"And remember; a bird in the hand...is not worth a criminal record, so don't touch the birds!!"
There I was kicking my heels around after a full on summer, when how exciting, I was called up by my old friend Mary Eddowes, to be told that her application was successful and that the Research and Development work on her new show the 'Nerdy Birdies'...is to start the following week! How could I resist?
My role in the 'flock' was to create costume ideas, supply materials and be on hand to dress, make, create, respond, advise and buy the bird seed.
The Birdies gathered at South Hill Park Arts Centre for the week leading up to the 'Big Day Out', which is an annual one day performing arts festival in Bracknell.
The Birdies were directed by Matt Feerick who helped each of the performers build real characters; both bird persona's and bird watcher personalities. He carefully managed the potential over comedising of the subject matter so that the characters that the birdies explored were more than surface parody of 'Bird watchers' or hilarious over acting birds.
They explored the motivations behind the act of bird watching, they looked at documentaries and on line sites. They worked on the classical flocking characteristics of birds through dance and used the neutral bird masks which I created during the week to look at movement.
It was a real in depth look at the motivations of 'birders' and the cross over behaviour of the watcher and the watched, the bazaar behaviour of both, when taken a little out of context. The 'birder' characters were asked to build nests and the birds were dressed up in green parkas and hats. Being R and D, meant that the options were kept open throughout, so it was virtually impossible to create any permanent costumes -all was play and experimentation. I'm sure that this underlying belief and understanding, in their own characters which has been built up over this week, will pay off, whatever shape the final show takes.
