Lessons from the Whale - A Summer of Devised Theater in Bath, Maine.

Dear students, 

The past month I’ve been wrapped up in some very interesting work at the Chocolate Church. Since it has been kind of all consuming, I may as well talk about it!

The production, “Whalebones”, is an example of devised theater, a genre of theater that is created through devising, defined by the Kennedy Center as “the process of collaboratively creating a new work without a pre-existing script wherein the collaborators are also the performers.” The project was lead by Jeremy Eaton, Art Director, and Matthew Glassman, Executive Director of the Chocolate Church.

An inspirational concept is selected, loosely developed prior to rehearsals, and then fleshed out and brought to life by the performers. In the case of this production, the foundation was several Grimms’ Fairy Tales exploring the theme of death, and the performers included actors, musicians, circus performers, and puppeteers. Prior to the onset of rehearsal, I had only read the four fairy tales, listened to a folk song that would, with some creative license, become our final number, and heard several snippets of music themes prepared by the composer ahead of time that would later become the score for the show. 

Preparation for the show involved a lot of brainstorming and improvisation - essentially, throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what stuck. We would often begin rehearsal with “training”; exercises to awaken creativity and connection between performers. The rest of the rehearsal process was working through each fairy tale to make a single musical and dramaturgical story. And within 2 weeks, we had a show. As of today, we have 1 more weekend of performances, but here are a few of the lessons I learned along the way. 

In the words of Richard, who plays the role of Godfather Death in Whalebones, Be generous with your ideas. Many, many good ideas were scrapped simply because they didn’t quite fit the scene, while other ideas executed impulsively later became canon within the show. And many seeds of ideas grew and evolved into fully blooming scenes that bore little resemblance to their original form. 

Pay attention to what is happening around you and be responsive to others. In particular, many of the music themes were built around dialogue and action, with specific cues marking musical shifts. As a musician, you had to be ready to pivot on a dime to the next theme based on the pacing of the action and dialogue so preconceived notions of timing just didn’t work. It really forces you to stay on your toes, an experience both exhilarating and terrifying. 

Connection is everything. Working closely with people for a few weeks definitely creates a level of intimacy which makes all of that easier - through lots of mistakes, lots of successes, and lots of laughter, you all develop a reciprocal relationship of communication and response that allows a lot of moving parts to flow seamlessly.

Be prepared to adapt, quickly, last minute. We often received notes to make major changes to scenes hours before a given show. As we refined the movement of the piece, we gained clarity on what worked and what didn’t work and since we weren’t beholden to pre-written script or score, we freely adapted during the run of the show. The challenge, of course, was in the moment to remember what change we had made! 

Allow yourself to be surprised at what you’re capable of. Whether learning new music last minute, executing a challenging piano pattern for a lot longer than I had originally planned, recovering from in-the-moment mistakes or unplanned rain, learning to play a brand new instrument (while singing), or finally mastering a particular strumming technique on the guitar, I do feel as though this experience has expanded me as a musician and performer. 

And lastly, open yourself up to the weird and wonderful, and don’t take yourself too seriously. This was a show jam packed with magic and whimsy and success as a performer was contingent upon embracing that fully. 

What have you been up to this summer? Any creative, expansive experiences? Shoot me an email; I’d love to hear from you. 

Warmly, 

Dr. Jane