How to create a solo theatre show: interview with Colin Watkeys

"How to create a solo theatre show, interview with Colin Watkeys Face To Face Theatre Director" with Marysia Trembecka [ 12:11 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Over  the  past  30  years,  Face  to  Face  Theatre  Festival  Director  Colin  Watkeys  has   specialised  in  producing  and  directing  solo  theatre  and  writers  who  perform  their  own   work.  He  is  now  part  of  a  world  movement  that  recognises  that  solo  performance   possesses  a  unique  quality  of  vision  in  theatre.  I am performing part of my next solo theatre show The Singing Psychic at the Lost Theatre on July 8th so I took the opportunity to interview Colin

Here are some of the highlights (this is not a full transcript of the podcast interview, to listen to it press the arrow above.)

I asked Colin for one piece of advice to anyone who wants to write and develop a show and he said

‘Character. Character and narrative. Narrative is the character and the character is the narrative. Don’t try to manipulate anything, don’t try to put words into their mouths. Get to know the character and their narrative and it writes itself.

Claire Dowie famously said she does not remember writing any of her work. From her point of view the character does write it. The guy she plays, she taps in that person’s life, she calls it getting away with telling lies’ (her wiki)
Like Picasso ‘The lies we tell to tell the truth’, but if you take on someone else’s history you become a different character, it can affect the way you move. One play that Claire did she played 4 characters in, 2 male, and a middle aged woman and an older woman, all played by herself. Someone asked afterwards, as there was a short blackout ‘I was very surprised when you put lipstick on in the blackout’ but she had not actually done so. Colin did wonder how you can act lipstick but the audience had the impression that for a middle aged, middle class woman she always had lipstick on.
Thats a challenge ‘act lipstick’ but the point is when you really see all the characters in your story yourself, the audience does too. When you imagine the richness of the scenes, how you felt, where you were the audience recreates that directly themselves in a far more kaleidoscopic world than in a film.

He is always fascinated with solo theatre and performers. For a while he ran the Finborough for stand ups as he was interested in their relationships with the audience. He wants theatre to be like jazz so that people get up and it just happens, not with a set, not with a script.
He does like scripts as well but he likes everything to be created in the audience’s imagination and no tacky sets or effects.

It is what he likes, from working with stand up comedians but then it got boring as he then was coaching them for auditions for TV pilots, most of whom have got TV series now. He enjoyed most working up with Claire Dowie who used to do what she called ‘Stand Up Theatre’ and Ken Campbell, director, writer, actor including A Fish Called Wanda imdb link here) and comic who loved creating it there and then, he called it ‘real acting’
Ken Campbell used to say

‘The script’s there for a bad day when the geezer is not there, but when the geezer is actually there you just let go, you just do it’

Ken Campbell’s obituary

That is what Claire, Ken and Colin have in common, he knows it is not for everyone but when he sees a play he just wants to hone down to the one performer who has an interesting relationship with the audience, he thinks they could just do all of it. That’s what he loves.

I asked about retelling Shakespeare from a solo performer perspective and I mention Patrick Stewart’s one man ‘A Christmas Carol’ where he told the whole story himself and Colin mentioned the Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead’ with the different perspectives of Hamlet and each other.

I ask what Colin thinks he brings to our work as a performer.
He has no idea what he brings, he just knows that it will not be better with more people, nor with a set, he is interested in the relationship between the performer and the audience.
People have said what he is talking about is just good acting and what is important is the characters, the storyboard and their feelings as the story unfolds. In solo theatre that is being shown in a very direct way.

I encourage people to be a bit bolder with an audience. Not to step back but to step forward and try and create some theatrical magic in the audience’s imaginations.

I worked with Colin for 3 half days and then doing a short show at the Actors Centre, I booked his course as I need the pressure of deadlines to get shows written. This current project is part of a ten week workshop which culminates in performance on Tuesday July 8th from myself and seven other great storytellers. I am also performing on Sunday 13th July as my character in the One to One projects: you can meet each of the performers separately, one audience member to one performer, you can meet each of the Helen’s, Clare Dowie is doing Dylan song tarot card readings, there is a verbatim artist and I am doing readings as my character The Singing Psychic. Plus a sound installation in the theatre.

My world premiere of live readings is very scary but I think will be a lot of fun. @singpsychic

Come along and see us!

Tuesday  8  July  at  7.30pm
New   Work   from   Exciting   New   Performers   including:   Martin   Stewart;;   Ayesha   Casely   Hayford;;   Marysia   Trembecka;;   Mass   Lindsay;;   Lesley   Wilson;;   Tom   Bland;;   Lola   Kotey   and  Madlena  Nedeva.
Sunday  13  July  from  2.00pm  –  8.00pm
Do   you   dare   spend   time   alone   with   an   artist   ?   Experience   a   variety   of   encounters   over   the   course   of   an   extraordinary   hour.   One-­to-­one   experiences   on   offer   feature   Claire  Dowie’s  Dylan  Tarot;;  In  Your  Dreams;;  The  Helen  Projec␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣Half   Baked  …  and  a  main  house  theatre  installation  from  Greece:  Olga  Pozeli’s   I  Remember.  Eight  tickets  are  available  each  hour  at  2.00pm  3.00pm  4.00pm  6.00pm   and  7.00pm

The Third Face to Face Festival
“New  Shoots”   8  -­  13  July
LOST  Theatre 208  Wandsworth  Road London  SW8  2JU
␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣
www.solotheatrefestival.co.uk  all  tickets  £5.00  +  booking  fee  online no  booking  fee  if  bought  in  person
Nearest  tube:  Stockwell  &  Vauxhall   ␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣
Bus:  77,  87,  196,  P5,  N87

More information about the Festival

The  LOST  Theatre  and  Colin  Watkeys  present
The Third Face to Face Festival
A celebration of the best of new Solo Theatre
“New Shoots” 8 – 13 July
The  Face  to  Face  Festival  of  Solo  Theatre  enters  its  third  year  at  LOST  Theatre  in   south  London,  with  “New  Shoots”,  a  week-­long  celebration  from  8  -­  13  July  of  new   performers,  new  performances  and  new  ideas.
Among  the  many  highlights,  Deirdre  Strath  will  celebrate  the  life  of  baking  guru  Betty   Crocker  in  Betty  Has  To  Go  Now;;  Claire  Dowie’s  classic  Adult  Child/Dead  Child  will  be   performed   by   an   international   company   of   solo   performers;;   and   The   Helen   Project   is   ␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣ Helens.
The  full  week’s  programme  is:
Tuesday  8  July  at  7.30pm
New   Work   from   Exciting   New   Performers   including:   Martin   Stewart;;   Ayesha   Casely   Hayford;;   Marysia   Trembecka;;   Mass   Lindsay;;   Lesley   Wilson;;   Tom   Bland;;   Lola   Kotey   and  Madlena  Nedeva.
Wednesday  9  July  at  7.30pm
The  Best  of  the  new  writing  submitted  to  the  Face  to  Face  Festival: Atar   Hadari’s   Three   Sides   of   a   Fence;;   Deborah   Klayman’s   Crossing   Lines;;   Robert   Crighton’s  Shakespeare  Delusion  and    Peta  Lily’s  Imperfection.
Thursday  10  July  at  7.30pm
Claire  Dowie’s  classic  Adult  Child/Dead  Child  performed  by  an  international  company   of   solo   performers   and   Kay   Adshead’s   new   plays   Happy   Ending     and   Three   Lotus   Flowers  performed  by  Jody  Jameson  and  Eugenia  Low.
Friday  11  July  at  7.30pm
The  Helen  Project  created  by  Megan  Cohen  &  Amy  Clare  Tasker   An  extraordinary,  modern  re-­imagining  of  the  Helen  of  Troy  story  retold  by  no  less  than   ␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣
Saturday  12  July  at  7.30pm
Jack  Klaff  directs  Sian  Webber  as  Martha  Gelhorn  –  war  correspondent Deborah  Klayman  performs  Civil.  Award-­winning  Meher  Awachri  from  Tunisia  presents   new   work.   Deirdre   Strath   celebrates   baking   guru   Betty   Crocker   in   Betty   Has   To   Go   Now.
Sunday  13  July  from  2.00pm  –  8.00pm
Do   you   dare   spend   time   alone   with   an   artist   ?   Experience   a   variety   of   encounters   over   the   course   of   an   extraordinary   hour.   One-­to-­one   experiences   on   offer   feature   Claire  Dowie’s  Dylan  Tarot;;  In  Your  Dreams;;  The  Helen  Projec␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣Half   Baked  …  and  a  main  house  theatre  installation  from  Greece:  Olga  Pozeli’s   I  Remember.  Eight  tickets  are  available  each  hour  at  2.00pm  3.00pm  4.00pm  6.00pm   and  7.00pm
Over  the  past  30  years,  Face  to  Face  Theatre  Festival  Director  Colin  Watkeys  has   specialised  in  producing  and  directing  solo  theatre  and  writers  who  perform  their  own   work.  He  is  now  part  of  a  world  movement  that  recognises  that  solo  performance   possesses  a  unique  quality  of  vision  in  theatre.  The  Face  to  Face  Festival  celebrates   the   very   best   in   solo   theatre   and   nurtures   future   solo   performers,   new   and   emerging   artists  perform  alongside  experienced  professionals.  Exciting  new  work  plays  opposite   classic   solo   pieces.   There   are   also   training   opportunities   for   new   performers   to   take
Since   then   he   has   worked   with   young   writers   at   the   Royal   Court   Theatre   and   solo   performers   at   the   Finborough   Cabaret   from   1982   –   1988.     He   directed   all   of   the   solo   theatre   created   by   award   winning   performers   Claire   Dowie   and   the   legendary   Ken   Campbell  as  well  as  work  by  Stephen  Oxley;;  Guy  Dartnell;;  Jeremy  Stockwell;;  Peta  Lily   ␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣␣  Jack  the  Knife␣␣
The  Face  to  Face  Festival  of  Solo  Theatre  is  funded  by  Arts  Council  England

If you, as a listener would like to ask myself a question on creativity or marketing just email us or call my Speak Pipe. The advantage of leaving a message on my Speak Pipe is that of you leave your blog details etc I can play the call live.
marysia@loveyourcreativity.com
If you like this podcast please rate us or subscribe on iTunes, it’s free and will help others find it. Or you can just go the website for the blog and you can subscribe there via your email if you don’t want to miss a post
Love Your Creativity.com is dedicated to all creatives trying to make great work and make a living from it.

About Marysia and Love Your Creativity
I blog at least three times a week on creativity and techniques to get your art on.
Whether you are a musician, an actor or a choreographer I endeavour to make https://loveyourcreativity.com is a place to come for inspiration and motivation.