UMBER productions

by Elaine Acworth

The creative development in July, 2009 had a huge impact on the direction of the piece. I spent 2 days working on the floor with the actors in a workshop. (I would've loved 3 days but my projected cast size had gone from 3 to 5 actors and we only had the same amount of money available for the workshop - so more personnel meant less time. It's always a trade-off, resourcing development.)

Two solid days on the floor with five actors (Caroline Dunphy, Penny Everingham, Ron Kelly, Stephen Rooke, Jess Veurmann-Betts), director Shaun Charles and dramaturg Kathryn Kelly. Designer Bruce McKinven and Lighting Designer David Walters came and went over the period.

Two days. It's not long. We made the most of the time by throwing the actors straight into the deep end - a first read-through sitting around the table then they were up on the floor that first morning. It's astounding how clear things become when you see characters in the space. Even a space delineated by some blue clothesline and peopled by actors carrying empty buckets or holding a meter's worth of hose. What works really works and what doesn't is immediately visible.

The piece as a whole worked, but needed to go further, to be pushed to an extremity. David Walters was fascinated by how these people would react when placed under great pressure. They were squabbling and manoeuvring very comically now but what would happen if the water got turned off? Shaun Charles kept saying, "The play's called Water Wars - these people need to go to war." And that was right. That draft of the piece had a backstory involving backyard chooks - which have subsequently gone - but at the time, I thought - "They have to die; the chooks have to die. A massive chook slaughter."

"And what about the boy?" was Shaun's response to that.

Bloody good question: what about the boy?

That questiion proved to be the kicking off point for quite a radical re-write. A new focus for the new draft.

The character of Cal, a seven and a half year old boy, now lies at the heart of the piece. He is the future. He is the reason his parents do what they do; he is the one who will inherit the world these adults are making. What will become of him in this dry land? What impact has it already had upon him?

I think the play has a bigger heart, now. If I do this right, we will still laugh out loud at the duplicity and shenanigans of the adults, but we will fear for the child. Grieve when he grieves, rejoice when he rejoices.

2010 POSTSCRIPT

The play has undergone that re-write immediately after the workshop, and another in the 7 months since then. I introduced an AV element in that last draft but now have reconsidered that. It's wrong. I think I need to use the fact that I have 5 actors - use the physical bodies available to me in the space in order to create this child's world of dreams and nightmares.

Unfortunately, I'm in the middle of producer-land - talking to venues, applying for grants. This is all good work, and interesting, but so time-consuming when all I want to do is write. I'm desperate to get back to the writing. Take the AV out, explore how actors could create an alternate world on stage... a 7 yr old's world, a world of tree-houses, and battling shadow figures, ninjas and dogs, mud and dust and bogeymen.

The development of Water Wars has been proudly supported by Creative Sparks - a joint initiative of Brisbane City Council and the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.