A Space for Something to Grow

Last Saturday night I met up for a drink with my friend and collaborator on The Space Project, Simon Machin. 'Space' is a faith based arts initiative, which has grown out of the life of our local Anglican Church in West Sussex http://www.thespaceproject.org/ Simon and I are collaborating on a new play about the poet Christina Rossetti. Simon, who works in finance, has never written a full length play before and is understandably apprehensive. I feel similarly ill-equipped as his mentor, having only written a one-act drama before. He is to write the script, and I am to direct and act in the play, with my mother, the actress Beth Ellis, playing Rossetti. So yes we are a little daunted, and hence the excuse for a drink to help us to invoke the muse. Simon and I have had a fair few drinks in our brief friendship thus far. I fluctuate between coffees and pints of coke in our Sussex locals, which does nothing for my sleep, whilst Simon agonizes over the choice of ales. In this time we have forged a deep friendship and creative partnership as we have sought to nurture this fledgling arts project together. From this evolving relationship, creative ideas seem to surface from some mysterious place and slowly materialize in the space between us. Saturday was a particular example of this. There we were pooling our ignorance, fumbling for a way forward from Simon's promising but as yet unformed scribblings, when our 'muse' seemingly pulled up a seat and inspired us with an exciting new approach to our play. As we relaxed into the warmth of our friendship, ideas began to flow.

The performing arts are essentially collaborative. A play, for example, involves writer, director, actors, designers, technical team, not to mention the audience. The work evolves from the inter-action between these key players, over a short but highly pressurized period of time. We depend on one another to help create a space where something can grow; a creative space where our guards can come down and our imaginations may soar. We need to feel sufficiently relaxed in each other's company to aim for the stars, and take the risk of looking foolish if we fall flat on our face in the process. When we are anxious to please, or avoid offending others, our body tenses up, our imagination goes into spasm, and our wild brain-children are aborted! Suddenly we see the other as a rival or disapproving parent, and we don't want to come out to play anymore. Sadly the working relationships we forge in our 'dog-eat-dog' culture, inhibit our creativity more often than stimulate it. We experience the crippling tensions of trying to appear efficient, productive, and 'come up with the goods,' to use a ghastly capitalist cliche. Creating art is not about manufacturing products, and it requires a different climate and another language to inspire its processes.

The Space Project, as I said earlier, has grown out of the life of a Christian Church. It is, I suppose, a 'family affair' which runs on good will, common values, and through relationships which have been refined in the intense heat of sharing our lives week by week. The relationships between members of our church drama group, have been intensified further still, by collaborating artistically over the past few years on The Space Project. When we work creatively on a play together, we reveal (or perhaps attempt to conceal) something profound about ourselves. Either way we are ultimately forced, or maybe coaxed, out into the open, in a way which rarely happens in our day to day life, even within the church. It takes time for relationships to mature to the extent that we can really relax with one another and express ourselves openly. Working together as artists can fast-track this process, provided it is earthed by a robust humour, and a willingness to let go of our so-called dignity! So The Space Project, with its emphasis on creative collaboration flowing out of open, authentic relationships, is hopefully reflecting a counter-cultural way of life to the church and society at large.