Session 3 - 20-01-2010

For me, this is where the project really starts.

We arranged to meet in Totnes at 10am. Sandy, our tutor, had kindly offered her house for use as a base for the day. Emma had arranged for us to access the local records at the Totnes Study Centre. However, when she was arranging it, she found something much more promising.

Once we had settled in with a cup of something hot at Sandy's house, Emma produced a document that she had found. It was an article written about a cold-case murder from 1866 that was commited in Totnes. After reading through the story, it became clear that this story was ideally suited for adaptation. The places, characters and mystery were all there.

Another positive from this was that the author of the article, Jill Drysdale, happened to work at the study centre. She was very pleased that we had taken an interest in her work, and she was more than happy to give us a detailed run-down of the story.

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Now that we had a story, we could spend the morning looking at the people, places and history in more detail. The enthusiasm was at an all-time high, with people starting to form suspects and motives amongst themselves.



After lunch, we shared the findings from our research. We made notes of characters and locations, which we intend to use as part of the the initial story devising process. Then Collete took over to work with the group on some devising techniques. She ran an exercise out in an alleyway in Totnes where each member of the group would find a spot and sit/stand for about 15 minutes. They would allow themselves to not only hear sounds, but to pick out the qualities of the space. For example, how the sounds travel throurgh the alley, how the wind feels, how the sun looks on the walls etc. etc.

This process can yield some impressive results if people give it the engagement it deserves. By relaxing and letting your senses to take in the surroundings, people begin to pick out things they would otherwise have missed. This would be a very useful skill to develop when writing the narrative for our story.

For the last part of the day, I had originally intended to take the group around a few locations that I had earmarked in my initial research. However, with the emergance of the new story, I felt that it would not be as useful.

Although this was a little unfoirtunate, I still had another short demonstration to show. I had recorded a basic text relating to the Church of St. Marys in Totnes High Street. It was a passage from a guide book from 1970 describing the building of the tower in the 1400s. I added a short piece of music to replace a soundscape.

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I stationed the group outside the church and instructed them all to play the recording. I had included a section that described 3 stautes half-way up the tower. It was interesting to see most people scanning up the tower whilst following the narrative.

After playing the recording, we retired to Sandy's house to discuss the recording. The group picked up on things they liked, things they wanted to include, as well as things they felt didnt work. This served as a useful exercise to both show my ideas of how to structure the nodes, as well as serving as a troubleshooting tool.

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This session has proved to be very useful. The biggest step forward has come from finding a story on which to base our project. This session has left me with high hopes for the future of the project!

(Next meeting is on Monday to begin the devising process)

Session 2 - 13-01-2010

Week 2 of the project. Behind the scenes, progress is being made. This was the week where we planned to test an Interactive Narrative in Ashburton. This would be both to give the group a first-hand experience of how the project should work, as well as highlighting any potential problems. We met at 10am and got started.

However, our old friend technlogy was not playing ball as usual. We found that the software had to be changed slightly to work on the software on some peoples' iPhones. This cost us valuable time. We also came up against another potential problem (albeit beyond our control) - The great British weather...

From the process, we highlighted a number of strengths and points for improvement. We also learnt a few things that would be important to take into account during the creative process. (A full list of these will follow soon)

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While the groups were going out to test the software, I ran a session with the remaining students. I called on them to share some of their ideas for the content of the project. In hindsight this was not a very positive session. By allowing a large amount of creative freedom, many people got carried away with discussing smaller details and outlining problems for all the various ideas. The session began to lose its structure. It was at this point that Sandy stepped in and suggested to me that I should take another look at my role. She reminded me that the creative process was my own, and that the details would ultimately be decided by me. While I could consult my students for opinions, I should not give them too much to create themselves.

We took a break, which gave me time to reflect. I concluded that I needed to take control of my project and assert myself in my role of working on Creating and Devising. I had planned a meeting for that afternoon, which I intended to use to try and bring the process back on track.

It was then that it occured to me. The key thing to remember is that this is a long process. It has been scheduled in such a way so as to pace the work. It seems that people began to worry too much about the finer points of the project, and as such the session became unproductive.

Looking back, it was all part of the learning curve for everyone. I now feel a lot more secure in my head with regards to my role.

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Session 1 - 06-01-2010

Week 1 - Project Introduction

Today was the first session with the cast of the project. The session started with a wonderful in-depth contextualisation of the whole idea behind the project by Emma Whittaker. This included a look at some of the material from the test project designed for Ashburton.

Then it was over to me :-)

I started with a brief explanation of my role in the project. I said that I would mainly be working with them on the creating and devising process for the next few weeks. I had planned a few short exercises to the get their creative juices flowing.

1. Improvisation Game - Park Bench - Participants are given strange personalities and sent to sit on a park bench one by one. They will interact with their fellow actors to create a scene

2. Linking Game - Film Styles - Based on the "Whose Line is it Anyway?" game. Two participants act out a simple scene. They will then be made to re-run the scene in the style of a film (e.g. Western, Musical, 20's Gangster, James Bond)

3. Devising Exercise - Scene from a Stimulus - Participants are split into groups. They are given an object, a word or phrase from which to devise a short piece of theatre. They are given about 10 minutes to create a piece

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After Lunch, we had an hour session to start thinking of ideas for the content. I explained in a little more detail the ideas I had thought of beforehand. I also showed the cast a picture of the area that we would be focusing on in Totnes.

It was clear from this early stage that people had a lot of interesting ideas for both the recording content and for a possible theatrical accompaniment, and as such were keen to make the project their own.

As an initial devising task, I asked the cast to conduct a little of their own research into Totnes. This would include looking into possible locations, as well as researching any interesting local legends or stories on which to base the story.



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Overall, the first session has left me feeling very positive about the future of the project. The quality of the devised pieces that were created in such a short time was truly astonishing - A very heartening sign indeed!

With the second session promising a visit to Ashburton to test the audio, I hope that the cast will have a good idea fixed in their heads about how the project will work. Until then, its back to the research!

Welcome to "Interactive Drama Totnes 2011"

Hello and welcome one and all!

Thank you for taking an interest in our project. It is still in the very early stages of development, so any input would be welcomed!

For those who may not know, we are planning to create an Interactive Drama experience in Totnes. The story will be written specifically for Totnes, with Totnes landmarks used as inspiration and as the stages for the final piece.

The project involves the Apple iPhone. The participants will travel around Totnes guided by voice recordings, which will be played through headphones to tell a story based on where they are in Totnes.

The project will draw on the knowledge and stories of the residents of Totnes, which will be used to write the story.

If this project interests you, or even if it something you might like to see and hear when we are finished, please follow our blog to stay updated!

At the moment, we are looking at a date around Easter (this is still provisional)


Thank you for reading, and on behalf of the team, we hope you will follow our process with interest!