Scratch That Itch at The Sherman - 20/06/14

Last night I attended (and performed at) Scratch That Itch at The Sherman Theatre, Cardiff.

I was just about to turn Scratch That Itch into an acronym to save myself some valuable typing-time, but I've decided against writing a blog regularly features the acronym STI, as I fear it might lead to a really itchy and bitterly disappointed readership…

So anyway...

Scratch That Itch is an awesomely wild-eyed, open platform, scratch night created, curated and hosted by Brent Morgan (@dextartuk) with support from National Theatre Wales Team (@NTWtweets #NTWTeam), and Sherman Cymru (@ShermanCymru), in Cardiff.

Last night acts from all over the world offered up a host of works in progress, from solo performers to writers, poets to acting troupes, MC's to story tellers and more, and it was amazing to see so many people willing to share their underprepared work with an audience.

Walking in you spot this small and unassuming stage and then the bar area buzzing with people and food laid out feast-like all accompanied by some happy-tunes pumping through the stereo. The atmosphere is warm as the audience gathers, glasses clink and conversations about all things live start going on.

Brent

On a table near the bar is a jar of pens and a collection of hand made books with each artists name on; it's the feedback hub. Brent explains that the audience aren't getting to view the work for free, in return they should offer feedback to the people presenting work, either via these tiny books, or a conversation.

Brent is awesome with his audience and his acts, he doesn't patronise, he doesn't pretend and he doesn't claim to know much of anything, he just guides us through the night until everything has been said, done and spoken about.

      

An old lady dies in a caravan.  

Hi-Tech Refuge-Umbrella.

Spoken word from Zimbabwe.

I went on last and performed a snippet from a larger idea for a project I have been working on called TigerFace.

Since I was young and wanting to be involved in theatre I was "trained" primarily, as an actor so my presence on stage would be typically defined by the words in the script.

When I went to university I began to study, learn and love the processes of devising theatre, this lead me into new performance realms where I could play with the physical and verbal, where words still existed but where they could be loose and almost instantly changeable.

TigerFace is an experiment in form really, and when I started it was entirely different to what it is now. Since it's first showing at The Forge at Chapter Arts (you can read my year old blog entry on the Tin Shed Theatre Co blog page HERE) it has really grown and become something that is about risks we can take in a live environment, it's about the audience and the immediacy of what of whats happening and how that can change almost instantly.

TigerFace

To be honest TigerFace has become a bit like meditation. Trailing these underrehearsed, half formed ideas in front of a live audience, accepting that most of the time I'm not fully aware what will happen, allowing the power of it to shift between me and the audience. It's a tiny pocket of chaos that brims and builds and sometimes crashes.

A short video of an early TigerFace outing...

Having Scratched this character/idea three times now, last nights sharing allowed me to explore more ideas and receive some really helpful feed back.

For any artists, theatre makers, writers, poets, wordsworths, dancers and any other live performance doers who have a seed of something, I'd highly recommend you getting in touch with Brent and asking for a slot before they all fill up.

Viva La Scratch

Mucho

Justin