At the moment I am out touring the latest show with Kulturama’s physical theatre class. They playing Gudomliga Ord (Divine Words) by Don Ramon Maria Valle-Inclan. We have just come back to Sweden from Norway where we played at Ringerike Folkhögskole in Hönefoss and at G 60 scene in Drammen.
Today we are playing 52:an Örebro and tomorrow in Nässjö at Sörängens folkhögskola, then we only have Smedjan in Falkenberg and Jenny Nyström skolan in Kalmar left before it is over.
To me it is always a something special to tour with the students. I am trying not to do very much and let them do the job themselves in order to learn from experience. On the other hand I am needed. There is always one or another catastrophe happening. At the first show it turned out all out tools for building the stage where left behind, then in Drammen the room we were supposed to play in where absolutely nothing like what we expected.
I am wondering whether I should just stand back and let the students deal with it or, as I do now, get in and help them out. Is it just my ego that needs to feel needed? Would it be better to just let thing go to pieces so that they would learn from that? Or are they learning more from seeing how one can solve things? Maybe they would sort out thing better without me hanging around…
Well, the students are still in school where the main aim is to learn, from mistakes, books, practice or whatever is most efficient. But at the same time there is people, schools, organizations that have bought the shows and they expect it to be as good as it possibly can get.
So far I have chosen to help out, leaving the students free to concentrate on the show they are about to play.