Mark and the Marked: Rehearsal Observation and Reflection 2022
In February 2022, I directed a new production of Mark and the Marked, for Box Clever Theatre. It's a clown-based play for young audiences, almost entirely without words, exploring friendship and hate. It toured to primary schools in London, Kent and Lincolnshire in the spring of 2022, finishing off with a studio performance at Brixton House as part of Box Clever's In the House festival.
The show rehearsed for two weeks in February 2022, the first week at the Streatham Space Project, and the second at Stanley Arts, both in South London. Over the course of the two weeks, I cast a reflective eye over my own process of creating a piece of clown-based theatre, I hope here to give a snapshot of the way I currently work.
Joining me were the most wonderful cast I could have asked for; Zaki Ali, Joel Nash and Lucy Wordsworth. Their beautiful work, playfulness, their openness to new ideas, and their thoughts and responses throughout the process have been utterly invaluable. Our brilliant production manager Pip Thurlow filmed and edited the all the video footage and took all the rehearsal and production photography that Box Clever have kindly let me use on this site.
The text for Mark and the Marked is by Box Clever's own Michael Wicherek, music by the ever-awesome Jack Blakey, and design by Sorcha Corcoran. The show is based on an original production directed by Kimberley Sykes.
Huge thanks to everyone involved and to all at Box Clever. Long may you continue to champion excellent, unflinching and clever theatre for children and young people.
The show rehearsed for two weeks in February 2022, the first week at the Streatham Space Project, and the second at Stanley Arts, both in South London. Over the course of the two weeks, I cast a reflective eye over my own process of creating a piece of clown-based theatre, I hope here to give a snapshot of the way I currently work.
Joining me were the most wonderful cast I could have asked for; Zaki Ali, Joel Nash and Lucy Wordsworth. Their beautiful work, playfulness, their openness to new ideas, and their thoughts and responses throughout the process have been utterly invaluable. Our brilliant production manager Pip Thurlow filmed and edited the all the video footage and took all the rehearsal and production photography that Box Clever have kindly let me use on this site.
The text for Mark and the Marked is by Box Clever's own Michael Wicherek, music by the ever-awesome Jack Blakey, and design by Sorcha Corcoran. The show is based on an original production directed by Kimberley Sykes.
Huge thanks to everyone involved and to all at Box Clever. Long may you continue to champion excellent, unflinching and clever theatre for children and young people.
L-R Joel Nash, Lucy Wordsworth and Zaki Ali, in rehearsals at Stanley Arts. Photo by Pip Thurlow
The following write up includes for each day:
Click on a week to read...
- an outline of the material covered
- a flavour of discussions between myself and the cast from my journal notes
- my attempts to define my own shifting and multifaceted role each day
- my later reflections on each day's work and the ideas raised
Click on a week to read...
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Ethical Research Statement
This practical research was carried out with ethical approval from the Doctoral College at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. Participants have all given explicit consent for their identities, names, words, and images in the form of photography and video to be acknowledged in the research write-up and on this research website.