Between 1989 and 2020 Jonathan Petherbridge worked as the Artistic Director of a community-based theatre company - London Bubble. This longer than average tenure allowed him time to forge a close working relationship with the community and develop new ways to involve people of all ages in theatre-making.
Out of a slew of projects emerged a particular methodology to make work that was researched, curated and performed by citizens between the ages of 8 and 80. The process that emerged was called Foraging a methodology carefully divided into five phases, which attempts to bring the best out of both voluntary and specialist artists making time and space for them to create theatre that has a striking beauty and an ingrained aesthetic of care. Vernacular Theatre describes the result the aesthetic.
The case studies - based on work with citizens of London and Hiroshima - examine how this theatre has valued key moments of communal history, contemporary issues and everyday institutions. The book suggests reasons and techniques for others to make similar work. Concluding with a reflection on the pre-classical Chorus of Greek Theatre where original work was produced to celebrate events with and for the community, this book proposes a new genre a social and intergenerational art form that invites people to gather and share their life experience, concerns and creativity.
List of Figures
Preface by James Thompson
Some Context
The Shape of this Book
Part One A Fortunate Mistake
Through the Window
The First Foray
Part Two A Deliberate Process
Whose Agenda Are We Attending To?
Do It Again but Do It Deliberately
Codifying the Foraging Process and Defining Vernacular Theatre
Dancing with Place (the Second Journey)
Part Three A Deepening Practice
Here We Are All Artists
The Art of Prepping
Building Trust (in Japan)
Prepping in Hiroshima
Finding the Purpose
Tackling the Contemporary
Permission to Direct
Finding the Right Form
Part Four Boiling up Communal Glue
Relationships of Care
The Actor in Vernacular Theatre
Greater than the Sum of Its Parts
Watching the Vernacular Company
Part Five Danger, Citizens at Work!
Taking on an Institution
Mops and Buckets
Part Six Social Theatre
Civil Servants The Work of The Specialists
Scale and Ceremony
Towards a New Chorus
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Jonathan Petherbridge has been making theatre within community for over forty-years and has seen the context change radically and his practice has changed with it. He has run building-based theatres, pioneered outdoor promenade theatre and developed methodologies to work with different age groups and collectively, across generations.
