Welcome to the Training Grounds section for this issue. We start by welcoming Royona Mitra to the Training Grounds editorial team. We look forward to working with Royona as we continue to expand the territories of training that this section of the journal looks to explore.
Dominating this issue of Training Grounds is a focus on the tools of training. We begin this, as usual, with our invitation to different practitioners across a range of disciplines to Answer the Question. With an interest in tools we felt it pertinent to ask the simple question, ‘What are your/the tools of training?’ This prompted rich responses, and resulted in a number of answers that are slightly longer than usual, exploring both the physical tools of training and those tools which are less tangible.
Our first set of tools are offered by Brian Roberts, starting with the ears and the eyes. Roberts reflects on these tools both from the perspective of the trainee and the trainer, noting his own ‘magpie tendencies’ when it comes to finding other tools. Alexia Kokkali follows this with an invitation to reflect on the tools of recognition and consciousness, or rather more precisely (and in translation) the process of coming to know something well. Drawing on the Greek language, she unpicks the ways in which the trainee can use this process of coming to know – to develop – their ability as actors, or in Greek, ithopoiós – a creator of ‘moral values’. Providing a glimpse of some of the tools in the puppeteer’s toolbox, Liz Walker offers tools ranging from bravery, to breath, to play. This, she notes, is especially important given that when they started working, her company, Faulty Optic, didn’t really know what their work might be. Göze Saner then proposes the view that exercises might be containers for different kinds of experience, before recounting the result of working with a group of non-professional performers and her realisation that the importance of the tool is in what it’s being used for. Our last response comes from scenic artists Brigitte Lambert and Michael Passmore, who offer us a glimpse of the tangible and intangible tools of the construction workshop – a place of beauty and of danger.
The question of tools has proved to be so fruitful, and fundamental, that we plan to continue asking this same question in the next issue (7.1) of Training Grounds. If you might be interested in answering this question, please do get in contact with one of the editorial team.
Continuing the examination of tools, we have used the Postcard section of Training Grounds to examine one specific tool, a tool that excited a number of the journal’s editors, so much so that they felt compelled to write on the topic. So in this issue we explore the place of sticks in training. Whether broom handles or garden canes, this cheap and simple tool, or prop, has a place in a range of different training practices and the Postcard contributors offer a glimpse of these. Jonathan Pitches speaks of his relationship with one particular stick – a symbol of his connection to a valued teacher. Dick McCaw and Simon Murray both reflect on their personal encounters with sticks and the teachers of stick work. McCaw’s genealogy provides three pithy lessons for working with the stick, whilst Murray provides an in-the-moment recounting of a time with two great teachers of stick work. Meanwhile Thomas Wilson reflects on the role of the stick when training alone. Our editors are not the only voices though, and they are joined by Anna Furse, Andy Crook and David Zinder. Furse muses on the qualities of bamboo, Crook gives an up-close account of the experience of training with a stick, whilst Zinder sees the stick as a way into risk-taking. Together, these contributions hopefully raise awareness of a method of training that is rarely written about.
We conclude Training Grounds for this issue with two reviews. Firstly Dorinda Hulton continues our intention to re-view key texts on training by examining Litz Pisk’s The Actor and his Body (1975). This revisiting of especially valuable or interesting works affords us the opportunity to take a wider view of the place of these texts, either within performance training as a whole or in relation to a specific reviewer’s practice. Hulton, in this case, has used the review as an opportunity not only to examine the value and limitations of Pisk’s text, but also to provide a summary of Pisk herself – a valuable reminder for those who may not be familiar with Pisk, or her legacy.
Finally, Simon Murray and Bryan Brown provide two complementary reflections on the concluding conference of a series run by the Laboratory Theatre Network, held at the Centre for Performance Research’s new home at Falmouth University in England. Brown approaches his report from an historical perspective, examining the shifting nature of the partner members of the Laboratory Theatre Network, allowing him to tackle notions of lineage and heritage that arose at this event. As a contrast, Murray offers a more personal response, though (as with Brown) he is also keen to turn his view outwards towards the institutional and economic imperatives that artists and trainers must continue to negotiate.
Training Grounds continues to be a rewarding approach to facilitating the practitioner’s voice within the context of an academic journal, and as editors we find ourselves engaged in fascinating conversations with our contributors. We are always on the look-out for ways to extend these conversations and continue to invite submissions from the readership and further afield. Please get in touch with any of the Training Grounds editorial team if you would like to contribute.