The Ecstasy and the Ecstasy: a devising process

We are now five weeks (can you believe it?) into the devising process for our final show, The Ecstasy and the Ecstasy working with director Jon Stancato, who came flying in from America to share his insights with us. So far, it has been a very productive and interesting journey.

We started by getting used to Jon’s methodology in the first week, focusing particularly on the body and exploring the range of the human voice. The voice work was absolutely revelatory and really transformative; I discovered parts of my voice I had no idea existed.

For the last few weeks, we've been deep in process, working on scenes and proposals based on ourselves, our individual ideas of ecstasy, and using elements of confession. Working with a group of 16 people can be strenuous, so we sometimes divide into smaller groups, or pairs, to come up with ideas that we then share with the rest.

Every day we've brought in proposals to work on, based on an assignment Jon has set us, or sometimes based on an element we have previously researched and would like to explore further. This process has generated loads of material (scenes, poems, dances, music and much more) and we are now working through putting everything together and finalising the structure. It keeps changing and will probably continue to do right up to the end, this can be exciting although a bit confusing at times. It really keeps you on your toes!

Earlier this week we started working in the GBS Theatre, which is an amazing place to be. Our set, which was designed by Louis Carver, is absolutely beautiful and has so many possibilities. It was created before we started, and so has also acted as one of the stimuli for devising. Without giving too much away, I find it exciting that we can puzzle it together in many different ways and keep it changing throughout the show.

I think the piece we are creating is really unique and I can't wait to see what it will look like before we go into our final rehearsals. I am really looking forward to sharing it with the audiences. You can expect singing and original music, dancing, some tumbling and a lot of storytelling.

Book your tickets right now - I hear they're selling out like hot waffles on a cold winter's day!