FROM SCRATCH TO PLAYGROUNDING

The Scratch process is based on six principles which define the ethos of Battersea Arts Centre and the flavour of the work it produces:

• TAKING RISKS is fundamental to creativity. Scratch allows artists to experiment, to change their mind, and gives them the opportunity to make mistakes, which is crucial to the creative process.
• IMPROVISING: Scratch allows you to set off without being sure what, where or when the end will be. It legitimises making it up as you go along.

• Scratch is ARTIST - LED. It is designed as a development process to support the growth of a project from the idea inside an artist’s head, to a full production.

• COLLABORATING: Scratch places the artist at the centre of a network of collaborative relationships that support the work (in particular with their producer and with the audience). In Scratch the artist opens their work up to feedback, drawing a wider group of people into the making process.

• TAKING TIME: It takes time to make good work. Ideas are often scratched on a number of occasions with several months in between. The time spent away from the idea can be just as important as the time working on the idea.

• LEARNING: Each time an artist returns to an idea, learning from the previous Scratch is incorporated. Scratch creates a constant ‘feedback loop’. It is an iterative development process.

We wanted to find a process for changing our building which takes account of instinct and story, accidental discovery, messiness, a search for the unknown and a love of play. In another word, theatre. 

THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

Practically, The Masque of the Red Death allowed important ideas to be tested through theatre before being committed to in the permanence of architecture, something Steve Tompkins describes as 'a rare luxury that is seldom achievable in more orthodox developments.'

Punchdrunk's work takes shape in response to a place and the theatrical possibilities it offers. It begins with Felix Barrett sensing the atmosphere of a building and imagining what kind of theatrical world is latent in the space. When asked to describe the essence of Playgrounding, David Jubb often refers to the day when he, Barrett and Tompkins first walked around the building together to discuss the project. He recalls a moment when Felix was talking about the symbolic significance of fire in Poe's work. Steve said that Battersea Arts Centre had a number of boarded up fireplaces and suggested opening one up to use in the show. In the video below David Jubb discusses the scale of opportunities this conversation opened up.

Due to the campaign to save the building, Battersea Arts Centre was thrust into the national media at an unprecedented level, at around the same time the collaboration with Punchdrunk and Haworth Tompkins was announced. When speaking about the ‘Wandsworth crisis’, David Jubb (Artistic Director of Battersea Arts Centre) reflected on how positive it was for the Punchdrunk project: Battersea Arts Centre’s board allowed the production costs of the show to escalate from a predicted £200,000 to £460,000 ‘because it was do or die.’ The crisis raised the artistic and financial ambitions of the project.

THE MASQUE OF THE READ DEATH - SYNOPSIS

The Masque of the Red Death drew on eight short stories of Edgar Allen Poe including The Black Cat and the Tell Tale Heart. Using a cast of 35 and a detailed design transformation of the space they created an immersive theatrical environment in which the stories overlapped and the audience were allowed to roam freely.

To read synopsis' of all the stories click here