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Extant Newsletter Winter 2007/8
Contents:
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HELLO.
REVIEW.
COMING UP.
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HELLO.
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Extant has been involved in a whirl of activity over the last few months, and in spite
of the depressing summer weather, we have managed to keep things bright and
optimistic as ever! Though recently we have had to part working company with old
friends, we are pleased to welcome new ones and even the return of ones who have
been away for a while. Please read on for further details and for an up-date on our
exciting projects.
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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
REVIEW.
AGM
The Effing and Blinding Cabaret – Edinburgh.
Show Girl.
Fund Raiser Barn Dance.
Blind In Theatre Festival
Focus on the Future.
1. AGM
On July 24th Extant held our Annual General Meeting in the Cromwell Room of St
Mary’s Church Putney. We welcomed to the Board new directors Chris Thomas of
Team Video and Maria Tuffy of Deutsche Bank. We also said goodbye to one of the
companies founding fathers, Damien O’Connor, who after 10 years of committed
service, retired to pursue a new life in Ireland. We thanked Damien for all his hard
work for the organisation over the years and gave him honorary membership status of
Extant. He said he would always continue to take an interest in the organisations
development.
This Autumn We are further pleased to announce the re-instatement of Ian Jentle as
a company director, after a three year gap, which saw Ian serving for Arts Council
England London region.
*Link to AGM minutes
2. The Effing and Blinding Cabaret.
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This year we have been developing a cabaret in the pitch dark, and this August we
took it to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. 4 blind performers tantalised full houses for
two nights at Theatre Workshop with an interactive offering of absurd songs and
sketches that had a rye perspective on blindness. Performers were Sandy Easton,
Andrew Hodgson, Kirin Saeed and Maria Oshodi, with sketches co-written by Maria
and Sophie Sweatman.
“In a witty blend of live music and sketch, the central theme is the day to day
experiences of visually impaired people… It's to be hoped that Extant continue to
grow as a company as this show's broad appeal deserves more than a few
performances.” Lucy Ribchester My Village
“It’s not all about the laughs at Edinburgh though.
Theatre is very much an integral part of the Fringe with some of the most imaginative
stage plays starting out here. There’s serious shows (a new take on Racine’s Phaedre, Outside In Theatre’s Darkness Within), laugh out
louders (the touching Teenage Kicks, which follows John Peel’s story), classics (Macbeth) and hilarious cabaret (Ladyboys of Bangkok
return and Effing and Blinding Cabaret takes performance to new levels of the absurd).”
“The
commentary is very clever at times… and it is exciting to experience work made
and managed by visually impaired professionals who no doubt have their own opinion
on what ‘total theatre’ is.” Total Theatre.
The Cabaret next went to Zagreb Croatia (Read more below, and about our future
plans in the ‘Coming Up’ section.)
* Image3.
At the festival we were also pleased to again spend time with Lynn Manning and
Gary Burgman, who Extant toured in 2005 in Weights, and who returned to Theatre
Workshop with the same show… Word has it that it might even return again to next
years Edinburgh Festival.
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Link to Effing page?
3. Show Girl
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Over six days in August and September Extant
worked with a group of female theatre practitioners on
a research project, that for the first time explored
themes of female sexual identity from a visually
impaired perspective. The Show Girl project, funded
by Arts Council England London region, used comedy
and Burlesque movement as its tools, also attempting
to find integrated creative access for the performers
and audience.
There were 4 visually impaired performers involved in the project, Margo Cargil,
Amelia Cavallo, Janee Hall and Heather Gilmore, visually impaired director Alex
Bulmer, writer Mandy Redvers Row, assistant director Maria Oshodi and sighted
burlesque consultant and choreographer Genevieve I Chang.
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Participants and Audience Feedback
“This was a potent subject to tap into. There were endless conversations going on and
a great deal of laughter and empathy.
I think the process was brilliant. It was entirely collaborative.
Everyone contributed to the storytelling and to the movement and to the creative
ideas.
I think this work is so powerful and so important for women, especially disabled
women. There are many social factors affecting those of us who are blind and
moving through a sighted world, often dominated by aggressive or invasive
behaviour. Keeping a sense of ownership over one’s body, with pride and confidence
can be a struggle. The burlesque work gives back our power and our ownership and
evokes a sense of liberation and pride.” Alex Bulmer.
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“I had not worked with visual impairment before so felt a little insecure
at the beginning of the process, but through everybody’s generosity of
spirit, I learnt a lot about my own abilities as a facilitator.
In the future I would love to further explore subverting normative ways
of perceiving sexuality related to visual impairment through
choreography, which supports these ideas. I think the practice of
burlesque is very useful for expressing subjective marginalities in
confrontational ways, but with creativity, humor and a reclaiming of the
body." Genevieve Chang
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“The subject of the work certainly took me out of my comfort zone. I personally
grappled with the concept of stripping from a feminist perspective and also from a
moral one. By exposing the female body on stage were we creating erotica? Why
were we doing this? How was our work going to be interpreted by women? Who
were we doing it for? What were we trying to achieve?
Walking back to my bed-sit one day after rehearsals, it occurred to me that with just
one casual glance a sighted person can see me, read me, recognize me or not. In just a
few seconds they can know me in a way I will never know myself. For even if I were
to spend hours, days, weeks, concentrating excessively, I would never see myself.
They will look and forget, but I will never know. Therefore, fully clothed or
unclothed, I am equally exposed.
This is not a self-pitying observation but in the context of this project a practical one.
Ultimately, I came to the following personal conclusion. By placing an emphasis on
clothing and what is revealed when that clothing is removed, we can begin to explore
the exposure one can feel when one is visually impaired.” Mandy Redverse Row.
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“The question that came up for me is how much of an understanding can one have
from a description of what a performer is actually doing? As this is a very visual
medium maybe we all need to recreate the movement of exactly what each performer
is doing in order to have an innate understanding of what is going on rather than
receiving the information second hand.
It would be interesting to explore burlesque as an aural presentation.” Margo Cargil.
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“I did learn a great deal from the project. I knew nothing about burlesque for starters,
so this process taught me about a performance form that I was very ignorant about.
Within that I learned a great deal about my own ideas of body image as a blind
woman, i.e. worrying about the things about myself physically that I might be
unaware of because of my visual impairment. It also made me face some things head
on, namely the fear behind being exposed, literally, on stage. In the end it was
actually a very liberating experience and a confidence booster.” Amelia Cavallo.
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“As a performer it was a new experience for me to use voice - singing and talkingand I was quite unsure and wary about this, in the end it was quite empowering. I still
know that I am a mover/dancer and not a singer for sure but I liked the challenge. I
discovered the role of comedy in performing - this is new to me. It was such a fun
and fulfilling project. I was challenged and encouraged, It was hard work but the team
was well chosen and we all supported and respected
each other throughout.” Janee Hall.
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“I thoroughly enjoyed the first three days, but was seriously concerned about taking
my clothes off in public. I had shared with the group how my confidence about my
body had changed, as I had reached middle age, and how I had lost much more
confidence because of my deteriorating sight too. Someone in the group said, “Why
shouldn’t a middle-aged, partially-sighted woman take her clothes off? This rang in
my ears frequently between the two workshop weekends.
I think this project has such brilliant potential for development. It is challenging to
the audience, whether they be sighted or not. The whole question of female sexuality
in this so-called post feminist age poses a big enough challenge to us all. When you
add into the mix disability and sexuality, and most importantly of all accessibility,
then you have a piece that is not only massively challenging, but because of the form,
can be hugely entertaining too. “ Heather Gilmore.
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Audience
A sharing of the outcomes to an invited audience took place at the end of the
6 days research and development on September 17th at The Cochrane
theatre in central London.
“Once again Extant has managed to intrigue and excite me. Last night's
Work - in - progress broke new ground and showed that there is much to
Be explored and learned in the field of performance and visual
Impairment. You guys rock!”
“The cabaret circuit is crying out for good stuff like this. I thought the discussion
after was interesting as it brought up many of the same issues we have with creative
sign interpreting, about what information is being given on stage and what comes
through the access point. It's really about exploring how to set up conventions
without explaining anything at all.”
“I actually found the performance most interesting from a gender/sexuality
perspective, above and beyond the disability issues. Looking at the women on stage,
one thing, which struck me immediately, is that we rarely get to see “normal” women
naked or semi naked or performing sexual
roles or expressing themselves sexually, and that was just great.”
“I really had a good time at the show on Monday. I thought it was sexy and funny! I
loved the jokes about blindness, i.e. actors walking into chairs, missing
the gap in the curtains. As far as the content is concerned, I would have liked it if it
had been even raunchier. I suppose that’s getting into audio-porn territory
though which is no bad thing in my view (wiggle of eyebrows).”
“A question I would have liked to ask the performers was:
As someone who has been blind from birth, I don't feel that I have a complete image
of what I look like, or could even conceptualise it if one was planted
in my head. If any of the girls are in the same boat, how did they feel exposing parts
of their body which they wouldn't usually to an audience? Was
It scary? Liberating? did it take a while to build the courage, or did they feel better
off because they couldn't see themselves.”
“For me it was the first time that I have noticed audio description. I thought that in the
first few sketches it really enhanced the performance, and sometimes
the tone of voice was so expressive that it added humour and sensuality. However, I
thought on the last sketch especially that the description did not include enough of the
detail that I
was seeing. At the time, I thought that all description of how the light was reflecting
off her flesh, which was slightly moist on her back, how you could see her muscles
moving under neath her skin, and the detail of how she moved was left out because it
was decided not to get people too excited, or turn it into a porn show? I presumed that
if this were more like a more usual Burlesque show, this would have been allowed or
even aimed for.”
“Other people in the audience are entitled to their impressions, but I thought some
women commenting in the Q&A were over the top, making too much of the
fact that we can make jokes about being disabled/blind, or they weren't expecting selfassured women. I thought it was slightly patronising, like they
didn't expect you to be capable.”
“It was entertaining, gave power both to the performer and to the audience, a very
difficult thing to achieve. I was aware of the complexity of what and who was being
addressed, and the possible complexity of response. There was no description of
physical characteristics, including ethnicity and body shape. I haven't made anything
of this, just observed it. These are factors
which will have made an impact on the sighted people and conditioned their
responses (comedy versus sexual turn-on for instance).”
“I didn’t expect the blind jokes, thought it was going to be a burlesque performance
with VIP’s in it but felt the blind jokes worked brilliantly and delivered by all
especially Margo. Not an easy balance to tell blind jokes and find them funny without
anyone feeling stupid gilt.”
“The two girls who came on "spying" on the audience for me set up a situation of the
watchers being watched so inverted the performance. Then the bit of
humour helped me get a sense of what to expect - a cheeky, humours show with an
element of subversion - subverting expectations and maybe ideology?
I thought the MC Margo Cargill was very self assured and confident. My experience
of doing comedy has shown me how difficult the part she played is to pull
of and she did it really well. She also had quite a strong stage presence.
Also as a somewhat sighted person I did not find the audio description intrusive – my
experience of doing a multi delivery like this is it can be distracting
for people with the sense being complemented - but then that's our problem! it wasn't
the case with your production.”
“I found the work really interesting, thought provoking, funny, intelligent,
sexy and imaginative. It was further developed than I expected and it will
make a great show.”
“The evening made me realise and appreciate both the limitations and the imaginative
possibilities/deception that audio description can provide. Also that
audio description is not necessarily a substitute for being able to see but in itself it
offers another dimension of experience.”
“What struck me very much was that your piece
was very collective, it was very much about the experience of blind women and their
take on sex and sexuality and actually to that end it felt very much
like a strong piece of disability arts. It was totally unapologetic and in fact wantonly
embraced ‘the blind experience’ and I loved it for that.”
“I've never seen burlesque before and know almost nothing of its conventions.
I can't therefore comment on your handling of the conventions, although
subversion was clearly important. I liked that. I probably wouldn't have
liked a "straight" approach - not that I know quite what that would be although I don't think I'd take the hard-line absolute of saying burlesque
exploits women and is always to be condemned. What you did seemed to me to
hit the right note - although I don't think everyone agreed.”
“I loved the show -- thought the jokes were great and they really worked to put me at
ease ... feeling a bit apprehensive about what to expect re the subject
matter and never having been to a performance like this before .. but I found the
experience very funny and never felt uncomfortable --- only perhaps at
the very end because the last striptease was VERY sensual ... and was much more of a
full-on experience than I’d been expecting ...”
4. Fund Raiser
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On September 21st Extant held a 10th anniversary celebration in the form of a barn
dance. The Ibis Hotel Earls Court donated the lavish venue for us to hold the event,
Fulham Rotary Club donated funds towards the catering, and Brenda and Vic Godrich
of Cecil Sharp House donated their musical and calling skills for the evening.
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The band was made up of sighted and visually impaired volunteer musicians, which
fused Indian and English traditional folk instruments. Everyone who attended had a
great time, with all proceeds going towards Extant’s new youth theatre project for
visually impaired young people.
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Thanks must go to Orange, Dans Le Noir restaurant Faringdon
And the Oval House Theatre for kindly donating prizes for the raffle on the night.
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“I had such a brilliant time! I haven’t dance so much in ages!”
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“The band was so good, I just had to get up and keep on dancing!”
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“It was great to be able to dance with so many other visually impaired people and it
didn’t matter if you got it wrong or right, everyone just had such a laugh and such a
good time!”
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5. Blind in Theatre Festival
*Image 21. (Promotional poster)
From 5-12 October Extant attended the 5th International Blind In Theatre Festival held
in Zagreb Croatia.
5 blind performers and a sighted technical assistant took the Effing and Blinding
Cabaret to present at the Festival among a programme of theatrical work from
Finland, Spain, Belgium, U.S. and Croatia.
For a full article on the experience by Maria Oshodi, visit her piece on Disability Arts
Online at
*Link (Get from email
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“I had no idea of what to expect on my first trip to Zagreb. However, after a rather stressful journey through
Gatwick and a quick flight by Croatian airways and an even friendlier greeting by our Croatian hosts I felt at
home. Our hotel was extremely glamorous and we were given various leaflets and programmes about the
festival. Sadly none on CD or Braille, still this didn’t dampen my enthusiasm. After given a rather filling snack
we had the opportunity to meet all the other festivalgoers. Our first evening show which was by our hosts the
New Life Theatre Company although interesting I felt lost at times, nothing to do with the language problems,
but perhaps the storyline. Half way through the week I was to realise that my conventional theatre going would
be challenged in a good way. The next day we rehearsed our cabaret act. I felt a little nervous but when the
final hour arrived the adrenaline took over. I felt the show time flew by and the audience seem to really enjoy
it!! The remainder of the week was more relaxing I had the chance to watch the shows without worrying about
our cabaret. At times I felt confused as to what plays were about but the discussions enlightened me greatly it
made me think that too often we passively see shows and not really think about what the
playwright/performers are trying to portray. Mid way through the festival we had a chance to walk around
Zagreb and I loved it!! No street furniture to bump into and magical traffic lights that had audible clicking
sounds helping you to locate them and cross roads with ease. We could learn a lesson or two in Britain.
Sadly I had to leave before the rest of the extant team. But the trip has really made an impact on me I think a
lot more about the theatre shows I see now. I also want to perform more and challenge people more then ever
thanks to extant and the BIT festival!!” Kirin Saeed.
“I
think what I enjoyed the most was the opportunity to take part in practical
workshops, with the aim of improving my range of theatrical skills. The most
enjoyable of these was ‘The Imagine Workshop’ directed by the Belgian Dirk Van
Den Broeck. I found this very inspiring and it gave me some ideas, which I may use
in leading workshops myself in the future.
Equally as challenging in other ways were the two ’Manipulation Techniques in
Theatre’ workshops. The first of these in particular would have benefited from the
sort of instinctual feeling you get when you have worked with a group on a number of
occasions. Building up a tableau of movement can be much more rewarding with an
established working relationship, but in practice we didn’t even get to know who
exactly was taking part in the workshop, an error that could easily have been rectified
at the beginning of the session.
I should also mention our own performance of ‘Whiffing and Blinding Cabaret’.
Although I felt I didn’t do myself full justice in my own performance - preparation
time had been of necessity slightly rushed due to our early appearance in the
programme - the end result as a whole was a triumph of communication with the
audience. It showed how language barriers can be crossed by enthusiasm in putting
across the meaning of the performance.” Andrew Hodgson.
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“I felt that over all the trip went very well and was a good learning experience. We
were treated well and the pieces that were presented were interesting and definitely
sparked conversation.
As far as our Cabaret is concerned, I felt that it went really well and was very
fun to perform. It seems to me that we were the only group who set out to do
something humorous and light hearted, even if we were talking about “heavy”
subjects. Everyone else had something that felt more serious somehow. I was happy
to be a part of the silliness. I was also very pleased with how much was understood of
our piece considering the language barriers. I guess, all in all it felt really triumphant
for me. I have never done a piece like that before, and this is one of the first things I
have done where being blind was not an aside to my performance. It was integral to it,
and that was very liberating. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the mighty cheer that went
up when I belted out “I just want to F…ing daaance!” It was great.
One thing about the trip that did leave a bit of a sour taste in my mouth was
the research students that had come to write about the festival, obviously having little
or no experience with blind and visually impaired people. I’m sure they meant well,
and indeed at times were very helpful to have around, but over all I am not sure they
“got it.” They were there to do research about a topic that interested them because
they didn’t know much about blindness and theatre. So they came to watch us, sort of
like an exhibit. This in itself isn’t really all that bad, but I thought the purpose of this
festival was to celebrate the art that we create as blind theatre practitioners as well as
to give ourselves another venue to have a voice for advocacy. Their purpose was
different from ours, and sometimes that felt obtrusive to conversations that were had
about the pieces we saw and the festival organization as a whole.
I’m glad that the festival keeps growing, and hope to return in two years to see
what will happen next time around. I do hope that they can get some more publicity
around the event so that more patrons can come and see what is happening. It is very
important work and definitely needs to continue.” Amelia Cavallo.
“First of all, we could hardly have been better looked after. Whatever deficiencies
there were in that respect must have been fairly minor, or down to personal
idiosyncrasies on the part of particular individuals, but I honestly can’t think of
anything serious enough to mention. This may owe something to the fact that I didn’t
attempt to use the Wellness Centre in the hotel! The food was generally of a good
standard, with some examples of sheer excellence, and the human assistance we were
supplied with was copious in quantity and pretty high in quality. A big hand for our
own Carmel here, too! I don’t think that there was anybody associated with the
running of the festival that wasn’t eager to be friendly and helpful. The other
performances in the programme I found varied, stimulating and enjoyable, and the
workshops were diverse and challenging, - generally worthwhile, in fact, despite
yours truly making a total pig’s ear of one of them: a bit more forewarning and maybe
some re-scheduling might have been in order for this element in the proceedings.
Professionally? Well, as a borderline case here still, I can say that the opportunity to
go through our “doings in the dark” routine once more, but in arguably stranger
conditions, was distinctly beneficial, including some sorely needed practice for me at
improvising on the melodica. The chance to study other people’s approaches and
methods, whilst still being able to sit and appreciate their product as an audience
member, was also enlightening. All in all, I’d say it was an enriching experience,
worth repeating and taking forward.” Sandy Easton.
“Festival highlights for me were:
Extants Effing and blinding cabaret - It was sexy edgy and exploring a new language
for theatre. This was the rocking roll piece of the festival. as a sighted person
I had seen this show in rehearsal but once the show was on. the darkness changed my
whole experience. I was thrown into a world of timelessness, a world
of sensation and texture. i experienced the sound without the distraction of sight
which I found quite meditative. it offers a portal into the dream world.
I also noticed that sighted audience members were either frightened or liberated by
the darkness and expressing themselves at the raucous "hit me with
your rhythm stick" number!!!. This is pioneering work - Theatre in the Dark.
The Belgium piece was inspiring because it used an access tool - layers of muslin as
a creative set giving the piece a whole trance like feel of being in
a world of dream where lines or staccatos don’t apply. I dropped into another space. I
also loved audio describing for this show. it made me realise that
audio describing is creatively part of a whole experience of been a live audience
sharing. I love the fact that the whole audience was talking. I feel again
it is a creative tool for what theatre is a bout. shared experience and anarchy.
Other highlights were the community of discussion that arose from each show. all
helping to expand and consolidate the experience of "what is theatre".
it has to be said that the hospitality and food were magnificent. this is an inspiring
festival and I took lots of nuggets with me.” Carmel Morrissey.
6. Focus on the Future.
At the start of November Extant took part in an event called Focus on the Future,
organised by Bristol RNIB and held at City of Bristol College. Three actors from
Extant and Maria delivered three forum sketches plus a song during the day, which
was aimed at an audience of educationalists and careers advisors in the South West
working with visually impaired students making the transition from school to college
and college into employment. City of Bristol College is one of 7 centres of excellence
around the country facilitated by the RNIB, which offer comprehensive access in a
mainstream institution to visually impaired students.
The forum sketches presented by Amelia Cavallo, Christine Laurence and Gerard
McDermott, highlighted difficult situations faced by visually impaired young people
gaining careers advice, trying to find a job and then gaining promotion when in
employment. Maria guided the audience through a forum style discussion about the
issues, and re-play of the various situations to attempt a more favourable outcome
Organiser Scott Wood fed back that the inclusion of drama in the day had achieved
the desired effect and lifted the event from being a potentially dry day of discussions
among the suits, to a lively, entertaining and more interactive experience around the
issues under consideration.
To hear the song medley created by the Extant team for the event based on young
people’s aspirations and reality, click here.
*MP3 Link
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COMING UP.
1. Youth Theatre
2. Cabaret
3. St Dunstans
4. Training the Trainers.
1. Youth Theatre
Our pilot Youth Theatre project for visually impaired people is about to take off. We
have identified a number of visually impaired performers as potential workshop
leaders and will be holding a planning meeting with them at the end of November to
explore ideas and devise the structure of the programme.
In January 2 terms of after school workshops will start in Greenwich, Sutton and
tower Hamlets, supported by the Foylle Foundation and project managed by Sue
Rolfe.
If this pilot is successful, then we hope to encourage more funding to further establish
an on-going Youth Theatre for visually impaired young people in London.
2. Cabaret.
In December Maria will be hosting a lunch-time talk and Q/A about our cabaret for
Walk the Plank as part of their Potting Shed: Capital of (horte)Culture 2008, Grow
Your Own Cabaret event.
In September 2008 Walk the Plank aim to be working closely with DaDaFest, holding
a series of Cabaret performances to which they intend to invite the Effing and
Blinding Cabaret to take part.
Also Black Country Touring have organised a booking of the cabaret at the Arena
Wolverhampton on 20 March 2008. Promoters of the event are
Pocklington Resource Centre, Stourbridge.
If you are interested in booking the cabaret at any other venue, please contact us to
discuss terms.
3. St Dunstans.
Extant is in discussion with St Dunstans charity about exploring the possibility of
making a DVD for training purposes regarding visual impairment. Talks are just in
the early stages, but promise to offer opportunities in the near future for Extant
members.
4. Training the Trainers.
Extant is pleased to welcome Emma Lincoln to her new role as RNIB national arts
officer. Her remit includes the performing arts and Extant will be keeping in close
communication with Emma about opportunities and collaborations that both
organisations can create joint partnerships on. Our initial meetings have resulted in
Extant delivering information to the RNIB on performing arts matters, and the
devising of a future training the trainers project, which was an idea first hatched
during Extant’s Art in Action professional development course last year.
Depending on funding, this should develop into a pilot project for the end of 2008/9.
That’s all for this issue of the Extant newsletter. The next issue will come out next
Spring.