Bush Contenders is our year round acting programme for anyone over 60 who is passionate about theatre and keen to get involved. Launched last season, Contenders has been a roaring success with a large contingent of over 60's enjoying Saturday matinees followed by workshops with casts and directors here at the Bush.
Anthea and I were thrilled to see so many of our Contenders back for the second ever session, as well as many new faces. It was another fascinating afternoon. We saw a marvellous performance of The Whisky Taster and then dipped our toe into the world of hotseating.
Hotseating is a classic process of sitting a character in front of a group and asking them questions. It's an almost instant way of creating characters.
I asked our Contenders to draw their characters from people they had seen in life, perhaps a person who lives nearby that they have always been intrigued by, perhaps already made up little stories about. Ideally someone of a similar age and physicality; a person they could double in a reconstruction or play in a film of that person's life. Basically you in a parallel universe.
The exercise starts when the characters bottom touches the hotseat. Often the tone is very conversational, almost mundane, but then inexplicably certain questions provoke the most surprising knee-jerk reactions. People in the hotseat completely contradict themselves, but it's these contradications that are fascinating, often they hint at hidden tensions and secrets.
It's interesting too, how quickly the group asking the questions make up their mind about a character. Often within a few questions they get a sense of a particular vulnerability or contradiction and start, as a mass, to close in on a collective definition. Accordingly the character often unpacks a story to satisfy the groups instinct or kicks against the box they see they are being forced into.
Not all of our Contenders made it to the hotseat, not all wanted to. Those that did displayed a lot of guts. It can be a very exposing exercise; it is, afterall, an intimate form of interrogation in public.
Like all the exercises we do, I was encouraging an intuitive approach rather than an intellectual one. Often the first thing that comes into our heads, although baffling at that moment it appears, is the most satisfying. Our first instinct is to banish these random things in a favour of a more acceptable candidate. For me, an old hand at these exercises, it's the moments where we defy logic that are the most delightful. Like all things, it is a process of confidence; moving away from the analytical part of our brains that wants to appear in control and embracing the strange, uncanny aim of our instincts.
The next Bush Contenders session will be on Saturday 20th March after the matinee performance of Eigengrau. If you're interested in taking part, please call Anthea Williams on 0208 743 3584