Unit 1 (C & D) Arts Research: Arts in the community, set building

 I was asked by Jonathan Kaufman who directs the Sydenham Arts Festival to help out with building a stage set for a pop up theater that would appear in the back of a pop up shop on the high street near my house. I’ve helped Jonathan before, last year with another pop up theater that ran for a few days over the Sydenham Arts Festival and he remembered me.

The theater was called ‘The National Luketian Museum of Naturals History, Puppetry, Space Technologie and Farming’. It began with a mock border control situation where you were required to pay or bribe your way into Luketia with tat from your pockets. There were two actresses who would see you in and then one of them would take you around. Showing you everything from pig throats to a video documentary about how Luketia actually won The Space Race to a gypsy who sold rusty scissors, twigs and mustaches as souvenirs. 

 These photos aren't perfect, but they were the best I could do as we walked around in the dark.

The actors leading the tour where really funny and admirably stayed in character the entire time. They really brought a whole new level to it that wasn't there before.
I helped by creating the stars and rockets and stringing them up in ‘the space room’, fire proofing material, painting arrows on the wall, clearing up and pinning up giant paper mustaches. I enjoyed myself, but found it a little tricky to do quite a lot of the things since the back of the shop was freezing cold and dark due to a lack of proper lighting. Building sets is something that I really enjoy though, and want to try more of. Perhaps I’ll have to think of some photography projects which require proper sets?

Below you can see a short interview with Jonathan Kaufman.

What originally made you want to get into pop up theater? My brother and I used to create theatre shows as children, using various locations around our parents' house (and we even turned our sisters' bedroom into a museum!) so I suppose those memories have stayed with us. We were also inspired by a few site specific theatre shows that we saw years ago. Shunt at the London Bridge Vaults for example. We like the idea of an audience stumbling across something unexpected, and transporting them into another world.

What was the first pop up theater you created? It was called The Little Shop of Lost Toys, in an empty shop in Brixton Village Market in Jan 2010. A bit like the National Museum of Luketia, a security guard led a small audience around a winding corridor into a 1970s style living room, where they watched a video history of the 1970s Luketian children's TV show Hoagy's Nest. They then watched a recreation of one of the programmes (a rather disturbing puppet show set in a toy shop), before visiting a small, rundown museum about the show. It ran for six days and was very popular. At the time, it was our favourite show! You can see pictures here: http://spontaneousproductions.co.uk/losttoys.html

I was wondering if you preferred pop up theater to the normal kind...  Yes and no. I like all kinds of theatre, which is why I never do the same sort of show twice in a row. Pop up (or site-specific) theatre is really hard work as you know, so I couldn't do it all the time. I also like short play and sketch evenings, adaptations of well-known stories (especially for children and families), as well as the occasional drama. It's all good!

What's your favorite thing about creating this kind of instillation? The challenge of making the dream a reality I think. You have a crazy idea, and a few weeks later it actually comes to life. I like to surprise people and give them more than they expect. I often think I describe my plans to people and they're thinking 'oh yes, that sounds great but it'll never actually be like that', and then you're able to prove them wrong by doing exactly what you said you would (and more). That's the best bit!

Have you ever had any really really, crazy ideas that you'd love to realise? Oh yes, lots. Julian and I have been talking about doing a mental asylum that turns the audience into actual patients for years now. And we also wanted to do a show where the audience become students at a really weird, terrifying school - trying to make people recall their awful schooldays. Maybe we will do one of these next. I've also wanted to do a full-scale Wedding Show - where the audience are guests at a wedding and you actually take them, to different locations - a church for the ceremony, a park for the photos, and a church hall for the reception where fights break out etc etc. I might do that one at next year's festival...

On a scale of one to ten how well do you think the Museum of Luketia went? Definitely a 9 or 10. It exceeded my own expectations, which is great. Most people seemed to enjoy it, and a few obviously really loved it. So that made it all worth while!

Any plans for the future? Other than the things I mentioned above, the next show will probably be an evening of short plays and sketches, probably at The Hob in Forest Hill. And then this July as part of the festival, Julian and I are creating The Remarkable Race of 1913, a huge open-air race between contestants riding tricylces and quadricycles transformed into old-fashioned cars - a sort of Edwardian Wacky Races, if you can imagine such a thing. It's scheduled as a one-off free event on Sun 7th July. Hope you can be involved!