Blood Wedding‘s Movement Director, Patricia Suarez, lives in Teeside and graduated from the renowned MA Movement Directing and Teaching at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She has a current residency at Let’s Circus/Circus Central and is a passionate Lorca fan. She brings a wealth of movement and dance skills related to flamenco, bachata and reggaetón to the Blood Wedding production.
OMNIBUS THEATRE: What is the role of a Movement Director?
PATRICIA SUAREZ: I really like the definition of a Movement Director that I saw on a poster at the National Theatre, it says: “Movement Directors are responsible for teaching and directing actors how to move, and for developing physicality in performance as distinct from choreographing dance.”
Some of my favourite projects have included exploring with performers how to interact as Knights of the Round Table, working with a Youth Theatre on how to move as ghosts, witches and werewolves during a Danse Macabre for their version of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Boy, and a couple telling their story of falling in love while they dance in a jazz club.
OT: You’re a Lorca fan. How has the text influenced the movement in this particular reimagining?
PS: Yes, I’ve been a massive Lorca fan for a long time. I’m lucky enough to be fluent in Spanish and have read a lot of his work in Spanish. I’m in love with Lorca’s use of imagery and this has inspired my approach to the movement, in particular for the second half of the play. The rhythm of the text is also interesting for both psychological character body language and stylised movement.
“I’m in love with Lorca’s use of imagery and this has inspired my approach to the movement.”
OT: Explain the process and the way you work with the actors
PS: My process before rehearsals begin is to start by asking the director lots of questions on their vision for the production, what they want in terms of movement and what the ideas for design are. I then mine the text for inspiration and to get a feel of the text. Music is important to me so I make a playlist to listen to while I explore movement. For Blood Wedding, George Richmond-Scott, the director, and I did a short R&D exploring movement and images for performance inspired by Christianna Mason, the designer’s ideas. Being this involved with the production from such an early stage means I can be very responsive and follow my instincts in rehearsal.
The process can be hard to put into words as it’s often looking for that moment where the actor finds the alive moment that you know in the gut is right for the show. To get there can take different routes some like to improvise and some like to verbalise before moving; often the process is working out how to support the actor to find their performance. This often involves giving different options for approaching the movement section, or figuring out a way for them to realise their ambitious ideas whilst being safe. To help with some of the specialised movements and to have fun moving together during the rehearsal period I do an optional warm up for the actors which will include flamenco arm movement and dancing to reggaeton to start to the day.
OT: Where do you see the role of movement heading in theatre today?
PS: I’m seeing lots of interesting and ambitious collaborations for example: productions incorporating choruses of performers from the local community moving en mass like Southpaw’s Erimus at Middlesbrough Town Hall (see image below), or the RSC working with Intel to use motion capture for the Character of Ariel in The Tempest as part of their 2016-17 season.
“I’m seeing lots of interesting and ambitious collaborations.”
OT: Who and what have been your major influences in theatre?
PS: So much influences me so here’s a short list (I could go on and on and on) and you should totally Google them all: A Companhia do Chapitô and John Mowat, La Fura dels Baus, Ella Mesma Company and Nicolas Nuñez. What they all share is the power to tell stories that impact you and leave you feeling changed.
OT: What was the most memorable piece of theatre you have seen this year and why?
PS: So far this year it’s Girls & Boys at the Royal Court written by Dennis Kelly, directed by Lyndsey Turner and the Movement Director was Jospeh Alford. It has stayed with me because of the quality of the writing and how it was reflected in the design and movement choices.
BLOOD WEDDING is at Omnibus Theatre from 4 – 23 Sept 2018 – get your tickets HERE→
