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Theatrescience 2002-17.
A personal (partial?) history by Jeff Teare, co-director. Particularly
subjective comments in the main body are in square brackets. Jeff’s
overall reflections on Theatrescience’s fifteen years, or at least his part in
them, appear in the last section.
Theatrescience Workshop at the National Centre for Biological Sciences,
Bengaluru. From front left – Jeff Teare, Simon Turley, Rebecca Gould,
Pritham Kumar, Jagdish Raja, Arundhati Raja (sitting) and workshop
participants.
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Timeline:
2002 Newbury Science/Drama Festival – Corn Exchange Theatre,
Newbury.
2003 Plymouth Science/Drama Festival – Drum Theatre, Plymouth.
2003 Imagining the Future Script Development Workshop – TR2.
Plymouth.
2004 ‘Seeing without Light’ by Simon Turley – Drum Theatre,
Plymouth. (Published by Parthian Books).
2004 ‘PreDip’ a devised piece by Ridgeway School students (Plymouth) –
BA Festival of Science, Exeter University.
2005 ‘Biometrics Trilogy’ – Westgate School, Winchester.
2005 ‘Still Life’ by Charles Way- Drum Theatre, Plymouth. (Published by
Parthian Books}.
2005 ‘Tender Realm’ with Gecko Theatre, TR2, Plymouth.
2005 ‘HIV Plays’ (School Drama Projects) – TR2, Plymouth.
2005 ‘Yer, Right…’ with Tamarside School video – TR2, Plymouth.
2005 Workshop/Presentation at European Science Education Conference,
CERN. Switzerland
2006 First India workshops in Kolkata, Mumbai and Bangalore.
2006-2011 ‘Medicine as Art’ programme at the Peninsula School of
Medicine and Dentistry (PCMD), Plymouth, Truro and Exeter.
2006 Imagining the Future India Workshops and script development in
Bengaluru including:
2007 ‘The Invisible River’ by Gautam Raja – Alliance Francaise,
Bangalore.. Published by Samuel French Ltd.
2007 ‘Crab Soup’ with The Creative Arts (Kolkata) – Alliance Francaise,
Bengaluru (Bangalore).
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2008 Theatrescience India in London Workshops and readings at Soho
Theatre plus:
2008 ‘The Invisible River’ by Gautam Raja – Lilian Baylis Theatre, London.
2008 ‘Crab Soup’ with The Creative Arts (Kolkata) – Lilian Baylis Theatre,
London.
2008 Presentation at The Wellcome Trust International Public
Engagement Conference – Durban, South Africa
2008 ‘Something Somatic’ by Simon Turley – Plymouth University and
the Wellcome Space, London. (CFS/ME).
2008 Presentation of scenes from Something Somatic at Wellcome
Advisory Meeting – The Eden Project.
2009 ‘Amol’s Stories’ – NCBS and the Bharatia Vidya Nhavan venue,
Bangalore. (PTSD and Memory).
2010 Presentation of scenes from Amol’s Stories at the British Science
Association Conference. London.
2010 ‘Bad Blood Blues’ by Paul Sirett, Theatre Royal, Stratford East,
London. ( Published by Oberon Books).
2010 ‘The Clearing’ by Gautam Raja – Alliance Francaise, Bangalore.
2010 ‘Darwin in India’ (staged reading) – NCBS, Bangalore.
2010 ‘Not My Fault’ with Ridgeway School – Eden Project, Cornwall.
2010 ‘Three Short Plays’ – Eden Project, Cornwall.
2010 ‘State of Nature’ by Simon Turley, Eden Project, Cornwall.
2011 ‘Bad Blood Blues’ by Paul Sirett – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
2011 ‘The Ashtavaidya Play’ – NCBS, Bangalore.
2011 ‘Bad Blood Blues’ by Paul Sirett – Sydney, Australia.
2012 Presentation of Something Somatic at the National BACME
Conference – Milton Keynes.
2013 ‘Bulgakov Moments’ by Simon Turley – Royal College of
Physicians. London.
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2014 Publication of ‘’Theatrescience, A brief History’ in ‘Knowledge in
Publics’ – Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
2014 ‘Moving Stories, Moving On’ at PCMD, Truro.
2015 TEDx Presentation by Jeff at Reading University.
2015-16 Antimicrobial Resistance Schools Project, Bengaluru India.
2016 ‘The Vaidya’s Oath’ by Gautam Raja – Jagriti Theatre, Bengaluru
(and other venues).
The Work:
Rebecca Gould and Jeff Teare set-up Tinderbox Consultants Limited, later
to operate as ‘Theatrescience’, in 2002. Jeff had been active in British
theatre since joining the UK National Youth Theatre in 1968, originally as
a performer (once even a member of the National Theatre Company) but
mainly as a director at the Derby Playhouse, Leicester Phoenix, Young Vic
and , most importantly [at least to him] ten years as Associate Director of
the Theatre Royal, Stratford East. Rebecca had been his trainee, assistant
and finally Associate Director at ‘Made in Wales’ (the new-writing
development company in English for Wales) from 1996 – 2000.
Their involvement in science-based theatre began in 2000 on The
Wellcome Trust’s ‘Science Centrestage’ project(though Jeff had done a
workshop with The Medium Fair Company on ‘Darwin on The Beagle’, for
students in Plymouth in 1972 and a TIE project in Derbyshire in 1976 on
the definition of life. This rather resembled a somewhat mediocre episode
of Dr Who). The Wellcome Trust had approached the Royal National
Theatre Education Department about this project and Rebecca, who was
working there at the time, became a Consultant on it. She told Jeff about
the project and [with the help of a quick read of a book about marketresearch and an interview at Wellcome supported by two actress friends
in unfamiliar business suits pretending to be his assistants] he became
the Evaluator. (A job he had never done before, or since).
‘Science Centrestage’ involved an intended 100 schools throughout the
UK creating their own short pieces of theatre on biomedical science
issues. Ten regional festivals were held (Bristol to Glasgow via Belfast)
before a final showing of ‘the finalists’ at The Royal Opera House Studio in
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London (addressed by Richard Dawkins no less). In his evaluation of the
project Jeff observed that the theatre presentational side had not been
considered enough [as in, the organisers didn’t seem to know what a
stage-manager did. Jeff managed to get them to appoint one for the ROH
gig – an example of formative evaluation?] and that some of the students
involved had perhaps not ‘owned’ their work as much as they should
have. (In more than one school Jeff visited the script had been entirely
written by a teacher on a subject they were personally concerned about).
The organiser, [Helen… I seem to have no record of her surname] from
The Wellcome Trust suggested he come up with his own model of how it
should be done…
The first result was Tinderbox/Theatrescience’s first project – The
Newbury Science/Drama Festival at the Corn Exchange Theatre, Newbury.
Jeff worked with six schools in the Newbury area, based around the Hurst
School in Baughurst which had been one of the leading schools in Science
Centrestage. The resultant shows were highly theatrical (see video on
www.theatrescience.org.uk) largely due to the technical expertise of some
of the drama teachers involved and the fact that the festival took place in
a fully equipped theatre which some of the Science Centrestage
presentations had not. The student involvement in content was mostly
high as Jeff made it a stipulation to teachers and followed the shows in
their development in school. He also insisted that a science and
Drama/English teacher was involved in each school. This became a
fundamental Theatrescience practice, though it proved not possible to
enforce this in India or Uganda (see below).
By now (2002-3) Rebecca was working at the Theatre Royal Plymouth, so
another pilot/model project, the Plymouth Science/Drama Festival, was
set up there, resulting in shows at the Drum Theatre, Plymouth. This
project involved only four schools but they were perhaps from a wider
social range than Newbury. [This was actually the first, and last, time, to
my knowledge, that Theatrescience ever used a PowerPoint presentation].
Both the Newbury and Plymouth versions of a developed Science
Centrestage model concentrated on theatricality and student involvement.
That’s not to say there weren’t other issues to be addressed. One was
teacher involvement. As mentioned above, Jeff had to insist on science
and drama teachers being actively involved as sometimes his presence in
a school was taken as an excuse that they could be elsewhere (usually
‘marking’). Otherwise the whole premise of the work – bringing art and
science together fell at the first hurdle. Jeff could, and sometimes did,
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provide the drama input but he couldn’t be at every session at every
school. [It took him a few years before he could provide the science input,
when necessary, in India]. Where it worked well, such as at Ridgeway
School in Plymouth, the science teacher not only got involved but became
an enthusiastic participant (see the Drama of Science video on website).
Student ‘ownership’ was harder to gauge but at least none of the scripts
were entirely only a teacher’s idea. A good example of real student
ownership came up with ‘Yer, Right…’ in the Theatre of Science project
(see below).
Rebecca’s particular interest was to bring scientists and dramatists
together. Working with Simon Parry of The Wellcome Trust she set up the
Imagining the Future Script Development Workshop in early 2003 at
the Theatre Royal Plymouth’s new education centre, TR2. Four dramatists
were recruited: Charles Way, Briony Lavery, Simon Turley (also a local
teacher) and Peter Morgan (also a journalist). By then we had made a
connection with the Peninsula Medical School (later the Peninsula School
of Medicine and Dentistry - PSMD) and many of their staff got involved,
as well as other scientists from Plymouth University and some medical
practitioners. A week was spent in drama sessions, lectures, seminars and
visits to both the Theatre Royal and a few science labs. On the final Friday
some nascent scenes were presented to an invited audience.
Peter’s scene developed into a play about Eugenics which was later read
and discussed in Sweden, where it was set. Briony’s scene, about cloning,
turned into a radio play later broadcast by the BBC. Charles’s scene about
genetic predisposition and Simon’s about HIV research became the main
theatre productions of Theatre of Science.
Experience gained through Science Centrestage and the Newbury and
Plymouth Science/Drama Festivals was codified into a ‘How to’ booklet
and video called Drama of Science. In 2004 the Drama of Science
Project was launched with presentation/workshops in London,
Manchester, Bristol, Stoke-on-Trent and Southampton. Follow-up
‘demonstration projects’ were then undertaken at Ridgeway School in
Plymouth (on cystic fibrosis) and the Westgate School in Winchester (‘The
Biometrics Trilogy’). Both these projects feature in The Drama of Science
video. Dr Penny Fiddler’s Evaluation noted:
‘All teachers who created Science-Drama Projects enjoyed and learned
from the experience. In general the students who took part gave
extremely positive feedback about their perceptions of science. However,
most of the teachers found that creating, or attempting to create, cross6
curricular science-drama work was extremely challenging within their
schools.’
An offshoot of Drama of Science was a devised piece by Ridgeway School
students (Plymouth), PreDip, about a futuristic night club where access
was decided by DNA. This was performed at the BA Festival of Science at
Exeter University.
Work done during and after Imagining the Future was used to form the
basis of an application to The Wellcome Trust for a major Society award.
This application was successful and resulted in a year-long project based
at TR2 in Plymouth called the Theatre of Science which ran from 2004
to 2005. The specific idea of this project was to get scientists and artists
(writers, actors and other theatre practitioners) to work together, ‘in the
same space’. [A memorable quote came from a science teacher involved
in the Drama of Science along the lines of ‘and I went into a part of the
school I’d never even seen before’. He meant the drama studio].
This project very much set the template for much of the work that
Theatrescience would do in the future. Central was bringing scientists,
theatre practitioners and writers together. Also important was the
involvement of schools, colleges and community groups. Overall was the
desire to create relevant, entertaining theatre on biomedical science
issues for a general public. What then happened, ‘social engagement with
science perhaps? Who knew?
[Doing the whole thing mainly in Plymouth certainly gave an extra flavour
to the whole project that’s for sure. I think it would have been very
different if we’d done it in London, and it was very different in India.
Plymouth was once described to be as ‘the graveyard of ambition’. I’m not
sure about that but I well remember coming out of a Theatrescience
session to be met in the corridor by a stripper who’d just finished her gig
next door. Then, of course, there was the legendary Dolphin pub on the
Barbican…].
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Scene from ‘Seeing without Light’ by Simon Turley, Drum Theatre
Plymouth (Claire Wille and Krisi Bone).
The Theatre of Science included productions, readings, workshops,
community projects and ‘sci-art’ sessions. Seeing Without Light by
Simon Turley and Still Life by Charles Way (both published by Parthian
Books) were performed at The Drum Theatre, Plymouth. It was with these
productions that the Theatrescience model of following every show with
an audience discussion was begun. A large-scale community project
‘Tender Realm’ with Gecko Theatre was staged at TR2. This was a
physical theatre piece about ‘the science of emotion’. According to the
project evaluation about 40% of the audience believed that they were
seeing a science laboratory in action rather than a theatre piece. Other
community projects were also undertaken with an HIV support initiative
and a mothers’ group. The HIV monologue that was developed from one
man’s personal experience was a powerful piece that was later used in an
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NHS training session. The mothers’ group came up with a video which had
some interesting things to say about genetic engineering. ‘Sci-art’
development projects were run on various subjects such as cochlear
implants, ‘Can creativity be measured?’ and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
(CFS). This latter session was with Jeff, Professor Anthony Pinching of
PCMD and Simon Turley (and two actors). This became the beginning of a
long term relationship which resulted in ‘Something Somatic’ and
‘Bulgakov Moments’. Anthony and Simon later joined Rebecca and Jeff as
directors of Theatrescience. Anthony also acted as ‘senior science advisor,
UK’ and Simon became ‘writer-in-residence, UK’.
Various school drama projects were also undertaken as part of ‘Theatre of
Science’. Over twelve schools and colleges were involved in Plymouth,
Devon and Cornwall. One Plymouth school decided that rather than devise
a piece about HIV in Africa they would do a show about genital warts as
that was currently a problem in their school but they didn’t think their
parents and teachers knew enough about it. The show, Yer, Right… was
turned into a video (inexpertly shot by Jeff) in the school as well as in a
local park and in students’ homes. This video was later used as a
teaching aid in other schools. (Although we were told that it had to be
subtitled due to the performers’ strong ‘Janner’ accents).
The Theatre of Science project was evaluated by Helen Turner of the
Institute of Education and Rachel Dickerson of National Theatre,
Education who stated:
Everybody (education, theatre and public) was in agreement that this
medium of theatre successfully engaged people with thought provoking
and informative productions. Students working on their own productions
found that they could learn and understand more through this experiential
process. Teachers said that students learned more this way than in
ordinary Science lessons and were the strongest advocates of theatre as a
learning tool.’
In late 2005 Jeff and Simon ran a Theatrescience Workshop at a European
Science Education Conference at CERN in Switzerland. Although in this
modern temple of advanced science the prepared video ‘ne marche pas’
so the hundred or so participants from a dozen countries were corralled
into a ‘giant human body’ workshop complete with circulatory, nervous
and highly functional digestive systems (someone donated a sandwich).
After the Theatre of Science programme had finished in Plymouth there
was some talk of moving the whole operation to a different regional
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theatre (perhaps Birmingham?) but by then Rebecca had started to work
in India for the British Council. When Associate Director at the Theatre
Royal, Stratford East, Jeff had done a lot of work with and for the British
South-Asian communities in the East End so, instead of another theatre in
the UK, they decided to try taking Theatrescience to India…
The first Theatrescience India Workshops took place in 2006 with theatre
practitioners, writers and scientists in Kolkata, Mumbai and Bengaluru. It
soon became clear that the science/art divide still so apparent in the UK
was not as clear in India. For example, some of the actors we worked
with were scientists. (It’s generally hard to earn a living as an actor
working in English in India). In Kolkata we worked with The Creative Arts
(Ramanjit Kaur) and in Mumbai Jeff and Simon ran workshops with
Performing Arts students at the University. In Bengaluru Jeff and Simon
worked with Arundhati and Jagdish Raja of the Artistes’ Repertory
Company (later Jagriti Theatre). [The visit got off to a great start as we
were whisked from the airport straight to the Bangalore Club for a G&T or
two - the Mumbai hotel experience had not been a happy one]. The
Bengaluru Workshop went very well and immediately suggested
possibilities for future projects. Arundhati and Jagdish were also having
their own theatre built… This relationship has lasted to the present day
(2017) and has resulted in many projects and productions (see below).
Also in 2006, at Anthony Pinching’s prompting, Jeff began
teaching/directing a ‘Medicine as Art’ Programme at PCMD in Plymouth,
Truro and Exeter (UK). This involved medical students exploring their own
attitudes to illness through drama. In particular we concentrated on how
these attitudes might affect their future clinical practice. This became
somewhat difficult when the student was dealing with a medical condition
that they themselves suffered from, for example diabetes, depression and
CFS. (At one point Jeff had to enquire about student counselling). More
generally the medical conditions dealt with tended to be familial or ones
met in observation sessions in hospitals. This programme ran for six years
resulting in over forty short theatre pieces, written and performed by the
students (sometimes on video) or by professional actors brought in by
Theatrescience. A highlight was a play about IBS performed by two
students in a gents’ loo at PSMD Plymouth.
From 2006 to 2008 Theatrescience also gave presentations and readings
of CFS material, mainly from early versions of ‘Something Somatic’ (see
below), at various medical conferences (Plymouth, Birmingham,
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Manchester etc.) and theatre venues (The Barbican in Plymouth and
RADA in London).
In 2007 Theatrescience returned to Bengaluru for Imagining the
Future - India. This consisted of drama workshops (one at the National
Centre for Biological Sciences, NCBS and script development sessions with
Shivani Tibrewalla on her play ‘The Laboratory’ (later performed at and
Indian Council for Medical Research Conference in Coimbatore), Farhad
Sorabjee on his script ‘Idiot Wind’ and Paul Sirett’s ‘Bad Blood Blues’ (see
below). Two school projects were also undertaken with Malliya Aditi
International School on access to healthcare and Vidya Niketan School on
water conservation. (Both schools were also involved in later activities).
The three scripts were given public readings and discussed. [My abiding
memory of the whole project was getting into a taxi to go to Malliya Aditi
at 6.30.am, returning to run workshops during the day, going to see
‘Slumdog Millionaire’ in the evening and finishing up at 2.30 the next
morning helping our production manager, John Whewell, to paint The
Creative Arts’ set in a mosquito-infested underground carpark].The
School projects, the scripts in development (readings) and two full
productions were presented at the Alliance Francaise, Bengaluru:
‘The Invisible River’ (about cholera and the socio-political and religious
effects of Gangetic pollution) by Gautam Raja with ARC. (Published by
Samuel French Ltd). Sukhita Aiyer and Pritham Kumar acted in this and it
was directed by Ruchika Channa. All three became long-term associates
of Theatrescience.
‘Crab Soup’ (about living with HIV) by The Creative Arts (Kolkata).
Taranjit Kaur (Ramanjit’s sister), who has gone on to be an established
actress in India, played the lead in this.
‘Imagining the Future – India’ was a major step forward in our work, as
was the original UK version. Firstly, it hugely developed our Indian
contacts, especially as we were resident at the Ecumenical Christian
Centre (complete with monkeys) and had time to talk and socialise [I
especially remember teaching a mixed group of Indian and Brit actors and
writers an Ojibwa song and dance, very late at night]. Secondly, it
cemented our relationship with NCBS and introduced the idea of working
theatrically from scientific research. (A session with a forest cat ecologist
probably finally resulted in ‘The Clearing’).Thirdly. it allows our work to be
seen by a wide Bengalurian audience at the Alliance Francaise. And
fourthly, it developed scripts, especially ‘Bad Blood Blues’, that would
prove important (in various ways) later.
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Scene from ‘The invisible River’ by Gautam Raja, Lilian Baylis Theatre,
London (Pritham Kumar, Veena Apiah and Joshua Saldanha).
In 2008 these two shows were brought to London to form the
centrepieces of Theatrescience India in London. They were both
performed at the Lilian Baylis Theatre, Sadlers Wells. Response was very
positive and chaired discussions resulted in further contacts for
Theatrescience both in the UK and India. Workshops and readings were
also held at Soho Theatre, including Paul Sirett’s ‘Bad Blood Blues’ (about
HIV research in Africa) and Farhad Sorabjee’s ‘Idiot Wind’ (about Autism)
which, as mentioned above, had both first been developed in Bengaluru.
One workshop was held on The Creative Arts verbatim work with women
in Kolkata living with HIV positive partners. Another workshop on Darwin
revealed that many of the participants believed that evolution was ‘a
linear process that resulted in homo sapiens’. This mistaken belief lead to
the ‘Darwin in India’ project (see below). A presentation of all this work
was given at the Nehru Centre (Indian High Commission) and ‘Crab Soup’
was also seen at Tara Arts. London.
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Also in 2008 Rebecca gave a presentation at The Wellcome Trust’s first
International Public Engagement Conference in Durban, South Africa.
A scene from ‘Something Somatic’ by Simon Turley, The Wellcome Space,
London (Richard Pepper and Rachel Donovan).
Later in 2008 Simon Turley’s Something Somatic was performed at
Plymouth University and The Wellcome Space in London. As previously
mentioned, this had started life as a ‘Sci-art’ session at the Theatre of
Science in 2005 and gone through a number of versions, readings and
workshops before becoming the inaugural production at Plymouth
University’s new performance space. A fire alarm interrupted the first
performance but all the audience returned to see the end of the show. [At
the discussion after, Simon mentioned that the basic idea for the play
came from a CFS sufferer we had met who had said that recovering from
the condition was like ‘losing a lover’. She somewhat magically then
appeared at the back of the crowd]. ‘Something Somatic’ was then seen
at The Wellcome Space in London.
CFS was never actually mentioned in the play. In the after-show
discussions it became clear that audience members with no knowledge of
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CFS could experience the show as a ‘weird love story’ whereas CFS
sufferers could closely identify with the central female character, (‘That’s
me on stage’ was one comment). Some immediately understood that the
male character ‘was’ the condition, others did not. This apparent division
(after all they had all seen, and very largely enjoyed, the same play)
became central to Theatrescience’s work – we were working ‘within’
diseases and conditions, we were not writing ‘about’ them. CFS is not
ever mentioned by name in the ‘Something Somatic’ script, though it is
alluded to. A previous version (‘Sleeping Beauties’) had been very specific
but, after a reading at the Barbican Theatre in Plymouth, Simon decided it
was ‘boring’).
The independent evaluation by Melanie Scaffold of Arnolfini, Bristol [later
to become a Theatrescience Associate – nothing to do with her largely
positive evaluation] observed:
‘The consistency of positive audience response across the three evaluated
performances demonstrates that, while many were drawn to the play
because of the issues it addressed, its success as an exciting piece of
theatre is not dependent on the extent to which the audience is engaged
in these themes. When questioned about what was most enjoyable over
50% of the audience referred to the ‘theatricality’ of the piece – set,
lighting sound, direction and acting – indicting the quality of the dramatic
experience.’
Scenes from ‘Something Somatic’ were then presented at a meeting of
Wellcome’s Public Engagement Advisors at the Eden Project in Cornwall.
This was followed by a late night tour of the Tropical Biome which
eventually led to ‘State of Nature’ being performed there (see below).
Also in 2008 ‘Dramatic Clinical Spaces’ by Anthony, Simon and Jeff was
published in The Wellcome Trust’s ‘Creative Encounters’. This was partly
about the experience of ‘Something Somatic’. Professor Pinching
observed:
‘The dramatic art in ‘Something Somatic’ may not give us all the
answers, but it certainly helps us ask better questions. Just like scientific
research really…’.
In early 2009 Theatrescience had a four week residency at NCBS. This
had largely been set-up by Rebecca and Dr Mukund Thattai of NCBS after
‘Imagining the Future – India’. (Mukund had been our main scientific
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advisor on ‘Invisible River’ and had once been taught biology by
Arundhati. He became our long-term Scientific Associate in India). Visits
to labs and lengthy conversations with research scientists lead to the
development of two scripts, ‘The Clearing’ by Gautam Raja about invasive
species and forest ecology and Amol’s Stories about PTSD and memory
scripted from improvisation by Jeff. Early scenes from ‘The Clearing’ and
all of the first draft ‘Amol’s Stories’ were staged at NCBS and the Bharatia
Vidya Nhavan. Reactions to the pieces were interestingly different at the
two venues. At NCBS the audience were mainly made-up of research
scientists, at the Bharata Vidya Nhavan it certainly was not. At NCBS the
scientific references of ‘The Clearing’ probably worked best. At the
Bharata Vidya Nhavan the emotional experience of the bereaved central
character of ‘Amol’s Stories’ was probably more important. (This perhaps,
in a way, reflected the audiences for ‘Something Somatic’ in that the
more you knew about the ‘subject’ the more you related to the specifics.
If you didn’t know perhaps you just saw the play?). Some more schools
work was also undertaken as part of this Residency, mainly at Vidya
Niketan.
Also in 2009 a reading of Bad Blood Blues was given at, what we were
told was, India’s first National Medical Ethics Conference in Bengaluru. We
were asked to ‘tone down the language’ but chose not to as it was
inherent to the central character. Younger members of the audience
seemed to appreciate this.
In March 2009 Jeff was a main speaker at Interarts Campus Euroamerican
Conference in Buenos Aires. His plenary presentation included another
‘line of approval’ workshop on attitudes to genetic information which was
reported as ‘a highlight’ of an otherwise rather academic occasion. [A
highlight of my visit was a tango lesson, luckily unrecorded].
In May 2009 Bad Blood Blues (published by Oberon books) received its
first full production at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East (London). This
was not a Theatrescience production but Jeff and Paul had long-term
contacts with the theatre. Unfortunately the casting rather obscured the
script’s central relationship (the scientist is meant to be a white
European) but audience response was, as usual at TRSE, animated and
the issue of drug trial ethics clearly appreciated.
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‘Acting Against Worms’ Workshop, Busia, Uganda.
Also in 2009 we were approached by Fiona Fleming of the Schistosomiasis
Control Initiative (Imperial College, London) and the science journalist
Becky McCall to provide the drama input into a schools project against
Bilharzia in the Busia district of Uganda, Acting Against Worms. The
first leg of this project took place in the autumn. It soon became apparent
that the 400+ children involved well knew what they should, and should
not, do to avoid contracting bilharzia. The real issue was why they
sometimes couldn’t avoid the disease. This was, of course, to do with
economics and politics. Workshops were held with health workers and
local activists and then in nine schools. The students were encouraged to
come up with their own storylines which Jeff then fashioned into
scenarios. Local drama practitioners then worked in the schools to
develop short plays. Jeff and Rebecca returned to Busia in April 2010.
Final rehearsals were held in schools (sunstroke became a problem, at
least for Rebecca and Jeff) before a Festival (in a field but with a
marquee) was organised at which the plays were performed to an
audience of over 500 including many local dignitaries. The students’
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shows clearly demonstrated that their main problems with trying to avoid
bilharzia were: the distance to the nearest borehole (safe water), the
queues when you got there, the likelihood that the borehole would be
broken anyway, the necessity of fishing in Lake Victoria for food and the
price of gumboots. The prize for the best show was a goat.
In December 2009 Theatrescience (Jeff, Simon, Arundhati and Paul) gave
a presentation and ran a workshop at The Wellcome Trust’s second
International Public Engagement Conference - ‘Telling Stories’ in
Bengaluru which was curated by Rebecca and Dr Jessica Mordsley, a
Theatrescience Associate. The Conference brought together
educationalists, scientists, artists and NGO workers to engage in a
number of themed activities based around ‘Narrative’ in its various forms
and meanings. It was interesting to talk to so many people internationally
involved in public engagement with science and how so few of them had
anything to do with theatre. [I remember booking an apparently very
traditional ‘Indian Folk Dance’ group to appear at the Conference. They
mainly seemed to attend schools in the USA].
In early 2010 a presentation of scenes from Amol’s Stories was given at
the British Science Association Conference in London. This was performed
by Sukhita Aiyer as the PTSD sufferer’s aunt and Jeff as the family doctor
[I did not attempt any Indian accent. I have been told, by Rebecca, that
my ‘Indian’ accent sounds Welsh and my Welsh accent sounds Punjabi].
Later in 2010 ‘The Clearing’ by Gautam Raja received its first full
production at the Alliance Francaise, Bengaluru. It was directed by
Arundhati and, as well as Sukhita, featured Jagdish Raja, Ruchika
Chanana and Harish Seshadri (who had also been the Priest in ‘Invisible
River’). A representative of ‘forest people’ attended with the mistaken
belief that we were arguing against the exploitation of Lantana (the
invasive species the play was concerned with). Luckily we had a display of
furniture made from Lantana in the foyer. It was also interesting that
when we started work on the play at NCBS, lantana was planted in
flowerbeds in the grounds and running rampant in the woodland outside.
During Jeff’s visit for The Clearing a rehearsed reading of his draft script
Darwin in India was given at NCBS. This project was funded by the
British Council and looked at the effect, or lack of it, of Evolution on
Indian thought and culture. The origins of this project were conversations
Jeff had had with scientists at NCBS, especially Mukund. Jeff researched
the project with a number of senior Hindu scholars and priests [one of
whom kept a poisonous snake in his forest office] as well as scientists.
17
Asked when on his journey from his lab to his home one scientist stopped
believing in evolution he answered, not entirely seriously, ‘when I enter
my puja room’. The problem, he said, was not his ability to hold two
antipathetic thoughts at the same time but Jeff’s Western dualism. A
Pandit, and ex-physicist, pointed out that Hinduism had come up with the
Big Bang Theory long before Western scientists. Jeff was, it has to be
said, left somewhat bemused by the whole experience…
The summer and autumn of 2010 saw a major series of work at the Eden
Project, Cornwall (UK) funded by Wellcome’s ‘Genetics and Health’
programme. It eventually directly involved six writers, ten scientists,
fifteen theatre practitioners, over thirty students and at least twenty Eden
staff to say nothing of hundreds of the general public. This was in many
ways the culmination of all the work Theatrescience had done in the West
country since 2003. The programme of work had begun with a two day
workshop at Eden in late 2009. Writers and scientists were brought
together in the Eden Education Facility and a number of genetic issues
were explored ranging from the ‘Warrior Gene’ to Huntington’s Disease.
Students from Ridgeway School (where Simon taught) then developed a
piece, Not My Fault on how ‘genes’ can sometimes be used as an excuse
for personal behaviour. This was then performed in the Mediterranean
Biome.
‘State of Nature’ was then given a ‘scratch’ performance at The Pleasance
in London.
Three Short Plays by Young Writers were then also performed in the
Mediterranean Biome on various aspects of genetics and medicine. These
were pieces of ‘guerrilla theatre’ with no previous announcement that
they would be taking place. [Sometimes we weren’t even sure ourselves
which ones we would perform. I t depended on who was wandering
around the Biome at the time. My personal highlights were a monologue
about attempted suicide which some audience members really didn’t
realise was ‘theatre’ and a section on the influence of Barry Manilow on
genetic development].
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Scene from ‘State of Nature’ by Simon Turley, the Eden Project, UK (Tim
Block and Emma Bown).
Unfortunately, the night before State of Nature by Simon Turley (about
Lewi Bodies Dementia and Maoist rebels in India) was due to open in the
Tropical Biome a storm flooded, and temporarily closed, Eden. Instead,
State of Nature got its first performance at the Lost Gardens of Heligan
(next to the shop by the entrance). This was followed by another show at
PCMD, Truro before finally being performed back in the Tropical Biome.
Discussions after these performances were interesting once again in how
they reflected the differing experiences within the audience of, in this
case, dementia. Theatrically the production was, to say the least difficult.
The agreed venue in the Tropical Biome became unavailable at the last
minute and the compromise location was directly next to the main path.
Part of the idea at performing at Eden was to reach a potentially ‘nontheatre going’ audience but the new location rather pushed this idea
further than we intended. However, we did attract some audience
members who had no initial intention to attend a theatre show on their
visit to Eden, including a few who had experience of Lewi Bodies
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Dementia and an Indian couple who had some knowledge of Indian Maoist
rebels…
Bad Blood Blues was produced in Rio de Janeiro in 2011.
After the work in Cornwall, Jeff became a visiting scholar at NCBS to work
with biology postgrad students on the place of traditional medicine
(Ashtavaidya) in modern India. Specifically, the project looked at research
undertaken at NCBS into the history and current state of Ashtavadya
medicine (the Keralan form of Ayurveda) and how it might fit, or not, with
modern scientific medicine. Jeff’s assumption was that young, twenty-first
century biology PhD students would be ‘against’ the use of traditional
medicine. Far from it, all the students involved saw a place for it,
especially culturally. The project resulted in performances of a devised
piece (given by the students themselves) of The Ashtavaidya Play at
NCBS and at an Ayurveda Research Institute. A highlight was a
poem/dance combination entirely created by two of the female students
(see video). A discussion after the first performance ended up pitting an
Ayurveda company director against a non-approving scientist.
Unfortunately neither included any of the students in their argument (This
project was entirely funded by NCBS).
Later, in 2011, Bad Blood Blues was performed in Sydney, finally with the
live blues singer required by the script. (The script referenced the
infamous Tuskagee experiment, hence the blues songs).
In 2012 a Theatrescience Presentation was given at a Public Engagement
Conference at Kingston University (London). This resulted in a chapter in
‘Knowledges in Publics’ (Cambridge Scholars Press).
Later in 2012 Jeff led a series of Theatrescience workshops with students
from the Oxford Drama School (in London.)
Also in 2012 we mounted a presentation of Something Somatic at the
National BACME (CFS) Conference in Milton Keynes UK).
In 2013 a script-in-hand performance of ‘Bulgakov Moments’ by Simon
Turley was given at the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) in London. This
was the culmination of a project with the RCP examining the pivotal
moments in doctors’ early experiences. Based on Michael Bulgakov’s
‘Diary of a Country Doctor’ it wove together interviews about their
‘scariest moments’ with retired and current medical practitioners (some
very senior).As Professor Pinching observed:
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‘However good our formal education and supervised practice there will
necessarily be moments when we are confronted by the immensity of our
roles as physicians in the disordered, charged settings of clinical work. It
will feel scary and lonely, but we still have to find ways to function and
cope, let alone maintain composure and retain the patient’s confidence.
The script and research material was lodged in the RCP Library for
reference.
Also in 2013 we were approached by Cassandra Phoenix of Exeter
University to explore a dramatic expression of her research into the
physical activity of older people. This lead to:
‘Moving Stories – Moving On’ in 2014, a script-in-hand performance of
a verbatim piece (based on interviews, devised by Jeff) at the Peninsula
School of Medicine and Dentistry, Truro. Although the presentation went
well and the ensuing discussion was informative, overall, the dramatic
expression was not entirely powerful enough to totally engage the
audience [or at least that’s what my brother, who was there, intimated].
The scope of the rather limited material (bowls, archery, dog walking.
cycling etc.) but at least two of the life stories (both womens’) were
definitely worth hearing.
In 2015 Jeff did a presentation at the TEDx Festival at Reading University
(UK). This included the by now ‘classic’ Theatrescience Line of Approval
workshop on genetic information. (The TEDx video is still viewable we
think). This process usually results, as it did here, in participants agreeing
to their own GP having their genetic information but not their employers
or insurers. Only at a very superior school in India did participants ever
agree to this.
Having been made aware of an article in The New York Times about
‘Indian Superbugs’, Jeff suggested to Arundhati that Jagriti make an
application for a project on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) to Wellcome
International Public Engagement. This application was successful and lead
to:
The AMR Schools Drama Project in Bengaluru which started in late
2015. This involved six groups of students from five schools. A team from
Jagriti, NCBS and Theatrescience went into the schools to introduce the
topic of AMR and begin to develop short plays on the subject. The
students devised their own scripts which were then developed by Vandana
Prabhu and Rebecca Sturgeon from Jagriti and Jeff. These scripts tended
towards the ‘AMR is mainly caused by the over-prescription of antibiotics
21
by unscrupulous doctors and pharmacist’ line of thought. When asked are
all doctors corrupt? One group almost unanimously agreed, the exception
was a girl whose mother was a doctor. Two schools did include some
environmental issues, one about the pollution of a nearby lake. Three of
the schools involved were very ‘high-end’ , one claiming to be the best in
India by some criteria (many of the students had American accents, real
or fake). One other was more average and the fifth somewhat downmarket (with a lot of Muslim students). There were some fears that this
social mix might cause problems but as it turned out there were none, at
least not apparently, the students of the ‘best’ school were certainly very
supportive of the performance by the more ‘downmarket’ school).
These shows were presented, in early 2016, over two days at Jagriti to
audiences made up of other students, parents, medical practitioners and
the general public. Participating groups got to see the work of at least two
other schools. This ‘peer learning’ process has always been important to
Theatrescience’s educational work. It was also interesting to hear some
parents saying they’d never even heard of AMR before seeing their
children’s show. Some of the students also attended ‘The Vaidya’s Oath’.
Rehearsal Shot from ‘the Vaidya’s Oath’, Jagriti Theatre, Bengaluru
(Yeshaswini Channaiah and Pooja Shankar).
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In March 2016 ‘The Vaidya’s Oath’ by Gautam Raja was premiered at
Jagriti Theatre. The Vaidya’s Oath is (mainly) concerned with the effects
of campaigning against AMR in India on the marriage and career of ‘Dr
Ajay’, a character who first appeared in The Invisible River (played by
Pritham again). The development of the script was not helped by Gautam
being in LA and Jeff in darkest Wales for most of the time, however they
did get together briefly in Bengaluru for the Education Project and to visit
medical facilities and have meetings with scientists and clinicians. The
play charts the breakdown of Dr Ajay’s marriage in terms of the progress
of a bacterial infection – Exposure, Incubation, Prodromal, Acute, Death
or Convalescence. This is set against the different cultures and attitudes
of upmarket Bangalore and rural Uttar Pradesh. [Creating the on-stage
Uttar Pradesh Primary Health Centre ‘garden’ was particularly
challenging]. It also features a seismologist with ambitions to be a standup comic.
As usual with Theatrescience shows it was followed by some very
interesting discussions (see video on website) involving medical
practitioners, scientists and the general public. These discussions quickly
moved onto national and international concerns – Why hadn’t the Chennai
Declaration been properly acted upon in India? And why wasn’t more
being done to either help, or force, pharmaceutical companies to develop
new antibiotics?
Audience reactions were recorded. They were almost all extremely
positive. Favourites include:
‘Great bringing in of technical aspects of microbiology with the emotional
aspects of life. Excellent.’
‘Great performances. Very educative’.
‘Amazing, very scientific but artful’.
‘Really, really good – nuanced, interesting and powerful’.
‘Enjoyable mix of facts and fun’.
[I particularly liked ‘Very well directed’]
The play was so well received that it was revived to appear at other
performance spaces, including Bengaluru’s other main theatre, Ranga
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Shankara, and at science research institutes. The last performance was
finally given in August 2016
At the time of writing (March 2017) Theatrescience has no concrete plans
for a future project, though a one-man version of Darwin in India has
been mooted [by Rebecca but Jeff isn’t sure he wants to perform it] and
one or two more conference presentations are also being considered. As
always, the main problem is money (as it often is in theatre, and
science).
Jeff therefore thought it seemed appropriate to make a few, personal,
observations on the work of the last fifteen years:
‘MY LIFE in ‘SCI-ART’:
If you’d have told me twenty-odd years ago, when I was mainly directing
pantomimes and political farces in the East End, that I’d fairly soon be
spending fifteen years doing science-based work mainly out of the UK, I
doubt I would have believed you. (To be honest, I know I wouldn’t,
especially if you’d added that a lot of that work would take place in India).
I’d given up all science subjects in school at fifteen (apart from Maths)
studied English, History and Economics (not really a science as the 2007
crash proved) at A Level and read English and Drama at University
(Exeter). I’ve always had a bit of an interest in Evolution and tried to
understand the difference between a virus and a bacterium once or twice
(mainly when doing theatre stuff about HIV) but that was it, apart from
the aforementioned brief school project on Darwin in Plymouth and the
‘Unpleasantness in Derbyshire’ (otherwise known as TIE) in the 70s. So,
how exactly did it happen?
In my address to the Buenos Aires Conference (before the Genetics
Workshop) I said something like ‘Doing theatre about science is for me
simply a means of continuing doing theatre with a political, or at least,
societal content’. At a Wellcome Trust Conference in Manchester (not
mentioned in the history above) I said something like ‘Wellcome seems to
believe that a society more informed about science will be more proscience. In my experience this is not generally the case’ (Didn’t go down
too well). Somewhere between these not very accurately remembered
quotes might lay a sort of answer. Doing ‘science theatre’ was a means of
doing what I’d always done/wanted to do and was not really about
science as such, and definitely was not about pubic engagement to
improve the profile of science. It was about the effects of
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science/scientific research on society and therefore about politics and
economics and people and emotions.
After University I was a founder member of Medium Fair, a ‘community
theatre’ for South and East Devon (soon also bits of North Devon and
parts of Cornwall). Our credo was that our work had to be ‘socially
cohesive and socially generative’. In practical terms this meant things like
performing a version of Hamlet in village halls during a power cut, doing
pub shows, working in mental homes, getting youth club members to do
stuff in old peoples’ homes and performing Music Hall to all but one (who
was busy dying at the time) of the population of one of the Isles of Scilly.
Somehow this approach to theatre stuck with me, especially as a member
of the ‘Bogdanov Circus’ at the Leicester Phoenix (doing anti-racist shows
in schools and pro-union shows in factories) and The Young Vic
(pantomimes in schools, afternoon gigs for OAPs – one featuring Tommy
Trinder, community shows in support of retaining the Oxo Tower etc.).
Even at the National I ran around the foyer dressed as a Christmas tree
before going on stage as the baddy in ‘Hiawatha’ and organised a tortoise
race (don’t ask). And, of course, at Stratford East (Joan Littlewood had,
after all, said that the relationship between the stage and the auditorium
had to be circular) nearly everything I did was about the local
community/communities. Even at Made in Wales my first project was a
multi-cultural community show reflecting Bute Town’s twentieth century
history. (When I mentioned it to the Welsh Arts Council they thought I
meant something in both the Welsh and English languages). We also did
plays about social workers, the effects of war on Welsh society, the
Cardiff Bay development and staged what was apparently Wales’ first ‘out’
gay play.
After Made in Wales I was thrown back into the freelance theatre director
world. I hadn’t been there for fifteen years and, apart from a few drama
school gigs and a ‘Turn of the Screw’ in Ipswich, it proved hard. So when
Rebecca mentioned the job of evaluating Science Centrestage I thought,
Why not? My actress friends got me through the interview, then I bought
a video camera and, my sci-art career was born.
There was some great work done by the students involved in Science
Centrestage and I for one learnt a lot about science. Especially
memorable was a show about ADHD in Oxford, a dance routine in
Manchester, some very heartfelt stuff in Belfast and a special needs show
in London. (I later made a video of this and realised it had a rather rightwing Christian agenda, but the kids were great). I soon realised that all
25
these shows (93 in the end) were socially cohesive in that they were
involving all sorts of schools and kids from all over the country in the
same activity. But socially generative? Well, I did observe students
changing their minds about a few biomedical issues (cloning, vivisection,
drug trials etc.) and some even talked about ‘doing something’ (don’t
know if they ever did). But, as mentioned above, the theatrical
presentation (especially between shows) was often weak and students’
ownership of their work sometimes doubtful. So when Helen of the
Wellcome Trust challenged me to do my own version I (again) thought
Why not? Also the money was pretty good.
The Newbury and Plymouth Science/Drama Festivals that resulted were
hardly revolutionary but at least the kids were generally more involved in
what they were doing (I checked), audiences did engage with what the
students had to say and the shows themselves were theatrically
impressive (see video on website).
Meanwhile Rebecca was moving us on to engaging with adults through
‘Imagining the Future’. This was all about getting playwrights and
scientists to interact (see what I did there?). It worked well and lead to
the ‘Theatre of Science’. The initial problem with this project was that it
was based at TR2, the Theatre Royal Plymouth’s new Education and setconstruction facility in a rather remote and run down area of town. Even
the local taxi drivers didn’t know where it was to begin with. It therefore
proved rather difficult to attract the general public to ‘Theatre of Science’
events. (It was a bit different with the shows in the Drum Theatre, part of
the Theatre Royal itself in the centre of town). This remoteness proved
quite useful for ‘Tender Realm’ as we bussed audiences in and they didn’t
necessarily know they were arriving at a theatre establishment. But
otherwise we were somewhat isolated. A particularly galling event to me
was a lecture by a Christian fundamentalist biologist who brought his own
audience (who we never saw again) that basically rubbished evolution.
How did that happen? However, the schools work went well (Especially
‘Yer, Right…’) and the Community projects did involve some locals. I
especially liked the video we did with the Mothers’ Group. Their journey
from genetics incomprehension to some very telling comments about
genetic engineering was very impressive.
So, then India… Rebecca was already working there and I’d always
wanted to (I was meant to take a show there from Stratford but the Gulf
War intervened. Also, my dad was in the army there in the 30s). We
thought that somehow Theatrescience’s work would become ‘sharper,
26
more focused’ in an Indian context. Or at least that’s what we said,
perhaps somewhat dubiously. (Cultural/Scientific imperialism?). So we
got some Indian theatre contacts from the British Council, weeded out the
ones that were already dead and in 2006 somehow made it happen.
The first workshop in Kolkata was certainly an eye-opener for me. What I
thought was a fairly innocent introduction from me elicited a diatribe
about… cultural imperialism. It took me a while to get used to this sort of
thing (ten years later the evaluator of ‘The Vaidya’s Oath’ got off on a
similar riff). But I’ve only been physically threatened once in India for
being a Brit and that’s two less than for being English in Wales.
However, the main thing, as mentioned above, was that the Science/Art
divide we had got used to in the UK was hardly apparent in India. In the
UK we’d generally found that many scientists enjoyed the arts as
audience members but had little knowledge of the processes involved in
creating what they saw and heard. Artists, or maybe just theatre people,
had, like me, little or no knowledge or interest in the sciences (one drama
teacher talked about ‘running a mile’ from them). I suppose this goes
back to CP Snow’s ‘two cultures’ thing and the ‘split’ educational system
that I suffered from and that still largely exists. (On the other hand, I
once observed that both artists and scientists both spent their time
writing grant applications and trying to get on the TV). Also, I well
remember a couple of conversations with scientists in the UK about how
the real problem was the lawyers (and, of course, politicians, many of
whom were lawyers).
So, between 2006 and 2016 I, and Theatrescience, ended up doing more
work in India than the UK. We did do major projects in England –
‘Something Somatic’ and ‘State of Nature’ for example but we (I) did
more in India. (In all I guess I’ve spent getting on for a year over 11
visits working there).
Probably most importantly this was to do with personal contacts. I had a
pretty close professional relationship with Professor Pinching in the UK (I
suspect he found my, er, ‘louche theatricality’, somewhat difficult but we
worked round it) and I got close to a few other scientists and theatre
types. But in India I got very used to spending my time at the National
Centre for Biological Sciences and got to know a lot of the staff and
students. And now I probably know more Bengaluru-based theatre types
than British ones (many of my old theatre mates in the UK have given up
the business anyway). Perhaps it’s mainly just down to money again. It’s
cheaper to work in India (though you can’t cover UK overheads) and after
27
Eden (especially after the flood, getting a bit biblical perhaps?) I think
Wellcome, our main UK funder, got a bit fed-up with us.
It was never our intention to ‘teach’ science as such although many
people have thought that that’s what we did. However, Wellcome, quite
rightly, insisted that any science mentioned in anything we did had to be
as accurate as possible - ‘No science fiction!’. This proved difficult in
schools sometimes as students were very keen on ‘designer babies’ and
‘surrogate siblings’. I developed an ‘Introduction to Genetics’ workshop
which proved popular. (One student even said he’d learnt more about
Biology in this workshop than in the previous three years in school but
that wasn’t the point, however gratifying). Students, and for that matter,
professional actors (and me), just needed to know enough about the
science to make sense to an audience. Of course, this was much more
difficult with ‘Something Somatic’ as there wasn’t much ‘science’ to deal
with at that time when it came to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
(Interestingly, the only time we ever got trolled was when someone didn’t
know the difference between ‘Somatic’ and ‘Psychosomatic’). ‘State of
Nature’ partly had to address the difference between Lewi Bodies
Dementia and Alzheimer’s so it was just as well we had Prof Pinching on
board. In India we had Mukund and some other very high-powered
scientists at NCBS to guide us through cholera, invasive species, PTSD,
AMR etc. I’ve certainly learnt a lot but we never set out to teach.
Returning to what I said in Buenos Aires, I think all of Theatrescience’s
work has had a societal/political context, usually economic as well. Our
most recent major project on AMR had a large political content, as did
‘The Invisible River’. So, to that extent Theatrescience ‘worked’ for me. I
started doing political theatre in the early 70’s (my University graduation
piece was based on the lyric ‘It’s the rich what gets the pleasure, it’s the
poor what gets the blame’) and I was still able to do it over 40 years
later. But, to paraphrase Bert Brecht, did any of it change the price of
toothpaste by a penny? Have any of our Theatrescience shows actually
changed anything? Perhaps this is probably a question you can’t
realistically ask about any theatrical activity.
So, this brings us back to the ‘Generative’ bit. We now have a lot of
evaluations all talking about the efficacy of our science/drama to teach
and engage. But, unless an audience member for ‘The Vaidya’s Oath’ goes
on to discover a new antibiotic, so what? The audience for the show would
certainly be more knowledgeable about AMR but more ‘pro-science’ as
Wellcome would presumably hope? Mukund made the point (in the video)
28
that it was all about ‘going home and telling your friends’. Perhaps that’s
as much as we can ever do?
We sometimes justify our schools work, especially in the high-end schools
in India, with the phrase ‘influencing tomorrow’s decision makers’. But
without some serious longitudinal evaluation who knows? The students
who did the Darwin workshop with me in Plymouth in 1972 would be in
their 50s now. Were their long-term attitudes to evolution actually
affected? The Indian students who participated in in the AMR Project last
year, will they try to do anything about the problem in the future? But all
you can do in the end is to ‘push it out there’ I suppose, you never really
know what affect (if any) you may be having.
The other thing I often say is that it’s not about the product, it’s the
process. Sure you have to put the actual show on, someone might want
their money back if you don’t, but how you get there, the research, the
endless conversations, the design, the lighting and, most importantly, the
rehearsing, that’s what keeps you going (unless you’re after a BAFTA that
is). The funniest thing I’ve ever seen was a first rehearsal room attempt
at a complicated song in ‘Mother Goose’ at Stratford and most of the
greatest ‘actor moments’ I’ve ever experienced have been in rehearsal
too. Work in school sessions has also come up with some amazing stuff,
especially at Ridgeway. Still, we don’t generally get paid for process, just
product. Medical scientists sometimes talk about ‘bench to bedside’.
Theatrically that might translate as ‘funding application to rave review’.
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Shot of the Buenos Aires Genetic Information Workshop (Amol’s Stories in
Bengaluru on screen behind).
So, fifteen years of Theatrescience… I’ve learnt a lot and not just about
CFS, AMR etc. I’ve met and worked with some very interesting and
talented people on four continents and been educated by them not just
about science. I’ve certainly been involved in some pretty good pieces of
theatre (not all directed by me of course). I’ve also experienced how
students from different cultures react to and participate in theatre/drama.
I used to have a lot of play scripts and folktales on my bookshelves (I did
four versions of a show called ‘World Story Time’ at Stratford East). I still
do, but now I have even more on popular/biological science, all read I
might add. (A science teacher once told me that what I was talking about
to his Year Nine class, he hadn’t come across until his second year at
University.) I’ve also been to places I previously knew very little about
(and not just the Bangalore Club, the armed guard in front of our Busia
hotel was pretty interesting as well). Maybe I should write another
funding application..?
Jeff Teare. 17/3/17.
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