April 28th 2019: The Initial Idea

(Facebook Conversation)

In the middle of making Coming Out Of My Cage we struggling to decide on what the best form was to explore the theme of legacy for the show. In this facebook conversation we have a lot of wild, darting ideas. However, the central mechanic - ‘The audience effects the experience of the next, and deals with the choices made the audiences that came before’ stuck. We realised that the idea didn’t quite fit the show we were trying to make so we shelved the idea for the time. To view the conversation in full, click here.

September 12th 2019: Is making theatre climate about change useless? - Part 1

(Notes)

We were thinking a lot about the ‘use’ of theatre about climate change. We talked about what makes a show about the climate crisis ‘successful’ and the inherent problems in making theatre about it based on what audiences would come to see it. We note down two different ways to make the show and for two different audiences. You can read the notes in full here.

November 15th 2019: Exploring the central mechanic

(Mind Map)

Inspired by Youtube video essay ‘Nintendo - Putting Play First’ we set out with our central mechanic as a starting point. We listed all the possibilities of what one audience could do for the next: leave a message, pick the pre-show music, etc. This lead to questions about ethics and what happens if your actions could have positive or negative effects on the next audience. To view the mind maps in full, click here.

March 26th 2020: Looking for examples of mechanic in other media

(Youtube Videos)

We took a long break of thinking about this show as we made finished making Coming Out Of My Cage and then slowly started again as the first lockdown hit. We set out to find examples of the mechanic being used before, and so far we can’t find another theatre show based around the idea of effecting the experience of the next/dealing with the choices of the last. The closest example we could find in other media was the game Death Stranding. The main thing we drew from this is how every action in the game is positive for future players. For links to videos, quotes and our thoughts click here.

April 2nd 2020: All audiences working towards a shared goal (and a website?)

(Facebook conversation)

We discuss the importance of all the audiences having a single goal they can collectively work towards. We come up with the idea of creating a website where audiences would be able to keep track of the game and keep them invested in the progress made by other audiences and what effect their actions have. We discuss ideas for a forum, and other metrics that could track audience choices, to see the full conversation, click here.

April 12th 2020: Unsuccessful ArtsDepot Residency Application

(Application)

We want to include our unsuccesful applications because we want to share our process in full, the ups and downs. We always learn loads from writing one, especially at such an early stage, and we gained a lot from having to try and articulate what the show is. This application was written hastily in peak of lockdown so it’s grasping at straws, to read the application in full click here, but here’s 3 takeaways looking back:

• We gave it a name. That isn’t the name now. We’ve decided we will finalise a name when we decide what audience we want to make the show for.

• We refer to the show as ‘escape game’. We did this to try and make our idea tangible in the eyes of the reader of the application and have since adapted this to call it an ‘escape room style game’ because we borrow from the mechanics of that genre, but ultimately the goal isn’t to escape.

April 14th 2020: ‘Game Theory’ and justifying the form

(Articles)

We researched online to find successful examples of game mechanics being used in teaching climate change. Turns out that scientists believe that ‘Game Theory’ is one of the best ways of us understanding climate ethics.

On top of this, turns out ‘Climate Change Escape Games’ are a thing! They are predominantly used in classrooms and climate conferences and are typically very on the nose (e.g. you are a bunch of scientists in the arctic that need to solve x and y to save the planet) but it’s great to see examples of the form we’re choosing for the show in practice. To see the articles we found click here.

June 3rd 2020: The Prisoners Dilemma and thinking about Escape Games

(Articles/Videos/Notes)

We did small bits of research over the past two months and found more about: Game Theory and how we make incorporate it into the show to explore climate change ethics, Environmental storytelling in escape rooms and general ways to start a conversation with an audience about climate change. Find all the information here.

November 12th 2020: The BIG Meeting

(Voice Notes)

Up until this point, all thinking for the project had been sporadic and had taken place mostly through conversations between Alex, Adam and Tim. This was our first proper meeting on the project with everyone involved discussing what the show is and what we envisioned it to be. It was prompted by wanting to write an application for DARE Festival. We covered a lot in this meeting, from the show itself, to our thoughts on climate change theatre and what we wanted this show to be as a next step for our company. You’re able to listen to voice recordings of the meeting (COMING SOON)

December 1st 2020: DARE Festival Successful Shortlist Application

(Application)

We applied to Upstart Theatre’s DARE Festival and this is the successful application we were shortlisted with. We unfortunately didn’t make it past the interview stage into the festival. However, this application brought us all together with a focus to try and get on the same page and figure out what this performance would actually look like. We’re starting to find a language to better describe the show and a way to better convey what we want the show to ‘do’ or ‘say’. The application can be found in full here.

December 12th 2020: A Twitter Reply and some random ideas that led to an aesthetic

(Tweets/Facebook Conversations/Google Doc)

Friend of the company left a reply to our tweet about the show that led us down a series of random thoughts that eventually led us to developing an aesthetic frame for the show and thinking about who could facilitate the show. It’s important to see how small, disparate bits of thinking can all build up and fit together over time. Now the show might be set in an attic and facilitated by a child performer? These thoughts stretch from late Nov to early Dec and you can see them all here.

December 17th 2020: Board Games, TwitchPlaysPokemon, rPlaces and Radical Democracy

(Voice Notes/Facebook Conversations/Google Doc)

We have an idea pitched about board games being played between different audiences. We find some exciting new examples of audiences affecting the experience of the next in other media. We develop ideas for freeroaming audience moments and discuss what radical democracy would look like in our show. To listen to the discovery and see our discussions, click here.

December 22nd 2020: The Ghost Idea

(Google Doc, Facebook Conversations)

We have a bit of a left field idea to put a performer dressed as bed sheet ghost on stage throughout the show who could silently facilitate the audience. You can see the whole process of the idea being pitched to the rest of the group and then us discussing our thoughts on it in full here.