Katie Mitchell

Katie Mitchell

1. Aims

   • To provided an unconventional take on traditional theatre using modern techniques

2. Techniques

   • Interpretive Dance
   • Improvisations
     • She uses it to investigate a character's back story. It is crucial to her that the time, place, etc, are all specified before the improvisation takes place
   • Facts and Questions
     • She analyses the text before rehearsals. She identifies all the facts that the text reveals. These are non-negotiable
       • This list is then divided into immediate circumstance facts (conditions that are specific to the starting action of the play) and back history facts (the condition that exists long before the action of the play)
     • She also lists all the questions, dividing them into immediate circumstances and back history
   • Slow Motion
   • Anachronism- something placed out of time or not chronologically correct
   • Character History
     • She analyses all the back histories of all the characters from when they were born up to the beginning of the play
   • Events & Intentions
     • Based on Stanislavski's later work on method of physical action
       • She divides her text into Events & Intentions. With each event requiring an intention
   • Immediate Circumstances
     • Conditions that exist for the characters immediately before the scene- where they have just been and to whom they have last spoken
       • She has booths set up in the wings where simultaneous improvisation takes place

3. Background

   • Worked for the Royal Shakespeare Company in the 1980's and National Theatre Company in the 1990's
   • Born in 1964
   • She first directed at Oxford University where she was a member of a feminist theatre group

4. Genre and Style

   • Based on a Stanislavski approach, Mitchell recognises and admits this
   • Directed a variety of plays in terms of both Era and Style
   • Her work cannot be described as naturalism due to non naturalistic elements such a video, dance, slow motion etc
   • Unconventional

5. How was she received

   • Some critics find her work fascinating
   • Others find her work destructive with a disregard of the playwright's intentions
   • Mitchell gained considerably reputation for her reinterpretations of classic texts

6. Her set/tech/props

   • She uses video live on stage
   • Actors openly hold and use microphones
   • Multimedia