Third Person (redux) - BAC

This last week, I was delighted to be invited along to the Battersea Arts Centre during Proto-type’s artist in residency. I snapped up the offer, obviously, and here’s a little of what happened:

I left my house at half five on Wednesday morning and spent my entire journey down to London being extremely careful with the equipment they had asked me to carry. I think my exact thoughts were ‘don’t break anything; don’t lose anything; don’t place anything down next to somebody else’s very similar looking case, accidentally pick up the wrong one and arrive at the BAC to find that I’ve been fastidiously carrying someone’s underwear.’ Within a few minutes of arriving I knew the stay would be interesting. There is truly nowhere in the world like the BAC, from the cat who just wanders around, to the open plan unisex bedroom (thankfully I remembered my pyjamas).

The five days were spent working on their project Third Person (redux). General activities consisted of rehearsing, eating, rehearsing, eating, learning the lyrics to songs sourced from the internet, sleeping, waking up, rehearsing.... I moseyed about trying to keep myself useful. It was really interesting to see their rehearsal process from an outsider’s perspective. The guys were going through that stage which I love, with lots of ideas being played with and deep discussions being had. It was especially interesting for me since Wes, and indirectly Proto-type, have had quite a strong influence on my theatre education.

At the end of the stay everyone left Battersea feeling absolutely exhausted but with the feeling that the performance is heading in an exciting direction. I actually feel like I’m still recovering a little bit and I’m just the intern (I wouldn’t dare admit this to the guys in person; they’re all very busy people at the moment so I’m sure I’d be in danger of having their scripts and PhD papers thrown at my head).


Fun and games.

Jen