INVISIBLE MANCrying in the WildernessProductions

Ralph Ellison’s

CREATIVE ELEMENTS COLLECTIVE PROJECT

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THE COMMISSIONINTRODUCTION

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INVISIBLE MAN

This interactive iBook records in words, pictures and moving images, Creative Elements collaboration with Crying in the Wilderness Productions (CITWP) as they developed their ‘Invisible Man’ showcase for the Decibel Performing Arts Festival.

Text, Photography & Photostyling, Film Editing and Book Design by Creative Elements Collective

THEATRE PRODUCTION & DOCUMENTARY FILM PROJECTInteractive

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CLIENT CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS P R O D U C T I O N S

PRODUCE THEATRE SHOWCASE SET DESIGN & COSTUME for DECIBEL INTERNATIONALPERFORMING ARTS FESTIVAL MANCHESTER

CREATE DOCUMENTARY FILM featuring

COMPANY’S PHILOSOPHY & APPROACH TO ADAPTING THE SEMINAL NOVELINVISIBLE MAN FOR THE STAGE

CITWP

THE BRIEF

‘When it occurred to me that the man had not seen me, actually..’

GALLERY ‘Particles of Light’

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Creative Elements has a strong affinity with Crying in the Wilderness Productions who, ‘bring a more diverse cultural approach to seminal works and new writing to inspire a greater appreciation of individuality, diversity & heritage.’ Our practice is akin to their philosophy and holistic approach to the arts & learning. We embrace any opportunity to work with the company, as timeless themes & ideas are emphatically explored & envisaged, with a fervor that invigorates our own creativity & work.

COMPANY PHILOSOPHYART OF HUMANITY

CITWP

AFFINITY

THE COLLABORATION

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OUR APPROACH TO THE INVISIBLE MAN

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PRODUCING THE SHOWCASE FESTIVAL

OBJECTIVESThe Decibel Performing Arts Festival provided Crying in the Wilderness Productions (CITWP) with a platform to promote their ‘Work in Progress’ project – an adaptation of the ‘Invisible Man’. The aim of the showcase was to create dialogue around the company’s work, circulate their new writing and attract potential collaborations with theatres that would finance the de-velopment of the ‘Invisible Man’ project into a full-length touring production.

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At Creative Elements we were responsible for PRODUCING the showcase this included: arranging rehearsal space at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, creating a range of promo-tional material, developing a marketing strategy, researching delegates, chairing the Q&A session, securing reviews, organ-ising meetings and negotiating potential collaborations with theatres on behalf of the Creative Director prior and during the festival in Manchester.

Working with a seminal novel such as the Invisible Man, filled us with excited anticipation: the PRODUCTION & DOCUMENTARY FILM challenges were immense. Not only, did we have to consider how to respect the text & pay homage to the writer Ralph Ellison: a global social commentator whose messages on marginalization still resonate today; we also had to capture the deeply intellectual & spiritual process applied by CITWP to create this dynamic piece of theatre. These challenges were at the heart of the commission; fueling a vibrant collaboration and creative journey that still contin-ues today.

CREATIVE CHALLENGES

the SEMINAL NOVEL

PROJECTMANAGEMENT

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SET DESIGN AND COSTUME

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THE SET & CHARACTER’S

DEVELOPING

IMAGEDuring the early stages of rehearsal, we created an interpretation of the Invisible Man’s home en-vironment as described in the book. Throughout his self-imprisonment, the character surrounds himself with familiar and well-loved objects in a final attempt to comprehend his exclusion from the society that has marginalised him.

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LOUIS ARMSTRONG

LIGHT

HOME

INTERACTIVE: TEXT FROM THE NOVEL INSPIRED THE SET DESIGN & CHARACTER’S IMAGE

1 2 3

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CREATING

ENVIRONMENT

Ellison’s places the Invisible Man in a basement, this is his place of refuge, a place of peaceful soli-tude and dynamic discourse as he considers how to navigate through life and understand the world around him. It is in this environment that the character undergoes his self-imposed inter-nal battle to discover a deeper inner connection and ultimate spiritual enlightenment.

As the Invisible Man spends the quiet hours reflecting and listening to jazz; the objects that surround him influence his thoughts, inform-ing the audience that he is not dic-tated to by the trappings of the outside world or defined by the ob-jects, they simply exist to sustain him.

Drawing on the insights of the character from the book, we created a ‘made environment’ to aid the actor; helping him to tap into the intricacies of the Invisible Man, awak-ening a creation that went far beyond the surface and con-nected to a higher premise as reflected in the novel.

BJECTS

ENLIGTHENMEN

A

SPIRITUAL

The carefully selected objects were intended to allude to a ‘man of vision’. The books, travel cases and tools, we believed denote a practical man filled with intellect and aspiration.

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GALLERY: CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT REHEARSALS IN THE ‘MADE ENVIRONMENT’

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THE SHOWCASEDECIBEL FESTIVAL

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Following the exploratory rehearsal days within the ‘made environment’, it was identified that a MINIMALIST approach to the SET DESIGN would be most effective as it could depict the invisible man’s complex world of ISOLATION and the carefully selected objects would reflect American Society in the 1950’s.

GALLERY

MINIMALIST SET

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reflecting the eraToday ‘INVISIBILITY’ continues to affect many marginalized groups in our society, so it was essen-tial to ESTABLISH THE CONTEXT of the play as the audience entered the THEATRE SPACE.

LOUIS ARMSTRONG set the scene MUSICALLY and the minimalist props and costume design evoked the 1950’s era: a time when America was on the verge of IMMENSE CHANGE as so powerfully described in the novel.

SHOWCASE

AUDIO 1: LOUIS ARMSTRONG - What did I do to be so Black & Blue?SE

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CO

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GALLERY

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MOVIE: SHOWCASE at DECIBEL

Royal Northern College of Music RNCMThe performance and subsequent Q&A session took place at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) to a full house of delegates, promot-ers, producers, programmers and venue managers from international and national theatres. This 3-minute film features highlights from the showcase.

THEATRE

PERFORMANCE EXTRACTS

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A simple set de-signed to evoke the period of the book’s publica-tion: a bottle of Jack Daniels and a shot glass on one table stage right, another with a valise and a clock stage left, a chair centre stage indi-cate that after trying to make it in America, the unnamed Invisi-ble Man, in his collarless shirt, braces, trousers with turn-ups, and brogues, has embraced his invisibility and occupies his chair like a throne in his kingdom where no one can see him.

The simple set and limited props add to the piece, with the audi-ence accepting that it is sup-posed to be 1950’s America. Parvin Ramchurn

The Invisible Man is a vivid look into the distorting mirror of racism and a brilliant realisation of a seminal text.

John O’DonoghueTheatre CriticDisability Arts

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VIE

WS

On a profes-sional level I found the performance was rooted in a vivid clarity that reflects great credit on both the director and the performer. It was an engaging piece of theatre that revealed new depths and strengths that I had not consid-ered previously. This staging of Invisible Man goes further as a metaphor for a whole spectrum of ‘invisibility’ in our society. I commend Paul Morris and his team for their impressive work thus far.

Hassan MahamdalieSenior Strategy Arts Council

I liked the simplic-ity of the entire setting because I felt that every-thing that surrounded him, added to the infor-mation about the character. Anjum Katyal

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CONCEPT DOCUMENTARY FILM

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CITWP’s wanted their work and the seminal novel to reach a more diverse audience. An audi-ence that are affected by the issues of: invisibil-ity, identity & isolation. This perspective in-fluenced our approach to the ‘look & feel’ of the film.

FILM OBJECTIVESDOCUMENTARYFollowing our consultations with the creative director, it became apparent that along with documenting the Invisible Man project, the film had to feature the com-pany’s philosophy and spiritual essence which, under-pins their holistic approach to the performing arts. By illuminating the creative process of the company, the context for the adaptation and the level of thinking ap-plied by the director could be established. The film was an opportunity for Paul Anthony Morris to be recog-nised as an artist with an international perspective whose creative work exemplifies his philosophy the: ‘Art of Humanity.’spiritual essence

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CONCEPTFILM

VISUAL DESIGNTo pay homage to the writer & express the musicality of the theatre piece, we turned to the clas-sic ‘Blue Note’ album covers to inspire the design of the film. We felt that the ‘Blue Note’ style by Reid Miles, encapsulated the essence of jazz from a contemporary perspective, dispelling the myth that traditional jazz resides only within a bygone age. The decision was made to create a documentary film that would source inspiration from the prolific designs, thereby finding a way to connect visually with an audience more familiar with this typography & style.

What did I do to be so Black & Blue?

INSPIRATIONThe whole novel is framed by the prologue in which the central character sits in his home, listening to Louis Armstrong sing ‘What Did I Do to be so Black and Blue?’ The Blues influenced Ralph Ellison’s writ-ing greatly. The complex interplay between jazz and the written word stirred his senses, evoking powerful imagery and the ability to express the complexities of the human condition.

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THE DYNAMIC DIALOGUE BETWEEN JAZZ & THE WRITTEN WORD

This documentary film communicates the company’s artistic vision & innovative process to adapting the seminal novel for the stage.

DOCUMENTARYFILM

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SEQUENCING and LAYERING the INTERACTION between the TEXT, AUDIO RECORDING, PHOTOGRAPHS and the MOVING IMAGES, creates a DYNAMIC SENSORY EXPERIENCE for the viewer.

PLAYING with the DIMENSION, STYLE and MOVEMENT of the FONTS, the CENTRAL IDEOLOGIES behind the CREATIVE DIRECTOR’S ap-proach to the PHILOSOPHIES weaved within the text of the prologue could be emphasized & explored.

INTERLACING the moving images and photographs with each other, the TWO - DIMENSIONAL quality of a BLUE NOTE JAZZ SLEEVE took on a NEW ENERGY, REFLECTING the COMPLEXITIES of the METAPHORS expressed by the PROTAGONIST: the Invisible Man as he CONTEM-PLATES his identity.

MULTI - LAYERED DESIGN iBooks Author

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‘The documentary film of the Invisible Man transcended every aspiration that I had attached to the outcome of this film. The filmmaking, the de-sign, the integrity, the sensitivity and the intelligence of the film has also been widely appreciated by our colleagues in America, South Africa, India, Holland and the UK. The documentary film of the Invisible Man honestly captures, in a very dynamic way, the very essence of our company and has successfully established a truly international profile for us.’ Paul Anthony. Morris

A week long ‘Research & Development’ (R&D) project has been commissioned by the Bush Theatre http://www.bushtheatre.co.uk/ in April 2012 where the documentary film will be screened.

FUTURE DEVELOP-MENTS

A full length Invisible Man production & Creative Learning programme are in the pipeline for London in 2013 followed by a National & International tour

RESEARCH & (R&D)DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

FULL LENGTH PRODUCTION & TOUR 2013

IMPACTREVIEW OF FILM

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CREDITSINTERACTIVE iBOOK

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PROJECTINVISIBLE MAN

Ralph Ellison’s

TextPhotography & Photostyling

Film Editing iBook Design & Editing

by Creative Elements Collective

All quotations from Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison 1952Modern Classics Penguin Book Edition

Photographs & Photostyling © Sarah Nunn & Kweku T.Blackwood

Creative Elements Collective E-Publications London UK

creative.elements.collective@sky.comwww.creative-elements-collective.com

M: +44 (0)7984 707926

All rights reserved; no part of this e-publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the Publishers.

© First Published 2012

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CITWP

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