Thirty.

(Action Hero, 2012)

“Action Hero is the collaboration of artists Gemma Paintin and James Stenhouse. We have been working together as Action Hero since August 2005.” (Theatre Bristol: 2012)

When describing their work,  they suggest that their aim is to “… create celebratory events that use the audience as the co-creators of the work. We are interested in ideas that link audiences together and unify them as part of a live event…” (Theatre Bristol: 2012) It is particularly interesting that they  reference  ‘live events’.  The use of the word ‘event’ has connotations of importance, and suggests somehow that it is a ‘one-off’ occurence.  Within our project, we plan to promote our piece as an event, as opposed to a performance.  This is perhaps due to the fact that we are going to present pre-recorded material. The raises the debate over ‘liveness’ in performance.

Does the fact that we are making it seem more like a film premiere, rather than a piece of theatre?

Furthermore, after commencing further research into their company; the most striking feature of their work, is the way in which they explore audience interaction and participation. “we like using our audience as collaborators and co-conspiritors” (Action Hero: 2012)Within our current idea, we intend on relying on audience participation, in the sense that they will have control over what we, as the performers do.

We are anticipating that within our production, we will be travelling to a number of locations. Another similarity between ourselves and Action Hero’s work. On their site, they claim:”We have developed a reputation for creating performance that is distinctive and invigorating, and have created work for theatres, parties, clubs, galleries and public spaces.” (Action Hero: 2012:)

Works Cited

Theatre Bristol, [Website] Available at: http://theatrebristol.net/action-hero (Acessed 06/03/12)

Hero Action, 2012, [Website]  http://www.actionhero.org.uk/about/ (accessed 06/03/12)

Action Hero, 2012 ,Action Hero Tattoo, [image online] Available at: http://www.actionhero.org.uk/ (Accessed 07/03/2012)

(Nottingham County Council: 2012)

THINGS TO DO IN NOTTINGHAMSHIRE

Our project relies heavily on audience participation. We are offering ourselves as performers to our audience, by letting them devise our piece. In the piece itself, we will be asking the audience to choose the locations for our film at random from a hat.  Therefore we have no control over where we may end up filming. Some might say that this is not practical in terms of time management, as we cannot plan where we can film in advance.

In an attempt to overcome this, we are planning to restrict how far out we will travel. At the moment we plan to confine our journey to the East Midlands. This has meant that as a group we have been able to conduct research into the county, with a view to finding possible locations to shoot our film, specifically places such local parks, castles, galleries, landmarks, zoo’s and aquariums.

For example:  The following extract was taken from a UK Days Out website:

Bestwood Country Park

A 650 acre park teeming with a variety of wildlife. Visit the website for a list of up to date activities – there are team building events, group meets for people including autistic adults and disadvantaged teenagers, health walks, educational activities and more.
Contact: 0845 330 4212 (weekdays) 0115 927 3674 (weekends)
Address: Alexandra Lodge, Nothern Drive, Bestwood Village, Nottinghamshire NG6 8UK

http://www.uk-days-out.co.uk/nottinghamshire.html

This has provided us with an example of a local park that we could possibly use if Nottinghamshire came up in the performance. t might be argued that we will never need to use this research, however it allows us to be as prepared as we can possibly be. Once given the locations in the performance itself,we can plan out where to go whilst travelling in the car.

Works Cited

Nottingham County Council, 2012, Nottingham County, [Image Online] Available at: http://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/home/youandyourcommunity/registrars/registeroffices.htm (Accessed 06/03/12)