Wimbledon Tea

Last week I had tea in Wimbledon before a VLP forum. I have become very aware that I need to work really hard on this and keep up the project or it is in danger of falling on its arse! (I have such a way with words don't I!?)

Anyway, I finally got some women to sit with me! I am going to write mostly about this next lady as she not only was amazing but helped me to think about what i am doing.

This tea participant felt compelled to sit with me once I told her that I was doing a theatre project as she is on the board of a theatre in Wimbledon. On the way to meet her granddaughter herself she was thrilled that I wanted to do a project inspired by my own Grandma and was more than happy to talk about that. 

We discussed why Grandmas can be so influential in our lives. She told me that she had been raised by her Grandma during WWII. We talked about her grandchildren and her relationship with them... she has a very theatrical family :o) 

We hit upon the subject of narrative; something which I am beginning more and more to focus on. My Tea buddy told me that she is all for abstract theatre with no narrative, but feels it is like looking at a beautiful abstract painting... it needs explaining to her! I said that I knew the feeling; which led us on to talking about what was important in theatre... wouldn't we all like to know the answer to that one at the moment! This lady stated that no other art form is more about being human than theatre, and what better way to express our experience than in story telling! I totally agreed with her... which is when I decided that it is time to move this project on.

I feel like the 'first phase' of this project is completed and need to analyse that a bit to work out the 'second phase'.  I feel like I know that people will sit and talk with me, and that the majority of the conversations will be about relationships. I need to work out what I want to focus on and how to put the material that I have so far into something that resembles a performance for the scratch.