USING digital MUSIC platforms AS A TOOL to enhance ensemble collaboration
I’m passionate about music. I’m constantly listening to it or playing it. As an acting tutor and theatre director, my inspirations often come from music and I’ve found that this is equally the case with the actors-in-training whom I’ve coached and directed.
The first image below is of a post that Breanna submitted to the Everyman research sharing space, in which she shares some video clips of songs that were acting as an inspiration for the creation of her Fellowship character, whom she called Sinead. Breanna’s post inspired me to develop ways that music, through online digital technologies, could be integrated more fully into theatre rehearsal processes to inspire actors-in-training.
Over recent years, I have created a bespoke Spotify collaborative music playlist for each project that I have led at East 15, and you can see examples of these different playlists alongside Breanna’s post above. I tend to add a selection of music to kick-start the Spotify playlist just prior to a project commencing as it’s invariably a useful tool to help the group gain a sense of the spirit and tone of the overall show. However, as these playlists are collaborative, the group members can also add music or songs that they find inspiring too. I always play music ‘on shuffle’ from the project’s Spotify playlist each morning as the learners enter the room and within our tea breaks. We can also draw upon our Spotify playlist for background music when we engage in group warm-ups and exercises. The content within the playlist can equally act as a helpful short-hand for the learners and I when exchanging creative ideas.
Whilst teaching and directing at East 15 Acting School I have taught myself to use Cuelab, the digital software that is commonly used by theatre sound designers. Over recent years I have created a Cuelab managed music and sound design for every East 15 theatre project that I have led, with content frequently drawn from each acting company’s collaborative Spotify playlist. Introducing the Cuelab sound and music design at a relatively early stage in the rehearsal process helps the ensemble to become more fully immersed in the play’s atmosphere as they rehearse and, in addition, allows us to define and tighten the production’s rhythm long before the show opens. As a result, the company are able to enjoy a much more relaxed, organised and time-efficient technical rehearsal. Above far right is an example of a Cuelab sound design workspace that I created for the Her Naked Skin project, alongside the collaborative Spotify playlist that we curated during our rehearsal process. You can see that many of the songs that group members contributed to the Spotify playlist eventually featured within the show’s music/sound design.