This past Sunday we held our Creatives’ Conference. Calling our staff creatives might sound a bit pretentious but it’s not. We call them creatives because that is what they are. They are more than teachers in the sense that they bring an artistic perspective at all times to the work – they make even the simplest thing into something more theatrical.
This being Theatretrain they come together in huge shows where again their creativity is important. As a choreographer can you imagine how exciting it is to choreograph your group at the centre of the Royal Albert Hall arena but also to plan what all the other groups have to do for that number to support them? Exciting but also at first a bit scary. We can handle that, there are things we have learnt over the years that make that task less daunting.
All these things are important because there’s another aspect of the work that is vital – we want our creatives to open up our students’ sense of creativity – we want to give them some tools. If you are being creative, it makes them more creative. We do this because we know that in their future life, our students are going to be far more useful if they can bring their ideas to what they do.
In the old days, the performing arts were largely about kids following the directions of their teachers. “Put your leg here!” or “Sing this bit louder!” but that alone is not enough for the modern age.
Yesterday I quoted this conversation from the old days.
Singing Teacher: I’m a singing teacher I teach them to sing. That’s what I do.
Me: That’s not enough anymore.
ST: Excuse me?
Me: We want you to put some theatre in there as well.
ST: How do I do that?
Me: Give it a story?
ST: This song doesn’t have a story.
Me: Well, I’d say you have two options. You can choose another song or you can invent a story get ideas from the students and run it alongside their singing of it. In my head was another option – “You could work for someone else,” but I didn’t say that because most people can be encouraged into a new, more interesting direction.
We don’t have that kind of singing teacher in the company any more but the point here is that we want more from the students than singing, it’s singing plus theatre and when you do that it becomes so much more exciting. If you go to see a big Theatretrain show you see a massive choir using movement as a natural part of their singing – it adds to and improves how they sing.
And of course, acting and dancing also have a set of skills that can cross over. So today I salute all the creatives in Theatretrain. I find them a very impressive bunch of people. Flexible, funny, caring, committed, enthusiastic, energetic but most of all creative! And here are some of them with Robert and me.
