STORIES FROM OBJECTS AND PL ACES
How can we capture and remember stories associated with objects related to theatre-making? What do the biographies of the places where theatre is made tell us? How can we use stories from objects and places in our research?
DOMESTIC S PA C E S O F C R E AT I V I T Y
John from the Settlement Players in his living room where he likes to draw sets. He described the light coming through his patio windows as inspirational.
P L AC E S O F T E N C A R RY T R A C E S O F T H I N G S T H AT H AV E H A P P E N E D THERE BEFORE, AND MEMORIES O F T H E PA S T
The model box for Harefield Dramatic Society’s (HADS) production of Journey’s End, November 2015
S O M E T H E AT R E S DOCUMENT THEIR H I S TO R I E S O N T H E WA L L S , B U T W H AT S TO R I E S A R E MISSING?
The Barn Theatre, Welwyn Garden City. Lists of past productions
BIOGRAPHY OF PLACES Draw a diagram of one of the places where you make theatre. It can be the place where you learn lines, sew costumes, paint sets, rehearse, perform, party. Try to make the drawing as detailed as possible. Using the diagram, describe the place to someone else. What is special about the place? What does it say about you as a theatre-maker? If they walked into the place, what would they see, hear, touch, smell? Consider the memories held in the building. Who else has worked in that place? What traces are left behind? Who else uses the place now?
WHY SCRAPBOOKS? Reminiscences of the Grand Fleet in the Great War. A scrapbook kept by Able Seaman RNVR Horace Beaven Good containing letters sent and received, telegrams, press cuttings, photographs, etc. relating to his service in HMS Agincourt, 19141918. This includes account of ship's service at the Battle of Jutland. Many loose items. (RNM 1999.76.)
WHY SCRAPBOOKS? Programmes found within typescript bound memoirs of Kenneth Raydon Swan, RNVR. (RNM 2006.68). Leaves of a scrapbook compiled by Captain Rory O'Conor covering the 1933-1936 commission of HMS Hood battlecruiser (RNM 1993/54/1). Page from the illustrated diary of Leading Signalman Phillip Needell (RNM 2004.63.3)
O B J E C T S C A R RY T H E I R OW N H I S TO R I E S A N D MEMORIES, AND THEY ARE A P R O M P T TO S TO R I E S
The Barn Theatre props store, Welwyn Garden City
THE BIOGRAPHY OF THINGS Objects don’t talk, Or do they? The person in that living room gives an account of themselves by responding to questions. But every object in that room is equally a form by which they have chosen to express themselves.They put up ornaments; they laid down carpets.They selected furniture and got dressed that morning. Some things may be gifts or objects retained from the past. .. Surely it we can listen to these things we have access to an authentic other voice. Daniel Miller, The Comfort of Things, p. 2
OBJECTS If you have an object or image with you, look at it carefully. If you are imagining it, draw its outline, quickly, as a sketch.
What can you notice about it? What story does it tell? How many other people have used it? Where did it come from? Imagining putting the object in the room you have drawn. Does it fit there? Is it out of place? What questions would you want to ask – write down or say five questions that you would want to know about it? How would other people see this object differently?
E V O C AT I V E OBJECTS AFFECTIVE PLACES
Biographies of things can make salient what would otherwise remain obscure. ‘The Cultural Biography of Things: Commoditization as Process’ by Igor Kopytof, 1986, p. 67
S H A R I N G YO U R H I S TO R I E S Through formal publication
Through exhibitions at AGMs, socials,
Through online, searchable webpages Through podcasts
FURTHER RESOURCES ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH: W W W. N P S . G O V / E T H N O G R A P H Y / A A H / A A H E R I TA G E / E R C B . H T M
S AR AH P I N K , (2 0 0 9) DO ING S ENS O RY E T H N O G R A P H Y , S A G E P U B L I C AT I O N S