Performing Plethora: staging 'Nausicaa at 50'.

For the last thirty or so years I have written, directed and designed plays for live performance. In this time I have developed a form of tragedy I have described as Catastrophic, to distinguish it from certain classical forms. In doing so I have invented and refined speech forms which are distinctive to me, and this process continues with the staging of my new play-script 'Nausicaa at 50'. My evolution as a writer, director and artist is informed by two beliefs. First, I believe the text is the primary element of all dramatic experience. Second, I also believe the traditional realistic play is an exhausted form. However, the way to escape this dilemma is not to abandon text but rather to find new ways with it. 'Nausicaa' is such an exploration.
Over six months this project will stage 'Nausicaa at 50', which is a play written as an exploration of 'Plethora' - an overwhelming with words spoken by many voices, almost an orchestra of human sounds. With this project, I will explore whether speech - which I believe to be an almost plastic, sculptural thing - needs to convey meaning, or whether it might be employed to create tensions and ecstasies which overwhelm the purely referential (i.e. meaning-based) function of language. I will explore if a performer can utter without - strictly speaking - saying anything? And ask, yet could this audial experience still generate emotion in an audience? By extending my practice, and the practice of my ensemble of performers, I would hope to demonstrate the possibility of a new life for text in theatre. 'Nausicaa at 50' does not exist in isolation, but also anticipates the second phase of my fellowship, which examines Plethora's partner and opposite Bare Sufficiency - an exploration that asks how a scene's entire meaning might hang on a brief concept or image.
The production of 'Nausicaa' will have at its heart linguistic excess, involving both the human voice -- individual and choral -- and sound. The company will comprise more than 100 performers from professional actors of the Wrestling School (a company formed in 1988 to perform my work) to post-graduate theatre specialists, and from community performers to those with little acting experience. In order to realise the plethoric in performance will require that I challenge, develop and evolve my artistic practice as a director and scenographer. This process will be shared with, and informed by, an intensive four-week performance-laboratory with the core company of Wrestling School actors who specialise in the performance of my Catastrophic theatre and rehearsals and workshops with the performances' plethoric-chorus. Our work will culminate in three full productions for a public audience at the Northcott Theatre in Devon.
Not only will my practice evolve as a result of the project, so will that of the core company of Wrestling School performers and the design team who will facilitate the realisation of a plethoric stage environment, in addition to the large number of performers of the chorus from a range of backgrounds and experience. These artists will not simply be facilitating my research, but importantly, they will also inform it. The wider-public, in addition to attending the live performances will also be able to watch a DVD-recording that is being produced for the Arts Archive collection, and they will be able to find out more about my plethoric practice and theory though programme notes, a post-show discussion and an online interview, with supporting materials, which will appear on four websites: the Northcott Theatre's, the Wrestling School's, the University of Exeter's and my own. The production will then become the subject of a one-day public symposium - resulting in publications - and when the script is published by Oberon books it will be accompanied by my critical commentary that will reflect on the project as a whole and consider the effectiveness of the plethoric on stage.

'Performing Plethora' is a practice-led project with multiple outputs targeted at several groups of beneficiaries beyond those described in the previous section. Its primary impact will be a new understanding of the possibilites for text-based theatre. Those who will benefit through direct engagement with the project (by participating in or seeing the live performance fall into four groups): (1) a public audience, (2) non-professional performers, (3) the Northcott Theatre - a professional regional theatre and third sector organisation, and (4) theatre professionals: actors & scenographers. Those who will benefit through indirect engagement with the project (via the analogue and digital artefacts that record or critique the performance and research) fall into two groups: (5) non-academic Wrestling School specialists, and (6) those with an interest in professional theatre.
The Direct Beneficiaries: The realisation of the play will immediately affect the cultural life of the theatre audience (1) and influence the work of the creative professionals working on the project (4). The Wrestling School actors are already exceptional. This long-standing ensemble will form the core of the company who will perform 'Nausicaa'. They will work alongside me in a 'laboratory' setting to create a new way of working plethorically. The exposure to these new challenges will doubtless expand their performance vocabularies and affect their own work as directors and teachers in the future. The scenographic specialists will have the opportunity to engage directly in my research work as it develops. The performers who will make up the chorus (2) will benefit in terms of their skills development from the rehearsal and workshop processes that will evolve in order to find a 'plethoric' pedagogy. They have a diverse range of skills from experienced semi-professional performers to those with little stage experience: this opportunity to work with a professional company will enable them to develop their understanding of complex, non-naturalistic, text in performance. Moreover, the project offers an opportunity to develop the knowledges and expertise of the staff at the Northcott Theatre (3) who will have the opportunity to work on a cutting-edge performance project underpinned by research, which will enable them to hone strategies concerned with audience development in relationship to a type of non-naturalistic theatre that is not often programmed. The audience (1) will not only be engaged and challenge by the performance but will also have the opportunity to reflect and comment upon it though our post-show survey and discussion that will offer direct interaction between myself, key artistic collaborators from the company and interested members of the public (1, 2, 3 & 4). This will in turn feed my reflexive understanding of the performances. The theatre is on Exeter University's campus and the performance will form a key element of its Arts and Culture (A&C) Strategy. The project will not only feed the strategy but will also be disseminated more widely through its local and international networks. The A&C strategy will form part of the overall public relations strategy for the project (with the Wrestling School, University Press Office and Northcott) that will seek media coverage and reviews of the project (see project management section in the case for support). These will form part of the legacy of materials for the indirect beneficiaries to access after the performance events.
Indirect beneficiaries (5 & 6) will benefit via the project's artefacts: a DVD-ROM that will be made available through the Arts Archive collection, an online interview about the project that will be held on four websites to maximise accessibility and coverage, programme notes, and a script with critical commentary published by Oberon books. These different media, specifically targe