniou & Constantinos Evangelides
Lighting: Panayiotis Manousis
Co- ordination: Ariana Alphas,
Overview co ordination: Anita Michaelidis
Artistic Consultant: Dorinda Hulton
Technical Support and Management: Yiangos Hadjiyiannis
Creative Process
The creative process for RIVERSCAPE(S): CITY MAPS BODY MAPS drew on Hulton’s research into performer training at the Exeter University Drama Department. The project began with inter-arts training workshops led by Hulton who acted as Artistic Consultant to the development and composition of the performance as a whole.
Hulton’s research into performer training at the Exeter University Drama Department falls under the umbrella title of ‘the creative actor’. This exploration has been concerned with how an actor may be trained in the making of ‘plays’ rather than their interpretation. It understands the term ‘plays’ to include different dialogues or ‘interplays’ between ideas and forms; and therefore sees the term ‘theatre’ as encompassing a range of performance genres, including those broadly described as ‘interdisciplinary’, ‘multi-media’ and ‘inter-arts’. Within this matrix it sees the ‘actor’ as the person who fulfils an ‘action’, ‘a thing being done’, and adheres to the notion that theatre is a space in which ‘the thing being done’ is seen to be done. Thus, it regards the term ‘training’ as referring to connections which may be made between the body and the mind, and promotes the idea that the performer or ‘actor’ has a particular role to play in the making of ‘new work’. It also advocates the view that this role requires particular psycho-physical creative skills and orientations which may be nurtured and encouraged by adhering to certain principles conducive to creativity.
These principles are summarised in ‘Creative Actor (Empowering the Performer)’, in McCullough C, Hilton J (eds) Theatre Praxis, London, New York: Macmillan Press Ltd, 1998, 15-37. They arise out of Hulton’s training in various psycho physical disciplines including Voice (with Gael Andrews, France), Yoga (with BKS Iyengar, India), Shinto Training of the Actor (with Yoshi Oida and Kobayashi, France & Japan); and also Actor Training at the Central School of Speech and Drama (London, UK).
Hulton’s related performer training publications include:
Joseph Chaikin: the presence of the actor in Studies in Theatre and Performance, vol. 30, Bristol: Intellect, 2010, 219-224
Joseph Chaikin and Aspects of Actor Training: possibilities rendered present, in Hodge A (ed) Actor Training, London: Routledge, 2010, 164-183
Shinto training of the Actor with Yoshi Oida in Theatre Papers 1977-1984 (DVD), Exeter: Arts Documentation Unit.
Yoga and Imagination 2003 (DVD) in Dr Catherine Turner’s Three collaborations within writing and performing, Exeter: Arts Documentation.
One Square Foot – an exploration into interdisciplinary performer training 2003 (DVD), with Echo-Arts Living Arts Centre, Cyprus, & Theatre Alibi, UK, Exeter: Arts Documentation Unit.
Autobiographical performance installation 2001(DVD), with Luis Castro, Exeter: Arts Documentation Unit.
Gardzienice, Poland 1993 (DVD), with Wlodzimierz Staniewski, Dorinda Hulton (ed), Exeter: Arts Documentation Unit.
The training sessions of Michael Chekhov 1993 (DVD), with F Mason, Dorinda Hulton (ed content) Peter Hulton (ed technical), Exeter: Arts Documentation Unit.
An investigation into ways of addressing and embodying questions of character in Foursight Theatre’s 2004 production of Agamemnon, 2007 Open University http://www8.open.ac.uk/arts/research/pvcrs/2007
Performance
A performance/ event under the auspices of the Cyprus Presidency of the council of the EU.
And a pilot research project sponsored by the Cultural Services of the Ministry of Ed an Culture of Cyprus.
Echo–Arts, an interdisciplinary group of Artists, and its founder/ choreographer Arianna Economou, were presenting a performance/event at Melina Mercouri, a space within the Venetian bastion. The event took place on the 15th, 16th, 17th October 2012 at 8.30pm.
Their concern is primarily with the division across the city of Nicosia. Their research has led them into an in depth study of the strata of the old city both physically with its geological layering, as well as historically with its continuous arrival of occupants, visitors alongside the local inhabitants.
The project aspired towards a further layer where the division which runs along the buffer zone – the old riverbed – is erased by a new experience, layered by a new landscape.
The performance/event included movement, visual installations, sound: live electronic and dramatised speech.